Yard Sale Saturday!

We woke up early and had our yard sale. We had a ton of baby items out and didnt' even sell half of them. All the big stuff is gone though and some other random things that were just sitting in storage. We made a few hundred dollars which makes us very happy! Everything we sold, we sold it cheap so making a few hundred dollars was good in our book. I also had to take a trip to the library while daddy took leftovers to the goodwill (not the leftover baby stuff though!)
Daddy is out getting sushi for dinner(chicken nugget kid meals for the boys) while I chill out in the house.
Tomorrow we are planning our first trip to tybee Island since living here. I'm very excited!

Funky Friday

AHH!! We didn't get to do our craft today.
This morning while I was showering they did watch Hullabaloo Colors! movie that I got from the Library. I caught some of it and it was a wonderful follow up from our week. They talked about primary colors, mixing primary colors to make new colors and even talked about the colors on a stop light!
But after our 2 hr. long grocery shopping trip we came home and put away our groceries. Then meet daddy for lunch. Then had to go to Walmart for an oil change. By the time we got home at 4, they boys were wore out. I am now working on getting all our things together for a yard sale tomorrow. AHH!!!
Tomorrow after the yard sale I'll get the boys to put their colors books together and then head to the library for new books for next week.
We did get Daddy a birthday present for his birthday tomorrow so maybe I'll get some pictures tonight. Maybe we'll also bake a cake. Not sure yet. LOL.

Mixing Colors Thursday!

Today we mixed our primary colors!
For breakfast I planned on colorful yogurts. Teagan happily ate his. Gavin wanted oatmeal. Even after I explained what I planned, he wanted oatmeal so that is what he ate.

The books we read today were Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh and Little Blue and Little Yellow by Leo Lionni. The boys enjoyed both books. We discussed mixing the colors blue, yellow and red to make new colors.
I then pulled out 3 ziploc baggies and the blue, yellow and red paints. I put blue and yellow in one, blue and red in another and red and yellow in the final one. I let the boys mix them together to see what colors they could come up with. They thought this was awesome. I gave them a train each to let them drive over the ziploc baggies and see the lines they made in the paint.

We then made our color pages. Today we did three: Green, Orange and Purple.
Gavin hasn't finished his yet. I'll get a photo of his later.
Tomorrow I plan on punching holes in each of the pages and letting the boys lace yarn/string through them to make a color book. I hope it turns out nice!

http://http://www.amazon.com/Mouse-Paint-Ellen-Stoll-Walsh/dp/0152002650
http://www.amazon.com/Little-Blue-Yellow-Leo-Lionni/dp/0688132855

Yay! Elmo!

What is more perfect for RED day than ELMO!!






A small local toy store has playdates everynow and then. Today they had Elmo attend.






When we first got there Elmo was taking a break. So we played a little. When he came out again the boys were already playing with the train table. If you have a child that is a train addict you know how hard it is to tear them away from it. Gavin happily went over and hugged Elmo. Teagan screamed.



A while later Elmo started walking around and Teagan wanted to get a close up look. He just stared though. It took me forever to get them out of there. It is such a great toy store with many displays for the kids to play with. The toy store is called Learning Express if anyone is interested.


Now I have their lunch cooking (yeah it's late) while they are back playing with their train!

Red Wednesday!

For Red day breakfast, they wanted oatmeal again. I added red sprinkles this time.

After a little playing, we read our books. Today we read A Color of His Own by Leo Lionni. We talked about everyone being different colors and animals being different colors. Then we read The Little Red Hen by Paul Galdone. We discussed how everyone needs to share the chores in the home.

We then made our RED pages. Teagan again just wanted to play in the glue. I did manage to give him a few things to add to the pages. Gavin had no problem jumping in to this project.

Then Gavin made a stop sign. Teagan was already on the floor playing with other things.

After Gavin made his sign, I told him a little poem that I found online. It goes like this:
Red on top

Green below

Red says stop

Green says go

Yellow says wait even if you're late

We played RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT. The first way we played it was wiggling. Wiggle fast for green light, slow for yellow light and stop for red light. They had a blast doing this. So I tried the running version. I let them run around the living room. They were cracking up.

It was then time for Teagan's nap. I gave him cheese and put him to bed. While he is sleeping Gavin wrote in his notebook. He drew pictures about the Red Hen and drew pictures of us playing RED LIGHT GREEN LIGHT.

He is now resting too. We are planning to go see Elmo at 1 so I'm trying to get them to rest up a bit before hand.

I'll be back later after we see Elmo!!

Oh and I'm going to try and start adding links to the books we read at the bottom of the posts.
http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780375836978

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Red_Hen

New Thomas the Train sleeping bags

A couple months ago I found this material on the scrap bin at Joann's. I finally decided to use it to make little sleeping bags for the boys. They LOVED them! They were so super quick and easy to make.

They are wide enough for them to share but they do each have their own.

Oh and please ignore Teagan's Spaghettio face. :D

Yellow Tuesday!

We made pancakes for breakfast. I was planning to dye them yellow, but I had no yellow food coloring. I did have some yellow food spray stuff. I sprayed two pancakes yellow but the fumes from the can were awful so I didn't do too much. They boys love pancakes so they didn't even care what color they were. :D

After breakfast and playing with daddy for a little bit we sat down to read our books. We first read Planting a Rainbow by Lois Ehlert. We talked about the different colors and each picked out our favorites. Gavin's was blue, Teagan didn't pick a specific color. He likes them all. Then we read Brown Bear Brown Bear, What do you see? by Bill Martin and Eric Carle. It's one of the boys' favorites and it works perfectly for each day of color week.

Following the first book, we made rainbows. I was going to have them make two rainbows but Teagan didn't have much interest. So they did one. Gavin made a marshmallow rainbow and Teagan did a marshmallow/scrap paper rainbow.

After they finished this project they made their YELLOW page. Teagan prefered to play in the glue. He was a bit cranky today. Now they are playing with a wooden word/letter puzzle and listening to the much loved Jack Johnson CD.

Today was Blue Monday!

We started our theme week. This first week was colors and today we did Blue!

They started the day with blue oatmeal (regular oatmeal with blue sprinkles!)

First we read Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? By Bill Martin/Eric Carle. Then we reread it doing the animal sounds. I asked the boys what did they see. They (well mostly Gavin) came up with this list: Brown couch, red notebook, long blue pillow, green box, purple B, white rug, black slippers, and orange flower. He then drew each of these items in his notebook. Next we read The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister. The boys loved the glittery fish and were very happy to see him share at the end. We were very lucky that the library also had The Rainbow Fish on DVD so after reading it they got to watch it.

After watching the cartoon we made our BLUE page. For Teagan, I pulled out all the blue pieces and gave them to him. I let Gavin find the blue pieces on his own.

Later when Teagan was napping Gavin and I recycled our crayons!

First we had to separate our colors and take off any paper.

Then we had to melt them. We did this in the microwave with old never used cups. It took about 10-15 min. to melt all of them.

We then poured the melted crayons in to candy molds.

We had to let them set to dry. This took about 30 min.
Finally we were able to flip the molds over and use the crayons to color with!!

Last night Gavin started "writing" in his notebook. He is drawing pictures and together we come up with a story for them. I write the story as he is telling it and ask him questions to keep it going. He had a blast doing it and was happy with how long his story was. It was about a paragraph long for each story.

I didn't write the past two days because my keyboard broke from having coffee spilled in it. Only about half of the keys on the left side worked. It was no fun at all trying to type without them so I decided to wait until I had a working keyboard. The 23rd, My birthday, the boys and I (Joel had 24hr duty) spent the majority of the day at home. We did go out to the library to pick up the books we would need for the week. I was disappointed that a lot of books I wanted were not there. WhenI came home I discovered I could search our library's catlog online. So now I will know which books are there and not there before I go! I already have many listed for next week.

On the 25th Joel came home and slept. I wanted to keep the house quiet so the boys and I went to the Fort Discovery (local Science Museum) and the playground. Afterwards we went to Walmart to get some frozen snacks (Yay! Everyone loves a frozen snack, mozzerella sticks, breaded mushrooms, pizza, jalepeno poppers, dinner.) Daddy was up when we got home, the boys then went down for a much needed nap. They were extremely cranky.

Joel had 24hr. duty again today. We did take him dinner this time and are now home winding down for the night. They boys are happily playing with their "new" crayons and hanging out in the game room with me.

Not much happened today.

Last night at dinner, Gavin couldn't contain himself. He told daddy all about the card he made him and made me get it. Daddy loved it. Gavin read it over and over. He wrote on it 'Happy Birthday Dad. I love You' and then on the back 'Love Gavin. I love you' After reading it he said, "Because I love you. All of you." It was the sweetest moment. He's so lovable.

A happy moment for Teagan today! He peed in the potty 3 times today. We cheered him on!

Today I vaccumed and scrubbed all the carpets in the house (which is the whole house except the kitchen and bathrooms.) They boys were very happy to get McDonalds for lunch when we had to go get some things from Walmart.

But. Yesterday afternoon I began working on a Weekly Lesson plan. I am trying to set up a theme for ever week of the summer and break each day down to a more specific topic within the theme. A few of the themes include a field trip on Saturday. The themes I have planned and some ideas I have are:

Colors - making bath soaps, recycled crayon shapes (we bought candy molds today!), discussing primary colors, mixing colors, finding colors in everyday life

Under the sea - Aquarium field trip!, I am still finding activites and more specific lessons but there is so many ideas out there

Seasons - Explain the 4 seasons, compare/contrast, discuss appropriate clothing for each season, Changes in nature,

Outer Space - Planetarium field trip! (no kids under 4, so I think Teagan and I will stay home. The showings are late anyway) Discuss Planets, stars, moons, sun, Earth specifically. I have some crafts planned.

Healthy Foods/Lifestyle - Food guide pyramid, exercising, I am planning a trip to a local berry farm to pick our own strawberries and to the weekly Farmer's Market. I am playing with the idea of letting Gavin plan a meal.

Zoo Animals - Zoo Field Trip! Pick different animals to discuss. Of course there are plenty of craft projects

Nature - We have two local Free Nature Parks, Discuss bugs, plants, birds, amphibians

Shapes - different shape a day, compare/contrast, find shapes in everday life

Farm Animals - There is a local animal rescue that does nature hikes and has a petting zoo. I've never been and have yet to contact them but it looks like a lot of fun.

Body Parts - Different body parts, 5 senses, taking care of our body

and the last week is Preparing for Kindergarten! I'll work on teaching him phone numbers, our address, practice spelling full name, etc.

I have found many ideas on books, crafts, lessons on most of the topics. I think I'm going to have as much fun getting it all set up as they will learning. I plan on going to the library every Sat. or Mon. to get new books for the week. I want at least one for everyday. I found many sites (esp. the scholastic website) that give project/craft ideas for specific books.

We also have a week of Vacation Bible School. I'll do a religious theme for that week to encourage more spiritual learning, something our home is lacking. And for 10 days in July they will each have swim lessons. That's why there is a week like Shapes since I know they will be too worn out for a big adventure at home.

I am also hoping to help Gavin make a scrapbook for the summer of all the places we go and things we learn.

I'll try to keep this blog updated on what we do and to stick to this Weekly Theme lessons. I know how easily I get distracted or how I always start but don't finish projects. I need accountability and I think this blog will help me with that.

Here are pictures of the boys.

The first is Gavin finishing the Bday Card he made for Daddy!The next is Teagan cuddling with Daddy after getting really upset at us for putting medicine in his eyes.

Painting

Joel built the bookshelves in the game/craft room with the help of some friends. I have just recently started painting them. So the boys don't have a craft room to play in.

NO Worries! I pulled out a vinyl table cloth that I bought off season on clearance. I gave them cards (Daddy's birthday is next week) and a big paper to paint on.

Of course we had our bucket of soapy water, wash cloths and a dry cloth. They had as much fun painting as they did playing in the sudsy colorful water. Of course they got water and paint all over. But it was no issue. It was an easy cleanup thanks to the table cloth and the rags.

Afterwards they went to Teagan's room to build train tracks while I cleaned up and did some light housekeeping. While I started making lunch (spaghettios and grilled cheese) they went outside to play in the dirt, ride bikes, swing and chalk on the porch. They were very happy to be served their lunch outside. I think they fed their sandwich to Roxie though. :D

They are now in their rooms for quiet/nap time. I was able to do more cleaning and am now browsing the internet.

I love having Gavin home. They boys keep each other entertained and I feel more on schedule. Probably because I get an extra hour of sleep.

BUT when they wake up from their naps, we are going to draw and put stickers on Daddy's birthday cards. I have quite a few kiddie stickers that I haven't let them use yet so I'm sure they will have a blast.

Last night we watched Space Buddies. Gavin loved it! I think we will do a movie night every night during the summer (or every night that they have been good.) They have a ton of kid movies that they haven't watched since we moved back stateside. So this may be a good way to bring them back.
I know Gavin will love the idea!

Welcome to my beautiful life!

I'm very new to blogging and I'm really doing it for personal reasons. I want to have a little something of my own to vent to, to reflect my feelings and to look back on to learn and grow from.
Today was a wonderful day! Gavin is now out of school for the summer. His first year as a student was such a wonderful experience. I hope I can help out even more next year when he goes to Kindergarten. He loved it as well. He has grown so much from it. Not just intellectually but also emotionally and socially. He is very kind. I also learned through his schooling that he does very well with sticker charts. So well that we made a sticker chart at home for his behavior. He can earn 3 stickers a day; morning, day and night. If he gets at least 15 stickers a week he gets a fun day. It has been working beautifully so far.

Today the boys played outside on the swingset and in the kiddie pool. I love seeing them happy and dirty. Before they got dirty they helped me fold laundry on a blanket out on the deck. They thought that was fun. After playing they ate lunch, and went to their rooms for quiet time.
We did a movie night last night. We watched Bolt, ordered pizza, ate popcorn and drink chocolate milk. We also played a few rounds of Cariboo. They had a blast. They did spill chocolate milk on the floor and threw their kernals around the room. I had to take a deep breath and keep the situation fun. It can really be hard sometimes to remind yourself it's just a small thing to clean up spilled milk or pick up kernals. At the moment it seems like such an annoying task. A task that you know they knew better than doing but it's really not worth the stress. Everyone is happy and having fun. I'm sure some mommies don't have a problem constantly cleaning up messes, but that's why I'm not perfect. I know I do get upset or a little aggitated by cleaning up all the time. But if I can just keep reminding myself it's really not that big of a mess or that big of a deal, I know I'll be fine.

Wow, I didn't think I'd have much to write about but I already wrote so much. I also have so much more I'd like to write about. I guess for next time! I have some more laundry and some painting to do. Hopefully blogging will become an enjoyable hobby for me. I just don't know yet.