Monday, June 30, 2008

6/30

We took the boys to Eccles Dinosaur park in Ogden yesterday. This is a fun place to go if your kids like dinosaurs. The have a small indoor musuem and the majority is outside. The indoor part is okay if your kids don't spook. However my kids freaked out over the dinosuars upstairs that moved and made noise.

They have a policy of 2 maps per family. While this probably works well for some families it doesn't work well for us. Of course each kid wanted his own map so he would know were he was at all times. After trying to convince the kids that we only needed two and that not working I tried to beg another map from the front desk. I was told I had my two maps and couldn't get another. So I have two happy kids and one kid who is having a meltdown. Finally some nice person walked over and handed my child who was having a meltdown her map. I owe that person a dinner as for the rest of the day he was happy. I placed the maps someplace safe so the next time we go I'll have extra maps and won't have the meltdown again.

We spent almost 3 hours there with the kids. It was worth the money although I'm not sure I enjoyed the heat. If you have kids who love dinosaurs this is a worth while place to take your kids to see. At the end of our visit I bought the boys a gift from the gift shop. All three had to have a dinosaur hat. I'll have to get pictures and share because it is quite cute. Two kids fell asleep last night wearing their hats.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

6/25

I've been a busy little critter. Between crafts, science projects, and our other typical daily stuff the boys and I have been a little busy. The boys have also been helping me grow a vegetable garden this year. We started several plants indoors and then moved them outside. We also planted carrots, which are a favorite of the boys. Yesterday we were rewarded with our first grown tomato of the season. Now granted it was tiny and a cherry tomato but the boys loved looking at the yellow tomato they grew. None wanted to try it so mom ate it and it was delicious. I can't wait for more.

The boys are getting even better at the bird watching in our yard. They can identify several species of birds and they help keep the bird feeders filled with each birds favorite type of food. Its so much fun watching them get excited over the birds.

Noah is pretty much potty trained now too. Again I have to say my approach to the potty training has saved me so much stress. He still forgets every once in awhile about pooping but otherwise he's doing great. It's going to seem weird not having to buy a huge box of diapers each month. We still use diapers at night although if they want to wear underwear to bed I let them. We haven't had an accident yet but I'm so scared of an accident happening.

Last night we went to the Syracuse Hertiage Days dinner and magic show. While the food wasn't too impressive, and how can it be when its massed produced, it was fun. The boys throughly enjoyed the magic show. Syracuse had a great turnout for the night. It makes me wonder why my city, Clearfield, can't do something like this. I was asked to join the 4th of July committee for Clearfield but after being told every idea I had wouldn't work I lost interest and dropped out. Honestly if Syracuse and do a week long celebration and have the turn out they did last night each night then I think Clearfield could draw the same amount if not more people. I hate the city I live in. They really don't do much to bring the city together like I see the other cities around us doing.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Frugal Tip Friday

My tip is to shop outside the grocery store for items. I'm always stopping at the nearest produce stand, ethnic food store, farmer's market and other such places to buy food. You never know what you may find and most of the time produce is so much cheaper at any of these places. Plus you can usually buy bulk spices from the produce stand or ethnic store for so much cheaper than the little bottles at the grocery store.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

6/18 Part Two

Today I stared our daily science experiment and craft a day program. Basically this is to help me keep the kids entertained and to teach the kids something while they think they are playing. I used the book More Mudpie to Magnets and All Around the town craft book.

Today's Science experiment:
Floating Rainbows
The kids loved this. "More, more, more Mom," they hollered. The hardest part was the waiting for the food coloring to drop from the oil into the water. Overall this one was liked in our house.

Today's craft project:
Peek a Boo house
I should have prepped this one last night. The kids lost interest quickly as it took some time for me to get things ready for them to do. I think I may try this again tomorrow after I prep it some tonight.

6/18

The kids are enjoying the summer reading program at the local library this summer. Sadly I had the days mixed up so we missed the puppet show. I know they kids would have loved that. Last week they did a bug concert and after the concert they made puppet bugs. The kids really enjoyed that. Yesterday they had Doodlebug art. The boys really enjoyed the learn to draw bugs part of the program. They watched and studied and drew just like the artist. While they enjoyed the pop up book storytime the actual making of a pop up book lost their interest. They also made a clay bug but again they didn't seem to enjoy that as much as the learning to draw. This is a great program and I highly recomend taking your kids to this program.
Tonight is Army Ants and Miss Utah will be at the Clearfield Library. I'm not taking the kids to this one but I bet it will be fun.
http://www.daviscountyutah.gov/library/kids/summer_reading_program/2008/default.cfm

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

June 11

So Noah found a cowboy hat at the yard sale we had a few weeks back and he claimed it as his. He wears it quite often and walks around telling everyone he is a cowboy. He gets Don's winter work boots out to wear as cowboy boots and rides the broom like a horse. About 2 weeks ago I tell him about cowboy music and he wants to hear cowboy music. I was picky and wanted real cowboy music not country music so I ended up introducing him to Chris Ledoux.

Chris Ledoux was one of my favorite singers, songwriter, and performer. I loved seeing him in concert and paid whatever the price to see him live. I played Cadillac Cowboy for Noah and he picked up the words the second time through. Watching him sing and perform to Cadillac Cowboy makes me so sad that he'll never see Chris in concert. I think he would have loved the show. I also would have loved to introduced him to Chris. I got to meet Chris once and you know I still remember our conversation. I remember how he took the time to talk to me and even got upset when his manager tried to hurry me through. The world lost a great person the day Chris LeDoux died. Now I watch Noah sing Chris Ledoux songs and in a small way he reminds me of Chris. He totally gets into singing the songs. We were in the grocery store the other day and Cadillac Cowboy came on the intercom. Noah stopped walking and starting singing and doing his moves to the song. He had people stopped in their tracks watching him and one even said he'd bet money that Chris would have loved to see a little 3 year old belting out one of his songs.

I'm on a quest now to replace all my lost Chris Ledoux albums. I noticed that there was a new album out that includes a dvd so I think I'll purchase that next. I think Noah would really love watching Chris in action.

God bless Chris Ledoux!

I've been tagged by Sherri

How to play this game of Tag: Post these rules on your blog. List: 3 joys, 3 fears, 3 current obsessions/collections, 3 random surprising facts about yourself. Tag 5 people at the end of your post by leaving their names. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog!

Joys
1. Watching my kids play with each other.
2. My dh since he's so into the whole romantic love thing, even if I'm not.
3. Watching my kids develop a love for reading. I'm a huge reader and I'm so happy I've installed the love of reading in my kids.

Fears
1. RODENTS and my kids want a ferret or hamster. I think NOT.
2. Something happening to my kids.
3. The unknown.

Current obessions/collections
1. Cookbooks.
2. Tracking birds.
3. Houseplants.

Goals
1. To finally keep the house clean.
2. Organize my life.
3. Become more active.


Random facts about me
1. I have three kids all conceived at the same time but separated by 23 months.
2. I have a huge book collection. Seriously I could open a library.
3. When I first discover something new I become obessed with it.

I'm pretty sure I do not have 5 people to tag but here are the people I do tag:
Mary, I'll have to come up with 4 more people.

Sunday, June 8, 2008

June 8th

Well Zachary is potty trained. He did it all on his own and I'm quite proud of him. I do put him in diapers at night still but I think he's only a few weeks away from not needing those. He's very excited to tell anyone that he wears underwear now.

Noah on the otherhand is being lazy. He did underwear for a week just so he could get a toy like was promised to Zach but as soon as he had toy in hand he started wearing a diaper again. I think he's just being lazy. Especially considering that he can go whenever the urge hits him.

This brings me to my next issue. Don, last year, told Nathan it would be fine to pee outside once when we had no place else for him to go. Well it appears that peeing outside is the "cool" thing to do in our house. While at our house its not a big deal, although I would love for them not to do this, they are doing this everywhere. They go to the park and just pull their pants down to pee or the other day we were at J and J nursery and Noah climbs into their big outdoor fountain pulls his pants down and starts to pee in the fountain. Now to figure out a way to convince them that peeing out in the open is not the way you go about doing your business.

Today is my birthday. I feel old. I didn't think turning another year older would make me feel old but for some reason today it has. I made myself a birthday cake since for the past several years no one has given me one. Not that it really matters but for some reason I just want my birthday celebrated today. I also told Don I wanted a lazy day. I didn't want to do laundry or any cooking. Since I highly doubt he'll do any laundry today I guess I won't have a lazy day because I didn't get any laundry done yesterday. If I don't keep up on laundry it piles up and it seems like laundry never gets done.