Popeye's Birthday

We celebrated Popeye's birthday and our mini half christmas today with a lovely turkey dinner. Having spent the day cleaning and rearranging furniture, not to mention cooking; (I was playing masterchef. I think a good challenge would be to put kids in the kitchen whilst they are doing a challenge!!) I was happy to sit down with the family to celebrate.

This is the way Popeye likes to celebrate - surrounded by his boys. Happy birthday Dad!

Holiday housework

Fun, exercise and cleaning all rolled into a nice little package!

(he was at it for ages - that is our rug and he has a baseball bat)

Holidays

Two weeks school holidays - and it begins with a trip to the Doctor for moi. A big dose of pharangitis - which I always thought sounded like a fake illness but effectively tonsilitis sans tonsils. The Dr gave me 2 days off, but these tough employers don't let me rest. While I felt miserable these three little boys wanted and needed entertaining.
Enter colouring books and DVD's. Anything to keep them quiet!
By today the antibiotics have begun their magic and I ventured out to the movies (just me and most of Melbourne!!) We saw Shrek 4 from the front row, luckily not 3D and honestly given the adult nature of the story I was glad not to have wasted the extra money on it.The concept struck a cord with me - you don't know what you've got til its gone, however I feel it was a little high brow for the boys. Still a day out and they had fun and I get to go back to the couch!!

Numero Uno

The twins had their first real party today. They get the concept now and were excited to go "without Alexander". Their friend was from Kinder so I was very pleased they were invited and on some level are making friends at kinder.

Their friend is really into his hands - wearing any kinds of gloves and making up stories about them- gardening gloves, skiing gloves and boxing gloves. How could we not give him our first puppet. - well actually our second as we have a prototype where we worked out the bugs!

He loved it.

We did give him two presents - as there were two kids attending the party. I know this is my issue, but I have to do it. It was a little wind up torch which my boys love. Not strickly a childs toy but without the need for batteries and full torch functionality it is great. This way both boys could walk into the party with a gift and they had a lovely time.

hats

I have been a little slack - on the photo front, not on the knitting side. I have actually finished my hat from the weekend away - and made another two! I thought one grey one could be a gift, the other hat is brown speckled and lost somewhere in the house - oh well. Two outa three aint bad! Here are the twins 'modelling' the hats for me. They could hardly wait to get up to have a look!

And here is one (taken by Benji! at the Solstice) of hat on me at work. Could have done with a bit of styling and preparation but here tis.

Fortune

Today was about Alexander's fortunes - two different types but both with hidden educational value! The first fortune is the paper fortune teller which are easy to make and are great fun. What is the best thing about these little things is all opportunities to learn, while having fun! First there is the folding which is good for fine motor skills and following instructions. Then on the outside we wrote colour names, on the next level was numbers 1 - 8 and on the underside flaps are little sayings or actions. So he got to use his imagination and writing and spelling. Once the fortune teller is complete, playing with it is just as valuable. He is doing different movements with his hands, he is spelling and counting and communicating - all without knowing it!! (An aside, I am already a little sick of it, think we need a new audience!)

A quick how to make it:
Have a square piece of paper and fold it diagonally both ways to find the middle. I put a dot there.
Fold the points into the middle (there should be four points to fold in) and you are left with a smaller square.
Turn your work over and put a dot in the middle. Fold the four points into the middle as you did above to give you an even smaller square.
Next you need to make some creases. I fold it in half both ways on the straight, not diagonal with all the points in the middle of the fold. This just helps with the movement of the fortune teller.
Then if you gently push the points up you can slide your fingers into the open flaps on the outside.
We choose colours for the outside, numbers for the inside and have done activities and also yes no versions.

This is the other fortune, real money. Alexander wants to buy some things so he suggested he could do some chores to earn some money. Together we devised a list of basic tasks that he could do to earn some money. Each task successfully completed earns him 10 cents so he income is only limited by his activity. Tasks include getting dressed all ready, packing his bag, making his bed, cleaning his room, but also setting the table, packing the dishwasher and feeding the dog.
We have a little tick chart where the activities are listed on the side and along the top are the days and each activity gets a tick. He then needs to add up the daily ticks and transfer them to a monetary amount, and add up the weekly total. Then I pay him what he has earned and he delights in counting how much he has earned. He is enjoying it and when he wants something he remembers how to work for it. Not only am I getting jobs done, but the incidental maths is great.

guess

can you guess what I am doing? Imagine my floor with this fluff everywhere....................