Conversations With 8 Year Olds

Said yesterday:

Him: "Mom, how about if we pretend I'm Jack today? Yeah, let's do that."

Me: "Are you trying to get Jack's presents?"

Him: "Well...if I'm Jack..."

Lol!

And Then, Just Like That, He's 5

Today, the plan was to celebrate Jack's birthday by our annual birthday trip to the zoo. We loaded everyone up into the car and were ready to head out when we discovered our car wouldn't start. So, we went out back and played instead.

The boys sprayed silly string and used sidewalk chalk to decorate our patio.

They had a little picnic outside.

Jack set up the "track" and raced cars. 

It was very exciting as you can tell. ;)

Then tonight, we celebrated our Jack.

He blew out his candles.

He is definitely much better at the candle blowing now!

He opened some presents.

These penguin stacking dolls were a huge hit.

He got lots of fun stuff this year.

We blew up some balloons.

He even did some hula hooping with his new present!


I think he had a really nice day!

Happy Birthday, Jack! We're excited to see what fun this year will bring us!

The Last Night of Four

We just tucked our Jack in bed and kissed away the magical and oh so fun year of four. 

Tomorrow he'll wake up 5.

Sweet Dreams my boy. May the year of five bring us all as much joy, laughter, and excitement as four and oh so much more!

Slow Mo, Jay

Makes me laugh every time I watch it!


Jason is all into having Nerf shootouts with me. Unfortunately for him, his mama's got a good aim! ;)

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! 

We had a relatively quiet day today. The boys went to bed late last night, so they actually slept in a little this morning. :)

They ate chocolate eggs for breakfast and played with some of their Easter goodies.

The Easter Bunny brought the boys some blind box toys, which were quite the hit.

Shawn opened and reopened and filled and refilled the blind box capsules all morning long. 

Jack took a liking to the Mashems Pixar toys that were in the capsules. They got Woody, Buzz, and Mike Wazowski in them--the Easter Bunny couldn't have planned it better!

Jason enjoyed shooting some silly string at everyone, too. lol

We ended the night with a cookout at grandmas. The boys had a great day, and despite their protests that they were not in the least tired, they fell right to sleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

It was a great day!

Cute Big Boy Saturday - Sock Bunny Craft

I loved the sock bunny video that was floating around FB, so I decided we'd try it. I have to say it was a huge success!

Socks - $3.00 (6 pairs)

Dye - free (left over from egg dying)

2 bags of rice - $2.00

Odds and ends around the house - free

Total cost for all this cuteness - $5.00 (The dollar store was perfect for this craft!)

We colored Easter eggs this afternoon, so I gave each of the boys a few socks to dye with the left over egg color. They had no idea what they'd be using the socks for later; I just told them to dye the socks any colors they wished.

Once they dried, we let the boys start filling up their socks with the rice.

Once they filled their socks to the heel, we tied off the top of the sock with some string. We then tied off a section about a third of the way down from the top to make the head. Lastly, I let the boys pick out some googly eyes, a bead for the nose, and some ribbon for around the neck.

I think they came out really cute!

Shawn's mommy and daddy sock bunnies.

Jason wanted whiskers on his. :)

Jack's creations

Can't forget to show the cute little bunny tails!

This was definitely a craft that all three boys enjoyed, too! Love it!

Friday Five

This week, the boys' old kindergarten teacher sent me an email to say that the boys and their class had come to her class to buddy read with her students. She even sent me a few pictures. (How awesome is she?)

From what I understand, there is a girl in the class that would only read with our Shawnie. He was, of course, happy to oblige. :)

Apparently there are plans to make the buddy reading a weekly occurrence when they return from spring break. Yay!

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Speaking of spring break, the boys are on it. I am not. This is so not fair!

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Tonight, Jason is finally doing his sleep study. We're not exactly sure how this is going to go tonight, but we're doing it anyway. We check in at 9 pm. Wish us luck!

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We started a new bed time routine which includes reading to the boys once they get into bed. They absolutely love it. They even make sure to remind me when I forget. :)

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The littlest came to me this morning and said that his tooth was loose. He wanted me to pull it. I wiggled it a bit but ultimately told him that it wasn't quite ready to come out.

He came back a few minutes later with a tissue to tell me to pull his tooth. I wiggled his tooth again, but again I had to tell him the tooth wasn't quite ready to come out yet.

A few minutes later, Jack came back and gave me his tooth. Apparently it was more ready to come out than I thought. Or...Jack helped make it ready to come out.  Ahem. :)



Someone tell this kid to stop growing so fast! (And yes, that is the permanent tooth already pushing through the spot where he lost his first tooth!)

Prize

Today, Jason got to select the prize he earned for his AR achievements. He was SOOOO excited about going shopping at his favorite store, Toys R Us. We established a budget and away he went on the search for the perfect prize.

We combed through every single aisle of the store. He thought about the Legos...

Perused through the Matchbox cars...

He settled on three things.

And came in a whole $0.50 under budget. lol!

In the end, we negotiated another trip if he reaches his next goal. I'm fairly certain we'll be back before the end of the school year. :)

Mostly Wordless Wednesday

He put on a show for us.

It was fantastic! :)

Proud of Our Boys

Yesterday we got to do quite a bit of celebrating around these parts. Both the boys have made significant progress in their reading!

Jason officially reached the coveted 100 Accelerated Reader points at school. To put this achievement into perspective, a typical student with Jason's reading level would be expected to have earned somewhere around 32 points thus far this school year. Our Jason has earned over three times his expected point goal. Way to go, Jay.

To celebrate this achievement, I told Jason he would earn a trip to purchase a toy. While he is proud of the points, he is beyond excited to go to the store. lol. It's all about priorities, man. :)

We are also wildly proud of Shawn. This last trimester Shawn struggled a bit with reading in general, and just missed making his second trimester's AR goal by a single point. By doing some extra work on his part, our boy in the last week and a half has already earned nearly half of the points he earned for the entire last trimester! At this rate, Shawn will earn his trip to purchase a new toy in just a few more weeks! So amazing!

Way to go, boys!

Conversations With 8 Year Olds

While Jason was reading his latest book, The Indian in the Cupboard, he read about one of the main characters, Little Bear, enjoying a meal of jerky. Jay was intent on trying jerky out for himself and mentioned his interest to his father. Isaac, being the kind father he is, decided while the boys were in school to make some jerky for Jay to try.

Jason (upon entering the house): Dad, it smells like a meat wonderland!

Isaac: I'm making beef jerky.

Jason: For me?

Isaac: For everyone.

Jason (after processing this for a moment): I love you dad.

FYI - I'm not sure Jason is a fan of jerky. ;)

Story Time

Write about a play you would like to perform...

I Wish I Could Have a Play

I was at a play. I was the leader. I had a play of a tale. Once upon a time we were in a village. We were farming. We were playing. All of a sudden a monster apered. We ran away but someone got the monster to run away. They were saved! The End!

~by Jason

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I would like to be in a play about zoo animals. I would dress up as a zebra. Mrs. Jen would dress up as a lion. The play would take place in the zoo. The play would have a funny ending.

~by Shawn