Z is for...

It was a bitter sweet day for me as a Mama. One, because we are at the end of an alphabet journey that I have so enjoyed. And two, because it is time for me to go back to work. I'm thankful for my job but being a mom is by far my favorite job of all. 

So today we celebrated the end of the alphabet and letter Z by going to the zoo! I'm amazed that we have three zoos to choose from all within an hour from our home.  The zoo I decided to take Miss Addie to was the Sacramento Zoo. The last time I had been there was with a large group of Kindergarteners. So it was great to finally get to take my own kiddo! Addie has been to the San Francisco Zoo and the Oakland Zoo but never the Sacramento Zoo. I have to say its not my favorite zoo, but it worked!

Also, Addie mastered the ABAB pattern today! I was so proud of her! After much practice, she put the colored zebras in the correct place without any help! Love that "A-Ha" moment that comes with being a teacher and a mama!

Y is for...

For letter Y, we read Angelita's Magic Yarn, put together a puzzle, placed clothes pins on the numbered yarn cards, colored, and made letter Y with yellow yarn. For breakfast, she had Y toast and of course yogurt! Later that day we snacked on some frozen yogurt! Which is not so much a novelty. Addie and I have hit the yogurt shop quite frequently this summer! In fact, we completed our punch card and got our yogurts for free! Yipee!

X is for...

X was another tricky letter, especially when trying to teach what sound it makes. You only hear X when it is somewhere other than the beginning of the word, like in "ox." As you know the word xylophone really sounds like it should start with letter Z. Oh well. For now we are just working on recognition. So we we did all sorts of activities with the "zylophone" theme.
I also took a picture of her holding up her X toast, but really she's holding up Y toast. She bit off one of the legs, held it up and said, "Y Mama!" Love that smart girl!

More Good Times with Family

Sweet Cousins

Belated birthday gifts from Grandpa!

Dinner at Bella Union in Jacksonville. 

A little swinging with Uncle Brentie and a lot of laughter.

Pool party!

Love Addie's blur in the background, she was a wild woman!

There's another wild woman! Love you Auntie Jan!

One..Two...Three!

Happy 2nd Birthday Marek!

Happy 2nd Birthday sweet nephew and cousin! We love you so much buddy!

That's one mean tater-tot eatin' cowboy!

Dierks Bentley

We had a rootin' tootin' time at the Dierks Bentley concert! The last time Kevin and I saw him was the night he played at the Grand Ole Opre, right before Kevin proposed. It was so great to get out for the night with four other couples and I think the babies had a great time with Grammy too. 

Here he is! We had awesome seats and I swear we made eye contact! Ha! Ha!

My brother has found the cowboy in him! Cracks us up!

Enjoying some fair food.

Enjoying some fair beers.

Don't ask. Ha! Ha!

W is for...

Addie love, loves watermelon! It's funny because neither Kevin or I really like it, but Addie could eat it until she turns into one! So for letter W, we did the watermelon theme. We colored, put together a puzzle, worked on patterns, and biggest to smallest. I thought about taking her to the wildlife park in Santa Rosa or even the water park in Concord, but we had a busy day packing for our trip to Oregon!

V is for...

V is for vegetables! We had a big day with letter V. We read The Vegetables We Eat, colored, and counted our vegetables in wheelbarrows, then we headed to the garden to pick all of the extra vegetables we had. After we gathered them up, we called the Fairfield/Suisun Produce Pipeline and donated all of our extra tomatoes and jalapenos to help feed the hungry in our community. 

Later that day we headed down to Larry's Produce to look at all of the great vegetables. We even found mini-eggplants. Addie loved these! We left with four bags of vegetables and only paid about three dollars! On the way home we stopped for some vanilla frozen yogurt (with gummy bears and M&M's on top). And when we got home, I cut up a few of the vegetables and Addie stamped and painted with them. 

U is for...

You were a hard one letter U. I couldn't find any food that started with letter U, at least any that I could find around here. But I did find another fabulous unit on the Confessions of a Homeschooler blog. We read Jan Brett's The Umbrella and talked about biggest to smallest, shapes, and patterns. This time for the patterns I tested out Addie's kinesthetic side and we clapped and slapped our knees with the patterns. 

She also wore big girl undies!!! Addie has been going on the potty more and more and she loves to wear big girl undies! So whenever she goes on the potty, I let her wear her big girl undies as one of her rewards. We are so proud of her and can't wait for number twos on the potty!

As a little extra, I couldn't resist capturing her saying the word of the day...ungrell-ella! 

Saturday to the Sunday

 Free concert in the park on Saturday and breakfast at our favorite cafe on Sunday.

The reggae band we were listening to, started to play a worship song and the lead singer said , "If you're a believer , put your hands in the air." Addie put her hands in the air and started dancing, we thought it was the cutest thing ever!

Fun Friday

One of the perks of being a teacher is getting a free ticket to Discovery Kingdom! And even better Addie is still free! Yahoo! So this last Friday, while Daddy was working in Utah, we played at Six Flags! It was like she had never been!

Riding Thomas the Train!

Stopping for a little snack break.

Addie lovin' the rides!

Watching Shouka, which always makes me tear up. I know I've written about this before, but I can't stand the tiny pool he lives in. Yes, I'm an avid Whale Wars fan. I also buy my eggs cage free and voted for farmers to reconstruct their farms to allow for a better quality of life for their live stock. You couldn't call me a vegetarian or a hippie, but just someone who respects and appreciates all forms of life.

Sad for the giraffes too, along with many other animals in this park. 

It's Been That Kind of Summer

 Sweet and simple. 

T is for...

As I was coaxing Addie to go to sleep the night before, I told her about what were going to do the next day. I said, "Tomorrow, we're going to ride on a train; it will be so much fun!" The next morning before I got her out of her room I could hear her saying, "too-too rain (choo-choo train), so much fun!"

So we did our usual and then set off for the Western Railway Museum. I was really impressed! This museum is about five minutes from our home (opposite direction of the Jelly Belly Factory). We road on a train that was built in 1904 and got to see many other neat historical trains and cable cars. There was also the most adorable retirees, volunteering as conductors. Addie loved giving her ticket to one of them to have it punched.

Later that evening we went to Chevy's for some tortilla chips and tacos. Addie also enjoyed watching the lady handmake the tortillas too. Letter T, you were good to us! 

S is for...

For letter S, I used it as an excuse to head to Starbucks! And I of course made sure to order Addie scones for breakfast. When we got back, we got to work on our squirrel themed activities. We read, colored, practiced some more ABAB patterning and made a squirrel with an S tail! Later that day we went swimming! Addie's been taking swimming lessons, but had to quite in the middle because she got an ear infection. So it was great to go back and practice what she had been working on. 

R is for...

For months now, Addie says "rainbow" in the mornings on our way to the kitchen. Each morning the sun shines through our front door's decorative glass and reflects rainbows on the tile floor. I had never thought of this and love it when she points out new discoveries. Just like the other morning, she held up her peeled banana and said "moon Mama." Again, I had never thought of a banana looking like a crescent moon. Love the imagination that's brewing in our little girl.

So...back to letter R. We did the usual...dug in the sand for the letter of the day, colored, read. For a craft, I dyed bow-tie pasta with rubbing alcohol (2 parts) and food coloring (1 part) the night before. The next day we glued them in the shape of an arc and made a pasta rainbow! Oh and we did a puzzle! Addie placed the colored pieces on top of a black and white version (which was actually her coloring page). This helped give her some structure on such an abstract activity. Later that night we ate yummy raviolis!

Q is for...

"Quail!!" I've heard this countless times from Kevin. They seem to be abundant where we live and Kevin loves to point them out. So...we went with the quail theme. I was really proud of her on her attempt to trace the letters and color inside the lines. I never put too much emphasis on this and always just talk with her while I color and trace and she scribbles along side me. It must be wearing off a little! I also practiced some ABAB patterns with her, which is going to take a lot of practice. And for dinner we dinned on quesadillas! She was much more interested in downing the guacamole and sour cream and not so keen on the quesadillas.