Making Ooze

Today we mixed cornstarch with water to make a really weird, messy, yucky, cool ooze.

When you kept it moving, it was a solid. But as soon as you stopped, it was a liquid.

Here's why:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/science_explorer/ooze.html

New Books!

My dad got my kids an awesome Christmas present - a Barnes and Noble gift card :) Being the super responsible person I am, I somehow managed to delete the email with the number... resulting in a lot more work on my dad's part retrieving the info and calling the BN people to get the information resent to me...

Anyhoo, today we placed the order, and I'm actually excited... probably just as excited as Audrey, and JT is going to be pumped when we get them, too!

Amazing Book of Questions & Answers



Glad Monster, Sad Monster: A Book About Feelings



The Everything Kids' Science Experiments Book: Boil Ice, Float Water,Measure Gravity-Challenge the World Around You!



Space: A Nonfiction Companion to Midnight on the Moon (Magic Tree House Research Guide Series)



The Everything Kids' Easy Science Experiments Book: Explore the worldof science through quick and fun experiments!



Everything Kids' Magical Science Experiments Book: Dazzle your friends and family by making magical things happen!



Llama, Llama Red Pajama



There's No Place like Space!: All about Our Solar System



If You Give a Mouse a Cookie



If You Give a Cat a Cupcake


Chicka Chicka Boom Boom



Wish for a Fish: All About Sea Creatures

iPad

The Hubs received an iPad for Christmas... possibly the best gift ever.

Our entire family is slightly obsessed with the it.

So far, our favorite game (overall) is Angry Birds.

Audrey also likes two of the Barbie games, JT likes letter games and the SpongeBob game, and The Hubs and JT both like the Shark Attack game. I love everything...

Summertime

Wow... it has been WAY too long since I've posted!

Summer is a very busy (aka hectic) time around here. Between no school and visitors, we've been really busy!

My mom and her roommate came and stayed several days with us in mid-July (right around Miss Audrey's birthday).

Then, my dad and stepmom flew in last Friday and didn't leave until today.

We are going to be very lonely around here now... with no planned visits anytime soon :(

School starts for Audrey next Wednesday (1st grade!) and JT the following Thursday (it's his last year of preschool). They are growing up WAY too fast!

Virginia Beach

The Duzan family had a wonderful time at the beach... even if JT preferred looking out from the 11th floor balcony to sitting on the beach while Miss Audrey practically turned into a dolphin!

Here are a couple of pics from our awesome adventure:

Happy Easter!

Happy New Year!!

The Duzan family wishes everyone a happy, healthy and fabulous 2010!

Here's to a new year, and a new decade!

Time to Read!

Every night, we have book time at 7:45-8pm. We read for 30 minutes, and the kids get to choose the books we read. It is so cute! JT LOVES Corduroy's Halloween (we may be reading about Halloween ALL year!) and both love Snuggle Puppy (if you haven't read any of Sandra Boynton's books, do. She is my *favorite* kid book author!).

It's the best time of the day for us... and the only time the kids ever sit still!

Cool Site

We have found the jackpot of all online game/kid websites.

http://www.starfall.com

It's the site that they use at the schools here, too.

Awesome site. Pre-reading, reading, academic and FUN stuff.

Highly recommend checking it out ;)

Happy Halloween!!!

Well, we had a good time in the end (haha).

It started with the mall trick or treating... JT was fine with the monkey costume (he loves it, that's why he wore it again). But when we got inside and started, it was just too much. Y'know, he's almost 4, people kind of expect (and wait) for him to say "trick or treat"... And he won't. Plus, people all in his face telling him he's a cute monkey, kids and other people bumping him and getting in his space, WAITING IN LINES (major meltdown starter there)... We hit 4 stores and we had to leave... Carrying a monkey that sounded like a velociraptor. Ugh.

We came home, JT and I stayed in to hand out candy while Audrey and The Hubs went out in our neighborhood. JT had an awesome time, he giggled, played with me, watched Alvin and ate our candy... He just doesn't like Halloween. Fine with me...

He said "cahkey" (candy), "poh-wee" (pony - he loves Audrey's costume of a princess on a pony), "twihtwee" (trick or treat) and "hee haw" (yee haw - as he was riding the pony). I'm impressed!

Audrey of course LOADED UP. She was the cutest Cinderella EVER, and she charmed all the folks handing out candy... One guy asked her what she had for HIM as he was giving her candy, and she promptly dug through her bag to pull out a piece for him. He told The Hubs he had an extremely sweet little girl, and explained to Audrey he was just kidding and could keep every bit of her candy (and I think they gave her more ;) ).

So, Halloween was a success in the end.

Nothing to report out of the ordinary family-wise. If you want to see more specific updates on the kids, they each have their own page... there's a feed on the sidebar for them. I have my blog under the blog list, just in case you ever wonder about my personal opinions or issues... I'm trying to streamline this blog into family updates/important info, so that everyone knows important stuff about fun family times!!!

Visitors!

We had a very, very fun week with Nanny (my mom) and Great Gran (her mom) this week. They arrived Wednesday and didn't leave until today.

We played, shopped and just basically played with the kiddos. We all had a great time...

We will miss them... but hope they will come back soon!


A very entertaining moment during their trip:
My mom accidentally scraped Audrey with her fingernail - Audrey was laying on her and my mom's fingernail got the back of her shirt (not even any skin). I should also mention Audrey was beyond tired at this point...
Anyway, Audrey is hysterically crying, like she's been mauled. She comes and lays down with me, calms down, and my mom comes in and apologizes to Audrey. She also asks, "Audrey, you're not mad at Nanny, are you?"
Audrey replies, "No, Nanny, I'm not mad at you. Just a little upset."
As my mom and I are cracking up, Audrey rolls over and goes to sleep.

She is a piece of work, that one ;)

School Updates

We are trucking along...

Audrey is doing well at school. We are having some issues with letters (especially baby letters - lowercase), but she is improving quickly. She loves school, and her behavior is very good :) They have a system where their behavior starts in the "Sky", and behavior problems cause them to go down... into the "Clouds", "Town" and "Ground". Audrey has been in the sky every day... And if you're in the sky every day for a week, you get to choose a prize on Friday afternoon. She returns home every Friday SO excited to show me what she earned!

JT is doing fantastic. He is doing well adjusting to the routines, and they haven't had any problems aside from a little crying the first day (though not much) and a boo-boo on his eye.

He started riding in the transportation vehicle. It's a really nice Jeep (?), and Miss Julie is the driver. Possibly the SWEETEST lady ever. So precious. So he rides every afternoon... The Hubs takes him on the way to work in the morning. It also gives Audrey and I some time alone that's peaceful and quiet, which is nice!

Everything else is going great, too... Audrey has her first cheer thing tomorrow... I'm interested to see exactly how this works out. But exciting for her anyway :)

That's all for now... Good stuff!

Monkey Joe's

Yesterday we decided to try out Monkey Joe's. Monkey Joe's is an indoor playground with nothing but inflatables. This place had 3 obstacle courses (one was two-story), one bounce house/slide, one HUGE slide, one plain bouncy castle and a toddler bounce for smaller kiddos.

The kids had SO MUCH FUN. JT eventually just shuffled to the door and pointed outside. Audrey was crying, but exhausted when we left. We spent 3 whole hours there, and they went from one to the other the whole time.

I was kind of surprised JT liked it. He is terrified of vaccuums, so I really thought the noise from the inflatable pumps would scare him. It did not! His favorite was the ginormous slide... and he wasn't scared at all. He even did the rock walls!!! (Audrey, of course, did everything just fine, and made a friend named Maya).

Here are the kids having a blast:

Audrey's B-day Dinner

We headed to Logan's for Audrey's birthday. It was awesome! They didn't sing - they shouted 'Yeehaw'.

Audrey said it was a cowgirl birthday song.

Firework Fun

Ice Cream Ball!

Dragon Park Pictures

Monkey's Treehouse Fun!

Michael's b-day party - JT playing like crazy!

Yay for Distractions!

My mom and nanny (aka 'Nanny' and 'Miss Great Big') were in town Tuesday thru Thursday of this week. We enjoyed seeing them so much - especially Audrey... Who now misses them a whole lot :(

I am now down to 7 weeks (a little less, it was 7 weeks yesterday) until the tumor is gone. I am so ready to get this sucker out...

JT is making incredible progress at school still... His teachers stop me at least once a week to tell me they see him doing something - playskills, language, etc - that he wasn't doing the week before. What an awesome, awesome feeling!!!

I hope everything is going well for everyone!

Hiking off the Natchez Trace

Today we went on another family hike, and we had fun. It's the trail that I used to run on - but it was the first time The Hubs and the kids had been there.

Here are some pics of our trip: