The boys enjoyed doing another Cheerios activity at the table this morning after breakfast…tracing their names with glue and Cheerios. Jonas and Xander were so adorable working together that I could not resist taking a few pictures (you gotta love little boy hair in the mornings).
The boys tried out a simple activity this morning that they all had a lot of fun with (including Roman)…three ingredients (play-doh, noodles, and Cheerios) made for six busy little hands.
While I was pulling together pictures for Jonas and Xander’s All About Me projects at school, I realized that it has been a while since I’ve been intentional about planning fun learning activities for the boys. (I think the energy for it comes and goes in waves and lately I’ve been a little overwhelmed with our new fall routine and with the idea of trying to differentiate for three different stages and styles of learning…bless all of you homeschooling moms and teachers of every kind.) All of that to say, I thought I’d try to baby step back into it with this Letter Sounds Toy Wash that I saw on Pinterest (I’m loving my Activities for Kids board…it’s such a great way to collect and store links to ideas).
I ended up setting it up with two sets of sidewalk squares with the letters B, C, and D to try to give the big boys separate spaces to work in (I figured I’d put Roman near Jonas since Jonas doesn’t mind his toddler-ness quite as much as Xander does). They each had their own soap pump, washcloth, and bucket of water. Jonas and Xander both had fun running inside to find toys for their squares that started with a certain letter sound. They both also enjoyed being big brothers by finding toys for Roman to wash too. It’s always interesting how these sorts of activities morph…haha…but we all still had fun.
I finally found a set of tracing and cutting books for Xander (he’s totally into both right now) and a beginning math book for Jonas (he’s all about numbers lately). They were both completely engaged with them this morning at the kitchen table…and even Roman stayed in his seat (he is a tireless climber) for stickers and dot markers which are two of his current favorites. Yay for table time!!!
Jonas had his very first soccer game this morning. He looked like such a big guy out there, running down the field…kicking the ball. He even got back in the game after getting kicked in the knee, playing defense…it took him a little while to shore himself up but he did it. I told him later that I was so proud of him for showing such good character by getting back in the game…having perseverance. He said, “Is that Spanish?” I laughed and said, “No…it’s English for hanging in there even when things are tough.” Yay for Jonas! Yay for perseverance! And yay for the patience and the heart of little people sports team coaches!
Jonas is loving being back in preschool (and he hasn’t been the least bit phased by the jump from two days to four days in Pre-K). He’s having so many helpful moments these days…helping himself and helping others…and continues to crack me up with his creative way of thinking and talking:
“Where did you go wind? I want you to do that to my back. The wind was tapping me, and I liked it.”
Jonas, Xander, and I went out to Lucky Ladd this morning while Tom spent some quality time with Roman. They had a blast…feeding the animals, playing in the corn and sand boxes, going down the slides, eating picnic lunches, taking a tractor and a train ride, and cooling off in the splash pad.
We went to the boys’ school picnic tonight. They had a big time coloring on the paper covered picnic tables, playing soccer with Daddy, and rolling down a grassy hill with Jonas’ fun friend Keatyn (who was in his class last year). (Note to self…Roman and picnic tables don’t mix….notice the tired look on my face in the picture with him sitting on my lap. I saw a mom who had brought a booster seat and strapped it to the picnic table…she said she worried it was too much, which is probably what stopped me from bringing one, but it ended up being a stroke of brilliance for a more peaceful dinner for her family…next time I’ll trust my mommy gut.)
Today was Xander’s first day of preschool! He was so funny about it all morning…”Mommy, I don’t want to go to preschool” then “I go to preschool two days” then “Mommy, I don’t want to go to preschool” then “Do they have snacks there?”…up and down (so clearly illustrative of anyone’s heart, if they’re honest, stepping out into a new situation). He got a little nervous when we started walking down the hallway, so we asked him to help us drop Jonas off first. Because it was the first day, Mrs. Cathy let us come in and get him settled. We helped him find his cubby, put away his backpack and lunchbox, and find his favorite toy from Get Acquainted Day (magnets). He puckered up when we said our goodbyes, but we got an email a short time later from the preschool director saying that he was doing great and busy painting. Roman and I stopped by the park on the way home and had so much fun playing…just him and me. It reminded me of not too long ago when Xander and I went to that same park after we said goodbye to Jonas on his first day of preschool. Time is a funny thing. I’m starting to sense a little bit of that speeding up thing that people keep telling me about that I’ve always had such a hard time believing. Now that I’m beginning (key word…beginning) to emerge from the survival mode fog, I’m seeing some truth in it…pretty sobering yet inspiring stuff.
Jonas smooth-sailed through his first morning back to preschool. After hugs and kisses at his classroom door, Xander, Roman, and I met a small group of moms and kids from our moms’ group at the park for a play date.
We went out to MeMe and PaPa’s this morning for a visit. The boys picked tomatoes with MeMe in the garden, chased the cat, played play-doh with PaPa and Aunt Jean, joshed around with Aunts Julie and Jeanne and Cousins Jordan and Dylan, and ate a lion’s share of the super yummy lunch MeMe made. Here are a few pictures of our Sunday fun…
We were all SO excited to get to go to the Grand Ole Opry tonight. We loved watching Pops and Maw rehearse backstage. We also enjoyed joining them on stage with Jonas, Xander, and Roman. (Maw likes to walk all of the grand babies out onto the Opry stage to introduce them to the folks…I’m sure she introduced all of her babies there too…what a tradition!) It’s always magical to watch Pops and Maw sing, and it was such a delight to my heart to get to share that moment not only with Tom but with Jonas, Xander, and Roman too.
Jonas had his Get Acquainted Day at preschool today. He was a little cautious at first as he tends to be in new situations but started to warm up when he saw his Daddy and his best friend, Henry, from preschool last year. I was so happy to see that five of his classmates from two years ago will be in his class this year as well. He had fun checking out the building center and the science center and decorating his own train car for the bulletin board outside the classroom. I know Jonas will really enjoy his Pre-K class and will have fun learning so many new things!
Jonas had his first soccer practice tonight. It was so fun suiting him up in his shin guards and cleats with his little brothers circled around him.
When he went into the backyard to test everything out before dinner, Xander wanted to take a turn not with just kicking the ball but with wearing the shin guards and cleats as well. We just so happened to have some extras in the closet from our sweet next door neighbors who have three older boys…everything was a little big but it did the trick.
Jonas was WORN out after practice but seemed to have fun with all of the different drills (his favorite of which seemed to be chasing his coach while holding a neon plastic square with a hole in the center in front of his face).
Xander and Roman were just free styling…rolling in the grass, climbing on camp chairs, hanging upside down from the bench, trying to move the cones in the field, drinking Jonas’ water, pushing buttons on the coach’s calculator clipboard…I mean all over. We had fun though!
Here’s Jonas with the puzzles he worked backwards this morning…
Tom found a little baby bunny in our backyard this morning! Luckily, he was able to rescue him from Petra. I called a small animal hospital, and they recommended putting the baby bunny back in his spot and keeping Petra away from him during the day and overnight in hopes that his mommy will come back and move him. If he’s still there in the morning, they suggested that we take him to Walden’s Puddle, a Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Joelton, TN. I’m so thankful for places like this that take care of all creatures great and small!
Jonas and Xander had fun this morning playing in the sandbox, making a volcano. While Xander took a quick snack break, Jonas turned the volcano into a new creation. So cool!
We stopped off at the train yard this afternoon for a quick look at the trains…look at those four handsome boys!!!
The boys and I dug up some of our carrots from the garden this morning. (Some of them weren’t quite as ready as others…see the ones in Xander’s hands…but we’re still learning which ones to pull up and which ones to leave in the ground…Xan-Man loves “the baby ones” anyway, so no loss.) As I was digging them out (I love the look of them fresh from the garden with their green tops and clumps of dirt), Jonas said, “Mommy, maybe that’s why we have rabbits in our garden because we have so many carrots!” True, true…we have a little furry friend who has made a home under our huge rosemary. Yay for carrots fresh from the garden and yay for little boys who love to hold, wash, and eat them!!!
Here are a few of Jonas’ most recent one liners:
“I am sop and wet.”
“The whole floor is spinning…it’s like gravitation’s roundhouse.”
“Dad’s in charge of the house cause he’s the tallest.”
“I put my bunny in my drawer because my socks and my jammies wanted to have Easter.”
