Sports Day

Every now and then, the preschool has "spirit days." Last Wednesday was Sports Day, and Evie wore her new White Sox T shirt from Grandma Cordes (purchased at Grandstand Sox, right next to the ballpark). Gavin just wore a regular shirt, because he is so picky these days.

This week, the kids have been on spring break. We have gone on a few playdates but really wish we could get outside. I happen to like the cold weather in this climate, but I am tired of the kids getting so many colds and passing them around. And when it's warmer, Gavin can run off some of his energy at the park. Maybe next week!

My Morning In The Bluebird Room

Last week, I got to volunteer in Evie's classroom. It is really fun to see her going through the class routine, playing and learning and interacting with the other kids. The first thing she did was a counting and sorting activity, below:



That yellow bin next to her has many small square cubes. The kids are supposed to line them up in the gray trays, which has columns numbered one through ten. Evie decided that she only wanted the red cubes, as you can see. Another boy was doing the activity with her, and he gave her all the red cubes that he could find.


Below, Evie did another counting exercise. She had to place a bean on each animal in the picture and then count then. This time, she only wanted to use black beans.





Here we are at snack time:



After snack time, we both ended up coloring:

I got to watch the speech therapist play a rhyming game with the entire class, then we went into the hallway for motor time. While the other kids jumped on a trampoline, Evie hung out in her wagon and watched Gavin. His class just happened to be in the hallway too, for their own motor time. (Gavin's classroom is across the hall from Evie's classroom.) Then it was time to go home. What a fun morning!

Thursday Cuteness

Here are some random pictures from last week:

Evie poses with her hedgehog toy and wears a new outfit from Grandma Cordes:



Gavin loves playing with the gas station from the movie "Cars." It is called "Flo's V-8 Cafe," and is run by Flo, a big green 50's sedan. Gavin's Transformer truck (aka Optimus Prime) is too big to fit in the gas station, so Flo brings gas out to Optimus:

Outside Fun

We had some decent weather last week, so we were able to get outside a few times. I got out the chalk and the kids' chairs:




Gavin loves squirt bottles. He sprayed the bushes, rocks, driveway, bricks, you name it!



Evie wasn't interested in squirting anything:




Later on, we got out Gavin's watering can (it looks like an oil can from the movie "Cars") and again, everything in sight got watered:

Kids-n-Cats

We had another fun visit to Auntie Di and Uncle Kevin's house last weekend. The cats know that when we come over, they are going to get treats. And the adults know that when the visit is over, the kids and the cats are going to sleep very soundly!

Fern and Fergie waited for Gavin to give them treats (notice that Gavin brought his own toy cat, named "Baby Cat," along for the visit):




Evie giggled as the cats chased (and fetched) little puffy balls that Auntie Di threw:




Gavin knows that he needs to be very gentle when he pets the cats. He even tried putting his toy cat on Fergie's back, but she wasn't too interested.

Thursday Cuteness

Francis got the twins a game called "Let's Go Fishing." Evie will sit and work through it, while Gavin ends up taking the fish out and playing with them. This is a really good OT (occupational therapy) exercise for Evie. She has to get the fishing pole into the fish mouth (she uses two hands to do it - eventually she'll be able to do it with one) and then she has to lift it up and out of the water.



Evie is very determined to get the fish out!

Francis happened to be near a Disney store last week, so the twins got spontaneous gifts. They both love the movie "Bambi," especially Gavin, so Francis got him a Flower and a Bambi toy. (We already had Thumper.) Evie got a stuffed alien doll from Toy Story 3. Below Gavin is taking a rest with his new toys - Thumper is under his head and Flower is by his knees:

Nana & Grandpa's Anniversary

On March 6, Nana & Grandpa Cermak celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary! (Sorry I am a little late with this post.) Evie and Gavin colored cards for them before they came over to our house:

Gavin helped me make cupcakes. He loves to help prepare food! I measured the ingredients, and he carefully poured them into the bowl and then helped me stir.







Once the cupcakes cooled, I frosted them. Then the twins poured the sprinkles on. And I do mean "pour!" There were sprinkles everywhere, even though we kept the cupcakes in these plastic containers (see below). I gave them a spoon to scoop the sprinkles out, since the bottle didn't have a shaker top. This was definitely their favorite part of the day!

Then Francis grilled steaks and asparagus and we made baked potatoes. After we ate it was time to start a dvd for the kids. Gavin decided to climb on Grandpa's back and take a rest.

It was quite a fun day! Congratulatios to Nana & Grandpa!

Evie Rides A Bike

I had heard about this bike that Evie rides at school. It's a tricycle with a long handle on the back, for an adult to use to help push. Well, imagine my utter surprise when Evie came out at the end of the day last week, not in her wagon, but on this tricycle! She was so proud of herself, and so happy to show me what she could do. I'm pretty sure I jumped up and down in the parking lot - who knows what all the other parents sitting in their cars must have thought, but who cares? Evie rode a tricycle!!!

Evie's nurse is pushing her along. Another reason this is so incredible is that at then end of the morning, Evie is usually drained of energy. She loves school, but after 2.5 hours she just has nothing left. Ususally!

Her feet are taped to the pedals with special purple duct tape:



This was on Monday. When I talked about it with her early Tuesday morning, she signed "more bike" for me, and Tuesday when I picked them up from school she was on the bike again! Woo-hoo!

Sick Again

I am not sure how this happened, but somehow Gavin managed to catch another cold/cough bug. He just finished up his antibiotics for the bronchitis on Sunday, and that night he started coughing again. Maybe he has the bad cold that Evie had last week.

This morning when I went to get him, he was soaking wet. I changed his pajamas and sheets and we came downstairs, where he asked me for orange juice. Good, I thought, he needs fluids. Then he wanted water - still good, in my mind. But then he barfed it all up on the living room rug. SO not good! Gavin almost never throws up. That clinched my decision to keep him home from school. By the time I got everything cleaned up, we were so far behind schedule (I hadn't even gotten Evie out of her pajamas yet) that I decided to keep her home too, just to make the morning easier. She didn't mind!

Here is a picture of Evie in another pink tracksuit. This one is a Puma with a furry hood, a gift from Auntie Clare. Evie knows she looks cute in it - she especially loves to put her hands in her pockets.

We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Buckets and Eggs

The other day Gavin wanted to take out our Easter baskets. We haven't played with these since last year when we went to an Easter egg hunt and collected LOTS of plastic eggs. Of course, there are other fun things to do with Easter baskets...like wearing them on your head!

We can thank Uncle David for encouraging the twins to balance everything on their heads!

Next it was time to open ALL the eggs (you can see some on the floor in the photo of Gavin). Of course, opening eggs with hands is too conventional for Gavin...he stepped on them instead. Every time he opened one he yelled "Ooh, a baby bird came out!" or "Ooh, a baby turtle came out!" Evie found this hilarious. There is never a dull day over here!

At the Infirmary...I Mean, Our House

Gavin is getting over his bronchitis. He still doesn't like his medicine, but I started giving him sips of water in between sips of medicine and that seems to make it tolerable for him. Yes, it's only one teaspoon twice a day, but I have to break up that one teaspoon into three little sips. Whatever works!

Evie coughed a lot over the weekend, so we went to the pediatrician on Monday. I was really worried that she also had bronchitis, but it turned out to be just a bad cold. Here is a video of her cutting with her special "red-loop" scissors (they are good for learning to cut, or for kids with less hand strength).



Francis is sick as well. He has a mix of bronchitis and a sinus infection. I am the nurse for the Cermak household!

Old Sock Stew

We have been listening to a Jim Gill CD with a song called "Old Sock Stew." So the other day we decided to make old sock stew. We got out my pots and pans, some clean socks, some plastic food, and played the song over and over while we stirred our socks.

Evie wasn't quite as into the process as Gavin was, but she still had fun for awhile (even though she doesn't look like it here).

There is another song on the same CD called "Silly Dance Contest." So when we got tired if stirring our stew, we put the socks on the food and made them dance according to the song (faster, slower, etc.) Yes, this is how some of our days are. It's the little things!