Boggles the Mind

I had no idea that learning to read would be so exciting as a parent.  Something clicked for Sarah last week and she's a bit more interested in working on it.  This evening, after a rousing game of Pretty, Pretty Princess (highly recommend for any princess lover), Sarah picked Boggle Jr to play.  There are 2 levels of cards and 2 levels of play.  The easy level is to match letter cubes to the letters you see that match a picture.  The hard version is to spell it all by yourself after looking at the picture.  Sarah actually opted for the harder version.  I thought it would only last for 1 round of play but she did FANTASTIC!! I was so excited and proud to hear her sounding out words like pig, bus and cup.  Then we moved her to the harder cards (4 letter words...clean ones).  She still got it with a tiny bit of help for more complicated sounds.  She spelled fish and nest.  It was just amazing.  Also, amazing is the fact that her attention span lasted for over 20 minutes of this game, a game that really isn't a game when we play it.  She just spells words and we cheer.  I LOVE IT!!!!

So, we'll keep working on our sounds and books.  She's had the first set of BOB books at her nightstand for a week and is actually working on them.  We've had them for months but she's only looked at them a few times.  They are great first reading books.  She used to say she was reading but really she was guessing based on the pictures and calling it reading.  I had to tell her many times that reading is actually looking at the letters and being able to know what they say.  Finally, she gets that! HOORAY!

The side effect of our excitement over Sarah is that Will loves letters.  He likes to point at them and shout one out.  He gets one right once in awhile.  He especially loves to play with the letter blocks from the Boggle Jr game.  It's so cute.

Let's Play Tag

Ok Colleen - here goes.

I was tagged by my friend Colleen and here's the game.  Post the 7th picture in your 7th folder and tell about it.  Don't cheat, just post what's there. 

This was kind of hard for me because I don't exactly have folders on my mac for pictures - more like events so this is the 7th picture of the 7th "event" in my pictures:

This is a picture from New Year's 2001-2002 a few months after we got married.  We were in Vegas with a bunch of good college buddies.  From L-R: Andy, Me, Blake (now married with little girl), Heather (recently married in North Carolina), Emily and Chris (already married in this pic), Lisa and Dave (now married and expecting in a few months!)

Now I am supposed to tag someone but not many people I know have blogs.  So, I tag Amy H. and Caitlein (because I know you will find a way to do this on facebook or something).

Cake

As many of you know, my little boy is not the cleanest eater around. His birthday was no exception. I'll just have to show you:

The Cake made by Mommy (no making fun!)

The Beginning

The Middle

The End

Just to note - He went straight to the bath tub and yes, he had chocolate in his toenails!
I'd like to say this is only on special occasions but considering that he loves Mac n Cheese and Oatmeal - cleanliness is a challenge for me and for him!  I saw a shirt last night that said "I Make Dirt Look Good".  I think Will needs one that says "I Make Cake Look Good!"

Freddie Mercury..... and Saturn

My kids love Queen (and ABBA but that's a different blog altogether). I can put on Queen's greatest hits in my bedroom and they will come in to dance with in about 30 seconds. It cracks me up. Their favorite is We Are the Champions (as you've witnessed in a past blog). Sarah has even decided that that song will be her wedding song. Watch out boys! Andy was just on an outing with both kids and was telling Sarah that a man named Freddie Mercury sings the songs for the group Queen. We have been working on the concept of groups that sing and individuals that sing. Sarah informed Daddy that there's another planet in the group too.... Saturn. He asked what Saturn from Queen's first name is. It's Sarah of course!!! So, in case you didn't know - Freddie Mercury sings with Sarah Saturn in the group Queen.

My Little Man Turns 2

Hard to believe it but Will turns 2 today at 10:39 PM. I love my happy little guy but I already miss my little baby boy. Happy Birthday Will!!!

Tahoe Part 2

The day after the ski school disaster, we decided not to ski since it was supposed to rain. Yes rain, not snow.  It was icy enough as is.  (It did not rain that day but oh well!)  We did however head over to the village and check things out.  Here is Will showing me his MITTENS!!!!  He was surprisingly good about keeping both the mittens and the hat on.

Then we decided to take the Gondola up to the top of the mountain.  This was, by far, Sarah's favorite part of the trip, as you can see by her face.  It was really fun.  We stopped half way up at the lookout and then continued to the top which is one way to get to the ski lifts.

Some wrestling before bed:

The next day, we were going to head down the mountain and this was the snow that faced us.  We pretty much threw everything together and tossed it in the car.  We had to beat the snow before snow tires or chains were required.

The kids loved the falling snow and I'm glad they got to experience it.  Sarah tried to catch snowflakes on her tongue and Will just kept making silly faces.


Will loved the ride down the mountain.  He kept saying Weeeeee and Again!

Day 1 of our drive was GORGEOUS with all the snow around and we saw the biggest rainbow I have ever seen.  It was a complete arch which is pretty rare to see.   

Day 2 of our drive went by pretty fast but the kids were somewhat miserable.  Who can blame them after so much traveling and new experiences.

I can't wait to take them to the snow again, this time with Andy and this time with sticky snow that is perfect for snowmen and ladies.