Yellow belt

Kyle had a belt test last Saturday. He is now on his third belt - the yellow belt! He is so excited and proud! He demonstrated punches and a variety of kicks, as well as broke a board with a "hammerfist" in order to receive his new belt. It took him several tries, but his persistence payed off and he broke his board! He is now in a new class for yellow belts and above at his age level so we're adjusting to a new time schedule. He says he wants to be a black belt and karate instructor when he grows up. At this rate he'll have his black belt by the time he's 10 . . .

Kyle's preschool parent teacher conference

Kyle's parent teacher conference was this morning and he got an excellent report! He is meeting and exceeding expectations in most areas. He is reading at a second grade reading level and is very advanced in math and science. He LOVES numbers! His teacher said he always takes whatever they are learning to the next level and is quick to correct her if she ever makes a mistake. She said he is a "leader" among his peers and really enjoys playing with his classmates. He is quite emotional at times and is still in progress when it comes to using his words to resolve conflicts so we'll continue to work on this both at school and home. Overall we were very pleased and we're very proud of him!

30+ inches of snow!!!

I've never seen so much snow in my life! The total was around 30 inches and then another snowstorm a few days later brought another 12 inches - crazy! We were going a little stir crazy inside but tried to find fun ways to keep busy - pudding fingerpaint, dance parties, and the Wii were fun ways to pass the time. We did manage to go "play" in the snow for a bit so here are some pictures - the boys were fascinated with all the snow!

Snow Day

Today Kyle's preschool was cancelled as well as Max's make-up romp n roll class (that he missed the last time we had a snow day). I was not thrilled to have another snow day and am definitely ready for spring, but I tried to make the most of it. Since it wasn't bitterly cold I took the boys outside to play in the snow today. We had fun building a little snowman, making snow angels, playing at the playground, taking a walk, and having several snowball fights. Kyle got right in the snow and was crawling, digging, falling, and jumping in it! Max, on the other hand, refused to touch it, but was happy to be outside surrounded by it. He mostly stayed on the sidewalks that were clear of the snow. Silly boy! Then we came inside for some hot chocolate with marshmallows. It turned out to be a fun snow day!

Painting

Recently both boys have enjoyed painting. It's a fun post nap activity on these cold days. Here are some of their recent masterpieces! You can probably tell who's whose, but just in case, Kyle's are the top 3 and Max's are the bottom two. Not sure why it turned the 3rd one of Kyle's sideways but you get the idea!

"Baking"

So, I'm definitely not the baker in the family . . . Jason is. He is always making cookies, cakes, brownies, etc. and Kyle loves to help. Today we went to the grocery store and Kyle asked if we could buy some ready made valentine cookies. When we got home the boys were super excited to help "make" cookies. Basically all you do is open the package and spread the little precut circles on the baking sheet. Kyle got really into it, though, and asked if they could wear their Spiderman and Thomas aprons that they got for Christmas (used for cooking and painting activities). They looked so cute and made such a production of it that I couldn't resist posting it! Max isn't usually involved in baking so this was a real treat for him!

Twinkle Twinkle Little Star