Letter C

Letter C this week- We started Monday off with tracing uppercase and lowercase C. Each week we also talk about what sound each of the letters make and whenever we do a craft we talk about the sound of the word to hopefully help her with corresponding the sound with the letter.

Then Baylor did a cow craft. She painted the dots and the pink snout. I drew the horns and ears and then had her cut them out. Once the paint dried she glued on the googly eyes and drew on the nose holes.

Tuesday we did a C cloud craft. She glued on cotton balls for the cloud and rubbed the cotton balls all over her face because she thought they were so soft. Then she started to color a rainbow in her sky and just started coloring random things.

Then we had some cheese and crackers and chips for a little snack.

And last we went outside to draw with some chalk. I drew a welcome sign, flowers, and a very long hopscotch and she would draw lines and color in whatever I colored. She liked jumping from flower to flower and drew a flag at the end for herself and had lots of fun on the hopscotch- it had 55 squares!

Wednesday she did a C cat. I drew and cut out the C and then she drew the head and tail for me to cut out and then she glued it all together and drew on that cute little face.

Then we made chocolate chip cookies. She was happy to help and happy to try out the dough to make sure they were good. :) She loves chocolate chip cookies and we were all happy to enjoy them.

Thursday we started off with a C caterpillar craft. She drew all the circles and then she picked out what color she wanted to cut out. I cut out the purple and she cut out the yellow. We talked about doing a pattern and then she glued it together and drew on the face.

Then we did another sensory bowl like last week but this time I used corn with coins in it and she played with it for a good 30 minutes. She would carefully find all the coins and then want me to hide them again. She hid them once for me to find but as I was finding she was too excited and wanted to find them herself.

Friday she colored a crown with crayons.

And her last C activity for the week was painting with carrots.

We got the full week this time and my fridge is full of beautiful C crafts!

Letter B

 It was Baylor's favorite letter for last week- the letter B. We did lots of fun crafts and were able to even play outside one day with it being somewhat nice outside. I am SO ready for nicer weather!

We started Monday off with uppercase and lowercase letter B tracing.

Then Baylor made a butterfly suncatcher. I drew and cut out the butterfly and then she colored it and then I used contact paper one one side where she was able to stick tissue paper to and then put more contact paper on the other side to seal it all together. It looked so pretty in the window.

Tuesday we started off with a bear craft. I cut out the different pieces and then she glued them all together and drew on the face and glued on some googly eyes.

Then she glued buttons on the lowercase b.

Then we used beads to do some math and counting. I had some addition problems and would ask her what the first number was and she would count out that many beads and then I would ask her what the second number was and she would count out that many beads. Then she would count them all together to get the answer and then I had her write the answer down on the paper. She did awesome. I was afraid she would get bored but she stuck with it and had fun counting the beads.

Wednesday she started off making a handprint and footprint bat. She traced her hands and one foot and I cut them out and then she helped me tape the pieces together and then she colored it. 

Then she played in a bean sensory bowl. I put bugs, buttons, and beads in the beans and she had to find all the different things in the beans. She liked to used tongs to pick up the different things and some measuring cups to help move the beans around. 

Thursday we started off with her coloring her own body. She was very detailed with her coloring at first and then got a little overwhelmed with how much coloring she had and decided her shirt and pants should have stripes to make to go faster but it sure turned out cute.

Then to end our week she got to ride her bike

And blow bubbles.

Letter A

 We started our new year of preschool this past week with the focus being on a letter per week. It is simpler than last year but I know Baylor will enjoy the crafts and it will help her recognize both uppercase and lowercase letters and help her get to know the sounds for each letter.

We will start each week with her tracing the letter for the week. Baylor got this awesome dry erase book from her cousin for Christmas and it will be perfect.

Paige didn't have school on Monday so she wanted to be in charge and help Baylor with her preschool activities for the day. She got the tracing book out and then all the supplies for the craft. For Monday's craft it was an alligator out of the uppercase A.

Tuesday was our apple day. I first helped her make the lowercase letter "a" into an apple. I cut out the red lowercase a out of red paper and then she cut out the leaves and the stem. I then had her roll a dice and she had to put that many chocolate chips on her a to represent ants. After each time we would count how many "ants" were on her apple. Then for our last activity for the day we made some homemade applesauce. It was so good!

Wednesday she started off with gluing apple jacks onto the lowercase and uppercase letter a.

Then she divided lower case a's and uppercase a's into the right basket. She thought it was fun to close her eyes and pick two apples and then open them to put them in the right basket.

Thursday she first made this cute ant puppet and we sang "The Ants Go Marching" and then we did a counting activity with animal cookies. We each took a pile and she would count how many we each had. Then we would eat one or two and she could recount each pile and I also how her count how many were all together.

Friday I had planned to make some paper airplanes but life happened and we didn't get around to doing our Friday activities but I am happy with our first week and Baylor really enjoyed it.

Christmas Break

Paige had two weeks off for Christmas break and the first week we didn't do much, mostly Christmas prep. Then Friday was Christmas Eve and we got to pick up my parents from the airport and they stayed the rest of the break with us. It was great to be with them and the girls loved every minute and didn't want them to leave when the time came.

Christmas Eve we spent at Nona and Pop's house for traditional Christmas Eve dinner. It was cute that as soon as we got there Nate and Paige went to the Christmas tree to see who all the presents were for. Paige reminds me of myself so much at Christmas- so much excitement, loves everything about it, always looking at the presents and feeling them and putting them in piles. 

We started the evening with the traditional lightly of the Santa candle. We had one and Nona had one so each of the girls got to light one. Nona's burnt really fast and was gone by the evening and we had to burn ours on Christmas to get to the end of it.

Anna and Scott's family arrived and it was sandwich time. First was everyone signing the board.

Then the Dads and kids had fun making the sandwich. It is always fun to see their choices.

Then carrying the sandwich around the house before digging in.

It was a delicious sandwich like always and we had plenty of sides to go with it. Then it was present time. It is always fun to see the young kids lined up to help hand out presents and I love seeing everyone open presents and the excitement in their eyes and their reactions to gifts.

Then we went home with two very excited girls ready to open up their pjs and get everything ready for Santa's big arrival.

Christmas was so sweet. One of my favorite parts of the day was Baylor running into our room in the morning and yelling, "Santa came!" The girls were so excited and the adults were not moving fast enough. Santa spoiled us this year and the girls got so many fun things. Paige loved her fuzzy slippers and got so many craft things. Baylor loved her new Frozen high heels and constantly wear them. Paige gave us some of the sweetest and most thoughtful gifts and even helped Baylor makes some things to give to us. It was fun to have my parents there and they loved being part of the magic of Christmas with young children. We haven't been with my parents for Christmas since Paige was little so it was great for them to be a part of our day.

Crafting away in the Christmas chaos.

Traditional Christmas gift pictures- We have two of the cutest girls ever!

The girls kept busy for the rest of the day playing with their gifts. Paige got this rock discovery kit and the pounding was heard for the next couple of days. I made a turkey and a big Christmas dinner and the girls got to have both their grandparents over. What a special occasion for us all!

The white Christmas came a day late and so Sunday the world was covered in white and Church ended up being cancelled. It was a lazy day, watching the Seahawks, and spending some time at Nona and Pop's house.

One lucky girl to have both her grandpa's helping her with puzzles.

Monday after lunch, we went sledding. The funny thing is Baylor has been all talk about snow and so excited to go out in it. We got to the park and Baylor wanted nothing to do with sledding. No matter who tried to convince her or different ways to be in the sled she simply refused. We met over at the park with Pops, Aaron and a couple of his kids, and Mike and a couple of his kids. Paige and Carly had so much fun going down over and over. They would race and then ended up going down together. The last run ended up with some injuries and tears but it was still a fun outing.

My stubborn little girl and I hung out at the bottom of the hill watching everyone go down over and over. The only time she sat in a sled was to sit with me for a little bit to give her legs a rest.

We ended up going over to Nona and Pop's house for dinner. The girls had fun with cousins and we ended the night with some ginger beer taste testing.

There was still a lot of snow on the roads so most of the time we stayed home but there was a small break in the weather on Tuesday so we went bowling. 

Paige loved it and Baylor lasted a couple of rounds and then was done. Paige was fine having her sister give up so that she got to go twice per round. It was kind of cold in the bowling alley and Baylor doesn't like being cold and it was loud. So most of time, Baylor was on my lap with my coat wrapped around her with her plugging her ears. It was a fun outing and the best was seeing Paige improve over time and seeing her excitement when she got a spare.

We ended up getting more snow and so the next few days kind of blurred together. We spent most of the time at home. I really wanted to get out and do more but with the snow and cold it just didn't happen. We played lots of games and watched a couple of movies. Grandma played probably every game we own with Paige and the girls loved having her read them a story every night. Poppy did a lot of puzzles with Baylor.

One afternoon we got out to play in the snow and built some snowmen and threw snowballs. 

Baylor loves throwing snowballs at people. She thinks it is so fun and had the best smiles and laughs while chasing people around. Both girls had fun throwing snowballs at each other and at their parents. It was a fun afternoon and was good to be outside for awhile even if we were all bundled up.

New Year's Eve we went to Winco to get some food for the next day and some candy to do some gingerbread houses. We took the candy over to Nona and Pop's house and the girls did them there with Eliza and we got to see Christy and Lylia for their birthdays. We went home late and we got Baylor to bed and then we watched a movie to pass the time. Paige was determined to stay up until midnight and we made it and it was fun to see and hear all the fireworks outside. It is crazy that another year has passed! Time truly goes by way too fast.

 New Year's Day we spent eating lots of food and watching some football. It was a day spent playing more games and being inside. Then Sunday we had church and watched some of the Seahawks game before having to take Grandma and Poppy back to the airport. There were some tears from Paige. She always has a hard time leaving them. She loves all the time spent with them and the distance is hard and it is hard that we are torn between two places. We enjoyed our visit with them and it was so amazing to have them here for Christmas!