Like Sister, Like Brother

Eve is definitely an explorer. She goes around looking for things to chew on, stare at, and play with. She is not afraid of anything, so far, and loves to climb over things. Well, she discover something new at the park: the bars that help kids climb up to the monkey bars. No, she did not try to climb them (thank goodness!), but instead decided that it might be fun to climb over the very lowest bar to the other side of the wood chips. She put her head in between the bars, then her body, and then tried to touch the other side. She sort of made it, but was not quite satisfied with that. So, she decided to lunge her body over the bar to the other side. I waited for a reaction: a cry, a scream. Nothing happened. She smiled, chuckled and went to do it again. It was a hit!

Reed, seeing that Eve was having so much fun, decided that it would be fun to copy her. If he ever sees Eve doing something fun, he copies her. So, I guess it goes the other way to: like sister, like brother. Reed likes to do what Eve does as well. Ah, what a symbiotic relationship these two have. :) Gotta love good park days (this one was on 11/11/10)! It always brings out the adventure in us all!

Week 5 - Reed learned about Native Americans. He loved his headband with the feather! (11/10/10)


Exploring the wood chips - searching for something new.

Reed posed so nicely. :)

Eve - the adventuresome one lunging herself onto her hands and over the blue bar.

Reed has joined in the fun.

He even crawls like Eve - funny kid.

Eve is now a huge fan of slides - she loves going down them head first on her tummy.

Chewing on sticks, just like Reed.

I'm sure they are having some deep conversation about wood chips. I love that they play together and (usually) have a good time.

The First Week in a Pomegranate Shell

So, I was going for something similar to the saying "That's me in a nutshell" when talking about my week, but wanted to incorporate pomegranates into the saying. Well, it sort of worked, right?

The first week of November was filled with many fun things! Here
is just a highlight of some of them:

Actually this is from the first Tuesday in October, but I forgot to put it up. The first Tuesday of every month, our library story time focuses around a particular letter. In October it was the letter B (if you couldn't tell). The story teller (Mrs. Duncan) is so sweet and makes little craft packets for the kids to do at home. This is our B packet. Reed loved putting everything on the paper and telling me what it was.

1st Tuesday in November our letter at story time was P. Reed really loved that there was a pumpkin and a paper plate!

It is displayed proudly on the fridge!


Week 4 of preschool! They learned about different types of jobs. Reed chose the construction worker. He was super excited that he had hand prints on his paper.


Friday, November 5, 2010, we ate pomegranates! It had been a really long time since either Tyson or I had eaten pomegranates. We realized that neither Reed nor Eve had ever tried them. So, I decided that when they went on sale I would get some. They had a buy one, get one free sale! Pomegranates were had and enjoyed by all! Eve just kind of sucked on it until it dissolved. Reed wanted to eat it just like daddy (no surprise there). It was a great night!

My parents stopped by on Saturday after going to Luray Caverns (I really want to go there. It is on my list in my head of nearby places to visit.). I was showing my parents the 'smile' function on the camera and Reed just smiled so beautifully. I had to post this one!

Last of our Halloween Fun

I know, I know it is sad to see our Halloween fun times come to an end. But, it must. How better to end Halloween than a trip to the zoo the day before Halloween.

We went in the morning, and I hope we can always go in the morning. The whole zoo seemed so much more alive. The animals were just more awake and almost interactive with us. Reed and Eve enjoyed it!

We saw the panda bear actually awake and doing something (eating)! Reed was ultra excited because one of his new favorite movies is "Kung Fu Panda" (yeah, he has moved on to a different favorite movie since then). He really loved seeing the panda roll around and eat bamboo. He talked about it for days after wards.



Then we moved on to the elephants - a favorite of the whole family. We learned about elephant teeth from one of the volunteers and we even got to see an example of how big their teeth are. Pretty cool!





It was a bit chilly outside, so we made our way to something indoor - the small mammal house. This is always a Reed favorite, but was an Eve favorite this time as well. The monkeys were fun swinging through the trees. The favorite favorite was definitely the meerkats. They would run back and forth behind the glass and Reed chased them on the other side of the glass. Eve moved her head back and forth while all this was going on. Then, they both laughed and laughed. It was a good time!




Before our little trip was up, we made a trip to the Ape House. We saw a bunch of different gorillas, but the favorite was the mommy and baby gorillas. We also saw the orangutans actually climb the poles outside. One climbed all the way to the top. We thought he was going to go across the wires (apparently, they do it daily, but we have never seen it), but he just sat there and played around. He did end up crossing, after we had already left. Maybe someday we will be able to see it!

Another fun day at the zoo! Oh, I forgot to mention that there were Halloween decorations up, which Reed found funny. He kept pointing out all the skeletons, pumpkins, witches, and beads that he saw everywhere. Funny!





Halloween day was actually less eventful. We went to church (yes, Reed wore his Halloween tie and Eve had a onesie that said "I'm batty for daddy" with a gray skirt) and came home in time for lunch. After naps and everything, we played, ate dinner, and played some more. We got 2 different trick-or-treating groups at our door with a total of about 10 kids. Luckily, Reed did not have a problem not going trick-or-treating because he had gone earlier in the week. I guess we will have to deal with that issue again in something like 7 years or so. It may be more of a bigger deal next time. We will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Happy Halloween 2010!

Like Brother, Like Sister

Outside time is always a fun thing at our house. Reed loves that he can run around and play with sticks. Eve loves crawling through the grass and wood chips and loves crawling over almost anything she can find. One particularly beautiful October day, we played outside and it was awesome!

Reed found lots of sticks to play with. He would run back and forth on our grassy patch behind our apartment. He even explored the outside on an empty apartment. He got to scream and laugh as loud as he wanted. Yes, a great adventure!

Eve crawled all over the place. Every once in a while she would stop and do this pose (see picture below) that she has been doing every since she could move - I call it her model pose. Then, she would chase after Reed and almost catch him. She took pat in the exploration of the empty apartment (only the outside, of course) and tried to eat plenty of grass and sticks. Oh yes, and she did plenty of giggling and babbling.

Even though my kids are very different in many ways, they are also very similar in others. They both love to be outside. They both love sticks and wood chips. When Reed was Eve's age he loved crawling over almost anything as well. They both have infectious laughs and gorgeous eyes. Oh yes, and they both LOVE the piano and singing. Reed has loved it from the time he was teeny tiny and Eve has followed suit. She now climbs up the piano and plays the keys. They both have such a great time doing it! Ah sibling similarities :) Like brother, like sister. (Note: I cannot figure out why this is underlined and how to get it not underlined. Help?)

Eve singing and playing the piano.

These little Vans are compliments of Aunt Tifani. She always tries to keep her nieces and nephews looking good :) Sadly, Eve's feet don't fit in them anymore. :(

Pause for apple eating.

Eve just loving the grass!

Eve trying to catch Reed. Sometimes he thinks it fun, sometimes he hates it when she crawls after him. Today he thought it was fun.

Eve concentrating on some leaves.

Eve found some blades of grass that look tasty.

Eve thinks going over things is so much fun. She just laughs when she is doing it and when she gets over the object.

Reed running to the dog area. He loves the dirt over there for some reason (not actually in the dog area - just outside it). There are these stepping stones that have dirt/sand in between them. He loves it.

A game of chase, sort of :)

Reed with one of his many sticks.

Still having fun with the stick.

Model Pose - she has been doing this for months!

I made it bigger....but it got a little fuzzy.

Eve went straight for the window. Reed had to check out the door.

Then, Reed was lured to the door by Eve's excitement and tapping of the glass.

Week 3 and More Halloween Fun

October 27th was a Wednesday. It was the day after the ward festivities and the parade at the Library (I think I forgot to mention that. Reed and Eve wore their costumes (or most of them) all day because in the morning we had a library parade and at night we had the ward party). It was also the day that I was in charge of preschool.

The theme was Halloween - fitting, of course. I had lots of ideas and finally narrowed down what I was going to do. I was a little anxious about how it would all go, but it turned out great!

The kids played until every body showed up. Then, they all sat on my Veggie Tales table cloth (from high school) and we did songs and finger plays. We did a scarecrow finger play, a pumpkin song, and a counting Halloween song. Then, I told "The Chocolate Chip Ghost." The kids got really into the story. I let each child hide a ghost. Then, when the mom ghost was looking for her ghosts, each child found the ghost they had hidden. It worked like a charm! (I forgot pictures of the ghosts - I will have to do that. They turned out cute!)

After our stories and songs, we had a snack. We ate apples and cut out jello into Halloween shapes. It surprised me how many of the kids did not want to try the jello at first. I think almost all of them have had jello before, but just not in that form. So, it took some coaxing, but most of them at least took a bite of the jello.

After our snack, it was craft time - making skeletons. I cut out the skeleton bodies and glued them onto black paper. Then, I put double-sided tape on the skeletons and cut up a bunch of straws. From the straws, the kids could put the bones on the skeletons. Then, they chose borders and could decorate with stickers.

Next, we had play time. These kids just love to play! It is fun how they are all at similar developmental levels. They seem to like similar things and act in similar ways. That is a pro and con, for sure. But, it was fun seeing them play together.

My sample skeleton

The kids' skeletons - not bad!

Jello Jigglers - always fun

Apples - yummy!

After a while, I called the kids over to read a book about Halloween. I learned some interesting stuff about it. The one I definitely never heard was about where the name Jack-o-Lantern came from; it came from a man named Jack who was mean and stingy. It was said that when he died he could not get into heaven, so he put a light in a turnip and wandered around. So many random ways that we get names for things.

After our story, we decorated gluten-free cupcakes and ate them. They turned out to be pretty tasty! I made the frosting (so I knew it was gluten-free) and we ended up having enough jello and cupcakes for each mom to have one as well. It was a fun little preschool Halloween party!

Decorating the cupcakes

It is serious business

Eating - not so serious, but delicious

Later that night we had more Halloween fun carving our pumpkin! We changed it up this year and did circle eyes and had both teeth on the top. We are getting crazy with our Jack-o-Lanterns! :)

Reed loved putting the cut pieces back into the pumpkin.

Eve thought it was fun to try and eat the cut up pieces. :)