April's snowy days

Our first week on our visa trip the weather was cold and rainy.  A few days we even saw some snow and I saw the biggest snowflakes I had ever seen.  Fun but not so fun when you are stuck inside all day with 2 active little boys.  So I decided to take them to the Aquarium and IKEA one day.

The Aquarium was a big hit, both of them loved it.  Judah was mesmerized, lots of OOOOs and AWWWWWs.  Micah loved the Sharks and the fish that were funny looking.  He kept doing some good impressions of them.  He loves doing impressions.

IKEA was also a hit.  They were able to spend a good hour playing there in the store with the toys they sell, plus I was able to pick up a few things I wanted to bring back.  Of course the ice cream and donuts after we checked out was the icing on the cake.  Thank you IKEA for helping rescue us from boys bouncing off the walls.

Capitol City Parks

While Judah, Micah and I were in Ankara waiting for visas, we spent a lot of time at the park.  It helped pass the time.  When it wasn’t raining we frequented the park twice a day.

The thing I love about Turkey are their parks.  We don’t have great playgrounds like this where we live so it’s fun for my kids to enjoy slides for a change. 

There are always parks in neighborhoods, since people live in apartments it’s a part of your day, to go to the park. 

While we enjoyed the couple of parks just right up the street from where we stayed we also enjoyed a 25 minute walk to another park.  (Conveniently located next to a Starbucks.) 

There were several other foreigners who frequented this park so I felt more at home there, it was close to several consulates.  I even was able to meet a few Russian speakers there.

Judah loved the sandbox and would always go plop down next to some other child. 

Micah on the other hand preferred to create his constructions alone, my little introvert.

Here are a few other parks we found.  One park was recommended to us by a friend, and would have been more fun, but there were a couple Turkish little boys who were quite found of Judah and loved to smother him with hugs and kisses, that he was not appreciating.  The whole time they were there he kept running to me any time they would get close to him.  If they got close to Micah he’d just scream “Net!!!” which is no in Russian.

We were thankful that the Lord provided us with a few parks and some beautiful sunny days to enjoy them.  

 I am sure we would have gone crazy had it not been for those.

My little Artists

The boys love art, they are always begging to do a craft or to paint or water color.  Judah even loves it, however he’s quite dangerous when he find any sort of marker, pencil, crayon, or pen.  So it’s hard to contain these art supplies to safe areas when they like to create drawings everywhere.  I let him paint with real paint last month and he got so upset when I took his paper away and gave him a new one.  He wasn't done apparently.  :)

We’ve had fun working on a few art projects for the fair in Marvin’s hometown this summer.  The boys have enjoyed trying out a few mediums, and it's been a great stress reliever for me too.

But what has been fun has been watching how Micah’s really taken off in his fine motor skills.  He’s gone from making basic stick figures to some really cute little creations recently.  All of which have some story to go along with it.

Calvin always must add his own creative spin on whatever we do, sometimes it drives me crazy how he doesn’t like to follow the directions.  But I'm thankful for his creative mind and that he enjoys thinking outside the box.