Craft Projects

I am not creative, pretty much in general, but especially when it comes to ways to entertain my little ones.  But I'm trying...  Some of our latest projects:

 

Throw the pom poms:

 

 

I bought a big bag of pom poms when we made our first set of sock puppets.  These little babies are worth their weight in gold.  Cecily & Parker love them; they throw them, they pick them up, they throw them again, they shove them down the hole in the slide, they climb under the slide to get them back.  Hours (well, maybe minutes) of endless entertainment.  Best purchase ever.

 

Unrelated note: Cecily's finally big enough to fit into my very favorite outfit of Parker's.  Sure, it's kind of manly, but how cute, right?  She just looks so cozy.

 

Playing with flour:

 

I tried this a LONG time ago, and it went over okay, but nothing exciting.  This time, he had a great time.  He made hand prints in the flour, wrote his name, and moved it back & forth across the cookie sheet.

 

Un-directed craft time:

 

Every once in a while, these two play together peacefully, and it is the nicest 8 minutes of my day.  Sure, they, the playroom, and (somehow) Daddy, were covered in glitter glue by the end of it, but they had a great time.

Trip to the zoo

I'd forgotten how much more I enjoy the zoo when it's cold & drizzly out.

 

 

I couldn't get a photo of all three of us, but Parker decided we should all wear our red jackets & be matching.

 

When we got to the watering hole for the elephants, Parker declared that he wanted to sit down (in the wet) and eat our lunch there.  Whatever, kid.  But it turned out he knew what he was talking about, within minutes of sitting down, one of the elephants showed up to eat his lunch with us.

 

I let Parker ride the carousel as a "special treat".  I didn't ride with him (since I was holding Cecily and too cheap to pay for myself), but he did a great job and loved it.

 

I haven't really enjoyed the zoo over the summer, it's been fun to see all the babies, but it's so crowded and the double-stroller/tank is hard to maneuver under the best circumstances, let alone when you're surrounded by preschoolers.  It was so much nicer in the cold!

 

I even let Parker stop at the playground for a bit on our way out.

 

This girl LOVES her swings!

Sock Puppets

Parker & I made sock puppets a few weeks ago and it has become one of his favorite crafts.

 

 

I haven't figured out how to keep everything attached without using the hot-glue gun, so it's not exactly an independent project, but it's pretty fun.

 

We do love googly-eyes!

Helping Daddy

The switch on our fireplace is burnt out, so Parker helped Keith replace it.

 

 

He's becoming quite the little handy-man, even if you do have to chase him down to get your tools back.

 

She's not quite so helpful yet, but she's cute.

Trip to Jeff & Katie's

Keith took a week off work, so we spent a few days down in Oregon visiting Keith's old college roommate & his wife.  I think Jeff & Katie's is one of our favorite vacation destinations.  Their home is always so warm & welcoming, their kids are awesome, and Parker is absolutely in love with them all.

 

 

Parker & Brody were especially in-love all weekend.  Brody is home schooling this year, so he was home with us all day on Friday, Parker spent much of the day standing outside Brody's room saying, "Mama, can Brody come out & play yet?"  Those two had a blast playing together.  I don't know how many 11-year-olds like to spend their day playing with a 3-year-old, but Brody was amazing.

 

They had such a great time that Parker took his first nap in weeks!  The poor kid was so exhausted, he slept on the couch for several hours with everyone playing around him.

 

 

Every time we go down there we wish that they lived closer, it was a great trip.

Parker is still talking about it, his new measurement of his growth is if he's "bigger than Brody".

Trip to the Fair

We took the kids to the fair again this year.  Parker is finally old enough to start enjoying it.  He was especially excited about seeing the bunnies.  We spent the first part of our visit looking for the bunnies, unfortunately, they were showing ducks & chickens rather than bunnies the week we were there, but they had one bunny (with babies) so that was enough for our little guy.

 

 

Parker is finally (just barely) big enough to ride on some of the rides, so we let him go on the cars & the carousel.  Cecily was JEALOUS and pretty much screamed the entire time he was riding!

 

He looked this concerned the whole time he rode, but I think he really enjoyed it.

 

But, of course, the favorite part was climbing on the tractors.

 

Usually, if we go on a weekday, we're able to see the whole place by lunch.  Now that Parker is so interested, we're going to have to start planning to be there the whole day, we could have stayed for several hours longer, except that we had to drive down to Oregon.

"My House"

 

Parker's been working on his Cirque d'Soleil routine.  Most of it involves folding himself into the bottom of his chair, which he calls "his house".

 

Yesterday, he folded himself into his house and then watched "a movie" on the kitchen cabinets.

"I'm three right now"

That's Parker's response when you ask him how old he is. "I'm three right now", like he might possibly be 8 tomorrow, but for now, he's three.

 

 

It is quickly becoming apparent that Parker as a three-year-old is going to be significantly harder than Parker as a two-year-old.  I blame all of it on his refusal to nap, but either way, he has over-night become defiant, angry, and disobedient.  It's going to be a fun year...

 

He does love his baby sister, who loves to be pushed or pulled in anything that moves.  Cecily, however, does not appreciate Parker's version of red-light green-light, which involves waiting for an unreasonable amount of red lights.

 

Parker is still obsessed with chopping trees down, he can turn just about anything into a saw.  And almost anything can be a tree too.

 

He is also currently obsessed with names, we spend many hours a day discussing the names of me and our immediate family.  If you ask him his name, he will say: "Kruger, Scott, Parker!!"

Good Morning

Parker's been pretty cranky lately, being several weeks behind on naps, but he is pretty cute when he wakes up happy.

 

Running in the sprinkler

 

I'm pretty sure that Wednesday was our very last day of summer.  So, for the very first time ever, Parker spent the afternoon playing in the sprinkler.

 

He had a great time, I don't know what he's been so afraid of all summer.

 

Cecily was just happy with a popsicle.

 

Forgive her mis-matched swimsuit.  I'd assumed that summer was over and put everything away, this was all I could find.

 

As if the sprinkler wasn't enough excitement, our neighbor used an excavator in his yard too!

 

Life's good.