Today we threw in a couple Fourth of July art projects...
Today we made star pins and Yankee Doodle hats.

Love C's face... this is his "cheese" expression! Today we learned about Yankee Doodle and sung his song.

And while the kids were working on their art projects, they had a little helper! Kenni learned a fun new trick...not! She climbs the chairs and gets on the table.

Homemade pizza and fireworks...

Summer is so here.

I love homemade pizza night at our place and so do our kids. Dustin is the king of pizza dough (um, from a mix), he can get it to cover the entire cookie pan, and I can not! He makes it so even and pretty. So, the pizza dough job is all D. And...I have a favorite apron, my sister in law gave it to me. It crackes me up that Dustin is wearing it- and yes, he is gonna shoot me when he sees this.
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Outside playing while Dustin is getting some fireworks out.

Kids putting their toppings on... I think most of the toppings never made it to the pizza. However they still have a fun time making it all their own.

More snacking...

Our pizza party...

Lot's of goofing around...

Now for the real fun... fireworks. This is where you will find Dustin, Gaby and Kadyn from now until July 4th. Every night, in the back yard, shooting of fireworks.

Dustin and his boards... "the shooting area has to be level".

We had a fun night of pizza and fireworks... we love summer!

My laid back day...

started with a walk...

no cooking... Sonic Please!

Dirty hands... yes please!

Lots of laughs and giggles... yes please!

Lunch time!

These days are far and few between- I have to take advantage when I can!

Let me start by saying that I had no expectations for this day. I ran to the store before daycare started and had issues getting what I needed for our fun dinner tonight. I came home to 3 out of our 4 child awake (6:30am) instead of their normal 8am. After juggling them, picking up the house for daycare, getting lunches for camps, and getting art ready for today- I had a feeling this might not be the best day ever. Hmmmm! I was right!

While getting supplies ready for the cutest July 4th art project ever, Mia decides to dump the glue out of the bottle and paint with it! So, after I cleaned up her mess we started art.

After art was started, things calmed down for a few- mainly Mia. (that kid needs her beauty sleep and waking up that early means major drama for the rest of us) Our art project was done in stages which means it takes up most of our morning. But it was so worth it!

First step- cutting out the paper plate and painting it blue.

While I was going back and forth with the little ones, the older ones did a couple of crafts on their own outside. It's a fun change to give them some simple instructions and know they can ran with it. They made a fun July 4th star pin and decorated a dog tag necklace.

Between stages we did cars, legos, and books...

Our next step was decorating our painted blue paper plate... we used star stickers.

Our end result...

So excited how these turned out- it was the one thing that went right today!

Awesome job kiddos!!!!

12.00 suckers, stinky shoes, and Gaby new step mom

Kendal... getting her poopy diaper changed and eating a 12.00 sucker...

It all began this afternoon... Gaby came home from camp and she was wearing her favorite pair of shoes. When she took them off, they about knocked me out. The smell that came from her shoes/feet was awful. I started looking at her closet and the last pair of shoes she had was 2 sizes too small. I called Dustin and told him, she needs new shoes ASAP. I can't let her wear these shoes again. She would be laughed at if they took their shoes off for any reason at camp. So, off to the mall we go... On a side note- Gaby is extremely hard on her shoes... she only has 1 pair of tennis shoes she wears, by her choice, but she wears them out.

So we went to the mall to find out, Gaby had grown 2 sizes in shoes and Kadyn 1 size. The first store we went into she was picking up 100.00 Air Jordan's. Um, no! Then she started settling on shoes because they were in her size. We finally talked her into going to another store. Two store later, she fell in love with these shoes... on sale... and in her size. For some reason, this kid was 100% against buying Nike shoes-this momma loves them- but Gaby does not. And the above shoes have now made it into the trash...

Since Kadyn is going to the same camp- we looked at shoes for her too. She was the easy one. She found her shoes at the first store and within 5 minutes. Again, she was a size larger this time too! Shesh!

So, because shoes were on the brain, Dustin comments, "I really need a new pair of shoes for work as well" *Sigh* So, because the kids did pretty well shoe shopping I agreed they could get a sucker at the candy store at the mall... Dustin looked at shoes for him and we picked out candy. $12.00 later we left the candy store... do you know how many suckers I could have bought at Walgreens for 12.00?? A lot more then 4, that is for sure.

Dustin has Kendal at his shoe store. The lady that is helping Dustin is a young, cute, friendly looking girl. Kendal decides that it is her time to poop. As she is pooping, he is trying on shoes. I come into the store with the rest of the girls and he picks out his shoes and we are leaving.

So before we leave, Kendal is getting changed and she is a sticky mess from her sucker (the first picture). Which leads me to Gaby's new step mom...

As we are driving home, Dustin says, "the shoe sales lady said how cute she was". (Talking about Kendal). Gaby pops up and says, "Well, if you want to marry her, you just have to divorce mom and go with her". Dustin speaks up, " She was talking about Kendal, not me". Gaby replies, "Oh- I thought you said she was cute".

Ahhh! So Dustin gives Gaby the entire, "I love you mom, we got married and marriage means a lot" speech. And, all I had to add to the conversation is "Gaby, she'd be your new step mom".

Dustin was much better at talking about this topic then I was...
Like I say, there is never a dull moment at our house.

Kendal's new stages...

The one challenge of having a home daycare is catering to all the different ages of children. Although I love doing the preschool activities and centers there is no way I will always have just older kids in care. In order to stay in business I will always have to rotate in little ones.

Kendal is the perfect example of catering to her age. When the kids are 12 months or older they really start to notice when the older kids are doing activities. They start sitting for some parts of circle time and even start joining in with their own language. This age LOVES music time and bounces and dances along.

Today Kendal joined us at art time. She wants to be a part of of our activities and gets super mad when she can't be involved. Because she still tries to tear paper and eat crayons, I put her in her high chair so if she messes up her own paper, it's okay.

Some days it can be harder then others... she would not let go of our water dropper- so she explored, got wet, and had a fun time. You have to be flexible with this age for sure.

I love that she is taking an interest in water play, play dough, and more. It makes her seem like she is growing up- not an infant any more but a toddler!
I know she is benefiting from circle time and calendar. She can count, one... two... tree (three). Her vocab is awesome for her age.

Our little peanut is growing up... and I am excited for that! I love watching her as she grows and explores her new stages of development!

Off to Camp...

Yes! Today is the day. My older two peanuts, Gaby and Kadyn are off to camp.

I am not in tears, I am not waiting by the phone for someone to call, I am not biting my nails or watching the clock... I am excited for them! To see their excitement this morning was priceless. All I will say is that I miss their conversation this morning. I keep looking around for them when we are gathering for activities. I know, I know... cut the cord! This is good for them... and me!

I must say "Thank You" to a dear friend of mine and long time daycare parent. She is the reason my kids were able to go. Jill is doing the transportation for Gaby and Kadyn-even 2 days a week when her child isn't coming to daycare, she is still making the trek to my place to get my girls... So a million thank you's Jill for making this happen for them!

Kadyn waiting at the door for Jill this morning... she waited like this for 30 minutes.

Mia and Kadyn. Mia just wanted to get her picture take. On a side note- Mia is dressing herself.

I can't wait to hear about my little campers' day.

Beautiful Earth... rocks

I have really fallen in love with our theme last week and this week. We have been learning about our Beautiful Earth and have had such fun as we explore. Our topic for this morning was rocks. We passed a round a picture of rocks and discussed where we could find them. We also passed around several types of real rocks and described them as rough, smooth, heavy, light, shiny or dull.

This morning we made pebble pouches. The kids were encouraged to make flowers and rocks on their sacks. Then we used tissue paper to decorate them and to make a flower.

My girls and their pebble pouches.

Art time...

drawing flowers and rocks...

working hard...

After our pouches were complete, we went on a rock hunt. They were encouraged to find at least 3 different types of rocks.

Looking hard...

After we came inside from our rock hunt, we played a game, "where are you hiding?". We learned a fun song and we looked for rocks inside.

We finished up our morning by making pet rocks.

Each child picked out their own rock to paint and decorate. We sprayed a clear coat so our pet rocks would be okay outside or inside. Each rock has their own personality!

Colors of the Earth... (Friday)

We are moving right along on our theme... today we talked about all the colors of the Earth. We colored coffee filters with shades of blues and greens with washable markers. Then we used a water dropper to spread water on our filters to make them look like Earth.

My little ones working on their coffee filters.

Using the water dropper...

Kenni had her own uses for the dropper...

taking turns and watching how our art changed...

Our finished Earth's...

The older kids follow themes some weeks, and some weeks they do not. At the beginning of summer I ordered some fun miscellaneous art projects that looks like fun. These swards were one of them. :ast week they started playing pirates as it seemed like a good time to have them decorate these.

Hard at work...