Rockets

When Peter and Josh went to the fathers/sons campout a couple months ago, someone brought a rocket launcher. Everyone got to make rockets and launch them. Apparently, it was a ton of fun. So much so, that Peter decided to make one of his own. His excuse was to make it for a Young Men's activity, but when the bishop told him he could submit the receipt and the ward could keep it, Peter said no. He was planning to keep it for himself. :) I think he'll be making one for the ward sometime too, so it's all good.

Anyhow, a little while after he made it, we took it out to the park and launched some rockets of our own. It WAS a ton of fun. All it is is some pipe, a valve, and an air pump. You pump it up to the pressure you want, then turn the valve. It's shocking how high these little paper rockets can get.


Peter with his creation, getting ready to send that rocket flying.

Josh loved helping with pumping up the air.

Emily enjoyed launching the rockets.

Josh was so good at running to get the rockets. I think if I'd been chasing them, we may not have stayed nearly so long. :)

Baby Chain

The other day, Josh woke up and went to the front room looking for something. When he came back, he was a bit upset and asked where the babies were. (He always speaks of the baby in plural because he doesn't want to have to share "his" baby with Emily.) I told him they were in the toy box, thinking he was talking about the dolls. When he came back, he was still upset and let me know he was looking for the "real" baby. At which point, I had to inform him that the baby was still in my belly. His response?

"Why did you put the babies back?"

It took a while (several days) for him to understand that the baby had never come out and that it will be awhile before it does.


I came up with a solution. I thought maybe something visual might help him understand how very long it will be until the baby is supposed to "come out." So we made a paper chain with dates and a count down written on them so we'd be able to see how long of a wait we had. Kind of depressing when I look at it... it's sooooo long! :)

The day we made it and put it up, we still had 172 days to go. Wow, that was a lot of links to make. But it was definitely worth it. Josh and Emily both love to have their turn to tear a link off the chain at the end of the day. Now when Josh asks about the "babies" I can remind him of this chain and he realizes it will be some time.

Thanks

Lately, Josh hasn't been taking naps as much. Today, he just happened to. But I woke him up early so he'll go to bed at a decent time, plus he really wanted to help with some cleaning. How sweet of him!

At one point, we cleaned off a dresser in my room. On top, there was a piece of fabric I bought for him a couple years ago. My intention had been to sew up the edges and make a square for him to become attached to. It never happened, but today, Josh saw it and wanted to make something with it. So I pulled out the sewing machine and matched up the edges and started sewing. Halfway through, I realized it would be a nice bag, instead of just a square, and asked if that's what he wanted. He did. So, I made a bag.

Here is the bag we made.

The purpose of this story? After I handed it to him, he looked at me and said, "That was really nice of you to make this for me."

That blew me away. He's so good at saying "Thanks" but this was really thought out and sincere. I'm so proud of him.

Clubhouse

A while back, Peter got a huge piece of equipment at work. It came in this enormous box. It was actually taller, but we cut it down so it would let more light in, and take up less wall space. Anyhow, this is one sturdy box. It has 3 layers of cardboard, so it's strong enough for the kids to play on. Peter brought it home, and made this. It has been a hit ever since.


There is a tunnel sticking out the side behind that black thing. Peter also built a great platform so the kids can use the slide. We had to reinforce the top with some wood so it wouldn't fall apart when the kids grabbed it to go down the slide. After we added all the wood, we realized that this will be somewhat of a permanent fixture in our home now. The kids will get plenty of fun using this over the next year or so.

Socks

Josh has this thing about wearing socks on his hands. I guess he thinks it's cold here... with highs in the 90's some days and all. Go figure.

Strawberry Picking

A couple weeks ago, we headed over to the strawberry farm with some friends and had a bunch of fun picking strawberries. Unfortunately, we didn't take any pictures there. Oops!

The kids had a great time. Josh picked a few. Emily ate a ton. And we came home with 14 lbs of strawberries. As you can imagine, Emily eating strawberries is not the cleanest of endeavors, so we made sure to get some pictures after we got home.


These aren't the best of pictures, but if you look closely, you can see the strawberry all over her face and clothes. Ahhh the memories.... Thank goodness for Oxyclean!

Answer

I know everyone is on pins and needles here, so I apologize for the delay. ;) The correct answer was given by KC and Heather. Good job you two!

Search, Ponder and Pray.

Josh is such a creative kid. I am so blessed to have him. I can't wait to see what else he comes up with in the coming years.