Easter Parties

The boys had their Easter parties at school yesterday. Fortunately, Will's was at 11:15 and Henry's was a noon, so I was able to be at both of them!
The boys loved their Easter egg hunts. Will was supposed to find eggs numbered from 1 to 6.

He finally found that elusive number 1!
I can't go to school without getting a picture of Will and Chloe together!Here's his whole, adorable class.After the egg hunt, they had their class party, which is really all about eating!

After Will's party, it was on to Henry's room. The kids all lined up and waited patiently to head out for their Easter egg hunt. Henry is with his best buddies, Ben and Caleb. I love that Ben stuck his Easter basket around his neck!

And he's off!

Found one!

Eggs!

Ooh, I think there are more in here!

After the Easter egg hunt, the kids went back inside to decorate their Easter cookies. This is how to do it if you are three. First, dip your stick into the icing.

Next, sample the icing to make sure if is good.
Then spread some on the cookie.

Finally, let Ms. Erin help pour some pink sprinkles on!

And then it was naptime. Henry is the navy blob in the middle. And yes, he really does sleep at school!

We all had so much fun at the school parties but after all the sugar and running, I had two exhausted boys at the end of the day!

The Letter S

Last week was all about the letter S at our house. We studied spiders and snakes and spent lots of time in the kitchen!
The boys made their capital S into a slithery snake. Will painted his lots of different colors
but Henry chose to make one big red snake.
We also went to the reptile room at the zoo to check out some really big, really real snakes while we were there last week! We made our lowercase s into a spider and read The Eensy Weensy Spider Freaks Out (Big Time) by Troy Cummings and The Bugliest Bug by Carol Diggory Shields.

We saw a tarantula and some ground squirrels at the Natural Encounters exhibit at the zoo.

Will took a long nap one afternoon last week, so Henry helped me make swope bread, which is a hearty whole wheat and buttermilk bread that my parents made ALL the time when I was a kid.

Yummy!

We also made lots and lots of spinach smoothies.

It is CSA season again and we are loving our big weekly box of local produce, but we had so many greens and I didn't know how to use them all, so I decided to throw some spinach into our smoothies, and let me tell you, they are delicious!

Here's my recipe for a green smoothie that you'll love:

one generous handful of spinach

1 very ripe banana

about a half a cup of milk (any kind)

a handful of ice cubes

1 generous tablespoon of nut butter (any kind)

Blend together and enjoy! You don't even need any sweetener because the banana is so sweet. This makes enough for one adult, so add a little extra of everything if you have to share with your kids, which I always do. My boys love their green smoothies! It's also a great way to sneak in some greens if you have picky eaters (which fortunately I do not have!)You can't even taste the spinach but it turns the smoothie a beautiful color!

We had a super S week!

More Safari School and Tadpole Troopers

The boys and I went to our second round of Safari School and Tadpole Troopers classes this week. Safari School at the zoo was all about lizards. The boys played lizard tag and made a lizard craft. The zoo was insanely busy for a Wednesday but we had fun in our quiet corner, learning all about lizards! I didn't take many pictures but I did snap this shot of Henry touching the lizard. Our Tadpole Troopers class at the arboretum was about butterflies. The boys already knew the basics of how caterpillars turn into butterflies, but we all learned that butterflies form a chrysalis that is actually their outer skin whereas moths spin a cocoon of silk. Love it! The boys painted some butterfly wings

and we glued them to sticks to make the butterfly bodies.

The tissue rolls are the chrysalises that the butterflies emerged from!

The boys played on the rug in the classroom while waiting to go on our nature walk.

Our first stop was the butterfly garden at the arboretum.

Will looked for evidence of caterpillars.

"Look, Mommy! These leaves are nibbled on!"

Henry waited patiently for us to catch up with him. Henry's shirt says "Team Leader Bug Exploration," which was perfect for our butterfly hunt!

We traipsed through the meadow, looking at bluebonnets.

We only found one butterfly (it was a little chilly for them to be out!) but we did see and touch this super cool box turtle who happened to be crossing the path in front of us!

We are loving our nature and zoo classes this spring!

The View from Here

This is the view from the window above my kitchen sink. It's not very exciting to look out at the driveway most of the time. But when the boys get out there to play with their sidewalk chalk, it gets pretty fun! Will was writing the alphabet and Henry was "helping" him. It's a great view!The proud big boy with his completed alphabet (you can't see it so you'll have to believe me when I tell you it's all there!). The weather has been nice lately and the boys are enjoying playing outside before the heat of summer arrives. Henry made me some yummy Play-Doh sundaes. Typical sly Henry look. Love it. And looks who's finally home after being gone almost 2 weeks! It is so hard to be on my own with my busy boys and we all missed Gene a lot, so we are all very thankful to have Daddy home again with no trips in the near future! Yesterday was the perfect night to grill up some salmon and veggies with some wild rice on the side! Yum!!The view from here is pretty good, don't you think?

Bubbles

My little boy is still in love with bubbles.

And my big boy loves to operate the bubble machine, aiming right at his little brother.We found the box of outdoor toys on a shelf in the garage. Henry was thrilled to discover that it was full of sidewalk chalk, Play-Doh, and bubbles. The boys played outside for two hours the other day, and didn't even seem to miss our playset (which I finally sold!). Now, that's what I call happiness in a bottle!

The Letter R

R is for rockets and rhinos and roads and race cars! What a fun week for my little boys. We spent a lot of time playing with rockets, as usual. Henry found some rocket stickers from his birthday party and we read our favorite rocket book, Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton. The boys made rockets at the symphony concert last weekend. They even donned their astronaut suits to soar into space on their rocketship (ie, Henry's bed). Baby even came along for the ride. Then we ate some freeze-dried astronaut ice cream that Henry got for his birthday. I tried a tiny bite and it really did taste like ice cream, but it was room temperature, so that was weird! We went to the zoo in our rhino shirts (but no one would let me take their picture) and saw the rhinos in the African Forest. We made our R crafts. We turned the capital R into a rabbit and read our favorite rabbit books, Humbug Rabbit by Lorna Balian and Muncha! Muncha! Muncha! by Candace Fleming. We made our lowercase r into a road and read Toot Toot Beep Beep by Emma Garcia. We even went to a car show in Kingwood to check out some race cars! What a busy R week!