Sleepover at Grandma B's

Grandma B. invited Andrew, Tyson and Luke over for a sleepover at her house. Luke was very excited because he loves playing with his cousins and it gave him the chance to use his sleeping bag.

Grandma B. had some new toys for the kids to play with such as a cash register with a debit card and some play food. They rolled out some paper and drew dinosaurs and watched some super hero movie. They all slept on the floor in her room in their sleeping bags.

It was such a great time for all. 

Grandma B. should definitely have another sleep over another time.

100 Books of Summer

Lucas is such a smart boy and I don't think I'm just a proud mom. He knows all his letters, he can sing the ABC's and he can recognize most of the letters as well. He confuses a few such as W & M and P & R. I think he is well on to his way to reading. So I've decided to kick it up a notch and we are going to read 100 books this summer. (Although, this might be slightly difficult since Lucas LOVES to read the same books over and over and over...)

We've already started by reading:

1. Children Make Terrible Pets by Peter Brown

2.Always Listen To Your Mother by Florence Parry Heide & Roxanne Heide Pierce

3. You're Finally Here! by Melanie Watt

4. ABC Kids by Basher

5. Jumpy Jack & Googily by Meg Rosoff & Sophie Blackall

6. Wanda's First Day by Mark Sperring

7. Time To Play by Nigel Gray

8. Maisy's Rainbow Dream by Lucy Cousins

9. Roadwork by Sally Sutton

10. Just Helping My Dad by Mercer Mayer

11. How Do You Make a Baby Smile? by Philemon Sturges

12. David Goes to School by David Shannon

13. What a Treasure by Jane and Will Hillenbrand

14. No T. Rex in the Library by Toni Buzzeo

15. Curious George and the Ice Cream Surprise by Margret & H.A. Rey

16. Curious George Goes to a Chocolate Factory by Margret & H.A. Rey

17. Don't Slam the Door by Dori Chaconas

18. Daddy Adventure Day by Dave Keane

19. Scrambled Eggs Super! by Dr. Seuss

20. Not So Rotten Ralph by Jack Gantos

21. Pigs To the Rescue by John Himmelman

22. My Lucky Day by Keiko Kasza

23. Love is a Handful of Honey by Giles Andreae

24. Traveling Babies by Kathryn O. Galbratith

25. Just Big Enough by Mercer Mayer

26. Dr. Duck and the New BabiesDby H.M. Ehrlich

27. Quiet in the Garden by Aliki

28. Betty Bunny Loves Chocolate Cake by Michael B. Kaplan

29. Two Naughty Chickens at the Beach by Patti Beling Murphy

30. When Sheep Sleep by Laura Numeroff
31. Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola
32. Boo Boo by Olivier Dunrea
33. Yes Day by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
34. Up in Heaven by Emma Chichester
35. Firefighter Ted by Andrea Beaty and Pascal Lemaitre
36. Earl the Squirrel by Don Freeman
37. Duck! Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld
38. It's Fall! by Linda Glaser
39. Ferret Fun by Karen Rostoker-Gruber
40. One of Those Days by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
41. Beasty Bath by Robert Neubecker
42. The OK Book by Amy Krouse Rosenthal & Tom Lichtenheld
43. Stanley at Sea by Linda Bailey
44. Fix-It Duck by Jez Alborough
45. Myron's Magic Cow by Marlene Newman
46. Nobunny's Perfect by Anna Dewdney
47. Yes We Can by Sam McBratney
48. My Mother Is So Smart by Tomie dePaola
49. A Whisper is Quiet by Carolyn Lunn
50. Wake Up, Sun! by David L. Harrison
51. Miss Nelson is Back by Harry Allard
52. Ladybug Girl Loves... by David Soman & Jacky Davis
53. It's Picture Day Today by Megan McDonald
54. Sylvie & True by David Mcphail
55. A Ghost Story by Nina Crews
56. Stanley at Sea by Linda Bailey
57. I Didn't Do It by Patricia MacLachlan & Emily MacLachlan Charest
58. Wynken, Blynken, and Nod by Eugene W. Field


We didn't quite make the 200 books but we were pretty close. We forgot to record some books but Lucas also does a lot of reading at Grammy's house so he almost made it. Grammy and Poppy have a lot of the Dr. Seuss books as well as others.

Mentors

Yes that is Luke's truck and he is "working" on it. Dustin showed me this picture that he had taken with his cell phone while they were working in the garage. Lucas found the jacks Dustinhas in the garage and wanted to jack his truck up. Dustin tried to give him the small one but Lucas wasn't fooled - he needed the big one. Then he slid under the truck on a creeper to take a look. The entire time Lucas was under there, he was commenting on the screws under there and what "work" needed to be done. I thought this picture was hysterical!

It has made me think about how important our time is with the boys and what an awesome responsibility we have. They are watching us and listening to us, are we doing what we should be doing? Luke is constantly asking, "why?" And it's great that's he asking although sometimes it also gets a little tiresome. Poor Dustin gets it more than I do because he is with them the most. I guess in a way, you could say that he is Luke's mentor. Luke desperately wants to be like his dad, be with his dad, and do everything that his dad does. It's a big job but I think that we have the right person for the job. Dustin is an awesome dad and it's great to see how much he cares about the boys and how much time he spends with them as well. Dustin and Luke are constantly snickering and laughing about things that I just don't get. They have such fun together. Grant and Luke sure are lucky boys!

Zoorassic Park

Hogle Zoo had a special exhibit for the summer. It is called Zoorassic Park and there are 13 dinosaurs on display around the zoo for everyone to find. Some of them move and one even spits water on you.

Since the zoo is so close to my work, the boys picked me up on their way so we could all go together.

Grant on Tyrannosaurus Rex

And what trip to the Zoo wouldn't be complete without a ride on the carousel.

I was really surprised that Lucas picked something besides the giraffe to ride.

Of course we had to try out this scale by the elephants. Together our family weighs as much as a baby elephant.

And of course we played on the play set. Lucas loves to climb on things and run around. Too bad he can't do the monkey bars by himself.

We got a Roller!

Unfortunately Grant doesn't stay put anymore but we are excited that he is on track developmentally. Too bad his mom let him fall off the ottoman though. She felt really bad about it. Luckily she caught him before he fell off the couch (the first time anyway). He's not allowed on furniture by himself anymore.
Grant is rolling from front to back and from back to front. His physical therapist says he is doing great and that tummy time is really helping him.
Good job Grant!

Pizza Tonight!

Lucas really likes to help cook. Dinner, cookies, whatever, he has to be in the middle of it all. Tonight we had pizza for dinner, I discovered all the features of our bread maker and that it can make the dough for pizza. Luke's favorite part was rolling it out. Yes that's the rolling pin from his play-doh but don't worry, we washed it first.

Pizza night was a lot of fun and the homemade version is really good!

FHE with cousins

Andrew and Tyson came over to play tonight and the boys had a blast playing together. Lucas LOVES playing with his cousins. They spent quite a bit of time playing outside and we even ate outside. I had picked up a package of hit dogs and some buns and of course I warmed up some veggies. Andrew told me he had eaten a hot dog for lunch but I didn't have anything else that would have been easy to make so he was nice enough to eat another one. Thanks Andrew!

Since they came on Monday night, we had Family Home Evening with them. We talked about our bodies and temples. Part of the lesson was drawing a picture of the temple and the boys took it very seriously, making sure they had the right colors and that it looked just right. They did a good job too. They were really good during FHE and participated with everything. It was a good time.