Just Another Typical Day

I am enjoying summer vacation with my boys so far. Here we are making faces at the camera on the ipod (that we inherited from Heather).

Ephraim trying to raise one eyebrow while I capture it.

 

 Look at that upper tooth coming in!

At the park, Gabriel is such a great climber. He is so proud that he beat an 8-year-old to the top, twice! Ephraim is there at the bottom of this photo. He made it most of the way up and back too. He only climbed down prematurely to try to catch up to brother who had already moved on.

Gabriel found one of our cats napping on my bed and decided to read her the dinosaur book. So sweet! He loved that when he pointed at each dinosaur, she batted at the pages and was "attacking" the dinosaurs.

Fun Summer Days

I took the kids to the Jelly Belly Factory in Fairfield after Gabriel's last day of school last Friday. They loved it! Of course, what kid wouldn't love it being surrounded by so much candy!

 

 

 Fresh carrots from our garden!

Fingerpainting only lasts a short time on the paper. This time Ephraim happily painted tiger stripes on himself!!

 

The two new kittens are working out perfectly. The boys love having them around and I think it's a great learning opportunity. Ephraim is so sweet and loving. Gabriel is anxious to get them to sleep next to him. Both kids are finding new ways to play with and pet the cats. I missed having a cat around. Of course, there are a few downsides--like how helpful cats can be while trying to get something done like file old paperwork! :)

Date with the Charming Gabriel

My little Man of the House is almost 6 years old (in about 4 weeks). We get to go on a short date every Wednesday. This time I brought my camera and tried to take lots of pictures of my little charmer.

Cool in mom's sunglasses.

 Zombies together

 He won't make a straight face or smile for the camera.

 So I'll stick out my tongue too!

Hey, Little Star, How Are You Doing?

Yesterday, Monday, was a tough day, for some reason. Mondays are sometimes hard. Gabriel had a meltdown after school. We snuggled and he tearfully told me he hates school because kids tell on him all the time. Poor guy. Only two more days left of school. We decided to make it a party day. We stayed home from daycare and played together. Then we made cake with frosting (I had just bought it for Gabriel's birthday party next month, but I'll get new stuff). It was great! Happy boys!

The animal shelter across the street was having a Free Adoption day on Saturday. So since my Saturday was a complete disaster and disappointment, I went over just to see what they had. Heh. Famous last words! These two kitties (perhaps sisters?) were waiting for me. We picked them up today and they have been purring every since. Gabriel's smile couldn't be wider!

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Ephraim has been singing a lot lately. He let me capture a few songs. My favorite is his version of Twinkle, Twinkle. "Twinkle, Twinkle, little star. How are you doing? I'm fine."

Kindergarten Graduation!

Playing zombies coming out of the ground (toy hole) at grandma and grandpa's house.

On May 16, Gabriel lost his 4th tooth! The new adult tooth is already poking through.

 Sometimes we need our friends to help us eat dinner. :)

Thank you, again, Uncle Mike, for the zombies. They took over the Lego table, and Gabriel and Ephraim enjoyed building up walls to keep the zombies out of the rest of the city.

The day after Gabriel's fieldtrip to the Lawrence Hall of Science (May 23), where he made Slime and really enjoyed the day there, Gabriel had this conversation with me:
Gabriel: Mom, I want you to homeschool me today. I want to learn 5th grade stuff and you help me with the answers.
Me: Why do you want to learn 5th grade stuff?
Gabriel: Because I don’t want to be just a chunk of boy with nothing in his brain. (“duh,” implied)
...I think he's ready to graduate from Kindergarten!!

He got his cap and gown today and was bursting with happiness and wanted to wear it the rest of the day. The little ceremony will be Thursday, June 6, so the gown is going in my closet to hide and stay neat and clean until then.

Counting Up for Blast Off

Fingerpaints! I love to see each of their personalities come out when we paint--Gabriel is a quick chaotic mess, swirling the paint in the plate all together and smearing it onto the paper. Done! Ephraim timidly dips his fingertips in the paint and complains that it's on his fingers. Then once he gets used to it, he carefully dots the paper, and needs to wash his hands every minute in between papers. Ephraim painted himself there at the end (up to his elbows).

Our garden is doing extremely well. We love coming outside to pick and eat fresh snap peas (our favorite vegetable). We've eaten our first head of lettuce and a couple of batches of swiss chard. The potato plants are huge and flowering. The tomato plants are getting taller and the second batch of lettuce is growing fast.

Gabriel takes a while to fall asleep in his room, so Ephraim and I wind down our day together in the front room and he usually falls asleep on the couch (then I carry him to bed after I'm sure Gabriel is asleep). However, here are some fun positions and places Ephraim has slept in this week! (what do you do with your legs when they are sooooo long?!)

 

Between mom's office chair on wheels and a house covered in hardwood floors, we have a GREAT time! There are skid marks on the walls in the hallway where Gabriel has propelled himself and gone flying on the wheeled chair. Ephraim likes to do it while on my lap. He pushes off a wall and I help us go sailing across the room where we "crash" into the opposite wall and do it all again. Ephraim is doing his countdown (really a count-UP) and I thought it was a good time to catch him counting for the camera.

Artists

Gabriel found the classical guitar again and set up his lightsaber as a microphone. Ephraim brought in a little chair to be his audience. So cute!

This is Ephraim's drawing of a Jedi and two suns (because there are two suns in the movie). The thing under the second sun was suppose to be a sun, but I don't think it was round enough for him, so he decided it was a boat.

Gabriel drew a group of ninjas. Who taught this kid to do block letters?!