in "tents"

lately, all of our life happenings occur in a "tent".  The kids want to have snacks, read books, play games, do homework and put their stuffed animals in bed all undercover.  To much time under there makes me claustrophobic.  Oh to be small again...

she walks

Okay, so she only walks sometimes.  If she wants to get somewhere fast she will drop down and crawl.  But still, my baby can walk.

rocks

We went to the river to find the perfect "prayer rocks" to paint.  The kids and grandpa threw the "not perfect" rocks we found back into the river.  Pretty soon the kids were finding large rocks on purpose just so grandpa would say "that one is to big" and then he would toss it in the river making a big splash.  The kids loved it.

Peter Paying Taxes

Putting two paper plates together made a great mouth to hold a coin in.  We used these for the story in which Peter caught a fish with a coin inside, which he used to pay taxes.

Using the painters tape once again, made their fish turn out fabulous.

high five magazine

High Five (highlights for 3-5 year old kids) Magazine is awesome.  Grandma Lori got this for the kids as a Christmas gift.  And it is a gift that keeps and giving all year round.  The kids enjoy the stories, doing the "find whats wrong" pictures, trying out the recipes and doing the craft ideas. 

I loved this painting idea!  Both of my kids are fabulous at painting the whole sheet of paper. We put painters tape on top it (later peeling it off) and it gave their paintings some pizazz.

hair

Okay so not that flattering of a picture.  But in real life... my haircut is top notch.  I have worn in down everyday for over 2 weeks.  That is a record. Big time.  Ponytails were my old best friend.  Now my straightener is.

P.S. I am still working on my uncooperative bangs.  They are directionally impaired. 

the little red hen

We read "The Little Red Hen".  My kids are very familiar with the gardening/growing aspect of the story.  And they are familiar with the baking aspect of the story.  But what they wanted to know was how something that grew in the "garden" was made into bread.  So I got out the wheat berries.  As the wheat berries were ground out, they immediately recognized it as flour.  Then the story made sense to them.  I love helping them make connections and understand things.  They are just sponges ready to soak up information.  I love it!

Bye Bye Ballet

Pepper loved the idea of "dance school" after watching Angelina Ballerina.  I thought this school was above and beyond but unfortunately it did not meet Peppers "angelina ballerina" expectations.  I had to bribe her into going the last couple of weeks.  I didn't want to pay for something she did not like.  So alas, I cancelled the class.  At least we got the idea of going to dance school out of her system, for now anyway.  Here is Pepper with her class, on Halloween.

Germs - Preschool

We have done a little "Science Preschool" 3 times now.  Each time it gets better.  The kids are figuring out the routine.  As they arrive I have coloring pages out on the table.  They color as people trickle in.  To start off class we categorize the pictures they have colored. For example: with weather I had umbrellas, sunglasses, kites, puddles, mittens etc. and we put them in the rain, sun, wind or snow categories.  This time I put coloring pages of doorknobs, food, playground, teddy bears etc. and we categorized them into what had GERMS and what didn't.  They were surprised to see everything had GERMS on it.  We talked of ways to fight germs.  The kids were very inquisitive.  It went really well.  The two books I read were fabulous.  Next I had them dip their hand in cinnamon/olive oil mix. I had them wash their hands without soap.  The flecks of cinnamon were still visible.  So we fixed that by washing it off using soap (cinnamon symbolizing germs).  With clean hands we were ready for snack.  When the carrots were gone we wiped off the table with disinfectant wipes, and started on our play-dough germs.  We ended the day by playing "germ, germ, soap" aka "duck, duck, goose".      

the boys

Tabor is such a daddy's boy!

costumes

 My cousin Kimberly and family were here for the weekend.  So we had a family get together at "Gramys" house.  I love visiting her... as I look around her house I see bits and pieces of my childhood.  We watched some family video's from the 60's.  My grandpa has passed on and it was great to be reminded of his different traits.  Even though the video was silent, as I watched him I could hear his laugh.  I miss his laugh.  Also, Grandpa was such a dare devil.  I use to be more that way.  I never flew airplanes through telephone wires, rode motorbikes with 3 small children aboard through the forest or participated in rodeos, but I have made people wonder if I am missing a few things upstairs.   But as I became a mother I became a worrier.  I miss being so carefree.  I need to take a step back and do something wild again.  Something to make me feel more alive.  And I don't let my grandma fool me, she is wild too :) Anyway... we ate good food, played games and had fun visiting with Gramy.  Then we went off to a Halloween Carnival. It was a great day.