Thanksgiving Lunch {at School}

At 12:01am this morning, I was sitting in the balcony of the Warren theatre with my mom and sisters watching Breaking Dawn, Part 1 {thanks DaddyMan for staying at home with the kids - lol!}. Pretty good movie, great company, and lots of buttery popcorn {and assigned seats/no children allowed in the balcony} made it worth it to stay up late.

Too bad the kids didn't get the memo that they were suppose to sleep in this morning.

***

Side note: I've been meaning to take a photo of the proofs for a week now...

I think if you click on it you can look at them a little bigger. Notice Noah has two sets of individual proofs {all good, mind you} and that Ellie has one. And the set of proofs of them together? She isn't smiling. At. All. Her teacher told me they took Noah's individuals first, then the both of them, and then Ellie's individuals. {sigh} I decided my shots of the two of them were better, so I ended up getting a few of the individuals.

***

At school today, all the classes were having their Thanksgiving Lunch since it is the last day of school before Thanksgiving. Ellie doesn't go on Thursdays and we were invited to attend the lunch with her class, but opted not to and just attended the lunch for Noah's class. By the time 11:30 rolled around, little Miss "I've-been-awake-since-5:15am" was zonked out on Aunt BB {who took the day off to recoup from last night and last week's trip to Florida}.

Noah didn't seem to be doing much better than Ellie.

But seriously. How cute are these little ones when they pray?

Ellie woke up and perked up for food.

Noah, not so much. It was a struggle to even get him to eat some macaroni and cheese {that I made... knowing he likely wouldn't eat anything else!} and I finally let him have his cookie after a few meager bites of it. He started complaining of a tummy-ache and a trip to the bathroom confirmed that indeed, he had a tummy-ache.

Poor kiddo. He got to come back home early with us {kicking and screaming the whole way - "I wanna stay wif my friends! I'm mad with you, Mommy! I wanna go to Kid Fit!"} and passed out within minutes of getting into the car. Which is never a good thing with my kids. Because once back in the house, he fought me on a nap. For. two. hours. Which meant an early bedtime... and he was practically asleep before I closed the door. {sigh} Please pray with me that he feels better tomorrow - I need healthy kids for the drive to pick up Ben!

Thankful Turkey

Noah came home with this little cutie from school today. On his popsicle feathers are things he is thankful for... and I quote: "cupcake 'n' cookie; Ellie; batman; Mommy; Dad; and toys".

I totally laughed out loud when I read "Batman"!

Love that kid. ♥

The Second Day {A Better Day}

Yesterday afternoon and evening, if you asked Noah if he wanted to go to school tomorrow, he would answer, "YES! I wanna go play with the kids and who-wa hoop {hula hoops} and go to music class."

So amazingly enough, this morning, he was tentatively excited to go to school. I got everything loaded in the car, let the kids come onto the porch while I locked the front door and then couldn't help but laugh when I told them, "Let's go get in the car!" and Noah replied with, "But Mommy, you NEED to take our PISH'URE!" Evidently, he thinks we need to take a picture before school every day now?

Too bad all I had on me was my cell phone and we were running too late for me to grab my Canon!

Drop-off for Noah went off without a hitch. He helped me hang up his backpack, gave me a kiss and ran into his room before I could even say good-bye! I didn't dare even peek in after him, but did let his teacher know that he and I talked about a special treat after school but only if he had a happy heart and didn't cry for me while he was there.

Ellie and I spent our first day of just the two of us at home. In the first hour, she asked me "Where'd Bubby go?" six times. I stopped counting after that.

But we did get in some good reading, snuggle, and nap time together.

According to his teachers, Noah did great today - no tears and no whining about wanting Mommy. Total relief. We stopped by Sonic for a slush as a treat.


We also got to open a special package we got in the mail from Daddy tonight while on Skype with him.


Normally, Noah's greatest excitement comes from the newest shells that he's found and he sends us. Tonight, he was over the moon about a new hero book... which he immediately stopped opening the package up so that he could "read" it to us.

"And he flew over the city. And he did and he did."

Thanks for brightening our day, Dearest One!

{Also, you are long overdue for another blog post. ;) ♥}

Going to School | The First Day

The kids had their first day of "school" today. I put them in the Mother's Day Out program at our church, so this morning, we took the usual "First-Day-of-School" photos on Papa and Nana's front porch:

{Ellie, just shy of 2 years old}

{I asked for a hug ♥ }

{Noah, at 3.75years}

Nana was able to get away from work for a little bit to see the kids off on their first day of school.

Ellie did amazingly well. She didn't fuss while we waited to be allowed into her room and once inside, she immediately went to a table so she could start "paintn' Mommy".

Noah, on the other hand, was not pleased. On Skype this morning, he told Ben that he didn't want to go play with the other kids at school. Once we got there, he continued the same story. And just moments after I snapped this photo, he completely freaked out.

Begging for me to stay, begging to leave, and all out throwing a tantrum. I tried to calm him, but in the end, told him I loved him and that I would be back to pick him up, gave him a kiss, and just handed him to one of his teachers.

I. felt. horrible.

And, as much as I was looking forward to a little time for myself, if Mom hadn't been with me to encourage me, I might have just stayed or taken him with me. {SO, thanks Mom!!}

I didn't take any photos during my "time off", but I did get to go to Mardel, swing by Mom and BB's school to take a photo for her Limeades for Learning grant, eat Chipolte and read, and get a pedicure. All before picking the kids back up.

Awesome.

Ellie did great and even managed to take a nap. Noah's teachers said that once he calmed down {about 30 minutes into class/after chapel!}, he did fine too. Hopefully tomorrow will be better.

The rest of the day was pretty easy going. We talked to Daddy on Skype and told him all about our school day.

Ate popcorn and enjoyed our new VeggieTales video, Princess and the Popstar.

And played. A lot.

"These are my work goggles, Mommy. I'm just working."

Butterflies!

We finally had our butterflies emerge from their chrysalides! Two emerged early this morning and by the afternoon, we had three beautiful painted lady butterflies.

Noah, whose interest and attention had been waning a little since the chrysalides don't really do anything that we can see, was more than excited.

Every opportunity that he could take to sit on the counter and watch them, he readily took.

So did Ellie, although, you have to keep a arm close to protect them from a toddler who doesn't quite understand "gentle".

He's got the butterfly life cycle down pretty well now too:

Still waiting...

They are getting BIG!

These little guys are getting BIG.

And, so is this Little One!

{shirt made using freezer paper stencil cut using Silhouette and a long piece of knit gathered for the the camera strap}

Wordless Wednesday

Tot School: G & H Review

Last week was a "get-back-in-the-swing-of-it" Tot School week. This week we reviewed G and H, which we had already done before Christmas Thanksgiving.

Noah has been becoming a lot more proficient with the Do-a-Dot markers. For the longest time, I couldn't figure out why he would dot one circle multiple times. It dawned on me Tuesday when we were doing a Gg page - he wanted the entire circle filled in. So, to make sure he was getting the circle filled in AND learning one-to-one correspondence, I started having him press it down and say the letter name before lifting it up, allowing just the right amount of time for the ink flow out to fill up the circle. Works like a charm nearly every time.

Oh, and you would think I would have learned from Tuesday's mess not to walk away to grab my ringing phone.

On the third {and final} day of school for the week, I always have a fun little craft or art project for him to create. Today, for the letter H, we made a hat. Noah helped me spell his name and the word "hat". I would ask him what letter made the "/h/" sound and he'd reply "H!". We did the same with A and T. So proud of that boy! ♥

Tot School: Gg

We've been a little behind in Tot School the last couple of weeks. Which, really, it's not that big of a deal {he's still getting one-on-one play time with me, we're just not doing "school" stuff}. Last week we used as a catch-up week to do the crafts from weeks E and F. I asked Noah if he wanted to hang them up in the kitchen and he said, "No. Door." So... on the door the elephant and froggy {thanks Lisa!} went:

This week we're working on the letter G. Noah already knew the sound that it makes and can recognize the uppercase, lowercase, and "book" g. We didn't spend too much time on it today {just a do-a-dot and finding the g's on a page in one of our books} and instead pulled out one of our new favorite school "toys".

When I won a CSN Gift Card from Michelle's Wellness blog, I originally was going to use it on something for the kitchen... until I saw that they sold school supplies and manipulatives. I ended up getting a couple of different things, but this Melissa and Doug See & Spell set has by far been Noah's favorite. He loves to "build a word" {sung to the tune of WordWorld}!

Tot School: Dd

We had been on a hiatus from Tot School for the past three weeks. The first one because I forgot to plan and then kept putting it off as I was getting everything ready for the Frey's. The second week because the Frey's were here and I was considering it our "Fall Break". And then last week as simply a repeat of the first one, except that I was trying to get back into our routines! Needless to say, when I asked Noah this morning if he was ready for school, he ran to the guest room excitedly!

This week we're reviewing the letter D and the number 4, with a dinosaur theme! Noah has really been into dinosaurs lately, so he was pretty excited when we read the full version of "How Dinosaurs Say Goodnight" and then did a sorting puzzle with dinos on it. And, of course, he couldn't wait to get started on the Do-a-Dot capital D.

We missed the age requirement for AWANAS this year by three months. Which is a bummer because it's an amazing Bible memory program that our church offers. He'll get to go next year though and in the mean time, we're starting to memorize a verse a week... the same ones that he'll be learning next year. This week's verse is "God is love. 1 John 4:8". And, luckily, the program doesn't require the 3-year-olds to memorize the reference.

Noah has already memorized it. I seriously almost cried the first time he told it back to me and by the end of the day today, if you asked him, "Noah, what is your memory verse?" He'd say, "Gob is lub!"

My favorite though, was when I overheard him in the nursery telling Ellie,

"Gob is LUB, Ell-wee!"

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

2 Timothy 3:14-15

Tot School: Cc and Candy

This week in Tot School, we've been reviewing the letter "C". We have the same baskets from last week, minus the lacing beads which were replaced with paper and {a heaping pile of} letter stickers {which were just purged from my scrapbooking stash = simplify!}. Tomorrow or Thursday we'll be making a caterpillar craft and I'm SO excited about it!

And, in the spirit of getting rid of unneeded stuff, I emptied out our candy bowl and realized that we had some ring pops left over from Easter.

Noah thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Tot School: Bb

Noah seems to be feeling better... only one "incident" today, but I didn't grab the camera until after the kids were in bed for the night. So, I thought I'd share what we've done this week in Tot School - despite the fact that I haven't taken a single photo of Noah during Tot School time this week. For what it's worth and for those who are curious, here's what our baskets look like:

I got them at Dollar Tree for, you guessed it, a buck each. They are actually really great... mostly because they fold flat when not in use. Our current "old favorite" books go in the black magazine holder and our lesson plans and paper supplies are in the orange folder. Other items, like our foam letter and number puzzles and future manipulatives are in the plastic storage drawers just out of the photo on the left.

This week, we were working on the letter B and the number 2. During Table Time, we did a lot of the things you can find here {and here too} on Confessions of a Homeschooler. We did the do-a-dot "Bb", the Aa and Bb sorting games, the Apple pre-writing ringlet {Noah LOVED this, which is no surprise since he loves the dry erase board}, and we worked on the number two by counting the do-a-dot dots we put onto a piece of construction paper which had been folded into six boxes. Not to mention we read several books and are working to learn some new Bible verses.

Here's a shot of our baskets for Floor Time this week:

Originally, I wasn't going to add the pattern pages for the shape pieces {since they were new and he'd never played with them before}, but Noah caught me trying them out and wanted to do them too... so I added them to the basket. Once he got all the pieces on the pattern pages, he sorted the rest of the pieces by color. For the counting and sorting bears, I made little flash card-like cards with the number word, number and bear shapes. I've prepped them for numbers 1-5, but for now, he only has numbers 1 and 2 in the baskets. He did pretty well with these also, and by the end of school time today would count as he put each bear on the cards.

Hope this helps those of you who are working with your Little Ones at home too! ♥

Tot School Review and Visitors

Tot School has been a huge success this week. Noah simply loves stool. He has woken up every morning asking for stool {though, one morning, he also asked for a game, meaning Wii with Daddy}... so since I didn't have anything planned for today, I decided to just let him have some free play with the baskets and the dry erase easel. He chose to write on the easel for the entire time we were in the craft room {which, since he was otherwise occupied, I took advantage of and finished sorting through some scrapbooking magazines... for an hour}.

He was continually asking me to help him with the caps on the dry erase markers. "Help Mommy... mark-errs!" I couldn't help but giggle when I watched him do this to his face while pulling the cap off of a black one:

I thought since I've had a couple of questions about how I started it with Noah that I'd share how I set our Tot School up.



First, here's a quick run down of our school time: "Table Time" starts with an "old favorite" {meaning, one that we already knew} song, finger play, or poem. One day a week we learn a new one after the old favorite {eventually, he'll get to choose the old favorite that we do}. Then we read an "old favorite" story, and one day a week we read a new book after the old one {eventually, we'll get it up to a new one every day, for now, we're just learning the routines}. Those two activities take only about 5ish minutes. We do some letter work, and then whatever other concept we are working on - this week was the letter A and the number 1. Depending on how long he wants to work on the projects I have, this could take anywhere from 2 - 10+ minutes. After "Table Time", we have "Floor Time". Floor Time is very similar to centers. And because we've already been working with Noah on picking up his toys that he's no longer playing with before getting out another set of toys, we had no issues this week with knowing that getting into a different basket meant putting the one that he was already working on up. He doesn't always do it with his toys in his room, but he's definitely got the concept down with stool. In order to get him to be finished with school time {seriously, the boy would stay in there all day!}, I offer him a snack and sometimes a VeggieTales video or Word World.



I will say the best advice that I can give is set up the routines first before trying to introduce new concepts and "teach" your Little One. By day three {Thursday}, Noah had the routines down pat. It's the same way that you would start a new school year in the younger grades - don't introduce new concepts until the routines have been set up. Also, if you are going to be using new toys or manipulatives, give the tot some time to just play with them before using them as a learning tool. Perfect example: the counting and sorting bears. Next week when we start using them for counting and one-to-one correspondence, he'll have already been able to play with them his way so he'll be more likely to use them in the way I want him to.


In other news, Aunt Jessie and Bryan arrived this afternoon for a weekend visit.

The Little {and Big} Ones were undoubtedly excited to see them, to build forts and tracks with them, to watch Rack, Shack, and Benny with them, and to read bedtime stories with them!