Journal gifts for my boys

When my first son was born, I remember being filled with such overwhelming emotions. I would literally stare at him in amazement and pure awe for hours. I just could not believe that he came out of my womb and I would often cry. I was no longer a girl, but a woman with a baby...how gloriously strange. Never wanting to lose this monumental moment in our lives, I wrote a long letter to my dear infant son. It is tucked away in his baby box, but every once in a while I read it out loud. Oh and those emotions surge right back to the surface, like if it were yesterday.

I am always so grateful after reading the letter, because there is no way that I would remember that moment in time so fully.

The letter sparked a desire to pen my thoughts and feelings about both of my sons' lives. So, a couple of years ago, I went out and bought a journal for each of them to record how their mama sees them through her loving eyes.

I continue to journal and just made an entry tonight. One day I would like to present the journals as gifts to my boys when they are big men.

Push My Buttons

Enjoy my button collection and explore!  I like to trade buttons too; grab mine from the side bar!

Stone Soup

Last year we checked out a Marcia Brown book called Stone Soup and found it to be a very simple, but telling story.  The boys are ready to read it again and are most excited about making the soup itself. 

Yes, we've gone to the garden and selected our stone.  It's been washed and boiled and now it's all ready for use in our lip smacking story soup of our own.

Fall wind you can touch.

Okay, so we live in Texas and sometimes we don't have definite seasons.  Our Fall lesson today focused on wind and TnT used tissue paper as a tactile respresentation.

This is a very simple project & it provided us with 45 minutes of additional creative play too. Items you'll need: tissue paper, glue stick, scissors, tape, plastic leaves, berries, and twigs.

1. Gather some tissue paper (any color) & select 1st piece.  Scrunch a portion of the paper and tape to make handle.  The handles come in handy with smaller children, as they can run around the room with it & pretend to be the wind.  You can skip this step if you prefer or just make some with handles.

2.  Lay everthing out on a table & have your children decorate his/her wind piece.  Side note, this would make great gift wrapping too.

3.  Let your children get creative! Ours decided to cut some of the edges.

The more wind pieces that are made, the more FUN!



We ran around the house with our wind and made breezes, released them from a stair case, and the boys' favorite activity was using the box fans to create high speed wind.

Here is a video of TnT having fun with their creations:

Little T makes dinner.

The boys are always in the kitchen with me, so I got them involved in cooking and baking before they could even walk.  They are in charge of setting the table and sometimes they like to prepare entire meals, and other times they assist in a couple of tasks before they are onto something else.

Usually it's Big T that lingers longest in the kitchen, but Little T decided he wanted to help and make a full meal.  We set up stations on three separate counters so he could have a clear work station. 

First, we started with cracking open the eggs...a favorite of both boys & they are quite proficient at it now.

Then he seasoned the meat.

Next he dipped the meat in egg and flour.

Last, he opened up the gravy packet, measured out the water, and mixed it up.

He ended up saving me lots of time, since he was able to work mostly on his own.  I was able to fry up the meat in no time.  Team work got dinner out faster, which the whole family enjoyed.

Big T's Book Picks for November 2010

He's 10 years old and loves to read!  He'll read his books over and over, and get something new out of them each time.  Classics seem to be a favorite and his top three are Sherlock Holmes, The Swiss Family Robinson, and The Red Badge of Courage.  Other books that have made the list are: 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Pinocchio, Guliver's Travels, Huckleberry Finn, The Time Machine, Moby Dick, Oliver Twist, Tom Sawyer, Treasure Island, and (not a classic) The Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.   

TnT got to meet Diary of a Wimpy Kid actors.

We woke up early last Tuesday and stood in line to buy the new book, The Ugly Truth.  It was a great bonus to get the books signed by Jeff Kinney and meet the leading actors from the movie.