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?!

Meat Makes Muscles

Ephraim used to have trouble eating his meat, so I used to say that it would give him muscles. He eats very well now and usually needs to show me after each bite how big his muscles are getting! 

Great Grandpa Gunn and his wife Betty came for a visit on Saturday afternoon. It was relaxing to catch up a little and have the kids meet them (and vice versa).

Gabriel got the camera for a bit and took a great picture of me watering our garden with Ephraim by my side. 

We had a friend over for dinner the other day. He is about 6 months older than Ephraim. Gabriel really enjoyed being the oldest one and proudly showed him around. Gabriel "read" books to them, including "Where the Wild Things Are" which he told in his own words.

Catching Up with Big News

I need to catch up with my blog--so much has happened in the last few weeks!

Easter came and went. The kids had a cold, so we didn't do much. I put candy in a few eggs and hid them around the house for the kids. The fun part was immediately afterwards when they took turns hiding eggs for each other. 

 

Then I got hit with the worst flu/cold combination I've ever had. Ugh! I was useless for two days straight (and I'm still trying to get rid of this sore throat). We all snuggled in the morning sunshine, it was wonderful.

Thank goodness we had a week off of school for Easter break. We needed that whole week to fully recover! They are so cute passed out on the couch.

On Wednesday, April 10 (happy birthday, Mike!), we had gorgeous weather! It was practically hot. So after I picked the kids up from daycare, we had a picnic dinner in our backyard, home-grown snap peas included! We currently have started tomatoes, more snap peas, carrots, swiss chard, and potatoes in our garden.

BIG NEWS #1 Ephraim is potty trained!!!
No more diapers for us! Last Tuesday, April 9, he wanted to wear big boy underwear. I explained (once again) what that meant. He tried to negotiate putting the exciting train underwear OVER his diapers, but I wouldn't yield. He agreed to go in the potty. He tried again the next day... and the next. Each day was a great success! After he went poop in the potty (supposed to be the hardest part of training), I gave him the promised toy--a Lego figure. He's ecstatic that it was a pirate! He is so proud of himself and deserves to be. "I free year old. I big boy!"

 

BIG NEWS #2  Gabriel lost his third tooth!
Gabriel's two front teeth have been slightly wiggly for a while now. Sunday morning, he bit into something and cried out in pain. It started gushing blood! After the blood stopped, he tried to eat again, but his tooth got caught and it was hanging by a thread. Mom had to yank it out (with more blood). After we all calmed down, I took a picture because it was quite exciting! This is the first tooth that he lost that we could put under his pillow (the first two got lost and swallowed). Ironically, after he went to bed last night, Gabriel ripped open the envelope to the Tooth Fairy and hid his tooth in his Lego treasure chest. I had a moral debate with the Tooth Fairy whether she should still leave a prize if there was no tooth for her. In the end, she left something. Gabriel explained to me that he really wanted to keep his tooth because it is HIS, he is fascinated and loves looking at it.

Favorite Photos

My mom just gave me some photos that were taken with their camera over the last few months. These are my favorites! The first three were taken at my brother's house last month.

By far, my favorite... so sweet!

We need one of these...

 Climbin' monkey!

The spider birthday cake that my dad made for E's birthday.

 Gabriel likes to play school with Ephraim and grandma while at grandma and grandpa's house.

 My precious snugglers!

Shower Time

The other day Gabriel helped me pump the gas into the van and a guy in his early 20s pointed out how Gabriel will be driving before I know it. I am happy to wait, but time sure flies. Two days ago, Gabriel said, "I want to try taking a shower, mom. I want to practice being a grown-up." So instead of his usual bath with his brother, Gabriel got to shower with supervision. He loved it!! We called Heather and he was so excited to share the good news. So tonight, I suggested it again and Gabriel enthusiastically tested the water and hopped in the shower. He shampooed his own hair and used a washcloth to wash himself. As he was rinsing off, he said, "Mom, how small or big do I look? 10? Do I look 10, mom?"

Oh, sweetie, slow down!