Tuesday, March 10, 2009

PreK Photo Opps

So here it is -- Jonah's official preschool photo.
What a handsome kid!!!!
(OK, I might be a little bias but still...)

Jonah & Mrs. Campbell (his preK teacher). We love her!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY JONAH!!! 5 YEARS OLD!!! WOW! --blowing out the pretend candle at school. This was his birthday celebration at school - a couple days after his actual bday. I'll post more birthday photos once I pull them off our digital camera. (no promises as to how soon that will be)

Boston's Museum of Science!!!

Jonah, Mr. Brown Bear, Merrik & Alli.
(For Christmas, Jared's mom bought us tickets to the Boston Museum of Science. The boys always LOVE going into Boston - since it's always some fun new adventure. And - they got to see dinosaurs. Doesn't get cooler than that.)

Don't be jealous of our cool 3-D glasses! We got to watch the Shark movie -- Merrik loved it, but surprisingly, Jonah was into it for about 15 minutes, then it became too much for him & he decided it was too scary. He spent the rest of the flick nestled into Jared's side.

Merrik (laying down) & Jonah in the space module.

The boys declared this the silliest mirror they've ever seen!


Merrik's feet measure just slightly smaller than the dinosaur footprint he's standing in.


"WHOA -- scary dinosaur skeleton!!!!!"

Merrik & Jonah standing at the feet of the T-Rex. The red & white things dangling from the neck of Rex there are the ends of a giant scarf. (this is New England, after all!)

Forts, Light Sabers & Clean Cuties

Jonah (& his felt gingerbread man) inside the living room fort/tent/cave thingie.And Merrik, just kickin' it on his side of the "cave".

"Daddy's home -- where's my light saber?!?!"


Jonah & Merrik looked so cute after getting wrapped up after bathtime ... I just had to snap a picture. Although I don't know what's up with Merrik's fake smile. Goofballs! :)

Sick Bay

The three boys got hit with the stomach bug one weekend in late January. This was the scene in the living room. Everyone has their juice or ginger ale. Definitely R & R time.

Jonah, giving his best "sickie" smile. Poor guy. You know that when Jonah spends an entire day laying on the couch, something is definitely wrong!!

LOVE this pic! Merrik fell asleep watching TV stuffed behind the couch cushions. I guess he was just comfortable enough to doze off. Sweet dreams, little man!

And a few days later - they're feeling better & are up and dancing with Diego! Yay!

Primary Activity: "Working to Build Our Eternal Families!"

Jonah (front, second from left) with our little Branch Primary group. They were all workers, building our eternal families! This was a GREAT activity.

Jonah coming back from putting up his "brick" for answering a question correctly.

Jonah & his lil' girl friend, Emilie. He was stuck to her side all day. I missed the photo opp when they were holding hands... :) Since this activity, Jonah insists on sitting by/near her during Primary sharing time. So cute!

Children's Museum in Middletown, CT

So my girlfriend Kimberly (who just moved-boo hoo) told us about this very cool hands-on kids' museum ... south of Hartford. It is THE best kept secret of Connecticut. The boys loved it. Every nook and cranny of this place was converted into a kid space. Here are some examples... Above is Merrik on deck - steering the ship. AHOY, MATEY!

And Merrik in the igloo. There was a pulley thing in there where you could put these rubbery fish up in a bucket and someone on top could intercept them.

Here's Jonah with a basket of "fish" - getting ready to load them onto one of the many conveyor belts. (see the red & yellow fish hanging above his head?) There were all kids of places the kids could put the fish - like a working receiving dock or deck of a fishing boat or something. The magnetic fish would follow along conveyor belts and drop at the end into baskets or buckets for other kids to take to some other part of the "ship" & put them on another conveyor belt or something. Hard to describe but very cool & very fun for the boys.


Here's Merrik putting the fish onto another conveyor belt that will take the fish up and across to the far side of the "ship".


A different view of the same conveyor belt Merrik was at in the pic just above this one. Here Jonah & Merrik are loading more fish on and they'll continue up above and across the beam at the top of the photo... then drop into a hug bin where the kids can pick them up again and take them somewhere else...


This was cool -- a HUGE electric train table. This one the kids could NOT play with but there were little peep holes/glass boxes that the kids could poke up from underneath and watch the trains going around. :)

Here's Merrik playing with one of his favorite things -- a train table.


Jonah's climbing out of an underwater scene/tunnel.

Merrik (and mystery child) in the space ship!


Mr. Jonah at the wheel of an Oldie! Stay off the sidewalks!

And this was the big laugh of the day. When we first got to this museum, I asked Jonah to hang up his coat. Well he did - and his gloves, too!! (notice the gloves hanging nicely on their own hanger next his coat) LOL!!

Lego-My-Castle!!!

Ta-Da!! Here's the lego castle that the boys got for Christmas. I spent about 173 hours putting it together, watching the boys break it down, and putting it together again, this time with super glue. Now it's virtually indestructible and they absolutely love it. It was well worth the time. The draw bridge even goes up & down at the push of a button. It's pretty cool.

Here's the view from the "inside". It's amazing the detail the lego people think to put into something like this. (OH, excuse me - it's not lego brand - it's something else)

Jonah, Alli & Merrik - playing with the masterpiece.