A Fairy Tale

Once upon a time, there was a sad little princess.



But then her friend came over and they decided to strike a pose.



And they lived happily ever after.



The end.

Sisters

I'm seeing more of this these days. Sylvia picks Millie up under the arms and carries her around the house. Millie doesn't seem to mind.

The ABC's

I'm trying to teach Gus the alphabet. He doesn't like it though and claims he only knows his A's, O's, and T's. He downright refuses to sing the ABC's with me. But every now and then I'll catch him singing his letters to himself.

I walked into the kitchen the other evening to find Sylvia working on this...



She's taken it upon herself to get Gus started down the road to reading. He sat down with her for a little while as she went over the letters. But pretty soon Sylvia was chasing him around the house trying to get him to listen some more. Maybe he's not ready yet!

Dirty Mouths

Gus is still really into trains. But when Rex took him to visit a local station, only to find that all the trains were elsewhere, they went on to the airport instead. Now there is lots of talk of flying on airplanes, yellow airplanes being his favorite, the big ones being too loud, and going to talk to cousins (one of Rex's cousins runs an airport).

One of his funniest sayings of late is his pronunciation of airport. When Gus says it, it comes out "air poop".



On the same day we were really getting a kick out of enticing Gus to say airport Sylvia had her own humorous language error. We were sitting at dinner and she turned to the map (hey, I'm a homeschooler) and said, "I know where As*ylvannia is.". I thought she was thinking of Pennsylvania and told her as much. She said, "No. I'm talking about As*ylvannia." She then proceeded to point to Alaska. I have no idea where she came up with that one.

Craft Time

I've dropped drawing instruction from our school day because I did not like the "curriculum" I was using (Drawing with Children). In its stead I added in craft time. Originally this was only going to be temporary until I ordered a new drawing curriculum but the kids are having so much fun I think I'll just keep it this way for awhile.

We Start Them Early Around Here

Futon Follies

I've discovered a new purpose for the futon. It creates a multi-level play area. Just what is needed in a house where a little boy creates lego houses and a little baby likes to eat legos.

Something's Wrong

Hmmm...something's wrong with this picture.



Well I guess two things are wrong. Poor Millie. She was happy until I came into the room and then rushed out to grab the camera. She burst into tears as soon as she realized I had left the room without taking her with me.

Play Time

Hair cutting is one of the games du jour.

It's Gus' turn to get his hair cut. First Sylvia wraps him up.


Next comes the hair wash. Is it just me or does this looks a little painful?


Go gettum' girl!


Phew, that was invigorating. Now it's time for a nice, relaxing hair cut.


All done!


Now it's Sylvia's turn. It always feels so good to have your hair washed.


You didn't think Sylvia was going to get off that easy, did you?

3-in-1

Sylvia got a medal for finishing a season of dance class. Until corrected she kept calling it "my piece of medal" or "my little piece of gold".

She was smiling for this photo shoot. I just happened to catch this picture among all the smiley ones and it was the only one in focus.




After Sylvia had her picture taken, Gus wanted his taken as well. Here he is with his new favorite toy. He's got lots of other little cars but Rex just recently surprised him with this one. Given his obsession with it over the past few days I think it may rise to the same status as his tool from a couple months ago. In case you were wondering, I eventually had to do away with the tool. He came too close to hurting himself so I finally heeded everyone else's warnings.



And then here's little Millie, playing with my skirt while I do the dishes.

Finally, Asleep

If one were a five year old girl. And one shared a room with a 2 year old brother. One might find it necessary to assume the following sleep posture on certain occasions.

Handed Down Treasures

I feel a little guilty now that I've admitted to giving away some of the toys that were passed down to us. You should know that we have been graciously given entire lots of old toys with the instruction to keep what we liked and dispose of the rest. But, in tribute to all of our friends and relations who were thinking of us, I'm going to post pictures of some of our favorite handed down treasures.


Gus' dreams came true the day we visited his cousins and he was handed an old box full of Thomas trains.



This isn't exactly a toy. Well since the kids can turn anything into a toy, they went ahead and did it with these a few times before I got smart enough to put them out of reach. I am in love with this set of The Original Peter Rabbit Books by Beatrix Potter.



These blocks have been getting a lot of use. When Gus has his way, they spend much of their time laid out as roads and train tracks. In the picture, Sylvia's set some up as a stage for all of her "dancers".


And last but not least, this is Gus' favorite dress up. I'm going to save this picture to sneak into the slide show during his rehearsal dinner when he gets married.