All About Dad

Chris is such an awesome dad and husband too but I just think my children are so blessed to have him as their dad!!! He is very supportive and involved with homeschooling the girls. Anytime he is with them he uses that time to make teachable moments. For instance the other day he took the girls to the grocery store and as a treat let Ellie buy Kool-Aide and instead of just buying it he had her pick out certain colors and count out a certain number of packs. He really takes time to explain things to them and gets down on their level. He constantly tries to encourage imaginative play. A few weeks ago I was gone overnight and when I came home they had built a huge tent in the living room. It involved overturned furniture, clamps and lots of blankets. The week after that I came home to the girls wearing winter coats, gloves and hats and they were so excited because they had been pretending to play in the snow. They built a snowman out of trash bags and bean bags. It was really cool and just last weekend when I was leaving for a class he was painting clown faces on them because they were going to play circus. I look at him with the girls sometimes and wish that I had his patience and love of playing that I don't always have. No matter what he is working on he takes time to let the girls get involved even if it takes 3 times as long. I could go on and on what a great parents he is but I will stop there. I just hope the girls will look back on all of the memories and realize that they are truly blessed with the best dad!!!

Oh the funk!

Ellie's chore on Tuesdays is to bring down the 4 trash cans from upstairs to dump in the big can outside. She has mentioned that Emily's trash,which probably has a few pee pee diapers in it, is a little stinky before but not really complained about. Well this is how she came down with the trash on Tuesday: I asked her why she was wearing a drum on her head she said "It helps with the funk"!

Some other funny Ellieisms (what i call funny things Ellie says):

I was pretending that her feet were stinky and kept smelling them and saying Shoowee and after a few times of her not paying any attention to me she turned and very seriously said "If you don't like the way the smell why do you keep sniffing them?"

and

We were reading a book the other day and I was counting the different items and stuff in the book thinking I was really smart and getting in a little math lesson. Ellie said "Mom, can we just read the book and stop trying to do math at the same time?"

Would You Like Fries With That?

Ellie and Emily got a kitchen last Christmas and I was so sad that they didn't really play with it. Now that Emily is old enough to play with Ellie they are finally playing with it:) Ellie loves playing restaurant so we thought we would make the kitchen more of a diner area. Chris cut a piece of wood and I painted it white and we attached it to the wall for a little bar area. I painted chalk board paint above it for writing out menu items or writing whatever. We added a service bell (which they LOVE) and empty ketchup and mustard bottles. I got cute little dinner chairs from IKEA and now they have a there own little restaurant.

Look What I Won

I never win anything so I was so excited to win this game from Jump Start. Ellie loves it and mom and dad are pretty fond of it too:)

Wordless Wednesday - Rain

Preschool

I can't believe that I have not done a preschool post yet! What a slacker:) Here are some of the activities that Ellie has chosen from her shelf.

Making a turtle from her thumbprint in stages following the example sheet (she really really liked this)

Sequencing Cards

Lacing Shapes (or as Ellie calls it..sewing)

Playing with the unifix cubes (I have never introduced these before so I just let her explore them)

Following the patterns in the Clifford's magnetic book

Playing with the wiki sticks

Playing a memory game

Pouring and spooning lentils

Ellie has always wants me right there for every activity she does but the last day we did preschool she was so much more independent and really explored the materials. It was so great to watch. She has never been a block girl but lately she has been building like crazy. We have small wooden blocks, big Lego blocks, Lincoln Logs, and cardboard blocks and she has played with them all so much!!!! I love it and it is something she can do with Emily. We have also built lots of forts lately. I love to see how her imagination is just flourishing!!!!

Drive-In Movie

Remember Ellie's bingo card?? Well she finally finished it and her reward was going to the drive-in movies. Now the drive-in movie doesn't start until after dark and ends really late so that wasn't going to work out so we had a drive-in movie at our house. I saw this idea and knew that we had to do it. We got 2 boxes and cut the tops off of them and I wrapped them in pink wrapping paper because Ellie wants pink everything!! The girls decorated them with markers and stickers and we helped them glue on head lights and tail lights. We used paper plates for there wheels and steering wheels. I attached them with brads so they would really turn. Ellie got a little crazy with driving and broke her steering wheel within an hour! Ellie's box was big enough that we cut a door in hers and then added their pillows and blankets. The rest of movie night was just like our regular movie night except Ellie didn't have to earn tokens to spend at the concession stand. We had lots of JUNK food and the girls helped me make a concession stand sign, which they have been using as a menu. I love using the projector to display the movie on the wall. The girls get so excited about it. Our feature presentation was Finding Nemo and Ellie watched the whole movie in her car. After the movie was over they played in their cars until bedtime:)

Wordless Wednesday-Playing with Friends

Tot School and Circle Time

Emily is 20 months old and had her first week of Tot School. Carisa from 1+1=1 started Tot School and I couldn't wait for Emily to be old enough to participate. I was trying to do Ellie's preschool activities during Emily's nap but her naps are getting shorter and to be truthful I need that time as a break so she has joined in on the fun. It was a little tricky because Ellie was more interested in Emily's activities and Emily was more interested in Ellie's but I know that we will get the hang of it.

Putting dried spaghetti into container

Drawing (one her of favorite activities) Playing with rice

I didn't get very many pictures because I am still getting the hang of things but Emily also looked at books, built with blocks, and help in the kitchen for the first time.

Circle Time:

We are still mainly following ABC Jesus Loves Me but I will throw in a few extra activities and maybe take a few out.

Letter:M (recognizing it and signing it)

Theme: Obey and our M theme was mainly MOMMY but we also talked about music, monsters, and movies.

Bible Verse: John 14:15 If you love me, you will obey my commands (Funny thing or not so funny thing about this is that Ellie had her worst behavior week in awhile. Go figure!!)

We also added in calendar time. We talked about the days of the week and the weather.

We sang lots of songs, danced to MUSIC, played red light/green light using these little signs to go with our obey themeand decorated the letter M to look like monsters. There are still activities that we didn't get to that I had planned but dad surprised us and came home early on Friday so maybe we will get to them next week but maybe not. Ahhh, the joys of homeschooling:)

Simply Made Sunday

My BIL went to the mountains and brought back the sweetest, juiciest, yummiest apples I have ever eaten. We ate most of them whole but we cut up a few and made a fruit dip for them. I got the recipe from here.

The recipe is super simple:

8 oz. cream cheese softened

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup of powdered sugar

1 tsp. of vanilla

Blend together until creamy and enjoy.
This was Emily's first time helping in the kitchen and I think she liked it:)

Wordless Wednesday - Makeover

Making Lemonade

Ellie picked out the book Maisy Makes Lemonade at the library the other day so we decided to make our own lemonade. I saw this idea awhile back and thought it would be a good time to do it. I just used powdered lemonade mix and added just a little bit of water, froze them in cute beach shaped ice trays then the girls used the spoons to spoon it into water to make lemonade. Meanwhile I was reading this book over and over at the girls request and it is pretty short book. Now I think I have it memorized:)