Saturday

This morning, Kaitlynn worked on her painting that she slept through yesterday. She seemed to enjoy mixing the colors together.

Then the kids played for a while.

Gavin made a helicopter at his tool bench and was telling me all about what it does.


We usually don't watch TV, but today we made an exception because Dad is getting started on finishing the basement (WOO HOO!!)! So, we went upstairs and watched the London Royal Ballet perform The Tale of Peter Rabbit. I'm not sure how they dance in animal costumes but they make it look easy.

Then Dad started using tools and Gavin decided he (Dad) needed help so he said he was going to 'teach' Dad how to do it.

They took a break while the babies were sleeping to watch the Missouri basketball game and then they came back and finished the wall.

Red and White Makes Pink!

That's what Gavin learned today! It's been quiet here this week. We haven't really been working on anything but next week we will start learning about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and maybe some other Presidents if I can find appropriate level books.

Gavin has been playing a lot with his astronauts. We read The Magic Tree House: Midnight on the Moon this week. We just finished it today and Jack and Annie went into space. Gavin has been showing an interest in space for a while but he never gets too deep into it. This afternoon he was Jack and I was Annie and we were on the moon (I was cleaning the bathrooms on the moon and a moonman was trying to get into the bathroom but we didn't know if he was friendly or not!)

We just started reading a biography about Teddy Roosevelt. We've read about three chapters so far and Gavin seems to like it. Biographies can be hard...kind of depends on the author and this is a long book with very few pictures. I'm not sure if we'll finish it but I thought we could at least try it and see how it goes.

Austin continues to eat a lot. He's sitting up at the table really well but it's funny because his head and shoulders are all you can see over the table!

He still closes his eyes every time the flash goes off. Austin also got a new book today! We read it a few times and he really likes it. Hopefully he will be a reader just like his brother!




Gavin and Kaitlynn played with Duplos this morning. They were building planes and boats...at least that was what Gavin was building, Kaitlynn wouldn't tell me what she was building!





This afternoon, Gavin painted using red and white paint. He discovered that if you mix them together you get pink paint! That was very exciting! Kaitlynn was supposed to join us but she slept through it and then went home. Hopefully tomorrow she can paint too!

Valentine's Day

Today we did our first Valentine's Day craft...we made a Valentine garland. I cut out hearts and Kaitlynn and Gavin decorated them with red cotton balls, heart and flower foam pieces and jewels left over from Gavin's birthday party. Then we taped them onto a pink ribbon. We stuck ours on the fireplace. Kaitlynn was very good and putting her cotton balls onto the glue and sticking the foam pieces onto her hearts. Gavin is getting better at using the Elmer's glue without making a big mess and he even peeled off the paper backing on his foam pieces all by himself! In fact, other than cutting out the hearts, I didn't have to help him at all with this project!

A Few Pictures of the Weekend

Saturday:

Sunday:

New Carpet!

This morning our new carpet was installed! It looks great and our furniture is back in the bedrooms and we are getting settled back in. Austin was very happy to be placed in his crib tonight. As an added bonus, Steven scraped off the popcorn from the master bedroom ceiling last night and painted it.
So after the carpet men had left (it took them almost 3 hours!) and I had gotten the furniture back in the bedrooms and we could move again in the living room, Gavin and I played with Play Doh. Gavin discovered my scrapbooking scissors that cut in zig zags and scalloped edges and he likes to use them on the Play Doh. Anyway, we made a snowman. Gavin was very excited about it. He really liked the top hat we added!

Austin really enjoyed playing with Play Doh too, actually he enjoyed checking out the top to the Play Doh container and seeing what all it was capable of doing.

Yesterday Gavin was working on a Cars-themed dry erase board. It has pages to trace and write letters, numbers, color words, etc. and it has counting, addition and subtraction. He usually works on the letters but he started working on the addition and subtraction. We have done addition before, he just counts both sides and then counts them altogether and I 'read' the problem as he solves it so he gets used to the symbols and what they mean. We have never done subtraction before but he wanted to since it was on his dry erase board and we worked out the problems and he did a great job! I thought it would confuse him but he surprised me.

Our Weekend

This weekend we (and by we I mean Steven) moved around the last of the furniture (yay!) I will post some more pictures of some changes to the house soon. We also got new carpet for the bedrooms (yay!). I found a carpet store that was having a remnant sale and I got an extra 25% off for mentioning that I saw the ad on craigslist. So I ended up getting carpet about 60% off! And, I happened to find three remnants that were all the same carpet in the sizes we needed so it worked out nicely.


Dad and Gavin enjoyed watching the DVD about flight that Uncle Steve sent. I was kind of surprised that Gavin sat and watched the whole video since it was 1 1/2 hours long and it had alot of information about the history of flight but he did.

Austin enjoyed eating dinner with Gavin last night. Nothing makes Austin happier than being with his brother. So the last few weeks I've been using sign language with Austin. Just the signs for eat, milk and more. Last night after he ate his food I was feeding Austin some veggie puffs (which both him and Gavin love for some reason and they have collard greens, spinach and kale in them, go figure), anyway, Austin starting do the sign for 'more' when he wanted another puff! Gavin and I were very excited!



I'm not sure what this face was about...maybe he's tired of getting his picture taken?