Gymbo-Tastic

Just a few cute photos from today's Gymbo class. They still love Gymboree! I still have them in level 6 class and probably around October or November we will move on to School Skills & Sports or Art.  I have TEN make up classes right now though so we are going to art & music, as well as family class some days to make them up.  I had to keep skipping Gymbo here and there for playdates, other obligations, etc.I took these pics with my iPhone and the Hipstamatic app. Hipstamatic is a lot of fun to use!!

Graham being cute

Parker with a ball

The little blonde girl adores Parker

beam!

very retro baby!

wheeeeeee

Parkie LOVES when they have this set up!

SO excited!!!! Oh and yes he wore than pink sticker on his cheek for the entire class. lol

Bubble & Parachute time

Graham!

Gymbo dance time

;)

Hug Gymbo Hug (gymbo song)

Sleep Gymbo Sleep (gymbo song)

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Greetings from Florida

Hello Summer?

I am not sure if words can explain how darn hot it is outside between 11:30 am and 7:00 pm around here. Let's just say going to the park is a tough job....but someone's gotta do it, right? Graham and Parker really do not like to be harbored from getting their "play" on. They enjoy parks, Gymboree, splash pads, The Science Center, The Zoo, The BackYard, aka Twin Wonderland, and any other groovy place we can come up with. However going to the park is sometimes a really tough job. It gets crazy hot here in Ye Ole Winter Park,. Florida. I am pretty sure it gets crazy hot anywhere in Florida. But holy cow it is like a cruel and unusual form of punishment for all Floridians.

I feel like I need to trot on down to The Sharper Image store and buy about a dozen personal cooling systems...or something, despite the fact that I would end up looking like a complete dweeb and/or some sort of alien tagged for future government experiments/testing. Then again if me and my Twins were wearing them, we would definitely look like some sort of tagged or radio controlled aliens, or something of the sort.

I am not sure how many of the personal cooling systems that Sharper Image sells but this guy looks like a total douche in his..... right? Well, I think he looks like a douche. Maybe it is a nice investment for the weary and overheated.....  So, do you take the chance of looking like an alien or someone's pet? Oh well, maybe I will go buy one and wear a scarf over it. That would be just fabulous I am sure.  Oh better yet I can wear one around each of my body parts and then I can be really special. ;)

Some cute pics from the park.

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What a long strange trip it's been

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Chores/Rewards/Discipline System

This week I devised a new chores/rewards/discipline system and so far it is going REALLY well!! I used the chore cards and some of the other parts of the system on  www.confessionsofahomeschooler.com It is really great! I did not use her full system though. Instead of having it in a wall hanging, I am using 3 round gladware containers, a set of standard poker chips, and 3 standard sandwich bags.  Oh and duct tape to enforce the bags. Each color of poker chip is worth a different amount, each chore card has a point value on it. I have several of chore cards that are made from the blank chore cards from that same website too. So far it is working well. They can earn a lot of things from a trip to get ice cream to a dinner at the restaurant of their choice...and there are more options too. Oh and the biggest bonus you can get is a trip to a theme park, since we live near several. If the kids do something bad they get disciplined by docking their tokens(poker chips)  I bought the poker chips from wal-mart for less than $8. They are really nice ones too!! I wrote their value on them with sharpie marker. Basically I wrapped each bottom and side with duct tape to enforce the bag and make it more of a sturdy "bank" bag.. The tokens (poker chips) get heavy if more than a few are in the bag. If the bag is accessed a lot, it will become weak and fall apart eventually. With the duct tape, it becomes a long lasting bag! I am using Confessions of a homeschooler's chore cards and discipline cards for chores. I have them all at a VERY fair face value to earn tokens for all of them. She assigns certain chores as discipline, I don't. All chores are chores with a value. My discipline is docking tokens.  Each offense has a certain docking amount. I have a chart to show which offense gets how much taken away. It is very fair. I also have special tickets. They are worth special bonuses or special bonus privileges. The tickets are from the chore card set. Each ticket is for a special thing and has a face value. I hope this continues to work out well for us! Past systems have flopped very early on.  This system is only for the older three kids. Twins will not participate until they are older.

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Salute Your Shorts

Today one of my Twins, Parker......saluted the flag in a very different way. As you see he is wearing patriotic colors. He was having a great time playing at the Orlando Science Center when his pants fell down.  oops!  I accidentally caught this little accident on camera when I was taking a wide angle shot of my twins playing in the water.  I think it is pretty amusing. Plus he had no idea his pants came down. They had a great time playing though!! The kids had a fun time playing at the Orlando Science Center's 4th of July Celebration. It rained pretty badly for a few hours this evening, so I am kind of glad we scratched our outdoor plans at the last minute. I imagine we would have 5 wet kids, one wet stroller and a lot of glum faces if we had gone ahead with the outdoor 4th of July Festival I had planned for us to attend.  I am sure by the end of the night we would have seen some nice fireworks but it may have been a hard road getting there.  We felt, at times like we had the whole Science Center to ourselves. There were people there but not too many. We did not see many great fireworks though. The view from their rooftop terrace was lovely but the fireworks were too low at times to see and too far away. The kids did get to have some fun though and in the a/c with no mosquitoes!  score!   

Graham with one of the patriotic pinwheels OSC gave the kids. ;)

Graham, Parker, and older bother Cameron in a flight simulator.

Graham and Parker playing in the water area in kidstown at OSC.

Loving the waterfalls and boats!

older sis, Mackenna posing in her patriotic korker bows!

It was a lil muggy outside on the rooftop terrace.

ok... a LOT muggy

Having fun with friend, Dylan.  Sitting in his lap and being silly.

umm guys, Dylan is not loving this right now...   lol

Graham in Dylan's lap/ He is tall but only 6 months older than they are!!

Parker in Dylan's lap!  cute!!

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This Blog has changed.....

I have decided after much thought and time away that I would much rather turn this blog into my own personal blog. However I still want to have blogger guests, so I will!!

I hope my readers will still enjoy this blog as much as before, if not more!

My Twins have really blossomed into three year olds and every day is a fun and exciting challenge. They have become very amusing little comedians and are full of personality!

We have been enjoying the usual fun playdates and visits to places like the zoo, Science Center, parks, etc.
On top of that we took a trip to the Science Center one day with Grandpa. Cameron and Mackenna have been attending a really fun Summer Camp that goes from 7 am til 6pm M-F, We have been having the kona ice shaved ice truck coming to our playdates once a week, We attended a Gymboree art class as well as our regular Gymboree class, We went for frozen yogurt with friends at Menchies,  We have had friends over for playdates and swimming in the yard, Oh and not to forget, our home preschool group meets once a week!

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