Marble Run

Boogs always enjoys playing with the marble run at Grandmaman’s house. So today, I thought I would make him one. I found instructions for making a cereal box marble run on this website:

http://madebyjoel.blogspot.com/2010/06/cereal-box-marble-run.html

We have enjoyed quite a few of the creations from this website. Boogs has asked if he could paint his cereal box to make it look faster. Yea, we now have a craft for tomorrow…painting!

Water Week

Last week seemed to have been water week for us. We played in a creek, got soaked in a park's grass-watering sprinklers, went to a sprinkler park, had two swim playdates, and ended the week with a waterslide at a friend's birthday party. Yesterday, Boogs went swimming with his daddy at Memorial Pool. We are definitely feeling the summer heat.

Dinner menu

While we were driving home from a friend's house this afternoon, Boogs put in his ideas for his dinner menu tonight. He asked, "Could I please have a nice, cool salad for dinner. It should have fresh baby spinach leaves, broccoli, and crisp carrots, some croutons and sunflower seeds, with the whole salad covered in Italian dressing. I would like to have some scrumptious strawberries for my fruit and some homemade chicken nuggets. Would you make that for me, Momma? Oh and can I have some yogurt covered raisins for dessert, please." I love it when he knows what he wants to eat and actually eats it. He is such a sweet boy.

Austin Science and Nature Center

The other day, Boogs and I went to the Austin Science and Nature Center. Boogs was really interested in looking at the insect collections and seeing things (flea, tick, weed, dirt) in the microscope. He also liked guessing what was in the "feely" boxes.

Outside there are a couple of trails. I would not recommend going on them when it is almost 100 degrees outside. Boogs spent a little bit of time playing in the dinosaur sand pit. It is a lot like the sand pit at Champion Park, but Champion Park is shaded. 

Boogs spent most of our time in the creek. He never fell in, but when he squatted down to look at some minnows, he soaked the seat of his shorts. After that, I told him he could get as wet as he wanted because we were going to have to change his clothes anyway. Luckily, I had an extra set of clothes. It was very amusing when he squawked at a bird and the bird walked closer to answer him. The bird stayed a few feet away from Boogs for almost 5 minutes. 

There are several animals kept in outdoor cages and smaller animals kept in indoor cages. I think Boogs' favorite animal was the coyote.

We left the center and then had lunch at Magnolia Cafe. Boogs wanted to know why there was not a salad on the kid's menu. He ordered a salad and asked the waiter to make sure they put extra croutons on the salad. The waiter said they did not have croutons. Boogs was very upset by that news. They were very nice at the cafe and cut up some toasted bread for croutons. Boogs loved them. We had a really nice day together.

Fitness update

Well we are three weeks out from my husband's first bodybuilding competition. He is working on getting his body fat percentage down so that his muscles will really show. It is working because you could do a charcoal rubbing of his oblique abs for an anatomy lesson. He has been putting in a lot of work at the gym and on posing for the competition.

I have been running since January. And now I have signed up for a half marathon and a warrior dash race. Last weekend I ran nine and a half miles. While looking at some training programs for "First Marathon Training", I noticed that my mileage is right on track for 18 weeks from a full marathon. Well, it is 17 weeks until my half marathon and I can switch it to a full up until two weeks before the race. I think I am going to train for a full marathon just to see if I can do it. The good thing is that there is no pressure. My goal this year is just to complete a half marathon. The extra training can't hurt. I am still at the gym three days a week and have a yoga class once a week. For my husband and I, 2010 is our "Year of Fitness".

Mayborn Museum

We went to Waco with my friend and her four children to visit the Castle Lego exhibit at the Mayborn Museum. This is a fantastic museum for kids. We were there for almost four hours. Boogs really enjoyed dressing up in costumes and playing with his friend, "B". One exhibit room had a hula hoop on a pulley system so you could pull a soap bubble all the way over your body. Boogs had the longest bubble out of all the kids. The kids spent the most time in the Lego Castle room and the pioneer room. It was a lot of fun. Waco now has a Chuy's restaurant, so Boogs was able to get some creamy jalapeno dip. I think that made his day complete. I forgot my camera. All of these semi-blurry photos were taken with my phone.

Alphabet Monday Preschool Camp

Monday preschool camp was all about the alphabet. We read Pilobous - The Human Alphabet.  The kids loved trying to figure out the letters and pictures in the book. We tried to make a few letters with our own bodies. Boogs and his friend are making a lowercase letter "b".

We made pretzels for our cooking activity. Boogs had a lot of fun rolling his dough into shapes. We tried to make a few letters, but the most popular shape was a snake.

We read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and made coconut trees for our craft. The kiddos got to cut letters out of the newspaper and use stamps to put on their very own Chicka Chicka Boom Boom trees.

I think the Alphabet Movement Cards were the biggest hit today. Each child got to throw a bean bag at the alphabet and then we all had to do the activity for that letter. They played this for at least half an hour.

It was a fun day. We ended up in the backyard playing in the water for the last hour of our day.

Catching Up

On Friday, we went to Belton to visit friends. Boogs and "B" get along very well. This visit they got into the dress-up box. Of course the box is only filled with dress-up clothes for girls. Boogs and "B" had a great time modeling their outfits for us. My favorite is the one with boots and bunny ears.

Saturday was a family day. My husband hung around the house with Boogs while I went to the gym and to a yoga class. Then we traded and he went to the gym. The boys ended up going to the swimming pool late in the afternoon. Boogs let me know that I was NOT invited because it was a "just the boys" outing.

Sunday, I went for a run at 6:30 in the morning. It was my longest run to date - 8.5 miles. I made it back home in time to get Boogs ready for a friend's birthday party at Milburn pool. The family rented out the entire pool from 10 am to noon for the party. We all had a lot of fun.

Boogs latest thing is to talk about his favorite thing each day just before we finish our bedtime routine. He used to ask, "What are you going to dream about?" I am glad he stopped doing that because I was running out of things to say. It is really sweet that a lot of the time he mentions "reading and snuggling with momma" as his favorite thing of the day. I hope this phase lasts for a loooooong time.

Children’s Day Art Park

On Wednesday, Boogs and I were supposed to meet a few friends at the light rail station and take a train to downtown Austin for Children's Day Art Park. Boogs was excited about riding the light rail train for the first time. We got to the station and bought our ticket and THEN found out that there had been a train derailment earlier and the light rail was not running. When our friends got there, we decided to change our adventure to a bus ride downtown instead of a train ride. It took a little convincing, but eventually Boogs was okay with this. He was tired today and he does not like loud noises when he is tired, so the concert part of the Art Day was not a hit with him. He did enjoy the storyteller. He really wanted to get his face painted, so we stood in line for that for about 45 minutes. After all that waiting, Boogs decided to just get a skull painted on his arm. We went with our friends to Hickory Street for lunch before catching the express bus back to our car. It was a fun way to spend the day. I promised Boogs that we will get to ride the light rail sometime this summer.  We did not make it home until 3 pm and I was worn out by then. We had a nice quiet evening and early bedtime.

Sea World

We went on our first family trip to a big theme park on Tuesday. Whew! Now I remember why we don’t go often…all of the waiting! It took us over an hour just to purchase our tickets, 20 minutes in line for bag check, and then some ride lines were almost two hours long. Boogs had a good time and was very patient about all of the waiting. We asked him what he liked best at Sea World and he kept giving different answers – the shows, the rollercoaster, the water rides. He seemed to like everything. It was a long, hot day but also very fun to watch Boogs explore the park. I am amazed that Boogs went on the Atlantis water ride. It has a huge drop and he was scared during the ride but said he would do it again. Brave boy!

Monday Preschool Camp

Our theme today stemmed from the book How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman. It is a cute book about a little girl traveling the world to get the ingredients to make an apple pie. I told the kids we were going to make an apple pie using a recipe in a story book. They were so excited. As we read the book, the kids took turns placing red “apple” circles on our world map to show all the places the girl in our story visited. Three and four year olds saying “Sri Lanka” is priceless.

We had fun in the kitchen. Six little hands worked together to push down on the apple core/slicer, measure/mix sugar, cinnamon, and salt, shape the pie crust, make small pie crust apples to decorate the top, and brush on an egg wash.

While the pie was cooking we played outside for a bit and then read Ten Apples on Top. For a movement activity we pretended that beanbags were apples on top of our heads. We had an obstacle course to walk, hop, and crawl through while trying to balance an “apple” on our heads. Then we made “Apples on Top” headbands. The kids got to punch out apples and glue them on their headbands. They helped me count their apples and write that number on their headbands. I also made a lacing project for each child in the shape of an apple. We sang this song while lacing: The worm went through the apple (x3), to see what he could see.  And all that he could see (x2), was the other side of the apple (x3), was all that he could see. (tune-For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow). It was a really good day.

Cedar Park 4th of July festival.

My husband, Boogs and I went to the Cedar Park 4^th of July Festival on Sunday. Boogs had a good time running and climbing his way through a bouncy house, making a craft, eating cotton candy, playing a few games, and watching the fireworks. Okay, he only had fun watching the first 3 or 4 fireworks, then he was ready to go home. He said he was very tired. On the way home, Boogs kept saying, “Am I dreaming that I am still awake or am I really awake.” Except for camping, he has never stayed up past 10 pm.