It feels like we have spent the whole week with our noses buried in books! Will has been entranced with books (perhaps even more than usual!) this week. We borrowed
James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl from the library last weekend and Will loved the story. He literally carried the book around the house asking one of us to read to him. Fortunately the chapters are short and we snuck in bits here and there and had the whole book read in five days! Now we're on to Laura Ingalls Wilder's
Little House in the Big Woods, which is also a huge hit.
Last week, we visited three different libraries (there are four within 10 minutes of our house and the boys are almost always up for a library visit!). At one of our libraries, we found out that we could check out FLIP (Family Literacy Improvement Program) kits. Each kit comes with a book and related activities. The boys chose the
Make Way for the Ducklings kit, so we brought it home, read the story, discussed habitats (which we learned about back on T week) and then did our activity.
The kit came with paper and charcoal pencils and instructions on how to draw a duck.
Will drew a great duck and then added extras on the side! This must be the girl duck -- do you see the eggs?
Will has also been interested in math lately and was asking me all sorts of addition questions. So instead of just telling him the answers, I decided to show him how to add columns.
He even learned how to carry the one and seemed to completely understand the concept! I just wish I had some Cuisenaire rods so he could see exactly what is happening with the tens and ones.
Proud boy after all his adding!
While Will was adding, Henry was busy with his stickers, but he also did plenty of reading this week too. In fact, he sounded out the word CAT all on his own while we were doing his Hooked on Phonics!
And yesterday was pirate week at gymnastics, so of course we had to dress up in our pirate best. The teachers
love the boys' costumes. There is another little girl in class who also comes decked out each week, so we're in good company!
Will's favorite joke of late is: What is a pirate's favorite letter?
Why, R, of course!
For reading, writing, 'rithmatic, and Arrgh!
When he gets the alphabet, he will spell all kinds of words. Then he will decide that three-letter words are too easy and will demand to spell words with blends, and compound words like watermelon. 
Seeing all the letters and spelling will rub off on the boy's brother.
The little brother will decide to spend his $5 on an alphabet book. 
When the little brother gets the alphabet book, he will carry it all around the house and ask you to read it to him at least three times a day. He might even sleep with it at nighttime. 
Reading the alphabet book will remind the big brother of his new letters. He'll probably ask to spell harder words and maybe even sentences. 
And chances are, if you let him write sentences, he'll want another $5 to buy a second set of letters.
Next up were the zebras, of course! 
The boys needed a snack almost immediately. These kids eat like no one else!
The boys found a friendly orangutan. 
The boys and I have had so much fun exploring all the letters of the alphabet and it laid a fantastic foundation for Henry, who, at the age of 3 years and 3 months, now knows all his letter sounds, is slightly obsessed with Hooked on Phonics, loves to try to sound out words and is even spelling words with his magnet letters!
I was not
And the fact that the little boys gobbled up 
But the boys thought it was hot enough to get out our little pool and splash pad. 
We had to dig around in the garage a bit, but we found them. 
We found a bunch of water toys in the box too.
The boys just tossed the toys from pool to pool. 
Water toys fight!
Water fun is perfect for a hot, sunny afternoon.
And when it was all over, we had two very happy, very tired little boys!
Gene had to look at all the coupons
This is their masterpiece. Can you see the little yellow car zooming down the ramp? 
Then the blocks hit the swing which knocked the blue ball down another ramp. 
The last ball slid down the slide and hit the drum! SO FUN!!
Do you think Will knows how cool his Daddy is?
Having fun with Pop
We had a fantastic Father's Day celebrating with two of our favorite dads (and at least getting to talk on the phone to my fantastic dad!). I hope your Father's Day was as special as ours was!