June 17: Wooden Puzzles

I found these Creatology wooden puzzles at Michael's a long time ago and promptly forgot about them.  I rediscovered them when I cleaned out the front closet not long ago.  I figured we should make them soon before I forgot about them again.

Tysen's wooden puzzle was a dinosaur.  The package said ages 4+, but I thought he could probably do it OK.  He punched out all the pieces but did need quite a bit of help putting it together.  We actually ended up gluing some of the pieces on since it didn't stay together very well.  He loved making his purple dinosaur!



Punching out the pieces.



The finished dino!

Koen's wooden puzzle was a helicopter.  I wasn't sure if he would be excited about this since his passion is trains, but Michael's didn't have any trains, and it's always good to try new things. :)  He was SUPER excited about his project and couldn't wait to complete it!  The project was designed for ages 6+, but he still needed help, especially with the assembly instructions which weren't always that easy for me to figure out.  But we did it!  I had to put most of it together, although he punched out all the pieces and helped me find all the parts we needed. 

Overall, I was a little disappointed that they couldn't do more of the puzzles themselves, but they both loved the process, so maybe this is just a stepping stone for crafting more models.  I was surprised the next day when Koen asked to paint his helicopter.  He got out his watercolors and went to work, spending quite a bit of time painting each section of his helicopter.  It looked fantastic!

The finished colorful helicopter.

June 16: Bounce Party and a Fire Truck!



Bouncing on the trampoline.

Koen had the chance to go to Bounce Party a few weeks ago for a birthday party, but Tysen was so disappointed that he couldn't stay to play, so when it was a rainy day this Thursday I thought we'd visit for the open bounce.  Of course, I forgot that the few times there had been bouncy equipment at gymnastics Ty had wanted no part of it.  So it took a while for him to go on any of the items, but eventually he had some fun bouncing on the trampoline and going down the slide with me.  Brielle also bounced on the trampoline and liked it... mostly.  We went with our friends Ian, Caleb, and their mom.  The kids ran around for over an hour before they lost interest and we headed home for lunch. 

Koen, Ian, and Tysen paused for a
moment for a picture.

Caleb and Brielle.

Kentwood fire truck.

On our way out of Bounce Party there was a fire truck stopped on the road.  The firemen were testing the fire hydrants...over 4200 to test in Kentwood!  The Lieutenant came over to us as we stood and watched them work.  He gave each boy a sticker badge and a postcard with a picture and info of the truck.  They were pretty excited about the whole experience!

The fire lieutenant talking with
the boys.

June 15: Paper Toss and Painting

I found this Paper Toss Game and thought it might be fun for the kids to play.  I glued six toilet paper rolls together in a triangle shape and then crumpled up some paper into little balls.  I gave the boys the paper balls and told them to try to toss them into the toilet paper tubes.  If they were a bit older we could have done different points for each tube, but I just wanted them to have fun tossing the ball into the tubes. 

Koen's first attempt wasn't so much a toss as a shot, so it bounced off the edge and landed on the floor.  Frustrated, Koen decided he was done after one turn.  Unfortunately for him, I made him try it again.  After adjusting his technique, he did get a few in which improved his mood somewhat.  Tysen found it worked best to stand right next to the tubes to drop the paper balls into the tubes.  He had great fun with this game.  Even Brielle got in on the fun!  She'd crawl after the balls that didn't make it into the tubes and crawl back to put them in herself.  She was so proud of being so helpful!

Later in the day, Ty asked if he could paint handprint fish (described in a previous post), so we pulled out the paint and let the boys paint.  It was the best part of the day for all of us! :)