Winter Wonderland - Week Three (and Christmas)

Primary Book: Sleep Big Bear, Sleep

Enrichment Book: Hibernation

Activity: Ice Wreath

Nature Study: Blubber

Art: Saint Eustice

Poem: First Snow

Flower Fairies: Lily-of-the-Valley Fairy

We still colored, read our books, looked at art and did our crafts and activities during the week of Christmas. We haven't done our nature study with blubber yet. It involves using shortening, which I don't have on hand. I'll have to borrow some or I'll end up buying it for the activity and giving away the leftovers. I really don't like the stuff.

We had a beautiful Christmas with family! Lots of fun and lots of food! We are truly blessed to have a family who knows how to have a good time...and cook! The kids were blessed with great presents too, thank you! 

The kids all had fun playing with their cousins. I brought a snow man ornament craft and a gingerbread ornament craft for the kids to enjoy with their cousins. The crafts help give a little structure to the craziness. All that sugar needs to be released somehow. 

I know I'm rather exhausted from all the Christmas preparations and festivities. The kiddos are too. We took today to just hang out at home and play.

Daddy bought a bird feeder and some bird seed for us to put out on our deck. Hopefully the birds will make an appearance for us to do some bird watching. Tavin and Matilda enjoyed scooping up the bird seed and pouring it into the feeder.

Some playdoh molding on their new wooden rocket ships from our neighbor.

Admiring their cards from Nana and Papa.

We saved a few presents for the kids to open up at home the day after Christmas. It is nice to have some of our own family traditions too.

The "big" gift from us to the kiddos was the Melissa and Doug Tool Bench. The kiddos helped Daddy get all the pieces out and ready for assembly.

The styrofoam packaging kept the kiddos busy while Daddy worked.

That escalated quickly. Styrofoam everywhere!

Our much needed quiet, relaxing day of play. I guess this is how most of our days go anyway, give or take the jammies.

Enjoying their new building blocks from Grandpa and Grandma. They said they were building a castle. 

Matilda helping out in the kitchen while wearing her new pair of princess shoes. The shoes were a hit, of course. I think this photo is quite hilarious.

Tavin and I built a race car together. Here he is posing with it at the new tool bench. He looks very proud.

Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week Two

Primary Book: Snowballs

Enrichment Book: How Do You Know It's Winter?

Activity: Paper Snowflakes

Nature Study: Snow Pack

Art: Raven Addressing

Poem: First Snow

Flower Fairies: Kingcup Fairy

Our Melissa and Doug Alphabet Puzzles. These have been a great way for them to learn their letters. Now we need to work on the phonetic sounds. Tavin was getting a real good look.

We received a package in the mail (almost all our Christmas shopping was done on-line this year!) and this brown paper seemed too good to pass up for coloring.

The kiddos next to their Jesse Tree, our advent calendar. It's, ideally, supposed to be a potted tree branch but the pasta tree taped up on a door works better for us.

Here we are at the library for the Nutcracker Dance Party! The kids were supposed to dress up as soldiers or dancers. Matilda had on her tutu. Tavin was dressed up as a knight, the closest outfit we had for a soldier, but he ended up taking off his costume. The room was full of kids, a daycare came to enjoy the festivities as well.

Our neighbor is very nice! She leaves their sled out by their door for us to use. Thank you!

Nature study. They were supposed to use their magnifying glasses to get a closer look at the snow. They did that briefly and moved on to other things.

We enjoyed some hot chocolate and marshmallows after our fun in the snow. That is not a shadow on Matilda's face, it's hot chocolate!

Fun with Legos.

Ted was gone traveling for work this week. We stayed home and played on Monday. Tuesday was library day. Wednesday we were at grandpa Jerry's house. We ate pizza, played with Sara's toys (hope that's okay, Sara!) and played in grandpa's yard. We collected pine cones for a future craft and played in the snow. Thursday we were at a friend's house for a play date. Friday we stayed home and baked cookies, cut out paper snowflakes, colored, played with legos and kitchen stuff, cars, trains, stuffed animals....we had a fun week, but we're glad Daddy is home!

Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week One

Winter Wonderland Preschool - Week One

Primary Book: The Tomten

Enrichment Book: The Story of Snow

Activity: Water Color Painting with Salt

Nature Study: Crystal Study

Art: Cave Painting

Poem: First Snow

Flower Fairies: Jasmine Fairy

Here they are creating art with water color paint and salt. When I asked them if they wanted to paint they both said no. I got out the supplies anyway and started painting by myself. It didn't take long for them to join me. They had a lot of fun painting and sprinkling the salt all over. I used cookie sheets to help minimize the mess, which helped a little but not much.

Coloring their Kneeling Santas with Baby Jesus. Matilda can't resist putting the marker caps on her fingers.

Tavin and Matilda lined up all their Little People figures on the floor and on the bar stool foot rests and took turns counting them. They did this all on their own and it was adorable and brilliant.

We all took a trip to my ultrasound appointment and got to see Baby Lewis #3 in action. Baby looks great, everything is measuring correctly and right where it should be. We did not find out the gender.

I was finally able to sew together the top half of the Harvest Time Quilt. With Sandy's coaching, of course.

Fun first week of our Winter Wonderland Preschool. We are just easing into it, not that we were ever strict about preschool. 

We had a play date on Monday. Tuesday we went to a puppet show at the library and then to my ultrasound appointment. Wednesday was another play date. Thursday and Friday we spent at home reading, coloring, playing and baking. It was a little too cold to go out for our Nature Study activity. We'll make up for it this coming week. This week has a few days in the 30's. Heat wave compared to what it has been!

Nana visits Tavin and Matilda

Nana came for a visit. To make things interesting for the kids we set up a little tent in our bedroom so Nana could have their room to herself.

While I was getting their tent ready Matilda wrapped herself up in the sheets.

Matilda gets a turn in the sand while Tavin was napping. What a role reversal.

Nana reading to Tavin while he plays with the duster. The duster is a coveted "toy" for some reason.

 Nana taught them about polishing the clock. (We do dress our children. Really, we do. They end up in just their shoes and underwear most days.)

And also about polishing the tea kettle. We should have had them wax the van too.

The making of the bees wax candles. The craft kit that we were supposed to do a few weeks ago arrived a little late. 

I decided we might as well wait for Nana to join in on the fun.

Rolling a candle.

Making decorations for the candle.

Rolling another candle.

Our finished candles. This was a fun project. Definitely worth the wait!

Matilda is totally awesome and cool.

We had a fun, yet relaxing, visit with Nana. She joined us for the Erickson Family Thanksgiving and brought bacon wrapped, goat cheese stuffed dates. They were a hit. Can't go wrong with bacon! 

We took Nana to the Kirby Discovery Center at the Washington Pavilion then out to lunch at a gourmet grilled cheese restaurant. What delicious sandwiches! I never knew that place existed. 

We enjoyed a snow themed story time at the library and even got some snow of our own. It was much too cold to play outside though. Maybe we could have gone outside for 30 seconds. The day of the snowfall we did venture out to an antique shop where the kids learned about not touching much of anything. Then we went to Barnes & Noble so they could play with the trains and legos and have a yummy snack.

We baked, we cooked, we played. We took Nana to a yarn shop in an old Victorian house that had a fluffy bunny on a pedestal and a sweet dog sleeping on a chair. She was able to sit and knit with the owners and get some lessons. 

To end her visit we drove through Falls Park to see the beautiful lights displayed on the trees and bridges.

We had a great time. Hope you did too, Nana!

Harvest Time Preschool - Week 12!

Harvest Time - Week 12 

Primary Book: In November

Enrichment Book: Caps, Hats, Socks and Mittens

Activity: Quilt Squares

Art: Fast Break

Poem: Thanksgiving

They were working on cutting skills and fine motor skills. They cut straws into pieces and put them on pipe cleaners to make bracelets. 

Tavin loves to cut straws and watch the little pieces fly. I think those blue scissors have been the best for him at this stage. Finding the right pair of scissors can minimize frustration immensely.

We found this train set on Craigslist for a pretty good deal. We were hoping the set would fit with what we already have and were disappointed when it didn't. However, the kids love it and it's a toy we'd like to encourage. Train sets are a much better choice than a lot of toys marketed to kids these days.

Dress up! Tigger and Pooh as a pumpkin. That Pooh costume is hilarious, it's basically a fat suit.

Help in the kitchen. Both kiddos learned how to crack open an egg. I'm sure Matilda was breaking a few health codes. She's interested in someday having her own nude cooking show. Tavin took great pride in whisking the eggs and adding salt and pepper. We made a spinach and goat cheese frittata. (I'm not normally a fan of goat cheese but this goat cheese had garlic and herbs in it and went well with the spinach and eggs.) While the frittata was cooking Tavin took one look at it and said, "Mommy, I want a hot dog." We were able to convince him to try a bite though.

We've had a couple of warmer days and have tried to take advantage of them. The kids enjoyed making tire tracks in the sand.

Play date! It seemed when I thought to take out the camera something always happened to either distract me or the kids. It was a good time though!

Crafting at the Gillen house. They were making paper bag owls.

Tavin's finished owl. He did a good job on this I thought. He took it all apart about ten minutes after he put it together. Good thing I took a picture to get evidence. (He's playing either Piper or Raina's harmonica in this picture. I got a couple for the kids as stocking stuffers.)

More crafting. Finger print owl trees. Tavin also destroyed his tree shortly after he put it together. Maybe duplos and blocks are more his thing.

We had another fun-filled week! We had two play dates, well three counting our time with the Gillens. One play date was with new friends. 

Yay for new friends!

Story time at the library was an owl theme. I didn't plan our owl crafts to go with the owl themed story time but I'm glad it happened. The stars aligned for us. I feel good about our decision to do preschool at home. Ted does too, of course. We've  enjoyed the Harvest Time curriculum and molded it to fit our needs. I started out trying to do too much, I think, but was smart enough to know when to back off. Let them play!

We will be working on our Harvest Time Quilt the next couple of weeks. This project is out of my comfort zone but I'm excited to do it! It will be a wonderful way to commemorate our time together. Grandma Sandy is going to help get me started. She will help pick out what I need for the fabric and she is also setting me up with a sewing machine. Thank you Grandma Sandy!

This concludes our 12 weeks of Harvest Time. (Except for the quilt, I will be sure to post finished pictures of it.) We will take a short break and start with Winter Wonderland after Thanksgiving.