January Doings

The girls will take any chance to ride their bikes. They love it and Paige has recently outgrown her old bike and Nate and her were able to find one at the thrift store for $15. Paige was one happy girl. She always wanted a bike with hand brakes and a kickstand and her wish came true. They love riding around in the cul-de-sac, at the park, and recently one of the parking lots at the park has been closed off to cars and has been the perfect place for riding bikes, putting leaves down the drain, and seeing the ducks. 

We also got these cute small terrariums for Christmas from Nate's sister. We got to put them together ourselves and they were so fun to make. We each had different characters or people to put in our own.

Like I mentioned before we have been spending lots of time when there is no rain at the park. Most of the time it is just riding bike but occasionally we will play at the playground or go feed the ducks and walk on the dock.

Paige has also been able to have play dates with Addison again and she has loved it!

I also love the cute, family pictures on our phones. It shows the simple times in our lives and that really is what makes life joyful. The sweet, quiet moments between everything when we are together as a family.

The weather has been cold but we always take advantage of the sunny days especially on the weekends and go find someone to explore and walk. Last weekend we went with Nona to explore a park on Lake Sawyer. The walk was pretty and simple, there were lots of rocks for Baylor to throw in the water, and we even saw a bald eagle swoop down and land on a nearby tree. We had never been there before and I would love to go there again in the summer and have a picnic and play in the water. 

Then today we decided to go and see Snoqualmie Falls. We haven't been there in a few years and it was a nice outing to fill our day and to get some outside exploring in before the rain this next week.

Both of the girls loved walking over the road on this bridge. Baylor thought it was so fun that we were walking over the car.

The falls are always stunning to see and Nate is always scared of heights on the top viewing deck.

Then we made our way down to another viewing area and to the river.

Baylor loved playing down by the river the best and was busy playing in the sand and building a castle. The walk back up the hill and to the car was steep and hard. Paige was tired but pushed through and made it to the top and Nate was a champ carrying Baylor on his shoulders the entire way up. 

We then stopped and played at a playground for a little bit. Paige loved the zipline and pretty much everything. Baylor didn't last very long and got cold and just wanted to be held. We waited for Nate to get back from Safeway with our lunch and then we enjoyed our food in the warmth of the car before heading home. It was a fun little outing!

We are excited for warmer weather and more exploring!

Preschool: Me

This week's theme was "all about me" and since it is just Baylor it was all about her; things that she does, things that she loves, and some of her emotions. Tuesday we started our day off looking at our reflections. I found a couple of mirrors, a spoon, and a metal gravy boat that she could look at herself and see that cute reflection.

Oh what a silly little one with the most expressive little face!

We then looked at a few of her baby books. I loved doing this with her. I love listening to her talk about the different pictures and what she liked in the pictures. It was just the sweetest thing and she had so much to tell me.

Then for art we decided on four things that she does during the day: Sleep, eat, read books, and ride bikes/play outside. She got to color and decorate each of the sections. She picked red for sleep because she is insisted that Santa came and checked on her while she was sleeping Christmas Eve night and said, "Good night Baylor". And since Santa wears red, she colored that section red. For eating, she picked brown because she likes cinnamon toast crunch for cereal for breakfast. The reading books section she just said she likes "llama llama" books and that's the color she picked. Last, she picked blue for the sky for playing outside.

Then we sang a few songs and started with "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" since that talks about different body parts. Then for learning time we used her art craft and I put an arrow on it that she could spin. We first talked about the order that she does those things and she would move the arrow. Then she acted them out. Top two pictures are sleeping and riding bikes and bottom two are reading books and eating.

Then for active time she went and jumped on the little trampoline in the backroom before ending with some stories and reading time. I started with a cute book that we have that is titled, "Twinkle, Twinkle You are My Star" before reading her selection of books.

Wednesday, our first activity was using a measuring tape and measuring how tall she was and then she measured different parts of her body. She doesn't recognize too many numbers yet so it was just a simple thing for her to do but she does know the number 3 and pointed it out on the measuring tape.

Then for art I had printed off a whole bunch of things that she loves and she glued them onto a paper plate and colored it.

Then for music time we played with the musical instruments. Baylor loved this and especially loved the triangle. We then went to our outdoor/active time activity since our learning time activity was incorporated in our lunch for today.

Then she rode her bike and "skated" down the hall for her active time.

Then to for story we looked at pictures of Baylor on the computer and I told her stories about when she was born and about the different pictures about her life.

Our learning time activity for the day was making different faces out of the cheese and pepperoni on their pizzas for their lunch.

Thursday we started our day with stringing beads onto pipe cleaners.

Then for art she was to draw different faces onto some circles. These are the faces I drew so she kind of had an idea of what they should look like.

Then here are her absolutely cute little faces that she drew- the first one is happy, then sad, and the last is mad. I love the arms, legs, and hair that she added. I love the toddler way of drawing people and faces. I think it is just the cutest thing.

Then we sang a few songs before doing our learning time. We first went into the bathroom and did different faces in front of the mirror so that she could see her face. Then we went back to the faces that she drew during art and used them to sing a little song. She held up the face when I talked about each emotion. This is how the little song went: (To the tune of "I'm a Little Teapot") "Some little faces I have seen. Some were mad and some were mean. But the one little face with a smile was best. That was the happiest of all the rest." It was a fun and simple day. I loved talking to her about her different emotions and how she felt at different times and what makes her happy, sad, and mad. 

I wanted to add here some of the extra faces that we did in the mirror because they were so cute.

Surprised.

And shy.

Then our last two activities for the day were for our active time we rolled the ball back and forth and then I watched her try and shoot some baskets. Most of the time she was being silly and would throw it straight up and laugh so hard if it landed on her head or throwing it backwards. And last we read a pile of books for reading time starting off with a book titled "Kindness Makes Us Strong" and we talked about each of the things that the kids do in the book that is kind and helpful.

What a fun week to learn and talk about this cute girl!

Preschool: In the City

We had a fun week learning about things in the city. I ended up moving things around a bit due to the weather forecast so we started Tuesday off with our field trip day. We had to wait for Paige to be done with school so while we waited I first showed her some YouTube videos about the city. It talked about different places and things in a city. Then we did these fun preschool activities that Paige created this past weekend. They were fun and I love my little teacher Paige always trying to help out.

Then after lunch for our field trip we went to different places in the city. I had made a map that at different places we would do crayon rubbings and other stops we just put a stamp on saying we went there. Our first stop was at the park. It was a bit chilly so we didn't last very long but we had plenty of other places to go to keep us busy.

Next we stopped at the hospital and the girls did a rubbing there. Then we went to a Supermarket (Walmart) and the pharmacy in there to get a prescription for me. We then drove by the Post Office and stamped off that one. We then stopped at City Hall and did a rubbing there and then to the Pet Store.

Our last stop was a bakery and we stopped at Legendary Donuts and the girls picked out some donuts to enjoy. It was a fun little outing!

The girls' maps.

Wednesday we started our day off with building a city and roads with the blocks.

Then for art I drew a cityscape on a paper and Baylor painted it with a Q-tip. The original idea was for Baylor to trace/paint along the lines that I drew but she was more than happy to just paint the windows in the buildings.

Next we sang some songs and we had to include 'The Wheels on the Bus" since you see buses in the city. Then for learning time we went into the bathroom where it was nice and dark and I had a flashlight and Baylor did shadow acting with things that people do in the city. I first had her "direct" traffic like a policeman, then she used a hammer as a construction worker, she pretended to buy somethings at the store and get money out of her pocket to pay the lady, and then she pretended to play on different things at the park.

We read a pile of book and then for our outdoor time we went outside and drew with chalk. At first we were drawing the city and then it led to just fun chalk coloring and some hopscotch.

Thursday we started with building roads with noodles. Baylor created a circle road with beach in the middle.

Then for art I drew a cityscape again and that she colored with some crayons while I cut out some pictures from a magazine of things that we might find in the city and then she glued them on to make a city mural.

Then for learning she painted a skyscraper and a school on some bread. I just put some food coloring in a little bit of milk.

I read her another pile of books for story time and then after lunch we went with Paige to the park for our outdoor time and fed the ducks some bread. We haven't done this in a long time and Baylor absolutely loved it!

Preschool: Colors

This week our theme for preschool was colors. We have continued to start our day with our weather chart and Baylor loves to look out the door every morning and fix the chart and sometimes even if the weather changes during the day she will change the chart again. It is a fun little thing for her to do daily and she always wants it to be sunny even when it is pouring outside. :)

Tuesday we started with coloring. We each colored some pictures out of a coloring book. Then for art we created these red and green circles. Paige saw what we were doing before she went to school and carefully picked out green and red sequins and others things for Baylor to glue on the circles. I started off just putting random glue dots on one and she decided to make it into a face and so we had to do the other one the same. We talked about how green means go and red means stop with traffic lights. Then for music we acted out this poem and it could be sung to the tune of "If you're happy and you know it". If you're wearing red, pat your head. If you're wearing blue, count to two. If you're wearing green, let your smile be seen. If you're wearing brown, hop up and down. If you're wearing yellow, jump like a funny fellow. If you're wearing black, pat your back. We did it a few times and Baylor really enjoyed it and then we sang a few more songs before moving on. Since our green and red circles weren't quite dry yet we read books first. We have a board book about colors and mixing colors that we read and then she picked out a stack of books that we also read. Then for our learning activity we played red light green light. She thought it was pretty fun and she did different things like jumping to me, walking backwards, and tip toeing. It only lasted 5-10 minutes before she was done. It was a pretty simple but good day.

Our power went out due to high winds during the night and we didn't have power for part of the morning which meant no school for Paige so she got to join us in preschool on Wednesday. First they checked the weather and for our indoor play Paige helped Baylor sort buttons into color piles. Paige would give her small handfuls and then Baylor would sort them. Once they got them sorted by colors, I picked a color for Baylor to sort again and she sorted the buttons with 2 holes and 4 holes. I thought she would lose interest faster than she did so it was a success.

Then for art I got a white table cloth from the dollar store and we colored it and decorated it with crayons. It was pretty fun and I loved seeing both the girls be creative and we even had our dinner that night on our masterpiece.

Then the girls danced to some kid's songs that I played on my phone.

Then for learning time I told a story about a ghost who ate different things and changed colors. He started off white and then ate different foods and would change the color of that food (such as he ate grapes and turned purple and then strawberries and turned red). I would ask Baylor what color the ghost turned and Paige loved the one at the end (the black and white one was because the ghost ate an Oreo). To end the story the ghost drank a glass of milk to turn white again and was happy. Later that night and even the next day Baylor would show me the white ghost and tell me that he was happy because he was white again.

Then for our outdoor/active play we went on a color hunt. I would say "Paige and Baylor are going on a color hunt and they found something ______." I would say a color and they would race around trying to find something that color. We did this for a little bit and they both had fun with it. Then to end our preschool day we read a Sesame Street book about colors. We loved having Paige join us for our day!

Thursday we started our day off with a weather check and then did puzzles. Last weekend we found this Peppa Pig puzzle at the Goodwill Outlet and Baylor loves them. It has 6 different puzzles so for our indoor play Baylor did all of them with a little help. She loves puzzles and does pretty well by herself as long as someone is watching and sitting by her. 

Then for art we used stencils and colored pencils. I first had her use the shape stencils and asked her about the shapes and then I asked her about the different colors of the stencils and then I just let her create. Then we sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" and "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes". She wanted to sing a few more songs but then was ready to move on.

Then for our learning activity I had a square, triangle, circle, and rectangle each taped onto a little sandwich bag. I hid three of each shape in the living room and her mission was to find them. When we found one I would ask her what shape it was and what color it was. She really enjoyed this one and it was learning along with moving. We then read another Sesame Street book about shapes to end our day. Once Paige was done with school then they went outside to ride bikes. It was a fun week and I'm looking forward to watching Baylor grow and learn throughout this year.