Blanket Time, Butter-Fried PBJs, and Birthdays!

This little, sweet cheeks is back to his normal, cheery self after a few cranky weeks of teething.  

After our fun fiasco at toddler library time, last week I finally got around to training Levi in a valuable and helpful skill for a busy toddler: sitting still on blanket time!!! I first learned about blanket time from my beloved Duggars and trained Hunter to do it when he was around 2-years old.  I started with Nathanael when he was about 16-months old and found it to be a life-saver in many situations when they were smaller.  You can read an in-depth, oldie-but-goodie post on Nathanael learning blanket time here. 

After only 5 sessions Levi is up to about 17 minutes of blanket time and he is doing so well!  I'm so proud of him!  Afterwards he picks up all of his toys and blanket as we sing the clean-up song and he runs to the toy closet to show me where to put them away.  He gets lots of praise and high fives and then one, little, organic jelly bean treat when everything's put away.  It's been a big help in the mornings when Hunter and I have our Bible reading time together and in the afternoons after lunch when we need to get some language arts or math done.  

Time is really flying and last week was the fifth week Classical Conversations!

This past  week at CC we did a fun drawing that demonstrated perspective,

 used balloons to understand that galaxies expand,

 held our nose as we recited our memory work,

 had pbj's on sprouted wheat bread for lunch,

 and had a fun recess playing tag and a few other games with our friends. 

 Here is a youtube video of Hunter's week 5 CC presentation.

The cuteness was just oozing out of Levi as he headed out
for church on Wednesday night.

 

The boys always love to look through their Bibles on the 25-minute ride to church.  

It is such a blessing that they enjoy learning and reading about God's Word!

 My 90-year-old, great grandma passed along some crafting items to us and this latch hook rug was among the items.  Hunter figured it out pretty quickly!  It's a great little filler activity for him to do in between homeschooling sessions. 

 The other day Hunter and I heard Levi waking up from a nap and walked in the boys' room to find this little pacifier monster greet us.  And yes...he did this all on his own!  He thought he was just hilarious.  Pretty funny, Levi!

We were looking for an quick, Friday night dinner and found an idea for butter-fried peanut butter and jelly sandwiches!!  At first we thought it sounded gross, but gave it a try and they were actually quite tasty!  Some kettle chips and peas rounded out the meal. Afterwards we watched the movie "Up" and the boys got haircuts. 

 Today my dad, my brother Jeremy, and my sister Juliet came over to celebrate my sister's and my birthdays.  Jeremy just turned 17 earlier this month and Juliet turns 12 tomorrow on my 38th birthday!  They live about an hour away so we don't get to see them very often.   The boys just love it when their aunt and uncle come over!

 

Juliet and I both love the Duggars and since it was our birthdays AND as of a few days ago the Duggars are on Netflix (YAY!!!!), we had a relaxing day watching the Duggars!!   It was divine and oh so refreshing.  A little bit of Duggar every day makes every day brighter.  I have been waiting for years for them to get back on Netflix with newer episodes and I am thrilled that it's finally happened!  Best birthday present I could think of!

 Levi was happy and content sitting on Grandpa's lap.  My dad has this strange habit of teaching toddlers to say, "EhhDEE!"  It's pronounced as though someone who is hearing impaired is saying it. Really ridiculous.  It's the way he communicates with them and he says that it functions to summarize anything a toddler is trying to say.

For example:

"Do you want some more milk?"  ""EhhDEE!"

"Isn't this a fun show?"  "EhhDEE!"

"Get down from there!"  "EhhDEE!"

He taught all of our boys to say this as toddlers and even though Levi pretty much refuses to parrot any words I try to get him to say, he says this word back to my dad constantly.  My dad is so proud of himself that he's so accomplished at this toddler communication.   Ha!

 Nathanael and Levi made some pyramids and towers out of our Costco toilet paper today. 

 I am so thrilled to have a wonderful cake lady who makes all of our birthday cakes for us the past year or two.  Since it was my birthday, I got to pick what I wanted even though what I like isn't necessarily what my husband thinks is an appropriate choice for a birthday cake.  Jamie, the cake lady, does a great job with custom orders and she made me a vanilla cake with a layer of raspberry filling topped with REAL, whipped cream frosting and no artificial colors or flavors.  That's my kind of cake, baby!!!

Juliet got the same cake as me but with a chocolate cake instead of vanilla.  

And she had some pink writing on hers to make it more fun instead of boring, all white like mine.

 Levi showing grandpa his cool baseball helmet. 

 

It was a fun time hanging out with our family today!