Little Bit of Nothing... and Everything...

A Crazy Period of Adjustment

2011-02-12T18:56:00.002-06:00

This has been the longest - and the shortest - three weeks of my life: Adjusting to working outside the house, with adults, away from my home and kids again...

I was so prepared, or so I thought. I had my plan figured, my lists written, my schedules made. And the first week was dream-like. I mean, really - it went like clock-work! I got up early to exercise, kept up with the house and the laundry and the kids, played catch up a little bit in the evenings, but for the most part the evenings were family time. Bliss.

Then came the 2nd week - and SNOW. Lots and lots of snow. Enough snow my office was shut down early, we had a scary, treacherous drive home (which I haven't had to do in over 13 years!), a couple times of nearly getting stuck driving to work the next day and cold, cold, cold. It was during this cold that we had a (quickly fixable, thankfully) furnace issue and I had to miss half a day of work to deal with it - In my 2nd week! Aaarrrgggghhhhh. So, I had a late evening at work and a couple days of working through my lunches to make up for that.

Then - the unthinkable. The Friday of my 2nd week at work, I get the phone call that my Grandma passed away. Wow - so hard to juggle my feelings there, but thankfully I was busy and it helped me to get through that day.

Then I spent that Friday night and all day Saturday in Kansas City at a conference Tyler and I had planned on going to for months. Distraction was good. Sunday was still crazy as I tried to play catch up again from being gone all weekend, that and get groceries and do laundry and ironing and so on and so on.

Part of Monday afternoon and Tuesday I was gone for my Grandma's funeral. It was then that my funk began - I was just down and could barely function - I gave all I had during the day at work and was simply exhausted come evening. I did nothing but fix dinner and fall asleep on the couch in front of the tv.

And today, today it caught up with me. I spent all morning cleaning up after my week of sloth-li-ness. And it was not fun.

So, I vow - from this point on - I will get back on my list-making, schedule-keeping routine, staying on top of things and loving doing it. I will find the good in every day and not let the funk get me down! I WILL get back on top of things and get back to blogging and talking with my friends and playing games with my kids.

There's a lot more to say, but for a later time. I'm off to finish fixing dinner for us and enjoy an evening with my family!

To All My Daycare Families - Past & Present

2011-01-19T13:04:00.017-06:00

This is the end of an era.

Kinda dramatic, but that's how I feel....

It's been a wonderful, crazy, amazing, blessing of a 12 year journey. I am so thankful for the time I've been able to stay home and run this child care. I've learned a lot, I'm proud of the way I managed it, I've had a lot of fun and I've grown as a person.

I am so blessed to have been able to be home with my own little ones - when they come home from school and before they leave in the mornings, when they're under the weather, during the summers, when they headed off to kindergarten, as we did pre-school lessons together and I was so happy to be their first teacher, as they were rambunctious, ornery toddlers, as they learned to walk and to talk, when they were infants.

I am so blessed to have come to know and love so many incredible, amazing children and their families. I have more wonderful memories than I could ever recount. Looking back through the pictures we've taken over the years brought all those memories rushing back...

These are just of the few memories I can put pictures to right now - there are so many more!

Baby Smiles

Loving on such cute little ones...
And seeing them grow up into amazing "big" kids! (Also many, many more pictures of little ones I've been lucky enough to watch grow into wonderful big kids, but couldn't match up that many pictures!)

Learning Together

Playing Together

Sharing Meals Together

Peaceful Naptimes

Snuggle Times

Lots and Lots of outside time

Birthdays

Halloween Parties

Our Christmas Late Night Tradition

Watching Friendships Develop

I consider myself honored to have worked with you and taking this step is bittersweet. I'm so excited about the next step for me, but I will certainly miss making memories with all of you. Thank you for these 12 years - for trusting me with your children, for being my friends, for helping me grow and allowing me the opportunity to be the mom I wanted to be, as well. I love you all!

Penguin Fun

2011-01-18T11:47:00.002-06:00

This week we are exploring winter animals. Today we focused on penguins - talking about what they look like, what they eat, how they move, and so on. We also made adorable penguin puppets!

We've been playing with them all day - pretending to be penguins putting on puppet shows - super fun! And I'm so excited we'll get to continue to feel like penguins as more snow comes in tomorrow (can you hear the scarcasm?)

Snowmen

2011-01-14T12:41:00.003-06:00

Today's craft time revolved around snowmen - we made these adorable, puffy snowman pictures and added our own faces and buttons - so cute!

We also snacked on a fun snowman treat - vanilla wafer snowmen covered in white frosting and edible glitter!

Next week - winter animals and a tough good-bye!

Snow Ice Cream - Yummmmmmm

2011-01-13T10:53:00.002-06:00

After working hard this morning practicing with scissors and making beautiful coffee filter snowflakes,

we needed a little treat. So we scooped up a bunch of CLEAN snow, some evaporated milk, sugar and vanilla and made some snow ice cream!

Definitely a hit!

SNOW!

2011-01-12T13:22:00.004-06:00

Last week we started talking about winter weather during pre-school time. We talked about the things we could do with snow - snowballs, snowmen, snow angels, sledding and tasting the snow! And, we practiced it!

Little did we know when we started talking about the snow that it would actually snow so stinkin' much! After a full day of snow and cold on Monday we ended up with a good 8" or so of the white stuff. It's beautiful and all, but could melt anytime now!

Doesn't it make you cold just to look at it? Tomorrow - we make the most of the snow with some snow ice cream!!!

Big, Huge, Life-Changing Decision!

2011-01-10T10:57:00.002-06:00

Well, it was bound to happen at some point. This must be the point God has chosen for it to happen. An opportunity has come along that I was unable to pass up and I am taking a job! An actual, leave the house, work with grown-ups job. And I am so excited about it!

That being said, I am also so incredibly sad that I am closing down the daycare. I have grown this daycare for 12 years and I have loved staying home, working with the many incredible families I've worked with, loving all the amazing kids I've cared for over the years, learning the many things I've learned. But, I have known for a while that I am not a "lifer" and it's time to move on.

After today, I will have 9 more days of keeping kiddos in my house and after that, the house becomes just a house - not a business. I am so looking forward to that. Again, I've loved my time - and it's served the wonderful purpose of being here with my kids, but I'm ready for it to just be "us" for the first time ever! The last day the daycare is open will be January 21. I start my new job bright and early the next Monday!

I just want to leave a big THANKS and LOVE YA for all the amazing families I've been blessed to work with and the same to the other wonderful providers I've worked with as well! This has been an incredible part of my life - just as I know this next stage will be as well!

-Dawn

Want to Keep in Touch? I Can Help!

2011-01-04T14:30:00.003-06:00

Is one of your goals for this new year to do a better job of keeping in touch with friends and family? Is it to do a better job of sending birthday, anniversary and thinking of you cards -

- sending happy mail? Are you wanting to make a point of spending more time with friends? Or take more time for yourself?

Now is the perfect time to get started making your own hand-made cards using Stampin' Up! products! Start the year off with a stack of hand-made birthday cards to send to friends and family! Join me on Saturday, January 22 at 1:30 as we make 12 fun birthday cards together for only $20. Space is limited so reserve your spot soon! dawnstamping@embarqmail.com or 785-986-6829

Becoming available today - gorgeous stamp sets and accessories in the Occasions Mini Catalog

- good from today through April 30 only! Host a workshop during this time to earn free product and exclusive hostess stamp sets!

Be sure to book from January 25 - March 31 to earn additional free stamp sets or accessories during Stampin' Up's Sale-a-Bration promotion!

Contact me today to book your workshop!! I can't wait to stamp with you!

Brrrrr - It's Cold Out!

2011-01-03T13:07:00.004-06:00

With the holidays over and the cold, cold January starting, we will be talking about and learning about that cold!

Today we talked about ice and "painted" by rubbing ice cubes as they are melting over jello! Pretty cool! (or cold - hence, the mittens!)

And tasted good, too!

We also played a fun game - Who's on the Iceberg? Much like hot potato, but if you are caught holding the bag of ice when the music stops....

...then you shiver and show us how cold you are!

More shivery fun tomorrow!

Happy New Year!

2010-12-29T13:28:00.001-06:00

We are certainly not back to normal in the daycare, with recovering from Christmas, a short holiday week, odd schedules, big kids around and all sorts of oddities, but we still spent some time this morning in circle time and talking about New Year's!

We all hope everyone has a safe and wonderful New Year's! See ya in 2011!

Moments from Christmas 2010

2010-12-29T13:00:00.011-06:00

We enjoyed a wonderful Christmas with both sides of the family - snapping lots of fun facial expressions from the kids as they opened gifts! Thank you to everyone for a great Christmas!! We love you all!

Daycare Christmas

2010-12-29T12:45:00.006-06:00

Last Wednesday we had a fun-filled day celebrating Baby Jesus' birthday! We had all our friends here together.

We enjoyed birthday cupcakes for Baby Jesus - candle and all!

We opened gifts together.

It was a great day - full of friends, food and fun!

The Reason for the Season

2010-12-21T12:33:00.004-06:00

This week we're focusing on why we celebrate Christmas - the gift of the birth of Jesus. We've retold the Christmas story,

we've talked about angels,

and the Christmas Star.

Tomorrow we show our love and friendship for each other at our Christmas party in the afternoon! I know we can all hardly wait!

Merry Christmas!

Late Night

2010-12-18T08:50:00.010-06:00

Last night was my annual gift to my daycare parents - a night when I'll keep the kiddos, and their siblings, through the evening til 10:00 so Mom and Dad can enjoy a night out on their own - for a date, to Christmas shop, a party or whatever! We all look forward to this night each year and last night was no exception.

I had 14 kids between the ages of 2 and 12 and with the help of 2 wonderful teenage girls, things went wonderfully!

We started the evening with dinner - pizza and juice boxes! We went through a crazy amount of pizza!

We moved on to some crafts - coloring pages,

Madison was an awesome helper!

the older girls...

the younger kiddos

sticker art,

beads and more!

Tyler and Madison were my bead helpers!!

We had some time for free play and silliness...

ring around the rosie

a little "cooking"

bigger kids playing with littler ones - love it!

some peek-a-boo/flirting!

and then the dog-piling began...

we didn't let that continue for too terribly long - wowsers!

Tyler finally got A to pose for me!

And then after some ice cream dessert,

we all settled in for a movie!

We were all tired at the end of the evening but enjoyed our time together! I hope all the parents had a great evening! We did.

Friday Fun!

2010-12-17T11:52:00.005-06:00

We did something very important this morning - we "wrote" letters to Santa Claus. I got to enjoy some great one-on-one time with each kiddo as we worked together to write their letter to Santa. Everyone signed with a hand-print! These are super-cute! They'll go home in an envelope tonight so everyone's moms and dads can "send" them to Santa (or keep them for a wonderful keepsake!)

We did a little cookie cutter stamping to make some fun collages.

We finished up our gifts for Mom and Dad, wrapped them and put them under the tree!

We spent some great time in free-play this morning - everyone was playing very nicely and working together very well - always great to see!

Here, B says he is being Dawny as he "reads" to the other kids! Love it!

We've been having fun singing a lot of silly Christmas songs - here's one of our favorites! (and yes, there's some pushing during the video. I tried a couple times to redo it so they all seem like little angels - not pesterers and pushers, but this was actually the best one! :o) Kids are kids, after all!)

Tonight, as a gift to all my daycare families, I am keeping all the kids - and their older siblings - until 10:00pm. We're going to have a pizza party, make some fun crafts, watch a movie and enjoy some ice cream! Should be lots of fun! There will be pictures to follow!

Snowball Fight!

2010-12-16T12:33:00.007-06:00

Yep, we had us a snowball fight today. How, you ask, since it hasn't snowed here yet? Well, we started out with a simple little project. Making a Santa hat using a triangle of red construction paper,

some cottonballs,

and viola - they become Santa hats.

Well, then there were all sorts of leftover cottonballs. So, it's only natural the kids started calling them snowballs. And then, once they became snowballs - we HAD to have a snowball fight!

We also spent some time bundling up in all our winter gearing and heading outside to run some of the Christmas & snowball fight excitement off!

Now, everyone's winding down and getting ready for a good nap before tomorrow's big exciting day when we get to hang out and play together until 10:00 at our late-night/pizza party! Fun!

Glowing Trees

2010-12-15T12:48:00.002-06:00

Today is a dreary, cloudy day, but we brightened up inside when we made some cute Christmas trees with "glowing" ornaments.

After punch holes all over our green triangles, we spread glue around the holes on the back, the stuck tissue paper squares over all the holes.

When you flip it over, you look like you've got a light-covered tree!

N said, when I hung up the trees, "It looks like a Christmas tree farm."

Girls' Night!

2010-12-15T12:23:00.006-06:00

Last night was the monthly girls' night for my close group of friends! Since it is December, it was also our Christmas Party!

We ate and talked and laughed.

We shared a moment of silence to honor our friends who couldn't be with us last night! We missed you guys!

We did a white-elephant style gift exchange.

Which means we stole gifts from each other!

We held an ugly Christmas outfit contest and we were all winners (or is it losers?!)

We did a cookie exchange.

And just had a great time! I *heart* my girls!

Christmas Time is Secret Time

2010-12-14T11:34:00.002-06:00

One of my mom's favorite sayings and it is so true! We started working today on a Christmas surprise for everyone's Moms and Dads! We needed a little bit of this:

and this:

and this:

and a lotta this:

We also made these colorful and glittery Christmas stockings!

Dang! Ummmm. Yeah, It Works.

2010-12-13T19:33:00.003-06:00

So, my husband has been doing P90X. He's partway through his 3rd, somewhat modified, round of it. On occasion he's whined that he's just not seeing results. I've tried to tell him, the kids have tried to tell him that ummmm - yeah, he's got some muscle goin' on.

He's been working really hard. And yet, he started in on the whining tonight, so I whipped out the camera... Yeah, I think it works.

And yeah, it looks nice!

Hand & Foot Print Rudolphs

2010-12-13T12:45:00.004-06:00

We continue with some fun Christmas crafts this week. Today we jumped in with both feet - and hands! when we made these adorable Rudolph faces!

We started with painting a foot and stamping it onto everyone's paper.

Then we did the same with little hands - to make antlers.

Awwwww - Love how these turned out!

We didn't make it outside this morning in this bitter cold, so we got out some of our extra energy with some dancing time! Super Fun!

Stampin' Tag Class

2010-12-13T12:38:00.003-06:00

Friday night I held one of my monthly tag classes. This month - just in time for gift wrapping - we made Christmas tags together.

We had a small group, but I was thrilled to have 3 of my very favorite stampers to hang out with! We stamped and ate and drank coffee and talked and laughed and laughed and laughed! It was just what I needed after a crazy week!

Then, when we were all done - everyone had 20 adorable Christmas tags and a cute little tin to hold them in!

January - Calendars!

The Last of Our Christmas Goodies

2010-12-10T12:44:00.005-06:00

We wrapped up Christmas goodie week just in time because a) I think Everyone has had enough sugar to go with their excitement about Christmas this week and b) I don't need to be tempted by sweets anymore!

We attempted to make what sounded, in the instructions, like adorable peppermint candy wreaths. My partner-in-crime (that doesn't sound quite right, but you know what I mean...), attempted these several times this week without much luck so I went in prepared - ready to tweak the directions to make it work. Miss Laura had some trouble with the melted mints sticking to her bakeware, so I gathered aluminum foil and non-stick spray before beginning the project.

I laid the aluminum foil on my baking sheet, sprayed it down, laid out my candies in a nice circle and popped in a 350 degree oven for 5 minutes. When I pulled it out, it looked great! The candies had melted together and looked to have formed a perfect wreath! I let it cool as the instructions said - picked it up to try to move it off the tray - and it came off easily which fooled me into thinking I was good to go. These were going to be sooooo cute!

And then I laid it down again - crrrraaaccckkk - totallly fell apart - ugh!

Back up plan - I'm breaking out the hot glue gun, because by-golly this is going to happen! No better luck here - the glue would just slide off the slick candies once it cooled - what the heck?

So, before I got overly cranky with it - I picked up all the supplies - the unwrapped candies. It all went in the trash. What's done is done!

So we moved on to a coloring page wreath as a substitute! We also spent some one-on-one time decorating a couple sugar cookies together. We added snow-white frosting and some Christmas-y sprinkles.

Then after lunch we got to have one for dessert. Yum!

Next week - more Christmas crafts!

More Goodies

2010-12-09T13:01:00.006-06:00

After a wild and off-schedule day where I just got a couple pictures of the kids painting their crescent shapes with gift bows and then didn't even have time to blog them, we are enjoying a much more fun and "normal" day today!

We did another take on gingerbread men today! The kids rubbed cinnamon sticks into gingerbread men shapes cut from sandpaper - so they've got a cool texture AND they smell good!

After adding some yarn and glitter, we've got more adorable gingerbread man decorations!

Today's goodie was chocolate-dipped pretzel rods - Everyone got to help. We dipped the pretzels in melted chocolate.

And then just sprinkled on sprinkles.

A very pretty, fun, easy treat!

and yummy, too!

Today we also drew names for our daycare gift exchange. I love seeing the kids get excited about giving!

Tomorrow - More Goodies!

It's Beginning to Smell a lot Like Christmas!

2010-12-07T12:05:00.004-06:00

One of my favorite holiday smells is cinnamon and now my whole house smells like yummy cinnamon because we made cinnamon ornaments this morning!

We mixed the dough, rolled it out, took a great big whiff of its yummy deliciousness,

Cut out our ornament shapes,

then baked them until they hardened and hung them on the tree - super cute and smells wonderful!

(the recipe for the dough is super easy: 1C + 2T flour, 3/4 C cinnamon, 1 C salt, pinch of cloves, 1 C water. Mix together, roll out and cut with cookie cutters.)

We also colored some noodles to make Christmas necklaces - too fun!

Tomorrow more Yellow and Crescent art!

Gingerbread Men!

2010-12-06T13:11:00.005-06:00

This is the first day of our Christmas Goodies week and today we focused on Gingerbread Men! We made some adorable gingerbread man art.

We made gingerbread man cookies together (that were actually peanut butter, because dang-it, that's the kind of dough I had, but the look was there!). We snacked on them after lunch.

We made collages with gingerbread men cookie cutters.

Tomorrow - yummy cinnamony gingerbread ornaments!

Lovin' Our Outside Time!

2010-12-03T12:55:00.006-06:00

We have been so lucky in the fact that it is still warm enough many days that we can enjoy plenty of outside time! And the kids love it! Look at the smiles!

And they stay busy, running off some of that energy and excitement we all know is building as we are only 22 days away from Christmas!

We did spend some time this morning, as it was warming up, working on some more Christmas projects. We added a candy cane ornament to our handprint Christmas tree.

We marble painted some candy cane cutouts using jingle bells - a noisy, but fun project!

And we used glue and glitter to make these pretty little snowflake ornaments. They will be driving over the weekend so everyone can take them home to hang on their own trees next week!

And next week -Yummmmmmm. One of my favorite weeks! Christmas Goodies!

Beautiful Noodle Wreath

2010-12-02T13:01:00.003-06:00

Not a phrase I thought I'd be saying with honesty, but they really did turn out beautiful!

We started by gluing a couple different shapes of noodles on a paper plate "wreath".

After they dried a bit, and we enjoyed some much-needed outside time in the warm sunshine, we spray-painted them silver and added a sparkly red ribbon and they really are gorgeous! The kids are all very excited about this decoration!

And they are still loving adding their colored ornaments to our handprint tree!

Tomorrow - some candy cane art!

Introducing Yellow and the Crescent Shape

2010-12-01T12:39:00.004-06:00

Today we introduced a new color - yellow! Everyone wore a bit of yellow and knew just where it was on their outfit!

We did a simple yellow coloring page and talked about things we see every day that are yellow.

We also introduced the crescent shape - this is a toughie! Everyone wants to call it a moon but is doing a great job learning a new vocabulary word! We tore yellow paper and glued it onto a crescent shape to reinforce the color and shape!

Our hand-print tree also got some new ornaments today!

Countdown to Christmas

2010-11-30T12:29:00.004-06:00

With today being the last day of November, we spent today working on a Christmas Countdown project that the kids can do at home with their families starting tomorrow. I think they turned out super cute!

We decorated a plate with Christmas colors, added this poem

"Each evening after prayers are said,
take off one ring and jump in bed.
When only the star is left to shine,
then you'll know it's Christmas-time!

Next we colored and added a star and a chain of 24 links - one for each day between tomorrow and Christmas! I know each kiddo will love doing their countdowns with Mom and Dad!

We made one for here, too, and will get lots of counting practice as we watch the links disappear!

Our hand-print tree also gained some more ornaments.

I am also excited to see a lot more cooperative play and working together - especially as friends build with blocks together! I Love it!

Tomorrow - we'll explore the color yellow and the crescent shape as well as some more Christmas fun!

Daycare Decorating

2010-11-29T13:59:00.002-06:00

Today is the first day of our month-long Christmas craft fest with the daycare! I love doing Christmas crafts with the kids and it's a great way to help contain some of that holiday excitement, too!

We created a fun, funky paper tree using all the kids' handprints.

Everyone colored an ornament to hang on the tree today, too!

I can't wait to add to our decorations as the month progresses!

Ornament Traditions

2010-11-29T13:44:00.005-06:00

I love Christmas ornaments. I love the memories behind them. We have a wonderful tradition where we give each of the kids an ornament each year that reflects something they are "into" that year.

This year, Chloe got a girlie monkey ornament:

Spencer got a frog:

Tyler got a brightly-colored, funky snowman:

My mom/Nana gets the kids each an ornament each year, too - the girls get angels:

Spencer gets a snowman:

I have ornaments from each year of my child-hood as well and I love seeing them each year. My first one:

And my second:

I have plate of antique ornaments from my grandparents' tree that I cherish as well!

And this year, I got to decorate a shelf my grandpa had made for my grandmother and I now get to enjoy in my living room and then I get to top it with elves we had in our home when I was growing up - sweet memories!

Black Friday Madness!

2010-11-29T13:15:00.003-06:00

I love to shop; I love to save money; I love to plan ahead; I love to reach goals. So, I did it - I went Black Friday shopping! I perused the sale ads on-line for weeks, making my plan of action - finding the things we wanted anyway at the best prices I could find. I mapped out my route and time-frame and it was scary so I hoped fervently for some of those amazing door-buster prices to show up on-line before I ventured out. No such luck.

So, out I ventured - on my own this year as my partner ditched me! - for some extreme Black Friday shopping. One of our most-wanted items was at ToysRus, going on sale at 10pm on Thanksgiving night. We got home from dinner at my mom's around 8 - I put things away and stretched out on the couch for a short nap. My wonderful husband brewed me some coffee and I was out the door by 9:40 - beginning my night while my little ones were already sacked out....

I arrived to ToysRus at 9:58. The parking lot was full, the parking lot for the strip mall next to the store was full, the parking lot for Target was nearly full. The line stretched from ToysRus down the sidewalk around the strip mall, around the corner to the doors of Target. Eeeek! But, OK, I'm committed. They'll be opening the doors soon and this line will be inside. Remember being hot through all my shopping last year, I opted to slip out of my warm, comfy winter coat and leave it in the car. Now I am wearing a long-sleeve t-shirt, thin sweatshirt jacket and mittens, but I should only be outside for a little bit right? Wrong! They only let a limited people in the store at one time to avoid over-congestion. I ended up waiting outside in line, in the 22 degree temperatures, for a hour and 45 minutes. Shivering. Nose red. But no way was I giving up my spot in line to walk clear back across the parking lot to get my coat. And then I heard the halleluia chorus and I was in the door! 11:45pm. I went directly to the spot I knew my hot-ticket item to be and..... of course - gone! Grrrrr. I did, however, pick up the thing I knew I wanted for each of my daycare boys. I got the last one of it, too! That perked me up a little bit...

OK - off to WalMart. By the time I got done paying at ToysRus, walking back across the parking lot, loading my loot, turning my heater on full-blast, shrugging back into my fuzzy coat and calling my husband to instruct him to start searching for the missed item on-line, I got to Wal-Mart a little after 12:30. The parking lot was PACKED! But, luckily, I caught a guy leaving his spot up front and was able to park within 10 spots from the front of the store! Whoo Hooo! He wished me good luck as he left. Inside was a bit crazy, but the rush from the start of the midnight sales had slowed down, so it wasn't too bad. I shopped for some of the things I wanted that had gone on sale at midnight, then I headed off to look for the line I knew I'd be standing in to wait for the one must-have, awesomely-priced item for Bubba. After some trial and error, I found the line, got my ticket and began my wait. Almost 2am by this point. There are maybe 30 people in line ahead of me - we all visited and had some fun and then settled in for the long wait until 5:00am. I arrived prepared - I picked up a holiday pillow and throw,

a bottle of Starbucks coffee drink and a book from home. I settled in, sitting on my pillow and throw, drinking my coffee drink and reading a book. Oh - and wearing my coat because the line was in the stinking frozen food aisle!!! Not the best place for someone to spend 3 hours who hasn't quite warmed out from a nearly 2 hour stretch of waiting outside! Oh well! Time went quickly - I finished my book, "borrowed" another from the book section in WalMart and finished it, Deli workers tried to make our wait more pleasant by coming through and passing out donuts, granola bars and 5-hour energy drinks at points of the night. I got my item at 5am, snagged a spot in a short-ish express line and was out of there by 5:30! Not too shabby! And this time I got everything I wanted! Whoo Hoo!

Now to Target - there were a couple must-have really good deals here, too, or I'd've left, but I stuck it out. Got my items right away, snagged a couple other bargains, then got in a line that wound from the front of the store, down one side to the back of the store and halfway back again to the other side. Ugh! But again, committed! After waiting in line there for an hour and 45 minutes, I was exhausted, but from texts I'd gotten from friends who began their shopping days at the mall about the time I was still in line at Target, I knew that there crowds over there weren't too bad, so off I went.

JCPenney's made me happy. I don't think I bought anything for Christmas, but my poor boy has had a huge growth spurt lately and needed shoes and clothes and I got everything I needed there for him at great prices! (and a few things for me, too!) With a burst of energy, I headed over to Sears for my last stop - the things I was personally the most excited about in my shopping extravaganza. The thing I've been wanting for months, found in the sale ads weeks ago and planned my Black Friday around. My NordicTrack Elliptical! Again - halleluia chorus! I love my recumbent bike, but needed a little something more. I hated the thought of spending so much money of a piece of exercise equipment, but have gotten to where I love to exercise, love how it makes me feel so much better and knew I would certainly get my money's worth from it - especially since it was half-price!!!

I bought the big honkin' machine, got it loaded and was back home by 9:15am! What a whirlwind, but since I saved a good $700-$800 on things that were actually on my list and did very little impulse shopping, I think it was well worth it! That, and - I AM DONE! with the majority of my Christmas Shopping! And it's not even December! Whooo Hooo!

After I got home that morning, I dug quickly back into the coffee pot and started preparing goodies for that afternoon's Thanksgiving dinner with my in-laws. I was able to cook at a leisurely pace and enjoy myself as well as have a little down-time to rest. We had a great dinner together and I passed out in my bed by 8:30 that night, getting a nice solid 12 hours of sleep!

I don't know that I would do the extreme Black Friday shopping every year, but this year it was worth it!

Finishing Up Thanksgiving Projects

2010-11-23T12:56:00.004-06:00

Today is our last daycare day before Thanksgiving and we spent some more time talking about the things we are thankful for. Today,

J is thankful for her little mower
B is thankful for his little jeep and Gator
N is thankful for his toys
K is thankful for apples
M is thankful for his toys
and O is thankful for her medals.

So many different things to be thankful for!

We also spent some time painting with feathers.

For a fun snack, we talked about cornucopias and then made ones to eat - out of sugar cones and fruit snacks! Yum!

We've had a lot of fun reading Thanksgiving books this week!

Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!!

Thanksgiving

2010-11-22T13:26:00.005-06:00

We are still celebrating Thanksgiving on this short week of daycare - the things we are thankful for, the feasts we will have and that adorable turkey!

We painted some fun turkey drumsticks as we talked about our Thanksgiving feasts.

We also made these stinkin' adorable hand-print turkeys!! Love them!

Today, O is thankful for lotion,
K is thankful for Christmas lights,
N is thankful for Mommy and Daddy
J is thankful for Christmas trees and
B is thankful for candy!

And, I am thankful for these guys who fill my days with hugs and laughter and learning new things and songs and lots of energy.

Love you all!

Thankful

2010-11-19T13:15:00.004-06:00

Our daycare theme has shifted into Thanksgiving as we are now less than a week away! It's hard to believe how quickly this year is flying by! Anyway, as quick as it's going, there are still many things to be thankful for and being thankful for the things in our lives that make us happy is what the kids and I have been talking about. They've got all sorts of things they are thankful for!

O is thankful for pumpkins, leaves and pictures
K is thankful for coloring pictures and turkey
J is thankful for calendar time and her mom
M is thankful for candy and toys
B is thankful for candy and his big tractor
N is thankful for candy and his daddy

It's been talking to them about Thanksgiving and seeing them really think about the things they are thankful for - we'll continue on our thankful lists next week!

We've also been doing some great turkey, Thanksgiving and harvest crafts!

We made turkeys using the outline of feet:

We made turkeys using the outline of hands:

We made pieces of pumpkin pie that smell great with sprinkles of cinnamon:

And we made harvest corn using our fingerprints!

Next week: More Thanksgiving Fun!

Wednesday Work

2010-11-17T12:38:00.002-06:00

Today we've been reviewing the color purple and the diamond shape as well as continuing our dinosaur fun!

We mixed red and blue paint together to make purple to finger-paint with!

We made diamond-shaped potato stamps and stamped purple diamonds.

As we discussed dinosaurs we talked about fossils, then made our own fossils using brown clay and toy dinosaurs! Too cool!

Tomorrow- moving onto Thanksgiving!

Delightful Dinos

2010-11-16T11:32:00.005-06:00

This group of kids is loving our dinosaur week! I've even been told that we have in our midst - dinosaur experts and paleontologists! We've talked about different kinds of dinosaurs, what may have happened to the dinosaurs, carnivores and herbivores - and none of it was initiated by me! I was going to keep it very basic and simple and just have fun with some dinosaur art, but this group - well, I think they may very well be miniature dinosaur experts!

But, we have had fun with dinosaurs as well - we used toy dinosaurs to make some footprint art.

We also used handprints to make the spikes on a painted dinosaur - too cute!

We used our toy dinosaurs to help do the actions to some fun dinosaur songs, too!

Tomorrow, some more dino fun, some purple art and diamond review - then moving onto Thanksgiving!

Dinosaur Fun

2010-11-15T13:26:00.004-06:00

We are beginning several days of dinosaur fun with a group of kids who LOVE anything dinosaur so today's pre-school time was a definite HIT!

We colored and made adorable stick-puppet dinosaurs then used them along with fun dinosaur songs at circle time!

We also were lucky enough to enjoy lots of outside time this morning in the beautiful sunshine!

It should be another great week as we have more fun with dinosaurs, move on to talking about Thanksgiving and enjoy lots of gorgeous fall weather!

Saturday Stampin'

2010-11-15T12:54:00.005-06:00

Saturday I had a great group of some of my favorite stampin' gals over for a Christmas Gifts & Decorations Stamp Camp. We made 6 incredibly cute projects together, ate some scrumptious food and had a wonderful time chatting and laughing!

We started out with these adorable wine-glass lampshades. Using just a template, vellum cardstock and embossing powders along with snowflake stamps, we ended up with some adorable winter decorations.

Next we created these adorable Santa wrappers for candy bars - super simple but dresses up a little treat for holiday fun!

And - perfect for Christmas - candy cane holders! Love 'em!

Our big art piece was this gorgeous framed art piece using stamps, ink and an ornament-shaped punch!

I'm always looking for fun ways to jazz up gift-card giving so we decorated these great gift card boxes! Love the big snowflakes!

Lastly, everyone loves to give home-made goodies at Christmas, so we added some quick-easy accents to a jar of homemade cocoa; perfect for gifting!!

The snacks I fixed were delicious, too - if I say so myself! Recipes, as requested, for my Caramel Apple Dessert, Caramel Corn and Cocoa Mix are below.

I had a wonderful time and hope everyone else did, too!

Next Stamping Opportunity - Friday, December 10 - Christmas Tag Stamp-a-Stack. Details coming soon!

Hot Cocoa Mix

2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 cup powdered non-dairy creamer
1 dash salt

Single serving - combine 1/4 cup mix and 3/4 cup boiling water in mug.

Cranberry-Orange Caramel Corn

12 cups popped popcorn
1 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup whole almonds
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup light-color corn syrup
2 T orange juice
2 t vanilla
1/2 t baking soda

1. Preheat oven to 275. In a very large bowl, combine the popped popcorn, cranberries and almonds; set aside.
2. In a 2-quart saucepan cook and stir the butter, brown sugar and corn syrup over medium heat until butter is melted. Stir in orange juice. Bring to boiling over medium heat. Boil at a moderate, steady rate for 2 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in vanilla and baking soda (mixture will foam up).
3. Pour the syrup mixture over the popcorn mixture in bowl, stir to coat well. Transfer to a 15x10x1 inch baking pan or a shallow roasting pan. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring twice. Transfer caramel corn to a large sheet of greased heavy foil; cool. Makes 20 servings.

Caramel Apple Dessert

60 Vanilla Wafers, finely crushed (about 2 cups)
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 package cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
3 1/4 cups milk, divided
8 oz Cool Whip, thawed, divided
2 package (3.4 oz each) vanilla instant pudding
1/2 cup caramel ice cream topping; divided
1 each red and green apple, chopped
1/4 cup salted peanuts, chopped

1. Mix wafer crumbs and butter; press onto bottom of 13x9 pan
2. Beat cream cheese, sugar and 1/4 cup milk with mixer until well blended. Stir in 1 cup Cool Whip; spread over crust.
3. Beat pudding mixes and remaining milk with whisk for 2 minutes. Stir in 1/4 cup caramel topping. Spoon over cream cheese layer. Top with remaining Cool Whip.
4. Refrigerate for 5 hours or until firm. Top with apples, nuts and remaining caramel topping just before serving.

Happy Birthday 3rd Bday B!

2010-11-12T12:50:00.002-06:00

Three Years Old?! How is that possible?

I've known you since before you were born (kind of!) I've cared for you since you were just weeks old. You've been a part of our life and our household and our daycare family for almost all of those 3 years!

You are growing up to be such a great little boy. You are one smart cookie! You have a great imagination. You don't know a stranger. You have the best giggle ever. You can be such a little love-bug. You crack me up. I even love your ornery-ness.

Happy 3rd Birthday B-Man! I hope it's wonderful!!

Hey Diddle Diddle

2010-11-11T12:39:00.001-06:00

the cat & the fiddle -

the cow jumped over the moon -

the little dog laughed to see such sport -

and the dish ran away with the spoon!

Hickory Dickory Dock

2010-11-10T12:50:00.003-06:00

The mouse ran up the clock.

The clock struck 1; the mouse ran down.

Hickory dickory dock.

And today we started exploring the color purple. Everyone wore their purple today!

And we colored purple diamonds - the new shape we're learning! And fun - purple glitter!

Humpty Dumpty

2010-11-09T13:12:00.003-06:00

sat on a wall.

Humpty Dumpty Had a Great Fall.

All the king's horses & all the king's men,

put Humpty Dumpty together again!

And then they ate him!

(or something like that!!) :o) hahahahahaha!

November 8 - Really?

2010-11-08T13:16:00.006-06:00

When the calendar says November 8 and the trees look like this...

...we really shouldn't be able to spend so much time in a day doing this...

I'm not complaining! We LOVE it! This is such a beautiful gift!

We did do some work today as well - our theme this week is nursery rhymes. We read Little Miss Muffet, then made some cute little finger puppets to use while we recite it! Fun!!

We are looking forward to more outside time today and tomorrow as we enjoy this beautiful, warm weather!

He pushed his way out and... He was a Beautiful Butterfly!

2010-11-05T12:45:00.002-05:00

-- The perfect ending to a fun week of Hungry Caterpillar activities.

We made adorable hand-print butterflies (with one last review of the color orange!)

We also finished our Hungry Caterpillar counting books. Everyone is excited to bring theirs home to share with their families!

Next week: Nursery Rhymes

On Tuesday he ate through 2 pears...

2010-11-04T12:45:00.004-05:00

...But he was still hungry!

It's not Tuesday, but pears were the fruit I chose to play with today! After we finished another page for our Hungry Caterpillar book, we made a caterpillar by stamping with pear halves - so cute!

We also snacked on some fresh pears - yum!!!

Tomorrow - the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly!!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar + Lots More!

2010-11-03T16:43:00.004-05:00

This week we've been reading the Very Hungry Caterpillar - one of my very favorite books. We've also been keeping busy making our own Hungry Caterpillar books that will be completed and ready to take home on Friday. We did make an adorable paper-chain caterpillar today!

We've also been reviewing the color orange and the oval shape that we introduced last week. I love working on the shapes and colors for 2 weeks at a time with this young group; it really helps those concepts to stick!

And while the Very Hungry Caterpillar projects and our normal circle time activities have still been lots of fun - we just haven't had much extra time because I got the best toy EVER!

A Big Box!!!!

I'm not sure the box will survive another day of fun, but we'll see! Tomorrow may have to be a new kind of fun!

Oh - and some house keeping - Finally! Got coat hooks at kid-height for everyone! A place for everything and everything in it's place! Whoo Hoooo!

Our Happy Halloween!

2010-11-01T10:05:00.007-05:00

Halloween seemed to be celebrated for almost a full week this year! We started with Chloe's school Halloween party on Wednesday. On Thursday, we celebrated with the daycare. The kids were all out of school so we had a full day of fun and festivities. We did some Halloween coloring and made these adorable Halloween Windsocks.

After naps we began to party hardy - some of the games we played were Pin the Nose on the Pumpkin,

Pass the Pumpkin,

and Musical Chairs.

Everyone had a ton of fun playing- Me, too!

We had a great big, yummy, sugary Halloweeny snack and then enjoyed some gorgeous fall weather as we played outside.

Our weekend was filled with pumpkin carving and scary movies (along with some other scary things that have nothing to do with Halloween - let me just say, getting old is very scary and so are nursing homes! ugh. Anyway, we did end the weekend with a lot of fun.

The kids wanted to "do" Halloween with their neighborhood and school friends so we did it up right! We held a bonfire Saturday night for all the friends on the cul-de-sac - we had s'mores and played games and it was a very nice night.

Yesterday, after a nice, relaxing day, our friends the Lux's came over so the boys could trick or treat together and the older girls could watch movies and hand out candy. All the parents took Miss Chloe around to trick-or-treat. Lisa and I HAD to dress up so this year, our impromptu costumes were Poop and Toilet Paper!! It was Sooooo funny!

Chloe was "confused" - half angel, half devil

Somehow fitting for Miss Chloe!

Spencer was a "dead punk rocker"

Awww - wasn't he cute?

Lisa as "poop"

Me as "toilet paper"

"the perfect pair"

We got to see lots of our little friends while they were trick or treating, too!!!

B the Cowboy

K the beautiful fairy

A the gypsy

K and E

E the Orange crayon!

N the dragon

We walked around town while Chloe got her bucket filled for a couple hours, then came back and enjoyed some delicious enchiladas, burritos, queso and brownies! Yum!! Most of us fell asleep in the movie, but we still had a great time together!

More Halloween Fun

2010-10-27T13:17:00.004-05:00

We've been continuing on with our fun Halloween projects - yesterday we made spoooooky hand-print bats.

Today we did some work with the color orange (and learning how red and yellow make orange). And look at all the orange in everyone's outfits!

And we made a collage of oval shapes!

Chloe got to dress up for school - Too cute (and too appropriate!)

And - not really Halloweeny or about the daycare, but we finally got the front door painted and it looks gorgeous with my fall wreath!

Tomorrow - our Daycare Halloween Party!

Ghastly Ghosts & Spooky Spiders!

2010-10-25T12:57:00.006-05:00

Today we began our week of fun Halloween projects! I love doing silly, spooky Halloween stuff with the kids! We made footprint ghosts to start out with.

I painted the bottom of one of their tootsies white (which was very tickly!)

pressed it onto black paper,

added eyes and a mouth and viola! a gaggle of ghosts!

We also did a spider coloring sheet and lo and behold, when Miss K came today, she brought special spider treats she'd made with Grandma - perfect treat for today! Thanks K and Grandma! Everyone loved them!

More Halloweeny stuff tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, L!!!

2010-10-25T12:55:00.002-05:00

This sweet l'il guy turns 2 years old today! I've only been getting to know him for a couple months now, but he's already got a soft spot in my heart. He is such a fun-loving, happy guy! Curious and fearless. Loving and joyful. Happy birthday, Mister L! I hope it's a wonderful one!

The Last of Our Pumpkin Fun

2010-10-22T12:11:00.007-05:00

I love pumpkin week and we've all had a lot of fun with our pumpkin projects! After "gutting" the pumpkin on Wednesday, we reviewed what we found in the pumpkin on Thursday, then made cute "What's Inside" pumpkin projects!

Yesterday we also finished carving our pumpkin, with everyone giving input as to what his face should look like. I think he turned out adorable!

We've been learning some silly pumpkin songs and poems this week. One of our favorites is Five Little Pumpkins. It goes like this:

Five little pumpkins sitting on a gate.

The first one said, "Oh my, it's getting late!"

The second one said, "There's a chill in the air."

The third one said, "But we don't care!"

The fourth one said, "We're ready for some fun!"

The fifth one said, "Let's run, run, run."

So, whooo went the wind and out blew the lights and the 5 little pumpkins rolled out of sight!

Today we made pumpkin cookies - using canned pumpkin in the recipe and then shaping them like pumpkins and giving the jack-o-lantern faces, as well. Too cute! And the best part - snacking on them after lunch!

Next week - lots of Halloween fun!

Brown Day and More Pumpkin Stuff

2010-10-20T12:55:00.007-05:00

We've been working with the color brown these past couple of weeks and we spent today on it as well.

We had lots of adorable brown outfits. We made brown collages using things everyone brought from home - pipe cleaners, stickers, ribbon, string, paper cut-outs. Everyone loved sharing their stuff!

We got to snack on some tasty brown (chocolate!) treats!

and yep - ended up with some brown faces afterward!

One of our friends brought some brown play-doh to share with everyone and we had a blast making all kinds of creations outside with it.

It's a Cookie...

They're Hot Dogs...

It's a Snake...

Then we got slimy when we gutted a pumpkin to see what the inside looks like. The general consensus was "gooey!" Everyone took a turn pulling some seeds and gunk out!

AND - a friend brought a pumpkin pie to share today so we had an extra special treat this morning! And it was scrumptious!

Tomorrow - More pumpkin stuff!

Pumpkins - Across Many Senses!

2010-10-19T12:49:00.005-05:00

Today we continued talking about pumpkins. We discussed how pumpkins are not only used for jack-o-lanterns and decorations, but for food, too - like breads, pies, cakes and more! After bringing out a can of pumpkin and opening it, everyone got to look at it, and smell it. We heard lots of great descriptive vocabulary like - wet, sweet, orange, slurpy, yummy, and more! I loved seeing everyone waiting their turns and sharing nicely!

Once everyone had a chance to smell the canned pumpkin, I gave each of the kids a small amount on a piece of paper - and added some delicious smelling pumpkin pie spice - the kids got to "finger-paint" with the pumpkin pie filling. It was very slimy and cold. Some were not happy with this experience at all! Others jumped right in and slimed it around, even tasting it!

We did create some pumpkin art today, as well. Using a fist and orange paint, we made fist-print pumpkin patches. I think they turned out super cute!

This week we've also been learning some great pumpkin songs and action poems - the kids got to use mini pumpkins to do some of the actions today!

From Red Light-Green Light to Pun'kins!

2010-10-18T12:49:00.005-05:00

We wrapped up a fun week talking about Things That Go last week... We made cute little traffic lights and talked about what each of the lights mean. Then we played a great game of Red Light - Green Light - everyone got a turn flipping the lights and running and I was mighty impressed with the great job following directions everyone did! Lots of fun!

This week we are starting to explore pumpkins as we get ready for Halloween.

We looked at mini pumpkins, then cut the bottom off one to see the inside. We used that pumpkin to dip into orange paint and stamp onto black paper - very cool collages when we were all done!

Triangles, Chocolate and Airplanes - Oh My!

2010-10-14T12:52:00.005-05:00

We've packed a lot into the last couple of days - not only have we worked around me being gone for a doctor's appointment and working in lots of outside time to take in this amazingly gorgeous fall weather, but we've kept busy working with this week's lessons as well! We've started exploring the triangle shape and the color brown. To help both concepts stick, yesterday we finger-painted on a triangle shape using Chocolate Pudding - a delicious sensory project!

There was a lot of finger licking during our time playing in the pudding, but we had a slightly more civilized treat with a cup of the pudding when we were all done - yum!!

Yesterday's snack after naps was also an extension of the morning's lessons - we had celery sailboats - complete with a triangle sail!

We've continued to talk about things that go and today talked about airplanes - we've talked about who's been on an airplane, what they liked about it, that there are many different types of airplanes and more!

And then we made paper airplanes and had lots of fun flying them around!

ROAD TRIP!

2010-10-12T12:29:00.011-05:00

This weekend was a long-awaited road trip to Colorado with The Girls to visit our friend, Allison, who's moved out there. We've talked about doing it for several years and finally just buckled down, picked a date and did it! And it was FABULOUS!

We started out Thursday night, leaving right after everyone was done with their workday - we each took a 2 hour driving shift, arriving in Monument, CO around 2:30am! Allison met us at the door with hugs, we lugged our stuff to the rooms we were staying in and crashed.

But, being used to being awake early, we were all up with the sun ready to begin our first day of fun! We loaded up on coffee and breakfast, got ready and hopped back in the car to journey to Estes Park. The trip was neat, too, because we went through Denver and Boulder on our way! We got there just in time for lunch at a quirky little hamburger joint where we enjoyed a great lunch and lots of fun together.

"The Girls" - Allison, Brandi, me, Kelli, Lisa

Lisa & The Perfect Sign

From there we wandered into a few shops in Estes Park, then headed over to The Stanley Hotel for our scheduled Ghost Tour - ooooooooooooooo.

The Stanley Hotel - Estes Park, CO

A little background on this gorgeous hotel. Not only is it reported to be haunted, but also is the place where Steven King was inspired to write The Shining. None of the actual movie, The Shining was filmed at the hotel, but the later-released mini-series was.

Brandi getting ready for our ghost tour

Allison and Lisa waiting for the tour to begin

The Music Room at The Stanley

Room 217 - Haunted by Mrs. Wilson and where Steven King was inspired to write The Shining

Our ghost tour guide, Creepy Cassie

We learned a lot of history and heard about a lot of "experiences" during our 90 minute dramatic tour of the hotel from our guide, "Creepy Cassie." Lots of interesting stories. And, looking back through our pictures from the afternoon, there are a lot of what the guide described to be "spirit orbs" in our pictures... Spirit Orbs? Dust reflecting in the flash? All I know is that I looked back through many of my indoor pictures and the only ones I've found "orbs" in are from this hotel.... Hmmmmmmm....

Is that Matthew, the ghost child holding onto Lisa's hand? Note the "spirit orb" under her hand...

Another orb at the bottom of the stairs...

We left The Stanley to heard back up to Castle Rock for a little shopping and dinner at The White Chocolate Grill - there are only 3 in the US and we waited for nearly 2 hours for a table, but it was worth it because it was So Tasty! The salsa we ordered was to die for, my dinner was fabulous and the apple pie - Oh Lordy! There are no words!

waiting for dinner

The whole dinner group! Kelli, Allison, Lisa, me, Brandi, Brianna

A short drive back to Allison,s, including a pretend speech impediment, a chinese fire drill and lots of laughing and we all crashed hard for the night.

The next day, Saturday, we got up, enjoyed delicious pancakes Allison made for us and headed out to hike. Allison took us up Raspberry Mountain and it was amazing! The views, the scenery - we had a great morning. After a quick stop back by the house for lunch and to grab our purses, we were off again - into Colorado Springs for a little shopping and Starbucks!

starting the hike

Amazing views! How do you choose which pictures to post? These are just a few... They all look like postcards!

We did a little exploring on the boulders!

Once we reached the point where we could get down to the reservoir to see the incredible views there, we had to go down a pretty good incline - Allison thought it best to sit for the last of it!

We got some pretty amazing pictures of all of us while on the hike!

Saturday night - Slumber Party! Pizza, Guacamole, Homemade Ice Cream, Movies, and More! It was a blast (even if many of us crashed out during the movies!!)

Sunday morning - it's hard to believe we're on our last day already! Loaded back up in the car, into Colorado Springs for breakfast at our Traditional Cracker Barrel, along with a little shopping there. We ate a ton and had a wonderful last little bit together.

Then we were back on the road, in our 2 hour shifts back to Home Sweet Home in Kansas. I know I speak for Brandi, Kelli, Lisa and myself when I say we had an Amazing time on our short, but sweet trip! I can't wait til we can do it again!

Things That Go!

2010-10-12T12:12:00.005-05:00

This week will be a fun week of exploring things that go - different modes of transportation. Yesterday we started out talking about maps and checking out a map. Then we ran cars through brown paint (mud) and made tracks all over our maps - Fun!

Today we brainstormed all sorts of different types of transportation and found a coloring page for a variety of them - great vocab lesson!

We also marble-painted some adorable cars,

and did a little pretending. Pretending to be airplanes...

and driving cars...

and being a train...

Still to come: boats and airplanes and traffic lights PLUS the color brown and the triangle shape!

Just Like a Bunch of Squirrels

2010-10-07T11:54:00.006-05:00

We had some more fun talking about squirrels today - we talked about the many different types of nuts squirrels might eat and tasted several kinds, too.

And we made Banana Nut Bread together!

Everyone helped out - mashing the bananas.

Mixing it up.

Waiting patiently for it to bake.

And the best part - tasting it!

We've been having fun with a silly squirrel song:

Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel - Shake your Bushy Tail
Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel - Shake your Bushy Tail

Wrinkle up your funny nose.
Put a nut between your toes.

Gray Squirrel, Gray Squirrel - Shake Your Bushy Tail

Lots of fun! Next week - Transportation!

We're So Blue!

2010-10-06T12:38:00.003-05:00

We've been working with the color blue this week and this morning got to get all ooey and gooey as we did some fingerpainting with some different shades of blue paint! Everyone loves to get ooey and gooey!

We also went on a hunt for blue toys - everyone did a great job finding something! I was pretty darn impressed. And they all look Amazing in all their blue!!

Nuts About Squirrels!

2010-10-05T12:56:00.004-05:00

During this gorgeous week of autumn we are exploring nuts & squirrels as all those actually squirrels are busily gathering their bounty for winter!

Yesterday we made a squirrel picture with a fuzzy felt tail.

Today we explored acorns. We spent some time checking them out - looking at them, feeling them.

Then we did some "marble painting" with them. We dipped acorns in three different colors of paint, placed them - along with a piece of paper - in a box with a lid and then - SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE!

... take the lid off and pull the paper out...

...to make some fun seasonal art!

We also played a fun game of Squirrel Squirrel Where's Your Nut? One kiddo became the squirrel, then hid the paper acorn while everyone else hid their eyes. After hollering "ready" - the hunt was on! Everyone had lots of fun with this game!

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

2010-10-01T12:51:00.005-05:00

We've had a lot of fun this week with projects based off one of our favorite books - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!

We've made several types of coconut tree pictures and today we did all kinds of coconut exploring!

We checked out a whole coconut - feeling it, shaking it, rolling it.

And we tasted it.

And tasted the coconut milk (not everyone was thrilled with this).

We made another coconut tree picture and glue toasted coconut onto it - cute! (and everyone liked the taste of the sweetened, toasted coconut much better than the fresh!)

And to finish off our week, we ate a coconut tree snack! Yummmmm.

I'm pretty sure everyone now knows the book by heart and it awfully cute to hear them all "read" it with me! Next week - nuts & squirrels!

September Stampin'

2010-09-30T13:13:00.004-05:00

This month I got to enjoy stamping with some great ladies -- and together we made some beautiful cards! None of these cards came exclusively from my brain, but were found on-line and tweaked to be something that worked with what I had.

This gorgeous gold leaf card uses gold embossing powder, the French Foliage stamp set and the colors More Mustard, Basic Black, Elegant Eggplant, Pear Pizzaz and Riding Hood Red.

I love this truck full of apples from the set Countryside. I used the colors Soft Suede and Real Red - highlighting parts of the scene with a blender pen and my inks.

This pretty floral card is so simple. I used one of my favorite floral stamp sets, Elements of Style along with the colors Whisper White, Bashful Blue, Basic Black and Marina Mist. Adding a touch of elegance with the scallop edge punch and viola!

A lovely little fall-colored card using the Razzle Dazzle stamp set and the Rock & Roll technique. Colors used were Peach Parfait, Chocolate Chip, Riding Hood Red and Very Vanilla.

I love this stamp set - Inspired by Nature. Paired with Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke, Crumb Cake, Sahara Sand and Very Vanilla creates a very soothing Thinking of You card.

The Big Shot and our texture plates made an appearance for this card - adding the cool embossed background. The flower came from the set Friends Never Fade. We colored it with markers. Colors used were Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait, Concord Crush and Whisper White.

And, finally, we got a jump start on some Christmas Card playing - I used the stamp set Welcome Christmas and Notably ornate along with the color Cherry Cobbler and Natural White paper. The glittery finish was added using Smoosh Spritz - so pretty!

If you want to have fun with friends, stamping beautiful cards like these - contact me to schedule a Stampin' Up! workshop. Or reserve your spot for my upcoming stamp camp featuring 8! different Christmas cards on October 22. Contact me for more info!

Happy Birthday Bubba!

2010-09-28T11:32:00.004-05:00

Today is Spencer's 12th! birthday! It seems like just yesterday he was the little monster living inside my belly that was so big and tough he'd stick a foot out and you could clearly see the outline! His big ol' 9 pound self made his entrance on September 28, 12 years ago and has been keeping us busy and entertained ever since!

Spencer is a good kid with a big heart and is always loved by his teachers. I've heard this quote more than once. "How do you ever get him in trouble? He just have to look at you with those big blue eyes..." and it's true. We've said over and over - "He's lucky he's cute!". Because this kid is all boy - all roughness and mess and then at the same time cuddly and sweet.

He's grown like a weed this summer and it's weird to see this big boy walking around my house! Spencer is our outside kid - loves to catch bugs and frogs and snakes and crawdads and build forts. He also loves his video games and building systems inside. School is not his favorite thing in the world but he's getting awesome grades this year and I'm so proud of him!

We celebrated Bubba's birthday several times on Sunday so we'd all have some more time with him. We spent the morning at Nana and Papa's to have brunch and dessert for Spencer and Papa's birthdays. He was given a desk for his room since he's been wanting one so bad! That afternoon, he got to go shopping with Grandma and Grandpa - he finally got his coveted handcuffs (which Will disappear at the first misuse) and a pocketwatch and some fun building games. That evening, we sent him on a scavenger hunt for his gift from us.

He and Chloe (and eventually Tyler even joined in) followed clues around the house until they made it to the shed...

...where his new bike was hidden. Poor kid has been without a bike because his died. He is so excited to be able to ride again!

Happy Birthday, Spencer! We love you!

INTRODUCING...

2010-09-27T13:31:00.002-05:00

...The Color Blue and the Rectangle Shape!

We begin working with both this week! The kids are always excited to see what our new shape and color are. We're working with each shape and color for 2 weeks each to really help them to stick with our youngest kiddos!

We found lots of Blue and Rectangles and Blue Rectangles as we hunted for them this morning!

Welcoming Fall

2010-09-24T12:33:00.003-05:00

We continued to work with leaves and trees through the end of this week, but I didn't take many pictures of our finished projects. We colored apple trees as we talked about the parts of trees and the different types of trees. We found leaves in the yard and examined them - the different kinds, the different colors. We created a "dry" leaf by gluing leaf crumbs onto a leaf shape.

We intended to make really cool, stained-glass looking leaves today by melting crayons between layers of wax paper. But, someone forgot to stock up on wax paper. So, then, that someone thought it'd be a good idea to try to just put the crayon shaving between the layers of laminating sheets and running it through the laminating machine. Please make a note here, people: If you love your laminating machine - Do Not Do This! It doesn't like it. It jams up and becomes unworkable and you will cry and start planning a laminating machine funeral. And then the children who were so excited about seeing the crayon bits melt get angry they can't finish their project and call you mean. Just sayin'....

To make it up to them for not being able to make our cool stained glass leaves today, I made some leaf shaped piecrust cookies - and they were yummy! I didn't hear so many, "you're mean."'s after they ate those!

This week we also imitated trees - tall, straight trunks planted in the ground... lightly swaying in a breeze or wildly waving in a windstorm. This was a lot of fun!

Next week: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - I can't wait!!

Green! and Fall Color Leaves & Trees

2010-09-22T13:44:00.005-05:00

We've had a fun and busy week exploring trees and leaves. We've talked about the different parts of trees. We've talked about what happens to leaves in the fall (while we wait not very patiently for fall to get here!). And we've done some fun tree & leaf art!

We made tissue paper fall-colored leaves. Beautiful!

We created trees from prints of our hands and forearms, then decorated them with finger-print leaves!

And it worked out perfectly that the leaves on all our trees are still green because we introduced the color green this week!

See all our green wardrobes today! And everyone who wasn't able to wear green today, had a fun green sticker!

We made a green collage - love gluing!

And we painted using broccoli for our brush - made awesome patterns!

Friday's Festivities a.k.a. Princess K Day!

2010-09-20T13:10:00.007-05:00

Friday was our local high school's homecoming day - full of festivities and fun! We all dressed in purple and talked about the fun of the upcoming Homecoming Parade that afternoon. I fielded lots of questions... Is it time to go yet? What time is the parade? When are we going to the parade? Is it time for the parade? When is it time for the parade? Is it time now? Are we leaving for the parade now? Did we miss the parade? I was very glad when I was able to finally say yes, it's time to leave for the parade.

My dear, dear friend, Lisa - who is a bit of a glutton for punishment, I think - stopped by to help us walk up to the parade route. We loaded up 2 wagons-full of kids, plus had a couple walking and headed off. Along the way we lost one that saw Mama and sisters and we saw a couple other mama's. We headed to a shady spot (because it is way hotter than it should be in September!) and got comfy to wait for the parade to start!

We could hear the band long before we could see them and had to do a little boogying!

And then we could see them! Here comes the band!! And there's Tyler - in her sparkly shoes - tootin' her flute!

And here's Miss A, promoting the spring History Fair at the middle school!

And here's what we've been waiting for! MISS K! The Homecoming crown bearer... Dressed as a beautiful purple princess, riding in the float with Grandma - chucking candy to everyone.

And - She sees us! Yay!

The little ones all did great - they were far more interested in gathering the candy that was thrown to them than seeing the floats, but they did load up on the loot! We left with a full gallon bag of candy to split between them to take home!

After naps, Miss K got to come with Mom to pick up B and to show off her new "do" for the evening festivities. She was absolutely beautiful and I was so happy to be able to get a little time to get my fix of pictures and oohing and aahing! Gorgeous girl!

Finishing up Brown Bear...

2010-09-17T11:58:00.004-05:00

The Gold Fish sees a teacher, the teacher sees the children and the children find all their favorite animals! Fun Week!

Next week - trees and leaves!

White Dog White Dog

2010-09-16T13:12:00.004-05:00

What do you see?
I see a Black Sheep looking at me...

Black Sheep, Black Sheep
what do you see?

I see a Gold Fish looking at me...

We're almost through all of Brown Bear Brown Bear and have been having so much fun with it. We're also introducing the square shape this week with some square art!

Green Frog, Green Frog

2010-09-15T12:57:00.003-05:00

What do you see?

I see a Purple Cat looking at me!

Purple Cat, Purple Cat
What do you see?

I see a White Dog looking at me!

And - back to green... We've been learning about green today - wearing green clothes, painting with green paint, eating green broccoli w/lunch!

And, with the cool, wet, inside-kind of day, we've had lots of opportunity to talk about and practice our indoor rules - quiet voices, walking feet, treating toys and furniture appropriately, playing nicely with our friends.

It's easy to let craziness take over so we have been really working on following the inside-play rules and seeing the benefits following those rules can bring - more time to do favorite activities and silly things in the house, more time for extra art, time for a favorite tv show for a treat and more. It's a work in progress, but these wet days will hopefully get us closer to mastering the indoor-play skills before we're hit with a ton of inside days when winter comes!

More Brown Bear, Brown Bear tomorrow!

Yellow Duck, Yellow Duck

2010-09-14T12:45:00.003-05:00

What do you see?

I see a Blue Horse looking at me!

Blue Horse, Blue Horse
What do you see?

I see a Green Frog looking at me!

More Tomorrow!!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear

2010-09-13T13:27:00.004-05:00

Brown Bear, Brown Bear - What do you see?

I see a Red Bird looking at me.
Red Bird, Red Bird - What do you see?

I see a Yellow Duck looking at me.
Yellow Duck, Yellow Duck - What do you see?

MORE TOMORROW!

Police Officers & Mail Carriers

2010-09-10T13:26:00.005-05:00

We've been exploring different community helpers this week; this past couple days we've talked about police officers and mail carriers.

Yesterday as we discussed police officers, we talked about how the police are our friends and are here to help us, we talked about calling 911 in emergencies and practiced dialing 911 on the phones we colored. We also made fun, shiny officer badges for everyone!

Today was our mail carrier day - we talked about the things mail carriers might deliver, made a postcard to mail back to our homes and practiced "delivering" letters to our friends by recognizing their names!

The last couple days have been wet wet wet and nasty so we've been in the house. And these little bodies have a lot of energy they need to get out after a day and a half stuck inside! So today, we turned up some fun praise music and boogied the morning away. It was some wild and crazy boogying and ended up in a lot of dog piles. I don't know that it helped to use much of that excess energy, but it was fun for everyone while it lasted!

Next week's theme: Brown Bear, Brown Bear