Trucks!

February was a month of truck-related activities for us. My sister Kim told us about the annual Touch-a-Truck event, and we were very excited to check it out. Jaden and Cody had never attended an event like this before, and not surprisingly, they had a grand time!

Garbage trucks are probably the boys' current favorite vehicle. Cody and Jaden wave and jump up and down so excitedly for our neighborhood garbage men each week that the garbage men honk for the boys even when they aren't outside yet! Sitting in the garbage truck was the definite first item on the boys' list.

Everything looks much bigger on the garbage truck when you're up close...

Jaden even got a chance to honk the horn on this garbage truck and made some poor child scream in surprise!

The boys needed some help to climb up into this mighty big rig.

Not only did Jaden and Cody get to pretend to drive this police buggy, they got to shake hands with a real policeman and get a free police badge-like sticker.

The paramedic near this ambulance told the boys that they could even try out the gurney. I hope this is the only view I ever get of my boys in an ambulance! 

Some trucks were just plan huge!

We waited in line for quite a while to get inside this fire engine. While waiting, though, the boys received free firemen hats (which of course Mommy had to hold) and a free cookie (which of course Mommy did NOT get to hold!).

The boys were proud that they could climb into this tractor all on their own. The horn was very easy to find and fun to test out as well.

Who can pass up the chance to run on a flatbed? :)

By far, the longest we waited was for a chance to peek inside this Life Flight helicopter. The helicopter made such a fantastic entrance, flying right over our heads and landing in a field nearby, that Jaden and Cody were determined to see it up close. They didn't complain too much while we waited either, thankfully, as we probably stood for nearly 30 minutes.

Jaden and Cody were quite excited to sit inside a helicopter (for their first-ever time).

The morning was a beautiful one to be outside, so we all enjoyed our day thoroughly!

The following weekend, our family attended the Build and Grow workshop at Lowe's. We love going to these! Jaden and Cody still can't quite follow the directions on their own, but they are able to pick out the correct pieces from the directions and hammer in the nails. It's wonderful practice for them in a variety of skills. The boys were just thrilled that the building project was a monster truck.

Daddy and Cody worked together on one vehicle...

...while Mommy and Jaden assembled the other one.

By the end of the project, the act of hammering was getting a bit more challenging. :)

The final project was definitely worth all the effort!

And, yes, Cody purposely picked out his monster truck shirt for the occasion. :)

We stayed around a while at the end to practice driving the trucks... 

...and to get a few more photos of our silly boys.

Letter Fun

Over the past few months, we've continued our preschool-type learning time here at home. I love how the "letter of the week" framework gives me new ideas for experiences I never would've thought of doing otherwise. The boys are learning some good skills and seem to be enjoying themselves in the process.

We're slowly working on our tactile letter book pages. For the letter M, we covered our page in macaroni.

Then, we experimented with magnets. Cody and Jaden guessed whether or not various items would be magnetic (this was a tough word to learn to say!), and then we'd test out the objects. The boys wanted to play with the magnets for a long time.

Later, we built structures out of marshmallows and toothpicks. This fine-motor skill was a bit challenging, so it didn't keep their interest for long. Eating the marshmallows was fun, though! :)

Another day, we made monsters out of paint by doing straw-blown pictures. Afterward, I realized that I should have watered down the paint a bit to make it spread better. The boys still were proud of their final products. 

Then, we played this monster dice game which is pretty self-explanatory when you look at the picture...

After that, we made color patterns with M&Ms. Cody and Jaden did surprisingly well with not eating the candy until we were done with our activity. They found the patterns fairly easy to complete.

I wasn't sure whether or not this next activity would hold the boys' interest for long at all, but they just loved it! After counting the number of monsters on each card, the boys had to cover up the correct number with a clothespin.

Cody and Jaden wanted to complete the entire set of 12 cards at least three times in a row, and then we repeated the activity several more times later that day. This game has now become a perfect addition to our church activity bag!

Next up, M is for Music! I didn't get many great pictures of this next activity, but our whole family got in on it. I played samples of various genres of music on the computer, and we danced together. Cody and Jaden most enjoyed dancing to techno and swing. We also danced to some country, classical, Christian contemporary, R&B, rock, and jazz. Some of these genres were completely new to Jaden and Cody, so it was fun to see their reactions to each. Their dancing was fairly consistent no matter what type of music was on. :)

For our letter H week, we covered our tactile book page with hearts...

...and then used heart pages to count by 10. I don't think I had ever practiced this skill with the boys before, so it was a great learning experience.

The boys' favorite H activity was doing a house hunt. They ran around our home counting various items. Both boys were so focused on this task and determined to not forget a single item!

Another day, we made little guys with crazy hair and then gave them a haircut. We're still working on the scissors skill, so this activity gave them a fun reason to practice.

For letter L, we covered a leaf with numbered dot stickers, or "ladybugs." They matched the numbers from 1 to 20.

Cody and Jaden concentrated very hard on this activity, can you tell? :)

 

Then, we went on a leaf hunt outdoors to collect items for our letter book page.

We also did Lego stamping (We actually used Duplo blocks, but calling them Legos made the activity fit well with our letter L week!). Since we had just finished Valentine's Day, I had the boys do their Lego stamping on hearts that we made into thank you notes.

Jaden's heart was an abstract design.

Cody kept his nice and neat :) These boys are sure teaching me not to peg them into certain roles!

We didn't do too much with the letter K, but the boys liked doing key stamping.

And that's our latest with letters!

January Misc.

Here are some random happenings from the month of January. First of all, some playground pics... We've absolutely LOVED our first winter in Texas. Unless it's raining, we can easily play outside every day. Our boys haven't worn winter coats in Texas all season! What a change for our family! We enjoyed frequenting quite a few playgrounds throughout the month.

This particular January day was actually a bit chilly (for Texas at least). We had the entire playground to ourselves all morning! It was great!

Cody and Jaden are getting braver with trying out new playground equipment. Check out the super tall tube slide in the background!

This next picture is from our neighborhood playground. Jaden and Cody's most recent favorite game to play at any playground is a self-created, self-titled "Lost Pets" game. The boys will pretend to be an animal (a pig is their most commonly chosen pet), I will put these animals to bed, and then the animals will run away. I, the irresponsible pet owner, will always find my missing pets giggling at the top of this tower. Then, they return home and we play again. And again. :)

We visited the Children's Museum twice this month, once on our own and once with cousins Ryan, Nathan, and Isaiah. Here, Cody, Jaden and Ryan are doing the museum's craft-- a surface scratch painting. My boys rarely take time out to do the craft, so it was fun to see them engaged in it this time.

One of our favorite exhibits is the fireman station.

In the middle of the month, we attended a birthday party for Cody and Jaden's new friend Elise. Her 4-year-old birthday party was themed after the movie Frozen. One of the games involved getting these frozen necklaces out of rather large ice chunks.

This job wasn't easy! Eventually all the kiddos discovered that it was easiest to just repeatedly drop their ice on the ground until the ice broke. This tactic worked quite well.

Cody and Jaden continue to being willing helpers whenever we grocery shop. If my shopping list is relatively small, I will allow the boys to steer their own carts around the store. This adventure is such a treat! The boys have only run into each other, or Mommy, a few times (and only once into a pole...) but never yet into other shoppers, so I'd say our track record is pretty decent. :)

Cody and Jaden are also big fans of helping in the kitchen... especially when we're making desserts and even more so when Mommy lets them lick the batter!

Cody says, "Yum!"

Also in January, I got to spend some wonderful time with my dear sister and sister-in-law doing some crafting. We all tried making deco-mesh wreaths for our first time. I'm generally not very good at trying out new crafts on my own, so I loved having their support and creative ideas. It was a perfect type of craft to learn with my sisters nearby.

 I loved how our wreaths turned out! It was some quality girl time too.

Here is our attempt at taking a picture of ourselves with our wreaths. Surprisingly, everyone's face is visible!

And my final product on our front door...

That's about it for our month of January!