I Won A Giveaway!

Refined Metals had a cool giveaway a few weeks ago and I won!! Look at all of the great things we got!! Thanks so much Amber!

Tot School

Emily is 26 months old
Here are tot activities from last week.
Transferring water from one side to the other with a sponge.

Lacing Card
Matching colored discs into egg dying bowls

Putting dried spaghetti into container

One of her favorites was using a dot marker on a Veggie Tales coloring page. She laughed every single time she marked it. It was so cute!

Pouring water from one pitcher to the next

Putting coins in a piggy bank

Playing Candy Land. She loves loves this!

Playing at the park with dad and Ellie

and when you leave her alone for 5 min. pouring out all of the Parmesan cheese from the container!

To The Moon and This and That

Grandpa saved a big dryer box for us and the girls have had so much fun with it! Last night Chris and Ellie made it into a rocket ship. We added glow in the dark stars inside and some home made art work. This morning our rocket ship flew to help Tinkerbell find the lost moon treasure.

In other news, I went by Goodwill today because I was driving right past it and couldn't resist, and I got Emily a Kettler bike for $4.99!!!! I am so excited. It has a little rust on the handle bars but I am OK with that.

Last thing....I recently saw a post on a blog where someone took three sectioned off wooden boxes from the Dollar Tree and made their own movable alphabet set. Any idea whose blog that was? Thanks so much!

Valentines Day

Ellie declared this Valentines Day the best Valentines Day she ever had and I agree it was a great day. Yes, I know she is only 4 so she probably doesn't remember any of the others ones but it was still sweet:) We celebrated Valentines on Sat. because Sunday was going to be a busy day with church, a birthday party and Awana. We woke up on Sat. to a few inches of snow so of course we were all excited. The roads were pretty clear and we were lucky enough to have friends come over and join us for sledding. That afternoon we got all set for movie night. Chris got the projector ready and set out pretty much every pillow and blanket in the house and I made pigs in a blanket, fries and for dessert the girls had their first experience with fondue.Daddy also surprised us each with a box of chocolates and home made cards. We watched Tinker Belle and the Lost Treasure and Emily laid down and watched the whole movie (first time ever). The girls were in bed by 7 so Chris and I got to have down time. Other then Emily having a cold it was an awesome day! Hope everybody had a great Valentines Day!!

Tot School

Emily is 26 months old

Emily has officially started tot school:) I was not sure how Ellie and I were going to have school with Emily awake because honestly I never dreamed she would sit and do activities along side Ellie but I tried it and IT WORKED! I put out three workboxes for Emily and she can choose one of those or sit at the desk with us and draw. It only took one day for her to "get" the rules. She knows she can only have out one activity at a time and she has to pick that one up before she can get out another one. There are also activities in Ellie's workboxes that she get to participate in such as crafts, books and writing. Both girls also love it when we include circle time as part of our school day. Here are some of the activities that Emily has been doing during tot school:

Using Leap Pad

Scooping and pouring snowPutting marbles in suction cups: (She really does wear clothes sometimes :) )Alphabet puzzleMagnetic Dress-upSome of the other activities that I didn't get a picture of were stacking pegs on her peg board

Using dot marker

Pouring water from one little pitcher to another (This was her favorite)

Now all of this being said don't think that she is completely pleasant the whole time. We have had our fair share of time outs during school but it is still way better then I ever thought!!

The Snowy Day

I am really enjoying doing Before Five In A Row with the girls and their friends!!!! This week we "rowed" the book The Snowy Day. I planned a lot of activities for this book and we did not get to all of them but that is OK. Here is what we did get to:

• Started off reading the book while drinking hot chocolate and then putting the story in order using story cards from here.
I made play dough with glitter and the girls made snowmen using pipe cleaners, google eyes, buttons and jewels (this was so fun)
• Decided what/who made the different tracks in the snow (I just free handed these on copy paper)
• Used dot markers on Letter S - snowman sheets from here


• Had a snowball fight with cotton balls (Couldn't take a picture because I had to get in on the action)
• Used the snowballs (cotton balls)to match up to snowman floor numbers from here



• Used the snowman numbers to play a game ( I would call out a number and have everybody to something silly on that number)

Gave everyone a tray of Cool Whip to practice writing S and lots of other letters (one of the girls favorites)
• Ate white chocolate snowballs (I got the recipe from here and just covered them in white chocolate instead of milk and they were so yummy)
• The girls matched the colored scarves to the colored snowman hats. I printed these here.

• Snowflake matching game printed from here


• After lunch we made snow cones

It was a very busy, fun day. I have to say Ellie's behavior for over half of these was not very good and she was uncooperative but thankfully she pulled it together and it all ended on a great note!

New Recipes

I came across a this blog months ago and everything I have tried has been so yummy!!! If you are in a dinner rut or just like trying easy new recipes I recommend checking out Cheat Day Cafe! Some of my favorites have been:

Crock Pot Beef Stew

Shrimp Monterey

Corn Muffins

Anybody have any yummy recipes they want to share?

Sight Words

Ellie and I are working on sight words and I thought I would share a few of the activities we are doing with them that seem to be working. I have story starter cards and I will get out several of them and we have to make up a sentence or story about the picture using our new sight word at least once. We each take a turn doing it. Sometimes I will have her spell it instead of say it in the story. This has been a lot of fun and she has been pretty creative with her stories. She has even been telling me something later in the day and exaggerated the sight word we have been working on, which I love.


I will also get a book that we read often and while I am reading have her find the sight word we are working on throughout the book.


The last thing we have been doing during circle time is to take turns having each other do an action using our sight word. For example we recently had IN - She had me jump in a circle and I had her stomp in a square or walk in a straight line.


I am trying to make it as fun as possible and so far she is enjoying it.

Emily's First Haircut

Workboxes

Monday was our first day using Sue Patrick's Workbox System and it went great! Our plan is to do the workboxes Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Thursdays we are going to focus on Five In A Row and take Friday off. I worked with Ellie pretty much the whole time to teach her how to use the system and she was very excited!! I am trying to use it how Sue recommends (except I am using 9 drawers instead of 12 boxes) and then I can tweak it however needed as we go along. Here is what our workboxes look like:Here is what I put in the boxes on day one in no particular order: (I tried to mix a good variety of easy in because I didn't want to overwhelm her or me the first day!)

Valentines Craft

Valentines books with snack (Cookies for the first day because I am a cool mom:) )How to Build an A: Letters A, B, CCounting WorksheetPuzzleLacing CardReading Lesson (which I am not loving)Sequencing CardsPutting the numbers 20-29 in order

I think this system is going to work great for us and really keep me on my toes!