Fun Things we did in November and December of 2009 part 1

I'm going to start a series of posts, probably about three, where I'll just briefly describe some of the different activities that have captured the kid's attention in the past few months. These are little things that were not big outings or topics that call for a longer post, but little things the kids did during this time that I want to always remember. Plus, it's the pretend play and little games they make up that make being with them so enjoyable!

They loved to push their dolls around in the sled, both in the snow and when there was none. Steve also tied up the sled to the back of their trikes.

They also really became interested in playing board games. We've had Memory, Hi-Ho Cherry-O, and Candy Land for a while now, and ocassionally they'll ask to play, but lately they've loved playing board games. Also, for Christmas they received Cariboo Island (which I highly recommend), Chutes and Ladders, I Spy and the Princess and the Pea.

I'm going devote a seperate post to Alexa's reading skills really taking off to where she's reading whole books by herself now, but I just wanted to include this picture of her looking through an I Spy type book. She had a phase for about a week where she would spend up to an hour at a time reading the list on the side and trying to find the objects in the pictures.

Jared's recently become intralled with robots. I think it started from watching Ralphie's Robot episode on The Magic School Bus. He always asks Steve to build him a robot from his Duplos. His number one Christmas present this year? A robot.

This is rather different but the kids are really into hard-boiled eggs lately. One day, just trying to think of something different to do, I asked if they wanted to watch me hard-boil an egg. They loved filling the pot with water, turning on the stove and watching the water boil, and then, their favorite part, peeling the eggs and eating them. Now, when I need at least ten minutes of semi-peace, I put hard-boiled eggs in front of them. Crazy, but it works. (By the way, in the picture Jared is wearing his shepherd costume for the church play)

Here's the kids turning their toy bin on its side and rolling down cars and trucks.

Alexa and, more recently in the past few weeks, Jared have gone through a big phase of using scissors. They've tried to cut in the past, but now they will sit still with scissors for a half hour at a time. It was another wonderful way I discovered to get them to sit still for a while. Also, they had an awesome time helping wrap presents this year. They'd cut the pieces of paper out, tape it up with our help and attach the gift sticker.