3 Years Old!!

 How did this tiny baby

turn into this big 3 year old?? 

In the blink of an eye he went from being so little and my "baby" to this big boy who talks and plays and makes us laugh and is still a good cuddler--and is going to start preschool in a month!

-Posing with his favorite animal--the giraffe!

-Favorite color: Red

-Favorite foods: chicken nuggets and yogurt

-Loves animals (always trying to hug and hold his grandparents' dogs or any other animal he sees), music (dances and sings and enjoys playing the piano at my parents' house), and his big brother (wants to do everything that Ethan does)

-Can ride the tricycle and is mostly potty-trained (need to work on no-accidents for preschool) and still slept really well in his crib (not even climbing out) until the last month when we decided to transition to a "big boy" bed.  The transition has gone well--except he's started waking up earlier!

-Has totally figured out how to play games on my phone and also enjoys playing rough and tumble type games with his dad and brother (like steam-roller)

-Likes playing cars and trains with Ethan

-Is full of energy and can be a trouble-maker at times--but he's sure a cutie!

Happy Birthday Grant!!  We love you!!

Summer--week 8 & 9

We had so much fun with transportation week that we extended it for another week! 

During these 2 weeks we:

-played with boats

trains, cars and rode bikes!

-raced dump trucks in a backyard obstacle course, flew paper airplanes, and played with machines in our "construction site" (sandbox)

-went on a "train" ride in our family room (even with tickets and suitcases!) making "stops" at places like the beach, the jungle, South Dakota and Texas!

-played the alphabet game, "We're going on a trip and taking an Apron, Bean bags, Cookies, D..." (you take turns adding a word on and have to remember everything that's already been said)

-Ethan used these train worksheets to practice writing letters

-went to the zoo and rode the train and also rode the train at Belleview Park. 

There's a petting zoo at the park too!  And a little creek you can wade in!

We also went to Littleton Museum--a historical museum showing farms from the 1860s and 1890s (with animals, farm houses, a blacksmith, and a little lake).  It was pretty neat--and free!



Our books for transportation week were:

-Friday My Radio Flyer Flew by Zachary Pullen

-Job Site by Nathan Clement
-School Bus by Donald Crews

-Freight Train by Donald Crews

-I'm a Monster Truck by Dennis R. Shealy

-Terrific Trains by Tony Mitton and Ant Parker

-The Three Little Rigs by David Gordon
-Subway by Christoph Niemann

-The Old Blue Pickup Truck by Candice F. Ransom

-The Seals on the Bus by Lenny Hort
-I'm a Truck Driver by Jonathan London

-A Plane Goes Ka-zoom by Jonathan London

-Roadwork by Sally Sutton

-I Am A Backhoe by Anna Grossnickle Hines

Summer-week 7

Bug Week!!  My boys (especially Ethan) loved this--since they love all things bug related!  Ethan even calls himself a "bug expert"!  About a month ago, Ethan actually assigned each family member 3 different bugs they needed to find (either dead or alive).  He gave Grant easy ones like roly-poly and lady bug, but Jon lucked out and was supposed to find a black widow!  Thankfully we haven't seen one of those around! 

Here's a couple of neat facts we learned this week:
-only female mosquitoes bite humans, the males eat plants
-roly-poly bugs are actually crustaceans (like lobsters, etc) and keep a little water under their shell and have gills

The activities we did this week were:

-Made egg carton caterpillars.  Use the bottom part of an empty egg carton and cut into strips of 3 of more, turn it upside down--so the caterpillar has a bumpy back--and paint or color with markers or crayons.  Add googly eyes (or draw them on) and pipe-cleaner antennae. 

-Went on 2 nature walks/hikes.  We saw quite a few bugs--but too hard to get pictures of them!  One hike we went to Barr Lake State Park (where they also do story-time for toddler/preschool age on the 1st Tues. of each month).  Our other hike was at Devil's Head up to the Lookout Tower.  This was a great hike!  Ethan (at 5) was able to walk it all himself, however we did have to carry Grant (almost 3) in the backpack carrier at least half the time.  We liked getting to the top and being able to climb up to the fire lookout tower.  You have a 360 degree view of the Pike National Forest--beautiful!  

                                         We hiked with Grandpa and Grandma!

At the lookout tower!

-Of course a bug week wouldn't be complete without a trip to the Butterfly Pavillion!  We enjoyed watching some new butterflies be released and Grant even held Rosie (the tarantula).

That's a butterfly on Ethan's head!

-Danced to the Flight of the Bumblebees (look on Youtube) and found this other bug song/video my boys thought was cool.

-Made bug collages with pictures from National Geographic magazines

-Sang/acted out other bug songs--Itsy, Bitsy Spider and The Ants Go Marching

Other fun things we could have done:
-Butterfly footprints--paint footprints (spread out like wings) on a paper and then decorate to look like a butterfly
-Flying bugs--cut wings from tissue paper, put a twisty tie around for the body, then blow on them and they will "fly"
-Draw insect habitats (bee hive, ant hill, spider web, etc) and either draw the bugs in their habitat or use bug stickers (I found some at the dollar store)

We found lots of bug books!
-Beetle Bop by Denise Fleming
-The Very Lonely Firefly by Eric Carle
-The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle
-I Love Bugs by Emma Dodd
-The Very Busy Spider by Eric Carle
-Flying Mosquitoes by Janet Piehl
-Monarch Butterfly by Edana Eckart
-Busy Ants by Kristin Nelson
-Diary of a Fly by Doreen Cronin
-Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
-Ladybug Girl by David Soman
-The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in its Pants by
There were a few other non-fiction bug books that were too long to actually read to my boys, but we looked at the pictures.

Summer-week 6

This is later than usual--but our theme for last week was USA in honor of the 4th of July!  It was a busy week but lots of fun too! 

We talked about the flag and the reason we celebrate the 4th of July.

We made kool-aid fireworks paintings (do this outside so it doesn't stain--sprinkle kool-aid powder on paper and move ice over it to create a picture)

We also went to a library activity to "paint with the unusual"--combs, forks, scrub brushes, etc. 

(not sure what's up with the kooky eyes--he makes such weird faces when posing anymore!)

The boys marched with their instruments around the house to patriotic music.  Jon's a good dad who joins in too!

And we decorated their bikes and had a bike parade (as part of our 4th of July festivities) along with a squirt-gun fight! 

We also enjoyed a visit to the Museum of Nature and Science with some friends--and played in the adjacent splash pad!

The library was fairly picked over on 4th of July books (or maybe there just aren't that many).  But, our books this week were:

-Fourth of July by Lynda Sorensen

-Holidays by Luana Mitten

-Fourth of July Mice by Bethany Roberts

-How to Bake an American Pie by Karma Wilson

-Fourth of July Bear by Kathryn Lasky