Picnic at the Park

Terry took Caleb out fishing with Grandpa, so Kendall and I decided to enjoy the beautiful evening. I was the lucky 100th customer at our gas station and won a free pizza. Woohoo! So, Kendall and I ventured out to the new pizza place and ordered our pizza to go. We then headed to the closest park with benches, Rocket Ship Park. The above photo is why it is called rocket ship park.It has this extremely old rocket ship climber. 

By old, I suppose I should say classic. It is pretty neat for kids to climb to the top. It has an old fashioned metal slide that becomes scorching hot during the summer. 

After eating the pizza and playing on the rocket ship, Kendall decided to swing. First she did the Superman....swinging on her belly. Then she wanted to me to push her. She is working on learning how to pump her legs. She did a pretty good job today. I don't think she really went higher, or even sustained her momentum because she didn't have her entire body pumping, but she was getting the idea of putting her legs up and down.

Later Kendall noticed a dedication plaque. Kendall is beginning to recognize letters, especially those in her name. So, she was thrilled to find 3 k's on the sign. She was also able to point out o and e. Not too shabby! I think my favorite part of our evening out occurred was when another little girl arrived at the park. She was probably 6 months younger than Kendall, and spoke only Spanish. Kendall and this little girl hit it off. They played and laughed and played together. They used gestures and with some prompting Kendall said hello and when we left goodbye to her new friend in Spanish. I love how children can see past cultural differences and jump right in and play together. She had a wonderful evening!

Fun with Chores!

Caleb loves to help out with chores. He always has his own way of helping though. Today he helped with laundry. He brought the empty basket to the laundry room by sliding it down each set of stairs. I think if he had it his way, he would have been in the basket as it slid down the stairs. Then he vacuumed up the cat litter that was strewn on the floor as I switched the laundry over. He then decided he wanted to help sort the laundry. He did this by sitting in his laundry basket. I threw laundry at him and he tossed them into the correct basket. There were a few towels and he raced them into the linen closet. He had a blast and we got it done!

After chores we sat down for dinner. Terry and I have been working on the kids serving themselves. Today I served up spaghetti and green beans. I was a little nervous to be honest because the beans had liquid in them and well spaghetti...need I say more! Surprisingly they did a great job getting their own food. Kendall even politely asked me if I wanted green beans and passed the bowl. It was a wonderful dinner. 

After dinner I took Kendall out to teach her how to ride her two wheeler. She was not enthused about this prospect. We went to our local bike trail to practice. Kendall did an okay job. She was very concerned in making certain people knew that she was there, so she rang her bell often...over and over and over the second she saw someone until they passed her. Kendall has pedaling about down. She occasionally brakes when her pedals are both in the middle position and that can be tricky for her, but not too bad. What she does not have down at all is steering. How does one steer while constantly ringing their bell? They don't if you are Kendall. I let her run off the road at one point, but that back fired because it really scared her and she wanted to be done. So, next trip will be focusing on steering. I can't wait until both kids can bike. It should be a fun summer!

School is fun!

Caleb and Kendall both had great days today at school. Kendall was the star helper in class today. Honestly, I am not positive what exactly that means, but she came home with a huge star sticker on her shirt that she told me she had to keep on. I am guessing that she got to help with calender, be the line leader...that type of thing. She thought it was great!

Caleb also had a great day. He is learning about life cycles at school. They watched the life cycle of a butterfly. Yesterday the butterflies hatched from the cocoons, so today they released them outside. He was ecstatic about it.

Each night we spend a few minutes working on fine motor skills. Caleb draws a picture and tries to add some  writing. He has significant delays with his fine motor skills, so this isn't his favorite.task. I have found that doing this as a routine at the same time each day has helped. We read books in the living room, then we move to Caleb's room to reflect on our day. Today he was super sweet. He wrote that his favorite time of the day is when Mommy comes home. I am going to enjoy this stage while it lasts!

Errands

My kids love running errands, especially when my husband or I just want to do a quick run. Today our cat needed to go to the vet for her annual check up and shots. Terry decided that he would take the cat in. I planned on staying home and tiding up after dinner. Terry really wanted to go by himself. I have never seen my two children throw on their shoes and race like lightening to the car. Needless to say, they both went to the vet and had a stellar time. Later I asked Caleb why he liked to do errands, especially the boring ones. He told me it is because he loves to spend time with his Mommy and Daddy. Ahhhh...so sweet. Kendall told me she liked to spend time with her Caleb. haha. If it was Caleb asking she would have said something different.

We had a great evening afterwards. Caleb was exhausted and went to bed early. An amazing feat! Kendall and I took her very full laundry basket of clean clothes and put them away. I put things on hangers, but she did all of the rest by herself. She used a stool to hand up the hangers in her closet. She also put away all of her drawer outfits. I was super proud of her.

We read a very long book that her aunt got her. It was an anthology of Jamie Lee Curtis stories. Each of the stories has a song that goes with them. It was nice to have some one-on-one time with just Kendall. She also went to sleep easily. I wish every night would go as smoothly as tonight did!

Messy Rooms

Messy rooms are interesting things...they come out of no where, yet take forever to clean! The kids had a great time playing in their rooms today. They made tents with blankets, had all of their 'guys' out. It was great to see them playing so well together. Then came bedtime. Caleb actually did a great job cleaning his room. It is always interesting watching him clean up. He pretends to be a gorilla, slithers on the floor and is a snake 'swimming in water', etc. Hilarious. It takes him a bit longer than needed to clean up, but he does it with a smile on his face.

Kendall on the other hand is an avoider of tasks when it comes to cleaning. First she used her beauty tools and did her hair...rollers in, pretend curling iron was used, and hair was brushed. I went in and encouraged her to clean her room. Okay, by encourage I might have said I would take the toys that were left out away. She then told me to throw them all out. Of course I didn't because that is just what she wanted. With lots of tears and complaints her room is now clean. It was a very long hour! Kendall used to keep her room clean at all times. I really wish we could get back to those days!