Play-Doh Day

Thursday morning we stayed inside and got out a few new containers of Play-Doh.  Usually we do Play-Doh on the extra large coffee table in the family room, but with so much choo choo play going on in there lately with the train table, I thought we'd do this activity in the bright and sunny playroom.  It was especially inviting with the nice view of all the snow covering the ground and trees!  So we setup on the small white table in there and the boys were occupied all morning until lunch!!  That's what I love about not having to keep to a schedule most days - when they get really involved in something or are enjoying playing outside, we can do it for as long as they like, and I try to expand upon whatever they're doing!  I kept bringing out different cookie cutters - heart shapes for Valentine's Day coming up and even found some train-shaped ones!  They also used the usual craft utensils like colored popsicle sticks and googly eyeballs.  Spencer made some pretty good heart monsters!  And all the boys cut out their own trains and "drove" them around the table.

Big Bad Wolf

The boys really like the story of the Three Little Pigs, especially when they escape the big, bad wolf!  We read it just about every day and then run around the house pretending they're the little pigs and I'm the wolf trying to catch them.  It actually works well as a tactic to get them upstairs for naps and bedtime!  I recently got the idea to try out storytelling using a felt board, and decided to make my own by converting the back (green chalkboard) side of our easel to felt.  I found 4 pieces of green felt with peel-off sticky backs ready to go at Michaels for $4 and cut them to fit onto the board.  I bought a 20-piece Three Little Pigs felt story set on Amazon for less than $10 and introduced the setup to the boys this morning after breakfast.  They loved watching me move and change the pieces as I told the story!!  Afterward, Oliver played with the pieces, softly talking and retelling the story in his own words for quite some time.  I think this fun and easy tool really gets the imaginative juices flowing and lets the boys learn to sequence and tell stories on their own!

Heat Wave

Since the big snow we had last week, the temperatures have been too frigid to get the boys out to play in it.  But today we had a heat wave with temperatures around 45 degrees and it felt great.  After the twins got home from preschool, we all bundled up and went outside to try out our new sled that fits all 3!  It glided up and down the driveway and around the yard pretty smoothly - the boys just sat back and enjoyed the ride.  Daddy even took them "exploring" through the woods in our front yard.  Notice the path he shoveled in the driveway for them to walk from the house to the car?  Owen just loves zigzagging around the driveway, sticking to the path, as we head to the car...while Oliver always ends up straying into the snow (as if that wasn't his intent all along)!

 

Hungry Hungry Hippos

Every time I've seen this game at the store I've really wanted to buy it because it was one of my absolute favorites as a kid.  I've held off because the box says ages 4 and up, but Saturday I gave in and got it anyway.  I know the age suggestion is mainly because there are small plastic balls for the hippos to eat, but the boys are really good about not putting small toys like that in their mouths (heck - I let them string tiny beads on shoe laces all the time and they don't eat those).  Well they were so excited to play their new hippo game after breakfast on Sunday and had a blast trying to gobble up the most hippo food.  It was fun having enough of us not to leave any hippo unmanned! 

Snow Week

This past week the boys didn't have any preschool - Monday was a holiday and Tuesday was a snow day (as was the rest of the week for Fairfax County)!  By Thursday the boys were ready to get out of the house and let out some major energy...so we went to one of their favorite bouncy places.  I had fun putting together this mini montage of them sliding and playing in the tornado simulator.  The best part is how Owen and Oliver's natural reaction when the winds ramp up to 70+ mph is to spin in unison, as if they were twins or something :)

Take Down

Just another night of roughhousing and wrestling before bed.  Spencie really gets into it and is often the toughest of the bunch!  Daddy had to remind Owen and Oliver that it's ok to play a little rough with Spencer, as long as it's fun (i.e. no one is getting hurt!).  Owen was immediately mindful of this request and went on to repeatedly ask Spencer "Is it fun, Baby?" as he was tackling him! 

Snowflake Sticks

We made a fun little snowflake craft yesterday morning using popsicle sticks, cotton balls, and beads.  It's fun to observe Owen and Oliver's unique personalities come through in their artwork - we can always immediately tell who did which one.  Owen's creations are more neat, clean, and symmetrical while Oliver's are wildly creative and outside the box!  Can you tell whose is whose in the last picture??

(Answer: Owen Left, Oliver Right)

Tranquil In Nature

It was a relatively "warm" day on Monday and since preschool was closed for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, we spent a long time playing outside in the morning.  After their boisterous "All Aboard" display inside the house the other night, I thought it was funny how peaceful and quiet they were playing outside as I took a video of them on the tire swing.  I thought I heard a tree falling off in the distant woods as they happily spun around and around in silence.  Even though they still ask me to push and spin them really fast, they're capable of getting that tire going pretty quick by themselves!!  We had such a nice day in the yard; the boys kept moving from one favorite activity to the next - mowers, tractors, swings...and I actually had a relaxing walk up and down the driveway a few times and around the yard as I followed them, enjoying the sun and peaceful quiet with a cup of coffee in hand.  I think we all needed to get outdoors after a couple days of staying inside and hiding from the cold.

 



Oliver, Come Over Here...

What could possibly be more entertaining than pushing your twin down inside a trampoline and making him laugh?!  These boys are so lucky to have each other to play and laugh with everyday!!!

Paint in Bags

This was an easy and fun idea I saw somewhere in passing on Facebook or Pinterest.  I put a few different color finger paints in zip lock baggies (added some extra protection by taping over the zipper and top with clear packing tape) and let the boys mush and mix the colors around to their hearts content.  I gave them each a couple Q-tips to "draw" lines and shapes in the paint and they thought it was so much fun.  We wrote the letters in their names and they worked on tracing them (Owen liked this the most).  Something different to keep them entertained at the kitchen table while preparing dinner!

All Aboard!!!

Never a dull moment at our house...the boys are almost always loud and full of energy, even when they're playing nicely!  We've had their train table up for a couple months now and I don't see them tiring of it anytime soon.  Each day there are new configurations to make with the tracks and new ways to line up and connect the trains.  Usually, several non-train related toys make their way onto the table and become part of the landscape (imagine Optimus Prime and a monster truck take over Sodor).  One thing's for sure - the boys love shouting "all aboard" when they're playing choo choos!  Daddy joining in makes them even more excited - I love how they all echo in unison after Daddy's "all aboard" toward the beginning of this video.  And I didn't notice this until watching it back later - it's so cute how Spencer decides he wants his train to take a detour and go under the bridge.  Watch near the end as he says, "I go this way", lifts the bridge for his train to go under, starts it through, then scurries around the table to pull it the rest of the way from the other side.  The best part is that the twins follow his lead and do the same with their trains!

Two Moonbounces in a Gym

These first few weeks of January we've been spending a lot of time exploring indoor playgrounds and moonbounces to mix things up when it's too cold to play outside.  The Sterling Community Center has a simple setup that the boys love - an open gymnasium with 2 big moonbounces at the back.  They can't seem to decide if they like bouncing or running around the gym more and go back and forth between the two nonstop!  Today we were the only people there and the boys went wild with excitement having such a big, open space to themselves.  The staff took out a couple soft balls and that really made the boys happy, as they kicked, threw, rolled, and bounced them everywhere!  We played their favorite game - hide and seek - until they were exhausted and ready for our "picnic" lunch at the tables outside the gym.  Spencer had so much fun that he couldn't wait until we made it home to start his nap!