day at our playground

as you can see on this very pretty day the weather was just really great so we decided to go to our park to play for a while. we ended up staying there for almost 3 hrs! but the kids were just having so much fun!





this is what the park looks like. and this in the flower bed right next to it. Andrew loves to pick me weed-flowers, (and cause they're weeds, I let him) but I still have to make sure he doesnt attack the flower bed flowers!

it's been a long time since Andrew was willing to play on the playground. he use to be scared of them. but not anymore!

and boy-oh-boy do they love the SLIDE!

they will just go down that slide... again...

... and again... and again...again

Catch the FROGS!

When we first went laurel Creek and saw that there were frogs and minose and stuff I decided that we would have to come back sometime to capture some wild life and do some observing. So I went to the dollarama store and got 2 butterfly nets (1 pink, 1 blue) and got 2 tall kitchen containers to use as observation jars. We went back to Laurel Creek, filled the jars with water and caught 7 minose, 9 frogs and 1 snail. I did do a lot of the catching, but it was really fun observing them in our containers.

We even got some attention from some members of the rowing team that was setting up there.

even thow Amanda really loved them, she didn't put up a fight when I told her we would have to put them back when we were done looking at them. I let her be in charge of that. she really loved picking each one up 1 at a time and putting them back in the water. some of them wouldn't jump out of her hand and she had to pat them on the head to get them to jump away.

we also got to observe some snake skins. we found 2 of them. (ew! I hate snakes!!) but Amanda likes them.

we then had a picnic. yummy!

we played pick-a-boo and hide and go seek

then Amanda wanted to have a race, so she and Andrew ran back and forth over and over again.

"I WIN!!"

Captain Amanda!

Rub-adub-dub 2 kids in a tub doing what they autent do!

We bought this big boat for playtime in the swimming pool and I don’t know WHY but Amanda always wants to sit on it, and then have Andrew sit on it and then they rock on it like a horse? So weird.

As you can see, Andrew doesn’t always like to be on Amanda’s ship. And Amanda chewing on a cookie there too.

The imagination of a child

I was picking up toys and came across this set up from a previous pretend playtime from Amanda, and it just made me smile and giggle. Isn’t it fun to play and imagine like a child! What a world that is!

Here’s what I’m thinking, the next time you feel like you “need a vacation” go to TOYSRUS and buy YOURSELF a toy, got to the park for the while, or your room to have some quite time with your new toy and I think you would feel a lot better afterwards.

I'm out of here!

Ever since we got on the plane to come out here Andrew’s been very interested in the idea of packing up and leaving. He grabs hats and my purse and anything else he can carry and books it for the door all the time! As if to say “well, I’ve had it with this place, I’m going back to TX, SEE YA!”

We finally got him this itty bitty rolling bag when we came back here the second time and he looked SO cute walking thru the airport with his own little rolly bag. It was so funny and cute, he certainly made heads turn and smile at him.

Posters

before we came out here I made a bunch of poster signs showing rules or attitudes I wanted to make sure were happening in our home. I made them on my computer, printed them out and laminated them so we could post, take down, and repost them without getting them ruined, or the walls. Some of them are pictures from the FRIEND magazine from the church. We posted them around the hotel room using tape to make the place feel more like home.
this is the "the Living Christ", we got this from the FRIEND, I was so happy it has all the pretty pictures of Jesus on it. We have some more pictures I grought with us from my GAK from home, and it really dose make it feel more like HOME when we have all these pictures of Christ around our home. it makes me happy! and I want my kids to see His face more anyhow, they need to know who He is.

this one I made, it says "If YOU make a MESS... YOU clean it up and be Happy!"

this is our TV time poster. I made it with some of amandas favorite TV characters on it so she could help me understaind what certain shows she was asking to watch. I made it so you can take off the "TV time" stickers. this is still a work and progress system with her but the idea is so she can understaind she cant watch TV ALL day, she gets this amouth of shows or show-time. she loses TV time when she watches TV or acts badly, and if she wanted to earn TV time back she has to do something nice for me, or a chore.

I made this thinking we could study the stares sometime. havent done it yet, but it's a fun idea.

I made this one too, it says "NO fighting! SHARE the toys and play NICE! if you are BAD you go to TIME OUT"

this came from the church magazine, I put it on pink paper. it says 'Respect Yourself" I just like using it to show amanda that this is how we look when we are all playing nicely, we're happy.

these are just some movment-stories things to do.

this is a list of things we can do on SUNDAY! Amandas teacher made this at church and I've always wanted one so insted of making mine own I just laminated hers. it's a great list!

we put this on the bathroom door. in new places all the time I didn't want amanda to be in a hurry to get to the restroom and not know which room it was.

I made this for Amanda to help remind her all the steps to brushing her teeth. this one works out for her very well! she likes to follow all the steps by her self and doesnt like for me to help her with it.

Our very 1st hotel room when we got here

So sorry that this is not even very relevant now, but I JUST got my computer files all figured out and now I’m able to figure out what I’ve posted and haven’t. this is what our very first hotel room looked like. It was on the second floor (lots of foot noise) and we weren’t there for very long.
this is the living room, this is where the kids slept. you can see the small desk in the back. thats where I worked. there was a fireplace, I would put the coffee tables infront of that so the kids coudlnt touch it. and that served as my diaper changing station too.

I didn't get a picture of the whole kitchen, but it was very small. very very small! like your looking at the fridge, and the sink in the corner, to the next to that was the stove and that was IT!

this closet off the ground was ment for storing extra stuff like suitcases, but I turned it into a playing area for the kids. you can see all the toys on the floor and our family rules and kid activity posters posted up around the door.

the bathroom was nice. it have a very big tub to wash the kids in and the counter had lots of storing space. as you can see we could always use some more storing space, so much stuff!

this was my room. our bed - theres derick, and our very small closet and desser chest. but we have a TV, that was kind of nice. not much to watch on TV here. but we did play a lot of wii games after putting the kids to sleep and that was fun!

How do you FEEL today?

I made this little sign to use to help communicate to Andrew and Amanda about their feelings and the feelings of others. I put it up and while I was walking around taking pictures Amanda said, "hey mom, take a picture of me!" and without even so much as an instruction hint from me, she stepped under each face, mimicked the face, I would take a picture and then she moved to the next face! it cracked me up!

What’s up?

It’s a cold raining day, it’s a good day to blog. I’m very grateful for the view outside my window. I face part of a yellow brick house, but if I move my computer all the way to the end (like I do) then I can look up into part of this very large maple tree. Trees are such a therapeutic thing for me. I am always happier looking into a tree and watching the limbs and leaves sway. Labor day was Monday and everyone started school the very next day. But it’s been cold and raining on and off since Saturday. Ooh, there goes a couple of squirrels running across the fence outside my window. Did you know they have BLACK squirrels here? They’re BIG too! The first time I saw one I thought it was a small cat. They have light brown ones too but overall, they’re bigger here then I remember them being in TX. I guess not everything is bigger in TX eh?