Thursday, June 23, 2011

Father's Day and Some Other Things



Friday or Saturday Night Movie-Popcorn-Nights


So, our "movie nights" have recently consisted of watching the series of Harry Potter movies. I've never read the books (not a fantasy girl), nor have I ever seen the movies, so it's been pretty fun curling up on the couch on a Friday or Saturday night with the boys and Daddy and watching the movies. We watched the first one about a month ago.


The next weekend, Dad was here, after watching the boys when we were at Paul's graduation commencement. He stayed overnight and watched the second one with us.


There are some scary parts, so 'curling up' is a must. There haven't been any nightmares, and the boys want to keep watching them, so all seems good so far.
Gram, Papa, Auntie Kim, and Uncle Paul were here the night before Father's Day to watch the third one, but do you think I remembered to bring out the camera? I swear to you, we see Mom and Ken a lot, but you'd never know it from the blog pictures!


The Boys Making Father's Day Cards


The boys each got to make three father's day cards:
1 for Grand-Dan
1 for Papa G.
1 for Papa Z.

They also made one together for Great Grandpa Clark. They had already made special ones for Daddy at preschool.

I made three tickets for each of AJ's cards so that he could put them in the cards. I told him to write things on the back that he thought his grandpas might like to do with him.

Here are the ones for Ken that he wrote.
The first one says, " Go and git KaNdy ". (Go and get candy)
The second one says, "Go To th to ster". (Go to the toy store)
The third one says, "Go To micdonls". (Go to McDonalds)

They were pretty cute.

Here's a picture of Dexter working on his cards.

Here's AJ showing his card for Papa.

Awww. Papa Z and Great Grandpa Clark will need to wait until the postal strike is over. lol.



AJ Drawing Dinosaurs

One of the library books that we took out, was a How to Draw Dinosaurs book. AJ's been busy trying to replicate.

Dexter was trying to draw some too.



Richard

Here he is. He's looking well. Still dealing with the numbness in his hands and feet. The Prednisone level just got dropped again to 7.5 so we'll watch for the GVHD rash and hope that he's fine continuing to cutting it back.

He had his last appointment out here in Abbotsford with his oncologist! If all keeps going as well as it is, he might not have to have any more appointments at VGH!

He talked about how things are going on his blog. Click HERE.


Dexter Has His Very Own Playdate

Dexter got to have Emerson over for a playdate. They coloured their little butts off.
Sorry I'm so lazy and forgetful that I don't turn the picture around.
LinkDon't worry. He's not writing on his bed. He's just lifted up the card he's writing on.



Daddy Finished Building AJ's Computer

I have mixed feelings on this one. Ask me in a month. So far, it's all good.

AJ has definitely shown some interest in what Richard does by trade, programming and software designing. Richard is keen to welcome AJ into his world.

We've been talking about getting AJ a computer in his room and I made space for it a couple months ago. Richard finished piecing together some computer bits that we had here and there to make AJ his own. Here it is.



AJ and Makenna are just getting ready to leave for preschool with Dexter. It was AJ's Show and Tell day, so we printed off these two pics of the new computer and he showed his awesome Christmas gift from Cousin Mike (of which I spoke in the last post).

AJ is just enamoured with these two pictures that I printed off. I'm a bad mommy, and I haven't printed off pictures of the kids for photo albums. There are pictures in frames in the house, but not like this. He's beside himself with the idea that pictures can be printed off whenever we like. Oh, how times have changed.

Anyhow. AJ's had to familiarize himself with a regular mouse (as has Dexter). They are used to this kind of mouse attached to my laptop:

I just LOVE this kind of mouse. You never run into the frustrating problem (especially for children) of running out of space to drag your mouse, then having to pick it up, and put it somewhere else. All you do is use your thumb to move the cursor and then click as normal.

It's been fantastic, and it has enabled Dexter to be able to navigate sites like Boowa and Kwala all by himself for his earned computer time (from doing his chores).

Richard felt it was important for AJ to learn to use a regular-style mouse, especially since that's what they'll have at school, so that's what AJ has. Both boys seem to have caught on pretty fast, so it's been fine.

A little added bonus (or not) is that AJ can watch movies in his room if he'd like.

I wasn't too excited about that, but so far, it hasn't been an issue. He treats it as a special treat and still prefers to play with toys and draw in his room over watching a movie, so it's no big deal.

Here are Makenna and AJ watching Richard Scarry's Busytown Mysteries together, I think. They're 'campin out'.

Some Friday Night

The boys were VERY excited to get to have a movie sleepover in AJ's room one Friday night.
You may or may not notice that Dexter has a black eye. It was quite a week for the right side of Dexter's face that week. First, he slipped on some paper under his loft bed and smashed his cheek on his train table (or so I gather from the story he told me), then he fell at preschool that afternoon which gave him a big red mark on the front of the same cheek, and then, at gymnastics the next day, he collided with another child and got the black eye. Poor little guy.

I brought up the crib mattress from downstairs, got them all cozied up with big blankets and pillows and this is what they chose to watch....


Meet the Colours


lol



Father's Day at Shannon Falls with Grand-Dan


Richard and I drove out to my dad's place with the boys, picked up my dad, and headed for a walk at Shannon Falls.

The boys got to wear their hiking boots, their nature belts, and use their walking sticks (which Richard, my dad, and I ended up using more).





Turn your head to the left.

Now upright again.


Richard had to trek up some stairs. It was impressive. He was pretty worn out.















Some Pictures from Richard's Phone

The first hike with the walking sticks that Richard made for the boys.




*Makenna's Fishing Birthday Party*




*The Bradner May-Days Parade*


AJ was afraid of the possibility of mascots, so he hung back by me.



Dexter is not afraid of mascots.
Dancing around the MayPole

*Captain Kids*

Daddy took the boys to Captain Kids. AJ's at the top of the Lavaslide!

*Grocery Shopping in the Homemade Canucks Shirts*



*Sassy*

Sometimes Sassy sits like this. We think it's cute.

*Richard Owns a Jean Jacket*

I'm still not sure if he was kidding or not, but he tried to leave the house wearing an old jean jacket (that he refuses to let me give away).

Here's the proof:





Just as I finally sit down to post this, I now have a whole bunch more pictures! Yesterday was AJ's preschool graduation (and Dexter's, but really, Dexter is in preschool for two more years, so he didn't really graduate). I'll try to post those soon.