Grothaus-isms!

Didn't get to this conversation before "yucky" words were said to one another: (Gavin wanted Gunner to put on a tutu & Gunner wanted to play with his fishing pole.)

Gavin: Just put this on!
Gunner: No, I fixing my fishing pole.
Gavin: Well, you're a snapper!
Gunner: You're a pee pee!
Gavin: You're a bad tutu!
(Enter Mom who takes back control.)

Bears & Ballerinas, OH MY!

This evening I sent my baby off to her first "dance" class...ok, so it was more of a "mommy & me" activity class, but we call it dance. I got her in after the spring session already started so we were the newbies tonight. She will be going one night a week with the other five kiddos in the class until the end of March. During April & May, she & one other girl in the class will continue to go to class & start practicing for the recital. Although I think she's really to young to be expected to perform in front of a large audience, I couldn't pass on the idea of basically getting private lessons. While she enjoyed the stations in class tonight, at one point she pointed to the other girls dancing in the other room & said "I do that!" It was really cute!

Gavin continues to go to Awana Cubbies on Wednesday nights with his friend, Moses. He wanted to pose in his Cubbie Bear shirt so he could send a picture to Cael.

Hi Ho, Hi Ho

OOOHHH...this was a fun little activity! I took a package of little bugs that I found in the party isle at Wal-Mart & froze them in platic containers. As shown, the kids then took hammers, aka ice picks, & freed the bugs. They loved it! The next time I will use larger bowls so that they have to work a bit harder to get to the bugs.

Bring on the sunshine!

Freedom of Speech

Yes, there is a point to the boys having colored-cotton-ball-straw-races...Gunner's speech therapist is always giving us ideas of how he can gain better muscle control with his mouth, lips, tongue, etc. Gavin is always game for anything competitive, so this works for both of them! The other picture shows another "tongue awareness" activity...if only they were all so fun & delicious!

Snap, Cracle, Pop

Last night as we were eating supper before Gavin left for Cubbies, I told him that if he ate all of his peanut butter & honey sandwich & peas that he could have some chips. Once he had devoured both of them on his plate, he COMPLETELY surprised me & asked, "Mommy, may I please have some more peas?" He ended up requesting five helpings & finished off the bag. He then told me was too full for chips. Unfortunately, Gunner did not follow suit as he ate his chicken, left his peas untouched, & licked his plate clean of ketchup. His request..."More ketchup, mommy!"

This morning I thought I would suprise the kids & give them some Lucky Charms that I had gotten on sale. We usually eat Pop Pops (aka Rice Krispies) or Honey Kix, so I was thinking this would be a really cool treat. Didn't go over as I had planned. Gavin was intrigued by the shapes so he ate a few bites. Grace enjoyed about 5 marshmellows, & Gunner just kept screaming "Why you cook this?" I ended up dumping three bowls of Lucky Charms & pouring three bowls of the good 'ole Pop Pops.

As a bonus, I 've added this pic of Grace....I heard her whining for me yesterday as her brothers woke her up early from her nap. I wanted her to get some more sleep so I thought I'd give her a few minutes to go back to sleep. The whining stopped so I thought my plan was successful. Lo & behold, I hear a sweet little voice reciting Goodnight Moon. I keep a copy of the book on the dresser beside her rocker which is not reachable from her crib. I crept into her room & found this. She had climed out of her crib, turned her light on, put on her mouse ears, & grabbed her favorite book. Love her!

Cherry Baby

Since today is President's Day, we created cherry trees in honor of George Washington. I tried to explain who our President is & what he does...not sure if they really understood. I ended up comparing him to a king & they seemed to be able to make a connection. I drew a trunk on a piece of construction paper & had them paint it with brown paint. They then dipped their hands in green glitter paint to make the leaves, and used a cotton ball dipped in red paint for the cherries. As usual, Gunner was more meticulous in his painting. I was very impressed with his trunk and leaves, but he didn't quite get the "dabbing" part of the cotton ball for the cherries. He tried to smear the first one & became very upset when he couldn't make an exact circle, therefore, quickly losing interest in the project. The rest of the day was spent putting away the last of the Christmas decs while the boys continuously tangled their fishing poles that Daddy let them bring inside. I either need to learn how to fix & tie the line when this happens or invest in several poles for both of them that I can swap out.

Monster Truck Madness

Since the boys are really into monster trucks right now, I found the PERFECT craft for us to do on a cold Tuesday afternoon. First, they decorated the body of their truck with crayons & markers. Then, we took an old tractor tire & dipped it brown paint to make the monster wheels. Cute & simple!

My Little Shortcake!

Although these pictures don't do it justice, Grace got tons of compliments on her outfit today. One lady at Wal-Mart told me to send her picture off to magazines because she looked like Strawberry Shortcake. As her mom, I obviously think she's adorable, but it's her personality that makes you fall in love with her!

Grothaus-isms!

So, I am always meaning to write down the funny things that the kiddos are saying but never get around to it. I thought I would try to compile a list right here on the 'ole blog. I'll just title each post the same...Grothaus-isms. Get ready to LOL! ;)

This one isn't all that funny, but oh so Gavin...
G:Mommy, I wanna go the Congo & catch a Tiger Fish.
M: I think you're a little too young to travel all the way to Africa to go fishing. I hope that one day you have the opportunity to fullfill that dream, though.
Later at supper
G: Daddy, when I"m like 32 I'm gonna go to the Congo & catch a Tiger Fish.
D: Ok, buddy, we'll do that someday.
G: Is Africa farther than Ohio??

And I'm going to cheat and go back to something Gavin told me about a month ago after Grace hid from me in a closet & I couldn't find her...(yes, again!)
G: When Jozie & I get married & have a daughter I'll never lose her like you do Gracie!

Moving on to Gunner...he has recently become interested in reading their picture Bible. Every time I read the story of the birth of Jesus, he points to Mary in the manger scene and says...
G2: and she poops him out.
M: who poops what out?
G2: Mary poops the baby out.

Spring is Just Around the Snow Drift!

Today Punxsatony Phil said spring is around the corner...kind of hard to imagine when we were hit with a blizzard overnight. The tri-state area had snow accumulations from 12-18 inches, with snow drifting as high as 6-8 feet. It wasn't quite the record-breaking storm that was predicted, but it kept the area deserted for about 24 hours. Most restaurants, banks, & shops closed Monday afternoon and will not re-open until tomorrow. I was very surprised to hear that I-70 was shut down in Missouri overnight. After getting stuck in the drive, Dad walked to the end of Charleston Lane & had Brian come pick up so that he could open the DQ. Clint spent the morning shoveling out our drive & then headed to AmFam to make a path to get in the door. Unfortunately, I don't have pics of the kids playing in the snow as I was afraid I would lose them in the drifts! They were aware of the snow but had no interest in going out. We did make some use of the snow last night by making snow ice cream. As I stated on FB, the Gavin & Grace thought it was ok (after smothering it in DQ crunchies), but they definitely didn't go back for seconds. I had a small taste but wasn't too impressed with the taste either. Just good for memories I guess! ;) Tomorrow we'll start packing for our trip to Jeff City this weekend to visit Lance's family & watch Cael wrestle. Gavin is soooo excited!

Polar Bear, Polar Bear...

Polar bear, polar bear what do you hear....I hear children giggling in my ear. Ok, so these don't look exactly like polar bears, but close enough! We actually did this more for Grace & Gunner to work on the circle shape. We watched Diego's Great Polar Bear Rescue & followed up with reading the book "Polar Bear, Polar Bear, What Do You Hear?" Gavin had to jazz his up a little with some glitter glue. With temps only in the low teens, we'll be spending the rest of the day & night in the warmth of our home. Daddy is off to a meeting in Davenport so we wish him safe travels home.

I Have a Dream...

In honor of MLK, JR's birthay, we talked about his "Dream" speech & life events on a preschool level. I then showed the boys pictures of children from all different races. I asked them what looked different about them. Gavin did most of the talking, & I have to say it was amazing to me that he never mentioned their differences in skin color. He would say, "This one is a girl & this one is a boy," or "This girl has yellow hair & this one has brown." I wasn't sure if I should even tell him about the differences in race but thought I needed to to explain the speech. I then had each kiddo pick out 10 pictures to glue on a collage & told them that because of MLK, they could all be friends. Before being prompted Gavin said, "Mommy, I have a dream that one day I'll go to Cael"s house." So sweet!

Eagle Days 2010

Bald Eagle Days were in Keokuk this weekend. We headed to the mall with Mimi to check out these magnificent birds. The kids played old time games & viewed photos of eagles while we waited for the live show. Definitely the highlight of the day was the vulture flying overhead in the theatre. Pretty cool!

I'm not a big fan of pictures of animals or scenery, but I had to insert these because they were so cool up close & personal! ESPECIALLY the eagle Just gorgeous!

Mimi, Mommy, & Grace ended the day shopping in Quincy. Grace was being a ham during the car ride. She's chewing on her corn dog stick. Love her!

But he was still hungry!

"The Very Hungry Caterpillar" has become a favorite book this month for the kiddos. They love to crawl on the floor like caterpillar, get wrapped up a blanket for a cocoon, & then spawn wings & fly around like a butterfly. They each take turns sitting on my lap while I read so they had put their fingers in the holes & count the fruits & food. Even Gavin has to have a turn! ;) Yesterday we combined red & yellow paint to make a sun & brown & black paint to make dirt. Today we cut out the shapes & used pom poms to make a caterpillar. Unfortunately, Grace destroyed her painting as well as Gunner's before we could get a picture.

My Flakes!

Another simple craft today to work on our cutting skills. The kiddos snipped off blue pieces of paper & then glued them to the snowflake. In order to encourage them to cut several pieces, I told them I didn't want to see any white left on the snowflake. As you can see, Gavin took that to heart!

Dress-Up

Just thought I'd post some pics of the kiddos playing dress-up. Grace got some really cute stuff for Christmas & the boys asked if they could put it on. Daddy will kill me when he sees these pics but I had to get some blackmail pieces for later in life! ;) They had a ball! I plan to look for some "boy" dress up coats & hats so they don't get confused! The pics of the jester & clown costume came from some dress-up clothes from Aunt Luan. She gave a box of my old dance costumes she had been give for her girls. It also had some old Halloween costumes that the boys made use of.

I actually told Gunner this was his football uniform since Gavin had a bball uniform. He REALLY didn't like that it was pink...nevermind the fringe & sequins!!

Happy National Bird Day!

The boys LOVE watching for Bald Eagles so I was very excited to find out today was National Bird Day... a perfect day to create a Bald Eagle craft! While it was very simple, the boys really liked the addition of the fish. Looking forward to Eagle Days!

Mommy's Angels

Ok, so maybe it's a little late for these angels, but I think they are adorable! The kids really thought they were cool with their faces on them! Other than one or two pieces I cut out, I can honestly say Gavin made 100% of his project. Grace & Gunner both needed 1-on-1 help so we had to make these in shifts. Gunner was REALLY wanting to play tractor tipping so he made us some beatiful noise THE WHOLE TIME! He is back to spending about 80% of the day whining so I'm thinking we're going back to the ENT to see if his ears have anything to do with it.

Do-A-Dots

Do-A-Dot art was a hit this morning! I've had a set for over a year but one of them is broke so they rarely get used. I printed off some winter backgrounds for them to fill in & they went to work. Grace loves stickers right now so she chose to use circle stickers for hers.

All smiles!!

How 'bout them Hawks!

Just wanted to put this in the memory book so Daddy will always be able to remember...Clint is always telling me Mizzou would kill Iowa if they played each other. Well, tonight they got their chance. Mizzou & Iowa were matched up to play in the Insight Bowl. It was a great game, but Iowa came out winning 27-24. Go Hawks!