Friday, September 26, 2014

Gems by the Number

I forgot to post this last week. I bought a rock/gem set a while ago. Each gem had a number on it and there was a key so older kids can find out what country the stone came from.

Since Princess would not understand that I just wrote the numbers on a map according to the stone's country of origin. All she had to do was match the numbers:



She had fun with this and ate her snack in between placing the gems:



Her final work:




After that she matched up letters to flash cards and learned to spell rock.



Sunday, September 21, 2014

Touring Our Town


It's fun to tour your own city, especially when you live somewhere interesting like St. Augustine. The Old Town Trolley offers free tours for residents during the month of September, so we took advantage and had a great (and free) day of fun. 

On the trolley:


Our first stop was Potter's Wax Museum (Also free). Here are Sister and the Harry Potter people:



Ahhhhhh. Herman Munster????


Boss and Britney. Okay, normally I would NEVER let him get his photo with a girl, but since she was made of wax and kind of looked a little scary, I made an exception:



The future president with George W:


More presidents:


Thomas Jefferson and Co:


We stopped at The Fountain of Youth for lunch. We didn't go inside, but got lucky because a few peacocks joined us for our meal. That made for an hour of fun for the babies:



We also went in to the Florida History Museum. Here is Princess being shy:


We had a chance to go to The Old Jail for free too, but the tour was 30 minutes long and we didn't think the babies would make it:


Here is a 600 year old tree that drinks from the Fountain of Youth, but is in a hotel parking lot. It doesn't look a day older than 125.... I think I need to drink more Fountain of Youth water:


And just for fun, here is Son at the park riding on a dinosaur:





Wednesday, September 17, 2014

Snack Date With Daddy

Princess wanted to have ice cream the other day, so I compromised and we made pudding together. 

She loves "cooking". After she waited 2 of the 5 minutes for the pudding to set, she shared some with her daddy:

Sunday, September 14, 2014

Queen of the Day

Last Christmas I gave Sister a card to turn in any day of 2014. During that day she gets to be Queen of the house. She could choose what she wants to do and what meals she wants to eat and most importantly, she would not have do any work all day.

Yesterday she turned in her card and a Queen was born.

She woke up leisurely and came down stairs at 9:30 am. Usually I get her up much earlier on a Saturday....yard sales, of course.

First stop... Starbucks for the BIG caramel frappe (coffee free):


Next, Burger King (ahem...Burger Queen) for breakfast. A whopper and hash browns. They do that for Queens you know, combine breakfast and lunch.


Next we went to the mall, baby free:


Here she is with her purchases:



The Queen was too full from breakfast so she skipped lunch!

After the mall we went to Costco so she could choose her meal for dinner and buy a massive pack of drinks. Her drinks were on the bottom, but here was our haul:


She chose her favorite meal and you would not believe what it is. Green superfood ravioli with pesto sauce. 

(This picture came from costcocouple.com because I forgot to take a pic).

So that's what we had for dinner.


(This is what we had, but the photo came from Google images).


So to the Queen:

Thank you so much for being a good girl. Thank you for helping me with the two most active kids on the planet. Thank you for letting them pull your hair, poke your eyes out, and mess up your stuff. Thank you for being a good sister and daughter. Thank you for watching out for Gizmo when he tries to escape the yard. Thank you for doing so well in school and being completely paranoid about ever being tardy. Thank you for being my friend. Thank you for being kind and for caring about our family. Thank you for loving God. Thank you for all that you do every day, even if I don't say it. I notice what you do and I am greatful. I love you so so very much.

Love,

Mom
Does that make me Queen mother?


Thursday, September 11, 2014

First Soccer Practice

Princess had her first soccer practice today. The ages are 3 to 5 and being 3 years and 2 weeks old she was taller than everyone else there!!!!!

She had a hard time following instructions because she was he youngest, but she just watched the other kids and followed along.

She loves her coach and giving high fives. 

I am not particularly interested in soccer, but I am trying to keep her in a sport until she can join the swim team and start her Olympic career!!!

Here she is at her first practice:





Monday, September 8, 2014

September Sunday

We went to the beach yesterday to take advantage of the breezy morning. Here are all of my babies running on the pier.


One of Princess's favorite things to say is "oh, look at the beautiful water". This applies to rivers, retention ponds, lakes, and even puddles. I love her enthusiasm for something most people would just pass by without a second glance.


Son loves running in the sand:


And chasing birds:


Afterwards, Princess wanted me to take her photo. It must be great being 3. I would never let someone take my picture after being at the beach all day for fear of looking absolutely terrible. A three year old smiles brighter than ever, just happy for the moment. 

Another beautiful lesson for me about gratitude and knowing what's actually important in life:



Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Making Fossils

I had planned on making fossils with the kids, but wasn't sure what I was going to use to make them. I was at Target today and saw something called Crayola Morphix on clearance for $2.00. It's like a clay/ play dough combo with a grainy sand-like texture. If you leave it out, it hardens like a rock and you can save your creation.

I set up the table with dinosaurs, the clay, and a dinosaur bone figure that can be taken apart. I could have had rocks and leaves too, but I was in a rush because they were both misbehaving.


None of my photos turned out very good from this activity. The sun was in my way. 


Dino feet:


Princess really liked doing this. I will probably get this out again tomorrow or later this week. I am trying to do ANYTHING that is indoors. It's so hot and the Mosquitos are horrible:














A Break

We haven't been doing much schoolwork around here because I am preparing to teach a preschool Montessori class one day per week at our homeschool co-op.

I am so nervous because I will have 8 students in my class and I have no idea how it will go. I am going to start with units and activities that we have already done at home, but I need to alter them so I can accommodate 8 kids.

So we are on a bit of a hiatus around here, but here are some photos from today.

Here is Son playing with our wooden food cutting set. A fight occurred immediately after this photo was taken. Everyone wanted the "knife".


Princess got a Play Doh set for her birthday:




Here is my impression of Princess in breakfast form:







Happy 3rd Birthday Princess

Sunday was Princess's 3rd birthday and we went to Adventure Island waterpark to celebrate.  We had a wonderful day even though some of us got a bit of sunburn. 

Here is Princess with her cake and gifts before we left for the park;