Decorating Dinos

Gene made the boys dinosaur cookies before he left on his big trip. We turned on our dinosaur tunes and got to work decorating and eating them!

Decorating dinosaurs is serious business.

Will is just looking at his masterpieces.Henry still needs help decorating. He used up most of the blue sprinkles on just one dinosaur. Note to self: buy more blue sprinkles!

Chomp! Chomp! Chomp! YUM!

Not on Mine Eyes

Ever since we took swim lessons in June, Henry has not been a huge fan of water. He used to adore bath time, but now he hates to get his head wet. That makes it a bit challenging to wash his hair! Every night before bath, Henry gives explicit directions about what body parts I can get wet by saying, "Not on mine eyes. Not on mine ears. Just on mine head." He even gestures to his body parts just in case I don't understand the words. Lately, we have been doing sponge baths because we can't get his cast wet, so Henry has added "Not on mine cast" to his list of areas for me to avoid.

We don't wash Henry's hair every night anymore, which I'm sure he's really happy about. However, when we do wash his hair, it's a two-person job and it looks something like this.

Henry does not like having his hair washed in the sink, even though I tell him it's just like at a salon.
Will tried to make Henry happy by bringing in a brachiosaurus. It didn't help.

But Will enjoyed having the brachiosaurus help wash Henry's hair.

There's my happy, clean boy!

We have six more days in the cast, which means only two more hair-washings in the sink. I'm not sure who is more excited about getting the cast off -- Henry or Mommy???

Don't Leave Without Me!

One of Henry's favorite phrases is "Don't leave without me!" I rarely go anywhere without my boys in tow, but Henry truly has a fear that I might go somewhere without him, even if it's just down to the curb to fetch the trash can! I think he's afraid he'll miss out on the fun. And yes, bringing in the trash can counts as fun for a 2-year-old!

Normally I hear this phrase a bit more than Gene does, since the boys are used to him leaving for work five days a week. But on Monday morning, Henry watched Gene put on his shirt and started crying and saying, "Don't go to work, Daddy." Henry was really, really upset that his daddy had to leave and it just broke Gene's heart (mine too!). I think perhaps Gene and his boys had just a bit of fun last weekend in preparation for Gene's long days away from us in the near future.

A hug and a kiss made it all better.

See, Gene? The boys really do miss you when you're away.

Wizard Will and Astronaut Henry

The boys love dressing up. Will has been really interested in magic potions and witches and wizards lately. On this particular day, he put on his superhero cape and magician's hat and grabbed a screwdriver to use as a magic wand (fortunately we now have our own magic wands thanks to Mackenzie's magical birthday party).

I'm not sure what he put in the potion; I always suggest eye of newt and tongue of dog, but Will just laughs at me and adds grapes or something ordinary. It sure does look like he's casting some sort of magic spell here, doesn't it?

Apparently wizards make this grumpy face and stomp around.
Henry also loves to make "ma-gi-gi-gic potions," as he calls them, but this day he decided to don his new astronaut costume.

He put it on and counted down: 4, 3, 2, 1! BLAST OFF!

Watch out, Astronaut Henry! Wizard Will is after you!

I wonder what spell Will was trying to cast on his brother here???

Birthday Wrap-Up

We had so much fun celebrating Will's fourth birthday on Wednesday! Gene had to leave for work earlier than normal, so he set his alarm extra early to make Will's special birthday breakfast request: French toast! Then that morning, the birthday boy opened a few more presents from us. His favorite of the day was this: But then, what pirate-loving boy wouldn't love his very own pirate ship, even if you have to share with your brother?
After getting our fill of playing with the pirate ship, we headed over to Gramma and Hanka's house for some play time, lunch and cupcakes. Yum!

Henry especially loves the icing.

That evening, we drove into town to go to dinner at "The Restaurant with Fire" (aka, Tokyohana). Will just adores that place.
This time he even tried using chopsticks, successfully! (They were banded together at the top, but still, I was impressed that he actually used them!)
We also got Will a talking microscope. It came with about a dozen bug slides (unfortunately they're just pictures of bugs), but when you punch in the code on the slide, the microscope will spew out all kinds of facts about the bug you're examining. And Will thinks that's pretty cool. Happy 4th birthday, Will!

A Journey Through the Solar System

My boys have been obsessed with rockets, space exploration and the planets lately, so we spend a lot of time looking at our space flash cards, playing with our toy rockets and astronauts, reading our space books (The Planets by Gail Gibbons is Will's favorite; Henry likes Roaring Rockets by Tony Mitton), and of course, visiting the science museum! I took the boys back to the museum again yesterday. It has been their absolute favorite place to be this summer, so if it seems like we're there every week, we probably are!

We always start our journey on the front walkway, where all the planets are lined up in order. If you follow the path of the planets, you're led right up to the sun on the top step and into the museum. We start at Pluto, because it's right at the curb. And yes, we know Pluto is no longer a planet, but it's still part of the walkway, and it's one of our favorites!

Dwarf planet Pluto is very small, so the boys were fighting over who got to stand on it first.

Then we're on to the gas giants, starting with Neptune. Henry likes Neptune because it appears to be blue (due to a gas in its atmosphere) and Henry loves all things blue!

Next up is Uranus. Did you know Uranus is tilted way up on its side?

Everyone loves Saturn. Those rings are pretty cool-looking, even when they're done in concrete!

Jupiter is HUGE. Fortunately, that means no fighting over who stands on it first! Will's favorite fact about Jupiter is that there is lightning on the planet.

Then we get to the rocky midgets, starting with Mars, the red planet. I actually didn't get a picture of anyone standing on Earth, but we're already really on Earth, so the next one is Venus. Did you know Venus rotates in the opposite direction of the other planets?And then there's Mercury, which has no atmosphere.

We finally made it to the Sun, and then it was inside the museum to continue our adventure!

If your kiddos love the planets too, you have to take them to the museum. Start on the walkway and be sure to get tickets to see "The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket" in the Planetarium. It's about two kids who go on a journey to all eight planets in their cardboard rocket. If you use your imagination, I bet you can join them on the journey too! I know we do.

Birthday Boy Will

Will is four years old today! This tiny little guy

has grown so much and turned into a

poncho-wearing,

Play-Doh-mushing,

letter-writing,

train-conducting,

pirate-loving, sauce-stirring,

block-building,
book-reading,

water-splashing,

bug-investigating,

music-playing,

apple-eating,

question-asking,

sunglasses-wearing, space-searching,
airplane-piloting,

magician-in-making,

museum-exploring,

dinosaur-doting,

cupcake-chomping,
wand-wielding,
sweet little boy!
I can't wait to see where Will's many interests take us next! Happy birthday, big 4-year-old!