school projects

Last nite, Sean and I worked with the boys on their first school projects. Of course, they were both due on the same day, so we had two projects to do in one nite. But, we had a great time together.

Taison had to do a shoe box habitat. He had to pick his "favorite" habitat to learn about then create it. (didn't we all just love those projects growing up) He actually wanted to do a swamp as his habitat, but do you know how hard it is to find swamp animals in the toy section. lol.

So, he settled for an African Savannah. Sean and Taison spent time on the computer researching all about it. They came up with a plan of attack and with the help of my trusty hot glue gun and our long/dead grass in our lawn... we created the best grassland ever!

Daimon is learning about reading, and characters in books. His assignment was to choose his favorite book and dress up like the main character. Of course, the first thing he said was that Star Wars was his favorite book so that he could dress up like Darth Vador... we killed that one real quick. Thank goodness his teacher said that she didn't want to see a bunch of store bought halloween costumes. So, we settled with the book "Put me in the Zoo"

He looked great in spots. We took some felt circles i had cut out earlier that day and Daimon hot glued them all over a pair of pants and a T-shirt. Then we painted spots on his arms and face.

I think they did a great job on their first school projects... They were proud of themselves. Taison was nervous last nite about presenting his habitat and couldn't fall asleep. And they were both so excited this morning that they were up 30 mins before the alarm even went off. Sean and Taison practiced his presentation a few times, while i painted the spots.Sadly, some of the kids in the other grades made fun of him in the halls and at lunch calling him the 'spot boy'. He was very upset about that. But, his teacher told him that out of all the costumes in the class, his was the very best. Thank you Mrs. Jones! You saved Daimon's self confidence.

I hope all school projects go this smooth.

Sweet Boy

Yesterday afternoon I received a phone call from Daimon. He is 5. He was at grandma and grandpa's house while i was at work. I answered the phone and he said " Hi Mom." but, it was not his usual happy self... so i asked him what was wrong. He said he was sad. I asked him why....

"there are people killing each other." he said...

My first thought was where? who? what is going on? am i missing something?

I, of course, asked him who was killing who, (never know with him, it could be on a video game or something) He said that just regular people are killing each other in the streets, and it's so sad. why would they want to kill other people for real?

I asked him where he saw this.

He said he was watching the news.

Come to find out, it was a news story about the war going on in Iraq. They were showing footage of bombings, fighting, etc... And he was really upset by this. Not that it was messy, or Gorey... but, that people were killing each other. how do you explain the politics and reasoning's behind a war to a 5 year old?

Here's to keeping a 5 year old innocent as long as possible..

.

More Halloween Decor

I've been slow at work this past week, so i've been keeping busy by reading plenty of crafty blogs. Pretty much blog hopping from site to site all week. Now, I'm not a crafty person. i have never claimed to be. I often say just that. "I'm not a crafty person" However, as often as i've said that to myself and to others around me, i still tend to lean toward always wanting to do a craft project. In other words... reading about craft projects all day makes my mind spin with things that i want to do. The first thing on my list was to make a 'spell book' for Halloween decorations. I got the idea from here.

My sister picked up a couple of free books at a used bookstore. I covered them in Halloween paper, and used the labels from that website. I don't think my books turned out quite as cute as her books did... But, both of my boys loved it and asked if there was really spells in the book!!!

And, THAT is what really matters!

Halloween

My boys and I decorated for Halloween the other night. i was pulling out these cute ceramic decorations. You know, the glass jack o lanterns, and the whimsical witches shoes... Well, i was getting pretty excited about them... but not my boys.

They kept digging into the bin looking for "the cool stuff"... Want their definition of cool stuff??? plastic spiders, a bag of spider webs, and caution tape!

With Dad's help they spend the next 20 mins putting "caution... Beware" tape across every door in the house. And then the next 30 mins putting spider webs over everything...

Seriously? i'm never spending money on nice decor again when a bag of $.99 spider webs was enough for my kids! In retrospect, i suppose it's a good thing that my boys don't want the fancy stuff... that it's the little things in life that get them the most excited. And so, what they loved, i guess turns into my favorite things too. Sometimes, you just kind of wish that their favorite thing would sometimes be yours... (i worked hard sewing handmade pumpkins for the kitchen table!)

County Fair

This year we were able to take a few hrs off of work to go to the fair. we went on a Wednesday afternoon. It was a very rainy day, but i'm now convinced that that is the best time to go. It wasn't hot, it wasn't crowded, and there were no lines for the rides. We even got a magic show to ourselves. Everyone had a great time. I just got a few pics... but, i thought i'd share...