May 2012
2 posts
April 2012
2 posts
March 2012
2 posts
February 2012
3 posts
December 2011
4 posts
Treasure!
On a cold wet afternoon I prepared this while the boys napped. I colored pics of items I knew they would recognize on cards and hid them in order around the apartment. Then I prepared a treasure map, which the boys knew all about after watching a treasure themed Blues Clues.
I gave them the first card…
With a little direction they picked up on the idea of how to follow each clue to the...
nprfreshair:
An Annual Tradition: David Sedaris...
November 2011
9 posts
Very Hungry Caterpillar Lesson
This week’s book is The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.
After reading through this beautiful pop up version of the story we used colorful paint to create hungry caterpillars to take home!
Next we reread the part about all the fruit the caterpillar ate and added each kind to a pipe cleaner “caterpillar”…
Ren checks out the pear his caterpillar ate…
Finally...
Our Mouse Playgroup lesson
As you now know I’ve been busy lately stepping back into my old stomping ground of lesson planning for the playgroup we’ve started for the boys and their friends. Below is the lesson I created around one of our favorite books: If You Give a Mouse a Cookie…
Today’s book was about a mouse who wanted a cookie!
After reading the story we acted out the mouse’s adventure...
Where have we been?
You may have noticed we’ve been a bit MIA around here. This because we have started a cooperative playgroup with two sets of twin friends. Twice a week our 4 friends join us for lessons I’ve been planning around our favorite books, here is a peek at what we’ve been up to…
One of our first lessons was about one of our Favorite books Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (I’ll only...
October 2011
2 posts
Fresh Fun
We have been so lucky to have 3 recent visitors to our home and each has left a stamp on the boys. The boys flock like moths to the lovely new energy that infuses our family each time we welcome someone in who loves the boys.
They learn new games like Lois’s “Fly!” (as they are demonstrating above), or Emily’s I Spy on the porch, Or Jenny’s “Woo Woo...
September 2011
4 posts
The Sounds of Imagination...
Growing up my childhood hero was Anne of Green Gables. Her emphasis of imagination influenced my own twin sister and me to conjure up whole afternoons, whole summers, of endless games to play. It’s been important to me that my boys are encouraged to do the same. Sometimes this seems harder than it sounds- I sometimes fear that imagination seems a little by the wayside in a world of toys that...
WatchThe boys could care less about the remote control cars, they’d rather pretend to be their new local hero: the man with the leaf blower.
Sending Off Summer With My 3 Men
Oh Summer! How we hate to see you go. But there is something magical in the cool breezes that have started whispering a hint of fall coming our way.
We just returned from a vacation that we set out on right after Labor Day weekend. We headed to the shores of Rhode Island just as all the summer vacationers were headed home. The boys loved the rocky and sandy shores, and even tasted clam chowder!
...
3 tags
Twin Tradition
I’ve mentioned before the twin tradition that traces through my family. Besides being a twin myself, I have twin cousins in my generation and twin Aunties on my dad’s side. My boys also have twin cousins just 4 years older. This means all of the grandkids for my husband’s folks are twins. When my sister and I were little our identical twin Aunties sent us beautiful stuffed...
August 2011
3 posts
3 tags
Table for 3
My husband is an amazing dad and cook, so when he had to work late every night this week I decided to dine out with the boys a few times to ease up on kitchen duty. If we hadn’t spent months perfecting our eating-out strategies, this may have proved trickier than staying in, so here’s what I’ve figured out to make a “table for three” possible:
Pick the right spot: Kid friendly is crucial of...
3 tags
The Four Legged Third Child
Recently, I’ve been thinking about our four legged third child. Willa, our dog who we had for years before the babes came along. I’ve been thinking about her because I keep hearing about families who feel the need to get rid of their pets when babies come on the scene. I’m the first to say that my motto is you’ve got to do what works for you, but while our beloved pupster...
4 tags
Cleaning? Come on Down!...
I’ve posted before about cleaning the house with the help of toddlers, but just recently I have been experimenting with getting the boys to help clean up their own messes. As a former enrichment teacher I am very familiar with the clean up song, but that seemed a bit advanced for the under 2 set. As a former seasoned babysitter I’ve employed tricks including siblings competing against...
Pine Cone Pokey Walk
Today we took a pokey walk (poking along with no set destination), sans toy strollers. It was first time in a long time we’ve left our mud-caked, stain-ridden, well worn (and loved) wheels behind. And what magic we discovered when we came out from behind the handle bars.
Sam found the first pine cone and wanted to know what it was. When I said pine cone, his eyes lit up. He had just...
July 2011
5 posts
3 tags
103 in the Shade
Hot weather means pants are optional around here. 103 my weather channel app tells me. It also handily points out that it “feels like 115’ outside. Delightful!
But being house/AC bound today, I discovered the mother of all craft/activity idea blogs called Chasing Cheerios
I’m sure I’m the last mom on this band wagon, but holy moly the Chasing Cheerios mom, Melissa, is...
Lessons we learned on vacation...
Lesson 1: On vacation we are always encouraged to eat something cool and tasty.
Here we are learning the ins and outs of popsicles, which can be enjoyed standing up…
Or sitting down…
Then there are those inevitable ice cream beards to contend with…
Lesson 2: Hitting the road means more than just our minivan road trip…
Everywhere we went there seemed to be a...
'BooBurs!'
Blueberry Picking is a luxury found near Grandma and Pop Pop’s House. The boys lasted all of 20 minutes. They ate everything they picked including a few ‘greenberries’.
Randy and I were able to pick a grand total of $1.50 worth of berries while running through the bushes after the boys. Not enough for a pie but plenty for a snack.
Time for a Family Photo Op at the Farm:...
Firehouse Adventure!
V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N, in the summer sun…We’ve been off on a family road trip to visit Grandma and Pop Pop. Boy have we been busy…
Pop Pop arranged for a visit to the local fire department!
I have never seen Sam so excited-testing the wheels, steering like a pro, climbing like a monkey…there were tears when we had to leave. We may have a future fireman on our hands!
...
June 2011
6 posts
Snapshots!
Summer Snapshots brought to you by the letter S…
Sidewalk Chalk
Sunglasses!
Sitting for an Alfresco Dinner…
Smiling at a Fish…
Sailing our Imaginations…
Sleeping on the go…
Summer Serenity?
We are cool with attempting to go where no one has gone before, but more often we attempt to go where no one is currently. When we hit crowds that is my cue to pack us up and flee. It’s hard enough keeping track of the boys when I have clear eye line but with a mass of people it’s darn near impossible. Avoiding crowds in Brooklyn is no easy feat. This means I waited until a cool gray...
If at First You Don't Succeed...
Update on the Dairy Front-We have ice cream eaters!
While walking in the park this weekend, we forgot to pack any snacks. The usual hot dog vendors were mysteriously absent and the boys were chanting ‘Sna? Sna? Sna?” (translation: snack) at increasing decibels! We targeted an ice cream truck parked nearby. I almost didn’t order any for Sam as I was pretty certain that he would...
3 tags
Subway Trains AND Buses? Hooray!
It was 101 degrees here this week so we all headed on an underground adventure to the New York Transit Museum. The museum is housed in an old unused subway station here in Brooklyn. That meant lots of stairs to navigate but boy was the payoff worth it!
Subway Trains from every decade in the last century? Check! The boys loved running through the cars going all the way back to 1905. They shouted...
Summer and lovin' it!
Some pics from our summer so far…
Boo! Ren’s latest game is jumping out and shouting Boo! Act like he scared you and win some major giggles.
Sam was gifted his first water balloon and had no idea what to do with it. Water balloon…hmm do I hold it in the water?
May 2011
9 posts
4 tags
Got Milk? Please!
I usually play it cool when in comes to eating with my kids- What? You refuse this delectable green bean/carrot/spinach? No prob, I’ll chop it up and put it in your next quesadilla where you’ll never notice it!
However, in the last 3 months or so their willingness to have anything to do with milk has fallen flatter than a pancake. We countered by doing smoothies for breakfast where...
Rain Rain Go Away!
Our last post was full of promise, but let me tellya after a whole week of rain these ideas were quickly exhausted. We battled the unending damp with play dough, which was poked and stepped on. The grocery store became like an amusement park ride we rode regularly (‘Let’s find all the green boxes in this aisle boys! Who sees green?’). We got little flashlights and, when the boys...
Rainy Day
I thought May was for flowers, but apparently April had some leftover showers and we’ve had a run of rainy days. Usually the instant the rain stops we throw on our rain boots and are out stomping puddles, but today it didn’t let up once! We entertained ourselves in the following ways:
We practiced our new scooters indoors, helmets and all. These are THE way kids get around around...
It's Official...Identical!
The Boys React to the News!
What?! I was totally floored. I thought for sure the DNA test we ordered would result in fraternal. But no. I called my husband when I got the news- I had a sudden fear that maybe I had switched the vials by accident for the 2nd round of cheek swabbing and therefore the results were wrong. He pointed out that a) I can’t stand being wrong and b) if I had such a...
“Gil: What’s the matter, honey? you don’t feel so good?
Taylor:...”
– Parenthood (1989)
I remember seeing this movie as a kid. I was totally on Gil’s(Steve Martin) side about this whole episode. Grossaroo!
But just yesterday, after getting back from a warm afternoon at the park, Sam was not in a good mood. He felt hot and seemed lethargic so I assumed he was a...
3 tags
Anatomy of a Photo Shoot
Happy Mother’s Day! We love our dear grandmas and aunties so much that I decided to add the perfect photo of the boys to the greetings we sent to our fam. What they won’t see (until now) is just what a photo shoot entails with Mama behind the camera and two tricky toddlers in front of it! Below are the outtakes from our Mother’s Day Photoshoot…
Okay guys have a seat in...
4 tags
Two Cat in their Hats
Look out Sun! Look out British ladies attending royal weddings! Look out Indiana Jones! We are now armed with our new summer sun hats…
Sun at the park? No problem.
Safari you say? We have just the right head gear.
Make it through a rainforest and emerge with dry noggins? We have it covered!
Mama’s adventure has been keeping them on our heads, but so far she is just as...
3 tags
“What sound would you make if you were driving down the street and you saw your...”
– This is a lyric from a Ralph’s World song called ‘Driving in My Car’.
We love this song and today after popping the boys into the bath who should call but my very best friend. Yes! I could have an actual 15 minute conversation with her while I watched them splash and play. Only 90...