Game Night

While I was in the kitchen making dinner, a family game night started spontaneously in the living room.

There was backgammon...

... and chess!

Packing

We have been using this system for packing ever since we installed our chalkboard:

I used to draw little pictures next to the words so that Ruben could pack without assistance, but this was the first time that Ruben read the words and drew the pictures for Julio.

After some helpful suggestions from Ruben, Julio was very proud of writing his first "X."

My friend, Melissa, suggested using these very lightweight reusable grocery bags for packing.  They are perfect for our weekend trips.  I hang them on the doorknobs in the hall, right next to the packing list, and the boys run back and forth to their dressers, collecting items from the list and filling their bags.  As soon as they are done, I check their work, tie the bags shut and throw them all in a big duffel bag.  This bag system makes it so simple for the boys to keep track of their own clothes once we reach our destination.

Packing for everybody used to be a dreaded chore for me, but now the boys get excited when they see me working on their list and they treat packing more like a game.  It doesn't exactly save time yet, but I can see that they will be very good at packing for themselves before long, and I look forward to the day when they will be able to take charge of the whole process.

Do you have any favorite packing tips?  I'm so curious about what other families do to get ready for a trip.

Photocopied Toys

Yesterday, while I was printing out some pages for the boys to color, I thought that it would be fun to surprise them by making photocopies of their favorite soft toys.  Our printer has a built in scanner/copier on top, so I made some quick low quality black and white copies of their most beloved stuffed animals by laying the toys directly on the glass of the copier.  They were so surprised and happy about these prints!  They really did look fantastic.  Ruben wanted to color his in, so we got out some watercolors, and he set to work.

After he painted it, he drew some thorns and a cape on it, but eventually he cut it out without these additions.  It is now on the wall by his bed, and I'm looking around the house and thinking about what else I can photocopy for them.

It might be fun to copy some other toys, or to do these soft toys again enlarged at 200%.  We haven't even started copying hands and feet and faces, but I have a feeling that soon we will have a LOT of fun doing that!

Strange Characters

I think I've mentioned a few times that our boys like to dress up.  We've got an overflowing bin of capes and scarves, homemade Halloween costumes and strange antique dress-up bits (wigs! cowboy vests! lederhosen!!!).  They often disappear for long stretches, shouting "DON'T LOOK!" every few minutes.  When they reappear, they're wearing something like this:

Or this:

Or this:

Diego was the designer of all of these wild get-ups, aren't they amazing?

Oh, Those Dinosaurs.

Kids aren't the only ones into costumes around here.  Just look at what I found our plastic dinosaurs wearing:

Maurice Sendak

 Thank you and goodbye to the best of the best of the best.

Maurice Sendak  (June 10, 1928 - May 8, 2012) 

  

Illustrations from just a few of our many beloved Sendak books: In the Night Kitchen, Chicken Soup with Rice, Alligators All Around, The Wheel on the School (by Meindert DeJong) and Little Bear (by Else Holmelund Minarik) all published by HarperCollins.

More Fun with Superhero Paperdolls

Do you remember this post from a long time ago?  It turned out that it was just the beginning of our continuing adventures in paper hero-making...

We keep coming back to this project over and over.  The kids do love to play with these figures.  Since they are all laminated, they have withstood quite a lot of heroic crime-fighting action.  And, as we all enjoy making them, we now have quite a collection!

Here are a few (easy to make) special add-ons and accessories that have made our characters even MORE fun to play with:

As you can see, the boys have learned to draw some of their own, relying on me for just a little help with cardboard cutting and laminating, and that has made some of our characters even more weird and wonderful.  They have fantastic names, too, like: Dr. Eye-Distance, Star Chest, Thumper, Glow, and Captain Red-Flash Thunder-Side.

These two were added last weekend:

                                                                                   "Glow" by Diego, and "Robot" by Ruben

You can go back to the original post here, for the basic instructions and a printable template.  If you do make your own, please link to your pictures in the comments.  I'd love to see them!