Day at the Museum

We met our bffs downtown for a fun afternoon at the Children's Museum...no Rexy or anything like that, but still TONS of fun!! :)

Every time we go to the museum, Little Miss A and Mr. D become immediate pins balls and the giant space that surrounds them is the machine. They go bouncing from one place to the next within seconds...make me crazy!! They worked the kitchen, manned the trains, operated the dairy farm, acted like Austin bats hanging under the Congress Street bridge, learned about Mexican culture (pinatas, music, food, etc)

All this "ping, ping, pinging" (hence the blurry pictures) while Little Miss A is clinging to different animals from the pet clinic..

They did, however spend a lot of time in creation station. :)Little Miss A made a kaleidoscope and a hat. Mr. D made a new and improved light saber...shocker, I know. :)

What a great day with great friends!!!!

Early Mother's Day Present

Mr. D made this for me the other day...

I absolutely LOVE it...totally up my alley!!!!. Isn't this the most beautiful ring you've ever seen? I think I have an early Mother's Day present from my bouncing baby boy! :)

Suess on the Loose

March 2nd was Dr. Seuss' birthday. Had been alive today, he would be an amazing 106 years old!!! In honor of this amazing man, we got all dolled up and headed to our local library this afternoon to attend a Suess extravaganza!!!! :)

The kids were a few characters in one today...I couldn't resist. Playing the parts of little Cindy Lou Who and Thing 1...is none other than my sweet Little Miss A. Playing both the Cat in the Hat and Thing 2 we have Mr. D. :) I don't know who had more fun with this...the kids or me. (Actually maybe I do know the answer to that.)

We started with Cat in the Hat tattoos. A & D are temporary tattoo addicts, so this was a HUGE hit for the Caswell kids. :)

After the tats, it was on to the crafts. They both could have spend the entire day at the coloring table. :)

We made ears to add to our costumes...

The finale of the event was an appearance by one of our local favorites...Joe McDermott

The Caswell Kids have always loved Joe and have seen him in concert several times before, but today was different. They weren't their usual peppy selves dancing around like crazy as they usually do to all Joe's fun songs. They were so hesitant to participate, looking around at the other kids their age that WEREN'T out on the dance floor. :( This was the first time I've seen this social awareness pop up in our lives and I have to admit, it makes me SO terribly sad. Gone are the days when they just don't care what everyone else is doing and just have fun. Is this permanent? I will do anything do get that back. I wonder...if we had been with Ken and Mck (who we usually see Joe with) would we have had the same experience?

Transportation

The kids are studying all about transportation at school...different ways to get around. Our show and tell this week is a chance for kids to bring a transportation item from home to share with our friends. Okay, cool, we have TONS of cars, trains, trucks, motorcycles, planes, construction vehicles and even a remote control garbage truck...tons of vehicles to choose from.

What does Mr. D choose? A broomstick!!! Of course that's what Harry Potter Jr. would select. It definitely gets him around, that's for sure. Since we didn't have one at home, shocker, right? we came home this afternoon and began construction. With the sticks already waiting at the front door (we collect all of our nature treasures in a pot at the front door, since nature stays outside). We rounded up the raffia in the wrapping closet, broke out the hot glue gun and got to work. It was definitely a team effort. There's no way Harry could have a broomstick and not Hermione, so the 3 of us worked together to make 2 broomsticks.

We'll find out tomorrow if Mr. D's broomstick survives the trip to school...

As for Little Miss A, she's bringing "Deary" a stuffed dear from our road trip last summer that she completely adores. She's right though, you could potentially ride a dear as well.

I've got to hand it to the Caswell Kids...they are definitely outside the box thinkers!!!! :)

Roger, Houston. We Have Pipe Cleaners!

Thank you so much Miss J, for this idea. On Saturday morning, leave a craft out for the kids to create something. Then wake you up with whatever they've made, allowing the kids to get the creative juices flowing first thing in the morning AND a later wake up for Mom and Dad!!! :) A & D LOVED this!!! So did we, bought us an extra HOUR!!!! This looks like the tiger got in a fight with the pipe cleaners and the pipe cleanes won. Who knows what it really is, but man they had fun. We had pipe cleaners EVERYWHERE, but it was SUPER simple clean up so I'll take it. :)

The Bat House...

The follow up to Little Miss A's roses...

For weeks, Mr. D had been asking when he "can make something with wood, nails and a hammer?" So, J ordered a bat house they could build together.

Mr. D LOVES bats...so this is right up is alley!!!! We actually have a large population of bats in Austin that are currently residing in Mexico until it warms up a bit. The boys are hoping when they come back "from learning Spanish" they'll make themselves at home in our backyard. I on the other hand am hoping not...they honestly kind of freak me out a bit!

With a gorgeous forecast on the horizon...finally...the boys hit the backyard and set up for their construction. Great daddy/son bonding time!!!

I think they both had fun with this project. Maybe the boys need to spend more Saturday mornings at Home Depot in the project class for kids. :)

Easter Egg Hunt Playdate

After a few months of being MIA from our playgroup, school and our other extra-curricular activities have sadly taken over our lives lately, we were finally able to join our friends for a fun Easter egg hunt play date. It was an afternoon filled with fun painting, cupcake decorating and a great time playing with friends we don't get to see very often anymore...the kids had a blast!!!! It was so nice to see our long lost friends! With school rapidly coming to a close, we are so anxious to get back into the routine of seeing our friends again. What a fun Friday afternoon treat! :)

Arts and Crafts Continued...

Okay, so my classroom is like arts and crafts central...I love it! The days Little Miss A and Mr D get to come upstairs to "my room" they immediately begin pulling out all the buttons, beads, feathers, pom poms, etc. Since we had to skip the classroom, they went to the craft closet when we got home and BOTH the kids got into it. Mr D usually looses interest once we get home and only Little Miss A continues creating. They went into their own little worlds creating side by side without a single argument. Enjoy the silence!!! (You have to Depeche Mode sing that BTW!) It was awesome...I could have watched them for hours!!!!