SEE Science!

Two weekends ago.. I know I'm behind.. but after this I'll at least be on this past weekend!

Yes, two weekends ago we went in search of a place to have Caden's Fifth Birthday party! He really wanted a bouncy place where one of his friends had hers.. but due to a birthday budget we were hoping we could persuade him to something else fun and unique! So we brought him to the SEE Science Center in Manchester, where... surprise surprise you can have your birthday party! The even cooler part about it is that between February and April or even May there is a special Dinosaur Exhibit that will be there so after his party anyone who wants to join us for the Dino part can! and we get a special half price rate to see it for having the birthday party.

Anyway the Science Center is like a mini museum of science and super fun! Both boys loved it and didn't want to go home, but all three kids conked out in the back seat on the way home. I took about a gazillion pictures, but tried to pick out the best.... I'm so excited! I think all the kids will like it, maybe even as much as bouncy houses!

This activity was the first thing the kids did, and what sold the birthday party in only seconds of being there! You cover the "dino bones" with the "dirt" and play archaeologists and uncover them

Here Cole actually asked me "Mommy can I get in there?" "Sure!" I say "go ahead!" only after we'd been there about 2 hours I noticed the sign (that big yellow thing near Cole's legs) that said 'Please do not let your children climb in' WHOOPSY! at least we weren't spoken to.. if they did it would have been my fault!

Cora in the garden.. Stonyfield has a whole section on farming with a fun garden play area and a barn where you can pretend to milk cows, feed chickens and collect eggs.

Here the boys watch a demonstration on electricity.. they didn't dare, but they did that metal ball demo where two people touch this metal ball and you make a circle of people connecting then two people hi-five and everyone gets shocked. I love that when I was a kid! No matter how much it hurt you always wanted to do it again!

Caden was leary of touching the electro-ball, but finally did (as you can see!)

Where's Cole?

There he is!

Cora had no fear

Get the baby!

Cole had so much fun. There are tons of buttons to press and things to try. He was in curious 2 year old heaven!

and the SEE Science Center is home to a ginormous LEGO replica of downtown Manchester in... I believe the 1920's but don't quote me. It was amazing! and there were electric trains buzzing around it that the boys loved watching. I'm not sure Caden fully understood that everything was built from LEGOs.. the same LEGOs he has at home

Can you believe the detail!

Cora waves to me while I help the boys (and take her picture hehe)

Farmer Cole picked all the vegetables

And bonus! They had beautiful brick walls that I could use as a back drop to take the kids picture in their matching 'C' shirts!! Unfortunately they did not think it was as cool of an idea as I did and just wanted to go play.

Winter Sun Catcher

I subscribe to a magazine called Family Fun, I believe it is through Disney, I'm not sure exactly how I started getting it sometimes I randomly get subscriptions, some are bad and some are good.. Family Fun is good. The issues are give or take, some issues are loaded front to back with great things, others are hit or miss.. this past issue was a good one! I got a new idea for a game for our Family Christmas Party and a fun craft for the kids.. among other things.

On to the Winter Sun Catcher! Very simple.. make one tray of ice cubes using colors that go well together... Caden chose purple (I added a bit too much food coloring so it looks black in the tray). Cole chose green. Good choices.. they go well together! Caden actually asked what happens when you mix all the colors and I told him brown and that is what he wanted.. but I convinced him otherwise.

Freeze the ice cubes
Once frozen use a round cake pan and place a cup filled with water near the top to create a hole for a ribbon to hang it (I used an applesauce cup from the kids that we'd saved to make jell-O cups). Place it in the freezer for 30-45 minutes.. I did an hour like they said and ended up with a layer of ice on the top and edges... so I'd go with less time.

After the pan is in the freezer for a bit pull it out and place the ice cubes in being sure to mix up the colors.. I had to do that, the kids had purple on one side and green on the other.. I forgot to take a picture until after I'd put it in the freezer and didn't want to risk spilling it more than I already had to take a picture.. so here it is nestled amongst Cora's Mommy milks!

After we'd made it, it was snowing.. and then it was the week days, so dark in the morning and dark in the night when I'm at home (lucky Rob gets home in the light). And finally Thursday (my half day for Caden's ski lessons) I was home with the kids while it wasn't precipitating and beaming glorious sunshine! Of course the sun was on the front of the house not the back, but here is our Sun Catcher.. in the shade outside our kitchen window so we can now watch it melt! Caden is excited for it to be warm and raining tomorrow so we can make a new one with different colors.

Pretty cool huh?!!

Pardon the Interruption....

We interrupt the sequence of posts with breaking news! Caden lost his first tooth.. his first tooth the natural way that is!!

We were brushing teeth last night and checking teeth and I thought to myself, WOW Caden's teeth have started getting really crooked! But it was only his loose tooth which was bent right over! I told Caden to try pulling it out, and he even grabbed on.. but it didn't come out.

This afternoon he was wiggling it and came running in to Rob because he thought he broke it. Nope, he just "snapped" it out of his mouth!

How big this boy is growing up.. Next week is Kindergarten registration.. cry me a river!

11 Months!

Just one more month before our baby girl is ONE! How unbelievable is that?!

Now that Cora is 11 months old what is she up to?

Cora is still so easy to be around, she just goes with the flow never complaining about much of anything.

She again is sleeping through the night.. after a little help from Mr. Ferber (or whatever the name of the Ferberizing method is!)

Cora loves to "walk" around with the help of furniture, toys and fingers attached to Mommy and Daddy, but she is still walking around on tip toes so probably not ready to walk anytime in the super near future. We figure around 12 months since Caden was about 13 months and Cole was about 11 months... but we'll see!

Cora still prefers trucks to dolls.. but she will copy you when you tell her to give her baby loves.. and she'll hug her baby. We're working on giving the dolls kisses, I think she did it once.

She finally claps! This month she put those hands together and now LOVES to clap.

Cora has also discovered how loud she can be as she shrieks at the top of her lungs.. always in happiness, but still very hard on the ears!

Cora is silly!!

Cora has mastered the sippy cup! no more bottles! She is clearly our prodigy child.. Neither Caden or Cole could figure out the traditional sippy cup and had to start with the type with a straw. They just did not understand that you had to lift it to get the stuff out! Cora will tip it straight up in the air to get every last drop out! After all she is our little piglet, she just LOVES her food!

Cora eats pretty much everything we eat. Last night she had Parmesan Crusted Tilapia with us.. and she had vegetables which included a medley of corn, peas, carrots and lima beans! Rob and I just had potatoes. She eats much better than even us! Caden had Ramen Noodles, Cole had yogurt. Best eater ever!!

What is it with kids and trash?!

Cora has grown so much these last 11 months! Please slow down! You are my baby girl and I want to be able to snuggle you forever!

And now time for the 11 month comparison of the kids... it seems as though Cole had the most hair... Enjoy!

Pyndo Family Christmas

A little behind these days which seems to be a common occurrence! But I've been making Cora's 1st Birthday invites (sniffle).. the are ready to be addressed now! Anyway last weekend was the Pyndo Family Christmas! Lots of fun, food and family!

Cole jumped next to Cora and said "Mommy take a picture" while I was taking pictures he asked "are we done?" As if it were my idea to be taking pictures in the first place!

A very common scene.. Cole and Cora rolling around on the floor together in tackle positions.. Cole better watch out. Cora is going to body slam him one of these days!

Final Christmas dress... once cousin Gabrielle and Julia's!

Babci and Cora learn about pine cones!

The boys were playing choo-choo down the stairs behind one another.. but when I grabbed my camera to take a picture of them like that they scrambled to sit next to each other..I guess they are too used to posing for pictures!

Cora checks out the outside

Babci had a neat drum from the Rose Bowl parade (at least I think that is where it was from!) and Cora caught on quickly how to use it!

We also played some fun games.. the point of the first one is you have a gift that is wrapped many many times with layers of wrapping paper. You have to pass a pair of dice around and the first person to roll doubles starts unwrapping. You quickly pass the dice around and the next person to roll doubles gets a go at unwrapping. The person to fully unwrap the gift gets what is inside... the catch? you have to wear oven mitts while you are unwrapping!!!

Game #2 - Candy cane pass. Two teams. Everyone has a candy cane in their mouth and they pass a candy cane down the line of their team.. and back. First team to complete wins! This one we played twice. The same team won both times.

And finally we played two Yankee Swaps. One was new gifts, the 2nd was used gifts.. Caden was very upset when our gift was taken, he thinks it is a very unfair game! me too! our gift was cool! My cousin Billy is a DJ and had these DJ Pyndo shirts made up.. Rob was #1 and got the t-shirt and something else, but ended up trading it in the end for a digital weather station. But Cole modeled the shirt first, it was cute!

Soccer.. Round 2!

Cole started soccer this past Saturday.. he has been waiting to do soccer for a long time now! and we are very excited to be doing it with him. It is amazing what a different experience for us as parents it is playing soccer with Cole versus playing with Caden. As many of you may know Caden is our difficult child. WHAT?! you say?! Don't pretend.. you all know it!

Cole was so much fun! He did every single activity that was presented to him. He did every warm-up (we've never experienced that before!), every drill and every game! Too much fun! and in the end he even got a stamp on his hand, gasp! And the best part (for me!) is that he wanted me to play with him.. so Rob got to take pictures, which is fun too.. but not quite as fun as playing soccer with a very excited little boy!

Cole doing "roly polyies"

Cole's cheering section

Cole and I being airplanes during the freeze drills

Here they had to run up to the ball and kick it against the wall. The coach was very impressed with Cole, she confirmed what we had suspected all along.. Cole is advanced in his motor skills (he had lots of time to practice while he was not talking!) apparently most 2 year olds will run up to the ball, stop, then kick. Not Cole.. he runs and kicks all in one motion, but he was also jumping off the ground with two feet at about 13 or 14 months of age so I guess all his energy has paid off!

I think every child does this.. what is the fascination with rolling on the ball?!! We have a picture of Caden doing the same thing but with one of the squishier balls they play with from time to time.

A crowd favorite.. kicking over the cone tower with the soccer ball. I couldn't build the towers fast enough.. of course I also had Caden as my architect so that could have been slowing me down a wee bit!

What a fun time! Can't wait for next class! and neither can Cole!