Big Boys and their Ways

Owen's first night sleeping on the bottom bunk! I can hardly believe it. I went in his room and looked at his little toddler bed... it looked so empty and weird without him in it.  We actually weren't going to move him in until the end of May, but things never quite go as planned.  We got the mattress last week, and of course both boys were super excited about all the newness of it.  They kept getting up on it and taking turns trying to reach the top bunk with their feet.  The next night after we got it, Martin put sheets and blankets on it without me knowing, so when the boys and I got up... it really looked like a bed! Owen claimed it right away and layed down on it, saying, "I'm going to sleep in here." That night we gave it a try. (two nights ago). They talked and giggled for a while, but then our easy deep sleeper- Elijah went right to sleep as usual and Owen was left chattering to himself.  I don't think he expected this. He started crying later on, we came in and reassured him. He got out of bed after that... and wanted to go back to his "regular" bed. No harm... we tucked him in and he slept the night away. I'm not sure if he's going to want to stay in the bunk bed every night, but we'll make a slow transition if we have to.  ( I love pictures of them when they are sleeping, no matter how old they get)!

   The BIG INVENTION:

We actually don't know what it is yet, but Elijah has been collecting things for weeks claiming that it is for his "Big Invention." I gave him that dryer sheet box to keep all of it in.  He would ask to keep all sorts of weird things like pieces of this and that that I was going to throw away. "Well, what are you going to do with this?"  "It's for my big invention." It got a little out of hand. He really started hoarding things and then left it outside and it was pretty nasty. When Martin found it he asked Elijah to clean it out and keep the stuff that wasn't ruined or garbage. This turned out to be a very entertaining task. Owen joined in and they were fascinated with the rolly pollies that had made a home out of the box. Elijah really loved the rolly pollies... it was kind of cute.  He kept showing me how it would crawl on his hand, then they wanted to feed it...etc. The big invention has now become a pile on Elijah's art desk... (okay I secretly threw away the really unnecessary tiny pieces of paper that were driving me crazy- he loves to cut things up, just because).

Toilet Paper Roll Bird Feeders!

These are so easy and fun to make with your kids!

First: you take a toilet paper roll punch two holes in it
         attach a string, so that it will hang
         let your child spread peanut butter on it
         roll in birdseed
         hang it somewhere and watch the birds together!

            We just hung them on our fence where we normally watch the birds at mealtimes anyways.
I did a few with Owen too, but he refused to really do any of it.  He was afraid of getting peanut butter on his hands... go figure! But he'll gladly take apart a peanut butter sandwich and lick it off his fingers! For this project he enjoyed picking up the birdseed and burying the covered t.p. roll. I take what I can get... as long as he's willing to get involved with something.

So that's what we've been up to, me and me silly lovely boys!