Avslutningar

Hakeems sommarlov började i fredags och Javaris började för ett par veckor sen. Här kommer lite bilder från deras avslutningar. Den första bilden på Javari togs av en fotograf ett par veckor innan avslutningen från förskolan och den andra togs av mig på avslutningen. Sen redigerade jag min bild i Photoshop. Om håret ser väldigt konstigt ut så är det för att det var mörka saker bakom honom så jag såg inte riktigt var hans hår slutade. Förutom det så tycker jag att han ler finare på min bild. Han ser så snäll och rar ut. :)  I höst börjar han Kindergarten (amerikansk motsvarighet till 6-års) och det ser han fram emot. Här ska barn fylla 5 år senast 30 september för att få börja Kindergarten i höst.

Taget av fotografen.

Taget av mig.

Förskolebarnen sjöng för föräldrarna, jättesött. Och sen fick de varsitt diplom. Nästan som när jag slutade college med hatt och diplom och allt.

Hakeems avslutning var inget speciellt för föräldrarna. Vi fick bara komma och hämta tidigare. Eleverna lekte lekar och i Hakeems klass var det en kille som fyllde år så de fick cupcakes. Åh, vad mysigt det är på avslutningar i Sverige då barnen får sjunga för föräldrarna. Det verkar de bara göra sista året på förskolan och i Kindergarten här. Kanske nåt speciellt när de slutar high school? Hakeem slutade 2:an men han är 8 år eftersom de börjar skolan ett år tidigare här.

Hakeem, Javari och lille Dequan (skolans namn är utsuddat)

Hakeems bästa kompis i mitten

Bästa kompisen på bilden går i samma klass som Hakeem. Det slår mig hur lång Hakeem är när jag ser den här bilden. Han och Dequan var till farbror doktorn i fredags för att mäta och väga m.m. Bägge två är över normallängd (och det är Javari med). Här kör de på en skala från 0 till 100%. Är man under 10% så är man underviktig och är man över 100%  så är man "above average" (över normallängd). Jag har stora pojkar som säkert kommer att bli en bra bit längre än mig. Det ser jag inte fram emot!



Här är Hakeems skolfoto som han tog för nån månad sen.

Annandagen

Idag är det min födelsedag och så är jag sjuk. Det började igår eftermiddag med frossningar och ömhet i kroppen. Jag vaknade vid 5-tiden imorse och bara skakade och skallrade tänder, brrr. Har haft mer frossningar idag och tog en lång tupplur på eftermiddan, vaknade sen alldeles svettig för jag hade två tröjor och tre täcken på mig. Jag har inte fått några presenter idag, inte ens en tårta. Men Javari hade ritat en teckning till mig iallafall. I teckningen så ger han mig en tårta. Sött, men en riktig tårta hade också varit trevligt. Både Hakeem och Javari hade ritat teckningar till mig igår också och så fick jag en fin julgransprydnad med ett kort på Hakeem som han hade gjort på skolan. Förresten så fick vi pengar av mina föraldrar för nån vecka sen så jag köpte faktiskt ett par grejer till mig själv då. En mysdräkt (jacka och byxor), örhangen och en bok (The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo av Stieg Larsson).

Juldagen igår var jättetrevlig. Barnen fick öppna julklappar på förmiddan för en gångs skull. Dom fick en Wii så jag visste att dom skulle vilja spela hela dagen. Det är tur jag har snälla foraldrar som betalade för det. Bästa julklappen någonsin! Ja, det var till mig också såklart. Jag har önskat ett Mario-spel sen jag var liten. Vi hade ingen Nintendo på den tiden men jag brukade spela hos grannen och hos en klasskompis ganska ofta. Med Wii:n kom även Wii Sports och så köpte jag Wii Play eftersom det kom med en extra remote. Jag önskar jag kunde visa barnens reaktion när de öppnade paketet med Wii:n. Det var verkligen oslagbart. Dom skrek och tjoade. :) Som tur var filmade vi med videokameran sa vi kan se det igen. Sen spenderade de resten av dagen med att spela, och alldeles för många timmar idag också. Imorgon sa jag att det blir max tva timmars spelande. Man får motion när man spelar Wii Sports så det är ganska tröttsamt. Hakeem fick ont i armen idag, säkert musklerna.

Huset ser ut som ett bombnedslag ungefär sa imorrn blir det städning ifall jag mår bättre.

Julaftonsfika - lussebullar, pepparkakor och glögg.

Juldagen.

Javari pussar Wii:n. :)

Lillälsklingen.

Ny pyjamas.

Dequan med sin nya leksak.

Photo update

Here are some pictures from the past week.

Christmas Party with the playgroup Dec 11

Hakeem

Dequan

A craft I brought - Swedish "smällkaramell."

Javari

Christmas Party with the Swedish playgroup Dec 12

My contribution: "kladdkaka" and "chokladbollar."

Hakeem is quite the playa.

Hug party!

Cookie Decorating Party at Javari's preschool Dec 16

Hubby, Dequan and I visited Javari's preschool for the last day of school before the winter break. They had a cookie decorating party and all the kids looked like reindeers, so cute. The party started with a visit from Santa. Then the kids sang Christmas songs to the parents, followed by cookie decorating.

The kids singing "Jingle Bells." You can barely see Javari until the end.

Dequan is so scared of Santa. :/

Javari decorating cookies.



Tips for math websites

I feel a whole lot better today but Dequan still has a runny nose. I think Dequan really likes the Christmas tree because he won't leave it alone. I hung most of the ornaments out of his reach but he has been pulling on the glitter and light string and the tree is leaning. Not so pretty anymore. Have I mentioned Dequan's crazy? He even beats the other two in craziness. He's hilarious with his little antics. He doesn't talk yet but he communicates with his whole body and seems to understand everything we say. He does everyhting we tell him to do, so funny. He's got the cutest laugh too. I was tickling him a few minutes ago just to see him laugh.

I have to say Hakeem is doing good in school (2nd grade). He brought home his first trimester progress report today and a diploma that says he's on the A-B honor roll. It makes me so proud. Last year he was on the A roll so let's see if we can't get him back on that for next trimester. I will have him practice math and reading over the winter break. Javari too so he's well prepared for Kindergarten next year. I printed some math sheets last week that we can use. Hakeem has been learning multiplication at home so I printed a multiplication times table worksheet up to number 12 for him. You can find it here if you would like one too. I printed some other worksheets from there as well for learning money, subtraction and more. They don't have to learn everything at school right?



Worksheet from math-aids.com


Here are some more math websites for kids that I like:

• AplusMath
• Math Fact Cafe 
• Coolmath4kids.com

You wish!

It didn't go like I hoped last night. Hakeem woke up crying before I even finished the last post. I ended up laying down in his bed with him and Javari and fell asleep there. Later on Dequan joined us and it got a little crowded in their full size bed. I didn't sleep very good as their bed is a little too firm for me and gives me a back ache. Hakeem was able to go to school today though and he had no pain all day. I'm relieved and I will probably get some good sleep tonight. I think I'm starting to get over my cold too, hooray for that. I took Javari to prechool today and earlier this evening I found a little bit of energy so I vacuum cleaned and then put up the tree, which the kids helped me decorate. Ah, finally that's over with. Putting together a plastic tree with a million unmarked pieces is not my idea of fun.

I had to cancel all my plans for this week except Javari's preschool because the brake light in my car came on yesterday and the car also needs a new battery ASAP. I don't want to take any unnecessary risks so I'm staying put until the brakes are fixed, hopefully tomorrow. Two weeks ago I had to fix the signals and the car has other minor problems as well. Man, I hate cars. I just keep throwing money at it that I'd rather spend on something else, like Christmas gifts for my kids. Speaking of Christmas gifts, I have to share the kids' wish lists. How likely do you think it is that they'll get anything on that list?? Pretty much zero.

I tried to talk some sense to Hakeem earlier tonight about getting a monkey. He really seems to think it's realistic to have a monkey even after I told him they're like babies and can be aggressive. Mmm, kay. And poor Javari has his heart set on a chihuahua. That's not gonna happen right now although I'd really like to have one someday. And speaking of chihuahuas, how cute are these ones!

Aww, tiny!

Sweetie pie.

And believe it or not, but I want a sphynx. Preferably a grey one with blue eyes. Look at this sphynx baby. Don't you just wanna kiss it?

Saint Lucia..

I'm sick today. Not fun but at least I have time to write a little post and share some pictures. Friday I took Javari and Dequan to the indoor botanical garden at Bellagio. They weren't quite finished with their holiday display so we couldn't go in the middle part, but we got some ok pictures anyway. Yesterday we went to the Scandinavian Christmas party like we've been doing every year for I don't know how many years now, maybe 5. Hakeem and Javari participated in the Lucia train dressed in long white dresses. They did a really good job. It was Javari's first time and Hakeem's second. After that it was time to eat some Scandinavian goodies. If you would like to learn more about Saint Lucia go to Wikipedia.

Lucia.

Botanical gardens at Bellagio.

Javari with no hair gel, haha.

The small version of the Eiffel Tower.

The Lucia singing in church yesterday.

Lined up for pictures afterwards.

"Stjärngossar" Javari and Hakeem.

Dequan eating a yummy sandwich.

Waiting to fish for a goodie bag in the fish pond.

The things in the tree behind Javari are called "smällkarameller" and they contain candy. I think I will make a tutorial for them soon.

Some of the goodies I found at World Market Friday.

German chocolate Santas from World Market, yum! I ate them all in two days with a little help from the kids. So sick but good. :)

Bonjour, Hola, Hej, Hello

The title represents all the languages that Hakeem and Javari were speaking/learning today. They had French class with a couple of other families, and when we came home we continued with Spanish videos and games, and Swedish songs and rhymes. After that the boys wanted to make up their own songs and draw pictures to them (like I did on my Swedish song cards, except I didn't make the songs up). Then they played with their Little People toys, which they haven't played with in a long time. I spent the whole day with the kids, only spent maybe an hour on the computer this morning and didn't get back on until after the kids went to bed. I can't remember the last time I spent this much time with the older ones. It was fun to learn something together. I need to focus on math with them someday too. I showed Hakeem how to do single digit multiplication last week and he got it right away. He hasn't had multiplication at school yet and he's in second grade so I was pretty amazed. I gave him several problems and he figured them out so fast. Way impressive! We used this website to generate lots of problems: http://mathfactcafe.com/ You can specify a range of numbers to include as well as how many problems you want on one page. You can print the page too but we didn't do that.

Yesterday we did a service project with the playgroup. We filled three shoe boxes with toys, hygiene items, candy, books and more for Operation Christmas Child. Tomorrow the kids and I will take the boxes to a nearby church for further distribution to various countries. I hope we can do more service projects like this one since it helps kids to get a sense of community and helping others.

The weather is pretty pissy so we'll be staying indoors a lot now. Perfect excuse to be learning something. I try to make learning fun with music, games, coloring, reading, movement, playing, imagination, etc. Formal learning is for school, at home you can make it informal and just plain fun. It is very important for Javari who is 4 that it is fun. If he has to sit still for a long time and do a lot of writing or answering questions he gets bored quick and just whines. It's also important to avoid testing at this age and to not test the kids at home. I like the Montessori teaching and how they avoid testing and too much instruction. They let the kids figure out a lot of things on their own. I would love to take a Montessori class to learn more, and I wonder if I could find some of the materials they use somewhere? It would be nice to have a couple of things at home.

Sorry, no pictures today but next time for sure. It's time for me to get some sleep. Hopefully the kids are worn out after everything today and wake up late tomorrow. I actually got 9 hours of sleep last night! It was much needed. Bonne nuit, Buenas noches, Godnatt, Good night.

The love of my life

The love of my life at the moment is not my hubby, it's my baby. He's special and new and little and helpless and sweet. I just love him SO much. Don't get me wrong, I love the rest of my family too but right now Dequan is number one. So much is happening in his development and it's so exciting. It seems he learns something new every day. Right now his thing is walking and running around the house, spinning around, wrestling with Javari, chasing Hakeem, giving us things and waiting for us to say "thank you", laughing, saying "mama", making us smile, fake crying (he'll even lay down and put his face on the floor, very dramatic), spilling my drinks, putting his hand in the toilet when Javari pees (yuck!), nursing, pooping dark green poop, kissing us, biting my chin, sleeping through the night, dancing, etc etc, everything he does is so darn cute, even putting his hand in the potty. :)

Look how cute he was yesterday. He had an accident and I only had this body in the diaper bag, no pants. :)

He took my water bottle and ran!

"Here you go Mommy."

I helped Hakeem with a Nevada project for school this weekend. We were able to use our recent pictures from hikes to Red Rock and Mt Charleston. The rest is clippings from the Nevada Magazine that someone at their paper nicely sent to us for free.

I would love to see wild horses some time.

I just managed to forget about my ramen noodles and burn the pan a little while writing this (Dequan was falling asleep in my lap so I didn't get up when the timer rang). Thank God for Javari being my extra eyes, and mind!

Farm visit

This past Saturday we went to a real farm here in the area. Strange enough we never knew it existed and they have a Halloween event every year. The boys really liked it because they got to ride a pony and see other animals. They had a small hay maze as well. We didn't get a pumpkin since we don't decorate our house for Halloween (only for Christmas).

Mario aka Hakeem.

Ninja Turtle aka Javari.

Running around with friends.

Go Dequan!

"Hmm, what's this?"

I can never get them all to look at the camera.

It's getting cold here finally. Yesterday morning when I got up at 6:30 it was 69 or 70 degrees in the house. That feels really cold when you're used to 80! Outside it was even colder with a chilly wind. Today is a little better.

Sew great

Hmm, I don't know what I was thinking last night when I set the alarm for one hour earlier than I needed to. I guess I was thinking Javari starts preschool at 10:30 instead of 11:30. So I slept less than 6 hours - again. Oh well, maybe I'll feel like cleaning the fridge or something. Dequan just went back to sleep so I could do it. Nah.

I have a new obsession....sewing. I want to get a sewing machine and some fabric and just get started. I love getting started on things and then I never keep up with it for long. Prime example: scrapbooking, I do it twice a year. So I don't know if I should spend money on a sewing machine. I think I will really sew some clothes though. It will be cheaper and I can buy some fun Swedish fabrics (it's great quality too) and make typical Swedish children's clothes for my kids. I haven't sewed in years but how hard can it be to make a T-shirt or shorts for example. I would like to sew some toys too, maybe baby blocks. I used to live in Eskilstuna, Sweden for a year because I went to college there. There in the building next to my apartment building they had a place where you could use the computers, a wood shop, and a sewing machine. I went there a couple of times and used the sewing machine to sew curtains. It was free. I doubt there's a place like that here but I really wish there was. I wish I could open up a cozy little tea shop with yummy Scandinavian pastries, sandwiches, and exotic teas from all over the world (maybe some coffee and ice cream too). I would have computers with Internet and sewing machines for use for a small fee. There would be a kids' area with some toys and games. The decor would be Scandinavian or cozy European. Anyone got the start-up funds? :)

Upcoming agenda:

Friday - Playdate @ McDonald's
Saturday: Asian Moon Festival @ the Springs Preserve
Sunday: Lego Club at the library (Hakeem finally got a spot, he's so excited)
Monday: Cleaning and laundry day
Tuesday: My mom and sister are coming to town! :)

Hakeem with the poster he made for the student council election. He did it all by himself and even came up with the message. :)

This picture is really bad but you get an idea of Javari at gymnastics. He's in the orange shirt to the right.

Dequan "watching" Javari at gymnastics.