Oliver's Kindergarten Screening...

Last Friday I took Oliver to his Kindergarten Screening appointment. Just before we left he had a couple concerns. First "will I have to get a shot?" (no) and second "can I ask as many questions as I want?" (why not). With his concerns addressed he was more than excited to go. I thought he might actually talk the testers ear off before they could even get started. Thankfully, he did perfect and followed all the directions- ALL THE INSTRUCTIONS.

She asked him to draw a few shapes, build a couple block towers, and draw a picture of a person. He said "okay, I'll draw the person and then write the name under it so you know who it is". That's one happy drawing of Oliver- Love it!

I don't have a picture of it but she asked him to draw his cross over again. He drew a cross "like what Jesus died on" instead of the picture of a plus sign she wanted him to draw. Except she did say "draw a cross" not "draw a plus". I remember her pointing out that his looked like a "t" and "can you draw it again with the cross more in the middle. And he did. Just thought it was interesting. 

Wore neat eye glasses to test his eyes. He can see very clearly.

Tested his hearing, passed.

Then she asked Oliver to "Hop on the scale", so he stepped on and started hopping. Careful what you tell him, he does do literal meaning. Eventually the scale recovered and we learned he is 41.5 pounds. He measured at 46 inches tall.

He passed everything just fine, not that I had any doubts. He's so ready to go back to school he doesn't really want to wait another month to start.

A few things we did this week...

Every morning this week Oliver's been running out to check on the garden. He is SO excited to watch the plants grow and both the boys love to water it.

We're in the process of building a play fort in the backyard for all the kids to enjoy. Oliver helped paint the whole inside and he was super proud. Of course, he learned that it takes a lot of jobs we might not like in order to do the fun jobs. (thanks "chicken who wanted to make the bread" story!)

Oliver's reading a little bit more every day. He has memorized a lot of sight words so he doesn't have to sound things out. He's got an amazing memory retention. Though would be kind of fun to hear him sound the longer words out, he's not quite there yet. He was reading most of a Dr. Seuss book to Daddy and me this week. So exciting.

When Morfar's cousin Bob comes for visits they play cribbage. After they were finished with their game the kids jumped in to play. Oliver was "teaching" Lucius and Brianna how the game works. I just thought it was a fun photo.

Thursdays there is a puppet wagon that comes to the park near the house. We ride our bikes the few blocks to get there just in time for a silly song and a puppet show. After the show the kids can go inside to try things out. It's a bright spot in our week.

Duck Racing...

For Cousin Carl's Birthday Auntie Em put together a duck race. Last year we were able to race ducks in the creek behind her house. This year the creek was pretty high, but she had a Plan B... duck slip N slide.

 

It was fun to see all the kids and the variety of ducks on the loose.

 

 There was face painting. Daddy drew an awesome dragon on Oliver's cheek.

Happy Birthday Carl, we sure had a great time at your party.

A few birthday cards...

We've been going to a few birthday parties this summer and Oliver's been making his own cards to give to his friends. I love his new found love of writing his letters.

This one is to my cousins little boy for his first birthday:

This one was for Oliver's cousin Carl's second Birthday:

Oliver's description of his picture (written out by Marmee):

This one Lucius drew for Carl, but he said he didn't like what he drew.

Also, a random note Oliver drew. I was surprised to see he spelled a few words all by himself. He sounded out "purple". Someone else actually pointed out that "PUR PEL" was purple because he mixed two colors to make purple in the middle of the page.

Random sing alongs...

I love hearing my boys sing. Maybe cause I like singing songs. Since summer camp they've been singing all kinds of silly songs.

Found these four singing about being happy:

These two one morning were singing about monkeys jumping on the bed:

And again before bed they sang about Herman the worm. Unfortunately, I can't upload that video either.

Just swinging...

One of Lucius all time FAVORITE activities to do at the playground in swing. If someone stood by to push him, he'd swing for HOURS. I'm not kidding. Oliver likes it too, as long as it doesn't cut into his socializing.

 

Toy Traffic...

Oliver and Lucius spent a good hour playing with their hotwheels the other night. They were so excited to show me what they'd been up to. They even posed for a photo next to their toy traffic jamb.

 

I would not want to be stuck in that mess!

Sidewalk Chalk...

One morning we were outside enjoying the fresh air when our neighbors came over for a visit. They've got two boys (5 years old and 2 years old) which is fun cause everybody gets along. Sidewalk chalk was out, so I grab a piece and decided to draw a castle. Next thing I know there's a whole story going on. Oliver and the neighbor boy were drawing dungeons, crocodiles, lakes, owls, and prisoners. Plus ghost in castle cause "it's a haunted castle".

This activity which usually doesn't last that long took up our whole morning. While the boys were napping Daddy grabbed the chalk and drew a BIG dragon. The Little Misters woke up and were told that some noise was heard on the driveway. They went out to check things out. They were VERY surprised to find a dragon came to storm the castle.

I love adding a little magic/ wonder/ surprise to their world. We didn't tell them how the dragon got their, who drew it or anything. Some times its just more fun to leave things to the imagination.

Thank you Daddy for the magic!

Photography: tall ships...

Last weekend we went to Hudson, WI to see replicas of the Nina and Pinta; like the ones Columbus Sailed across the ocean in to discover America. My Little Misters were pretty excited to see "pirate ships" but were disappointed with the lack of Canons on board.

Columbus ships...

Last weekend Auntie Dana invited us to go see the Columbus ships that were docked on the St. Croix River in Hudson. Oma, Amy, Scott were also along for a fun day. The ships were recreations of the Nina and Pinta ships Columbus sailed in when he discovered America. There were a lot smaller than I thought they would have been.

 
It was pretty interesting to climb aboard both ships and see all that we could see. Oliver was pretty certain there should have been pirate, but I think they enjoyed themselves.

After a yummy lunch we headed home. The Boys had their restaurant coloring page and they were pretending it was a map of all the stuff we did. It was a pretty fun conversation I was able to record:

(Blogger's not letting me upload the video- which I'm pretty bummed about cause it's cute. I think it's over the limit or something.)