Letter O

We did some fun O activities this week!

We started off with our normal uppercase and lowercase letter O tracing.

Then for her craft she made this cute owl. I drew all the pieces and she cut them out and glued them all together.

For our second day she glued on fruit loops on the uppercase and lowercase letter O and did it on orange paper.

Then we made some orange julius. She enjoyed pouring all the ingredients in and was not a fan of the loud blender (bottom right picture). She was willing to taste it and said she liked it but I could tell she wasn't too much of a fan.

Our third day craft was the ocean. She colored all the ocean animals and each got named (Paige, Baylor, Mom, Dad, Baby, Grandma, Poppy, Nona, Pops, and Eliza) and she colored the waves on her paper while I cut out the different pieces and then she glued them in her ocean.

Then for her activity for the day she played in oatmeal. I put some of the fruit loops in to add some O's and color in it. I gave her a wooden spoon, a measuring cup, some measuring spoons, and an extra bowl to pour into. She enjoyed this for quite awhile. I loved listening to her as she stirred, measured, and created all these different foods in her mind. She first said she was going to make pancakes and told me all about the pancakes I made on Valentine's Day that were pink and heart shaped. She asked if pancakes had cereal and oatmeal in them. She would talk about the ingredients she was adding- usually flour, sugar, and salt, and sometimes she would say pepper with a giggle. Then she would say she doesn't like pepper only salt. She thought it was so funny when I would pretend to eat the food she made me. She would talk about how it felt in her hands and loved the texture. I loved listening to her chatter and listening to her count out loud as she measured. It truly is amazing to watch her learn!

Then for our last day she did an octopus craft. She painted her hands and then I helped her add extra legs with her fingers. I then showed her a picture of a real octopus and it's tentacles. She glued on fruit loops on her octopus tentacles and then added the eyes and smile- one is Paige and one is Baylor.

It was a good preschool week!

Letter N

Another quick week with with very simple activities but she always enjoys them and it is always good to have a focus for her and me during the week to aid in her learning.

Uppercase and lowercase letter N tracing

For the first day her craft was a night time sky. I love how she drew her stars!

Then our second day of preschool was all about nests. I didn't plan this but I thought of this book we have before we did our craft and it is a favorite of Baylor's.

Then she created her own nest. She cut out of the "sticks" and I helped her glue them on the plate. She then drew and cut out the eggs to add to her nest. She wanted to draw lines on the eggs to show they were cracking and about to open up.

Our third day's activity was a noddle craft on a lowercase letter n.

Then for our last day it was all about numbers. I had previously cut out numbers 1-20. I first asked her to tell me the ones that she knew and recognized and she laid out in order 1-10. I then showed her how each of the teens matches up with the numbers 1-10 (1 to 11, 2 to 12, etc.) and we went through those numbers and counted 1-20 a couple of times.

We then each took a turn hiding all the numbers in a room of the house for the other to find. Baylor hid hers much harder than I hid mine and she ended up having to help me find all of hers. :)

Then the craft part was gathering all the numbers up and she glued them on the letter N. I wasn't planning on having her do them in order but she was insistent on it.

Letter M

I have come to realize that doing 4 days a week of preschool activities is the usual for our life right now. There always seems to be one day a week that is super busy and we just don't get around to it. I enjoy the time and activities that we do and I know Baylor loves them and I hope these letters and sounds will slowing stick in her mind.

For our letter M week, we started as usual with tracing the uppercase and lowercase letter M.

Then for her craft the first day she made a cute M mouse.

The next day was our mitten day. She first did a mitten craft and traced her hands and then decorated the mittens. I forgot to get an end picture but she had LOTS of fun with the stickers. It was like an explosion of stickers on her paper and then she glued cotton balls on the bottom of the mittens.

Then she did a letter matching activity with mittens. There was the uppercase letter on one mitten and on the other mittens were lowercase and she had to match them all up. She did very well and wasn't sure about just a few.

Our third day we started off with marble painting.

Then we did a M&M math activity with counting the different colors and of course eating them.

Friday was a busy day for me but Paige saw that I had a monster craft activity on my list and she helped Baylor create this monster for our last day. She is a great big sister and Baylor always loves to craft with her.

April

 We started the month off with Paige's favorite day of the year and my least favorite- April Fool's Day. She got up extra early and did some things the night before to get her parents. So much tape was used on drawers, light switches, on the floor, and even to keep Baylor in bed. She took batteries out of the remote and made it so the computer mouse didn't work. She put googly eyes on a whole bunch of things in the fridge. She short sheeted our bed and put some books on Nate's side. She gets complete glee and happiness from this day and seeing her tricks work. I was on edge all day but made it through and would hear Paige's giggles every time I found something else and would do some sort of reaction.

Baylor has really gotten into drawing and painting this past month. We go through so much paper and she loves to draw people and it is the cutest thing. The picture on the top left is me, the picture on the top right is the podium she drew while we were watching conference, and the bottom was her very own art gallery she drew when looking out the window- the birds, the sky, and the grass.

The spring flowers in my yard make me so happy! I have a little piece of heaven in our yard and I love how everything is growing and coming in. It truly soothes my soul and it is even more full and has more flowers now that we are into May.

We also have taken advantage of any warm days. They have been few and far between and this year it has seemed to take longer than normal to be consistency warm but we will always take a day when we can draw with chalk or the girls can ride their bikes and just sit out in the sun and soak up its rays.

We went on our annual trillium walk through the forest with Nona. They are few and far between at first and then we get to a part of the forest that is trillium heaven where you can spot so many and the girls always love to see how many they can find. 

We did end up having one 70 degree day and Baylor took full advantage of the warm weather and ran through the sprinkler for a little bit. She now often asks me to do it again but we still are patiently for another warm enough day. She loved it so much and wants summer!

The girls got a pet for their room and they love them so much. There is a family in our ward that will be moving next month and she asked me who I thought would like their fish tank. It was small enough for the space that we have and so we were so happy to take it off their hands. We surprised the girls and they love it. They are two glo fish and Baylor named hers Pinky and Paige named hers Mango.

The other picture is the amazing tower that Nate helped the girls build.

My entire world in one picture- I'm so lucky and incredibly blessed to have these three in my life!

I got to volunteer and go on Paige's first ever field trip. She did go on some field trips in preschool but since she has started "real" school she has never gone on a field trip due to switching schools and Covid. It's sad that she is in 4th grade and has never been on a field trip but this one was worth it and was a lot of fun. They got to watch salmon go from eggs to baby fish in their library for the past few months. They got to observe them and learn things in their classroom all about salmon and their life cycle and then they each got to release one of the salmon on the field trip. The field trip was at Flaming Geyser State Park. Paige sat by me on the ride there and was a little timid but opened up throughout the day. There was a team there that the kids got to learn from the the different areas were learning about beavers, doing an obstacle course mimicking the life cycle of a salmon, looking at the water quality of the water they were releasing their salmon into and seeing all the bugs in that water that their salmon will be able to eat, and they each got to name and release their own salmon into the river. Paige named hers Wavy and it was fun to be a part of her day. We had lunch together and though the weather wasn't the best and we dealt with rain off and on throughout the day it was such a good day. Paige sat with her friends on the way back which I'm glad she did and I'm glad that she let me come and be a part of the field trip.

Just a few snapshots from the past month. Picture one was a day where I was volunteering at Paige's field trip and Nate and Baylor had some fun and Nate made her an astronaut helmet and a box was her rocket shop. Top right is Baylor taking a quick nap while waiting to pick up Paige from school; Bottom right is Paige drawing from one of the favorite spots in the house for the girls.

The end of the month I was able to volunteer for the whole day at Paige's school for their APEX fundraiser event. It was a fun run and so I got to mark t-shirts for every lap that kids went around. It was a lot of fun and it was fun to see kids from the ward and Paige's class since I do art with them. I love seeing Paige at school and it was fun to see her push herself during the run. Though I guess she pushed herself a little too hard since at lunch she had to go to the nurse's office since she got sick to her stomach. It was a fun day for me and the kids. It was a great way to end their leadership fundraiser. The APEX company is great. They get really involved with the kids, teach them leadership skills, and have fun activities and prizes for them. Their last day with the APEX team was Friday and we found out Monday evening that one of the members tragically passed away on Sunday. It has been a rough few days for Paige with the news and with school in general. I'm glad that she got to know this member and he has seemed to have such an amazing influence on so many kids.

April was busy for me in my calling since we had our big annual fundraiser for the year. We sold 80 lasagnas that the youth came together and made one Saturday. It was bit stressful and A LOT of work but they worked well together and went much faster than I thought they would. Then on the 30th we had our lasagna dinner and auction. The few days before were a lot for me and very stressful due to Covid and adding more things to my plate than expected but everything turned out and the day of turned out great. Everything went smoothly and we raised plenty of money to help our youth out so that we can do some fun things this summer. I'm very grateful that it is over. I am ready to not have to think about it, answer lots of questions, and just keep everything straight and organized. It was a big group effort and the youth were awesome through the whole process.

We were able to celebrate Pop's birthday! It is always fun to get together with family.

It is crazy that it is already May and now I can officially say that I'm going to have a baby next month!

Letter L

Our Letter L Week

First day was tracing the uppercase and lowercase L

Then for her craft for the first day it was doing a laundry craft. I cut out some of the clothes, but I had her cut out the towel and the poles for the laundry and then she drew the laundry line.

Then next day she did a lamp coloring page.

Then we did Lego math. I got out some Legos and would have her count how many of a certain color and would have two groups and ask how many there were all together. She did really good and is great at figuring out simple addition problems.

On Wednesday we waited until Paige was done with school and did a lot of fun L things with her. First they wrote with lemon juice and then once it is all dry you can read it with a flashlight.

Then we did a lemon volcano. They put some drops of food coloring on the lemon and then with spoons put baking soda on the lemon. They got to watch it bubble up and have this colorful explosion coming out of the lemon.

Then they set up a lemonade store- they opted for lots of different options and had fun selling to mom and dad and then to each other.

Our last day she did a ladybug craft and it turned out so cute!

And to end that day we read this book. It was a fun week!

Easter

I love Easter- it is a time of spring, of warmer weather, of new growth and just newness of life. It is always a reminder of the resurrection of our Savior and that fact that we get to live again and have this newness of life once again after we die. 

We had our annual Easter egg hunt with Anna and Scott's family a couple of weekends before Easter. It was a cool day but the rain was kind enough to wait until we were done. I love filling the eggs and hiding them and seeing the excitement in all the kid's faces, especially the little ones, as they each find their own color of egg and give it a good shake to see if there is candy inside. 

Search and Find

It was a fun day with cousins and then we had lunch together. They got quite a bit of candy this year!

Then Easter came the day after we got back from Idaho. It is always a fun morning on holidays with kids. Baylor was up first like usual but I think forgot that it was Easter and so I let her do her normal morning routine while I made breakfast and waited for Paige to wake up. Then once Paige got up, the house was filled with excitement with seeing that the Easter bunny left some eggs filled with jellybeans (Starburst kind- which according to Paige is the best kind) and we each had to find our Easter baskets that the Easter bunny hid in the house.

It was a beautiful Easter Sunday and what was even more beautiful were these two sweet girls of mine dressed in their Easter best!

Of course the little one didn't want any individual pictures since she was too busy but the older sister got some cute photos and boy is she growing up way too fast.

The Easter bunny brought a small bubble machine that Baylor was so excited to try out.

We then went over to Dale and Margaret's for the afternoon to dye eggs and to have Easter dinner.

What a beautiful day and I'm so grateful for this sweet family of mine that I get to enjoy days and moments like this with and that I get to be with them forever!