The Week in Review

Last week was a busy week.
Last week, I cooked up a new recipe for Black Beans and Coconut-Lime Rice (Southern Living, May 2010). I was absolutely positive the boys would not eat it, even though it was delicious, because often they do not like my new recipes until they eat them a few times. They both gobbled it up and asked for seconds. Huh.

Last week, Will went on his very first-ever field trip with his Kindergarten class to see How I Became a Pirate at Main Street Theater. A friend of mine snapped this picture of him with two of his buddies and emailed it to me from the show. Will loved the bus ride, the play and the adventure of being out of school for a little while!

Last week, we had my parents over for dinner to celebrate my mom's birthday. Henry and I baked a cake and my dad decorated it.

Last week, in honor of Gramma's birthday, Will sang "Happy Birthday to me, I'm one hundred and three, and I want my Mommy" over and over again and cracked up more each time he sang it. Ah, Kindergarten humor!

Last week, Gene finally came home from another trip and we are hopeful that he will be able to stay put for awhile now. (He was in Paris and London for 30 out of 40 days in February and early March!) Weezie was excited to find a soft new place to nap in his open suitcase.

Last week, Henry's school put on a Children Around the World Fair. On Monday, Henry visited Germany and got this cool hat.

Last week, we decided to clean up around the house, hang our new drapes, and fix little broken bits, like this burnt-out bulb in the kitchen. We also discovered that you can't reach a light fixture on a 10-foot ceiling with only a stepladder.

Last week was a busy week at our house.

The Rodeo

Nana and I took the boys to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo yesterday afternoon. They have never been before, mostly because I hate crowds, but this year they both asked to go after hearing a lot about it at school. As it turns out, going on a weekday afternoon, right after school gets out, is perfect. The place was empty and the weather was beautiful.

We started our adventure with a ride on the light rail. So fun. We were able to park at Henry's school and ride the train right to the entrance.

The boys loved "racing" the cars we passed on the train.

Our very first stop was Fun on the Farm in the kids' area. The boys were put right to work gathering chicken eggs into their baskets. These were wooden eggs but we actually saw a real egg in with the real chickens!Next the boys got "seeds" and planted tomatoes. Pretend water.
Do all farmers ride Harleys?

And after milking cows, shearing sheep, growing corn and gathering peaches, the boys sold their goods at the farmers' market and earned a buck.

They got to turn in their money for a real treat (they picked Rice Krispies, of course!).

Next up were the pig races. It is pretty funny to see four pigs racing around the track. The winner got an Oreo. Those were some motivated piggies!

The pig races were next to the carnival, and Nana got us tickets to ride. The first ride was a roller coaster. It was just a kiddie one and the boys loved it, but I thought it was scary. This bumblebee ride is more my style.

We ended the afternoon looking at real animals at Agventure. Will was obsessed with the worms. We honestly couldn't get him to leave.Nana's favorite was the longhorn.
After nearly three fun hours at the Rodeo, the boys were done.

Nana and I were done too. But at least now my boys can say they've been to the Rodeo this year.

The Maine Project and Mad Science

Will's big Maine project is finally done. It consisted of this big tri-panel board, an "All About Maine" booklet, notes on two index cards and a presentation! Everything is done except for the oral report, which he'll do this week. And yes, Will is only in Kindergarten. Crazy, right? I am pretty sure I didn't do this kind of project until middle school.

This project took us two weeks to do and required lots of Internet research (thank you, State of Maine, for having an awesome kids' page!) and help from Mommy. Will read all the information online and together we figured out what to write for the board, and then I typed it up for him. Fortunately, we already had a lot of pictures of Maine from our recent trips (Will's been three times!), so we printed out our favorites and, with help from Grampa, cut them out and pasted them to his board.

Grampa helped a fair bit with this board. He brought a AAA map of Maine to use as the background, cut out the MAINE letters by hand and helped Will lay everything out on the board.

Needless to say, we are all very thankful that this project if finished! It was quite a lot of work for everyone.

After finishing the tri-panel board on Saturday, Will and I went to a super fun birthday party at Mad Science.Will wasn't too sure about the science lab at first, but once the experiments got started, he was in seventh heaven! FIRE...
Rainbow glasses...
And best of all, they made slime!
Stirring his green slime.
My big boy had a blast. Science experiments + pizza + cake + friends? What more could a boy ask for?

Dr. Seuss Week

Dr. Seuss's birthday was March 2, so to celebrate Dr. Seuss Week (and Read Across America), the little boys and I decided to do a week of projects and activities to celebrate. I have seen tons of ideas on Pinterest, so that's where my inspiration came from. First, I had the boys scour their bookshelves to find all our Dr. Seuss books. We have A LOT!!

The first book we read was Green Eggs and Ham. Will chose to read it to us. Then we made pistachio pudding and put a Nilla wafer in the middle (idea from mygratitudeattitudes.blogspot.com). It was a sweet green egg!

Some had sprinkles on top, just for fun.

"Say! I like green eggs and ham! I do! I like them, Sam-I-am! And I would eat them in a boat. And I would eat them with a goat..."
One of the boys' favorite Dr. Seuss books is How the Grinch Stole Christmas. While Will was busy doing homework one afternoon, I had Henry make a Grinch face (idea from stepintosecondgrade.blogspot.com). Since he likes to cut paper so much, I had him cut out green scraps and glue them on.
I also asked Henry how he would make the Grinch smile. His answer? By hugging and kissing him. (Sweet boy!)
Another morning, we read Fox in Socks and Henry decorated an orange sock.

And here's the idea that started the whole Dr. Seuss project week for me (graph from oopseydaisyblog.com).

We read One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish and made goldfish graphs!
Graphing is an area that both boys needed extra practice with, so I wanted to make it fun, and colored goldfish are fun because you get to eat them!
They both did great with their graphs. And did you know that the colored goldfish are now made with natural colors (beet juice, turmeric and watermelon juice!). Love that!
We also made patterns with the goldfish.
On Friday night, Daddy came home for movie night and we all watched Horton Hears a Who. I had requested the newest version from the library, but when I checked it out, the 1970 version was in the 2008 case! It's a good thing the boys didn't really know or care. We also found some Horton coloring sheets and tons of other activities on seussville.com. Will's current favorite Dr. Seuss book is The Lorax. We first read it at the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay last summer and he still loves it. We didn't do a craft, but I found some math worksheets on seussville.com and we've talked a lot about what we can do to protect our environment. And of course, we can't wait to go see the movie in the theaters. A fun spring-break outing?

The boys both told me that they loved their Dr. Seuss week activities, so I think we'll try to continue this with other authors and books. I have so many ideas for their favorite books already!

Cutting Paper

Henry's favorite activity for the past few days has been cutting paper. He loves to use scissors (and has excellent fine motor skills, though he still holds his scissors upside down) and he has snipped through pages and pages of construction paper. Yesterday, while he was cutting this red paper, I noticed that he had (accidentally) cut out a heart! I had to snap a quick picture of it, because

pretty soon he was cutting it into bits and pieces too!

So if you come over to our house, don't be surprised to find piles of cut-up construction paper everywhere you go... at least as long as Henry is in his "cutting paper" phase.

The Science Museum with my Big Boy

Will had an early release day on Wednesday, and he picked to go to the science museum, of course! I always have so much fun with my big boy and it is especially nice to have the museum almost completely to ourselves.

There is so much to see at the museum that we can't do it all in the two hours we have before we get Henry, but we always, always, always start with the planets. Neptune...

Saturn...

The Sun!

This week, Will chose to visit the Butterfly Center and we actually sat and watched the butterflies fly all around us. He was fascinated!

But his favorite part of the Butterfly Center is the beehive play area.

This time, we explored the Energy and Chemistry Halls and ended up at the dinosaurs, which is perfect for a boy who just finished a dinosaur learning unit at school.
Will and I really had a blast together on Wednesday afternoon. I love spending special time with my big boy.

5 1/2

Will turned 5 1/2 on February 18, when we were in Paris, so my update is a bit late. I've seen tons of birthday questionnaires in the blog world lately, so here's our version.

All about Will at 5 1/2

My favorite food is lemon.

My favorite sport to play is soccer.

The best show on TV is Word Girl.

My favorite thing to learn about in school is computers because we play games!

If I could go anywhere in the world, I would go to Washington to see if it is like Washington, D.C.

My favorite color is yellow.

When I grow up, I'm going to be a scientist that studies chemistry.

My favorite song is "Try Again" by the Imagination Movers.

The book I'm loving right now is Mrs. Mean. (I have no idea what this is, but Will said he read it at school.)

Three words that describe me are happy, smart and curious.

When I was little, I used to go to the science museum.

My favorite season of the year is summer because there are cherries in the summer.

The snack I like best is apples or cherries. (It is funny that Will keeps insisting that he likes cherries because he really did not like them at all last summer!)

One food I really dislike is blueberries.

My best friends are Chloe and Karis.

If I had one wish, it would be that I could live in a shell.

My best memory is taking an elevator in Washington D.C. to a spooky hallway (in the subway system?).

My favorite toy is Candyland.

At night I like to sleep with my music on.

I really like to go to the science museum.

Will has changed so much in the past six months. He's blossomed at school, loves to read chapter books and play freeze tag with his friends, and is fascinated with numbers and science. He is curious, asks lots of questions and has a definite goofy streak (usually at bad times like when we're getting ready for bed or school!). Will is getting better at trying new activities, but it still takes him a few sessions to warm up to the new change and start to enjoy himself. He continues to love soccer and has recently started enjoying art class. At home, Will has a great imagination, loves to build with Legos, and is usually a good helper for me, especially when we play "Blood." The basic premise of this game is that I am the heart giving instructions and he is the blood, racing around the body (picking up toys, etc). Will seems so grown-up already but I know he is still my little boy when he holds my hand tight and gives me three hugs and three kisses whenever we say goodbye. I love my big 5 1/2 year-old-boy!