Blueberry Picking

I’m a very lucky girl, as my sweet husband went out and bought me a small chest freezer on Saturday using the money earned in our recent garage sale.  It’s blueberry season, and I had an brand new, empty freezer.  Hmmm…what should we do about that? ;)

Our favorite blueberry farm is just a mile or two down the road from our house, but unfortunately, they’re not able to open this year.  Many blueberry farms in our area experienced a freeze this spring, losing their whole crop.  My in-laws suggested a farm I hadn’t visited before.  They’d read in the paper that this one had saved their crop.  Boy, had they ever saved their crop! Those were some of the most loaded berry bushes I’ve ever seen!

Between loads of blueberries and temperatures in the 70s, it was a pretty good morning for picking berries!  My parents came down for the morning, and we all went blueberry picking together.  (Well, Jensyn went blueberry EATING…and eating…and eating…)  The boys even did a pretty good job of picking for quite a long time.  They did get antsy and start to run and play before we finished, though.

After a while, Jensyn got tired of the stroller.  Even blueberries couldn’t keep her happy anymore.  We let her down to get filthy in the dirt.  She helped herself to some blueberries, explored, and even tasted a few green berries.

When we finished (17 lbs of berries later…), my sweet parents headed to McDonalds to grab some food for everyone.  The kids and I went to share some berries with our neighbors while we waited for Grandma & Grandpa to come back with our lunch.

After Grandma & Grandpa headed home, I bagged up and froze our remaining blueberries ~ over 25 cups of berries!  It’s time for smoothies, pies, blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes…YUM!

Alex is most excited about smoothies, but we’re out of yogurt.  I guess we’ll be headed to the grocery store…0 :)

    

{FREEBIE} Ice Cream Preschool Pack

This has been finished and sitting here on my computer for about 2 weeks now.  I just needed the time to sit down & load it to Teachers Notebook.  Finally…staying up super late…it is getting finished!  Enjoy!

Click the picture below to go directly to the download…

You can see all of the packs available by clicking HERE.

If you enjoy the free Little Monkey Printable’s packs, could you please
take a moment to “favorite” my Teacher’s Notebook store? Thanks!

There are 31 pages in this pack, including one page with pictures of hands-on activities to use with your child.  Here are a few samples:

Our Little Princess…

…might just be the rough & tumble variety.  I use as much spray & wash on her clothes as I do on the boys’ clothes! ;)

Eat It or Wear It

This little miss thinks she’s so funny when she piles food on her head.  Alex went through a brief phase of this at around the same age, but Jensyn does it EVERY DAY.  We try not to laugh, but it’s hard sometimes!

Yes, Jensyn, you DO wear the same boyish bibs that your big brothers used. 

At least you have pink plates and cups! ;)

SALE: Little Monkey Printables

We’re having a garage sale at our house today!  We’re selling all of our baby clothes and baby gear, which is not easy on this mama.  I hate letting go of these precious baby items.  Thank goodness for lots of photos & memories!

Just for fun, I’m having an “online garage sale” at my Teachers Notebook shop.  Head on over for 20% off your purchases today & tomorrow!

20% OFF

ALL ITEMS

Little Adventures Giveaway

Amanda (Little Adventures Preschool) has become an online friend.  She recently shared several of her new Summer Tot Pack series with me so we can use them with Alex and Max.   Her work is ADORABLE, let me tell you!  I wish I had pictures ready to share with you, but we are busy here with garage sale preparations.  Trust me – these packs are adorable, educational, and FUN!

Amanda is doing a giveaway on her blog right now:

Five winners will receive ONE tot pack from Amanda’s summer series.

One *very lucky* winner will receive ALL SIX of Amanda’s summer tot packs!

Head on over and enter for a chance to win!

 

While you’re there, pop on over to her TOP 40 post, and you’ll have a chance to help Amanda and Little Adventures Preschool move their way up on the Circle of Moms Homeschooling Blogs list!

Firefighter Mommy

Our local fire station had an open house today.   Alex saw the sign out by the road a few days ago as we drove to swimming lessons, and he asked me to read it to him.  He was SUPER excited by the idea of an open house, and he also liked that they were serving hot dogs for lunch.

Later that same day he said, “Mom, I’m *SO* excited to have lunch with the firefighters on Saturday!” 

I explained to him that we probably wouldn’t sit down at a table and eat WITH the firefighters, but that’s the image he had in his head.  It turns out he wasn’t disappointed.  We have several friends who are volunteer firefighters, and we did sit down with Chris and his family for lunch today! :)

After lunch, Chris gave us the “guided tour” of some things around the station.  He offered to have Keith put on all his gear.  Keith didn’t want to do that on a 90 degree day, but I decided to give it a try. 

 

That gear is HEAVY!  I felt like the little brother in the movie “A Christmas Story”!  He was kind enough to leave the oxygen tank off, but he did have me pick it up later to see how heavy it is.  I have even more respect for the men (and women…) who do this now, as I could barely walk, let alone run into a fire with all that gear!

The kids got to sit in the fire engines, check out a Life Flight helicopter (very interesting to our whole family, as the boys’ little friend was airlifted a few months back…and, thank the Lord, all turned out well), play in the bounce houses, and dunk a firefighter in the dunk tank.

Neither boy aimed well enough to dunk him, but another firefighter pushed the button for both boys.  Alex’s face LIT UP with joy when he watched the firefighter splash into the water!  I missed the shot, but OH what a face :)  Max grinned, too.

A few more pictures…

                

Psst…Jensyn came, too.  She just watched it all…and threw hot dog chunks all over the floor of the fire station, leaving her mama & daddy a big mess to pick up.  Here she is, wishing mama would hold her instead of taking a picture. :)

Diarrhea Chips

On Monday, we had quesadillas & baby carrots for lunch. Max finished his quesadilla, and then he asked me if he could have some "diarrhea chips ee salsa". I could be wrong, but I'm thinking he meant tortilla chips and salsa! ;)

This kid…he cracks me up every day!

Winners!

I’m half an hour late…I’m sorry!  The doorbell rang, the phone rang, and the oven timer beeped for our lunch…and I didn’t get to the computer.   I guess it’s a good thing that I said the winner would be picked “around” noon! ;)

Congratulations to the winners:

3 – Pintanhas Amerelas
8 -  Miller Family
12 – Denise
16 - teeniebeenie6
18 – Kelly M

If you left an e-mail, or if I’m able to contact you through your profile, you’ll hear from me soon!  If I can’t contact you, please leave a comment on this post with your e-mail address.  I’ll send you the link to you free download.  Thanks!

For those who didn’t win, I’ll put the Pirate Pack on sale for 20% off from now through Friday, June 8th.

{expired} GIVEAWAY: Pirate Pals pack

Last night, I introduced the new Pirate Pals pack.  Five lucky Facebook Friends received a free copy of the pack, and now here’s another chance to win!

Here are the requirements:

1) “Favorite” my Teachers Notebook Store.  (Click the “add to favorite shops” link just under my shop header.)

2) Once you done that, leave a comment on this post.  If it’s already one of your favorites, leave a comment letting me know.

You may leave ONE COMMENT – just one entry per person, please!

I will choose a winner around noon (central time) on Tuesday, June 5th.
Good Luck!

Pirate Pals preschool pack

That’s a lot of Ps, isn’t it!  Wow! :)

It’s taken me quite some time, but the Pirate Pals pack is finally available.  Pirate Pals is $1.25 at my Teachers Notebook store.  Remember, if you buy 3 packs from my shop in one transaction, you get one pack free!

I did a quick giveaway of 5 copies on Facebook this afternoon, but watch for another giveaway on the blog soon!  (If you purchase the pack & then win the giveaway, I’ll refund your money or you may pick a different free pack.)

This page contains most of my typical pages, but I did add a colors mini book and a slightly different game.  Here are a few samples:

game board & playing pieces

First page of the colors mini book:

Find & Stamp the Ts:

Finish The Pattern:

Both varieties of handwriting pages are included…this is the newer version: 

 

For a full list of activities included in this pack, check the description on Teachers Notebook.