Pow! Bam! Whamo! Superman!!!

Zayit has been begging to paint his room.  He has been very specific in his request: he wants a "Pow! Bam! Whamo! Superman" room.  I've been trying to ignore his requests thinking he would just forget.  Its always amazing to me how a 4 year old can remember things... when he wants to.  Being in a rental makes it a bit difficult to feel at home.  All our walls are blah.  We don't have any decorations up and most anything that makes our home feel like a home is in a box our garage.  He has asked so many times, that finally I caved.  I called our landlord and got permission to paint his room.

It took a couple of weekends, but he is THRILLED with the end result...

And now Ziva wants hers done...

Rainy Days and H.O.T. Days

We have been experiencing some VERY hot days here!  On the days it's not miserably hot, it rains.  Most of the time, the rain comes in quick storms and is gone as quickly as it came.  We try and get outside as much as possible to run our wiggles away, but sometimes, you just have to be creative with indoor play.  

Fort time with our neighbor friend... dumped out all our insects, dinosaurs, zoo animals, jungle animals and used our imaginations...

The thunder storms have been so frequent and loud that both kids are now a bit frightened, yet intrigued, when they happen.  

Life is full of all sorts of new experiences... looking forward to many many more!  

A Year Later....

It's been just about a year since I've blogged.  I miss it.  I think about it almost daily but have trouble finding the time to sit down and write.  It's time now.  I'm going to try again.  Zayit and Ziva have grown up so much in the last year.  We've done so much in the last year.  Where to start?!??

In January, we moved.  Not just a little move... more like the 1000+ mile move.  We moved to the South.  Yup... that's right y'all.  We live in North Carolina.  WOW!  Life is different, but at the same time, very similar.  We miss our family and friends back home in Connecticut but we are having a blast making new ones here!

Last night we had an amazingly awesome thunder storm come through at dinner time.  We were lucky - our power didn't go out.  Some of our friends weren't so lucky.  But we turned the disappointment of no power and icky humidity indoors into an unexpected play time in rain puddles with our friends who were 'in the dark.'

So, this is my start.  I will be back.  I will blog more.

First Painting Experience

I haven't posted in a long time... 3 months in fact.  I've been busy enjoying my time with Zayit and Ziva.  I thought I should probably get back to writing about my Littles since I really don't keep any other sort of recording of events for them.  We have had such a wonderful summer filled with all sorts of activities: farm visits, the zoo, painting, water play, playing with oatmeal, berry picking, finding interest in bugs/insects... the list goes on.

A couple months ago, I thought it was time to introduce Ziva to painting.  I've been afraid to let her paint because she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth!  Anything we do has to be safe for her, which makes things a bit challenging at times.  I had to get creative with this one because I don't know of any edible paint out there (we did finger painting a while back, but I wanted something she could use a brush with this time).  Condensed milk to the rescue!  I used some food coloring to color the condensed milk and an ice cube tray as our palette.  We took our goodies and headed outside... this was NOT going to happen in my house!

Zayit and Ziva had a blast with their paint.  Zayit thought it was cool that he could lick his fingers if they got dirty.  Ziva's attention span was roughly 5 minutes - which was impressive for her.  When she was done, she was done.  She picked up her tray of paint and headed in the other direction, sticky mess and all!

Teacher Appreciation Day

Happy Teacher Appreciation Day to everyone who teaches!  Zayit was so proud to present his teachers with their little gifts this morning.  He had the biggest smile as he carried his loot.  We had practiced saying "happy teacher appreciation day," and he had the "appreciation" part down, but it was hard for him.  When he walked up to them, he burst out "Miss Sheila and Miss Becky, I have presents for you!"  Soooooooo adorable!

What's in the jar?  A Starbucks gift card, chocolate truffles, a lip balm from The Honest Company (love those!) and a little note of thanks.  

It's Teacher Appreciation Week this week... make sure to thank those in your lives who teach all our Littles.  They have a very important job.  

Our Adventure-Filled Sunday

Every night I think of blogging.  I want to do it, but get side tracked.  Today was such a fun day for us, that I felt I needed to document it.  Nothing out of the ordinary, but I will want to remember today because of how it ended (among other things):

As we were walking up the stairs singing our "end of the day" song, Zayit turned to me and said "we had a lot of fun adventures today Mommi."  Wow... what a compliment!  My little 3 year old had a fun day and he was thanking me for it!  So much better than the tantrums we have been having as of late.

Now that the weather is warming up, it is so much easier to go outdoors.  Zayit's day started with a trip to the grocery store with Daddy.  I'm not really sure why, but he LOVES going to the grocery store.  Sometimes I will try and use it as an educational adventure - identifying different foods - but when he goes with Daddy, I have no idea what happens.  Today I got the report on the potty at the grocery store.  (ew!)  While the boys went grocery shopping, Ziva and I went outside to play ball and for a walk.  The kids across the street were having an impromptu egg hunt so we joined in.

Puggsley joined us in a game of ball

After our one-on-one time, I packed up both Littles and we headed to a new park/playground with 2 other neighborhood families.  We fed ducks, played on the jungle gym, swings and in the sandpit and came home exhausted and dirty.

Feeding the ducks

Sand pit!!!

 After a brief nap, back outside.  We invited the neighborhood kids over for a BBQ and then ended our day with a promised family ice cream outing.

I guess all it takes is some friends, dirt, water, food and ice cream to make a toddler happy!

Clovers, Rainbows and Pots of Gold

St Patrick's Day is coming!  Green, leprechauns, clovers, rainbows, Guinness (ok, well, that's for Mommi)... all sorts of fun ideas for crafts!  Over the last week or so, we've made a couple of crafts, attempted some clover cookies and put together a leprechaun hat.  Below are some of our adventures.

Rainbows of "colored cheerios," AKA Fruit Loops:  Zayit has never had Fruit Loops before and I was hoping that I might be able to get away with this craft without him discovering the wonderful world of sugared cereal.  Wishful thinking!  He now asks for colored cheerios to eat.  Oh well.  We had fun making our rainbows.  We did this one together while Ziva was napping.  It was a great bonding time for us - just the two of us sitting at the table, talking while creating our rainbows of colored cheerios and marshmallow clouds.  I think he did a pretty good job!

Our rainbow of goodies

Zayit's Rainbow - Extra Special!

Gluing on the first colored cheerio

Binoculars Mommi!

Shamrock Hand Prints:  Now, I can't take full credit for this one - Zayit did this at school, but it was so cute, I had to share.  

Clover Pretzel Cookies: We attempted this one immediately following the rainbows above.  Not a smart move on my part.  I think his attention span was long over.  Needless to say, they didn't come out quite like I thought they would, but I couldn't really focus on what we were doing either.  It was a contest to see how much melted candy the little dude could get in his mouth without me looking!  The idea is great and has a lot of potential, but I wasn't as prepared as I should have been.  If you try this, get all your pretzel shapes together BEFORE sitting down with your toddler!  Would have saved us all a lot of headache.  

These are mini pretzels, 3 to make the leaves and a broken one for the stem, "painted" with green melting candy.  It was a super fast and easy activity, but they would have looked better if the candy had been smoothed out before hardening again.  They taste yummy!  

Egg Carton Clovers: This one was fun!  I used an old egg carton and we made clovers.  Today was extra special because Aunti Shira was over to play.  She LOVES crafts.

Painting the clovers green

Adding some glitter glue and sequins

More glitter glue and sequins

The finished product!

We've also been reading There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed a Clover and we've been using printables from 3Dinasours to go along with the book.  If you haven't visited her site, it's worth checking out.  We often use her printables at the lunch table.  Zayit loves the matching and counting ones.

And Ziva's thoughts this week: