preschool countdown!

Addelyn Ann has been so excited for preschool since we enrolled her last spring! So I made her a little preschool countdown. Each day we get to take away one of the links and then count how many days are left until her first day! I can hardly believe our baby girl is going to preschool! Stay tuned for first day of school pics!!!

self portrait

Last night while we were bar-b-queing, Addie drew her first self portrait on the patio! This was completely unprompted and caught both Kevin and I by surprise! When we asked her about it, she told us, "I drew a picture of me!" I'm so thankful we have the blog as a place to preserve this! Way to go baby girl! We love the hair, eyes, and big toothy smile!

my little helper

Liam loves to be in our company and if he thinks no one is around he starts to get a little fussy. So while Addie was playing on the carpet in the living room and Liam was in his lamb chair, I headed to the kitchen to complete a chore. When I heard him start to fuss, I asked Addie to give him his paci. She went above and beyond! Is it bad that I took this picture before removing all of the toys?!

t is for transportation

Transportation is a big word, huh?! Addie seemed to grasp the meaning of this word pretty good. We talked about all kinds of ways you can be transported somewhere. We put up pictures on the pocket chart, read books, practiced our numbers and a color by number picture. Here's the link!

We also headed to the Western Railway Museum and took a train ride. We did this last year for letter T, but Daddy didn't get to go, so this Sunday we took some turkey sandwiches from Togos (not intentional) and had a picnic lunch. Then we explored all of the neat historical trains and cable cars.

s is for spaghetti

Yes, we ate spaghetti! That's a picture of Daddy's plate. He was pretty proud of it. We read a cute little story, traced letter S, and worked on some patterning. Oh, and we listened to an adorable children's song called Spaghetti Eddie by Brendan Parker. I mustn't forget the importance of music!

r is for robot

I found another pre-school pack that included the concept of rolling dice and graphing! I think she's got the idea of rolling dice now. I also learned there is an important word missing from her vocabulary, the word 'medium!' We sorted the different sized robots and she had the most difficulty with medium. Note to self, keep referencing 'medium.' Here's where I got the robot activities.

Last, my mom asked me what I thought Addie might like for her birthday this year. After some thinking, I remembered the Kiwi Crates! Addie loves to get mail and she loves activities and crafts, which is exactly what Kiwi Crate is. So my mom bought Addie a years subscription and each month we get a new theme with all of the supplies down to the glue and scissors. This month's happened to be robots! Perfect, huh?!

(I've got coupons for 10% off if you are interested, just leave a comment or message me.)

q is for quilt

For Q we talked, read and did activities about quilts! I printed and cut up a bunch of "quilt patches" in hopes we could glue them in a pattern. It didn't happen and I didn't want to frustrate her, so I let her glue her quilt patches how she saw fit. I would like to say I tried a new quinoa recipe, but I didn't. Oh well, at least she knows the sound letter Q makes and that's what's important!

I got the activities here!

bye bye baby mullet

Yes, the party in the back had to go!

Before

After

Here's a (pretty lengthy) video of our little man getting his first haircut!

four months old

Liam James turned four months on the fifth! He is a sweet, sweet boy and was giggling and smiling for our pediatrician at his well-check. He weighed 16 pounds 5 ounces (73rd percentile) and measured 28 inches long (99th percentile). I was very anxious about the vaccinations but Liam took them like a champ and was smiling in my arms soon after.

At four months our baby boy is....

• rolling over both ways (front to back and back to front)
• grabbing his toes and other items such as his hanging toys
• doing lots of "talking"
• full of smiles and belly laughs
• doing lots of drooling, teeth must be on their way!

p is for pirate

I found THE cutest pre-school pack at Over the Big Moon. Wow! There was so much to choose from too. Addie colored, traced, worked on patterning, beginning sounds, counting, and more! We snacked on peaches and pretzels and read a cute story, How I Became A Pirate.

o is for ocean

No, we didn't make it to the ocean on O day. We were actually just there a couple of weekends ago and I just wasn't quite up for the long trip with two kids and just me. But we read an adorable book with great rhyming patterns called Over in the Ocean. I would highly recommend this one!

I also was pleased to find another opportunity for her to play with dice. (See letter K for our last experience.)This preschool packet had dice with ocean animals on it. We practiced  rolling the dice and then...we had a graph to complete along with it! Love it! We talked about who was going to get to ten first, who was last, who had the most/least, who was tied. It was a great activity!There was much more too. Here's the link for letter O!

n is for nest

For N we read a book called Even an Ostrich Needs A Nest. It was interesting to find out how many different types of nests various birds make. Addie gave me a big yawn, which was fair. It wasn't the most interesting book for a three year old. We have two known nests around our home so we went to look at those. That seemed a little more engaging.

Then we did our regular activities, more dot art, some patterning, etc. Here's the link. While she did those I cooked some noodles, for noodle art! She loved getting her hands in the sticky noodles and placing them on her paper! This is such an easy but fun way to get a tactile activity in.

m is for monkey

On the Confession of Homeschooler Blog there is always these dot activities, but I had never printed them off because we didn't have the dot markers. Well, I finally broke down and bought some and thought that they might serve as some fun art projects down the road. As for her activities, I'm not sure the point of it, maybe eye-hand coordination? Anyways, Addie seemed to enjoy the new activity!

And since we've been going to swimming lessons first thing in the morning, I haven't been doing as much with breakfasts. So we made milkshakes instead! Here is a link to find the printables for letter m.

roll over! roll over!

Liam rolled over from his tummy to his back, for the first time at about 5 weeks old. But it was so sporadic that he did this, that I thought it was just kind of a fluke. But now...watch out! Don't be leaving this baby on any beds or couches! And make sure he's strapped in his swing or lamb chair! He's a movin'! Here's a clip of him rolling over!

first road trip for liam

Our trip to Oregon for Leeanne's birthday was our first family-of-four road trip, which included all sleeping in the same room! The kids did great! Liam only got a little fussy about the last 30 minutes of the drive. It was good to see our family and I know this is the first of many more trips. Here's some pics from our stay in southern Oregon.

The beautiful Birthday Girl holding Liam!

It will be Marek's 3rd birthday this month too! So we brought him an early birthday present. Happy Birthday sweet boy!

Auntie Jan with the Lukster!

Luke and Liam started to do a little interacting. Here Luke is reaching out for Liam. We caught them smiling at each other before this picture was taken.

Addie and Marek had so much fun in the pool!

Mom is holding up two fingers for her and Dale's two year anniversary, which happened to be the same weekend!

Grammy wanted a picture with all four grandbabies, whether they were smiling or crying. Well, that's what she got, thanks to Addie. I even tried bribing her!

There's some smiles! Could they be any cuter?!

leeanne's 30th!

Back sometime before Liam was born, (that's kind of how I wrap my head around time these days) my brother called and started making plans to surprise Leeanne with a limo for her 30th! He arranged for Grammy, Auntie Jan and Dale to come watch all four cousins and we began looking forward to August!

So on her actual birthday we met about four other couples and headed over to their home to surprise my sister-in-law, Leeanne! We went to a winery, a restaurant, and finished the night off with some dancing! Needless to say, we had a great time and were happy to be a part of her celebration!

(Unfortunately, I was packing the breastpump, so I decided not to bring my good, but large camera as well. So we relied on the iphone.)

At a winery, where this guy taught us how to properly sniff with one nostril and gargle the wine! 

Having a little fun on the dance floor! Doesn't my eyes just radiate fun?!

Loved the lights in her hair! Happy Birthday Sister! We love you!

swimming lessons

I've finally gotten around to getting Addelyn in swimming lessons this summer. This is the first summer she's taken them without me. I was curious to see how she'd do. When we got there, there were two kids balling their eyes out, neither one included my daughter, thankfully. She was the first one in and loves the water. When she was all done, she didn't know where I had been sitting because she was so involved in the lesson. I'm so proud of our self-assured little girl!

Addelyn's teacher, Kendra, but Addie thinks her name is "Camera." Hee! Hee!

All the later classes filled up, so I was left with a 9:30am time. It worked out perfectly though because there's only one other little girl in her class! It's almost like private lessons!