Our Lizard House

The first thing we hung up at our new home was the bird house my dad made for us a couple years ago. We love it but haven't found a decent place for it until now. Our Sioux City house had large trees but I wanted the bird house closer to our house so I could see it. Andrew suggested I get the binoculars out. Then our Celebration townhouse didn't have a good place unless we had picked a spot inside the house. We hung it on our back deck and it is so beautiful. No birds have taken residence in it (yet) but a lizard has and it entertains Gabriel and me. He sits on top of the bird house and checks things out around him. I hope he is a quick lizard should a bird decide to live in the bird house at some point. It would be a real bummer to watch him become bird food after watching him for a couple weeks. A little plug - my dad makes and sells these bird houses. I recommend them to anyone, even if you aren't a bird lover. They are great for decorative pieces or gifts. How neat would it be to tell someone that you had a gift handmade for them? If you aren't in Florida, you might not get to have a lizard live in your bird house but you would get something with impressive craftsmenship.

Don't you just love when...

...you get everyone ready to leave the house before 8 am during summer break, in order to make it to the preschool's orientation on time, and the car doesn't start? What a stressful way to begin a day. Immediately I have to change gears and figure out a plan B. Thankfully Andrew was still home so it was easy to move everyone to the other vehicle and drop Andrew off prior to our trek to the school.
After the cost of a move and various other expenses, I was anxious about a repair bill. I was positive it was a starter problem and that can't possibly be an inexpensive fix
When we returned home, I remembered we have a towing service through our auto dealer. I called and the tow was free! Whew!
Lane and I watched the tow truck take the van away. She was very interested
in the entire process.
It didn't take long to get a call from the dealership. I had a minor recall that would be fixed for free and the main problem was a bad battery. Good news!
It's incredible how much a day can change due to one battery. I hope we don't have to deal with car repairs for awhile.

Frozen sea creatures

The kids needed some direction while playing. They have begun to rely on tv or computer games. If I won't allow either, they run like crazy in the house.
I opened a pack of plastic sea creatures from the dollar store and put them in a bowl of water. I placed the bowl in the freezer and realized it was the perfect day to show the kids my surprise. I pulled out the water table and the kids tools. The toys in the ice were dumped into the water, creating giggles from three excited children.
The kids discovered turtles, starfish,
and other colorful plastic sea creatures. They chipped away at the ice with hammers and ate the ice with glee. It was a fun activity for a hot and humid day.
Alex thought that Lane ate too much ice and became angry with the situation. It was an easy problem to solve - I dumped the ice from the ice maker Into the water table and explained that getting upset about frozen water isn't necessary. All was well and it cost $1!

I Love Organizing

I love to organize things. I mean, I really love to organize and find new and better ways to store things. It's a fun challenge for me with the exception of feeling scattered and unorganized in the process. When we move, I need to figure out new ways to organize our items. This can take a while because the furniture doesn't quite fit from one home to the next. Or things break and then I need to figure out what will work for us. We have a larger home after this last move but less storage space. I am going to have to get creative. I've been searching Pinterest and the internet for different ways to store toys, reading material, creative materials and more. I went to the dollar store and bought see through containers for the art supplies. Everything was in zip locs in a large container but it was impossible to see what we had and that didn't assist the creative side of my children. I've had the containers for a week and I've seen a huge transformation in their interest for creating with our art supplies. I also picked up some bins for plastic items in our pantry. I like giving the kids access to their plastic cups. This makes them responsible for picking out their own cup without arguing about which one I pick out for them. I printed labels for the containers, laminated, and either taped or tied the labels. I'm sure there is a better way to label including using my label maker but I really like these labels! In the meantime, we are working away on the play room. I will blog about it when we see some progress.

Surfers for Autism Ponce Inlet

We attended our first Surfers for Autism event. The event was held at Ponce Inlet which is down the street from where Andrew and I lived when we first moved to Florida. We really like this location and it holds so many memories for us.

This is their mission statement from their site: The Surfers For Autism mission is to unlock the potential of people with developmental delays, support advocacy for autism issues and scientific research. Our focus is to eliminate stigma through public awareness and education and to unite communities through volunteerism. I wasn't sure if we would be able to attend when I signed the boys up but given that it's a popular event that fills up quickly, I signed up. Thankfully we moved the week before the event and it was the perfect excuse to avoid organizing our new home. The organization asks that the particpants have an IEP to qualify as a participant. Gabriel clearly qualifies. I emailed the coordinator about Alex, explaining our situation and the battle we had with the school. I told her that I didn't want to take a place of another child who has an IEP and understood if he didn't qualify as a participant. She welcomed him with open arms. I am grateful since we still don't have a diagnosis or explanation for his behavior. We had to get early on a Saturday in order to make it to the beach on time. We are now two hours from Ponce Inlet. I had no idea we are so far away now! Unfortunately, we completely forgot to pack toys for the kids! A friend attended and shared her beach toys with the kids - whew! I now have a printed list for the beach to see if it helps us remember everything for a day at the beach. Gabriel was not happy that we drove the van on the beach and had to walk to the event. He threw a fit for a while. The nice part about being with other families with kid with autism, is NO ONE turns to look at your screaming 7 year old. It is the best thing about these events. Gabriel could work through his meltdown and I had no embarrassment about the situation. At one point, I walked to the bathroom with Gabriel. It was quite a challenge, even with the help of a volunteer. She talked to Gabriel about turtles and bugs as we walked. He continued to throw himself on the ground. I learned how to spot turtle tracks in the sand! But I was worried the entire day was a bust if his poor attitude didn't change. The event was fantastic. First, we signed in and 200 participants were divided into four groups. The registration process was painless and well organized. Each group of kids spent just over half an hour in the water with volunteers who taught them how to surf. While we waited in line for the boys turns, Gabriel wrote math equations in the sand. It was his idea and the first time he's ever done something like that - wow!! Gabriel was excited to join his surfer in the water. He did well until he fell in the water and then he wasn't thrilled to surf any more. The volunteer picked Gabriel up after a brief break and took him back out to the water. It was perfect for Gabriel and he managed to complete 6 runs on the board!

Alex was far more anxious about getting on a surf board. Even though this is Alex's pattern when he tries new things, I was a little surprised by his reaction. He loves the beach and his boogie board. I didn't think he would even make it out to the water. However, he not only made it out on the board, he did a GREAT job too.

Lane loves the beach as well and had a blast playing the sand and surf. She is a real beach "baby". She had no interest in surfing so it worked out well.

The event has information booths and includes lunch. All of it is free for families! I walked around with Alex because he wanted a ball a company was handing out to children. We stopped at a booth and Alex charmed the guy there and Alex was given a shark tooth. Alex placed it in his pocket for safe keeping. It was a HOT day and after getting up early, we were done before the second round of surfing events started. It was well worth the two hour drive and we look forward to another Surfers with Autism event in the future.

Babysitter Notes Printable 2012

There are many free printable babysitter notes available. I've had a list on the refrigerator since the boys were little. I don't want to forget anything important by filling information out each time a babysitter comes to the house. We don't have many babysitters but I never know when an emergency might arise and someone unfamiliar with the children will have to step in to help, especially since our relatives live out of state. I don't laminate the babysitter information. I put it in a pouch and hang it on the refrigerator for easy access. I add post-it notes if anything important but different happens with the kids. For instance, the last evening we went out, I wrote notes on which drinks the kids would want to for bed time. It makes life much easier for someone watching our children. Also, given the kids special diets and special needs, I think it necessary to let anyone know what is going on with each of them. Not only is it necessary, it's fair. If I want a good babysitter to come back, I better make it easier with some information. I printed this http://thecarolinaclipper.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Babysitter-Notes-PDF.pdf and filled it out. Why recreate something that I can already use? A great suggestion is to add an illustration of CPR. This is a fantastic idea not only for a babysitter but for us as well. If something happens, it will be nice to have the imformation readily available. http://depts.washington.edu/learncpr/quickcpr.html There is also an infant version available.

Pipe Cleaners and Number Magnets

We went to the dollar store yesterday. I found a great idea to put the kids craft items in seperate clear containers so they can see what we have available to spark their creativity. The continers are available at the Dollar Tree so off we went to grab a deal. We also got glitter, pipe cleaners, bins for our pantry, magnetic numbers, measuring cups, tissue paper, and much more. The Dollar Tree is such a good deal for great items my kids play with at our house. They even have toys and snacks that my kids enjoy. At their ages, they don't care where something new comes from or what the price tag is and they don't care about many expensive things yet. I take full advantage of that by shopping for bargains.I pulled out the pipe cleaners, some beads, a spoon, a cookie sheet, and the magnetic numbers. Gabriel strung beads on pipe cleaners and worked on his fine motor skills. Lane transferred the beads with a spoon. Alex made up math equations with the numbers. He even worked on doubles equations, using the pipe cleaners to count out the answer. Surprisingly, they kept themselves busy for a couple hours. The total cost was $3!