sand play...

Hannah and Benjamin loved having their cousins in town! We tried to get together as often as we possibly could. One of their times together was on the beach (we met there twice) and they got to play in the sand together. We brought a big bucket full of toys for them to share. They buried Benjamin's legs in sand and dug holes and made sandcastles together. Hannah hung around too and gave them an occasional shovel-full of sand. They caught a little sand crab and watched it for a long time: crawling away, burrowing into the sand, and they eventually let it go. The beach is such a fun place for kids...endless chances for fun!

fun times...

Benjamin and Hannah's cousins from Ohio have come to visit for the week. Benjamin knows them all because he sees their pictures all around our house and in his photo albums. They aren't strangers to him. They came over last night for dinner. Benjamin was flying high. He called them all by their names...not forgetting one of them once. He wanted to show them everything in his house, play with all the toys and get them to do things with him. (They are 14, 12, & 9-He is 2 1/2) They loved following him around and amusing him, they are good sports to play with him. He can't wait to see them again! Hannah on the other hand was so shy and upset that all of these people came to her house. They all want her to smile and be happy and walk around like normal...but she refused. All of these people kept talking to her but she stuck her mommy and daddy like glue. She'll should warm up to them by then end of the week.

peek-a-boo! 

pancakes...

I try to make pancakes every weekend but sometimes that doesn't work out! When I do get to make them, I always have some little ones left over for sometime during the week. Benjamin and Hannah love this breakfast. They aren't into the Mickey Mouse pancakes yet, but that is fine~I know I'll have many years to make them. They don't care for the syrup either. What they do love is the little ones. The little baby ones are so good! I make them the size of a quarter or half-dollar and they gobble them up. They eat a lot more than if I make larger ones, funny what a difference it makes when size is involved.

friends...

Benjamin, Hannah and I went to meet a playgroup today~our first meeting. The group manager said that they have children with Benjamin and Hannah's ages in it for them to play with. So we went to a new park and brought a lot of toys to play with (just in case there weren't any). At first there weren't any children but eventually three other children showed up with their Moms. Benjamin was thrilled to have kids his age to play with. He had fun sharing his shovels, buckets and cars with the other kids. They ran in the grass, and climbed the play structure. Hannah hung around me but she did venture off to follow Benjamin running in the grass. Aahhh friends!

dead-heading...

"Are you dead-heading?" Benjamin asks as I work in the flower garden. He loves to help with weeding or potting or shoveling dirt. I was weeding and dead-heading flowers and he loves to help. He started shoveling dirt and working with his bucket. Later that day I found a bucket with the tops of the little yellow flowers I was working around earlier...I think someone was dead-heading (or should I say live-heading?) for me!

busy...

Whew! We have been busy doing many things this week, which made it hard to get onto the computer to write about our events! We'll be writing soon!

picture...

Here are the two little monkeys on a hike in Cuyamaca - May 2004 

birds...

Ever since we put grass in the back yard we have been spending a lot of time out there. Benjamin especially likes to watch the birds while he is eating lunch. There is one bird that we see out there all the time. It likes to sit on the basketball hoop (that is why Benjamin likes to watch it-it is on his hoop!) and look around in the grass. When it sees a bug it wants it swoops down and catches it and returns to the hoop to eat it... sometimes it lands on the wagon, the side of the fence or the back of a chair. The bird will do this for a long time...or until Benjamin runs up to it and scares it away!

sand box...

We have a little sand and water table in the back yard. We have a bunch of play sand inside. And when we have the energy there's water in the other half. This table keeps the children busy every day. They find new things to do with it...it really is a great gift! (Hannah got it as a gift from her Granny and GranDad) Benjamin gets all of his trucks, matchbox cars, and dump trucks out and plays construction yard...for what it seems like all day! It is allowing him to build on his pretend play! When the sand is a little wet and shape-able, Hannah loves to squish the little towers and shapes that we build in the sand. Oh what fun!

food...

Hannah hasn't really been a big eater, but when there is something on her plate that she really likes ...she can't get enough of it. There are days that she will eat carrots and want more, or chicken, or beans, or cheerios... you get the picture. Several months ago, she started squishing her food while she ate and we thought it was a way to experiment with her food so we never said anything (and still haven't) but recently we figured out that she does this when she is finished eating. It's our big clue that she is done with eating. Benjamin (not to compare her with him-but I'll tell you what he did) would drop his food pieces-because all food is cut up into small pieces-one at a time onto the floor until we did something about it.

painting...

We are busy painting our house so there are lots of painting tools around...but we have reserved a few of the cheaper paintbrushes for the kids. They love to paint with water all over the place! We give them a bucket and some paintbrushes and they get busy. Since it is water they are not harming any of the work that we do on the house! They love it!

chalk...

Yes...our children love to draw with chalk. At first Benjamin would just scribble and squiggle all over the place but a couple of months ago his Uncle Chris came over and started to draw things like a big blue spot and it became a pool and they would jump into the pool and splash water all over. Then they drew Granny and GranDad's house with the dogs and the avocado trees...there was a bike with 2 wheels but... by far the best was the pool. It was very inventive and imaginative! Benjamin still likes to draw and squiggle all over the place (especially on the newly painted house) A few days ago he was drawing a little scribble and a long line attached - this was a balloon, but today he started to draw ovals with a line attached to it! Balloons!! Wow, how fast they grow! Hannah is just happy to play with the "kaulk" and carry it all around the house - she too likes to scribble all over the newly painted house! I guess they don't like the color that we chose to paint the house!

fire engine...

We went to Costco today. Every once in a while we run into the local firefighters there. Today was a big day. We saw a ladder truck and Benjamin went wild about it! The firefighters were probably shopping in the store. We had to go and check it out before we went in. We went around it. "It's very shiny! There's the lights! Look at the siren! They get on the truck on those stairs! The wheels are so big!" (they really were...taller than he is!) We tried to find the firefighters in the store but we missed them...we'll look for them next time we're there too!