February Activities

Still behind on everything I will try to make this a short recap of a short month.  Here is our February around the house.

After church one day Nathan got a hold of Haley’s crown and wand that she got from Y.W. and gave everyone a good chuckle.

One cold but sunny day we went outside to go bowling. 

One of Nathan’s favorite books this month surprised us one morning being found in the cupboard!!!  Nathan is bound and determined to limit organization singlehandedly if necessary.  And Kaitlyn found Oscar getting a drink from the tub one day.

Nathan worked on sorting food groups and preparing nutritious meals for me and him by choosing one food from each group in the meal. 

The “ay ay, sir” look in the middle reminds me that during a very quiet flag ceremony we were at we stood to rise as the flag came by.  In the midst of the silence as everyone solemnly stood with their hands on their hearts Nathan suddenly and unexpectedly burst into loud song singing “Take your hat off – as the flag goes by”.  I quickly clamped my hand over his mouth shaking my head with a chuckle.  At least the song was pertinent!  This song is from the same music that taught all of my children the preamble to U.S. Constitution years before it was taught in school as well as how the government works like a big triangle with its checks and balances which has even helped the older kids on tests right into High School.  The teachers look at my kids in amazement when they start spouting this stuff from distant memories so I can’t complain too much.  Three year olds singing is pretty excusable, really.

And probably Nathan’s favorite book this month of February was “We’re going on a Bear Hunt” which I too love remembering the bear hunts my Kindergarten teacher took us on.  It is a very fun exciting adventure each time we read it.

Nathan and I built cool moving things with tinker toys and a very serious George Washington came home from school with us one day.  There is white hair attached to the back of that hat though you can’t see it in this picture.

Kaitlyn got a hold of my camera again.  She LOVES taking pictures of the cats because they are so cute.  And she’s right.

I take my own pictures of the cute cats to prove it.  Here are the “boys” hanging out keeping an eye on the squirrels and also the cats that keep coming over to visit.  Typically this isn’t much of a cat neighborhood but lately we’ve seen more cats wandering that don’t seem to have a home.  I can’t help but wonder if people are dropping them off or what but there is a neighbor on the next block who is at least keeping the cats fed outside in her backyard.

Toward the end of February we attended the “Blue and Gold Banquet” with Tristan.  He received recognition with his awards after we ate dinner and is seen on the left with his leader.  He is a “highly decorated” Cub Scout at this point in time and almost ready to move on.

My contribution to the desserts was a daffodil cake covered in a cream based frosting that I stiffened and dyed to match the theme colors.  The flowers are cut marshmallows rolled in coarse sugar that I colored.  Kaitlyn enjoyed the chocolate fondue.

Nathan enjoyed the blue part of a cupcake and getting away from his big sister.

Nathan loves painting any chance he gets.  So I got out the paints for him one day and cut out a paper bag so it would lie flat.  We chose some sponges that were shaped like things starting with the letter P as well as a letter P sponge and went to town on the brown paper as well as other scrap paper.  In the end we were left with some really cute wrapping paper to wrap a birthday gift for a certain cousin whose name begins with P.

The next day when the paint was dry we wrapped up the gift; a matching Elmo shirt so the boys could be faraway twins. 

P is for Porter and Puppy and Purple and Polka dots!

One day Nathan wandered into the room as a robot!!! by “wearing” the kitty cats favorite cube tent.  And Nathan enjoyed going down and picking games from the basement to play with me; Operation among others.

Word puzzles were fun.  Nathan filled all the boards and looking at the pictures would tell me “Frog is spelled F-R-O-G” and so on.

Nathan liked the lace-ups and dressing the bear.  There is always a Sandy cat nearby when strings are involved.  She even robs this activity of its strings when she thinks nobody is looking.  Finding laces around the house is pretty normal when lace-ups and beading activities are out.

And the “robot” is back!

Kaitlyn got a hold of the camera to take pictures of the cute cats she always finds lounging in one their favorite places; her bed!  And sometimes Sandy could care less where she drops off to sleep.  She may be 3 1/2 years old but when she falls asleep in a pile including a random boot in the very center of the room she reminds us of a kitten.

And Kaitlyn’s special cat Spooky works hard at his self chosen chore of always helping load and unload dishes until he collapses on the table weary from so much work.  No mice in the house right now.

And Nathan discovered more dinosaur puzzles tucked in with the games downstairs and couldn’t get enough of these.  He can honestly sit for hours doing puzzles. 

Puzzles, Lace ups and little Legos.  He has amazing patience for them all.

We also enjoyed making up more stories with the Little People family.  We got out some little bears and made up a story of the three little bears who came to visit Goldilocks in her house and sat in all her chairs and slept in all her beds and then she invited them to eat some food downstairs when she came home from her walk and found them… 

until the door bell rang.  When the door was opened a stop light was standing there dancing and scared them all away, bears and humans alike.  Oh NO!  This made Nathan laugh so hard even though it was his own story and it entertained him amazingly!  We had a fun month and are looking forward to hopefully some warmer temperatures and spending more time outside soon.