The Table

Playing with play dough, clay, rice, sand, water, and many other things can strongly help a child's sensory development. This can help with fine motor skills and help them develop tactile senses. This can also later in life, improve a child's handwriting.

So when my sister, Kay, suggested that she get the boys a sand and water table for their birthday, I was all for it. It would foster development, occupy them for a longer time period (working on attention span), and besides, they would LOVE it.

So when it arrived, I eagerly put it together and filled the sand side with blue sand (we're going to learn colors while we are at it). I had to wait until Church Camp was over to find the perfect opportunity for the boys to test it out for the first time. Finally, the morning arrived. I filled the water side and let the fun began.

And fun it was. The boys played and played...

....and played..

...until the mess grew and grew. Now, I am not the type of mom that "minds" a mess. I think this is great for their developmental skills, so, by all means, Make a Mess. It will clean.

It was when the clean up began, that I realized if I was going to allow the boys to play with this every day I was going to be doing A LOT of cleaning up.

I had to spray off the patio, sweep up the left over sand, change the boys clothes, wash their hands/feet/every part in between, and wash the window on the glass door.

Yup, I even had to get it out of Heath's hair!

Now, I know it was great fun and the boys had a blast, but I am not up for cleaning that mess everyday.

That was the day that our sand and water table became a "Water Only" table. At least for now. This winter it might become a "Just Sand" table. We might give them another year until we try sand and water again.

See...much cleaner.

Go ahead, Heath, pour that out on the ground. I can handle the water and it will probably evaporate before we go back inside.

Ahhh, much better.

Living and Learning,

2010 Pecos River Church Encampment

Bible class. We are in red.

Enjoying the ice cream that Daddy bought us.

Yummy!

Washing off the ice cream in the pool with cousin Kali.

Watching the grasshopper in our bug catcher.

Heath, showing his true colors.

Hanging with the Grigsby Twins.

Some of the gang.

Papa and his lifeguard in training.

The annual bell picture. Click here to see last years picture. Boy have we grown!

Happy (Belated) Father's Day

"Walk a little slower Daddy," said a child so small.
"I'm following in your footsteps and I don't want to fall.

Sometimes your steps are very fast,
Sometimes they're hard to see;
So walk a little slower, Daddy,
For you are leading me.

Someday when I'm all grown up,
You're what I want to be;
Then I will have a little child,
Who'll want to follow me.

And I would want to lead just right,
and know that I was true;
So, walk a little slower, Daddy,
For I must follow you."

We Love You, Daddy,

From Heath and Hunter

Our Birthday Party!

I have so much to post about and I promise I will do more the first chance I get. Last weekend we had the boys 1 and 1/2 birthday party. It was a huge success. We had loads of fun with all of our friends and family. I leave you with a LOT of random pictures from the festivities.

Happy Half Birthday!

My babies are officially 1 and a half. 18 months. Wow! Where did that time go? They light up my life every day, and make me want to pull my hair out most days. I am so thankful that God trusted me enough to have twins.

Tomorrow we are having their 1/2 birthday party. I can't wait. We will have loads of friends and loads of fun.

Aloha!

Come On Boys, Help a Girl Out!

Dear Heath and Hunter,

Please take a good look at the following pictures.

Do you notice any thing different about this last picture? There is only one hat. That is because one of you sweet darling baby boys has misplaced this cute blue hat. I know that I put them on both of your heads before we left for Mimi and Papa's house a few weeks ago. Then I went to refill sippy cups and when I turned around, one of the hats was missing. I don't even know which one of you lost it. Now, sweet darlings, I have scoured the entire house and I can't find it anywhere. I have looked in all the cabinets, behind the refrigerator, and all of your other usual hiding spots.

So, I am writing you this letter to ask you please, please help Mommy find your hat. It's one of my favorites and it matches your swimsuits. If you could just give me a hint, that would be great, also.

Sincerely,

Your desperate to find that hat, Momma

Our Weekend at Lollie and Pops

This past weekend we went to San Saba to visit Chris's parents, Lollie and Pops. We had a great time, and here are a few pictures from our adventures.

We sat on Pops "vroom vroom" while Daddy tried to even out the sand for the swimming pool.


Look, footed pjs with our shoes! Hmmm, where have I seen this before?


Heath could have ridden on the "vroom vroom" all day.

Daddy and Pops put all of this sand down to go beneath their swimming pool. We are definitely suckers for a good sand pit, and this one was massive!

We weren't much help in getting it level though.

It was loads of fun though.

Also, in case you were wondering. Yup, Hunter can climb out of his pack n play, too.

Heath was NOT happy when Hunter came thudding down on top of him.

This may be a terrible solution, but I let him play in Heath's crib with Heath until he fell asleep. After Hunter was asleep, I moved Heath into Hunter's crib because I didn't want to chance waking up the climber.

By the way, since we have been home from Lollie and Pops, Heath has learned to climb out of his crib, too. Aghhh!!!