A winning Pinterest activity

This summer, aside of having lots of fun outside, I want to have a little bit of structured time each day with some learning activities.  I found this great counting/numbers activity and pinned it a long time ago, but just got around to making it.  Yesterday I wanted to test it out and Logan seemed to get into it with little guidance.

Today, I wanted to test it out with Ellis.  It was nothing formal, but he's more hesitant to sit down and do any structured activity, so I just wanted to see if he would show any interest.  After showing him how to put the peg in the #1 spot, he worked diligently on completing #2-8.

As a matter of fact, he was so into it, Logan walked up and insisted that I put him in the chair next to us.  In order for him to do some, I had to take out the pegs of the smaller numbers Ellis already did so Logan could redo it.  The only issue is that Ellis was hogging some of the pegs, so Logan started taking them out of the previous "board" to use them in the next one.  Oops!

Looks like a winner!  Now that I've hooked them into the activity, hopefully we can do a little more deliberate practice with it.

Logan must have been into his learning time because he even sat through some color matching practice.

I'm looking forward to our next busy bag exchange next week.  We focused on making activities that focused on letters and alphabet recognition, which is something Ellis seems into right now, so I can't wait to see what else I can do with the boys over the summer.

The past 24

I have experience quite a range of emotions over the past 24 hours:

Sunday night - 

• Happiness: Going to a sushi party and having a great time catching up with good friends - watching the boys play with their friend Luke - seeing their reaction when they played with their first drum set!  

• Frustration: Coming home to find that our air conditioner wasn't working correctly.  Our house was not very cool and after some inspection of the pipes downstairs, they were frozen.  Not fun to worry about after a warm day with too much to do in a short amount of time before bed.
• Tired: After maybe 4.5 hours of sleep last night - tossing and turning thinking about today's events, trying to fall asleep in a warm house, and staying up trying to get the things done that I needed to do - my alarm was going off and Bella promptly stuck her nose in my face indicating it was time for her to go out.
• Thrilled: To get a text message shortly after I woke up, from a close friend, sharing the news of the birth of her son.  He's such a cutie pie - I'm beyond excited for the new mommy and daddy.  And the kicker of it all - the baby shares his birthday with his daddy and uncle.  How cool is that?  It's crazy to know that this is our 3rd close friend that had a baby within the past month. 
• Nervous: Today was part 2 of an interview in a way awesome school district close to home.  It would be beyond a dream to teach here.  Last week I was 1 of 2 people that passed the first round and had to go in to teach a lesson today.  Why am I nervous?  I've been teaching for 10 years, but then again you never know what they are looking for.  
• Confident: Leaving the lesson, I was pretty confident.  The kids were pretty receptive and although I didn't get through my entire lesson in the short 30 minutes I had to teach it, I thought it still went well.
• Bittersweet: After the lesson, I headed to work to finish cleaning up my room and do my class records.  I was there for only a couple of hours before I said my goodbyes.  Yup, the UPA chapter of my life is closing.  A bit bittersweet because I worked with some pretty awesome people that I hope to keep in touch with, I will miss working and chatting with them on a daily basis, but it is time for me to move on to a more positive work environment.  Aside from the earlier interview today, I have another job option that I agreed to take.
• Disappointed: Just as I was about to wrap up at UPA, I got a call from the other school already. Unfortunately, I was not chosen for the position they had.  They said that I didn't do anything wrong - my interview and lesson were done very well - but it was mainly because they had a lot of people on the team I'd be working on with similar characteristics as me and they wanted a more diverse group of teachers working together.  I could analyze this over and over and try to figure out what exactly that means, but it isn't going to change the outcome.  Disappointed, yes, but I also have to remember the pros of working at the other school I committed to just a week before this other school even called. Sure this school had it's perks too, but I know I will be happy working at UYA in the fall.  
• Thankful: After wrapping up everything at work, I headed to my moms to pick up the boys.  As hard as it is to make changes, we have decided to put the boys in a more socialized day care setting next year.  It has been so comforting to know the boys were in such good hands the past 2 years, knowing that she had their best interest in hand, that schedules could be followed, that she would give them their one-on-one time, and especially develop the immensely strong bond that she has with them.  I can not express in words how thankful and appreciative I am that my mom has taken such good care of the boys over the past two years.  It was such a relief, especially as a new mom, to know that they were in such good hands.  And gosh, nothing beats the bond between grandparents and their grandchildren, you know!?!  This one was no different.  Those boys love their grandma more than anyone can know and I know they will miss spending every day with her, but we also know that giving them more social interaction will be good for them in the fall, especially to develop their speech a bit more.  Mom, I can not thank you enough for everything that you've done for us and them over the past two years.  And although you might not see them every day, I hope you know how important you are in their life and how much they love you.  We will just have to make sure to make more weekend visits and play dates whenever we can!
• Thankful (again):  The air conditioner was an easy (and cheap) fix.  Less than $100 for the repair and service call and we have a cool house again - PHEW!
• Content:  School's over - summer has officially begain.  Lots of things have transpired in the past day but most of it was very positive.  Sure, I didn't get my dream job but I have to believe that everything happens for a reason and it just wasn't meant to be.  But you know what?  I'm okay with that.  On the wonderfully positive side, I get to spend the next two months with my boys and do lots of fun things with them, our friends, and family, and for that, I'm extremely grateful!

Happy Summer everyone!

Summer Bucket List 2013

A little list of fun things we hope to do this summer:

• Have a picnic at a park
• Story time at the library
• Go to a parade
• Splash Pad
• Detroit Zoo (maybe Toledo Zoo, too?)
• Camping at the Pinery
• Go to a local beach
• Hit up the farmers market
• Go to a new park
• Attend the Big Rig Gig
• Ride the trains at Starr Jaycee Park
• See fireworks (or at least play with sparklers)
• Take a walk (sans stroller) on a local trail
• Feed the ducks at the park (without Ellis freaking out!)
• Make homemade ice cream

I have a ton of fun at-home activities in mind too.  There are just way too many to mention here, but I got many of the ideas from Camp Mom.  It's a great resource that Nicole found that has over 80 activities related to water, nature, and arts and crafts.  There is even a section on sensory play and different basic skills that kids could practice and how to do it in a fun way (cutting, mixing, etc.)  I'm hoping to incorporate some fun activities with a few structured activities here and there to keep some sanity in our day and not make it a huge free for all.  They made such progress during there speech classes with the structured activities that I don't want them to digress.  At the same time, I'm also going to be realistic and realize that just because I have a plan doesn't mean we are going to follow it.   It'll be more of a loose plan of options we could explore during the week.  

Most of you know that I use Project Life as my way to scrapbook our weekly events around here. While I plan to keep that up over the summer, I also know that last summer we did so much that some weeks I had so many pictures, I took up 2 weeks worth of page protectors to record it all.  This year I saw a really cute post from Becky Higgins showing how someone used Project Life to record their Summer Bucket List.  Basically, they took Instagram pictures of each of their bucket list items and put it on a 3x4 card and slipped it in a page protector.  This person did a full layout of this (up to 22 pictures depending on the page protectors you use) to highlight their list, which I thought was a really cute way of doing it.  My only problem with this is that I have such a hard time taking only 1 picture of any particular event.  Especially with 2 kids, how could I limit each activity to only 1 picture?  So, I decided to use this basic idea and broaden it a bit.  What I am going to do is use this cherry mini-album, and use this to record our summer bucket list.  I'd really like to get a new core kit to use for this, but I should probably take a step back and just use what I have so far, right?  We'll see.  I still have another week before I'm going to start using it =).  I might just use some blank 3x4 grid cards that I already have and make my own 3x4 cards out of cardstock I have.  Since there are 20 page protectors, I could have anywhere from 20-40 activities in this book, depending on how picture-happy I get with each activity.  I'm pretty excited to use this as a way to document our summer fun, so perhaps I will show some of it once I get started with it.  

Anyone else have any fun ideas they plan to do this summer?  I'd love to add more fun to our list!!

Big boy beds and a birthday bash!

I feel like I need to pinch myself after everything that happened last week!  Most of it is work related (and all good!) which I don't really want to go into detail about until I know the final results of everything, so let's just focus on the rest of the week.

As I mentioned last week, Ellis has been sleeping in a big boy bed at grandma's house during the day.  I'm not sure what prompted his recent lack of interest in his crib, but it is definitely one I wasn't thinking would happen for a while.  Maybe now that he isn't using his pacifier (he holds it when he sleeps, but doesn't suck on it now that the holes are in it), he figures he is a big boy.  So, Monday night, we took the front of their crib off and transitioned it into a toddler/day bed.  We hung out up in their room after dinner so they could get used to it and play around to try to get that initial excitement out of their systems before bed.  And, I'd have to say, after nearly a week, all is pretty much good with it.  Don't get me wrong, either Troy or I have to go in there at least once (okay, lets be real - it's usually about 3 times) within the hour after they go to bed and tell them to get back in their bed, but it could be worse.

No, this isn't the reaction they give daddy when he walks in and catches them out of bed!

We also turned their door knob so it only locks from the outside, since Logan knows how to lock their door.  One good perk is that we get to sleep in a little bit longer on the weekends.  No more crying to get them out of their crib.  Yesterday I woke up around 7:45 (from Bella in my face) and I went to check on them.  Logan was laying in his bed still but Ellis was near his bed just playing.  Today Troy went in their room around 7:30 and found them both laying on the floor next to their bed.  We're guessing that they woke up early and played a bit before falling back asleep.  And no, he didn't get a picture of them.  =(

Yesterday, we had some family fun and went to the Reaves house for Morgan and Parker's birthday party, and it was a ton of fun.  Thankfully the threatening rain didn't ruin any of the fun and most of it just blew over.  The kids LOVED playing outside, and I think the boys already have a girlfriend.  Most of Morgan's friends were playing princess (I heard Rapunzel at one point) and Logan was following them along.  Well, Logan was getting too close to the road so my mom got him and brought him back closer to the house.  One of the girls ran up to my mom and asked if he was leaving and appeared sad that he wasn't playing with them.  Not that he knew what they were doing, but he just liked following them around.

Watching his little girlfriends every move at the work bench.

Ellis hamming it up in the princess castle playhouse

Logan following every little move of these little girls!

Then later on, I'm not sure what the attraction was, but they found some grasses/shrubs and they sat in them.  They liked laying back in them and staring up the sky.  I have NO idea why.  Well, the same little girl went up and trying picking them up back into the sitting position and of course after she picked Ellis up, he would lay right back down for her to lift him up again.  He just loved the attention and she sure didn't mind giving it. 

And bad me, I didn't even get a picture of the birthday kids together, but they seemed to have a great time.  Happy 5th birthday Morgan and Happy 3rd birthday to Parker!

Well, I'm going to keep it short and sweet for tonight.  I'm starting a summer bucket list for us and knowing that school is out on Friday, I better get a move on finalizing it.  I even have a fun way to keep track of all that we do this summer, so I'll share that next!

For now, I hope all you fathers had a fantastic day!  A special 1st Father's Day to Bryan and Mike - new parents within the past 3 weeks, and to Chris, an expectant father within the next 3 weeks!

Lions and Zebras and Bears, oh my!

What an awesome day today was!  Troy headed down to Belle Isle for the Orion Music Festival for the day, so I tried to think of something fun to do with the boys.  We haven't been to the zoo yet this year, so off to the zoo we went.  Although we've been to the zoo plenty of times last year, there was definitely something magical to today's trip.  I think part of it was the fact that being a year older, the boys understood the idea of actually looking at/for animals and they have had more exposure to seeing animals in books over the past year, so when I said "look at the lion", they actually looked at the lion.  The other part that added to the awesomeness of the trip was the fact that it was just me and the boys.  Don't get me wrong, I love going to the zoo with other people - but I'm not going to lie - I'm such a talker that a lot of the time I am with other people, I'm so engrossed with catching up with the other person/people I'm with that I'm not really taking in everything around me.  Being able to just sit and stare at the giraffes and see the reaction that the boys had to seeing the huge animals was just amazing!  Today's favorite animals = lion, zebras, giraffes, and bears.

ROAR!!! (said Ellis)

They loved being able to get in and out of the stroller (and I love having a side-by-side stroller for just this reason) and  checking out the zebras

I don't know what Logan liked more, climbing up and down the little ledge or actually looking at the bear.  

Hard to see, but those are gorillas up on the rock

After a few hours, we headed back home, but not after going back to look at the giraffes and zebras for  a second time.  When I picked Ellis up to see the giraffes a bit better, I wish I could have taken his picture the moment he actually saw it.  He was in complete awe, it was so cute!  I think the fact that the zebras got pretty close and that they could see them very well through the fence, made Logan just squeal!  Today's zoo trip was definitely the most enjoyable part of my day!

As far as the rest of the week, here are some other highlights:

• Yesterday we had a fun night at the Chandler's for this months Beer Friday party.  Derek is in a Beer of the Month Club, and he gets 4 different beers from various breweries around the US to taste test every month.  Awesome, right?  These are definitely beers we've never heard of, but some were actually really good.  Each of us got to sample 8 beers (4 from this month and 4 from last month) and we rated them 1-5 (5 being the best).  Last night's winner - Rusty Chain!

Can you believe Troy actually joined in and gave some beers a rating higher than 0?!

Cutest little taste testing glasses ever

Okay, so we shouldn't have waited until 9pm to get a picture of all 3 of them in these cute chairs.  Of course Logan and Ellis loved sitting in them earlier, but the minute we get all 3 of them together right before we left, all hell broke loose.  I'll cut Ellis some slack - it was 1 hour past his bedtime! 

• The only other "big" news this week is bittersweet.  I know it's inevitable, but my boys are growing up way too fast and it seems to hit me in spurts.  This week, we've had a lot of "big boy" moments.  Ever since I cut a hole (which apparently was bigger than it should have been for the first cut -- oops!), Ellis has rejected using his pacifier, but he still likes to hold it when he goes to bed.  I didn't expect that he was going to stop using it cold turkey, but hey, if that's what happened, then I'm good with it.  He did have issues taking a nap a few days after cutting it, but since then, we haven't had any major issues - until this week.  On Monday, my mom couldn't figure out why Ellis was screaming so much during nap time.  He wanted to get out of his crib, he didn't want his pacifier (and at one point she even gave him a non-cut pacifier to see if he would take it and he wouldn't!), so after an hour of screaming, she just got him up.  Tuesday, he tried the same thing - scream scream scream.  So she got him out of his crib and laid down with him on the twin bed that is the bedroom also.  Guess what?!?!  He fell right to sleep!  So, for the rest of the week, he slept in the big boy bed and did just fine! 
• On Wednesday, as much as we HATE it, we gave in and cut their hair.  No styled cut for them, we just buzzed it off again.  Hopefully they will grow out of the whole screaming at the clippers thing and we can give them a cutter cut, but for now, we're lucky we even have it look half-way decent.  We started with Logan because of the two of them, he is the more calm one.  We thought we'd have an easier time with him.  Boy were we wrong and boy is he strong!  I think all of us were just sweating when we were done because of the flailing and fighting he did.  30 minutes done, Troy looked at me and asked if we should wait until Thursday to cut Ellis' hair and as much as I didn't really want to deal with it, I just wanted to get it over with.  Don't get me wrong - Ellis wasn't silent, but his crying was so much more tolerable and he just let Troy hold him while I cut instead of fighting us.  How refreshing!  =)

• Thursday was the boy's last day of their Parent/Tot class and home visit through the Speech Therapy Program, for the school year.  Logan adjusted well and quickly over the 6 weeks but Ellis was still a little iffy when it came to stopping his free play to do any of the structured activities.  Well, guess what happened on the last day of class?  Ellis complied to everything they did.  During circle time, he came right over and sat right down without making a peep.  Troy couldn't believe it.  He actually looked at the teacher, she looked at him, they looked back at Ellis sitting down and just went with it.  During the home visit, there was more of the same.  He sat down and did the activities they usually attempt to do before he acts up too much, and completed them all.  Of course this is something we've always wished for, but now that it is happening, I am just so proud of my little Ellis.  I have noticed quite a bit of change in him in general, lately.  I'm not sure if it is related or not, but after the initial adjustment after not using his pacifier, he has been a lot more mellow lately.  Sure, he has his moments, but he has a lot less time-outs and breakdowns, and that makes this mama proud!  
• Logan has been engrossed in learning his numbers lately.  We've been doing some structured activities with the boys lately and they've done really well with their colors.  Now that they are older, I've been pulling out some of the busy bags that were made last year and using them.  They do really well with a popsicle color matching game.  I also found some number and alphabet magnets recently and since Logan has been excited about numbers (counting the numbers in our address on the porch), I decided to pull those out.  I use them on a cookie sheet and it is so cute to hear him count "1, 2, .....9, 10!"  Not sure how/why he knows 9 and 10 and he isn't as consistent with those as he is 1 and 2, but its pretty darn cute.  He just picks up a book and starts counting something in or on the book. We hear "1, 2" over and over on any given day and I love it!  The other day he actually kissed the magnets and I couldn't believe it.  Of course I didn't have my camera with me at the time, but come on - what kid kisses number magnets?  Apparently the kid of a math teacher!  =)  

So there you go - there's our week (or at least the good parts of the week - I don't even have the time/energy to inform you all of some crazy drama at work this week!).  I'm way excited that we are almost in the single digits of days left of school.  I know, I'm totally jealous of all the teachers already out of school, but we don't get out until June 21st!  I can not wait to spend the summer with the boys and see what else they surprise me with over the summer.  Within the next week or so, I'm going to put together a binder of things for the summer - a little summer bucket list, activities to try, calendar of things we have scheduled, etc.  CAN'T WAIT!!!!

For now, its time for me to enjoy a bowl of ice cream before bed - because I can!

to enjoy

This is my challenge for June - to enjoy.  To enjoy what, you ask?  Anything I want!

I feel like I'm always going going going.  But, then again, what parent doesn't, right?  Well, now that summer is practically here, I want to make sure I soak up every moment I can.  I feel like I'm putting a lot on the back burner because of things I have to do.  Plus as another birthday passes I sit back and realize how time is just flying by.  I don't want to keep rushing through life moving at high speeds all the time, especially with two little ones.  So, make better use of my time, be intentional with the things I choose to do, and I should have no problem finding time to enjoy the things I want to do.  Seems easy, right?  Well, not quite, considering we still have 3 weeks of school, so I'm not quite in the clear with that yet.  Luckily things are simmering down, so I don't have as much work to do now as I did in past months.  It's amazing too, how fast time goes by once the boys are in bed - my "me" time.  I do a few things to prep for the next day and I turn around twice and it's time to go to bed, it seems.  Also, I have started tutoring someone on the side (and possibly have another person lined up to tutor over the summer), so I still have some things that I'm committed to.

So, to start small, I'm forcing myself to do at least 1 thing after the boys go to bed that I want to do, without feeling guilty about not doing something I should be doing instead.  Some of you may be wondering about my May challenge (which I may have purposely neglected to mention until now), of completing the Insanity workouts.  I did complete the first month of workouts.  I lost a few pounds and I have toned up just a bit in some trouble spots and have definitely gotten stronger.  I did have a debate with myself, however, with continuing with the second month of workouts, right now.  Sure, it seems obvious to continue, especially if I've seen some results, but now the workouts are longer - about 50-60 minutes instead of 30-40 minutes.  And, with the boys bedtime at 8pm and then running downstairs to workout for an hour, followed by a shower and prepping for the next day I literally have no ME time.  Yes, I guess working out is ME time, but not the sit down, relax, just chill ME time.  And I guess, thats what I really want right now.  I want to sit on the deck at night with a wine smoothie (or beer) in hand, or chill in front of the TV and catch up on a show I have recorded.  I want to catch up with friends I haven't talked to in a while, I want to catch up on my scrapbooking...  Sure, if I want to workout I will, but I don't want to do something because I'm going to feel guilty if I don't do it.  I want to enjoy every last second of this summer - slow down a little bit and just enjoy the small things.  I did battle this idea of "giving up" on something I started, but have finally come to grips with it because I'm not totally throwing away the idea of finishing it - I'm just going to finish it at a later time.

So, there you have it.  My goal is to enjoy something every day this month.  To do at least one thing that I want, not necessarily need to do, after the boys go to bed.  I will continue doing the Insanity workouts when I decide to, and hopefully pick them up more consistently once I'm out of school for the summer when I have fewer obligations.  Let's have a fun, enjoyable, more carefree start to the summer!