Fun and Games

Yesterday was cold and today is rainy, but I'm thankful we haven't had any severe weather like so many have down south.  I am looking forward to some nice weather this weekend! Since it's another nasty day, after lunch the boys and I headed down to the basement to play for a bit. We have such a nice basement and don't use it as much as we should. We had lots of fun playing down there this afternoon though.

Brennan has been all about Easter egg hunts since well before Easter. They have them a lot at Cubbies because the kids like them so much and we've done a bunch since Easter here at home. I told him we could do one downstairs today, but then remembered an idea I saw last night in my Family Fun magazine, so we tried that instead. I spread a bunch of eggs out on the floor and gave him an addition problem. Then he had to go pick up that total number of eggs. He's been really into adding and this was a simple game for him to practice that concept.

I swear during the past week he looks so much bigger to me.

I like this picture because you can see how he used his fingers to finger out the answer to 5+2. He's shouting out, "Seven!" once he figured it out.

While Brennan was adding up eggs, Bryce decided he might have a future as a Red Sox baseball player. He found the ball on the floor and pulled out the matching bat from the toy box.

How cute would he look all decked out in Red Sox gear?!?

Then he pulled out all the T-ball stuff all by himself. We need to work on his form, but I like this series of action shots. Sorry some are blurry.

Melt my heart! I love when they actually get along!

We also spent some time shooting rockets! Brennan received this stomp rocket for his birthday and it's truly a great gift. If you're looking for a present for a boy, you should check this out on Amazon. It's so fun and can be used indoors or outdoors!

Sometimes rainy days aren't so bad after all!

Bouncing Fun!

Last night I was thinking about what the boys and I could do when we woke up. I really wanted to take them to the zoo, but once we were up the weather was cooler than I had hoped. We decided we'd go to the local aquarium because we can see some inside exhibits there, but when we started loading up the car, I realized how chilly it really was and we changed plans again. We were going to head down to Old Saybrook to an indoor playground of sorts called Stay and Play, but on our way there we changed our minds one more time and ended up going to the Bounce Fun Center in Clinton. We're so spontaneous!

I had taken the boys to the bounce place once before when Bryce was very tiny and just stayed in the Ergo the entire time. I was excited to try it again now that both boys could enjoy it and because Brennan has been much more adventurous and independent at the playground, so I was hoping to see the same here.

It was nice because I didn't even realize kids under three were free, so it was just $10 for Brennan. The facility is completely indoors, so it's perfect for a way too chilly for the 2nd to last day of April kind of day. Inside there are seven bounce houses, two which include slides. It took Brennan a little bit to warm up to it and remember he could climb the inflatable ladders by himself, but once he had success he had a great time. Bryce would spend some time in the bounce houses, but preferred to just walk around with random balls he'd find.

There is also a small arcade. Arcades are Brennan's favorite, so he spent his $2 he found in his Easter eggs on tokens to play games. Then there is a baby room of sorts upstairs with a gate, so we checked that out too. Both boys had fun pulling all the toys out and playing.

When we first arrived, there was only one other little boy there. After we came down from playing upstairs a few more families had arrived. We bounced a little more, cashed in our tickets for some prizes and headed home to eat lunch.

I was hoping both boys would be exhausted from playing hard all morning, but that doesn't appear to be the case. Brennan is already up from his nap and Bryce is talking in his crib instead of sleeping. Guess I'll have to try harder to wear them out next time.

Here are few pictures I snapped with my phone.

All Decked Out!

Kyle had some time off work last week and decided to tackle a project we've been talking about for some time now; redoing our deck. Our house is a raised ranch, so our deck is a second story deck that comes off of our kitchen. When we moved into our new construction house 7.5 years ago, the deck was completely untreated. We should've treated and stained it right away, but we didn't. About three years ago Kyle painted it, but that didn't hold up well, so it's been looking pretty rough. And the boards themselves were literally rough so it wasn't safe to go out on it without shoes.

Even though it is costly, we decided to install composite decking that will hopefully last and doesn't require upkeep. The stairs aren't done yet and Kyle will probably paint some of the underside of the deck, but I wanted to share the progress he made last week. I love it. Now I just need to convince him we need a patio set out there so we can enjoy dining al fresco this summer!

BEFORE:

MAKING PROGRESS:

AND MORE PROGRESS:

THE TOP IS DONE:

The difference is amazing! Kyle is also going to install a gate at the top of the deck stairs, so it's safe for the boys to play out there. 

Thankful for my handy hubby!

Brennan's Chore Chart

I wanted to share with you Brennan's Chore Chart. We've been using it for about two months now and it's working really well for us. For quite sometime I knew I wanted to create some kind of chore chart for Brennan, but wasn't exactly sure if he should get paid for them or just do them as a contribution to our family. I then had an epiphany one day when Brennan was asking for a new iPad game. He loves playing his iPad and there are so many great and educational apps for him to play. However, it was getting out of control how often he was asking and we were downloading new (mostly free) apps for him. I decided that he could earn a new iPad game on Fridays if he completed a certain number of chores during the week.

We are already on our second version of the chore chart. The first version didn't have quite as many chores and I kept thinking of more good ones for him to help with and created our current version. This picture doesn't really show a typical week. This past week was the first week Brennan didn't earn a game on Friday. Daddy was home most of this week, so our schedule was definitely more relaxed than normal and several days Brennan said he didn't want to do his chores. I kept reminding him that it was his choice, but he likely wouldn't earn a new game on Friday. He said he understood and once Friday rolled around he was fine not getting a new game for the week. I think we will be back on track this coming week with Daddy being back at work.

Brennan has chores he can do on Monday-Friday. He earns a check for each chore he completes each day. His daily chores are:

• make your bed
• dust the TV stand
• unload the dishwasher
• clean up toys
• feed fish
• dress yourself

Almost all of these require help from me. We complete quite a few of them first thing each morning. Once Brennan wakes up and uses the potty, he comes back into his room and helps me make his bed. I pull up the sheet and cover and he hands me all his pillows and stuffed animals. Next, we usually head to the kitchen and he helps unload the dishwasher. He loves pulling the clean silverware out of the dishwasher and helping me put that away. He also unloads the unbreakable dishes from the both the top and bottom racks. Then I sit him up on the counter and he gives some fish food to fish. So most days he's able to earn three quick checks within the first few minutes of waking up.

I put the 'dust the tv stand' chore on his list because our dang tv table gets so incredibly dusty and I was tired of dusting it almost every single day. So some days I'll spray dusting spray all along the top of the stand and Brennan comes behind me with a rag and wipes it all up. I debated putting 'clean up toys' on this list, because if Brennan makes a mess it is just a requirement that he cleans it up. I decided to include it though because Bryce makes huge messes and I often have Brennan help me clean those toys up too and that's when he earns a check.

Now that Brennan is four I am encouraging him to do more and more tasks independently. I have hindered him some in this area because it's usually faster for me to put his shoes on him than have him do it himself, but I've learned to slow down and make him try things on his own. He had absolutely no interest in even attempting to dress himself until I put it on the second version of the chore chart. He still likes some help with his shirts, but has become much more independent with his clothes now.

Since there are six possible chores each day and a total of five days, he has the opportunity to earn up to 30 checks. My next task was to come up with the number of checks needed to earn a new game. I decided on 20 checks because that was an average of four checks each day. Some days we don't run the dishwasher, so he won't earn that check. I don't pull out the dusting spray each day either (even though I probably need to), so 20 checks seemed like a good number.

Typically as Brennan is having iPad time during the week, an advertisement will pop up for some game and Brennan will say, "Mommy I want this game." Now my answer is super easy and I tell him that might be the game he wants to pick on Friday. So far only one game he has picked has cost money, all the rest have been free. We usually make him select two older games to delete from his iPad before downloading the new game.

I'm still interested in Brennan earning an allowance and teaching him about saving, giving, and spending, but for now this chore chart is working really well for us.

PreK Screening

Brennan had his PreK screening done on Tuesday afternoon. I still really don't know a ton about the program that is offered here in Groton, but a mom at church mentioned something about the free screenings and I made an appointment for Brennan. He was so excited about going to "his new school" that leading up to it he kept telling his current preschool teachers he was going to a new a school. So now they all probably think we school shopping. Right now the plan is still to send Brennan back to his current preschool in fall. But if he happens to get a spot in the free public school preschool, then we will have a decision to make. 

I took him at 1:30 on Tuesday and he went back into a room with five other kids and a few teachers. He gave me a kiss, waved goodbye, and was off super excited to "play games". We got absolutely zero feedback after the one-hour screening and were told we'd get letters in June letting us know if our kiddos are accepted into the program. I'm hoping we also get some data from his evaluation because that was my main reason of getting it done. I was just interested in how he would "test". 

I know he's super smart and he did tell me he did some reading for them, so I know they saw how smart he is too. It's hard for me to find a balance because his current preschool does very little as far as curriculum goes. It's more just playtime and honestly that's probably exactly what Brennan needs. But I know how much more he is capable of doing and I want him to be challenged. I have a hard time remembering he is only four years old and has many years of schooling ahead of him and plenty of time to be challenged. 

Just in case you're interested, I copied the descriptions of the two programs that are offered from the Groton Public School website. 

PreK Program:

Groton Public Schools' Districtwide PreK Program is a half-day program designed to supplement a youngster's progress in the area of school readiness. 

 

The program is open to all children living within the boundaries of Groton Public Schools.  Currently there are 2 sites for the program:  Charles Barnum and Catherine Kolnaski Magnet Elementary Schools. Each of these sites offer a morning or afternoon class with a maximum of 18 students each in each session. Each class is staffed with a state certified early childhood education teacher and a full-time paraprofessional with early childhood training.
The curriculum for the PreK program is based on best practices in early childhood education, the CT Framework: Preschool Curricular Goals and Benchmarks and the CT Preschool Assessment Framework. All Districtwide PreK classes have earned accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children.
Students are selected to participate in the program based on screening scores from a teacher administered screening.  Students must be age 4 on or before January 1 of that school year (during that school year) to be considered for screening. Students with suspected learning impairments or known learning disabilities will be referred to the Early Childhood Assessment Team for further screening.

Preschool Program:

The integrated Preschool Special Needs Program provides special education and related services to 3, 4, and 5 year old children who are identified by the Planning and Placement Team (PPT) as having a disability.  This is a half-day program and students attend three to five days per week based on the PPT recommendation.  Transportation is provided for all special needs students.

 

The program also has a Peer Role Model component.  Peer Role Models are children who are 3 and 4 year olds who demonstrate strengths in areas of socialization, communication, cognition, and behavior. Peers participate in a brief screening process to become eligible for the lottery drawing for a slot in the program.  Children must be 3 years of age at the time of screening.  Peer role models must be toilet trained.  Children eligible for entry to kindergarten cannot participate in the Preschool program.

So now we just wait and see what happens. I'll leave you with a picture of Brennan eating frozen yogurt after his screening!

Bryce Gets a Haircut!

I took Bryce to get his hair cut today. He had just a little trim right before his one-year pictures, but it was definitely time for another. I took him to Crewcuts and Curls. I never got around to taking Brennan there when he was little and now he's a big boy and goes with Daddy to the barbershop. Brennan was also way more mellow and willing to just sit still let Kyle cut his hair at Bryce's age. Bryce rarely sits still. This was the perfect place for him. We got to pick out a movie and special car to sit in and he did wonderful. All for just $15!

Here's are two pictures from Easter to reference how long his hair was before. We are thinking that we want to keep his hair longer than Brennan's, but I was ready to have it off his ears.

And here he is today!

My little baby is becoming a big boy!

Yesterday's Happenings

Yesterday was Brennan's first day back to school after Spring Break. We had a really nice and relaxing Spring Break and I was surprised when I was a little sad to see him go to back to school. Once he was there though, I got so much accomplished during those 2.5 hours. Bryce napped the whole time so I cleaned up dog poop from the yard, cleaned Bryce's side of the car because he is world's messiest traveler, cleaned out our sandbox so it was ready for the season, and cleaned the sliding door track in the kitchen!

Once we picked Brennan up from school, we headed to the playground. I wasn't sure how much fun the playground would be this spring and summer trying to keep up with two boys, but it has been great. Brennan is much more independent now and just does he own thing. Bryce is way more independent than Brennan was at his age and is all over the place. Bryce even went down the big tunnel slide by himself yesterday. He's crazy.

After the playground we headed home for lunch. Brennan wanted to do another Easter egg hunt, so we waited until Bryce was down for his second nap and went outside. I think egg hunts are going to be a daily (yesterday was even twice) occurrence for a while. Here are few pictures of Brennan finding the eggs and of both boys playing in the sandbox at different times yesterday. It was Bryce's first time trying out the sandbox and he loved it.

And finally here's a good video of Bryce walking. He's pretty much walking full time now. If he falls then he'll crawl a little bit until he can get to something to help him back up. I love watching him toddle all around.

A Lifelong Love of Reading

Back with a post for the second day in a row! Shocking, I know!

Just wanted to share a quick video of Brennan reading a book we checked out from the library. When we went last Thursday, we specifically looked for some books he could read independently and came home with this Mudge book. He's excited to go back and get some more books he can read on his own. I hope he always loves reading!

Happy Easter

My blogging has been so horrible lately and I'm really hoping I can improve on that. I love posting pictures of the boys on here and I love that it makes me pull out the good camera more often. Today I wanted to share the pictures we've taken today of the boys celebrating Easter. Brennan has especially enjoyed it. He's been looking forward to an Easter egg hunt for months! But it's been even more fun listening to him talk about the true meaning of Easter and realizing how much more he can understand this year.

Unfortunately, Brennan woke up crying at 6am this morning. He said he needed to make a poop and poor little buddy had diarrhea. I tried to get him to rest a little more in our bed, but he wouldn't fall back to sleep. Thankfully after one more trip to the bathroom, he seemed to feel all better. Even though it wasn't even 7am yet, we started the Easter basket scavenger hunt.

I thought Brennan would like having clues lead him to his basket and when your four-year-old can read, it makes it especially fun. The scavenger hunt was a big hit! I'm sharing all the pictures because I just love the looks on his face. He did a great job reading the clues. I think I only helped him with one word. He's such a little smarty!

The search ended on our bed and Brennan immediately began tearing through his basket. Both boys got a lot of clothes for Easter because it has been such a long time since I've bought either of them any article of clothing. Brennan was super excited for his books, bubbles, and his favorite was this little dinky tabletop golf game.

Then we got Bryce up and he joined in on the fun too!

Thankfully we were able to get fed, dressed, and ready in time to take a few pictures of the boys before heading out the door for church. It's no easy task trying to get a decent picture of them together!

We had a great morning at church. Bryce didn't cry when I left him in the nursery today, which was huge! There was no Children's Church, so Brennan was up with us in the service the entire time and he did great. We are so thankful for our church family year-round, but especially at the holidays when being away from home is even harder. After church we asked Brennan what he wanted for lunch and he picked McDonalds. So, we grabbed some classy Easter lunch and headed home. After we ate, I went out and hid the Easter eggs for Brennan to find. 40 eggs in all and he easily found every single one!

Afterwards, we came inside, I laid Bryce down for a nap, and Brennan got to open his eggs. 20 of them had jellybeans inside, 18 were empty, and 2 had dollar bills inside. He was pretty excited for those. I took him outside one more time to blow his new bubbles for a little bit, then it was his turn to lay down for a rest. Right now both boys are still sleeping, I've had a little nap, and Kyle is asleep on the couch. It's a beautiful day and I couldn't think of a much better way to spend it!

Happy Easter!