Friends

You know you have a true friend when..
 -she dose not mind sleeping on your couch
- she helps you fold laundry and wash your floors
- she dose not mind that your daughter puts her bottom in her face
- she dose not feel scared to ask if they can host her sons birthday at your house.
I am so very lucky to have a friend like her and my son is so lucky to have a friend like her son.
I just love to see the two of them play together.

Just a few weeks ago we created a very special gift for her son by converting a bike that they got for free into a homemade balance bike.

So with a little help from my whole family I was able to pull off the peddles and chain so that the boys could learn to balance together.

The little man has now learned to coast. He is still a little on the cautious side but he will get it really soon. I have no doubt in my mind by this time next year he will be riding his big two wheeler like a pro.

Twist, turn, jump and climb

For the little mans birthday he was given a pass good for 4 classes at The Little Gym.
He was totally unsure about it when we first showed up at the gym three weeks ago but I know he has enjoyed every minute of classes even though he wont admit it.
Each week they have a theme that lets the kids imaginations run wild.
He has experiences sports week and got to use different type of balls and even some tennis rackets. There was prince and princess week where they pretended the gym was a enchanted forest and a magic well that the little man tied not to fall into.

His favorite theme was probably pirate day, complete with a sunken ship that they had to raise.
On the morning of the pirate day he did not want to go to classes. But when he got there and started talking with his teachers he decided he would try it for a little while and ended up playing and enjoying the whole class.

While the little man is in the gym using his imagination I am using mine to keep the little lady occupied during the hour class.
We spend so time playing in the dance room exploring the wall of mirrors.

We always have to visit the bathroom a few times, not to go, but to use the little paper cups to get a drink and a wet paper towel to wash everything.
One day it will be her turn to explore the gym but until then she enjoys watching.

Schools out

The little mans last day of school was on the Friday the 3rd.
On his last day of school he organized a band and built a guitar and microphone out of blocks.

So when I got there to pick him up he showed me how he jammed out.
The last day of school was followed up an end of the school year BBQ that evening. I made crock pot baked beans to share. It was my first time making them and I thought they turned out great. I even have a jar left over in my freezer to enjoy later. I think I will be making them again.

Since his last day of school we have started working through the book Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. We have been working on letter sounds. He know knows mmmm, ssss and aaaa. So anytime he sees any of the letters out or in a book he gets so excited and tells me the sounds.
Its so amazing to watch him learn and discover the world around him.
Speaking of discovering the world I think that our bird nest by our front door might have some baby birds in it. I hear lots of chirping but I have not been able to see inside of the nest yet. I enjoy hearing all of the bird sounds just outside our door.

The little mans day

Today my little man turned four.
We started off the day when he joined me in my bed at 745am. I think he was just so excited about it being his birthday that he just could not sleep any more. This was probably one of the best parts of the whole day. It brought me back to when he was a little baby and we would lay in bed til 10am most days just soaking up each other.
We got to lay in bed for a little while before the little lady started calling my name.
Last night before we went off to sleep the little man and I made chocolate dipped pretzels to share with his friends after play to learn.
So when he got up we had to try them again to make sure that they were still yummy.
We just melted up some natural chocolate chips and dipped Trader Joe's honey wheat pretzels in to the chocolate. Put them on some wax paper and let them dry.
All his friends and their mamas enjoyed them.
Today was a beautiful day so we were able to play at the park and go for a walk up to the library and the store.
When I asked the little man what he would like for his birthday dinner he replayed 'pizza and hot dogs.' There was only one place I could think of that we like to eat at that has that combo, so we had dinner at Costco. There were a few things I needed to pick up there also.
You cant have a pirate birthday party without Pirate Booty.
I also decided last night that it would be fun to knit all of the kids pirate patches. I dont know why I come up with these crazy ideas. I guess I like to be stressed. So on top of getting the whole house clean by Sunday I now decided that I am going to knit up 20 or so pirate patches. Why!?!
They are very cute though.

I am using the scarvy eye patch pattern on Ravelry. The only thing that I have going for me is that they knit up really fast. I think that it took me all of 30 minutes last night to make one.
So one down 19 more to go.
The little man has now decided that he is no longer a baby since he is four. But in my eyes he will always be my baby.
***Sorry about being MIA for a week and the lack of photos in the posts. The little lady is working on her top molars so that is really disrupting my sleep lately. I dont know why but some days I take lots of pictures and other I take none but its getting them on the computer that is the hardest part. So then I just end up resorting to the ones that are on the phone. Not the greatest but better than nothing. Maybe things will get better, one can only hope.

Weekending- Boys only

The little man and the hubby had a boys weekend.
They packed up the trailer and they were off to the hills.

Their weekend was filled with lots of boy activities.

 Gas guzzling construction equipment.

 Fishing.

 Guns.

 And quads.

I think that the boys had a great weekend.

A hubby post

I interrupt this post with an announcement.
My point and shoot camera has been found and you will never guess where it was hiding?
Did you guess?
Are yo you ready for the answer?
It was in my closet and guess who found it? The little man. I am guessing that the person that found it was also the person who put it there in the first place but I still gave him a big hug and kiss when he appeared with it last night.
On a side note none of the pictures in this post were taken with it but I am still very happy it was found.

Back to my post about my hubby.
When the hubby got layed-off two years ago he started mowing lawns. Because he started mowing lawns he started buying used lawn equipment. And because used equipment did not always run right he learned how to do small engine repair.

So now  he does not just fix his stuff he also fixes friends.

It normal for our garage to have 3 or 4 lawn mowers, 4 or more weed eaters and an edger or two in it at various levels of being put back together.

The hubby has come across some good deals. Sometimes he will keep the item. Other times he gets it running and sells it for a profit.

His motto is 'Preventive maintenance.'

Thanks hubby for getting your hands dirty.
And for having a birthday this week. I know that you just think that its another day but its not. Its your day. We love you.

Monster post

Story and drawing thanks to the little man.

This is my green monster.
He likes to eat grass and fruit. That's monster food
He lives in the woods and his mother lives in the water. He is a good swimmer. He jumps in the water (splash) and goes all the way to the bottom and hits his head (bonk).
When he grows up he will be a big monster.
He wears pants, socks, underwear, boots, shoes, jeans, shirt and a coat. He has a little tail.
His friend is a monkey.
Monkeys have long tails.

The little man went to the farm

The little man went to a farm, EI EI O

And on that farm was lots of produce, EI EI O (Our new word for the week)

With a chomp, chomp here and a crunch, crunch there. Here a chomp there a crunch every where a chomp and crunch. The little man went to the farm, EI EI O.

 And on that farm he met a friend, EI EI O.
With a giggle, giggle here and a giggle giggle there. Here a giggle, there a giggle, every where a giggle, giggle.
The little man went to the farm EI EI O.

And on that farm he found some puddles.

With a stomp, stomp here and a splash, splash there. Here a stomp, there a splash, everywhere a stomp and splash. The little man went to the farm EI EI O.

And on that farm there was a tractor.

With a dig, dig here and a lift, lift there. Here a dig, there a lift, every where a dig and lift.

The little man went to the farm EI EI O.

That's the way the story goes. We also met some animals along the way.

(This cat followed us almost the whole way around the farm)

(This goat must like to get its picture taken. As soon a I walked over to the fence it came up closer. Or maybe it thought I was going to give it a treat?)

(This was the little lost chicken. On the other side of the farm were all the rest)

Camera tricks

My little left handed artist has been at it again.
This time is not a drawing of me. Lets see if you can tell what he drew.

What do you see?
If you said motorcycle than you were right on. He did a good job if I can say so myself. To bad once again it was on his dry erase board. Oh well I guess that is what cameras are for.
I have been playing around with my camera a little bit more lately. It may be old(er) technology but it can still take good pictures. Editing them is part of the fun also.

I edited this picture to give it the fish eye effect without spending the hundreds of dollars on the real thing. I just love the way it turned out. I am warning you all now that you might see many more fish eye photos to come.

Rainy day fun

The little man informed me today that he does not like the rain. I am sorry kid but it rains a lot here.
But the rain is good for this...

We have been trying to keep our rain filled days full and busy.
The little man is really getting into learning about letters so I picked up a alphabet poster today at the dollar store.
He has learned that every word starts with a letter. So after most words he will stop and ask me what letter does it start with. 'What letter does blanket start with?' What letter does car start with?' What letter does poo start with?'
He has also learned how to spell his name. He is still working on writing it but that will come soon.
We have been playing games together. We have a number of 'kid' games and he is just now getting the idea of taking turns and following directions.

It is so amazing to watch him learn.
** I had a couple of you ask what park we were at back in this post and it was Steel Lake park in Federal way. Sorry it took me so long to answer your questions.

All by his self

I just dropped the little man off at school looking like this.

 Yes, that is two different shoes and Yes, they are both lefts.

For some reason we can only find one of the camo crocs. And since he wanted to wear his camo pants he just had to wear his camo croc also because the 'match.' So since the right shoe was MIA the blue shoe took its place.

I thought it was very creative and I never try to stop creativity so he went to school like that.

It could of been a lot worse.

He could of insisted on wearing his boxer shorts, leg warmers and lightning mcqueen socks.

Like he did the other day. I had asked him to get dresses so that we could head off to play to learn. When I walked into his bedroom this was his outfit of choice.
I did not really want to pop his creativity bubble but I also know that that was not really the best outfit for the occasion.
So we sat down and talked. We came to an agreement that if he wore pants to play to learn than when we got home than he could take them off and put back on the leg warmers.
The day before the leg warmer incident he did a great job getting himself dressed.

His shirt may of been on backwards and his pants had a whole in them but they were clothes and some days that is all we can hope for.

Butting heads

I love how creative you are. I dont think that your wheels in your little head ever stop moving. When you start imagining you can do and be anything.

I love it when you tell a story and your face lights up. Like today when you were telling me all about the slugs. Its amazing to watch your personality come out.

I am sorry that you get frustrated with me and I do with you. Hopefully soon we will find a way that our two personalities can mesh a little better.
I love you my little man and thank you for being you.

We made it

Through the first day of school.

The day started off like any other. I first heard his little feet go pitter patter stomp stomp down the hall and then I was greeted with his smiling face.

I asked him if he remembered what today was and he thought really hard about it and exclaimed 'School.'

When it was time to get dressed he knew just what to wear. His green loud car shirt, basketball shoes and his tie.

Before I had time to really grasp what was happening we were in the car half way to school. My little man, my first born was going to school.

We found the right spot to hang his coat and backpack. He greeted his new teacher and washed his hand and found a seat for breakfast. I stayed and watched him eat. He was fine, but it was me that needed to stay. I wanted to stay all day but I knew I couldn't.

When it was time to get up from the table we walked around the room together looking for just the right spot to play. Then he spotted the basket with the cars and I knew it was time for me to leave. He gave me a kiss and I walked slowly to the door.

Deep down, well not too deep, I wanted him to cry for me or run after me or at least be a little sad that I was leaving. But he didn't. He just sat right down and played with the other kids. It not that I want him to be sad I just wanted him to need me. I did not cry as I walked up the stairs. I was happy for him.

It makes me happy to know that he can make it in the world with out me but it is also sad at the same time.

Tomorrow is day number two and I wounder what it has in store.