Odds 'n' Ends from March

I was able to spend a little bit of time being crafty over the last couple of months. Two of my dearest friends in the area had birthdays. I wanted to make each of them an initial "wreath" for their door. My first attempt involved this beautiful turquoise/teal yarn ... and took FOREVER ... partially because the yarn was thin and partially because the letter "B" requires lots of wrapping (and re-wrapping in a different direction) to cover all sides. I was really happy with the way it turned out, though.

My second attempt was with jute. Partially because the jute is thicker and partially because the letter "L" is very easy (and probably also partially because this was my second time around), this one took much less time. I love how this one turned out, too.

I'd like to make an initial "wreath" for Ian's teacher and teacher aide at the end of the year, too. This time, I may try to PAINT the initials instead of wrapping them ... perhaps a chevron design? We'll see ...

We had some warmer-weather days toward the end of March, and the boys love ANY excuse to play with water. They were more than thrilled to have some time with the hose and water table.

 Another day in late March wasn't quite as warm. I nixed Ian's idea of playing with a hose ("It's got to be warm enough to wear shorts to be able to play with the hose!" is my new rule.) Ian decided he could figure out a way to get some non-hose water time. He scooped up some water that had collected in the water table, used a cup to pour it into the side of the sprinkler, and then he blew really hard to try to get the water to "shoot" out of the sprinkler holes. It actually worked! Creativity points for this silly boy who's always trying to find the best way to follow the rules while bending them!

When Ian was about Ryan's age, I let Ian play with a can of shaving cream. He absolutely loved squishing it and spreading it all over the table and all over his body. (Check out the old post here for a comparison.) I thought it would be fun to give Ryan a similar experience. As you'll notice, we have ZERO pictures of Ryan playing in the shaving cream because he only was interested for about 2 seconds. Then, he looked at his shaving-cream covered hands in a horrified way and screamed, "Off! Off!" Interestingly, Ian seems to like shaving cream as much at almost-5 as when he was almost-2. :) And Ryan did enjoy playing in the water table while Ian enjoyed the shaving cream.

.)

We've done a few baby-sitting "swap" evenings with our friends Kyle and Aliceson these past couple of months. The boys love playing together, and we've each loved getting (and giving each other) couple time (for FREE!). All four boys fall asleep well other places and then transfer well back home. Sammy was in such a smiley mood during one of our evenings of watching him and his brother, Caleb. What a sweet boy! I've gotta print this one to put on our fridge alongside our other godchildren's pics. :)

We were very inspired by Uncle Jason & Aunt Amy's idea of a weekly family games night. We've only done two so far, but they've been a lot of fun for all of us. This first night, we played Hullabaloo, Elefun, and two games we made up. Ian came up with a Hide-and-Seek type game where one person had to hide along with a stuffed animal and then make the noise the animal makes when the "seekers" needed a clue to find the hider. 

Matt came up with some fun competitions involving our kids' plastic bowls, including trying to balance them on your feet or head for the longest period of time. We'll definitely continue this family game night tradition as often as we can!

 We had so much yellow pollen on our car in March that Ian asked a gazillion times when we could wash it. One non-preschool morning, we devoted much of the morning to cleaning the car. The boys were actually great helpers. Ian wanted to do the majority of the shop-vacuuming of the interior all by himself.  And, of course, it wasn't hard to get two volunteers to hose off and wash the car with soapy water. Our car was shiny clean by the end!

What a fun March! :)