the coconut tree...

Yesterday we finished our day with blue snacks... we made blue jello, had blueberry muffins, and tried blueberry yogurt.

Today focused on the coconut tree from the book, "Chicka chicka Boom boom".
I passed around a real coconut to touch and smell. We talked about if it was rough or smooth and hard or soft.

Then we got to eat the coconut. We tried a couple bites and drank the coconut "milk" as well.
Some liked it better then others... this activity led to great conversations!

After we finished our morning snack, I made a chart to see how many liked the coconut and how many did not. It was neat to see that many liked the coconut but not the juice.

To finish up our morning, we glued packaged coconut to our color sheet. Some made it onto our art project, some made into our mouths!

It was a skit skat skoodle doot type of day!!!

Today we made Chicka chicka boom boom hand print trees. Loved how these turned out the kids had a blast making them.

First we painted our hands and arms to make our trees...

Some didn't care for how it felt...

Putting our whole arm on the paper...

After our trees were dry, we used our thumbs dipped in paint to make coconuts. Our final step was glue felt letters onto our tree.

random thoughts...weight loss edition

I forgot to update everyone on Friday's weigh in... it was good, down 2 more. I didn't get to work out as much last week and I could feel it. I was dragging, tired, and short tempered for sure. This week I am day 3 of riding my bike and doing a Jazz class. I am happy with that. I borrowed some Jazzercise DVD's from a friend so I can have something at home for the days I just can't get to the center to work out.

Some things I have started doing for this week... stopped drinking pop. Day 1 for this. I have found a fitness water I like, and it seems to help when I am in really wanting a pop. We'll see. Besides eating, pop drinking is truly my horrible habit I need to kick.

My second thing I have started... portions. I have realized it really isn't want I eat (when I am at home aside from fast food), it is how much I am eating. This is a challenge for me. I started using smaller plates... like a party size one for meals. This way, I can have a full plate, it is just a smaller one. I am doing this so I can really start looking at the amount of food that I am eating.

I am trying new recipes. A couple days before my list is needed for the store, I have started looking online for Weight watcher recipes. Trying some new things... another challenge for me. But, I am ready it.

Dustin has joined a gym too. He is totally on board for losing weight which makes this a little more easier. He is a late night owl so he goes after the kids (and I) are in bed. He is doing very well and I will probably be really mad when his weight comes off faster then mine... but until that post, I will support, encourage, and cheer him on!

We are looking for a fold up tred mill (?). Used maybe? If anyone has some ideas of brands or do's and don'ts of getting one, please let me know. Something down the road, maybe after the new year when everyone has them on sale.

I guess that is all...any success stories, tips or comments, email or FB me. I would love to share them with others as well.

Chicka chicka

boom boom... is our story of the week. We are going over the letters, colors, and funny sayings in this book!

Our color of the week is blue and shape is rectangle. We worked on gluing blue craft supplies like feathers, pom poms, and foam items to our rectangle.

Our next activity was a huge favorite... we colored coconut trees from our story. Each kid had letter stickers. As we read the story again, we pulled the letters off and put them on our tree. This took some time but totally worth it. The kids loved the interaction from the story to our craft.

We are arranging our daily schedule to include more outside time while the weather is so nice. I finally remembered to take some outside shots this morning.

Lots of different choices...

Some were just enjoying the awesome day...

Another fun and busy day...

Every week we look for items that are the color that we are learning about. This week are are talking about the color BLUE. Here is our helper of the day, L and our basket of blue goodies...

Blue cone, blueberry, blue block, blue shoe, blue shorts on doll... lot's pf blue!

We didn't do calendar today... someone thought it would be a great idea to take all of our days of the week and calendar numbers off the wall. All I have to say is, it's a good thing she is cute!

My lil' girls club! Never a dull moment with these chicks!

We finished up our morning with our movement game and music time. We made a rectangle outline with our cones and practiced gross motor skills... we walked, ran, hopped, skipped, and crawled.
The one thing I love about the movement and game time is the kids have to listen to me, the music, and each other. It is really so much more then PE time. It really is one of my favorite times of the morning!

Thanks for checking in and Happy Monday!

more randoms...

Our "after" picture... I love the wall paper being gone. This small project ended up taking the entire weekend due to games, dance, parties ect. But, it looks wonderful and I can't wait to get my pictures back up!

Sunday night at the Fluke household... G was taking a shower, Kadyn took a bath, Mia was in her PJ's ready for bed, and Kendal needed a bath too- She is still small enough for the sink. Multitasking at it's best... this is what happens when you have more children then you do tubs!

The temps are pretty low right now... Fall has shown up. I am so ready for the change in outfits. The girls are too... they were ready for long sleeves and pants.

Even the younger cuties were all dress up for Fall.
Now, if we could just bottle up this weather for about 1/2 the year, I would be a happy camper!

Friday's Favorite Pictures...

Heading out to our Tiki party on my b-day...

My b-day present from a daycare parent... A Jan cake.

Mia and her coat... Day 4!

Mia and her Cheeto face...

Happy Friday!

random thoughts...

This week has gone by fast and slow all at the time. Not sure how that happens but it does. We have been running around but with different events so it hasn't been the same routine of busy.

This week I have tackled my picture sorting project. Last week I started by ordering month by month, this week I am sorting into family, girls, and Christmas. I am so ready to start Kendal's book since I have her pictures ordered and sorted. This was 3 nap times worth of a project. I averaged about 100 printed per month. Yikes... I guess I am all about the memories!

We are going on day three of Mia wearing her new winter coat. I ordered it online and wanted her to try it on when it came in. It fits, looks great, and now she is taking naps in it. I had to turn her room AC on so she wouldn't get over heated yesterday while sleeping. I guess this isn't a battle I want to pick.

I am so blessed. Mia and Kendal both get AWESOME hand me downs from some friends of mine. I just got a few things for Kendal and I am going through everything I was given for Mia from last fall. This helps out so much. Mia and Kenni are at ages the don't wear out their outfits but just grow out of them. So having people that pass things done is a huge gift. Then it is new to them and not the same outfits form K and G, which is so nice.

Related to the last post- I did use my Gymboree coupon and stocked up on some odds and ends for fall as well. Seven dollar tees and leggings are just too good of a deal to pass up. (Also where I got M's coat---awesome deal.)

Gaby tried out for a munchkin last night. If you are on FB you know I was a crazy nervous wreck over this. Gaby was chosen to be a part of the 10 kids from her school to try out- that in its self is huge honor. I have no idea what her changes are, but she would be so excited to make it into the Wizard of OZ. She is prepared either way but she'll find out tomorrow! **Aunt Kara was even kind enough to come over after work and fix her hair for the try out, we love you Kara.**

I am in LOVE with a product called Scentsy. They are wax warmer things and they just rock. They don't get hot to the touch (outside parts) and they are just safer then candles. They cover up the smell of dirty diapers and it takes me to my happy place for sure! Monday the kids were out of school and I needed to set up for the party. I am gearing up for Christmas so my hostess points are "buying" presents... is that tacky??? I don't know! Anyway... I had helpers. They loved smelling everything, arranging the table, and listing out their favorite smells. The party was a blast, and I can't wait to get my goodies!

This weekend I was supposed to crop... well not any more. I pulled wall paper off in one spot to see how easy or not how easy it would come off. Good news is, it came off really easy... Bad news is, my house looks ghetto and we now have to paint instead of going to scrapbook. I am kinda excited to get this done but I don't think Dustin is as happy! But, it'll look great after we paint.

8 months old

Do I dare say, "My little baby is growing up?".

Kendal's features are beautiful, her expressions are priceless, and her personality is easy going!
What a blessing Kenni is!

This month has been a big month for Kendal. She has six teeth, sitting up with no support, and ups her butt to scoot all over the place.
Kendal loves cooing, laughing, and watching her sisters. She isn't as good as a sleeper as she used to be but once she eats at night she goes right back to sleep.
She is growing up. She is no longer wearing her 3mo. outfits (except for pants because they make perfect carpi's right now) but has jumped to 6mounths. Her feet are still so long and skinny so shoes don't fit yet!
Kenni is still an easy baby. Most of her fussy times are due to all the teeth she has coming in. She is eating baby food well, loves juice, and teether biscuits. Kendal is no longer nursing. We made it a solid 7 months and that was great for both of us. She transitioned very well to bottles and formula! She is my laid back girl (for now).

Kendal Lynn... 8 months old!

today's special visit....

Today we took a break away from our fall theme to welcome a visitor from ERC. Ms. Debi came over and talk to us about the importance of washing our hands to avoid spreading germs.
This is always a fun way to show young kids how many germs are on your hands even after you wash them... kinda scary!

Debi started our morning with a book about Sam the Shark. He wouldn't wash his hands and he became sick... we don't want to be like Sam the Shark.

Then we put special lotion on our hands... we rubbed it in really well.

The next step was putting our hand into the black light. It revealed how many germs we had on our hands. It showed up looking like green specks all over our hands, between our fingers, and under our nails. Gross!

After we saw our germs, we went into the bathroom, talked about the correct way to wash our hands, practiced washing them, and reviewed our hand washing song (to help us make sure we are washing long enough).

Then we checked our hands under the light again... our germs were almost gone.

This experience is always an eye opening reminder on how many times we should be washing our hands. It is a great reminder to me and my little friends... Thanks Debi for coming out and spending the morning with us!

Autumn...

it never fails that the week before we work on fall is the cold, rainy and gloomy outside. Then, it is our turn to discuss the season and it is a day right out of summer. Nevertheless we had a fun time reading our story of the week and introducing Fall!

Our story of the week is, " I know an old lady who swallowed some leaves". I love this story. It is based off the rhyme, "I know an old lady who swallowed a fly". There are many more books like this one... she swallowed a a shell, a pie, a bat, ect. All fun books to read.

(Plus I wanted to show off that Kenni is sitting up. I still put a pillow behind her for crash landings but over all, she is a sitting girl! Boy, is she ever cute doing it!)

Every Sunday night is, "get the house cleaned up for the week" night. As normal, I cleaned, got laundry caught up (thanks to D for putting some of it away), made my list for the week and so on. Then I remembered... no school for Gaby and Kadyn. Then I had 2 others add for the day (which I am happy to have them visit). Which means... house will get dirty a lot faster. Which during a normal week is no biggie at all. But, tonight I am hosting a Scentsy Party and don't have a lot of time from last child pick up to when party starts to clean.

So, to make the day stress free, we made a easy lunch with no clean up in the kitchen. Ate outside on the deck, and did story time on the deck as well.

My older girls, home from school... I sure do love having them here!

My little ones... everyone picked their spots out! Some wanted the table, some wanted the deck.

The kids had a great time being outside on this fall...um, I mean summer like day! Tomorrow we are back to our regular scheduled day!

First weigh in...

So, knowing I was going share my weigh in progress today, I decided to take some pictures to show all the fun, easy, never hungry week I have had!

During nap time, I started riding my bike for 40 minutes. I listen to music or read the Twilight books, again. Both makes the time on this lovely machine go by faster! Still, these are my feelings toward the bike right now!

Every morning I have weighed myself. WW magazine (an old issue) said people that weigh in everyday have a better change of losing weight and keeping it off because they know their weight, and don't ignore it. Friday's will be my "official" weigh in to determine the gain or lose for the week.
I am super uber excited to report that I am down 6lbs. I know each week will not always be this much of a lose but what a great motivator to keep with it.

I have worked out by going to Jazz class every day this week... 6 in a row! I am feeling it. I am so sore but it feels great, okay maybe not great but good. It is hard work but fun all at the same time!

This was taken after my 9pm workout last night. Donna is a hoot and a great sport. She worked parts of my legs and butt I didn't even know I had. The instructors are awesome though! All of them are there to help you succeed. They are just great people and I am lucky enough to call them friends. When I asked her to take a picture with me, she came up with this fun pose! Never a dull moment!

That is my weight loss week in a nut shell. This week I am focusing on the foods that I eat, the amount that I eat, and writing them down.

Thanks for all of the kind words and support.

Friday's Favorite Pictures...

I LOVE this shirt... (it's from Crazy 8). I am so glad that the fall temps are coming so the kids can start to wear some of their fall clothing!

Kenni trying prunes for the first time...

The girls... we were going to the school carnival.

Kenni and I goofing around yesterday during nap time.

Happy Friday!