It's 6:40am, the start of a new day and SamSam is demanding "cold milk". He wakes up JJ by turning on a lamp shining directly on his face, and the day has begun.
Daddy plays Kerplunk with them, and it's not even 8am! How lucky they are!
We head down to the local bakery as a family for some brekky. We ate doughnuts at the bakery, the boys pushed the little shopping trolleys around the supermarket, we picked up some mail at our friend's house, sat outside a cafe for coffee and chocolate eclair, visited the second-hand charity shop. A lovely outing!
SamSam is too pooped to stay awake. While he sleeps, JJ and I open the pop-up tent in the spare room and grab all the library books for him to read, while I do some quiet reading of my own on the sofa bed. 20 Minutes of bliss!
Devotions and Impromptu Slide
I don't let Sam sleep too long, as I want him to have a longer sleep after lunch with JJ. We don't often play in the spare room, so it's nice to spend a bit more time there.
We read today's devotion which is about the millions of stars in the sky, and how God made them all. How wonderful God is!
We read a library book, but the boys want to roll around on the bed. Time for some physical activity!
I take JJ's mattress and rest it against the sofabed to make a slide. After a bit of experimentation we find that a glossy supermarket bag makes a great toboggan to ride down the slide! That's another 15 minutes of sliding fun!
SamSam is not so keen on the sliding, and he suggests getting out the playdough.
Playdough has to be one of the best inventions for kids. My boys can play very happily for an hour with it. The secret is you have to play with them and give them new ideas on how to play. My kids especially enjoy it when I play alongside them - whatever the activity may be.
But I find also that children need to learn how to play sometimes! They're like little sponges - once they learn from you, they will emulate what you've taught them by themselves.
I bought a cheap playdough kit from Kmart which has a few little cutters and plates, a cupcake mould and other little shape moulds. It was only about $7! I also have some little beads in the shape of hearts and stars which they really like to press into the dough. Small birthday cake candles from the $2 shop are fantastic for making little birthday cakes, and ice cream sticks are also quite nifty.
We have the Playdoh brand of playdough. It is a little pricey, but I don't allow them to mix colours, and I make sure we put the dough away once play is finished so that it doesn't dry up. This all means that the playdough lasts for ages - about five months - before I have to buy more pots. A pretty cheap investment!
Lunch is peanut butter and jam sandwiches. The boys help to spread the peanut butter with a butter knife each. They're not super good at it, but it this helps to promote independence!
The whole family goes down for a nap (while I type away furiously at the computer) and I get a few minutes rest before JJ is up again.
I remake the slide, SamSam wakes up too, and they share a box of sultanas in two bowls which makes them very happy.
I get out the guitar and JJ and leads our singing with the Alphabet song and then a Winnie the Pooh song medley. He gets out the percussion instruments and gives the harmonica to SamSam.
It's 2:50pm and the boys are getting feral. I take them to TWO playgrounds where they climb, spin, slide, swing, play in the sand and run for two hours, and by the end, their mum is more pooped than they are!
Dinner is beef noodle soop, delish! We eat really early, so the boys get to go ride their bikes around the balcony with Dad for an hour (they'll be sleeping real well tonight!). Fruit cups are for dessert.
Showers, and then milk and milo next to mummy on the sofa while we read our books. Goodnight sweethearts!
