Mia saying "dadda"

right before lunch...

Can you say stir crazy??? This week we have not had as much outside time as we would have liked. As I was fixing lunch, the rain started. I hear stomping feet, loud voices and clapping. Here is what I come out and see. This version is little more calm since my Lil A's are tired and C is on the floor ready to crash. Not all are shown but you get the point!!! Here are my lil' peanuts singing, "rain,rain go away".

Color review

We are taking some time to review our colors, numbers, shapes, and letters before we start summer lessons in June. Today we painted liquid starch on paper as our glue then added tissue paper. After our first coat dried we went over our entire paper with another coat of starch to make it glossy and a finished look. We went over our colors, textures, and even discussed how the papered changed. The kids really enjoyed painting with "paint we can't even see"

C kept telling me, "my hands are sticky"

My little ones even enjoyed this project. They would dump a pile of tissue papers squares on the paper as the older kids placed them on one by one. They all had fun in their own little way!

Happy Birthday Aidan...

On Friday we celebrated Aidan's 3rd birthday at daycare. We had him a birthday hat (which didn't make it through the day), sang him some birthday songs, and had birthday cupcakes! We all had blue lips and teeth when we were done with our birthday treats!
Happy Birthday Aidan!

a little of everything

Mornings at my house can get pretty crazy. Getting Gaby up, dressed, packed and ready for school, getting breakfast ready for daycare kids that are arriving, and getting Dustin's lunch ready on the days he is gone. I started writing on Dustin's lunch bags a while back little messages to let him know I was thinking of him. One morning Gaby saw me doing this and asked what I was doing. When I explained the concept she wanted to help. She has written several notes for dad, but here was what she did today! I thought it was sweet of her!

I was in the kitchen cleaning up breakfast dishes and sitting out snack when I hear, "Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday...today is Wednesday, have a great day". They were doing their own circle time. I must say, they had it down. It was such a cute sight to see and hear!

All my girls came to daycare looking so Spring like. I couldn't wait to get Mia dressed in her spring wear too. Here she is in her little Target dress sitting up which is a new trick of hers!

A and her cute carpi pants and cupcake shoes... I even got a cute smile out of her!

Lil' A and her beautiful spring dress... every time I was trying to take a picture she would start spinning around to make her dress move!

And then there is Kadyn... she wanted to wear a dress today too, but it didn't stop at that. She had to put her necklace, crown, and dress up shoes on too. What can I say, she is my girly girl!

And here are my boys (and Kadyn) before they ran loose outside... they didn't care so much about getting their picture taken, they were ready to run and play! And, that is what they did... all morning!

I love writing lessons and teaching preschool concepts to my daycare kids... however I plan our lessons to end around spring time since it is hard to keep them inside. Our activities then become more hands on and nature filled. We start doing circle time and stories on the deck, eat snacks outside, and much more... I can't wait!!!

Friday's Fun...

Today we painted with spring colors...while, pink, green, and blue! We used a bath puff to dip into the paints. The kids picked up on the texture very quickly and made some fun observations!
"This tickles my hand"
"This is what my mommy uses in the bath"
"This is not for painting"

My younger girls had a real fun time dipping and painting as well!

More painting....

A and A showing off the end result...

This is one of the kids' favorite activities... dancing with scarfs! Every time I put music on, I get asked, "Laura, can we have the scarfs?". It is a great gross motor activity and they LOVE listening to Veggie Tales and getting silly!!!

This week we will be discussing the concept of recycling, reusing, and reducing! We are making recycling bags today so as we are outside we can pick up trash and put into our sacks. Our concepts will be basic... some of our activities this week is to make "earth friendly" hand soap, talking about energy and turning lights off, and how we can make Earth a cleaner place for us to live.

more updates coming...but until then...

Today I was planning on blogging about our daycare activities, dancing, and art we did today. I am out of batteries... so, after they charge, I hope to have more pictures of our day! Until then...here is what is going on with us!

This week Mia turned 8 months. Again, I don't know where the time as gone. As I see all the pictures I take while being at home ... I know I am blessed. I don't know if I could keep up with her if I didn't stay home. She is STILL teething but has no teeth. Mia is by far the longest teething child we have ever had. Poor girl sometimes deals with it well and sometimes not so well. Fortunately the good out weighs the bad!

Dustin is liking his part time job. As I noted in a blog entry earlier, it doesn't meet our needs 100% but it gets him working and still allows him to look for a full time job as well.

Gaby and Kadyn have started softball. We now have become "those" parents that have every night planned for the Spring season. Monday is dance, Tuesday is tumbling, Wednesday is practice, Thursday is bible study, Friday is down time (so far), Saturday is practice, and Sunday is well Sunday! Activities will free up a little as the end of school hits, but until then...look out, we are on the go!

Insurance search continues... we are looking into private plans to see if we can get everyone covered. We are exploring several opitions but if you have any ideas... we are open to suggestions.

Weight loss continues to go slow but good. I have my good and bad weeks. I am roughly 17lbs away from getting my tattoo on my foot. Just in time for summer and flip flops. I am also going to start "working" at my Jazzercise center next week. If you check people in before classes 3x a week, you get your membership free. Every little bit helps at this point so I was eger to accept the task. You have to be there 10 minutes before class and great people coming in with a few other light duties.

Anyway, there is a run down of our week. I am looking forward to a fun yet busy weekend! Check back for more updates and pictures!

cards for swap...

Here are 2 cards I put together for a swap hosted on SCS. I did a spot for kids birthday cards and adult birthday cards. Here is what I came up with... pretty pleased. They are cute, simple, and fun! I made 6 of each card and I send them in to the hostess and will get 5 different cards for each theme back. A great way to see ideas, products in use, and techniques.

Easter weekend

This year the Easter Bunny was on a diet... so on Sunday morning the girls woke up to some spring outfits vs candy. And, boy mom was so pleased at how well the Easter Bunny had done for the girls.
Kadyn loved her "Hello Kitty" shirt
Gaby was excited that she got shorts...even though she hasn't gotten to wear them. But for now she is okay with her "little miss sunshine" shirt!

Even Mia loved her new outfits... at 7mo. she is already checking out the tags and name brands...trust me, it's Target!

After church we drove to Kansas City to eat lunch with my brother Matt, his wife Amy, kids, mom, dad, and grandma.
Here are the girls with their giant lollipops. As you can see, the 2 little ones are on a sugar high! Sugar is crack to children... here is the proof!

K and G at church... the dresses looked great one them, however we didn't get many pictures on Easter morning. Gaby was sitting in church playing with my mom's cane and knocked herself in the nose with it. She ended up with a bloody nose and blood all over her dress, my dress, and both of our sweaters! Yeah, dry cleaning bill!

Peanuts do "ABC's"

Here is a sneak peak of our ABC picture book we are making. Last year each child received "Brown Bear, Brown Bear what to you see?" with our pictures for each page. This year we are doing letters. Today it took us over an hour to take pictures, gather items, and put them with the correct letter. Now, we will begin writing our story and then each child will get a copy of our ABC book soon! I can't wait!
Above: Kadyn is doing "A is for apple", but instead of putting the apple back, it became her snack!

J is doing "Bis for ball"...pretty self explanatory!

C is doing "C for car and himself"

D for Dino...

A is doing "E for egg", I was holding my breath on this one. I was worried I was going to have a huge mess. She held the egg great, stood still for the picture, and as she was handing the egg back to me...she breaks it...luckily into my hand!

A had "F for flowers"

K is doing "H is for hat"

A is doing "I is for ice". Well the ice is in the baggie and I couldn't get her to hold the bag and the letter up at the same time...

Even I got to represent a letter...

I couldn't leave Mia out... and since she is teething, I though her picture with the teeth would be perfect!
Well, that is what we did today...we had lots of fun, lots of letter review, and lots pictures! Looking forward to getting these to the children soon!

the madness begins

This morning was our Easter party... the kids were so excited! We had plans to make paper sacks into baskets. Well, you win some and you lose some... well, I lost! The craft did not turn out so my mom watched the kids as I ran up to Walgreens to get baskets for them. I made the kids stay on my bed as I hid the eggs and they came out ready to go. Kadyn said, "Mom, it is Easter in here".

Our day was simple, Max and Ruby Easter cartoons and egg hunt! Kadyn is so excited that she is finding eggs...

A was on a mission to find yellow eggs... he did pretty good! He was counting as he went.

My little ones did not get as excited until they broke open an egg and saw candy. After they each found one, the three girls sat at the table and ate the candy! To be fair to everyone, no matter how many eggs everyone got, we put them in a bowl and each child is taking the same amount home. They have loved Easter week, or the candy I should say!

The younger boys showing off their eggs....

And the after... I added some goodies, handed out the extra candy, and made the baskets look pretty to take home... this is what they get to take home. No way am I giving them all at candy at house! There is a method to my madness!
Happy Easter!

nervous energy

Yesterday during nap time I could not sit down. I had all of the "stuff" to do for the day, that evening and weekend. After the kids were sleeping, I pulled all of my books and re-organized them into cubbies where they are easier to get to... here is my end result. So much better now and let me just say, for every theme I teach, I have at least have 2-3 books. I am covered..

This was not on my list but ended up getting done. I sorted all of the girls clothing, packed up the rest of the winter stuff and even pulled all my other containers and sorted them by size. Why bother keeping them if I don't use them. This will help me for Kadyn and Mia. Here is my mess on my bed... this was in the beginning stage, it became a lot worse as the afternoon went on!

And my after stage... each container has a peice of paper that states what size and season are in the container... whew! I feel as if I could open up a second hand store in my garage! But the hard work will hopefully pay off as it will be a lot easier to find clothing when the girls need a certain size! Yeah for organizing!

Busy morning

Today we continued with our Easter theme. We crushed egg shells and glued them on to paper. We discussed texture and sounds.

Now that we have completed our Letters of the Week, we are working on writing them with my older group. Today we worked on letter E for Easter and Eggs. The kids were really impressed how I planned that.

This activity I was very uncertain about. We got all of our eggs and candy out. We looked at all the colors of the eggs, shape of the eggs, and we even counted the candy as we stuffed the eggs. Who knew getting ready for an egg hunt was so educational. The bigger kids did a great job of not eating the candy, my 2 little ones, no so much! Every child brought candy and we were able to fill over 50 eggs for Friday's hunt. They were super excited.

Playground toy...

Our neighbors around the corner have older kiddos and are moving. They gave me an awesome deal on this swing set for the daycare. Dustin went and got it yesterday during nap time and had it set up and ready to go for our afternoon time outside! As you can see, it was a hit!
Kadyn loved that it had another swing... that is the one thing the kids fight over.

The boys all had a blast pretending it was a ship...

I was happy we could put a baby swing on it for Mia, she was a happy girl!