Happy Birthday Mr. Putter

Our household FELL IN LOVE with this adorable series of children's books. 

We've checked them out from our local library MANY TIMES. Young and old, we've ALL loved them. (Even parents AND grandparents have read and enjoyed these sweet children's books!)

Last year, while reading Mr. Putter & Tabby Make a Wish, 

we discovered that Mr. Putter's birthday is October 2. 

So, naturally, this Mr.P&T-loving mom marked it in her iCal program on the computer and planned ahead to check out a copy of this book so that WE could celebrate the birthday of Mr. Putter, too! (Heck, if we can have a Seuss birthday celebration, WHY NOT celebrate lovable Mr. Putter, too?)

So, we would like to wish a

HAPPY

BIRTHDAY

MR. PUTTER

and want to

THANK

Cynthia Rylant, author

and Arthur Howard, illustrator

for creating these FANTASTIC 

CHILDREN'S BOOKS!!!!

An ABSOLUTE FAVORITE in our house: 

Mr. Putter & Tabby series by Cynthia Rylant

Looking online, I've noticed that our library does NOT have all 19 books in this series. 

PLUS, there are a few brand new ones that are releasing in September 2013.

We'll hope to enjoy these soon, too!

• 1994 Mr. Putter and Tabby Pour the Tea
• 1994 Mr. Putter and Tabby Walk the Dog
• 1994 Mr. Putter and Tabby Bake the Cake
• 1995 Mr. Putter and Tabby Pick the Pears
• 1997 Mr. Putter and Tabby Fly the Plane
• 1997 Mr. Putter and Tabby Row the Boat
• 1998 Mr. Putter and Tabby Take the Train
• 1998 Mr. Putter and Tabby Toot the Horn
• 2000 Mr. Putter and Tabby Paint the Porch
• 2001 Mr. Putter and Tabby Feed the Fish
• 2002 Mr. Putter and Tabby Catch the Cold
• 2003 Mr. Putter and Tabby Stir the Soup
• 2004 Mr. Putter and Tabby Write the Book
• 2005 Mr. Putter and Tabby Make a Wish
• 2006 Mr. Putter and Tabby Spin the Yarn
• 2007 Mr. Putter and Tabby See the Stars
• 2008 Mr. Putter and Tabby Run the Race
• 2009 Mr. Putter and Tabby Spill the Beans
• 2010 Mr. Putter and Tabby Clear the Decks
• 2011 Mr. Putter and Tabby Ring the Bell
• 2012 Mr. Putter and Tabby Dance the Dance
• 2013 Mr. Putter and Tabby Drop the Ball

UPDATE: Noticed that the local library HAS honored my request for purchasing more of the titles! YAY! We can't wait to read them!

On Mr. Putter's birthday, we threw a birthday party. Grandpa Lowell joined us. We ate cinnamon raisin bagels with apple butter. (In the book, Mr. Putter and Tabby ate raisin crumpets with apple jam.) We also baked a birthday cake and went out into the bonus room in search of an airplane toy (since Mr. Putter gets an airplane for his birthday... as a child and NOW.)

Loved this day! (Thanks for joining us, Grandpa!)

P.S. We can't wait to read the NEW Mr. Putter & Tabby BASEBALL book with you! (And thank you for teaching our boys to sing "Take me out to the ball game!" It is SO CUTE to hear them sing it!!!!!)

Sydney's Finger Paint ART: Pooh Bear

Pics with mommy

I have very few pictures of myself with my mom. I don't want that for my kids. We TRY to use the self-timer and self-portraits. Here are a few attempts, September 2013:

Sydney's First Drawn Map

At school, Sydney drew a map. On it, he included:

 "This is my house."

"This is school."

"Grandpa Lowell's"

"Grandma & Grandpa's"

and

"Aunt Sue lives here."

:)

One. Two. BOTH. (comparisons)

Silas LOVES to search for the moon, day or night.

Sydney LOVES to do search books, when he's not busy watching tv.

The boys LOVE to chase each other around the house.

Silas loves peanut butter & raspberry jelly.

Sydney loves peanut butter & nutella.

The boys just enjoyed peanut butter & honey for the first time this week.

Silas is two.

Sydney is four.

You'd never know their ages from talking to them; they talk A LOT! (Did you know that Silas recently used the word "actually" in a sentence? YEP! Used that word - in perfect context! He's quite a little talker; gets that from his dad. Right? NOTE: JOKE!)

Silas likes to go to the bathroom on the potty chair.

Sydney likes to go standing up at the toilet.

Both boys cover their ears in public restrooms because the loud flush scares Sydney and Silas now thinks that is normal protocol to run around with no pants on, but with your ears covered.

When given the choice, Sydney normally requests shorts.

When given the choice, Silas normally requests pants.

Both boys like to wear their shoes on the wrong feet.

Sydney loves salsa & chips.

Silas loves sour cream (& butter).

Both boys love getting POPCORN CHICKEN from Walmart's deli counter.

Backseat chatter... BEER?

While trying to fall asleep last night, Mike kept talking to me. (I guess that is what HE feels like when I do that to him...) He mentioned how STINKING FUNNY Silas is... how he talks ALL THE TIME!!!!

Grandpa Lowell and I were JUST commenting on this the other night when we ran out to drop off a burger to Mike at work. Silas talked THE WHOLE TIME we were in the car! (And he makes perfect sense, too!!! It isn't just jibber-jabber baby talk!)

Today was no exception. Silas was chatty! Here's a snippet that made me laugh...

SILAS: 

I like bee-yah.

MOM:

What?

SILAS: 

I like bee-yah.

MOM:

You like WHAT?

SILAS: 

I said I LIKE BEE-YAH!

MOM:

Beer?

SILAS: 

Yeah, that's what I said.

MOM:

You like beer?

SILAS:

YEP! That's because I like EVERYTHING!

MOM:

You DO like everything.

SILAS:

Yeah.... I like beer... and peanut butter & jelly... and stuff.

MOM: 

Why are you talking about beer?

SILAS:

Didn't you see that beer truck?

MOM:

Um.... NO

SILAS:

Oh... Sorry, you missed it! Maybe another time...

Cold Fresh Water

For most of the spring and summer, our kids have proclaimed that they wanted to drink some "cold fresh water". They never really ask for simply water; it's always "cold, fresh" that they are looking for.

However, interestingly enough, their ideas of "cold, fresh water" are different. (Or perhaps, that has something to do with the fact that they like to often be difficult and want different things.... i.e. only ONE of them can eat each cereal because they want to do it alone, or how one wants to read a book and the other to watch a movie, or how one wants to go to the pool and the other to the park, or how PB&J is raspberry jelly for one of them and Nutella for the other.)

Sydney's cold, fresh water comes from the glass bottle of water that we keep chilled from the fridge.

If you ACCIDENTLY give Silas some cold, fresh water out of the fridge, he will FREAK OUT and you will find yourself pouring it into a glass for yourself to drink instead.

Silas likes his cold, fresh water to just be tap water from the sink.

HOWEVER, whenever they are at Nana & Papa's house (and have access to the stocked bottom freezer) they drink an INSANE amount of cold, fresh water there because they have discovered:

a love of ice cubes!

TODDLER BEDTIME REQUEST: Stick stuck in rock

Silas requested a bedtime story. He wanted us to read the "Stick stuck in rock" book.

Stick stuck in rock????


Ah, you mean "The sword in the stone!!!"

• • • • •

Excited to see that our local library has the DVD; we've requested it and hope to have a family movie night one of these days... hard to beat those Disney movies!

SO SIMPLE. (Bookmark)

Grandpa Lowell and I started reading "Beautiful Ruins" together (until Grandpa discovered a LOVE of audio books instead and has switched over for the balance of this book). In my copy of the book, I had been using a Post-It Note as a bookmark. However, earlier today, I noticed that my bookmark was MISSING.

"Silas?" Mommy questioned. "Did YOU take Mommy's bookmark?"

"Oh. Yep!" he stated, so matter-of-factly and went to retrieve it from the side of one of his makeshift traincars.

At lunchtime, I announced to Sydney how Silas lost my page in my book because he took my bookmark.

"How many pages IS it?" Sydney pondered.

Grabbing the book, I flipped to the back to look for an answer. "337 pages!"

So simply, Sydney proclaimed "Well, I guess you'll just have to start over again."

(Upon further review, I was 193 pages into the book and had NOT planned on starting over.)

QUOTE: Following in my footsteps

I saw this online and really, Really, REALLY LIKE IT A LOT:

I don't want 

my children 

to follow 

in my footsteps

I want them 

to take the path 

next to me 

and go further 

than I could have 

ever dreamt possible.

–author unknown