Saturday: slide

This afternoon, the boys were working on assorted projects.  Isaac was building a house for the cats and Joshua was building a slide.  At first he put a large piece of cardboard on the stairs and I thought he'd be sliding stuff down it.  Anyway, I quickly put a stop to that because we don't play on the stairs.

So Joshua decided to make the slide upstairs.  I left him to it.  About ten minutes later Joshua was crying (with real tears).  I went upstairs and Joshua was upset because his slide broke when he tried to slide down it.  Keep in mind that it was made with five pillows and a piece of flat cardboard.

Oh, Joshua and I had a good talk because he cried about this for longer than I expected.  We talked about the different aspects of slides and why his didn't work.  We talked about Ms. Frizzle and how it's good to make mistakes.  I told him I was proud of him for trying to make a slide.

In other news: can you find the cats?

Last weekend: Fort Wayne

I didn't post at all last weekend for some reason, but Aunt C, Isaac, Joshua, and I went to Fort Wayne for a visit.  It was an excellent time.  You can tell that the kids are growing up as they play together better and better.

Friday we went for a walk in a marsh.  It has the eastern continental divide, separating water that flows east and west.  (Which is currently very important due to Asian carp).  Anyway, most of the trail was nice and firm, except for a small patch that was very muddy.  We all had boots on, so we continued on.  However, Joshua's boot sunk down rather deep in the mud and the mud held the boot as his foot came out.  Instead of stopping though, Joshua took a step into the mud and freaked out because his foot got wet and cold.  He took one more step and clung to Aunt C.  I saw the whole thing (in slow motion) and was there a heartbeat later.  I stripped off the muddy sock and stuck his boot back on as fast as possible and we continued on.  Joshua did talk about that step for the next fifteen minutes though. :)

By the end of the walk (a bit over a mile) all the kids could barely continue because their legs hurt so much.  So we went to an indoor playground and they ran around for another hour.

We went to a cider mill after dinner for drinks.

The next day we went on a chocolate factory tour.  It was a great length for the kids and had lots of delicious samples.  We couldn't take pictures and so as we were leaving Nathan took a driveby picture of the outside.   

It was a gorgeous day, so we went to another park.  It had a great playground and a fun hill to run down and the kids played hard.

We hit one more playground on Sunday before heading home.  It was a lovely weekend catching up with Nathan and his family.

Friday: treat

The car was getting it's tires changed and there was a new bakery nearby, so Joshua and I walked over for a treat.

It was quite delicious.

He chose that particular cupcake because it had a raccoon ring.  We don't currently know where the ring is, but I'm hoping it's in the car.

Wednesday: new fort

Since the old fort kept falling down and we've had a fort for over a month, we invested in some better fort construction materials.  Isaac and I made the fort yesterday, and then today we added some extra (longer) dowels for extra strength.  The whole thing still comes apart a little bit at some joints, but it doesn't fall down and Isaac can help put it back together.

Really, the thing is like a fort-mansion now.

Monday: progress

The kids made progress on important things today.

*Isaac remembered to try and go quickly during writing time and finished what he was supposed to do.

*Joshua got the bottom buckle of the seat belt buckled by himself 1.5x today.

*Isaac's other front tooth finally fell out.  I've been expecting it anytime, as it was almost in the middle of his mouth for the last few days.

Wednesday: kids

Isaac was told to get dressed and start cleaning his room once I left for work.  He went into our room as Ben was getting ready and told this to Ben.

Surprise!  He was dressed!

And then he went under the covers in order to be attacked by the kitties.

Joshua fell asleep during rest time.

After rest time I had some plans of things to do with the kids.  However, they were playing so well together that I just did the stuff by myself and let them do their thing.  It seemed like they were hiding from me and collecting shiny things with a home base in Isaac's room.  I was a bit sad they chose Isaac's room because he had finally finished cleaning it with Aunt C this morning, but when I went in a bit later it wasn't too badly destroyed.

Tuesday: cat litter

Today we put the litter boxes in their final spot with some mats around them to collect litter.  I was looking at the handout that came with it and noticed this:

(USAGE: Put the mat under the litter box so that the litter is tracked everywhere.)