Decorating the daycare...

is the theme of week. And let me just say how excited I am for this, we'll be making all sorts of goodies that will help us get into the spirit of Christmas.

Today we made Christmas chains to hang in the door way- at first I thought this would be a breeze for them and they would get bored. Um nope! Much glue, help, and instructions were needed for our chains. But after 45 minutes of hard work we were able to connect all of our chains and make a beautiful decoration.

We took a vote and the kids wanted to hang it in the entry way so all of our parents could see our hard work... other then our tree, it is our first decoration of the season.

Thanksgiving Day at the Fluke's

I am thankful that we were all able to come together and enjoy Thanksgiving dinner together! This was our second meal of the day... the first gathering was at Dustin's Aunt house for lunch.
Dorsett/Fluke/Smoot family

The kids table... every gathering has to have one!

My plate of food that everyone was making fun of me for. Ahhh, the best meal ever!

The Tuesday before... Kara and I (and friends) went to see "Wicked" in Kansas City!
It was awesome...

Our Thanksgiving Feast...

We celebrated Thanksgiving with all of our daycare friends today. Everyone signed up to bring a side dish to share with everyone. And boy, did we feast...

During preschool time we made decorations for our table. We glued turkey heads on pine cones and used pipe cleaners as their feathers. My older group watched how to make the feathers and caught on fast. My little fingers group...well...they needed more help!
This project took a lot of time but the kids stayed engaged and worked hard on their decorations! I thought they turned out super cute!

Getting ready for the feast... of cereal and carrots.

My daycare group... ready to eat, eat, and eat! We had a ton of food! While cooking and warming everything up I had a lot of helpers in the kitchen. They were excited to help prepare and serve what they brought.

And, we ended on a bang... pumpkin pie and apple crisp!

Happy (early) Thanksgiving from the Peanut Gallery Daycare!

Our weekend...

Started out with a bang... Gaby choose Olive Garden for her birthday dinner.
She was so excited when she got her Nintendo DS that she has wanted for over a year now. After dinner we took her to Toys R Us to spend a gift card so she could buy one game to go with her new toy.

The next morning we gathered at Starlite Skate Center for her birthday party. It was a crazy 2 hours but at least it is pretty stress free and fun for the kids. She had a wonderful turn out.

That evening we continued to be on the run... we met with our small group for our holiday party. We had small gifts for all the kids and white elephant gifts for the couples. Always a fun time!

Finally, on Sunday we made our first attempt to get Christmas pictures, get decorations out, and work on some projects around the house. Once the kids were playing and Mia was napping, I started on making Christmas cards. I like doing several layouts so I don't get bored. These are not original ideas but I put my touch on them and I was pleased with how they turned out!

Boy- 3 posts in one day... I feel like a chatty kathy. Please scroll down to see the post about daycare openings. I have one spot available ASAP and several coming up in Spring. I am offering discounted rates for the first 2 weeks for signing on and if the spot is filled due to a referral, there will be a special something just for you!!!

Hope you had an awesome weekend too!!!

I am so excited for Thanksgiving week. I love the art activities that we do, the books we read, and the food we eat! Today we made some table decorations for our Thanksgiving dinners at home.

First we melted canning wax over the stove. Then, we dipped leafs in the wax to preserve them for our decorations. The bigger kids had a blast as they are used to being in the kitchen with me and the little ones needed a more "child proof way" of doing this activity.

I couldn't get pictures of my lil ones doing this since my hands ended up with more wax on them then the leafs did... but it was still a fun time. The leafs turned out so well and will make a great addition to Thanksgiving table.

It is hard to believe we are already to Letter N for our weekly letters.
Today we used "number" stickers to decorate our "N".

We also had "nuts" for a snack, and ate "doNUTS" for breakfast. I know, the last one is not really an N word but the kids had fun making the donuts just the same.

Peanut Gallery Daycare now has an opening for ages 18mo and up!!!

Peanut Gallery Daycare is ran out of my home and offers:
*Licensed and Quality Care
*Daily Routines: circle time, fine/gross motor activities, free play, art, outside play, calendar time, letter of the week activities, and much more
*Affordable rates
*Daily notes/email sent to parents
*Structured learning environment for all ages
*Updated blog/pictures for parents and friends


I am also offering a discounted rate for your first 2 weeks of childcare.

References and Parent Handbooks are available upon request.

I hate Christmas pictures....

As many of you know, my hubby and I bought my dream purchase... not a new car, not a new home, but a nice camera. I hate loading up the kids, taking them into a studio, dressing them up, hoping the studio is running on time, and then being rushed while getting my pictures taken. So, we bought a camera and giving this photography thing a try!

I must admit, my toy has so many features, knobs, and buttons... I am a little out of my element with it. However, my hubby is/has been doing a ton of online researching and reading to see how we can make the most of our pictures without investing a small fortune!

This afternoon was our first attempt at getting Christmas pictures... I say first because we will be trying it again even though we shot a couple of good ones.

This was my living room this afternoon... trying to get lighting right. I love the colors of my walls but it doesn't lend itself to bright pictures.

G and K know the drill pretty well... but then there is Mia... Oh my little Mia. The heart of all frustrations this morning!!! At least when she was little all she did was sit there. Now she moves, she crawls, she messes. She did it all... which made for pictures like this!

We tried some different things around the house... the girls were really bored!!! Kadyn just sat there the entire time saying, "CCCCCCHHHHHEEEEESSSSSSEEEEEE"

And then when I would say or do silly things to get them laughing, we got pictures like this. No one looking at the camera and Mia running away!!!

So, even though I am so happy for my awesome new camera and my cute little girls to take pictures of, I just wish that this process was a little easier on my patience and blood pressure!

Happy Birthday Gaby!!!
Our first born has rocked our world for 8 years....

our last week of of animals....

and working on number 8. We did a lot of learning and now it is time to move on!

What a fun week learning about zebras, snakes, lions, and elephants! All animals you see when you visit the zoo.

Today we counted out 8 beans and glued them on our number 8... we even made beaded necklaces with 8 beads on them.

Then we looked at "real life" elephants, acted liked elephants, and even ate like them too. We had a special peanut snack.
Then we made our smooth elephant have skin by sponge painting some skin....

Stay tuned for next week... it's all about Thanksgiving!!! (Big Shock, right???)

Zebras and dancing...

A and K are waiting for learning time... BFF's

Today we talked about Zebras and read an awesome book, "What if Zebra's didn't have stripes?". The kids started out with plain zebras.

Then we marbled painted some fun stripes on them.
Our before and after picture...

C was proud of his art and was happy to show it off.

Even Mia was able to marble paint...and bot was she mad when I took it away!

All of our zebras are so different... just like in our story.

And then we danced...

part 2... the rest of the daycare!!!

More smiles....

More cuteness....

And more giggles!!!

My new toy...

After lessons we played around taking some pictures of the daycare kids...

Still so much to learn.... about my new toy and the software!

But... I thought these were pretty cute subjects

Today we made snakes, read about snakes, and looked at real life snake pictures...ewww!

All of the kids had a blast painting and cutting their snakes. Some of our snakes even have names!

Then we even pretended to be snakes... they had this part down!!!
One child even wanted to be the rat so the other snakes could eat him. They made a fun and entertaining game out of being snakes!!!

so many changes....

It seem so quickly everything is changing... the weather, our family, our house, my daycare, relationships, plans, social calendar, kids calender. Looking at it all it can be hard to take it all in. But with God's help, I think I can!!!

Some of our changes... I am excited and nervous about!

Our family number is growing... in 3 months, we'll meet our new peanut!
My belly is growing... over night I am bursting out and finally putting away some pre-pregnancy outfits I can no longer wear.
My hair keeps getting shorter... I can't decide on a hair cut that I am "in love" with, but think I finally have it now.

My oldest is turning "8" this Friday night... she is the most delightful, spunky, caring, loving, and helping child I know.
She has more of a social life then I do... Let me re-state that...
Because of her social calendar, I am choosing to put my calender on hold to embrace every moment I have with her. I know as a mommy I don't have many years left that she will want to still hang out with me.

This little ball of energy is no longer has a toothless grin but 7 teeth.
She is getting an attitude when kids try to take her toys away from her.
In 3 months, she will no long be my last child, my baby. She will seem and look older.
She no longer just coos and jabbers but talks with some words.
We will longer have a room to her self but share one when Kendal is here.

Kadyn will be turning "5" soon.
She will be in full day kindergarten this fall and no longer will attend "mommy's school".
Kadyn always has to have the last word now when talking to her.
She doesn't like to hold anyones hand when walking across the street anymore.

Even the daycare has many changes in the next several months....
The garage is getting a face lift so we have a recreational area to play, ride our cars, and have room to move and add more centers.
We are going to graduate 4 children to school and I will have 4 spots to fill in May.
We are tying to add on to the deck- to make it an outdoor classroom we can use all year round.
Dustin and I are moving bedrooms so the biggest room can be Mia's and Kendal's and have more storage for daycare and art supplies.

A lot of changes to take in and pray about, embrace and enjoy, and rejoice about.
Bring on the changes!

Zoo Animals and the Letter M...

Today we started out talking about our letter of the week...M. We had a gluey mess but a lot of fun putting macaroni on our letter.
My older kids are doing so well working at the table together and following directions so we can do group projects like this. We have come a long way!!!

Just look at that fine motor usage there....

November has been our animal month... now we are taking a week to discuss animals you would see in a zoo!

Today we sponged painted a giraffe in yellow....

and then marble painted with brown to create some fun, unique stripes.
I really loved how these turned out! No one animal looks the same!