Family Projects for Reed's TK class

When we had parent orientation in September for Reed's transitional kindergarten class one of the things they told us about was that each month there would be a family craft project. It would relate back to what they would be teaching in school the coming month and it should be something all the members of the family contribute to. For the most part we enjoyed working on these projects. Usually we would get the assignment and I would search Pinterest for some ideas, show Reed the pictures, and he would pick an idea (or combination of ideas) for us all to execute. We made sure Kieran worked on at least a little of each project but to be honest his attention span didn't last very long. My only complaint about the family projects were sometimes we were given them on Monday or Tuesday and had to turn them in by Thursday. This is a pretty fast turn around for families with working parents, kids in after school activities, and/or kids with homework - all three of which apply to us. Add the fact that we live in a small town with the nearest craft store about 30 minutes away and we definitely had to get "creative" sometimes. Looking back it was a good experience and not something we would have made time to do as a family otherwise.

Easter Prep

The week before Easter was a busy one. Our friends, Shannon and Bri, organized a get together in a local park with our Kingsburg friends. They made Easter buckets for each of the kids and ordered pizza. We all brought a side dish and some eggs to hide and spent a few hours hanging out and letting the kids practice their egg hunting skills. Everyone had a great time and all of the families were actually able to attend.

Since Reed was on spring break and Kieran's activity groups were off as well, we had time at home to do some egg decorating and lots of baking in preparation for Sunday. Auntie Amanda found neat faux eggs that you can dye and the boys had a great time decorating them.

 

Kieran Says Winter 2017 Edition

Kieran is definitely the comedian of the boys. He'll do anything for a laugh and also loves a good chuckle himself. His favorite books are the funny ones and if he gets a laugh when he does something once, you know he'll probably do it a hundred more times.

His catch phrases lately have been "isn't that cuckoo?" "the strategy is . . ." "my suggestion is" and when he gets going on a story he'll throw "like" in almost every other word. He is definitely Reed's parrot and will use words he isn't sure of if he hears his big brother use them. Here are some of my favorite things he's said over the last few months. 

Kieran - "Mom I saw something dangerous."
Me - "What was it?"
Kieran - "Those adults were eating yogurt while they were walking up the stairs!!!"

I was freezing one morning and asked Kier if he was cold. He looked at me, shrugged his shoulders and said "my Billy isn't chilly."

On a particularly pill-buggy morning I told him that he had woken on the wrong side of the bed to which he grumpily replied "no I didn't, there's a wall on the other side of my bed."

K usually recovers from falls or injuries pretty quickly but he took a spill and I could tell it really hurt him. I asked if he wanted to cuddle "for a minute" and through tears he said "maybe two."

We were having our weekly Starbucks date when Kieran started pointing out the window and shouting "someone did something really bad." I quickly glanced to see what horror he had witnessed to find someone hadn't cleared their table outside and had left their trash all over. He got a chuckle out of the woman sitting next to us who agreed people need to have better manners.

When Kieran got super sick on our Portland trip he woke up really hungry and started chowing down on oatmeal. I made him stop even though he wanted more, because I wanted to see how his stomach handled it. I told him he could have more in 15 minutes if he didn't throw up. He told me "but oatmeal is kind of like throw-up."

The Bug noticed a handicap picture on a table we were sitting at. He got super excited and started pointing at it exclaiming "look mom, she's pooping!!!"

On the car ride to Reed's school one morning K declared that "boys have penises so I think what girls have is call highnesses."

I was carrying Kieran to bed when he started patting my tummy and then asked "are you going to have a baby? It sure feels like it!"

March 2017 Celebrations

We managed to fit three different celebrations into the month of March. Two for C and one for Great Papa Dean. We were out of town for Clara's princess party earlier in the month and the boys are still a little bummed they missed out. On C's actual Birthday we went over to her house for pizza and cupcakes with Nonna. Pepe was out of town so the following weekend Sunday dinner turned into a second Birthday party and Gran, Papa, and Aunt Di Di were able to join us. C is one of the boys' favorite people and I'm pretty sure not even two Birthday parties is enough for them to celebrate her the way they'd like!!!

Last week Uncle Mark and Aunt Penny hosted a family Birthday dinner for Great Papa Dean's 89th Birthday. He has been a bit under the weather the last few weeks so everyone was happy that he rallied and was able to celebrate his Birthday with us. The boys and I made chocolate cupcakes for the group. It was a new recipe and called for pureed avocado. The kids thought that this secret ingredient was hilarious and couldn't wait to tell everyone. Unfortunately I made the mistake of saying the batter looked like poop when we were mixing it together and Kieran decided that he should let everyone at the party in on our secret ingredient and then announced that it was poop!!! Thank goodness Reed was quick to correct K and then spent a while explaining his Birthday drawing to Great Grandma Didi and Great Papa Dean.