Storytelling

"Once upon a time I was speeding down the race track. Then my car runs out of gas. I ran to get gas and Alyssa's car zooms by! She distroys my car. All thats left is the wheels. I run to build a new car! "I need wood," said Jason. He rode his bord to the finish line. Jason got ran over. It turned out it was a dream. My mom woke me up. I was at home.

~by Jason (typed exactly as written)

Selfie Time

Cute Big Boy Saturday

Is he trying to recapture the hair he just had cut off?

Friday Five

The boys had another project to do this week.I'

The directions...

Their projects centered around the them of Family Time, and they had the option to do a recipe, a carousel, or a family tree.

Shawn chose to do a family tree. He worked really hard and typed his information.

He had to add 15 family members to his tree. (Please, if you are family and didn't make it on the tree, don't be insulted. He pretty much ran out of steam when he hit number 15.) He also had to add one fact about each person on his tree.

great grandma jerry - she likes to garden.

great grandpa mike - he used to drive trains.

grandma - she likes to help me recycle.

grandpa - he is grandma's husband. He liked to read.

mommy - she is a teacher.

shawn - I go to school.

daddy - dad goes to work.

uncle jeff - he likes to fix things.

aunt cindy - I talk to her on the phone.

uncle cal - he is funny.

tia stasi - she is my friend.

tio mario - he works for the city.

ava - she plays with me.

jason - he is my brother and I love him. He likes to play with me.

jack - he is my brother. he likes to laugh.

grandma vickie - she likes to cook.

This project was all him, and I pretty much love it. :)

~~~

Jason, on the other hand, decided he wanted to make a carousel. He decorated the plates and created the characters from the story to be the "horses."

Jason also typed the information from the story he selected. 

I did help him assemble it (we learned that Jason and hot glue are not a good combo when we did the last project!), but this was exactly how he envisioned his carousel. As you can tell, he was quite proud of it, too!

This project was perfectly Jason, and I love it, too!

~~~

Jack got a haircut today! 

He's too cute for words!

~~~

Jason had an appointment with the ENT doctor last week. She recommended that Jason have a sleep study to check for apnea. That is scheduled for the end of March. (Doesn't that sound like fun?)

It also looks like he may need to have his tonsils and adenoids removed. If it comes to that, he will likely have that done at the start of the summer.

~~~

Shawn has always loved music, but lately he's been doing something pretty neat. He and his father started taking turns calling out different composers and supplying a matching melody for the composer. Shawn can match quite a few melodies to their composers now. (We have no idea where he picked them up either!) It's cool to watch/hear them go!

Oh Yeah!

Today, this happened.

And this!

The boys both got honored today at school! 

Jason earned a certificate for his citizenship. He was so proud when his teacher called his name. He shot his arms in the air in a silent yet emphatic, "YES!" Lol!

Shawn earned a most improved certificate. He was so pleased to be on stage and receive his certificate!

But, I think my absolute favorite part of the assembly was when Shawn's name was called. Jason was already on stage next to the teacher. He called out, "Oh Yeah!" which was amplified to the whole cafeteria by the microphone. It was so cute!

I asked him about it later. "What?" he said. "He's my brother!" That made my heart swell again, right there. :)

We topped the night off by selecting two certificate frames (navy blue, for the record), so they can hang their certificates up in their rooms.

Congratulations, boys! We are so proud of all your hard work!!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

Showing daddy a cool video...

Conversations With 8 Year Olds

While doing a project at school, Shawn had to write something interesting about his brother.

"Jason - he is my brother and I love him. He likes to play with me."

Sweet, right?

I told Jason that. "Awe," he said. "Now I feel bad." Lol. Yes, boy. That's guilt for being such a turkey to your brother!

Civil War Day Part 2

We found a few more pics from yesterday. They're too cute not to share!

Just after enlisting - marching off to join the troops.

Salute your superiors, Soldier!

Love this video Isaac took!

Jack's reaction to the drums.

Civil War Days!

This afternoon we headed out to a local Civil War Days and enjoy a re-enactment of life in the 1860's.

Shortly after we arrived, we got to see a military artillery re-enactment. The Union and Confederate soldiers battled it out on the field before us. Jason was entranced, although the popping from the weapons made him a bit nervous at times. Jack, on the other hand, had no problem at all with the loud noise. Instead, he didn't care for the loud booms of ... you guessed it, the drums. lol. They were able to enjoy the re-enactment, nonetheless.

Shawn, on the other hand, was NOT a fan of all of the noise. He and I went to look at the Civil War souvenirs. After much deliberation, he carefully selected two onyx elephants as his souvenirs. I'm fairly certain you cannot get any more period than two onyx elephants when selecting Civil War souvenirs. ;)

He's showing off his new elephant souvenirs.

Meanwhile, while Shawn and mom were off gallivanting around the grounds, the Union forces apparently lost their "skirmish" with the south. They were in desperate need of new recruits. Jason was up for the challenge, and our baby enlisted with the Union Army.

Jason standing guard while our president, Abraham Lincoln, gave his Gettysburg Address.

President Lincoln was quite the powerful speaker, too!

After the speeches concluded, Jason headed back to get a bit more training with his new riffle. 

Standing in line, waiting for instructions.

The new recruits learned how to load and aim their "riffles."

Once training was over, we were able to get a glimpse of the soldiers' way of life.

These people were some of the Confederate troop before the battle.

Some old fashioned dancing happened in the barn, too.

More soldiers preparing for another battle.

Jack got to try his hand at sewing with an old fashioned sewing machine.

He thought turning the wheel was really cool. 

Before Jason received his Honorary Discharge Papers, we had to get one last shot of our little soldier!

So proud of himself!

We had a little snack time, too.

Jack was less in the mood for smiling and more in the mood for eating his snack.

The last thing we did before heading home was to go get a bite to eat. This was clearly Shawn's favorite part of the day.

You'd never know he liked this part from his smile, now would you?

It was a fun day!

Cute Big Boy Saturday

He was wowed by the citronella candle we lit this evening.

Friday Five...Um...Er...Four

Only four this week. I just can't seem to come up with the fifth!

~~~~~~

On Monday night, while getting ready for bed, Jason told me that he was a bit nervous about reading to the kindie class a story he'd written. We talked about it a bit and picked out his favorite shirt, and then he went off to bed.

I asked him how it went after school the next day. He wasn't really into to talking about the experience much, but he did say that he was annoyed that he only got to read to one student instead of the whole class like he thought. lol. Too funny.

~~~

This is his original story that was read to the kindergartner student: (transcribed just as he wrote it)

Jena and the Penguin Race

Once upon a time, Jena the penguin was going to a penguin race in Antarctica. So he waddled and saw a person. He was late. He said, "please let me in the race. So the person let him in the race. The race started. Jena was in the lead the whole race! He won the race! He lived happily ever after.

THE END!!!!!

~by Jason

**In case you're wondering, the name is pronounced "Geee-na" and yes, the character started out as a girl and was turned into a boy through the drafting process. :)

~~~

Not to be outdone by his brother, Shawn also got to write an original story. He did not want to read to the kindie, so he stayed in class and did another activity instead. His story is still cute, though, and needs to be shared!

The Blue Elephant

The blue elephant had a friend named Pink elephant. The two friends lived in Africa. Blue elephant said to pink elephant "Do you want to go to the zoo?" They both wanted to see the zebras at the zoo. The zoo keeper tried catching the elephants at the zoo. He thought they lived there. Pink and blue elephant were afraid. They hid in the zebra exhibit until it was dark. They snuck out of the zoo and never went back.

~Shawn

Pretty awesome, right? Both of them!

~~~

Jack, like his brothers, got a box of chocolates for Valentine's Day. His favorite thing is to remove all of the candies from the box and play with them. He organizes them on the table. He smells them. A few have even be touched by his tongue.

But the kid will not eat them. He says he doesn't like them.

How is it possible that my child doesn't like chocolate?! Crazy kid.

The President

Shawn came home with this paragraph about the President:

"Our President

Barack Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii. His father was from Africa and his mother was from Kansas. His parents split up when he was two. When his mother remarried, they moved to Indonesia. At age ten, he went to live with his grandparents in Hawaii."

~~~

Not too shabby if I do say so myself! Way to go, Shawn!

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

It was 80 degrees and arm yesterday. Jack needed a Popsicle and some shade to cool down.

Swoon

Oh, this boy makes me swoon!

Freedom Is Going to His Head

Jack just recently was encouraged to start going into the kitchen and getting himself his own drinks. The boy is in the kitchen filling up his cup every ten minutes or so. I think the freedom is going to his head. It's either that, or he's trying to find out if it is actually possible to float away from fluid intake. lol.

Here's hoping his fascination with all. the. water. he. wants. dissipates quickly. ;)

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year we got the boys some chocolates to go with their Valentine's stuffed animals. The chocolate was a big hit!

(These lucky boys also got some candy and another stuffed animal from grandma. Score!)

Jason got up and made us a card all on his own this morning...

The "Stacie" thing is a hopefully temporary phase. Sigh.

Daddy and his boys gave me a beautiful bouquet of flowers, too!

We kept the day relatively low key, but we did grab grandma and head out to an early dinner. Shawn picked IHOP for our destination.

The last time we went to IHOP, Jay ordered the same pancake you see in the picture above. He promptly threw it up when he finished. So, he was a bit nervous about the dish tonight. That is why the pancake is frowning. lol

After we got back, we played outside for a bit. We blew on some dandelion puffs...

And had a few races...

(Shawn raced, too, but I couldn't race and take a picture at the same time.)

We ended the evening with some family Wii time. :) All in all it was a great day!