Free Range on Fairview

I've come up with many uses for the pom poms I bought from the Dollar Tree months ago. We've used them to throw at each other, the boys have imagined they were ear plugs, Lincoln has pushed them through the opening in a wipes tub, and we've sorted, sorted, sorted. I got the inspiration off of Pinterest (of course!) but here is how we did it.  First I am learning that he doesn't like to sit and wait for me to set it all up. I find that inviting him to an activity that is ready to go keeps his active mind and body busy for just long enough. So initially sorted five pom poms of each color into a small muffin tin, found the tweezers and added pom poms and a line guide on a plain piece of printer paper. Not only was he practicing squeezing with the tweezers but he also had to match colors and put things in order.  "Hey come check this out" is what you're thinking, right? Pinky up, we're that classy. Lincoln sticks his tongue out like this w...

I can hardly believe that my first born just turned 8. We celebrated this sweet, caring, funny boy by throwing him an awesome shark party. He is so interested in learning facts and figures about the ferocious, blood-sniffing mammals. We had fun coming up with sharky details and doing a little learning while we were at it.  His big party was mainly family but I still wanted to have a game in case the weather was nice (which it was, t-shirts and sunshine!). To make a totally free and fun game I duct taped a velcro catch mitt to a 13 gallon tub lid. Then I duct taped brown thin cardboard - the extra they put inside a roll of wrapping paper I had saved and finally found a use for - to the plastic lid and spray painted it sliver. I drew eyes and gills with a sharpie and cut out the mouth over where the velcro mitt was. After painting white teeth I taped to a box for stability. I also drew fish on the ball for a little more effect. Now we have a backyard game for the summer months t...

Old Man Face Playing with cousin Luke Silly face Obviously loves hanging with Uncle Josh Standing Up! I didn't sit Warner in the chair for the pictures this month because everyone was too busy snapping pictures of him at Dylan's birthday party. He is just a little ball of cuteness, standing at furniture and throwing his arms up in the air for a few seconds (20 Shane counted yesterday), clapping and smiling, rolling a ball, trying to play with his brothers and loves being outside. He would rather only eat "big people" food, drink out of a sippy cup and play than sleep. He is growing fast and is now over 20 lbs but still right in the 50th percentile. My little Dubby.

Not that kind of lovin'... I just realized that a bunch of the pictures we have been taking are all in the kitchen. I mean it makes sense. The kitchen is in the middle of the house. The kitchen has all the food where my never-ending-hungry boys can feast (the days following a grocery run that is). The play kitchen is right next to the kitchen to promote pretend play and distraction for Mom. We eat all of our meals at home. I guess I'd better just get used to it.  Warner loves the kitchen just his size! Dylan and friend learning how to make TopRamen all by themselves.  Warner trying to listen to music on the ipod.  Both of the littles know that Daddy will give them a bite if they push hard enough. Who could resist the chocolate smile, even if I haven't edited it yet. And of course it's a place to get messy and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Well beyond five years that is. February 22 marks our first date and somehow Shane even remembered that. Since I feel like a crumb-bum of a wife lately I set up a special little thing to show him how much these last five years have actually meant to me. (I get that it isn't our wedding anniversary but any day can be special so I wanted to make this special too) I wrote him a little love letter and put out five things that are meaningful in our relationship together, quite the mishmash if you ask me, but it works. In no particular order: 1. Motley Crue - We we to our first concert together over the summer to see Shane's favorite band and I got to get my 80's on while he got to relive the glory days. 2. The Spiderwick Chronicles - We went to see this movie with our nephews for our first official date. I think it's sweet that now the boys watch it all the time. 3. Coffee - We have shared many conversations, hours, and events all while drinking coffee. We both love it ...

Lincoln has decided he wants to learn nothing from me. Unless I trick him and he doesn't realize he is learning. I hit an after Valentine's day sale at good old Fred Meyer and picked up some candy hearts and knew I could find something to do with them. Enter candy heart sorting in an old egg carton. The little cups are the perfect size for just about any sorting activity. And it is light  and has a lid that somewhat closes so Lincoln can carry it around (or it can go on top of the refrigerator to save for another day). I tried to start with patterns but Lincoln did not want to bother himself with that. Eating them was way better! Then we tried matching colors. He still can't identify many colors but we are slowly working on it. He is pretty proficient at matching colors though, so I know something is getting through to him. 

We love Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer in our house! Dylan checks them out from his school library and we own a few too. Little critter is always learning life lessons and in this specific book, Just Big Enough , Little Critter learned that you don't have to be big to be big enough. Lincoln had it read to him like 25 times. He also liked to look through the book on his own. So when we got a giant box from Amazon after we ordered wipes and diapers for the month, I knew exactly what we were going to do with it. Make a growing machine. Dylan, Lincoln, and the neighbor boy Jarod all took turns drawing and adding interesting things to the growing machine (disregard the greasy hand prints all over the cardboard, the boys were all eating popcorn as they were working). Here is Lincoln demonstrating how it works.   Our inspiration: What is your kids favorite book to reenact?