Summer fun

One of Brent's very few birthday presents this year was a Lightning McQueen bubble maker. Whoever made it was a genius. There is no way you can go wrong when you combine 2 of boys' favorite things: bubbles and cars.

Some swim & some birthday pics

Wall art finished

I've just about finished up my little project. Decided after trying to cut out the silhouettes that the X-acto knife idea I found wasn't the smartest idea. Didn't give me crisp edges, so I resorted to tracing the images onto cardstock and cutting it with scissors. I still need to run out tomorrow and get some double-sided tape since one of the kids probably used it up. Nice.

I also need to decide if I want the silhouettes in individual frames like this, or put them in a 16"x 20" poster frame. Thoughts?

Swimming and other things

Two weeks ago, the kids started up swimming lessons. To be honest, I wasn't sure how Collin would do being in a non-"parent & me" session and handling the deep side of the pool. The first 20 minutes of class are in the shallow(3-4 ft.) and the second 20 minutes are in the deep side(6 ft). The first few days, Collin had a really hard time. The second and third day I spent all but the last 5 minutes of each 20 minutes getting Collin in the water & staying in the water. I made quick acquaintances with the pool managers. I am happy to say that I am the only parent allowed to be all the way up next to the edge of the pool when I need to assist Collin--keeping him on task & being an extra set of eyes to make sure he does not let go of the pool.

By the end of the first week(each class lasts 2 weeks), Collin had decided he liked staying in the water. Now I just have to deal with keeping Collin on task & having a bored 2 year old--Brent just turned 2 on Friday. Drew was in Collin's class. Drew's done well enough to move up to the next swim level. Collin, no surprise, is in the same class as last week. He can do most things but won't put his head or face in the water without help. Ivy's doing well, as expected. This week, she's in a new class and actually learning new things.

Brent had his 2nd birthday on Friday. Thursday night I took Brent to Target to pick out a couple toys. Between the toy stimulus overload and close to bedtime--I didn't want to take all 4 kids if I could help it--we had some pretty serious tantrums. We finally(after over an hour) came home with a Lighting McQueen toy car that sticks out its tongue, a 5 pack of Hot Wheels cars, and a book about trucks. Tom got whisked away to a Scout campout, so we only saw him for about 30 minutes between Friday morning and about 2 pm on Saturday. He got a Funfetti(?) cake with homemade buttercream frosting--I almost had a cow that the cheapest storebought frosting was like $2 for a tiny thing. I drew Elmo on it. Didn't turn out as nice as I wanted, but it was still recognizable and enjoyed by all. I did some fingerpainting with the food coloring since I forgot to set aside some frosting. Whoops. Lesson learned.

Today, keeping the kids as busy as I can. I'm making some cheap wall art today. Probably will be done in a day or two. The tutorial is here  (click for link) and here is a picture of me doing a layout with a poster size frame. Ivy's silhouette looks funny, since she had a low ponytail and I was being nit-picky about Collin's looked larger than her head size. So I cut off the ponytail and taped it on higher. Then I photocopied it 104% a couple times to get it the right size.

Here's the original picture I had for Ivy.

More pics and video of the swim class & birthday up in a couple days.

Father's Day

I'll be honest, I'm a little annoyed that the Coast Guard drill weekends tend to fall on Mother's Day & Father's Day every year. Today's no different. However, in spite of this--including an extra long drill day yesterday--we did try to get some stuff together for Tom. The best part was, for the most part we didn't have to go anywhere to make it and it was very inexpensive .

I found this printable:  http://alittledelightful.blogspot.com/2011/08/fathers-day-printable-all-about-my-dad.html, and had the kids answer the questions themselves. The answers are completely the kids' answers with no prompting. I love Drew's answers that Tom is 70 & likes to wear clothes. It's also interesting 2 of the 3 know he likes to go to church. Well, all 3 do, I suppose since technically Tom's calling in Boy Scouts is at church.

Drew:

1. My dad's name is ______ :  Daddy

2. He is ____ years old: 70

3. And  _____ tall: Really

4. He has  _______ hair and _____ eyes: Black, black

5. My dad likes to wear ____: Clothes

6. And his favorite color is _____: Pink

7. My dad likes to go to _______ : Church

8. And his car is a(n) ________ : White one

9. My dad's favorite sport is ______ : Tennis

10. And his favorite tv show is ______ : Batman

11. He likes to cook ______ : Tomatoes

12. His favorite food is ______ : Oatmeal

13. His favorite drink is: _______ : Juice

14. And his favorite dessert is _____: Peach crisp

15. My dad is the best at _______ : Testing games on the computer

16. My dad tries really hard to ________ : Tickle me

17. And he is so special to me because __________ : He lets me play the Wii

Collin:

1. My dad's name is ______ :  Daddy

2. He is ____ years old: 6-7

3. And  _____ tall: Really

4. He has  _______ hair and _____ eyes: Black, brown

5. My dad likes to wear ____: Sunglasses

6. And his favorite color is _____: Red

7. My dad likes to go to _______ : Boy Scouts with Andrew (Tom doesn't take them much anymore, but Collin never wanted to go & always volunteered Drew)

8. And his car is a(n) ________ : White

9. My dad's favorite sport is ______ : Running

10. And his favorite tv show is ______ : Biggest Loser

11. He likes to cook ______ : Spaghetti

12. His favorite food is ______ : Cornbread

13. His favorite drink is: _______ : Juice

14. And his favorite dessert is _____: Candy

15. My dad is the best at _______ : Races

16. My dad tries really hard to ________ : Sleeping (a LOT of truth to this, whenever he tries to get a nap he gets interrupted instead)

17. And he is so special to me because __________ : He's 7 years old

Ivy:

1. My dad's name is ______ :  Tom

2. He is ____ years old:  About 45

3. And  _____ tall:  Is

4. He has  _______ hair and _____ eyes: Black, Brown

5. My dad likes to wear ____: His Starry  Night tie

6. And his favorite color is _____: Blue 

7. My dad likes to go to _______ : Church

8. And his car is a(n) ________ : Elantra

9. My dad's favorite sport is ______ : Racketball(as spelled by Ivy)

10. And his favorite tv show is ______ : Biggest Loser

11. He likes to cook ______ : Yaksoba(as spelled by Ivy, she means Yakisoba)

12. His favorite food is ______ : Chicken noodle soup

13. His favorite drink is: _______ : Apple juice

14. And his favorite dessert is _____: Peach crisp

15. My dad is the best at _______ : Swimming

16. My dad tries really hard to ________ :  Teach me to play volleyball

17. And he is so special to me because __________ : He takes me to Knott's Berry Farm

I also found this printable: http://aproffittablelife.blogspot.com/2011/05/fathers-day-free-printable.html, (printed out the yellow version since our printer is black & white only) and framed it with an 8x11 frame we already had.

We made this craft at Drew's last preschool class. All the kids made one--since school was out, Ivy & Collin came along.

I also made this video for Tom, since he will likely be missing the kids singing "I'm so glad when Daddy comes home" today in Sacrament meeting.

Our last Fathers' Day gift was from Brent. He made this in Nursery today at church. I think this is so cute.

Final thoughts of the day:  We are really happy that Tom was able to make it for part of second hour of church. Since yesterday was an especially long day(till 10 pm plus travel time home), they(his unit) were told they'd be off by noon today. Of course, we held our breath on that one and thought he'd maybe only make part of the last hour of church. He really enjoyed the kids being excited to see him after church--they didn't see him much yesterday, and he must have under-estimated how much they enjoy him being around. The kids gave him their gifts at home, and he said he felt like he was being treated as if he just came back from Kuwait all over again.

Conquer Clothing Clutter Part 2--Final pics

For those visiting from IHeartOrganizing.com's link party, here is the 1st post: http://thegeekids.blogspot.com/2012/06/conquer-clothing-clutter-part-1.html

Day 3: Finally finished! It sounds bad, but I used to dread going to the boys' room. The whole, "the kids have too many clothes, and yet we try to get them to clean it up anyway" syndrome. I think it's going to be much more manageable for them, since the quantity of clothes has been significantly been reduced and also with being able to reach what they use the most.

Collin had  two 13 gallon trash bags filled of too small & excess, plus  another bag full of pants with holes.

The final outcome:

*Note: I ended up finding pant/skirt hangers we already had to hang the pants & shorts as it was less bulky*

I also had to do a Target run this afternoon. While going thru Collin's pants it was discovered that he had only 2 pairs of pants that 1)were the correct size and 2)didn't have huge holes in the knees. I got a couple pairs of inexpensive jeans  for him. Our Target had really slim pickings for pants his size, so I may have to either try another Target or try Children's Orchard later next week.

So nice, visually to see. I literally took so many pictures & took in quite a few breaths to admire the change.


Before:

After:

Conquer Clothing Clutter part 1

Over at IHeartOrganizing.com this week, I was challenged to tackle clothing closet(s). I am taking on the boys' shared closet. This'll give me the head start I need before school starts this fall. Luckily, for a small fee, the PTA will take care of school supplies for us, so my main job this summer is to go thru clothes & keep the kids super busy. Here is our before shot of the boys' closet.



Definitely not working out so well for us. Plus Drew's got a bigger dresser than Collin, who could sure use the extra space.

First order of business: take out the hanging shelf I had in Drew's side. I also took out the toy box, as we have tons of space in the living room in a 1x5 Expedit that we got from the "as-is" at Ikea in April. Next, I re-installed the bottom closet bar. I took it out a couple years ago, when I caught the boys trying to swing on it. Hopefully, history won't repeat itself. I'm going to keep the bulk of Drew's clothes(pants, shorts & tee's since it's summer) on the bottom bar, so he can get them himself. I may swap dressers between the boys, I'm not sure yet.



Then, I had to figure out the daunting task of how many of each type of clothing is appropriate for Drew's lifestyle. He starts up kindergarten this fall, but is unfortunately still at a stage where he is having a lot of accidents. I decided to keep 7 pants, including dressier pants for church, 5 shorts, and 10 t-shirts. Still have to go through other things(including excessive amounts of pj's), but will likely keep 5 long sleeve shirts, 3 short sleeve dressy(for church) shirts, 3 long sleeve church shirts, and 3-4 pairs of pj's.

Finished up day 1, and Drew's side of the closet is mostly together. Can you believe this little guy had this full of a bag that were either too small or just in excess?



This is the dresser that once upon a time both boys shared, but the past at least year--maybe longer--has been holding only Drew's things. I have moved all his clothes to one side(3 drawers-one for undies, one for socks, and 1 for pj's) so Collin can have more space too. I'm going to be making some picture and word labels, since both boys can only read a little. The pictures will show what goes in the drawers, and the word will either say Drew or Collin so they know which drawers are theirs.



Day 2: Started with Collin's side by emptying his hanging shelf, and putting back in the bottom bar in his closet.

The pile on the bottom bar of the closet is just Collin's t-shirts. I'd say there were well over 25.

I'm also making sure all the hangers match--it doesn't cost a lot, and our budget on this organizing project is little to none. I only spent about $4-5 on 4 packs of hangers.

This morning, before school, I managed to go thru all the t-shirts. Quite a feat. I had Collin try on a handful and do the arm test(hands over head to see if the bottom of the shirt exposed his tummy), and chose 1 that fit and 1 that didn't to measure the rest against. It is very difficult to get him to stay there and go thru all the shirts like that. I imagine most boys are like that, autistic or not. So the break was a good idea. I had a small pile left that I couldn't figure out and had him try those on and he got reinforced with a couple spots on his token board(he gets x many tokens for good behavior and earns something that highly motivates him). Then it was time for school.

In any case, this is about as far as I got with Collin's side.

This is what's still left to go through.

I'm not even halfway done with Collin's clothes, and he's already filled a 13 gallon size trash bag of too small clothes and ones that were in excess. As often as we do laundry, 10 t-shirts should be more than plenty. There is also a second bag now filled, just of pants with holes in the knees.

Here is our before shot:



And here is the current progress(obviously, not finished yet. The small dresser will likely be moving out of the closet by one of the walls):