Sweet Pea's Birthday Party

I tried to convince Sweet Pea to stay seven forever, but for some reason the little stinker wouldn't listen.

Disobedient little stinker that one was.

Anyways, she had some of her friends over to the house for a birthday party.  I took pictures.  Enjoy!

 We made friendship bracelets.

 Facepainting, with really bad paints. 

 Opened presents, had a egg-and-spoon relay race, made flowers with brightly colored duct tape

And had cake and make-your-own-sundays.

So she's eight years old now.  Ten years away from being an adult.  And just thinking about that gives me the shivers.

So hold you babies close, hug them, kiss them, cuddle them on your lap as long as you can, because it goes by much too fast!

Confession

Confession

Last Sunday night, after an extremely busy day, after cleaning the disastrous living room, kitchen, and dining rooms, after already going up and down the stairs too many times, I was ready to climb into bed.  But I had no PJ's in our room.  It was looking like my options were to either go to bed in my jeans and sweater, or trek back down to the laundry room and bring up some clean PJ's.  Neither option sounded good at 12:30 AM. 

So I improvised.  

I did what I usually do when I can't find clean clothes of my own.  I stole my husband's clothes.

I grabbed one of his comfy sweatshirts, and...

wait for it...

his long underwear.

Yep, I wore his long underwear as pajama pants.

Sure they were a little loose, but they were warm and comfy :o)

But don't tell my husband or he'll start hiding his clothes from me!

Wishful Wednesday

I wish for good health for all of my family.

I wish I had a dvr upstairs, ours is downstairs.

I wish I had a housekeeper.  Maybe some day I'll be able to afford one, but I'm not gonna hold my breath!

I also wish for a personal masseuse, to give me neck rubs and foot rubs anytime I need one.  Not gonna hold my breath for that one either :o)


Your turn! What are you wishing for?

Birds and the Letter B

Last week the theme was "Birds" and the letter B.  As you can see by the little snippet I'm showing you, we had a lot planned! 

Once again, we started the week off with the letter, number, and some other non-bird related activities.  One thing I had to do was find out where the kids were with their cutting ability.  I knew the 4 year old was able to cut on a curved line just fine, but I wasn't sure about Babydoll.  Turns out she can cut a straight line, a zig-zag, and a curved line without too much difficulty. 

Then on Tuesday we started talking about Birds.  We started with Bird vocabulary and body parts.  Did lots of make-believe which helped anchor those words into their memory (and it's fun!!),

We used a real bird feather to paint blue jays.  Perfect integration of the Birds theme, and the letter B.  We sang songs about birds, bird fingerplays, number puzzles, read books like The Little Red Hen, and Are You My Mother.  We made artwork with birdseed, used almost all our senses to examine and discuss about a real bird nest (the one sense we didn't use? taste!).  For lunch on Friday the kids helped me make egg salad sandwiches.  Throughout the week we kept going back to the letter B, word wall, B sound, and the letter A.

We also made a simple bird feeder out of an orange juice container.

Do you think the birds like LOTS of PULP birdseed?  Sure hope so!

Ants and the Letter A

I am really behind on blogging about preschool!  I've been stock piling pictures on my camera because I wasn't sure where my usb cord was, and I wasn't about to post about preschool without pictures.

Two weeks ago the theme was the letter A and Ants.  The first day of the week we just worked on the letter A, number 1, short A sound, and some other super cool stuff.  Then on Tuesday we got going with Ants.

We learned some ant vocabulary, ant body parts, the toddlers worked on learning their body parts. So far Little man has nose and feet down, is getting the hang of mouth, and my toddler daycare girl nose all her basics and was working on cheeks and lips.

This was the Letter A word wall.  I am not expecting my 3 and 4 year old to learn to read these words.  The point was for them to recognize the letter A in words, to understand that letters make up words, and that words have meaning (the pictures next to them, which they helped me match up).  Then the words stay up all week, we keep coming back to them, and they have the opportunity to possibly remember them by sight.

We made ants out of egg cartons, which helped them to remember how many legs ants have, and to compare that to us and other animals.  Look out kids, there's a giant brown ant about to eat your snack!  This day the kids also used their "mandibles" to pick up and eat their goldfish snack.  I wish I had a picture of that, it was pretty funny:o)

We made fingerprint ant pictures, painted a letter A, and made ants out of playdough. Read books like, The Ant Bully, and The Magic School Bus Gets Ants in its Pants.  We sang songs and learned fingerplays about ants.  One favorite activity was for Dramatic Play/Large Muscle.  We made our "colony" under the table, then went into the living room/playroom to find "food" which was a bucket of large legos.  We then carried our "food" with our "mandibles" all the way back to the colony.  We made ants on a log, and explored ants outside with magnifying glasses. 

We did a lot more that was unrelated to Ants as well.  The toddlers are starting to learn to count, and the preschoolers are fine-tuning their one-to-one correspondence during math, and getting the hang of those upper-teen numbers that are always tricky.

On an unrelated note, we pulled out some dress-up stuff, and Babydoll showed us some awesome ninja moves! :o)

Next up... the letter B and Birds.

A night out with the family

A few weeks ago there was a big family event in our town hosted by the Fire and Police Departments.  I thought I'd share some pictures with you.

All the kids got free firefighter hats

A helicopter landed in the grass and everyone swarmed to the landing helicopter like cats to an opening can of tuna.

Babydoll and Little Man got to sit in it!  Sweet Pea and Spence were over in the bouncy castle when it landed.

Before we left the girls got to try out the fire hose.  She looks so little holding that huge hose!

Sweet Pea tried it too.

This is what they were aiming at.  If they got the water into the windows or doors, things popped up out of the roof. 

The girls sat in the fire truck, we didn't put Little Man up there though because he was covered in Tootsie Pop!

And before we left we watched them filling up a hot air balloon.

It was a fun night full of demonstrations by the police and fire departments, display and info tables set up by local businesses, food, beverages, fire trucks, squad cars, horses, and lots of friends!



Wishful Wednesday

I wish Little Man would stop being such a crab. he's in a mood.

I wish Jeni would have her baby already, but probably not as much as she's wishing that.

I hope I can get this week's Sunday school lesson planned soon, first week teaching it on my own.

I wish bills would pay themselves, not just auto-withdrawl, but actually pay themselves.  that would be cool.

I wish there were more hours between 7PM and 10PM.

What are you wishing for?

Coffee Impatience

Today I needed a coffee, well I always need a coffee, but today I needed a Caribou coffee. 

Not just any Caribou coffee, but a white pumpkin mocha.... yum!

There was just one little thing standing in my way... I was home alone with 4 kids.  I didn't let this stand in my way for long though!

I called parents and checked travel permission forms, loaded up the kids in the car, and drove to the Caribou near my house.

That first sip is always the best, unless you take it too soon and you burn your tongue, which is what happened to me today.... I can be darned impatient when it comes to coffee.

One example of this coffee-related impatience:  Back when Little Man was a baby and was drinking formula bottles, I poured myself a cup of coffee.  Usually I pour a little milk in it to make it a touch creamy and cool it down so I can drink it, but this particular morning we were out of milk.  Option two is water from the Britta filter, but of course it was empty and would take a few minutes to filter some fresh water. 

Then I saw Little Man's pre-made bottle sitting on the top shelf of the fridge.

Just an ounce or so would cool it off enough to drink it right away!

I was very tempted to pour a little in my coffee so could drink it right away.  That's what the coffee addiction was telling me to do anyway!

Luckily I quickly regained my senses and left his bottle of formula alone, knowing that it would certainly make my coffee gross and totally ruin my morning.  A few minutes later I took a sip of hot black coffee, burned my tongue a tiny bit, and felt relieved to have made the right decision.

The moral of the story: If you are lucky enough to have a Caribou nearby try the white pumpkin mocha, don't drink it right away or you'll burn your tongue, and always make sure there is milk in the fridge or water in the filter before you go to bed at night.

Sweet Pea is...

My oldest child is turning eight years old.  I can't believe it.  Everyone who's ever known her would agree she's a special girl!

She is:

very caring

empathetic

unafraid of trying new things

enthusiastic

fun-loving

briliant

beautiful

artistic, in many ways

cuddly

sensitive

inclusive

active

outgoing

friendly

and LOVED by her family and friends!!

What? Eight??

Too much to do to blog, I have a birthday party to start getting ready for.

Because my oldest daughter, who used to look like this...

is turning EIGHT on Saturday!

Wishful Wednesday

I wish Jeni's baby would come already! Or actually, after thursday, as per her request :o)

I wish I could read the future.

Or not, that would probably give me an anxiety attack.

I wish I had more discipline when it came to taking care of myself.

I hope Sweet Pea's birthday goes wonderfully!

I can't believe my oldest is turning EIGHT on Saturday!!!!! 

What are you wishing for??

It's Raining, It's Pouring

A month or so ago it was raining out.

He wasn't too happy about it.



Preschool at My House!

We officially started preschool during daycare last week!  While I enjoy taking a break in planning a curriculum during the summer, I'm always excited to get back into it in the fall.  New supplies, new ideas, and a fresh new school year!

Last year I taught using the Fireflies curriculum from Funshine Express.  In past years I have used Mother Goose Time, Carols Affordable Curriculum, and made my own based on the many early childhood books and websites I have in my arsenal.  Funshine Express and Mother Goose Time are both really great curriculum, but Funshine express is just a bit less expensive - and since I don't charge my daycare parents for preschool... every dollar counts!

My goal is to save a couple years worth of curriculum guides, supplies, and materials so I will be able to stop ordering them but keep on teaching them on a two or three year rotating schedule.  Every month I make copies of the worksheets and parent hand-outs, save all of the supplies and teaching guides, and one day I'll only have to plan the corresponding crafts, and make the typical adjustments based on developmental levels of the children (this is the part that takes the most time anyway)... the rest will be done.  I'll probably be able to do that after this school year!

This is our weather chart.  Every day someone gets to be the weather-watcher and it is their job to report what the weather is that day (or at least at that particular moment).  They then get to choose the correct weather picture and stick it on the chart for that day.

This is our calendar.  Everyday someone else gets to be the Calendar Helper.  We all say the days-of-the-week song, and today's date, and the calendar helper puts the date picture on the calendar.  It is also a pattern, so they get to practice recognizing patterns and predicting the next item every day as well!  The calendar and weather chart are from last years supplies, we'll be getting a new set later this month with October's order!

This week we start focusing on the alphabet with the letter A, but last week we were concentrating on rhyming.  We've been reading lots of poems, books that rhyme, playing concentration with flashcards that have rhyming pictures, rhyming word worksheets, and naming off words that rhyme throughout the day.  The whole point is to help them train their ears to pay attention to the sounds in words, to build phonemic awareness, which is vital in learning how to read. One of the poems we read is pictured above, and they almost have the whole thing memorized now because they like it so much.  To extend the activity we found and circled the words that rhymed with different colored crayons.  For example, we circled the words "go" and "so" with a blue crayon, and "bite" and "right" with a green crayon.  Then we made a craft which gave us the chance to practice tracing numbers 1-5, counting, color recognition, and gluing skills.

This week we are starting the letter A and Ants theme, I'm hoping to tell you about it next Monday!

The Renaissance Festival!

For the past few years we've gone with Spencer's parents, sister, and future brother-in-law, to the Renaissance Festival.  One of the big highlights for the girls is that they get to play dress-up in public, without it being Halloween! 

They dawn their princess dresses, or fairy wings, and get ready to jump into a world of make-believe.  Where royalty walks among the poor, and you can see anything from adult humor shows (lesson #538: don't take the kids to the Puke and Snot show... it's not about puke or snot, and it's not appropriate for kids) to the Children's Realm where people juggle and dance with fire, and you can walk the Secret Garden path through a forest full of hobbit houses.

This year we had a princess, a belly-dancer/Jasmine, and a Little Man who did not have a costume - poor neglected guy.  Although, he's wearing stripes so maybe a medieval prisoner?

Upon arrival we ran into some friends from the play, who happened to be just pulling in to a parking space right behind us!  What a small world!

This is Johanna, who did a fantastic job as Brigitta in The Sound of Music this summer!  Her mom Crystal who is a priceless pianist, and her dad who I inadvertently cut off, who was a life-saver back stage and a Nazi on stage.  We also ran into Brad from the play who was there to fill in wherever we ended up needing him, he works at Ren Fest, but I didn't get a picture of him... sorry Brad!

After walking through the gates just minutes after they opened up we were greeted by the king and queen themselves, along with their royal entourage!

It's always a big deal to get to talk privately with the royal family, and have your picture taken with them.

It didn't take long to find a ride.  And just so you know, this was the last smile you would see on Babydolls face until after the ride was over.  After this moment, she had a death grip on the side of the ride and her wand.  It was the mildest swing ever, but she was certain it was going to take off and she'd go flying out, so the swing pusher guy pushed much slower, and Sweet Pea - being the wonderful big sister that she is - didn't mind the fact that she was barely moving.  She got a kick out of what a scaredy cat her sister was being!

Pose for a picture!

Aaaaand... help yourself to your nice big sister's giant turkey leg.

We were walking down the street, when we came across a pottery shop with Little Man's real name on it!  Imagine "Little Man's Pottery" without the "little man" part.

Hey Little Man, how do you feel about having a pottery place named after you?

Yeah, that's kind what I thought.

Lesson #539: If you come across a dungeon, and the guy letting you tells you it is in fact stroller friendly, don't assume that that means it is child-friendly. 

It brings up far too many questions, and young children don't need to know about ancient torture devices.

They really don't.

And then we:
Pet some farm animals and looked at some tiny puppies,

Sweet Pea and I rode an elephant.  Babydoll rode a llama.

We tried to get a nice picture of the kids sitting on the toadstools in "Twig"'s shop.

And then my feet hurt really bad and Little Man was getting fussy because he hadn't been able to sleep in the stroller and I had to abandon taking any more pictures.

We left earlier than we usually do, but we had seen most of the things we wanted to, and I honestly didn't think my feet would make it any farther than the car, and like I said, Little Man was cranky.

We had so much fun, again, and we'll be on the lookout for a costume for Little Man for next summer, and who knows, maybe costumes for me and Spence too!