Cooper created this Lego scene today while taking his quiet time. There is a space ship in the middle and a diamond chest on the right. The yellow dome was a poisonous area and the beige area on the left was quicksand. He would take the torsos off of a character and stick him to the quicksand to look like he was sinking. I thought this was pretty darned creative for a five year old just using his imagination. :)
So it has been about 2 1/2 months since we planted the garden and it has really been busy. We have already enjoyed a lot of squash and cucumbers. We have been using the basil, rosemary, and peppers in our cooking. The tomatoes are really starting to produce, and the okra is starting to bloom. We have so enjoyed the garden this year! The kids love going outside to see if there is anything new to pick in the garden, and they are learning a lot about gardening and the joy of providing your own food on the table. It just goes to show that it is worth the time it takes to do it right, rather than trying to do a shortcut technique that gives little to no yield.
(To go back to see the garden at planting, here is the other post: Starting the Garden)
Noah decided to participate in Alex’s Lemonade stand this year, hosting a lemonade stand to raise money for pediatric cancer. Our stand was dedicated to the memory of Dustin Cobb, one of Noah’s third grade classmates who was fighting cancer that year and sadly passed away last summer. He invited his best friend, Joshua, to help and together we manned our booth outside of Joshua’s uncle’s tanning salon on a very hot afternoon. The lemonade was free and we accepted donations for our cause and had a lot of contributors…strangers and friends (one of our friends that we hadn’t seen since high school even came out). We had a great day working together for a great cause!
We have been studying Japanese history and warriors so today Noah drew a samurai warrior and then colored him with crayons followed by a paint wash in the style of early Japanese art. I think this is his best work to date. :)
Noah has been climbing trees for years while Cooper watched. Lately, he has been wanting to climb too, but just can’t get up there (not that I mind…I am not the biggest fan of the tree climbing). Today we were playing in the front yard and Noah started climbing the big pear tree so Cooper ran over to the willow tree and was able to get some footing and get up into the tree. Granted he was only about 5 feet above the ground, but you would think he had made it to the top of the tallest tree. He was so proud to finally be able to climb like Noah.
Noah learned to ride his bike about 4 years ago, but he never got completely confident riding all alone before the winter came and then it was too cold for him to ride. When spring came again, he got back on the bike but at one point he took a big fall and decided that he didn’t want to ride any more because he was worried he would get hurt again. The bike was hung up in the garage and all but forgotten, until today when Noah said he wanted to ride it again. Just like the old saying says, you never forget how to ride a bike. He got on and took right off down the road, like the years of not riding had never happened.
Noah is really getting into making scrambled eggs for breakfast. On the mornings that Cooper doesn't have school Noah gets up first and cracks an egg into each bowl, adds a little salt and pepper and then beats the egg and sticks it in the microwave. By the time I am dressed and into the dining room, Noah and Cooper are happily eating the breakfast that Noah made for them.
Cooper had gotten to the point where his book shelf was completely packed and his room was just at the point where it needed a little more organization. It took hours to do, but I was able to get everything moved into these cubes with room to spare. Cooper's room looks great and it is nice to be able to put everything away again.
The rags...about a week ago, Noah told me that he didn't want them anymore. I packed them up and put them away. Today he found another one under his bed and we realized that it had been a week since I put them up. After the excitement of realizing he had succeeded, the last rag went to join the others. The rags are officially gone.
We made it through another appointment with no cavities! What else can you ask for?
Today Noah woke up to realize that he was out of clean pants, so what did he do? Without saying a word, he took his laundry basket to the laundry room and started washing them himself! By lunchtime he had all of his clothes clean and dry. I was really surprised and so very proud.
This may look like a simple deck of cards, but it represents a huge change in our family. We truly don't have little kids any more.
For the first time in years we are at a place in our family where we can get together with our friends and the adults can play games or watch grown up TV while all the kids play in another room. None of us have toddlers anymore! So far this year we have had two card games with the Morrisons, once at their house and tonight at ours. We played cards while the boys all played video games. While it is really exciting to know that we have reached this point, I can't help but feel a touch of sadness to realize that our group of little boys just aren't little anymore.
Today Noah told me that the Guinness World Record for jumping jacks was 51 in one minute. He felt sure that he could do more than that, so he asked me to set up the video camera for a test. Sure enough, he was able to do 63 in one minute. After he calmed down from the excitement, we went to the GWR website to see what one has to do to actually submit a record attempt and we were able to submit an application for a kit. I am sure that there will be some stickler rules for jumping jacks (maybe even that a kid can't hold the record) but at least at our house, Noah is the reigning record holder for Most Jumping Jacks in One Minute!
After all of the excitement of the morning's record-breaking, I knew that would be our photo today, but now I have another big story from the day. This evening while Noah and I were at the table finishing our school work, Dwight came home from work and took the dogs out to play ball. On one throw, both dogs were running at full speed toward the ball and they hit, head on. Ruby (right) just froze and didn't move so Dwight went to check on her. He carried her inside and when he put her down she couldn't stand up or walk and she was completely unresponsive to him talking to her. He put her in her crate and rushed her to the vet while I stayed home with the scared boys. Halfway there she began to whine, like she would ordinarily do on the way to the vet and by the time he got her there she seemed to be ok again. After an exam by the vet (and a LOT of prayers on this end), it was determined that she suffered a concussion and she was able to come back home tonight with just a warning to watch her. What a scare!
Tonight was very exciting. Noah had these early readers when he was in Kindergarten and they have been sitting among all of the other books in Cooper's bookshelf for quite a while. I was in Cooper's room tonight, putting away laundry and organizing the books back onto his bookshelf when I came across this book. Since Cooper has been working on sight words at school I thought, "What the heck" and asked Cooper to look at the book and see if he could read any of the words. With a little help sounding out a couple of words, he was able to read the entire book! He was so excited. In this photo, he has gone into the sunroom to show Daddy that he can read a book. So exciting...it won't be long now.
Today we went to the mall to spend the afternoon. We had lunch, rode the carousel and the little train, and spent a lot of time at the Croc store. Of course, with money burning a hole in the kids' pockets, the main reason for the trip was to go to the Lego store. They each bought a couple of the new Bionicles that haven't made it to Walmart yet and Cooper bought this helicopter.
The best part is that Cooper was able to build this helicopter all by himself. Having an older brother, Cooper has always been ahead of his age in playing with the "big kid" Legos, but Noah would usually put them together for him and then he would play with them. If a part fell off, he would usually have to find Noah and have him put it back together. Later he was able to put the small Bionicles together by himself and eventually the large Bioncles too, but they are a lot easier to construct than the regular Lego toys. Seeing Cooper go to his room, instructions in hand, and assemble this helicopter all by himself was so cool.
