St. Paul Goes to the Movies

During lunch today we asked Sam what Bible story he learned about in Sunday School. The conversation went something like this:

Dad: What was your Bible Story about today?
Sam: Paul.
Dad: Oh, Paul. What did you learn about Paul?
Sam: He went to the movies.
Mom: He went to the movies?
Sam: Yeah, he went to the movies.
Mom: Hmm. That's interesting.
Sam: Wait a minute. Paul went to the good news.
Dad: He went to the good news?
Sam: No, Paul shared the Good News. Jesus said, 'Go. Share the Good News.'

It started out a little sketchy -- but we think he got the message!

It's Kind of Like Prison -- But With Sprinklers

We don't like to think of our house as a prison -- but when I look at a few of our recent pictures -- you might think that is was!

A little manual labor...

Some water...

Solitary confinement...

Sweet freedom -- sprinklers!

A Little Dirt Won't Hurt

The sprinkler project continues -- there are trenches all over our yard, pipes laid out and dirt is everywhere -- inside and out. Matthew is working hard and Sam is loving being outside all day long.

This is one happy boy!

Sam and Dad lay out the pipes.

Zak's not in the dirt (yet), but does enjoy munching on grass!

It's Play Time!

In an effort to give Matthew a little "alone time" to get working on installing our new sprinkler system, Mom and the boys headed off for a morning of fun!

Our first stop was Play Time at our local Community Center. Sam loves all their fun toys and cars. This was Zak's first time and he had fun going down the slide and playing on the floor mat. He is a people-watcher and had a great time trying to keep up with all the activity around him.


The next stop was lunch at Red Robin. Sam always wants to go to a restaurant -- he often makes that suggestion when we're driving home from preschool. I'd like to think that he wants to give me a break -- but deep in my heart, I know that's not the reason!


Then we headed back home to check on Dad's progress in the yard. Sam was just in time to start helping -- and he spent the rest of the afternoon digging in the dirt and playing in the yard.

Rollin' Like A River

Zak is sooo close to crawling! He has definite forward motion and rocks back and forth on his hands and knees. But his favorite mode of movement is rolling. He is very effective. He can get anywhere he wants just by rolling. He gets into the Legos tucked away in the corner (supposedly out of his reach). He rolls until he can position himself by the stack of magazines carefully hidden behind a table -- and then starts tearing them with a vengeance.

Here is Zak in motion...

A Lego Lover Is Born

Zak was introduced to Legos this week and they have quickly become a favorite! They keep him occupied for nice chunks of time -- so now they are a favorite of Mom's too! Sam has been showing him what to do -- but Zak mostly likes to bang them together or eat them. He'll learn -- between his Dad and Sam -- he will have great teachers!

Fun In the Sun

We are so glad the sun has finally decided to show up! After days and weeks of dodging the rain, the boys, especially Sam, were thrilled to be able to spend some time outside. Most of Saturday and Sunday were spent outside -- which led to some early bedtimes for tired boys!

Sam checking out our lilacs.

Good times with the water table!

Zak watched everything Sam did with amazement!

Having a ball!

Zak's having a ball too!

Can you believe that this sweet face...

Could do this to his Mom?

We Have A Reader

Sam loves to read. We started reading to him on a regular basis when he was about six month old and we have never stopped. When he was just a toddler he was so careful when he "read" his books that he could be trusted with his nice "paper pages" books and not just the board books.

My parents bought him this set of books when he spent the weekend with them a couple of weeks ago. There are twelve little books that build on each other -- teaching him how to sound out letters and actually read!



He frequently brings them to me so we can read them together. He is quite good at Books 1 and 2. He just whips through each page. We've been working on Book 3 for the last week. There were a few words that kept tripping him up -- but he just read it perfectly tonight!

Sometimes, he likes to plow ahead without actually trying to read the words. His little imagination is hard at work trying to make sense of the pictures and how he can work that into the story without taking the time to sound out the words.

For this particular page, he read it quite confidently as follows,

"Sam cried. Mat cried."

A good try -- but try again!

After successfully completing Book 3, he was ready to tackle Book 4 tonight. Book 4 is pretty tough, but he would not be deterred!

Here is the first page.

As read by Sam (again, quite confidently),

"Mac had a present."

We'll keep working on it!

Mother's Day Fun

After church this morning we headed over to the Vancouver Farmer's Market at Esther Short Park. We thought it would be a nice way to spend a few hours -- outside in the sunshine, playing, looking at flowers and not having to cook anything for lunch! We all got to pick what we wanted to eat and then had a picnic on the grass. We used to take Sam to this park quite often when we first moved to Vancouver -- so he was excited to play there again.

After dinner we took a walk through the neighborhood and ended up at our park for a little more play time.

It was a fun, laid-back Mother's Day with the family!

Sam discovered the water feature!

Mom and her boys!

Big shock -- Sam chose a corn dog -- and then removed the "corn" part.

Zak hanging out watching all the action -- he kept grinning and clapping.

Taking a walk -- or rather a ride!

Boys on the slide.

Just too cute to pass up!

A Boy & His Trucks

Zak has recently discovered Sam's stash of trucks -- there are many -- and loves them! He has so much fun spinning the wheels and trying to eat them! He hasn't quite figured out how to push them on the floor, but I'm sure it won't be long.

Look closely at the first picture -- you can see his six teeth -- four on the top and two on the bottom. What you can't see are the molars that are starting to make their presence known -- in the form of a grumpy boy who has rivers of saliva flowing from his mouth!

Zak likes to gnaw on the ladder of this one.

It's hard work playing with the big kid toys!

The Little Swimmer

This morning marked the first day of preschool swim lessons for Sam. He loves, loves, loves the water! We took him to Baby & Me classes the summer he turned two years old, but he wasn't able to take lessons last summer because Michelle was pregnant. We are so glad he was able to start up lessons again this year. Sam was very excited to go to swim lessons all by himself -- Mom and Dad got to watch from the lobby, behind a big, plate glass window. Mom was excited she didn't have to put on a swimsuit and get in the water!

Sam is fearless when it comes to water, so we were a little concerned when he seemed to be goofing off more than the other kids and not really paying attention at the beginning -- they were in water up to their shoulders! But it didn't take long before he was hanging on to the side of the wall kicking and putting his face under the water to pick up plastic rings. When lessons were over he had a big smile on his face and wanted to know if we had seen him floating on his back. We did! He did great.

Matthew is going to take him to Family Swim later this week so they can practice what he learned -- and so they can go down the big water slide over and over again!

Fish out of water!

Fellow swimmers and instructor Billy.

Shake It All About!

Zak is now able to perform on command. When we say, "Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle", this is what he does...