Tot School 1

"Sweetpea is 38 months and Buttercup is 11 months"

Here are some things my kids got that can be used for tot school. My mom bought the kids Wedgits, which they really enjoyed. We got sweetpea some cool wooden instruments and a karaoke cd player. The kids had a great time pretending they were a parade. Also for Buttercup we bought her these neat wooden blocks.

White Christmas

Both girls are sleeping amazingly, so I had time to make a slideshow. When we got home on Christmas eve we made the kid's a blanket house in their bedroom. They got to sleep under it and had a great time playing with the Wedgits grandma bought them. I highly recomened them.http://www.amazon.com/Imagability-Wedgits-Go-Piece-Set/dp/B0006HB9FW/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1230333516&sr=8-1
Christmas morning went great the kids were so excited, and it was so fun to watch them open their gifts. While we were opening stockings my husband looked outside and noticed it had snowed. This is the first white Christmas that I can remember, which just made it all the more fun. We had a great time all morning just relaxing and watching the kids play. Later that day we went to my in-laws and had a lot of fun over there too. They have a bunch of snow where they are, and it was beautiful. Buster and his cousin both have a gameboy now, so he enjoyed playing with her and trying eachother's games out. Sweetpea was pretty worn out by afternoon that she was kinda out of it. Buttercup was just walking and touching everything she could. I hope you enjoy the pictures and have a great New Year's.

Christmas eve in the dark.

Well Christmas has come and gone once again, and I hope you all had a great one. Ours was very special this year. We spent Christmas Eve at my parents house as is tradition. This year it was a smaller group than usual, because some extended family had other plans. It was so rainy that night and we had all sat down around the tables to eat. Right when my mom said it was time to eat the lights went out. My mom had abunch of candles lit, so a bunch of us thought she had turned them off on purpose for effect. It was funny hearing people just figure out that the power had gone out. The electricity ended up being out for like 1-1.5 hrs, but it turned to be so much fun. We all talked and joked thru dinner, than after my dad dug out some flashlights, and buster and his boy cousins had a blast exploring the house in the dark. Sweetpea was not too crazy about the dark at first, but my mom found some battery operated tea lights, and many other candles. It was really cute at one point I noticed that a bunch of the battery lights were on the Christmas tree, and then I relized sweetpea had decided to decorate the tree herself. The lights finally came back on after we stated opening gifts. Everyone had cut back a little this year, but I think that was great. The kid's had a blast, and I think it was one of the best Christmas eve's ever.

More Christmas stuff!

Only two days until Christmas! The kids are getting really excited. We had another fun and crazy week around here. We had a little snow last week, and the kids enjoyed it. They wanted to build a snowman, but the snow was really dry and there wasn't much. We managed to build a very small one, which seemed to satisfy them. Last night we made some grahm cracker gingerbread houses. They were pretty cute until the kids devored them ;) Buster drew the cutest picture in Sunday school last week. The paper says This is Christmas to me. I asked him about it and he said it was Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Wisemen and an angel. I then asked him why he chose to draw that, and he said the teacher told them to draw what Christmas is about and it's about Jesus. You can see a picture of it at the bottom. I still need to go finish up some baking and wrapping, so have a blessed week.

School stuff!

I hope you are all having a great Christmas season. I can't believe how fast it has flown by for us. The kids have been having a blast with our Advent days. I haven't been taking pictures as much the last week. I was sick for a few days, and my hubby did some of the things with them. He baked monster cookies with them all by himself. This week for school the kids made Nativity lapbooks. I think they turned out pretty cute. Here is a link for the templates. http://www.scribd.com/doc/525730/Nativity-Lapbook


We made applesauce and cinnamon ornaments last night. You take 1/2 cup applesauce and 1/2 cup of cinnamon stir together and it makes a dough. You can then roll out cut out shapes and let dry. Also you'll need to poke a whole in the top while they are wet for a string. A straw works well for this. They take awhile to dry, but they smell great.

I also printed the kids out this easy Christmas activity. It is more for preschooler's but Buster liked it too. http://lapbooksbycarisa.homestead.com/ChristmasTotBook.html



Here is a picture of some Christmas words Buster wrote. His handwriting is getting better all the time.

Run, run, as fast as you can!

After great success with the kid's Thanksgiving lapbook. I decided we would do a Gingerbread man one and a Nativity one for December. The couple of weeks we have been doing all things gingerbread ;). The kid's loved the Gingerbread man story, we read several versions. This whole home schooling thing has been a big learning experience for me. After a couple of hard weeks, a lot of adjustments, and some encouragement from my wonderful husband, we have really found our groove. I have learn to relax a little with Buster, he is after all a kindergartener. Even though he can do 1st grade work doesn't mean he has the patience for it. I have decided to break are day up with shorter lessons, learning stations, and lapbooks. One other strange thing that seemed to help was tearing his worksheets out of the book. Somehow it was less overwhelming to him. The struggle is mostly over phonics. In general he enjoys math and has already completed half of the years work. Sweetpea is really taking of with her work. She wants to do everything that Buster does, so most of the time I indulge her. While he is doing math and phonics she gets her own worksheets. The last week or so she has decided she loves coloring and has become quite meticulous with it. Her attention span is really improving, and has surprised me many times. Last week at the YMCA we were making bead candy canes, and she sat and made like 4. Anyways here are some pictures of their latest lapbook, and the festival of lights. Enjoy!

Advent Week One

Thanksgiving!

Here are some pics from Thanksgiving. Sorry I didn't post them sooner.

Merry Christmas

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Advent

We are starting our Advent calendar on Monday. As always we will be having candy and a verse for each day, but this year we are also doing something extra special. I got the idea from a couple of different sites. http://kiddley.com/2006/11/22/fill-your-advent-with-activities/
http://littlebirds.typepad.com/little_birds/2005/11/simple_pleasure.html
I typed up one special activity for each day leading up to Christmas, and will put them in with the verses. Here is the list I came up with:
Make paper snowflakes
Read Christmas stories
Make paper nativity
Play Board games
Donate a toy to charity
Go see Christmas lights at the coast
Make gingerbread men
Watch Charlie brown Christmas
Go to festival of lights
Make Christmas cards
Drink hot chocolate and watch Christmas movie
Bake cookies and share
Go to timber truck light parade
Hand out candy canes
Drive around and look at lights
Sing Christmas carols and dance like crazy
Make ornaments
Make fudge
Donate to food bank
Go to the wild lights
Visit a nursing home
Make gingerbread houses
Star gaze, read Christmas story in Luke
Build a fort
I think it is going to be really fun. In case you want to do this also and don't have an advent calendar here is a link to a craft one your kids can make
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/Xmas/advent_calendar.htm
And here is a link for verses you can use
http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=32879&columnid=3881
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

Simple mom is having another contest. This time you can win some great baby items.
http://simplemom.net/a-big-gift-basket-giveaway-for-the-littles-in-your-life/#comment-14655

Kid's Thanksgiving Lapbook

Update!

I haven't posted an update in a while, so here goes. I took sweetpea and buttercup to the Dr. a couple weeks ago for their 9 month and 3 year checkup. Here are their stats. Sweetpea is 38.5lbs and 40.5 in, buttercup was 20lbs and 30.5 in. They are both doing well. The kids and I marched in the veterans day parade with our MOPS group. It was raining the whole time and we got really soaked, but the kids had fun. Buttercup had an ear infection last weekend, and the poor thing was in such agony. Last Sunday night she was up crying practically all night. She is doing better now, but of course the older two are sick now. I just hope they are all better in time for Thanksgiving. I have been working with the kids all week on a Thanksgiving lapbook type thing. This is our first time doing one and I will post pics next week, so far they have been really fun. Buster has enjoyed learning all about the Pilgrims etc. Here are some pictures you might enjoy.

Reusable grocery bags!

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Free Photo book!

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Walking and Homeschool

Our little buttercup has been trying to walk for a few weeks now. Last night she took three steps on her own. It was so fun watching her because she was so excited. She always claps for herself after every try. Here are some pictures of her practicing with me and her aunt. Also there are two pictures of the other kids. Buster is holding an adding game he did on his own, and sweetpea is holding a dry erase board where she traced numbers. I was so proud of how well she did it was her first time ever tracing :)