Mom and Dad's Visit

Mom and Dad VD brought their RV to the Niagara region for a few days last week, and we enjoyed spending some time with them.  Wednesday evening we went to the beach for a walk and to watch the rain clouds roll in across the lake. 

On Thursday evening, we headed out to Mom and Dad's RV and enjoyed dinner and a campfire there.  The two older boys were very excited to sleep over in the RV, although they were a little disappointed that Grandpa wasn't going to drive it somewhere once they were tucked into bed. 

Breakfast in the morning

The next morning we all headed out to Safari Niagara to enjoy the animals for the day.  What a lot of fun!  The big cats were not as active as when we visited on a cooler day last fall, but the monkeys gave us a good show!  We first heard them hooting when we were in a wooded area, and Grandma told Aaron that the noise was a boy getting squished.  He spent the rest of the day trying to find the elusive "boy who is getting squished" and at the end of the day declared it to be his favourite animal. 

Conquering the fireman pole!

Those little boys were having so much fun "hanging around" 

that Daddy just had to join them!

Cooling off in the pool when we got back home.  After dinner we brought out the bikes and went for a 14 km ride down some of the trails close to our house.  We were all pretty tired by the end of the day, but we had an enjoyable time together, and it was really good to spend some time with Mom and Dad.   

Around the house

One sure sign that your three-year-old likes to dress himself: 

(Actually, the other day he insisted on wearing socks-and-crocs to school to drop off his brother.  He had his left sock on inside out, and the right sock was one from his Daddy that he pulled out of the laundry pile and it came up to his thigh.  I've got some pretty fashionable kids!)

This little one is usually quite liberal with his smiles! 

Intricate designs on the deck

Daddy's latest fun-creation for the boys - double-barreled elastic shot guns.  They have lots of fun with them, especially when they're not snapping the elastics back on their own fingers or shooting each other in the head

Someone was somewhat enamoured with the number five the other day.  Can you tell?

I picked up lion costume at a garage sale, and the boys can produce 

some pretty terrific "Aslan" roars when they've got it on

Outside on a rainy day

Three sweet boys on the porch

Growing Up

Aaron tip toes up to me this afternoon, tugs on my shirt sleeve and whispers, "Someday, I'm going to be bigger than Daddy, and stronger than Daddy.  And then I can wash the dishes, and cut the grass, and whippersnip!"
"That sounds like great fun, Aaron - what else will you do?"
"I will ride Daddy's bike, and Peter and Nate can go in the trailer and I will pull them.  You can ride your bike, and Daddy can walk.  Or he can ride Peter's bike, he can fit and it's not dangerous."
Sounds like being all grown up is going to be tons of fun!

Smartie Pants!

We were sitting at the kitchen table in Strathroy this weekend, finishing up breakfast with devotions and some questions for the kids.  Peter was asked who the leader of God's people was after Moses, and without skipping a beat, he answered "Joshua".  I was so impressed!  He's definitely heard stories about Moses and Joshua before, but I don't think anything too specific or memorable about the leadership role switching over.  A few days later, we were sitting on the deck finishing up with supper and Peter asked, "Where's the cardinal, Mom?" It took me a moment to realize that there was a cardinal singing in the apricot tree in our backyard, and he had recognized what kind of bird it was by its song.  About two months ago, I had pointed out a cardinal singing in the neighbour's tree and told him about how each type of bird has its own specific songs, and I am SO impressed that he remembered!  What a smartie pants!  

Nate's Words

On this lovely spring day, I find myself inside at the computer writing a blog update.  Why?  Well, there are no rainy days in the forecast, and we've had some exciting progress with Nate and his talking.  No, he's not talking in sentences yet, but we've gotten a few words out of him in the last week or two and we're pretty pumped!  On Sunday night we were sitting on the front porch at Mom and Dad VD's, and through an open window we could hear our kids who had just been put to bed in one of the front bedrooms.  Nate was getting annoyed with bedtime, and started calling "Mama!  Mama!".  Even though he was a little upset, I heartily enjoyed listening to him calling me for the first time.  He is also saying "hi", occasionally "hi Dad", "amen" after we pray, and when he feels like it "night night".  Last night he also started filling in "go" after we said "ready, set...". 
It's not exactly remarkable news for anyone else, especially when there are a lot of 20 month-olds out there who have quite a repertoire of words, but we are excited to see him finally starting to repeat things and try new sounds.  Peter was probably at around the same point as Nate when he was 14 or 15 months, and Aaron slightly earlier at about 13 or 14 months.  Most of the noises Nate makes are from the back of the throat and don't require a lot of effort to make.  I have a feeling it has something to do with his refusal to drink when he was younger.  It makes sense to me that later development of his "suck and swallow" muscles would correspond with his delay in vocalization, as well as the persistent cough and difficulty in clearing his throat.  We've got an appointment at the end of June with a respirologist in Hamilton to see what they have to say, but I have a feeling it's going to just be a wait and see thing, and that he'll grow out of it as he practices his sounds and his swallowing, and strengthens those muscles.  In the meantime, keep those words coming, Nate!  

Show and Tell

Peter has show and tell this afternoon, and their task this month is to come up with three clues for their classmates to guess the item that they brought.  Peter and I had fun coming up with clues this morning for the kazoo he's bringing, and we managed to use mostly words from his "LIFE" words, a list of words that they have been learning to recognize by sight.  Usually if he has to write something lengthy, I'll write it in pencil and he'll copy over it, but he did all the writing himself this morning.  Fun!

1.  It is yellow and blue

2.  It makes a funny noise

3.  You can play with it

 

A Few Pics

The latest version of Three-Boys-On-A-Couch

Peter taking in Kindergarten Day

Daddy came to visit Peter in his new classroom.  He was pretty excited to be at Dad's work.

Taking a bus ride.  That's one happy kid!

My three sweeties outside on the porch

En Garde!

Protecting our home from bad men

Home-made Fruit Roll-Up

Every once in a while, I will peruse the time-sucking wonder of Pinterest.  I have recognized the dangers of the site and I haven't yet put any pins up of my own, but I do occasionally foray into the zone of danger when the kids are sleeping, and I stumble across ideas that I think I might actually be able to pull off.  The last thing I tried was this home-made fruit roll up stuff.  I had some fruit kicking around that was past its prime for straight eating, and I thought I'd give this a shot.  I quartered, cored, peeled, chopped, and cooked some apples, and threw them in the blender with strawberries, raspberries and some honey.  I spread this mixture out on parchment paper on four cookie sheets, and put them in the oven for about 5 hours at the lowest temp my oven will do, 170F.  When it was dry-ish to the touch, I took them out, cut them into 1" strips and fed them to my kids, and boy were they a hit!  

Edit:  Tips for Laura :)

I didn't use a specific recipe - I looked around on the internet a bit and it came down to what I had on hand for fruit. A few tips: I cooked the apples first b/c they would be too hard to throw straight in the blender with the berries. I added... maybe 3 tbsp of honey and a 1/4 cup white sugar to sweeten it. I did strain the whole mix before I spread it on the cookie sheets to get some of the seeds out. I used parchment paper, not plastic wrap b/c it seemed a little sketchy to put plastic wrap in the oven like some sites suggested. Try to get the puree as even as possible on the sheets so it will dry evenly. It was in the oven at 170 from 7-10:30, and again in the morning from 7:30-9 or so. I switched the trays around a few times, and dabbed the edges with a wet paper towel a few times to keep them from drying out too much and getting crispy. Hope this helps!  Also, I drained the extra juices out of the cooked apples, and the thawed strawberries and raspberries so the puree wouldn't be too liquidy.

 

In the Garden

Butterflies

It's a gorgeous day today, and so far we've spent pretty much all of it outside enjoying the sunshine and fresh air.  The lilacs are just starting to bloom, and the sky is filled with butterflies!  I caught one in a glass cup so the kids could get a close-up look

 Pretty intriguing! 

 I took this just as the butterfly was flying away

 

 

 Perching on the lilacs

 Sunning on the deck rail