This afternoon the kids enjoyed "coloring on the walls".
Danielle made a Halloween picture with a smiling ghost, bat, pumpkin and a couple trick-or-treaters with their mom & dad. Her second picture was a combination of her own artwork and Tyler's (flowers on fire, for example).
Tyler made a lovely flower with a happy little bee...and a tall building on fire. Turning the paper seemed to "inspire" him.
They enjoyed themselves. (More paper please, Grandpa C.)
Today we took the kids to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. We had a really nice time. Tyler wasn't overly impressed, but I don't think he was miserable, either. (Ron promised him they'd go to a monster truck rally sometime, so that made it a little easier for him to tolerate all the "girly" stuff.) Danielle was especially excited that she was allowed to wear her Sleeping Beauty dress in public! As expected, Danielle was in awe through most of the show.
I tried to take some pictures, but it's hard to get clear shots when you're too far away for the flash to work and your subjects are constantly moving. I took some videos for Danielle, and I've already had to rewatch them several times. (I was surprised there weren't any rules prohibiting pictures or videos!) Here are a few pictures from the show.
I guess the inside out pajamas worked this time. School was cancelled today and Tyler got to enjoy another snow day. It snowed, sleeted, rained, sleeted, and is currently snowing again. Maybe next time he can just turn his top or bottoms inside out and not both so we don't get quite so much winter weather all at once.
Ron made it home safely from his business trip around lunch time today (before the freezing rain), so we've been able to enjoy the weather from the warmth of home without worrying about being out in it. It's supposed to be better out tomorrow, which is good because we're taking the kids to see Disney's Princesses on Ice.
Well, I was right. Neither child remembered me getting them up to look at the eclipse. They both stared at me with disbelief as I described wrapping them up in blankets and sticking our heads out the door to see it better. Oh well. Maybe we'll try again in 2010.
We are supposed to get some snow tonight. Tyler is really hoping for another snow day so school will be cancelled tomorrow. He's enjoyed the days off when they've occurred, but this is the first time he's actively wished for it ahead of time. It's kind of fun - I remember how desperately I hoped for a snow day. That was back when they never cancelled school, though. Anyway, Ron told Tyler that a teacher friend told him if he sleeps with his pajamas turned inside out there's a better chance of school being cancelled the next day. Tyler knew it was a joke, but he giggled and turned his pjs inside out anyway. We'll see if it works...
With Tyler in kindergarten and Danielle in preschool part of the time, you would think this winter would be easier than winters past. For some reason it seems to be dragging on F O R E V E R though. I think we're all eager to open the windows, air out the house, slide on the slide, and run around barefoot in the green grass. Danielle frequently asks when she can go outside without her coat on. (Feel free to brag about Miami's weather, Leah.) We woke up to snow today. It was beautiful and very fluffy, but it wasn't slippery enough to use the sleds or the right consistency to make a snowman. And it was SO cold. We played outside for just a few minutes, but I think I expended more energy just dressing and undressing the kids than they expended playing outside. This seems to be a constant theme for us this winter. I feel like I'm on a constant mission to find activities to enjoy with the kids this winter. Here's what I came up with today:
1. Eat snow
2. Pay $3 for 450 straws and experiment
3. Create a homemade Bingo game
4. Watch the lunar eclipse from the bathroom window I told the kids about the lunar eclipse today and explained to them how it happens. They really wanted to see it, so I agreed to wake them up to peek at it. I woke them up one at a time to see the moon before it was fully eclipsed. (I think part of the fun is watching the shadow move across the moon.) They were both so sleepy, though, that I'm not sure either of them will even remember it.
Also, Danielle resumed ballet/gymnastics class today. I did not intend for her to be off this long. She was so excited to go back and really enjoyed class. Tyler registered for tball tonight, too. Practices will probably start at the end of next month. I guess maybe spring really is on the horizon. It's just taking awhile to get here.
We decided to take the kids to a hotel & aquarium this weekend just to get away and have some fun. Ron had enough hotel points banked to get us a free room for the night, and the aquarium was having a family special offering free kid's admission. We had a really great time!
Here are some pictures from our weekend.
This eel was very cool...and huge! You can see his face & tail in the 2 pictures.
Tyler was thrilled to hear that school was cancelled today due to the snow & freezing rain. Danielle was pretty excited preschool was cancelled, too. Once the temperature climbed above 20, we ventured out for a few minutes. It started to rain while we were out, so we didn't get a lot of time to play outside, but the kids made the most of it.
It seems like we have had more than our share of trips to the doctor's office this winter. After some concerns about Danielle's hearing, we found ourselves there again today. Danielle is fine, just some excess earwax & fluid (which will probably evolve into an ear infection within the next week) that is causing her some temporary hearing problems.
Our doctor is currently building a new office, so she shares an office with the Urgent Care for now. Keeping the kids entertained in the waiting room while waiting for our appointment is always a challenge, but it's even more difficult now because there aren't any kid appropriate "furnishings". I came up with a pretty good idea today, though. Today we had a magazine scavenger hunt: Each kid got a different magazine. We started with the magazines closed. I named something for them to find, and they frantically searched through their magazine until they found it. It really wasn't a race against each other since they had different magazines. They really enjoyed it, and I thought I was pretty clever. This turned out better than our first "game" today.
IMO, the Urgent Care has some questionable magazine choices. Tyler picked up one such magazine when we first got there. (I didn't realize at first that it was questionable.) The first several pages were all ads. I opened the first page and said "What do you guys think these guys are selling?" They thought for a second and guessed "boats". It was a perfume ad with a woman on a boat. The next page was an ad for Prada. Danielle guessed "purses". Another perfume ad stumped them, but they got the Gucci ad. The first clothing ad stumped them, too. Then I turned the page to a 2 page ad featuring blue water in a tropical setting with a nice looking guy in the front corner, reclining in an innertube. He was wearing a skimpy white speedo which really contrasted with the colors in the rest of the ad. Danielle and Tyler both burst into laughter. Danielle pointed and said, "I know what he's selling! Underwear!" (It was an ad for cologne.) The next ad was a Guess clothing ad featuring a woman wearing a halter top and low cut jeans. Knowingly Tyler said, "I know what she's selling. She's selling belly buttons!"
This month Tyler's class is studying insects & other creepy crawlers. To integrate science and reading, the kids are bringing home a new book about bugs each day they have school. They pick a book, bring it home and read it, and then take it back the next school day to exchange it for another. Tyler is having way too much fun with this! The first day he brought home a book about spiders because I hate spiders. The second day he picked a book about snakes because Ron hates snakes. On Friday he brought home a book about bees. Guess who hates bees.
Tyler has been wanting to go bowling lately. He had such a wonderful week at school this week that we thought it would be a nice treat for him (and Danielle) if we went bowling this weekend. The kids have only gone bowling once before today, and that was almost 2 years ago. We had a good time, but the kids agreed it's not at all like bowling on the Wii.
Here are some pictures and videos from today. I wish you could hear the "thunk" of Tyler's ball as he lobbed it down the lane. It was so funny. Today must have been family day at the lanes, though. Almost every lane had at least one kid who was "thunking" his ball, too. None of us did very well, but you can see who did best. :)
After looking through one of my kid's craft books this afternoon, Tyler decided he wanted to make a homemade marble run out of cardboard tubes. We gathered a few empty toilet paper rolls, a paper towel roll, and pulled the leftover Christmas wrapping paper off a couple big rolls, confiscated Ron's duct tape, grabbed some scissors, and found some marbles.
Tyler had a lot of good ideas. He wanted windows and cutouts to watch the marbles drop. He thought it would be neat to have a second area to drop in marbles, too. It only took us about 1/2 hour to make our marble run, but the kids played with it for quite awhile. They had fun trying it out in different spots around the house.
What do you do when it's a cold, dreary winter and you're looking for a little excitement? Why, you celebrate silly "holidays", of course. Today we celebrated Danielle's 1/2 birthday. She is exactly halfway between 4 and 5.
To celebrate, Danielle got to wear her favorite pink dress, buy herself a small item from the toy store (with her leftover Christmas money), pick the movie for movie night, and blow out 4 1/2 candles on half a birthday cake (while we sang half the birthday song). It really was a fun way to add a little excitement to an ordinary day. Plus, it was something she and Tyler actually looked forward to all week.
It's too bad Phil saw his shadow last week. I'm running out of cold weather ideas.
Today I let the kids decorate our sliding glass doors. It has been so gloomy out lately, but their artwork really brightened up the kitchen!
Tempera paint is washable anyway, but I read that if you add a little dish detergent to it it will make the paint even easier to clean up. I haven't tried to clean their pictures off the windows yet, but it did wipe up off the frame of the doors & floor easily when the kids' paintbrushes dripped. Tyler painted a sun, flower, water, and a couple faces. Then he added some stripes. Danielle made a cross ("because Jesus died on the cross for us, you know"), and then copied most of Tyler's work. She did add a dolphin jumping out of her water, a monkey, and a giant "D". Later this afternoon the kids worked on their valentines for their parties at school. Tyler knocked his out in one sitting. I remember breaking them up into groups of 5 for him last year. It's amazing the difference a year can make. Danielle was excited she got to do some this year, too. I can't believe how nice her handwriting is. It's going to take a couple more sittings to get all of hers done, though.
Even later this afternoon Danielle was running around the house with an arrow she made out of some K'nex. When I took this, she had just declared she was an "indigan", which I thought was hilarious. Also, as I was trying to get her to say in the video, last night she informed me she could no longer use her princess pillow because it would give her freckles. When I asked what she meant, she said, "I mean it will give me chicken pops." Since "chicken pops" are pretty much a disease of the past, I didn't realize she even knew what those were. Even so, it was pretty funny.
This started as a way to document the amusing antics of our 2 & 4 year old children several years ago. It has evolved into a great forum for keeping grandparents, friends, and other relatives involved in our daily lives. It is also a good place for me to share what is important in our lives, and to document those things I want to be sure I don't forget.
Today we took the kids to see Disney's Princesses on Ice. We had a really nice time. Tyler wasn't overly impressed, but I don't think he was miserable, either. (Ron promised him they'd go to a monster truck rally sometime, so that made it a little easier for him to tolerate all the "girly" stuff.) Danielle was especially excited that she was allowed to wear her Sleeping Beauty dress in public! As expected, Danielle was in awe through most of the show.
I guess the inside out pajamas worked this time. School was cancelled today and Tyler got to enjoy another snow day. It snowed, sleeted, rained, sleeted, and is currently snowing again. Maybe next time he can just turn his top or bottoms inside out and not both so we don't get quite so much winter weather all at once. 
horizon. It's just taking awhile to get here.
aquarium was having a family special offering free kid's admission. We had a really great time!
This eel was very cool...and huge! You can see his face & tail in the 2 pi
ctures.
Tyler was thrilled to hear that school was cancelled today due to the snow & freezing rain. Danielle was pretty excited preschool was cancelled, too. Once the temperature climbed above 20, we ventured out for a few minutes. It started to rain while we were out, so we didn't get a lot of time to play outside, but the kids made the most of it.
Tyler has been wanting to go bowling lately. He had such a wonderful week at school this week that we thought it would be a nice treat for him (and Danielle) if we went bowling this weekend. The kids have only gone bowling once before today, and that was almost 2 years ago. We had a good time, but the kids agreed it's not at all like bowling on the Wii.
o did best. :)
After looking through one of my kid's craft books this afternoon, Tyler decided he wanted to make a homemade marble run out of cardboard tubes. We gathered a few empty toilet paper rolls, a paper towel roll, and pulled the leftover Christmas wrapping paper off a couple big rolls, confiscated Ron's duct tape, grabbed some scissors, and found some marbles.
ifferent spots around the house. 
and you're looking for a little excitement? Why, you celebrate silly "holidays", of course. Today we celebrated Danielle's 1/2 birthday. She is exactly halfway between 4 and 5. 
half the birthday song). It really was a fun way to add a little excitement to an ordinary day. Plus, it was something she and Tyler actually looked forward to all week.
Today I let the kids decorate our sliding glass doors. It has been so gloomy out lately, but their artwork really brightened up the kitchen!
Tempera paint is washable anyway, but I read that if you add a little dish detergent to it it will make the paint even easier to clean up. I haven't tried to clean their pictures off the windows yet, but it did wipe up off the frame of the doors & floor easily when the kids' paintbrushes dripped.
Later this afternoon the kids worked on their valentines for their parties at school. Tyler knocked his out in one sitting. I remember breaking them up into groups of 5 for him last year. It's amazing the difference a year can make. Danielle was excited she got to do some this year, too. I can't believe how nice her handwriting is. It's going to take a couple more sittings to get all of hers done, though.
