Big Imaginations

This is a picture of my boys playing with an old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sewer that was Jacob's as a child.  The boys are very imaginative and love creative play--I enjoy watching them as they create and play in their little worlds.  I wanted to share some of this with you all!
We have been indoors a little more than we would like these days.  Most days I try to take the boys outside to play at least once a day.  We will go to one of our favorite parks, play in the sand box, draw on the patio with chalk, play a sport, play in the water, or the boys will ride their riding toys down the hill.  The grass was so tall that it looked like a jungle outside.  We tried to go to the park a couple of times a week so the boys could run and play, but on the days we didn't make it to the park the boys spent a lot of time playing in their play room.  Yesterday they pulled out the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles sewer toy (it was Jacob's when he was a little boy).  I helped them put it together and they sat in the play room for a couple of hours playing with it--putting action figures inside, on the roof, fighting, guarding.  It was funny just watching them play. I love watching them get caught up in these imaginary worlds they create for their toys.  They have a big farm play set (barn, tractor, animals, etc.) that they play with a lot, too--the pigs fly and the horse talks--they are very creative boys and I love seeing what they create.  The fun thing about the sewer is that it isn't just reserved for  the Ninja turtles, although they are there, too--but all of the action figures from comic books, Ben 10, Star Wars, and movies are all included in this sewer (or "house" as the boys call it).
We clean out the play room from time to time, bagging up toys and giving them away, but the action figures are rarely touched.  They are "the" sacred toys in the play room.  The boys have a lot of toys they play with but the action figures are always included--the boys even sleep with them!  They are loved.  I enjoy summer afternoons at home when the boys are playing nicely in the playroom.  It reminds me of my childhood--I remember many summer afternoons spent in my room playing newspaper or school.  I would compromise with my brother and he would drive his G.I. Joes around in my Barbie car and I'd drive my Barbie's around in his trucks.  We had fun playing together and I enjoy seeing my boys playing so well together. 

The grass was mowed yesterday so we can venture outside again--we have our yard back!  I am glad to see it mowed and glad my boys can go outside to play in grass that doesn't go up to their hips!  It's always good to have an active imagination, though--you never know when you're going to be stuck inside for a couple of hours on a summer afternoon!!

Fun Changes

We have been working on the alphabet this week using the boys' Noah's Ark puzzle.  It's a fun puzzle because it's difficult to tell how it goes together unless you know the alphabet--it's a great way to help the boys learn their ABCs.  Here are some pictures of the boys putting it together (I helped some, of course) and a picture of their excitement when they put it together.

It was a lot of fun and although the boys got frustrated it was worth the hard work when they finally got the puzzle together.

We also rearranged some things in the boys' playroom and made room for an art table (which is the sticker table).  The boys can color there and if they want to paint we can pull the drop cloth out and they'll be set to paint.  We also painted some clothes pins in bright colors and hung rope along the wall and are using the clothes pins to hang the boys' paintings.  They were very excited about it!

Another project we have taken on this week is rearranging the boys' room.  We wanted their beds to be side by side and change it just a bit.  I wish I had thought to take a picture of the boys' faces when I told them to come look at their finished room.  You could tell they were excited!

Alex's bed (and the club house the boys love so much!)

Logan's bed--we hung one of the boys' super hero kites up in the corner--Logan said, "I get to sleep under it?  Cool!"

Both beds in the boys' room.  They were excited to see their beds side by side.

This is the corner of the room where we put the boys' little Spider-Man table, hung some of their masks and comic books and put their fan--which is vital during the summer months! You can also see Alex peeking in! Ha.

Also in the corner--we put the boys' comic books (that still have covers) on this rack, you can see their Spidey house shoes and their super hero "dolls" (really large action figures).  There are also Spider-Man shelves and a pair of Spidey house shoes Alex wore when he first started walking!  I may never get rid of them!

Logan was already in the club house and Alex is on his way in--and shutting the door.  They were very happy with the way their room came out--which is a good thing because we don't plan to change it anytime soon! :)

As you can see there is nothing too exciting going on here (which is good) but I thought some of you might like to see the changes we have made and also see the boys working on the alphabet puzzle!

Until next time . . .

Happy Father's Day, Jacob!

In honor of Father's Day I wanted to post some of my favorite pictures of Jacob with the boys over the past few years.  I could not have asked for a better husband or father for my children.  Happy Father's Day, Jacob!  We love you!

This is Jacob holding Logan after he was born--Alex was looking in the nursery window and waving at Jacob

Thank you Bleu and Boompa!!

Summer Therapy Begins

Alex had his first summer therapy session at a local elementary school this morning.  While we were there we saw the OT who is working with Alex during the school year.  I saw her walk in and thought she looked familiar but couldn't place who she was.  She always had her hair down and was dressed very professionally when I saw her at Alex's school--today she was wearing khaki shorts, a t-shirt, and her hair was in a pony tail.  She walked up to Alex and said, "Hey, Mr. Alex--how is your summer going so far?"  Alex looked confused and said, "Good."  She said, "Do you remember me?" He shook his head and continued to stare.  The therapist eventually came out of her office and very loudly said, "Hello, Alexander, how are you?"  Alex said, "It's Alex" and then looked at me as if to say, "Are you kidding me?"  She reached out to take his hand and he hesitantly accepted it.  They walked to her office and Logan and I heard the door shut.  We sat reading books about pirates and an old man who brings home millions of cats.  We had just started our third book when the therapist stepped into the hallway and said, "Would you like to sit in for a while so you can see what we're working on?"  I went in and she was very good, but very loud.  Alex worked hard and I was very proud of him.  As we were walking to the car I asked if he liked his summer therapist and Alex said, "Yes, but she is really, really loud!"  It was funny. Overall it went really well--we left the school and headed to a park where the boys happily ran around and played.  We also went to one of the many Snow Cone stands we have in this town.  Alex got a Spongebob snow cone (Which was bright yellow and he made sure it wasn't really Spongebob before he ate it) and Logan got a Spider-Man snow cone.  We found a bench in the shade and sat and ate our snow cones. It was nice to just sit there with them.  Logan's mouth turned purple from the red and blue Spider-Man mixture as both boys sat contently.  It has been another fun summer day!

The Boring (And Not So Boring) Last Few Days

The boys at my brother's house ready to help feed Berkley!

Alex giving Berkley his food. He wants to help with everything and kept saying, "Uncle Jeremy gave me this job."  He is doing a great job at it!

The boys watching Berkley eat--when he finished he started playing with the boys and they all ran into the living room.  I eventually made all three of them go outside! They all ran around the yard--the boys giggling.

We have been doing a lot of cleaning this week in our house.  We have been playing so much the past few weeks that the house has been neglected and needed to be cleaned in a big way!  It's funny how much grass and dirt we all track inside during the summer after playing in the water or at the park.  It's also funny how nice it is to have the place clean--and to enjoy it for the entire 15 minutes it stays clean before some one dirties it up again!

 Pictures of the boys' playroom after cleaning and organizing it.  I was looking at all they had and thought it was funny--I can remember when I was little and my dad would say that my brother and I had more than he had when he was little and now I look at my two boys and think the same thing!  They have cable TV in their playroom (Alex has even learned how to rent movies!), they have an arcade game, dart board, a coloring table--you name it they probably have it! They were very happy with the play room once we finished cleaning and organizing it, though.  We'll see how long it stays clean . . .

While we were in the car on our way to my brother's to feed Berkley the boys kept asking to listen to Trudog (pictured above).  Trudog is Toby Mac's son--I enjoy Toby Mac's music and his son has started singing on his albums and of course, the boys love him.  We had to listen to his song Trudog over and over again in the car, but it's okay because it has a nice beat and it's a fun song--not to mention that it's better than the Jonas Brothers and some of the other CDs the boys like to listen to over and over again.  At one point I noticed Alex was making the silliest faces to the music.  I started laughing at him and then realized he could see his reflection in my child mirror (it allows me to literally have eyes in the back of my head).  It's always fun when the boys discover music they like and I enjoy it as well! This is very random, I know, but I had to hear the song about ten times today and now it is stuck in my head so I feel the need to blog about it!  Ha.

Something else I guess I should mention is the lovely flood we had on Monday.  We were fortunate enough to only end up with a swamp behind our house but had no water get into our home--others were not as fortunate.  The boys wanted to go outside and go fishing--even though it was thundering and lightning like crazy.  I honestly think they just wanted to get out of the house--I can't say I blamed them at the time. Alex kept asking where the sun was.  It rained ALL Day.  We were so happy to see the sun on Tuesday!

Here are a couple of pictures of our place on Monday.  The back yard was turned into a river which flowed pretty quickly down into the gully.  The gully filled up in no time and I waited for it to overflow--oddly enough at some point the rain stopped long enough for the water in the gully to drain before more rain started.

In other news, Alex starts summer speech therapy at the school tomorrow.  Logan is excited about this because he and I sit on the couch together and read books or color while Alex is in speech therapy.  We have appointments in July with a bone specialist and an evaluation for occupational therapy for Alex.  Slowly but surely things are falling into place and our calendar is starting to fill up--we are excited that we finally have the ball rolling on a lot of these specialists and therapies that can help Alex.

I guess that is all for now--until something new or exciting happens!