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.

Halloween has started already

Javari made a super easy halloween craft at preschool today that I just have to share. We have almost everything at home so I will have Hakeem do it too. Or maybe save it for the halloween party we're having with our playgroup soon (not at my house but I'm helping since I'm the group organizer). I have a leftover pumpkin craft too from yesterday's halloween craft that we did at one member's house that I'm saving for the party. I've been getting stuff for the goodie bags this week and it's so fun to prepare for an event. I think I like the planning part more than the actual party. :)

Pumpkin we made yesterday and Javari's ghost picture.

How to: you need black construction paper, cotton balls, googly eyes, and stars. These stars are punched out of construction paper but you could just trace and cut your own or use star stickers. Then just glue everything onto the paper. Pretty self-explanatory right?

More pumpkins plus sun catchers that we painted.

Javari dressed up as a Ninja Turtle (there's an eye mask to go with it too).

Dequan absolutely hates hats so this was the best shot I could get of his alien (from Toy Story) costume.

Oops, I think he's mad at me.

Look at all that fun food! :)

The following pictures are from last year's halloween craft playdate. The host had us paint spiders and make little pumpkins, so cute. One spider is a ladybug, one has a cross on it's back, one looks Darth Vader-ish with red eyes, some have heart-shaped lips, etc. You can really use your imagination with these. If you want to be more realistic you can put eight eyes on them. We need to make some more of these because I don't know where I put them!

Spider attack!

Look how short Javari's hair was!



Asian Moon Festival

We went to the Springs Preserve yesterday and met up with my friend Rebecca and her three kids plus her oldest son's friend. So altogether we had 6 boys and one girl. Some acting up was to be expected but Javari was just out of control when we left. We were walking around for over 4 hours and still he didn't want to leave and actually tried to run back in there - twice! I was so mad. Thankfully he went to sleep when we came home and slept for two hours and woke up in a good mood.

Anyway, before all that we had a great time although it was hot (about 100 degrees F or 38 degrees C) and crowded. We have been to the preserve before but only checked out the gardens and the playground as that part is free. Yesterday the museum buildings were free as well and they were even more fun than I expected. There were so many things to do for all ages, even a baby play area for Dequan. The older kids built with LEGO, played in tunnels similar to the ones at McDonald's, went inside a train, saw a flash flood and spiders, played at a water table and a sand table, dumped balls in a slide thingy, and so much more. I had fun playing some kind of water preserving game. And still we didn't see everything. We missed the animals so we have to go back and see that when it's less crowded. Hopefully we can get a membership and go every month. Click here to see the website.

Here's a few things that we did...

This kept them busy for a long time.

Playing with LEGO.

Rebecca and Kaleb.

Dequan's turn to play.

My little monkey.

Learning some facts.

Look at that nerd!

They had Asian dancers on stage.

New pictures

Here are some new pictures from the past couple of weeks...

Dequan testing a friend's high chair and making a funny face.

Pool playdate with friends.

Crazy Dequan waiting for Hakeem to get off the bus.

So crazy.

I love my daddy.

Hakeem getting on the bus one morning.

Javari looking at birds.

Thinking...

Will he bite me?

I wish I could ride in the backseat too. It looks so cozy.

Big boy on a ride at Chuck E. Cheese's.

Running around kind of day

Today was a running around kind of day. Hubby came home from work early so I took the opportunity to go shopping without kids. Not shopping for clothes or for fun unfortunately. We're having a back to school/new member potluck with our playgroup on Wednesday so I had to get a bunch of stuff for that plus some groceries. First I went to a dollar store and Walmart. Then I went home and breastfed the baby real quick. Then out again to two more stores. At one of the stores I enjoyed an ice cream sundae all by myself. That is luxury because I could actually think for a few minutes. After I came back home I had to put school supply gifts together for the potluck and prepared all the paper work for Hakeem's school and put some school supplies in Hakeem's backpack. It's one week left till he starts but it's nice to prepare early sometimes. I'm usually a last minute kind of gal but I'm trying to get better. :)

Here are some pictures from this past week's fun...

Javari eating a donut at Krispy Kreme. Yep, that's my son.

No donuts for Dequan yet.

Sitting pretty in the dentist's waiting room...for 2 seconds.

Hakeem's getting pretty good at it.

Javari's turn...watch out!

Sweet child of mine.

Yesterday's FUN in the SUN

Yesterday we went to a water park with the playgroup. Three hours of fresh air always make me sleepy so I took a nap when I got home. Then we had one of my favorites for dinner. After dinner Dequan was practicing standing. One time he stodd up for 10 seconds. I don't think it will be long before he's walking.

My cuuutie! :)

My big boy.

Just hanging with friends.

This is how you let a girl know you like her.

This is the usual response you get. They learn early. LOL

Rebecca cooling off...it was over 100 degrees.

I made Swedish pancakes for dinner last night. The kids ate like they haven't seen food in days, and I think I had a small orgasm. Hubby won't even taste my pancakes so he ate leftover pizza (he doesn't know what he's missing).

I like them with Swedish raspberry/blueberry preserve, ice cream, and a sprinkle of sugar. Whipped cream works too.

I roll it up and cut it in pieces...and then I'm in heaven, mmm.

Father's Day

Hakeem is out of school and we have a super busy schedule. Hakeem and Javari have swim class three days a week for a month and I have a 4-week summer class in web design. Plus we go to a couple of playdates every week (moslty water parks), and there's always doctor's appointments and grocery shopping and whatever else. I love my class because I'm learning more xhtml and css so I can make a nice website. I probably won't make any changes to my website anytime soon, but hubby's website needs a major overhaul. I made his website years ago so the code is now outdated and every single page will need a good amount of editing. Which wouldn't be so bad if he had less than 10 pages but he has way more than that. I have my work cut out for me. But at least it will be fun.

Having a baby for the third time is a charm and I'm enjoying it even more this time around. I wish he could stay this size forever (he's now 7 months). He's the best baby one could have. He sleeps through the night and he's mostly in a good mood. Only time he fusses is when I'm not holding him. He usually doesn't want to hang with daddy very long but last night he spent a couple of happy hours with him. It was nice for me because I got a lot of homework done. My two older kids I can't praise too much right now because they are just too much sometimes. Yesterday they were just climbing the walls and wanting to kill each other. A short trip to McDonald's to play with a friend and burn energy only helped a little. Right now they're pretty quiet because they're watching TV and playing video games but we only got up two hours ago so you never know. I plan on having them work in their workbooks and help clean up today.

I've been thinking...an associates is not enough. Why not turn my hobby into a job that I would love and get a bachelors in web design? I need a few months' break though so I will look into that later. I have something to look forward to now...my mom is coming here in three months. I'm already thinking about where I'm gonna take her when she comes. We need to do some fun stuff for sure.

I wish my dad and my husband a Happy Father's Day today. The kids and I made framed hand prints yesterday that we are going to give to hubby when he gets home. I hope he'll like them.

Painting at the park with the playgroup and we also made hand prints.

Hakeem painting away

Javari's concentrating 100%

The finished hand prints plus some more we made at home.