Pictures and Updates

Two freshly bathed brothers snug in the chair. Most of the time they love each other. 

Mr. Handsome Young GQ, ready to head to school. 

 In January we celebrated Ahren's 6th birthday. He chose a Kung Fu Panda cake. We also ate a late breakfast at a restaurant, went bowling and opened presents. Unfortunately, 20 minutes into bowling Ahren was too tired to continue and just watched after that.

 Blowing out the candles!

There are many dead trees all around this area with lots of branches falling on the ground. I have been sending the boys into the edge of the forest with a wagon to gather wood.We have been having bonfires and eating hotdogs and marshmallows. Ever since we did this in Missouri at Uncle Randy and Aunt Carla's house, they have wanted to do this every weekend.

 Each boy has to have a big fire-poking stick, which inevitably ends up on fire itself. We have to watch the boys closely or they will suffer the same fate as their fire-poking sticks. (catch on fire)

 Of course the dogs have to be right there in the fun. They are just smelly 4-legged boys!

In January we also celebrated Seth's second Gotcha Day. He asked for a race car cake, so I looked on line and then went with this idea. Unfortunately I had less than 2 hours to bake, cool and decorate the cake before we celebrated. It is pretty messy, but he loved it. Plus it tasted really good!

We were getting ready to put away Christmas decorations and had the empty tubs out. I turned my back for a minute and discovered Scuba Steve in my tub!

That was nothing compared to what i found in my bed one morning after I took my shower. Who put the ugly kid in my bed???? On my pillow????

Seth was Star of the Week at school last week. It involved a little blue bear spending the weekend with us, our having to document the festivities, write about the weekend and make a poster about it. (I swear teachers don't have a clue what a weekend in our house is like. To accomplish this assignment almost killed us)

Playing legos with Little Blue.

 Watching TV with Little Blue, Ahren and his bear Little Brown.

Playing with Bogart and the bears. Poor Bogey is not sure he likes bears this much.

The boys invented some sort of game where they all dress up and run around our land with toy guns. We watched them the other day and laughed and laughed as we watched them run across the field in formation then suddenly hit the dirt and point their weapons at the sky, then jump up and run and hide. They played for hours. Ahren came in to take a rest but did not break character.

Visual learning and the young/special needs child. Small children and those who act younger due to special needs can really benefit from visual learning. I decided to try it out on my three boys to help avoid the frustrations we have been having getting ready in the mornings. Honestly this was driven by sheer desperation. I was ending up too fried by the time i dropped them at school and was really tired of repeating each command over and over again with no results.

I spent one morning inventing charts that detailed each step of our routine. I added an image of the time on a clock with the time printed out, then pictures of the individual chore to complete in that time window, a short description of the chore, and then velco dots where they move the image of themselves as they complete each item. Each morning I wake them up, then just call out the time and remind them to move their person. We have done this for one week and I can say that for Seth and Ahren it is working beautifully. they LOVE following the chart, moving their person and completing tasks. Levi isn't much interested in it, but he never really was the problem. he gets himself up and dressed each morning without any problem. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the charts continue to work miracles.