the garden

We went to Lowe's yesterday and got these stones, the dirt, and some mulch to build this lovely garden! We let it settle overnight (and get slightly rained on) and today we transplanted our gourds, cucumbers and carrots into it. Oliver dug the trenches and helped me cover up the roots once I got the plants disentangled. Wyatt was helpful with covering up the roots, too.

another picture...

Oliver drew this one, too. It's him "when he was just a little boy"

a face

Oliver drew this face. I LOVE the eyelashes!

Oliver's drawing

Oliver drew this on his whiteboard. We usually use it for letter practice and such but after his lesson I let him mess around a little. He drew a house with a tree next to it. That's Oliver playing in the yard.

it was just cute...

stringing beads

We got these the other day at the toy store. I've been thinking about getting them to help with teaching patterns and to improve eye-hand coordination. Oliver was a pro at stringing them after about two minutes but the pattern-making was a bit harder to teach. This is one of the patterns I helped him with.

Wyatt wasn't bad at stringing the beads, either. He had to try a lot harder and was not very fast but he did it! He put all his beads on and off about six times before he got tired of it. I think he only got tired of it because Oliver wanted to stop at that point.

Look at the concentration!

a couple of handsome boys

bob made a sand table!

Oliver and Wyatt got this table shortly after Easter. Bob made it with a little help from the boys. They will stand and play at this table for HOURS. He did a great job. The side Wyatt plays on is a little shorter - not the whole table just the side that holds in the sand. There's also a little step for him to stand on so he can reach better.

*side note - these are one of the outfits the boys got for Easter. Don't they look spiffy?

the new fridge!

The guys called and said they had picked up the fridge and wanted to deliver it today instead of tomorrow. I had thirty minutes to get the old one cleaned out and cleared off so we could receive...this!

This is the inside of the fridge. It is so much bigger than our old one and better organized, too. The drawer at the bottom is the only thing the boys can reach at this point so I put their snacks in it. I'm pretty sure that's not what it's REALLY for but it works for us!

Here is the inside door. All the bins can move except the bottom one and the one on the top right. how convenient!

This is the bottom of the freezer, there are two drawers/baskets. This one is divided in two parts so I put meat on one side and veggies on the other.

This is the second freezer drawer. It opens on top of the other one. I put all our convenience foods in it. The thing on the left is an ice tray! The fridge will make ice if you hook it up. We don't use that much ice so I'm just making that extra storage. Maybe for Popsicles!

our "garden"

We got some seeds from various sources so here they are. I have to be honest and say I really didn't expect a single sprout. Especially after Oliver and Wyatt threw most of the dirt out of this box within a few days of planting. Anyway, they are hardy little boogers! These are tomatoes...

carrots...

and cucumber. Once they are bigger we'll transplant them outside but for now all but the carrots are in the house. This is an applesauce cup, the carrots are in an old plant pot that I filled with leftover dirt from the tomato project.

new room decor

the dress I made!

This is the little dress I crocheted. The giraffe was an unwilling model for it but she seemed to be about the right size. I did make one mistake that I didn't notice until I was all done. I must have done it when the boys woke up and I paused to snuggle them. I didn't pay attention when I picked it back up apparently. Oh well, good thing it was the test dress! It was a lot easier than I thought it would be and the pattern was pretty easy to follow. I learned how to make a "shell", too! I'm sure that will come in handy for some future project.

You can tell where I messed up because the pattern changed. It looks kind of neat but it also made the shape of the dress kind of weird since the bottom rows are smaller than the top ones.

There is a pattern for a pair of bloomers that match but I don't think I'm going to make those. The people I'm making this for use cloth diapers so it'll be cute with that. There's also a pair of booties but they definitely wouldn't fit this giraffe!!

Oliver wrote it!

He wrote this and also wrote dolphin - in the same fashion. I draw the boxes, show him how to do the letter above it and he does it in the box. He's getting really good at writing the letters in his name.

New stroller

I took these cool guys out for a walk in our new double jogging stroller. I love that it has four wheels instead of three - it seems sturdier and less likely to tip over. I like this one better than the other double stroller we have (and are going to sell now) because the boys are side by side instead of having one of them waaaaay up in front of the other.

The parent tray is great, storage, two cupholders, ipod hookup with speakers. There is storage underneath and a pocket behind each seat. The seats recline seperately so that if one falls asleep the other can still sit up. They also have their own trays with two cupholders. The sun visors move seperately, too, and they have a window in the top - I assume so I can see them when the visor is all the way back.

The boys like it because they can see each other and talk. They shared toys and snacks (even though they each brought their own) and had a good time. Everyone we passed commented on how CUTE they are!

Side note: Wyatt has a Band-Aid on his knee because he skinned it twice yesterday...poor baby!

first dress

This is part one of the first piece of clothing I've ever tried to crochet. So far it's pretty easy if you don't count the row I did three times because I kept missing the SAME STITCH. Anyway, it turned out ok and it has a pretty little ruffled edge. This is just the test dress to see how hard the pattern is and if I can even do it. I like the colors, though!