Thursday, June 30, 2016

Letter I

 We are in the middle of our J week but I still haven't posted about our letter I week so here it is. Also some of these pictures are not that great but I must have deleted the pictures that were good or they are somewhere on our computer and I can't find them but here is what I had.

First she did an I Island
Then we did an insect day. She cut out the insect and glued them on. Then she stamped her fingerprint on and the ones in the middle of the I she drew legs and antennas on to make little insects. Like I said I had a good picture but you get the one with her eyes closed. :)
 Then she made a hand print ice cream cone. The fingers were suppose to look like the ice cream was dripping down the cone but she wanted them to be cone colored. Also I drew one cherry on top but she wanted lots more. I love her creativity and making things her own. Also on this day she glued marshmallows on an igloo but I can't find the picture.
 Then we did ice cream letter matching another day. She was matching the uppercase letter with the lowercase letter. She is doing awesome with her letters!
 Saturday evening Paige and I went on a little date and got some ice cream to enjoy.
Then the last activity that she did was paint on ice. We just used watercolors and she loved seeing the colors blend together as the ice melted.

Sunday, June 26, 2016

Daily Doings

 We had talked about getting a fish once we moved and last Saturday was the day. Nate had found the fish bowl the day before at the thrift store and we bought some rocks and then we went to the pet store and Paige picked out a beta fish. Paige loves to help and she loved helping setting up the fish's  home.
 She named the fish Lucy even though it is a boy fish. She is insistent that it is a girl since it is so pretty. She also loves that the fish is in her bathroom and goes and talks to her and sees how she is doing every day.
 About every week Paige decides that it is one of her baby doll or barbies birthdays. We use whatever dessert we have around the house and put candles in and sing to that doll or barbie. Last week she decided that it was Baby Cinderella's birthday and so we had a little party.

The dessert we had laying around was a cinnamon roll so she decided how old she was turning and she put the candles in and we sang to her and enjoyed some cinnamon roll.
 Once I told Paige that we could have a party after dinner she spent a good hour wrapping some presents to open. She got some of her books and got the wrapping paper out. She cut out the pieces and wrapped them all herself. I didn't help at all and she is better at wrapping presents than I am.
 On each present she had her name and Baby  Cinderella's name- that is the "name" on the bottom.
 Another day I had the camera out since we had just finished doing a letter of the week activity and I took a picture of it. She decided she wanted to do different poses with her blanket and for me to take a picture of them all. She is so fun and silly and she also LOVES her blanket.
Yesterday was a gorgeous day and so we finally decided to go and check out the playground at the school that is right next to our apartment. We packed a lunch and had a little picnic and then Paige had so much fun on the playground. Since it is at an elementary school all the things were perfect size for Paige and she didn't want to leave when it was time to go. I know in the future there will be lots of days spent there.

Monday, June 20, 2016

Letter H

 Our Letter H activities and crafts:

On Monday she made this house. I helped cut out a lot of the pieces but she had lots of fun decorating the house with glitter glue.
There were three windows and each opened up with one of us in it. Here is Paige's window.
Then for family home evening we talked about helping around the house and made these helping hands. We each painted our hand prints and wrote what we can do to help with our hands.
On Tuesday she cut out all these different colored hearts with a heart punch that I have and glued them on H.
 She also learned to write the lowercase H. She already knew how to write the uppercase one but practiced both. I have this princess dry erase book that I will use each week for her to practice and she if she can write the uppercase and lowercase of each letter.
 Wednesday Brett came over for a couple of hours to play and for lunch they enjoyed some hot dogs.
 Then later in the afternoon she made a horse out of H.
 Thursday we played hungry, hungry hippo for a little bit.
 Then she made this hive with honeycomb cereal. She enjoyed coloring it and wrote her favorite words to write on it- Paige, mom, dad, and I LYU (I love you).
 Then Friday was our helicopter day. She glued together a helicopter by rolling a dice for each piece until she had the pieces to put it together.
 Then we played a helicopter matching game.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

Our Week at the Carters

 The Carters went on vacation for 8 days and they asked us to watch their three kids. It was exhausting and very tiring having three extra kids to watch but we kept busy and we had some fun times. Paige loved having a constant playmate and the week after we were done she took about three naps throughout the week which never happens. She kept busy and didn't get as much sleep as she was used to but she had lots of fun. 

The kids all did really amazing at playing together and entertaining themselves so I didn't really have to be too involved except when an issue came up. I tried to have a couple of activities planned for each day so that if they were getting antsy then I had something up my sleeve. The twins took a nap everyday and I did the letter G activities with Christopher and Paige during that time and I also had some fun things to do with all four of them. 

We got lots of cute pictures! Nate had more subjects to take pictures of and took advantage of it.
 On Memorial Day we went to Tahoma National Cemetery and saw all the flags. It is always an incredible sight.
 One activity that I did with all four kids was a fishing game that I put together. I printed off fish that had colors, animals, and shapes and they took turn "catching" the fish.
 Another day and more fun.
 On one of the hottest days we had some water fun. We didn't want the kids to go in the lake since we weren't comfortable with having to watch all of them and their parents didn't want them in either so I came up with another idea.
I found a bin and filled it with lake water and brought out lots of different smaller containers. They had so much fun dumping water from containers and on their heads.
When the bin would get low they had fun getting their own water to dump into the bin.
More night time photos.
 Then another afternoon it was another beautiful day so we did some more outside fun.

First up was drawing with chalk.
 I drew a hopscotch and they added onto it and had fun doing the hopscotch.
Then Christopher took everyone on rides in his cool car. They were good at waiting their turns and Christopher was great at giving everyone equal amount of time.
Here is a different evening full of photos and cute kids.
And some tears.
 But mostly smiles. :)
 And there were hugs too.
 Then one evening I decided that it was an opportune time to try out paddle boarding. I have never done it before but it looked fun and I wanted to try it out since I was living on the lake for a couple more days. I started on my knees to get a feel for it and Nate and Christopher were eagerly watching hoping that I would fall off. I am proud to say that I never fell!
I even took it out later when the sun was setting and it was absolutely beautiful!
 Then that evening after the kids were in bed, Nate and I enjoyed a fire along with the gorgeous lake view.
 The last day of our stay was Nate's birthday. We first enjoyed a spaghetti dinner.
 Then we had the birthday party. Happy 31st birthday Nate!
 And my annual gift to Nate. Some otter pops to start off the summer.
 We were very tired by the end of the week and I know we weren't perfect but the kids were taken care of and we had some really fun moments.