What We Have Been Up To

We had a crazy rainstorm last week. The lightning lit up the night sky and the thunder made the house shake. We need more rain but I would rather have a steady rain over several days instead of all at once. Boogs and I enjoyed putting on our boots and walking in the drizzle the day after the storm.

Boogs had fun building at the library Explorers Club Lego Lab. I think we are going to have a Lego party for his 6th birthday.

Boogs has been waking up ridiculously early lately. He is not allowed to wake me up until there is a 6 on his clock. I thought he had slept in one day this week because it was so quiet at 6:15. I went in his room and this is what I saw:

He was reading through all of his old National Geographic - Little Kids magazines. He told me there was a 4 on his clock when he woke up and he could not go back to sleep. How do you get a kiddo to sleep in?

Yesterday, Boogs and Daddy put on a magic show for me!

Disappearing coin trick

Abracadabra!

Tada! The sugar turned into Tic Tacs

Floating wand trick

We have had a pretty busy week - swim lessons, playdate, Fit Club, Explorers Club, and a birthday party. We just signed him up for baseball. This year he moves from t-ball to coach pitch. I hope he enjoys it.

Lunches January 23rd - 27th

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. Each night, I read two books to him and he reads one to me. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks. My husband is out of town this week on a business trip. That is why this post is so chatty. I am distracting myself from his absence.

While the World is Sleeping by Pamela Duncan Edwards
As a little girl is going to bed, her mother tucks a stuffed owl toy in beside her.  Shortly thereafter, a beautiful white owl comes to her window and invites the girl to fly through the night sky and see what nocturnal animals do while people are sleeping. There are rhyming words on every page. After we read the book, Boogs and I went back through it and made lists of rhyming words in the story. Then we challenged each other to think up as many more rhyming words as we could to go with the ones in the text. In the lunchbox: Pb&j owl, Laughing Cow cheese mouse with pumpkin seed ears, Goldfish crackers swimming toward the sea, turkey pepperoni, blackberries, raisins, yogurt, and broccoli bushes that some of the nocturnal animals hide behind.

Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell & What Pet to Get? by Emma Dodd
Boogs brought home What Pet to Get? from his school library. It reminded us of one of our favorite books, Dear Zoo. So, we had to read both books tonight. We searched through the books and compared the way the authors described the animals in each book. In the lunchbox: Ham & cheese dog, shark and polar bear quesadillas, blueberry giraffe, Babybel lion (at least it is supposed to be a lion), carrot elephant on a bed of spinach, and roasted pumpkin seeds.

Numero Uno by Alex Dorros and Arthur Dorros
Boogs really liked this book, he asked if there were a sequel to it. Hercules, the strongest man in the village, is constantly arguing with Socrates, the smartest man in the village, about who is the most important. They have to work together to build a new bridge and the constant arguing upsets the rest of the villagers. In the end, Boogs decided that both strength and intelligence are important but he thought it was best to be smartest rather than strongest. In the lunchbox: pb&j Hercules and Socrates, pretzel and mini rice cake bridge, blueberries crossing the bridge, veggies and yogurt. I TRIED using Karen's food color painting technique from What's In John's Lunch Bag? I definitely lack her skills.

One fish two fish red fish blue fish by Dr. Seuss
Boogs and I have read this book the past three nights in a row, so I figured it was time I turned it into lunch. One fish pb & Nutella sandwich, "this one has a little star" pb&j sandwich, "some are sad" blueberries, "and some are slow" ham & cheese snail-like pieces, "say what a lot of fish there are" Goldfish crackers, spinach & broccoli grass and shrubs for the place where the "sheep who took a walk in their sleep" walked, and yogurt that the Yink wouldn't drink because he only likes to "drink pink ink".

The Little Red Hen (Makes A Pizza) retold by Philemon Sturges
This book is a cute retelling of the classic Little Red Hen story.  We have had this book for a long time and frequently re-read it. Boogs likes all the lists of things Hen has in her kitchen cabinets, fridge, and pantry. In the lunchbox:Tomato & basil Little Red Hen tortilla with candy eye and homemade pepperoni pizza. Boogs woke up at 5:15 this morning so we had plenty of time to make it. Other items in the lunchbox are also items in Hen's kitchen - tomatoes, (Goldfish) crackers, raisins, and (strawberry) milk. Bento Blog Network is having a red themed week this week. This is my entry.

Places I have linked up:

Craft Day

I really did not get much done today because I spent too much time in my craft room. I made a couple of cards and cut out the masks and capes for Boogs Valentine cards. I found the free templates for the door cards and the truck at Stamp-n-Design with Lynn Pratt. The red door card is for a friends house warming party. I made the truck for a birthday party that Boogs is going to on Saturday.

 

Zakka Life had this adorable free download for Valentine Superhero lollipops. Boogs thinks they are really cool. He can't wait to pass them out to his friends at school.

Cutesy's Package From the North Pole

Cutesy, our Christmas elf, sent Boogs a package from the North Pole (Thanks, Aunt J). Boogs was very excited to open it and find out what was inside. Boogs was happy to know that Cutesy made it back to the North Pole and is already hard at work making toys for all the good boys and girls. Boogs still has Cutesy's  globe on his dresser. Every once in a while, Boogs will tell me that he wonders what Cutesy is doing at the North Pole.

The package had to be inspected
at the U.S. border.

Luckily, it passed through without
a problem.

Boogs loves it. He named the sock
monkey Silly Sam Sock Monkey.
Silly Sam has been sleeping in Boogs'
bed since he arrived.

Cutesy's note

Thanks, Pinterest!

Sadly, I am addicted to Pinterest. But, that is not such a horrible thing. We had a group of family and friends over for lunch yesterday and I found the recipes for our meal on Pinterest. Everyone loved the Antipasto-kabobs appetizer!

We also had Slow Cooker Italian Wedding Soup

Turkey and Artichoke Stuffed Shells with Arrabbiata Sauce

Creamy White Chicken and Artichoke Lasagna

with salad and garlic bread to complete the meal. It was enough food to serve 18 people and it was all delicious! My mom made a sugar free (Splenda) birthday cake that was surprisingly good. 

I have also been scoping out Pinterest for lunch inspiration, kid crafts, workouts, cardmaking ideas, and educational ideas. I fell in love with the Relentlessly Fun, Deceptively Educational website. My friend and I are working with our kiddos on Wednesday afternoons to complete the organ t-shirt. We started last week and read/skimmed through a couple of books about lungs. Our kids loved painting their t-shirts and did not even complain about having to write in their body booklets.

I also got the idea for the oil pan magnetic board from Pinterest. Boogs and I have been enjoying it. I am a little OCD in that I had to kind of organize the Magnetic Poetry words. I recently bought a roll of magnetic sheet to use for our own words and pictures.

The only problem I have with Pinterest is that it soaks up my time. I can sit down to have a quick look and all of the sudden an hour has gone by. Oh well...there are worse ways to waste time.

Lunches January 16th - 20th

Boogs' lunches are inspired by the books we read at bedtime the previous evening. I usually post his lunches once a week. Click on the "lunches" label at the end of this post to see lunches from previous weeks. 

Bear's Loose Tooth by Karma Wilson
Boogs has his first loose tooth so we read this book about Bear's first loose tooth. Bear's friends try and help him pull the tooth out. Boogs and I talked about leaving his tooth alone, but Daddy told him how to tie a string to his tooth and a doorknob to get it out faster. NOOOO! In the story, the tooth fairy leaves blueberries in exchange for Bear's tooth. In the lunchbox: Pb&j bear sandwich, blueberries, Babybel cheese tooth, carrots (to crunch out the tooth), and Cheetos. The smiling tooth is Boogs' special tooth box for the tooth fairy, it glows in the dark, we did not pack that in his lunchbox.

Marsupial Sue by John Lithgow
Marsupial Sue is a kangaroo that does not like to bounce. She tries to act like other animals but decides that she really does like being a kangaroo. In the lunchbox: grilled cheese kangaroos hopping on a ham hill, broccoli trees for hanging out with the koala bears, fish crackers for the fish she ate with the platypus, grapes, and yogurt.

Dedan Saves the Day by Thea Feldman
Dedan is a papa giraffe. This book has beautiful pictures depicting a day in the life of giraffes. Boogs wanted another  "fact" lunch. In the lunchbox: pb&j giraffe whose neck can grow 5 feet tall, fruit leather tongue which can be 18 inches long, giraffes eat up to 75 lbs a day of leaves (spinach), twigs (carrots sticks & Chex Mix), and buds (kiwi), baby giraffes drink their mother's milk (yogurt).

Snowmen At Night by Caralyn Buehner

I find it funny that Boogs chose to read this book when it is 70 degrees outside. The snowmen in this story have a wild night of fun. In the lunchbox: peanut butter & Nutella snowman, Babybel full moon, blueberries, pretzels, applesauce, and carrots with ranch dressing. (I know this lunch is very similar to his Frosty the Snowman lunch that he had in December.)

I accidentally slept in on Thursday, so Boogs had to buy a school lunch. He came home starving. When I asked him what he ate for lunch he said, "Some chocolate milk and some pineapple. I got a hamburger, but it was yucky so I didn't eat it." I am happy to make his lunches every day.


Places I have linked up:

My Silly Boy

Some days Boogs makes me laugh and some days he makes me want to scream. Last week, he decided to cut his own hair at school.

Beautiful, isn't it? He also managed to cut his forehead with his scissors. We had a loooooong talk about it. This is the second time he has cut his hair at school this year. I told him that if he cuts his hair again, I will shave his head bald. His daddy told him that he would be "screen-less & electronic-less" for a month if he cut his hair again - no computer, tv, Wii, iPhone games, remote control robot, or anything with batteries. Boogs  has promised that he won't do it again. We will see.

The lady that has been cutting Boogs hair since his first haircut, gave him a little bit of a hard time when we went to get his hair fixed. She made Boogs pinky swear that he would not do it again.

Cute things Boogs has done recently:
* Hide under the table pretending to be a cat. He kept hissing and yelling, "POOF!" I asked him what the "poof" meant and he said, "I just shed a bunch of my hair so your allergies will act up." He thinks he is pretty funny.

* Filling in a homework graph, "I am going to scribble in the squares on my graph. I love scribbling. Scribbling is freedom to me."

* "Did you know that a wren is a bird? Why do they call him I-wren-man (Ironman)? He is not like a bird at all."

* When playing MarioKart on the Wii, Boogs would stand up and blow kisses to his imaginary audience every time he came in first place.

* Comment when eating rice pilaf: "If feels awkward in my mouth. It tastes awful, just too awkward for me to eat."

There are so many things that he says and does that I want to remember so I can tell him about them when he is older. I wish my brain worked better.

Day at the Zoo

We had a great day at Cameron Zoo! Our preschool friends, who now go to several different schools for kindergarten, got together and made the trip together. Boogs was as excited to see his old friends as he was to see the zoo. He took control of my camera throughout the day to get pictures of the animals. After every picture he took, he yelled, "Gotcha! That's gonna be a good one!" The highlight of our outing was the orangutan enclosure. A huge shaggy orangutan saw us watching him. He swung over to where we were and banged into the glass. It made us all jump. Usually we don't see the orangutan being that active. Then he pressed his face against the glass and made faces at us. The kids loved it.

Look at that mane.