The Magic Tree House

Jonathan is so cute lately. 

A little update on him.  He is on the move, meaning he knows how to push off his toes to get something he wants.  I give it another week or two before he is really crawling.  His bottom gums are starting to get swollen and those little teeth will be coming through soon.  Lastly, he finally has decided he does like solid food and is eating it more often now.  He even will eat half a cheerio.

Now for a funny picture. He always sucks in his lips and makes the funniest faces

My baby is growing up and frankly it is making me sad how fast our lives are flying by.  Ethan has changed quite a bit this year.  He has definitely gotten taller and he is looking older.  I can now vision what he will look like as a teenager.  Ethan is a sweetheart, he loves Star Wars right now, his favorite school subject is math and I he starting to enjoy reading a lot more lately.  Ethan is a great helper, I don’t know what I would do without him.  He is caring and loving to his family (besides the usual brother/sister squabbles).  We love him so much and think he is too cute. Below are some handsome pictures of the birthday boy!

Ethan being silly for the camera (I think I might hold onto these pictures for future embarrassment). 

Ethan had a very fun birthday weekend.  On his birthday we started the day with some muffins in bed.  We then were able to have a party after church with our extended family.  It was great to be together with everyone and our kids just love it when their, Grandma’s, Aunts, and Uncles come to visit.

Besides Star Wars, his next favorite birthday gift was money.

Clark and I did not give him money or Star Wars presents this year.  He probably thinks we always give him lame presents :)  Oh well, we had to balance out the Star Wars mania.  I wonder what next’s year new fad will be?

This year for Ethan’s 7th birthday he wanted to have a party at Chuck E. Cheese’s.  He was allowed to invite a few friends and they all had a blast.  We went early before there was a crowd and our group was the first ones there.  It was so great to have the place to ourselves.  The kids followed a worker around who was testing the machines to make sure they worked properly and this let them get a bunch of free tickets which they thought was so cool.

Ethan requested a R2D2 cake, which Clark made using the cupcake cake method again. 

We are so happy that the boys had a good time. 

I just came across Growing with Science Blog.  It is an great blog with videos and activities for children to learn about science related things. 

We have been cloth diapering on and off since Gavin was 6months old.  I like it, it’s a nice feeling to save money and help the environment (Don’t worry, I still use disposables too, just not full time).  I wish I had time to go on about all that I have learned about cloth diapering and things we use, but I don’t.  So you can visit SimpleMom to get cloth diaper reviews and how-to’s in her cloth diapering 101 series.  She is currently having a giveaway, so go check it out.  Please feel free to contact me if you have questions about cloth diapering, I would be more than happy to answer.

Just in case you haven’t tried our grilled pizza recipe yet, the following pictures below should hopefully entice you.

We found the below picture in Carly’s room.  Notice the two dolls hugging.  She said it was Mommy and Daddy giving each other a hug.  So cute, but funny to walk into her room to find.  I just started laughing when I saw it.

Visit The Common Room for some great ideas on playing with math.  She has some great ideas and fun activities.  I have to attest, my kids learn more from math through play than worksheets.  Ethan learned how to add with Junior Monopoly.

For more math stuff visit this months Math Blog Carnival.

That’s right, Carly cut her hair again!  Click here for the flashback in time when she cut her hair for the first time.  It has been almost a year since the last incident.

This happened yesterday afternoon.  I was hanging out with Clark while he rested (he has been sick) and Carly came to sit and chat with us.  I told Carly I would trim her hair for her if she would like me to.  She said yes but also wanted her nails painted.  I said ok and to go get the nail polish.  Clark and I realized she had been quiet for awhile and I thought oh great she is painting her nails herself.  Before I get up to go check she comes up the stairs acting all shy like and then we saw her hair.  All I have to say is it was a good thing Clark was home because I probably would have lost it and yelled at her, but luckily I didn’t and stayed calm, but I am pretty upset that she did this again.  I was just thinking how I was going to let her bangs grow out, well I guess that is going to take a long time now.  She cut really close to her scalp again and we found long strands of hair everywhere. The first three pictures are right after we found out and she was almost in tears because she thought she was going to have to get all her hair cut off.  The last three pictures are after I took her to the hairdresser.  He did a great job blending in what he could and last night after I washed her hair I dried it and it looked better flipped under.

Here are two summer reading programs I am going to have the kids participate in.

Half Price Books - http://www.halfpricebooks.com/feed_your_brain.html

Barnes and Noble - http://www.barnesandnoble.com/summerreading/