sweet love notes

These are hearts made by Prime from his Five in a Row class. I just love, love them. He thinks the class is "too easy". Not sure if that is appropriate description as the class is for K- 2nd grade but maybe it is in comparison to his CC class? Anyway, here they are below.

"God you are so good. "* ditto that* and "I love you mommy"

Here are some of the "love notes" written by them a little while ago. I finally got to take few pictures of them so I'll have a record of them in pictures.

My favorite note from J is actually not here. I'll have to find it sometime.

Discovering static!

Prime has been entertaining himself with this balloon and somewhere along the road, discovered static. Here are few pictures of his fun. He comes over and says, look, mommy! Without anyone telling him, he apparently found the balloon is more sticky when he rubs hard on his hair a few time. One part he found through trial and error is the balloon doesn't stick is around his mouth. ;) Enjoy though it is much funnier in action.

Super easy pompoms

We have made pompoms before but this time we actually found a use for them (idea courtesy of Joann fabrics). After you make the pompoms, put some glue in the center and stick a pencil in it. Add eyes or what ever strikes your fancy. J made a quite a few, even one with 2 colors.

Here is Prime's. He has been using this pencil to write a lot.

To make the pom-poms:
1. You wrap a piece of yarn around your fingers (our magic # was 85 times)
2. Then take another piece of string and tie it in the middle
3. Take it off your hand
3. Cut the yarn on the sides so that they are individual and not in loop (make sure you cut in the middle of the loop so it is even)
4. Cut off extra long pieces if you'd like to make it more like ball
5. add eyes and glue to a pencil
6. Have fun. J has been using her pompoms in her pretend play. (She pretended it was a treasure and used wool roving to make a spider guarded door)

Important milestones (Prime's)

The first one is my baby turned 6 early this month! We celebrated pretty low key with a some of his closest friends with lots of good food and free play. I had planned some games but seemed that the kids were having a good ol' time just by themselves. Let me just add that Prime picked the entire guest list himself with me limiting the # of families we can have over. He was so good for remembering to invite some of his single aunties. :)





The gift Prime wanted most was adding on to the doll house that I got his sister for her birthday. So we added a garagage/balcony, a car (which came with a person). Of course, he enjoyed all the other presents he got from his friends. He was so excited when the shipment he simply couldn't wait until his birthday party to open it so I let him open it on his actual birth date.

Another milestone, one which I totally didn't expect, was Prime started to read chapter books all by himself one day. He was reading silently and totally absorbed all by himself and we have never talked about that. The book he read and finished in 2 days was "The Diary of the Wimpy Kid" - a Christmas gift given to J by one of her aunties. He still loves to be read to but often he'll want to read to us.

This was how they were one day, both reading; each on a separate sofa.
I'm sure J set a good example for reaching this milestone quite quickly and rather suddenly.

simple pleasures

Lately, J/Prime has been enjoying some simple pleasures all by themselves.

1. Dance !
I bought few favorite worship cds thinking it would be good for our family worship and bible study. But unexpectedly it inspired so much dance from the kids. Whenever they feel like it, the start the cd and start to dance all on their own. They have been dancing like crazy and thoroughly enjoying themselves in large part due to J's leadership. They would dance individually in different parts of the song and then would come together to dance together. J's been directing Prime and doing some choreography with him. Now she says she really enjoys dance and I don't even have to ask her to practice. Ha! (Both kids are a little shy and they dance most freely when they think no one is watching them esp. Prime but I have been videotaping them a little here and there because it's just so fun to watch them.)

2. Writing love notes.
One day my hubby left me a few love notes unexpectedly and that inspired the kids to write love/gratitude love notes to us. They were so excited writing these notes and finding places to stick them. They wrote so many of them and for a few days, I found these notes everywhere and had to tell them to go easy on these. :) Of course, I loved reading them and I will always treasure them. This was also great a writing practice for Prime and J thorough enjoyed helping him with spelling.

3. Independent painting.
I was having a headache so I let the kids loose with painting with no supervision. They used regular paints, the kind that is ready to go in a bottle and construction paper. They put the paints actually in paper cups and shared very nicely. When they finished, they cleaned up and J even put saran wrap over the paper cups to save the paint and put all the cups in a gift bag. I was really surprised and so proud of her. So that was one project I didn't have to lift a finger and they thoroughly enjoyed themselves. I'm thinking they'll have to do more of these kind of projects! :)

J's Prime's

Leisure time

During our holiday time, we took a break from school and the kids has been drawing a lot. J even illustrated and still in the process of finishing her story.



















We also went to see the play, Pinocchio at the local
theater.
























And we finally got around to make these "Stained Glass cookies". We used jolly ranchers. We might try a different hard candy next time as I didn't really like the melted jolly ranchers.

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year, everyone! Here is wishing everyone a blessed 2010.

For how to make this new year banner, see the creative blog of Magic Onion! I knew the kids would love to make one as soon as I saw it. And they did. It was great cutting practice for Prime and good measurement/ math practice (division) for J. Plus now my wall don't look so empty.

Prime's new year resolution for the New Year when I asked him, " Learn to knit! " He says he wants to knit his "guys" and "bears".

J's new year resolution for the New Year is "to do what mommy want. (regards to going to bed by herself in her own room". :) I would love see this one.