Little Miss Animated

I've thought this at least a THOUSAND times, but don't think I've ever REALLY posted about Little Miss A's animation. I LOVE that she can bring anything to life. She'll sit in her room for hours consumed with all kinds of imaginative play ideas that she brings to life with her stuffed animals, babies, barbies, cars, books, etc. You name it, it will come to life in the hands of my sweet little girl. Just the other day, J was making carrot-orange juice for breakfast and Little Miss A grabbed a couple of the carrots he had laying on the counter and began an entire dialogue exchange between the two carrots.

Carrot A: "What are you doing today?"
Carrot B: "I don't know. What are you doing today?"
Carrot A: "Why are we here?"
Carrot B: "Who knows."
Carrot A: "Do you want to play?"
Carrot B: "Sure!"
Carrot A: "Okay, la, la, la, la."

She never gets to the part where they are about to be pureed or anything, thank goodness. But her willingness to play with anything and everything is just precious. I love to listen to the conversations she has back and forth between whatever she is playing with at the time. :)

Quidditch...Take 2

After creating the broomsticks, I realized we were going to HAVE to play with them at least once before hauling one of them to school. With a quick game of Quidditch before dinner time, we have 4 thumbs up on proper broomstick operation. :) They were certainly fast...this was the ONLY picture that actually turned out on the digital, the rest were all blurry. Guess I should have used the slr...oopsie.

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!!!! :)

Harry Potter

I know I've posted on this before, but seriously my son is OBSESSED with Harry Potter. After Halloween I raided the costume store for anything HP thinking how fun it would be to have a Harry Potter birthday party next year. Well, I was so excited about it all, I couldn't resist and showed him everything I found. After the purchase, we placed everything in the attic. Although recently he has been asking almost EVERYDAY if we can get it down. (It was going to be a REALLY long year if I didn't give in...I'm a softie I know. It was so much fun to see how excited he got about everything. In hindsight I probably should have just done this for part of Christmas instead. Oh well, he is heaven. :)

Everyday at school he wants to make badges, paint a scar on his head, you name it. I'm telling you he LOVES Harry Potter and anything witch/wizard related. :)

Creative Minds...

Little Miss A is totally creative in her imaginative play. She can entertain her toys for hours with the combined toys interacting with one another. The babies taking their pets (stuffed animals) with broken limbs wrapped in robe ties to the vet (barbie) then going for ice cream (my little pony). It goes on and on in a thousand different scenarios...so "not just one thing can be out at a time, Mom. I need them all." My Little Miss A replies on a pretty regular basis. I would secretly love to only have one thing out at a time. For her to be able to clean up as she goes would be WONDERFUL!!! I know I get overwhelmed when I see the toys mounting up. Her creativity also comes out in every picture she creates. Every little girl she draws has stunning eyelashes, beautiful jewelery, elaborately decorated clothes, etc. Usually not a space left on the page to add more details to. These elaborate drawings usually end up being pictures in the babies house to help her pets feel better.

Mr. D is creative in the things he makes. I think I posted earlier about his stop sign that he made. (Gosh he carted that thing everywhere for the longest time, showing cars they needed to stop while we were crossing the road, driving by, coming to a stop light, etc.) His newest creation that really cracked me up was his watch. Little man had a Spiderman watch that we haven't been able to locate since before the move. (I think he may have left it at the park the last time he wore it...can't tell you how many treasures that little boy has donated to the park through the course of his 5 years!) Anyway, he decides to fix that. As I am making dinner, he goes upstairs to solve his problem, saying he can't tell me, he can only show me when he's done and that it's a surprise. He comes back downstairs about 30 minutes later with the cutest Spiderman watch. He has taken his Spiderman band-aids out and placed two of them exactly end to end around his wrist and has written numbers on the top in marker. :) GREAT idea!!!

So at the end of the evening we have a mountain of toys strewn between Little Miss A's room and the game room. A counter top full of experimentally used band-aids and wrappers...I was wondering how many attempts it took to create the perfect watch. The answer...apparently the entire box. :) Then it was on to the the study where there are several markers around and marker marks on the desk. (I guess he needed to lay the band-aids flat to draw out his numbers and the small band-aids didn't quite give him enough room for all that he wanted to include. (No getting mad at that...how could I?) I know my house is not a museum by any stretch of the imagination, but wow creativity causes confusional chaos!!!! Secretly, I love it!!! I totally love seeing what their little minds come up with everyday!!! There is no limit to what they can do!!! :)

The Differences Continue...

This was Little Miss A's creation. It's a picture of a "beautiful girl with rosy cheeks, next to a flower. There's also a baby bottle, moon, sun, butterflies and jewels." All this complete with grass at the bottom of the page. I love it!!!! (It occurred to me to take pictures AFTER Mr. D's airplane took a crash dive into the fan and is now sitting in the trash can in smithereens.)

The kids were deep in creation mode after the pool tonight and it occurred to me that I hadn't shared one of our most recent differences between Little Miss A and Mr. D.

I shared earlier this month about how Little Miss A enjoys writing her letters and creating words. That love has shifted to include anything including paper. (Although she did draw a VERY elaborate drawing on Ms. Ana's ENTIRE white board at school the other day. She has such an imaginative mind...her creativity is blossoming into some REALLY cool pictures too!!! She could sit and draw for hours. In fact, when Grandma and Grandpa were here last weekend, Little Miss A sat in the bedroom drawing and finishing her coloring while the family sat in the living room for movie night. (She didn't go to bed until almost MIDNIGHT that night adding more and more to her picture until it was "perfect"!)

Mr. D is just as creative, but doesn't like to really use pencils and crayons, he likes to use tape to make 3-D creations instead. While at our walk through for the house the other day, Miss D gave D an ENTIRE roll of tape. He has since created weighted paper airplanes ("the tape helps it fly"), flags, towers, books, etc. It is so fun to watch him tear into everything and create as he goes coming up with things and deciding what they are once he's already creating.

At dinner the other day, we ironically sat at a table right next to one of my colleagues who commented that he and his wife were going to have to drop their kids off with us for the first couple years so they would behave in a restaurant. (He just caught them at the right moment.) Little Miss A was deep into the coloring booklet and crayons the restaurant gave her as we sat down and D was busy constructing an airplane out of his. :)

Tonight as we were getting out of the pool, we were watching the clouds and sharing what we saw. The differences from cloud to cloud:
A: mermaid
D: dragon

A: bunny rabbit
D: alligator

A: mermaid
D: pirate ship

What's really funny about all this was that even though they were both referring to the same cloud in each of these scenarios, I could totally see both of their ideas in the sky!!! Too fun!

Budding Scientists

In between doctor/dentist visits today we managed a little playground time. While on the playground, the Caswell kids took the opportunity to create their own concoctions. These "recipes" were quite elaborate and took a while to put together and perfect. The main ingredients: salt, pepper, lemonade and sugar packets. This wonderful concoction is apparently just what mulch needs to "eat and make more mulch!!" Who knew? :) Both Little Miss A and Mr. D had so much fun...they were sad to leave and reminded me on the way back to the hotel that we needed to write our recipe down so we can make more mulch food when we go back.