Our Little Monkeys

African Safari preschool pack (FUNDRAISER)

2012-01-26T21:41:00.001-06:00

Our friends, Jack & Angie, are parents of three – soon to be four – wonderful children! Their first two children, Emma and Jackson, were born into their family. Laila was added to their family through adoption. They are now in the process of adopting a four year old boy, Judah, from Ethiopia.

They are a family with an amazing faith in the Lord, and I sometimes stand back in awe at the way God works through their family. You can read this family’s story on their adoption blog at Adopting Judah.

When Angie shared their new adoption story with friends at our monthly Bunco night, I knew God wanted me to use this blog to help their family. I asked Angie, and since Judah is in Africa, she suggested a safari tot pack.

This pack is available at Teacher’s Notebook for $2.00. Every penny earned from this pack will be donated directly to Jack & Angie’s adoption fund. Click on the picture below if you’d like to purchase this pack. THANK YOU!

The picture above shows a sampling of the pages available in this pack. There are over 25 activities and worksheets for 3 – 6 year olds. Below, you’ll find links to hands-on activities, crafts, snacks, books, and videos to accompany this printable pack.

PINTEREST FINDS (Seriously one of the most fun websites around, isn’t it?!)

Click on any picture below to go to my Safari Pinterest Board

AMAZON FINDS…books, crafts, magazines (check your library first!)

Can We Do A Project?

2012-01-25T11:09:00.001-06:00

Three kiddos hit me up with that question this morning. After Christmas, I’d gone shopping with my sister-in-law and niece, and I’d picked up some clearanced Christmas crafts at Michael’s to use next December. I ran to the closet, pulled out a snowman project that said, “Ages 4 and up”, and we got started.

I’m pretty sure that most 4 year olds could not do this alone. I stared at the head for several minutes before figuring out how to fold and glue it! :) The 4 year olds glued their own, but I folded them into the correct shape.

Max had no clue, but he was trying…and taking all the sticky pieces and putting them all over the counter and wall. I did much of his project for him. Max did the face by himself, although I have no idea where the carrot nose ended up. His end result is rather Picasso-ish! ;)

Alex understood, but he got a little carried away with the glue. I made the hat for him, as it’s just a bit too tricky for a 4 year old.

Grace needed a little help with the hat, too, but otherwise did hers independently.

Here are our end results…bobble-head snowmen to decorate our counter for a few days! :)

Alex’s Birthday Party

2012-01-23T13:28:00.001-06:00

We celebrated Alex’s 4th birthday yesterday with our extended family. Alex was SO excited for this party. Everything had to be decorated according to his specifications, everything had to be “just so”, and could hardly wait for his special day to arrive!

Everyone was asked to wear a party hat. With over 20 guests, he ran out before all the guests arrived, but we still had lots of party hat fun…

Alex wanted a Car 1 birthday party theme, and he was in luck…Bailey’s had all the Cars 1 party supplies on clearance for 50 cents per package! Convenient, huh? :)

CVS still had the Cars 1 helium balloons available, so we were able to pick up on of those for our excited little boy. (Poor Max didn’t understand why he wasn’t getting a birthday balloon.)

We also printed, laminated, and hung several two-sided cars ~ Lightning, Mater, Sally, and Finn McMissile. (There was no convincing the boy that Finn McMissile was from the second movie, ha!)

Grandma S & my siblings helped by bringing side dishes, and I made pulled pork using the EASIEST recipe ever…cook a pork roast with root beer in the crock pot, drain, shred, add a bottle of barbecue sauce. A few bites tasted a bit root-beer-y, but overall, I thought it was a good, quick recipe to feed a crowd.

Grandma P & Jessica made a Lightning McQueen cake. They are so creative!

This is the first year Alex has blown out his candles all by himself.

Max barely ate any lunch except for fruit, but he sure gobbled up the frosting and ice cream! I’m not sure he ever took a bite of his cake, but he ate a LOAD of black fondant! Then, when he thought no one was looking, Max helped himself to some extra ice cream straight from the scoop!

Jensyn slept through lunchtime, but she enjoyed a whole bunch of food from Aunt Deb and Grandpa S. It’s unbelievable to me how much this little 16 lb pipsqueak can pack away!

She got passed around a lot, which was fine as long as Mommy was out of sight. Josh definitely enjoyed her today! The rest of the pictures with Jensyn are on somebody else’s camera, as I wasn’t allowed in whatever room the baby was in…;)

Alex got spoiled with a Chuggington roundhouse and ChugWash. He also receive a LeapPad case and three new games, a ride-on bouncy ball, a Chuggington DVD, a puppy game, Lightning McQueen underwear, and two new pairs of pants.

The underwear makes me laugh. When Keith’s cousin Danny e-mailed me to ask for gift suggestions for Alex, I asked Alex what he wanted from Danny & Ali for his birthday. Alex said, “Lightning McQueen underwear!” He was insistent, so that’s what they got him…and then Alex seemed like he didn’t care at all upon opening it. As soon as his guests left, though, guess what Alex was wearing? His new underwear! (I know, buddy, you’re going to be really ticked at me for writing this when you’re 14 years old and reading through this blog. Sorry!)

The new Chuggington sets saw a lot of playtime from the little kids and some of the uncles. When Alex woke up this morning, that’s the first thing he did…run to the living room to see his new Chuggington sets. This is definitely a big hit! (As soon as he finished breakfast, though, he grabbed the Leap Pad to try out each of his new games!)

So, that’s it…the 4th birthday is finally complete! Happy 4, Alexander. We are so blessed to have you in our family!

Oh, and just for the record, Alex says (quite insistently) that he’d like a SEVEN cake for his 5th birthday. We love you, buddy, but sometimes you have some strange ideas! I’m curious to see what theme you’ll REALLY choose! ;)

Valentine’s Day PreK Pack from Over The Big Moon

2012-01-19T14:11:00.001-06:00

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to create a tot pack, and I miss that “me time” to sit at the computer and create!

I was soooooo, soooo, soooo hoping that Pam would do a Valentine pack! I didn’t make this one, but I’m going to steer you in this direction if you’re looking for a cute, traditional Valentine’s pack for your little ones. I love her work! Click on the picture below to link to Pam’s site and download this pack. Thanks, Pam…I look forward to using this!

I am working on two different packs right now, although it’s s-l-o-w going!

One is a very non-traditional Valentine’s pack. Alex helped me pick the graphics, and it’s full of cars, trucks, helicopters…and hearts. (He refused to consider all things cute-sy.) This one will be a free pack.

The other one is an African Safari theme. It will be a fundraiser pack for our friends, as they are adopting a little boy from Ethiopia. (For the month of February, all income from all of my tot packs at Teacher’s Notebook will go to benefit Jack & Angie’s adoption. I can’t wait for their little Judah to come home!) This pack is about halfway finished, and I’m hoping to finish it up by the end of next week.

Between computer issues and a preschooler who is no longer napping, I just don’t have time or ability to create as often as I’d like right now. *I MISS IT*! That’s my “Me Time”! I have a line-up of tot packs to work on…if I could just find the time to do it. Hopefully, we’ll get everything – naps, quiet times, and computers – figured out soon so I can get to creating on a regular basis again! :)

The Little Things

2012-01-18T14:04:00.001-06:00

Sometimes, we think we have to do amazing things to have fun with our kids. We plan huge projects, expensive outings, etc. Those days are fun, but I’ll bet our kids are just as likely to remember the little things we do for fun.

My boys LOVE when I do a sink full of dishes. I put in lots of soap, scoop all the bubbles off the top, and plop it on their heads. They giggle, run to the mirror, give themselves bubble beards, and smear bubbles all over each other. When Daddy had some time off at Christmas, he got in on the fun with the boys.

When it snows, the boys love when I bring in a few bowls full of the fresh, white stuff and set them at the table (or counter) with a bunch of toy tools, measuring cups, spoons, etc. This time, I gave them bowls of snow and their Color Shifters Hot Wheels cars. This kept them busy for over an hour!

(The lightning is horrible, but you get the idea…)

What are YOUR favorite ways to make your kiddos happy and keep them busy without spending a penny?

Max Sings

2012-01-18T13:54:00.001-06:00

To know Max is to love him. This kid is so fun!

He’s an emotional kid, so you do have to put up with some drama…and ear-piercing screaming…and crying so hard that you can’t understand a word he’s saying…and more ear-piercing screaming…

Aside from that, though, Max is a bundle of energy and fun and JOY for life! He often reminds me a lot of a (well-reigned) Fudge from the book Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing.

With Max, you never know what you’re gonna get next. He might jump off the top of the slide. He might leap of the couch as you’re walking by, launching himself onto your back. He may unexpectedly throw a frisbee in your face when you’re calmly reading a book. He may break into song at any time.

Oh, that last one…he has recently discovered that he LOVES to sing. Max sings every day. His song collection is growing, but the ones I can name off-hand are:

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
The Farmer In The Dell
The Alphabet Song
Bingo (There Was a Farmer…)
Row, Row, Row Your Boat
Jesus Loves Me
Thank You, Lord, For This Food (our lunchtime prayer song)

He probably knows more, but these are the ones I hear over and over, again and again, all day long. He sings with joy and enthusiasm, and he loves for us to sing along with him!

He tends to “shut down” when I pull out the camera for a video, but I caught a few songs on video that I wanted to add to the blog so we can remember his cuteness at two years old.

Twinkle, Twinkle…

The Farmer In The Dell (the second time, he sings it alone…)

P.S. The photos are unintentionally labelled January2010…they should say 2012…I’m not sure how that happened! :)

Bounce!

2012-01-05T17:10:00.000-06:00

Warning: this isn’t my happiest post ever, but sometimes, with three very small children, things don’t go according to plan. This is one of those posts where I tell it like it is ~ life with littles is crazy, unpredictable, and not always full of smiles and giggles. On the bright side, it does end happily…

We always try to do some sort of fun activity when Daddy’s home at Christmas time. This year, we ran a few errands, went out for lunch, and spent an afternoon at the inflatable play place.

This should have been fun, but our children weren’t exactly cooperative at the restaurant. It’s funny, most of the time, our children are pretty good in restaurants. The experiences, while not as boring as going out with just grown-ups, are pretty decent. Usually, we get complements from the people around us about the good behavior of our little ones.

Once in a while, though, we have a day where we wonder why we bring our children to restaurants. Today was definitely one of those days! Alex didn’t want to eat. The restaurant had no changing table. (Seriously! I even asked an employee!) Max SCREAMED because his kids’ meal (at Chipotle) was too spicy. I’ve NEVER seen so much food end up on the floor under a restaurant table…and I felt so bad about it that I crawled around with napkins to clean it up before we left! Next time, we’ll head to Chick-Fil-A and save the Chipotle for a time when we’re out without kiddos! :)

I figured that, at least, the inflatables place would be better. For the most part, it was. We had a mishap with Jensyn getting hurt by a 19 year old who was FAR TOO BIG to be playing in a bounce house. She was IN MY ARMS standing on the floor outside of the mesh, and we were watching Alex & Max inside. There was about 6 inches between her face & the mesh. This 19 year old was very wildly wrestling with a 13 year old, lost his balance, and SLAMMED against the mesh and into Jensyn’s face hard enough that I fell backward. My poor baby girl SCREAMED before holding her breath for what seemed like forever. I was so afraid she’d have a bloody face or a broken nose, and I was very thankful to see that she didn’t. She ended up being okay, other than having a small bruise on her forehead and a very red nose and upper lip. Still, I was pretty shook up about the situation. He was very apologetic, and so was his aunt…who came over when she saw me talking with her nephew. We had a polite conversation, and I didn’t get angry…but I’m still a little annoyed. Long story short, this boy was developmentally delayed. I can understand that, but then you should be WATCHING HIM if he’s in your care. He may have the mind of a 12 year old, but with the body of a 19 year old, he could really hurt the little ones in there! (I’m sure some of you might have opinions on that, and you might not agree with me…and that’s okay. As long as you’re polite, feel free to comment on that. I am sympathetic to their situation; I just think she shouldn’t have been halfway across the building from him when he’s in a bounce house filled with toddlers and preschoolers!)

So, once we got past that incident, we had a VERY GOOD TIME! (Phew! We needed it by that point!) That place is loads of fun for little ones, and they even have a toddler play area for teeny ones! It’s close to home, loads of fun, and really not all that pricy. I *LOVE* this place. Once Jensyn is a little bigger, I’m sure we’ll be here often! My boys are all smiles when you set them free in this place!

Keith even snuck the camera from the diaper bag and got a few pictures to prove that this family really does have a mama! ;)

If you’re wondering about the oversized t-shirts on our boys, these shirts benefit our friends as they go through the process of adopting their little boy from Africa! We are SO excited for Jack, Angie, and family as they raise funds to bring Judah home! You’ll be hearing more about that from me in a few weeks, but for now, feel free to check out their blog at www.adoptingjudah.com. They are an AMAZING family, really striving to serve and glorify God, and we’re so thrilled to follow their adoption journey and help in any way we can!

December Randomness

2012-01-05T16:32:00.001-06:00

Is “randomness” a word? I guess it is now! ;) These are the pictures that really didn’t have a post of their own, yet I wanted to add them to the blog.

I recently learned the hard way about how important it is to always BACK UP YOUR PHOTOS IN MULTIPLE LOCATIONS. Simply saving them on a USB flash drive is NOT good enough, as a certain 2 year old discovered how easy it is to bend the tip of the thumb drive and render it useless.

We almost lost all of our photos from 2009 – which means we would have lost most of Max’s birth pictures and little baby pictures. Thankfully, even though the flash drive is ruined, Keith was able to get creative and retrieve the files & pictures from the drive…and we spent the next several days moving all of our photos to CDs, online storage and an external hard drive kept in our fire safe. (Those who use Little Monkey preschool packs will also appreciate my husband, as ALL of my tot packs & graphics were temporarily stored on that flash drive while we cleaned up our computer!)

So, even though we now have all of our pictures safe & sound, I want to make sure that any pictures I want my children to see in the future end up here. It’s another safe place to have copies of the pictures for future reference!

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Our laundry room is very small, and it’s also our most-used entrance into our home. It holds our washer and dryer, coats & shoes & diaper bags, and it’s also a landing pad for all the things we carry into the house. We FINALLY found some solutions that work for us to keep it organized. One was this broom holder, and Alex proudly “helped” Daddy hang it. He’s all dressed up, but he’s wearing his crocodile-shaped crocs on his feet. Why? “They’re my work shoes”, says Alex.

I treated the boys and Grace to Happy Meals for lunch one day. (I rarely buy happy meals – just an order of nuggets and a small fry to share.) We brought it home, as I am NOT brave enough to enter McDonalds alone with 4 small children. Max decided to turn his Happy Meal bag into a hat. Ironically, one of the few times they’ve convinced Mommy to buy Happy Meals, my boys got Hello Kitty toys. Oops!

Since Max’s hair cut turned out pretty good, Daddy is now our official barber for the boys. We adore Alex’s new haircut! (Don’t think he’ll ever get his hands on Jensyn’s hair, ha!)

Technology overload…one’s playing with the LeapPad while the other checks out the toy laptop. They are LOVING their new toys. (Me? I’m loving that the kitchen counters are clean!)

This was right after Keith & I assembled the trampoline from Grandma & Papa. It has since moved upstairs to our playroom, but the boys were SO excited to try it out as soon as it was put together. Oh, how they love this thing!

Jensyn is LOVING being in the big tub with the boys. She wouldn’t even look up from the toys for a picture. Yes, my boys are having a tea party with a pink tea set; we’ll just say they were doing it for their sister’s sake. Yeah, that’s why… ;)

Max received the Cars 2 movie for Christmas. For some reason, while most of us enjoy sitting ON the cushions to watch a movie, my boys felt the need to put the cushion behind them and sit directly on the springs of the chair. Strange boys… :)

Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa

2012-01-05T16:23:00.000-06:00

With 5 kids and 12 grandkids, it’s tricky for my parents to get us all together for Christmas. This year, January 1st worked the best for our family…so we’ve already celebrated Christmas in 2012, ha! ;)

I was excited to have a little time to play games with my siblings when we first arrived. That doesn’t seem to happen too often anymore.

My mom & sisters had made LOTS of appetizers for before the meal. I was stuffed before we even sat down for dinner! (I don’t know where my brain was, and I feel terrible about this, but I completely forgot to offer to bring food this year…DUH moment!)

We ate a yummy dinner of hot beef sandwiches, potato salad, jello, and lots of extras. Afterwards, all the kiddos opened their presents by the basement Christmas tree. I really tried to focus on the people this year, rather than being slave to the camera in my hand. That means I missed out on a lot of pictures…that, and the fact that my camera doesn’t like the lighting in the basement. Here’s what I caught on camera…

Jensyn’s singing Christmas kitty
She also received suede boots and a diaper cover, a 2T winter coat, a pink tutu skirt, and a few cute outfits/dresses.

Max got the Cars 2 DVD, which has already been watched repeatedly by my kiddos

Alex got the Cars 2 game for his new LeapPad. I wish I’d caught a picture of his reaction when he realized what it was. He was one EXCITED little boy!

They also got a new guitar, a floating Hot Wheels track for the bathtub, Do-A-Dot markers, Cars dominoes, a Hot Wheels police station, a Thomas lights & sounds signal, and few other toys.

Here are some of the cousins opening their gifts…it was a very shoe-themed Christmas! Kathryn got Uggs (which explains why she got very few other Christmas gifts at her family’s Christmas the week before!). BoGyeong received some new shoes. Jensyn got cute little suede boots from my parents. Several adults got new shoes or slippers, too…including me.

Derek got a dog bone. A a gag gift. That didn’t stop him from eating it right there!

We leave the kiddos downstairs to be noisy & messy, and then we head to the main floor for adult Christmas. We exchange names, and each couple buys gifts for another guy & girl in the family. I didn’t take many pictures this year; here are the only three I have…

Keith received hair spiking gel & a Spam beach ball from my brother.
Good laughs! He also got a Steven Curtis Chapman CD and an Amazon gift card from my sister. (Keiths’ most request item this year was Amazon cards so he can save up for a big purchase.)

My mom had my name this year, and she got me a cinnamon sugar shaker, a Chris Tomlin CD, new picture frames for my living room, and beautiful boots! (I do have to pay her back for the boots, as I had to choose between either the frames or the boots…and I couldn’t make the choice!)

Afterwards, we hung out for a while, and then we had dessert, got our kids in their pjs, and headed for home. Max conked out immediately. Jensyn screamed for 20 minutes. Alex played the new guitar for 30 minutes before falling asleep WHILE playing the guitar. How Max slept through all that racket is beyond me! :)

So, there you have it…Christmas 2011 is over. The trees and decorations are down. And Max is walking around the house saying, “Onwee fwee moh days ‘til Fwismiss!” Sorry, kiddo, you’ve got to wait almost a full year! I’m glad you enjoyed your Christmas enough to hope it will come again soon, sweet boy!

Happy 4th Birthday, Alex!

2012-01-04T15:54:00.001-06:00

The thing about a day-after-Christmas birthday is that your special day can get lost in the shuffle! We wait until mid-January to have his birthday party, but we like to acknowledge Alex’s birthday on the actual day.

We started out by giving Alex his present from us ~ a big boy bike! He is SO excited! As of January 4th, the bike is still in our house. He’s riding it all around the hallway and kitchen, as we haven’t had a chance to get him outside on the new bike. (that’s the stinky part of a winter birthday…)

He really does have the hang of it, and we look forward to seeing him ride it outside. We know he’ll do a great job!

Grandma S tried to wish him a happy birthday over the phone, but Alex didn’t feel like talking. At Grandma & Papa P’s house, we sang happy birthday and had homemade peppermint ice cream cake.

It’s amazing to me the change that seems to have occurred overnight in Alex. He seems to believe that being four makes him all grown up, and I love the sudden changes in his personality.

He gave up naps entirely. It’s as if turning four made him decide he wasn’t going to nap ever again. He is more confident about a lot of things.

He’s so much FUN! (Well, there is the “I have a mind of my own” attitude, but other than that, he’s LOADS of fun these days.)

Happy FOUR, Alexander Cole! We love you, and I thank God every single day that He blessed us with an amazing little boy like you!

Christmas with Grandma & Papa

2012-01-04T15:25:00.001-06:00

Christmas with Grandma & Papa’s family is often two days. We celebrated on Christmas Day with Nana (Keith’s grandma), Grandma & Papa, and Keith’s brother and his family. On the 26th, Uncle Jim and his kids and granddaughter joined the rest of us for brunch and presents.

Christmas Day:

Jesus’ birthday cake (with a candle for each boy to blow out…)

Jessica & Jensyn ~ the girl cousins have to stick together!

Nana (I have what should be a better picture, but someone stepped in the way of the picture…)

Opening presents…there were 5 very spoiled children!

Alex’s big gift from Grandma & Papa was a LeapPad! We’re already on our third set of batteries on January 4th, so you know he’s loving it! :)

Max’s big gift was a mini trampoline. At first I was afraid that would be a little too much, but if you’ve met Maxwell, you know that he’s a bundle of energy. We put it up in our playroom, and both boys LOVE it!

Little Miss got some nice gifts, too, including a few new baby dolls. She enjoyed lots of snuggles with the ladies of the family!

Kevin & Keith give each other gag gifts each year. This year, Kevin gave Keith a “lunch club” for work, made with packaged & microwavable food. Keith gave Kevin an “over the hill” survival kit because Kevin turned 40 this year.

Too much celebrating for Kyle ~ he’s worn out! ;)

December 26th (also Alex’s 4th birthday):

Everybody did their part to make a delicious brunch of waffle casserole, hash brown casserole, ham & egg casserole, fruit, breads, bacon, and more. It was SO yummy!

Afterwards, the kids exchanged presents with one another, and then the adults did our annual gift card exchange. It’s always fun to see who ends up with what gift cards at the end!

Cousin Cailin always enjoys playing with Jensyn. I don’t know if it’s because Jensyn is a girl or because Jensyn is a baby, but these two little ones enjoy each other’s company.

Keith’s cousins chipped in together to get each of our children a special gift. Jensyn got a singing baby doll and a princess chair. (See, our princess needed her very own royal throne!)

Our boys got a toy laptop computer, a Home Depot workbench and tools, and a McDonalds drive-thru playset. They are completely thrilled with the new workbench, as it looks much more grown-up than their garage sale Little Tikes bench. (Alex requested that we bring the Little Tikes bench over to Grandma & Papa’s basement; that way we had room for the new one at home.)

Alex had fun teaching everyone how to play the Jewel Train game on his LeapPad. I loved seeing him all snuggled up with Uncle Jim! Cailin loved getting a chance to try it out, too.

Before everyone headed out the door, we took a few minutes to sing Happy Birthday to our FOUR YEAR OLD. (Where did the time go?) I’d quickly thrown together an ice cream cake the night before. It tipped in the freezer during the night, so it was a rather slanted ice cream cake. Oops!

I forgot to bring the candles, so I asked Grandma if she had anything we could use. She disappeared downstairs for a moment, and came back with candles that spelled Alex’s name. I’m telling ya, Grandma is prepared for EVERYTHING! ;)

Once the extended family headed out the door, we enjoyed some time to play games, hang out, and just relax together. In the evening, the guys went to see a movie and the girls did some day-after-Christmas bargain shopping. Now we’re stocked on wrapping paper and Christmas craft kits for next year! (Thanks, Grandma & Papa, for feeding and entertaining the boys while we were out!)

There ya have it, Christmas 2011. Next up, Christmas with my family…

Christmas Morning

2012-01-03T21:49:00.001-06:00

There’s a rule in our house that children do not get up before 7 AM. So far, the kids have even abided by this rule on Christmas morning, much to our surprise. I was still dozing in bed when Keith nudged me, told me the kids were stirring, and we waited for them to run to our bedroom…which they do every morning!

This morning, though, they didn’t come to our room. Keith & I found them in the living room staring at the tree! I don’t put their presents under the tree until they’re in bed on Christmas Eve, so they were admiring all the packages.

We took them to the front hall to see if Santa had eaten the milk & cookies we’d left out the night before. He had, and he’d also left them a pretty special present…

Tidmouth Sheds! Santa also left a mine tunnel (that he bought used and half-price on ebay) and a few new Thomas and Chuggington trains.

They were so excited that Christmas morning could have ended right here. They had very little interest in opening stockings or other presents. Yet somehow, we as parents feel compelled to give them more ;)

Keith then read the Christmas story from Luke 2. It’s important to us to do that before opening presents, as THAT’S what Christmas is all about!

We took the stockings (see Jensyn’s beautiful new stocking, handmade by Grandma P?) and sat in the living room to see what we could find inside. Santa brought dollar store motorcycles, one Hot Wheel car for each boy, Smarties, little plastic cars filled with candy, National Geographic Kids magazines (for those who follow MoneySavingMom.com, Santa likes the online deals, ha!), M&Ms, new toothbrushes & toothpaste, and Gerber Puffs (for Jensyn)

We give each child three presents, and then I had each boy pick out a present for the other brother. The boys also bought an O-ball rattle for Jensyn.

Alex got:
~ Angry Birds playset (generic one, for $10 from a random Hong Kong website)
~ Hot Wheels firehouse playset
~ Vee set (for Chuggington trains)
~ double-decker bus from Cars 2 (I *love* his reaction!)

Max got:
~ soccer ball (free from saving cereal box points)
~ K’nex Elmo set
~ Wedgits
~ Hot Wheels car transporter

Jensyn got:

~ cloth diaper covers
~ 2 new outfits (uh, these were new with tags but I just pulled them out of her closet and wrapped them…she has EVERYTHING she needs!)
~ big girl car seat
~ o ball

After we cleaned up the Christmas morning aftermath, we had cinnamon roll bread and yogurt. We attended church, came home to give Jensyn & Max a nap, and then headed to Grandma & Papa’s house for the rest of the day…but that’s another post!

Candy Cane tot school

2012-01-03T21:44:00.001-06:00

Max is 24 months; Alex is (days away from…) 4 years old.

In the days leading up to Christmas, we read candy cane stories and worked on our candy cane mini tot pack. Here are some pictures of our fun!

The best part, to me, is that Alex is able to tell everyone exactly what a candy cane represents. I love knowing that, more and more each year, he’s catching on to the true meaning of Christmas!

Dot marker/magnet page

Count & Match puzzle cards

Circle what’s different

Max wanted to try this page, so Mommy helped him find which one was different. Max scribbled on the correct picture! ;)

shadow matching (Alex wouldn’t do this, but it’s one of Max’s favorites…)

Alex cut out his own pieces for his color-sorting page; Mama cut out the pictures for Max.

This was Max’s first time using a glue stick. He was so proud of himself for correctly sorting and gluing all of the pieces!

Oh, Max…you can’t write…yet. That’s not going to stop you from trying, though! Max watched so carefully as Alex traced his letters. Afterwards, Max “traced” the letters with so-so results.

We also spent a day at Grandma and Grandpa S’s house. She made brownies, and the boys helped her decorate them with green frosting and turn them into Christmas trees with pretzel stick tree trunks. Thanks, Grandma!

Candy Cane Mini Pack

2011-12-21T10:22:00.001-06:00

This week, we’re reading candy cane stories and doing some candy cane activities. I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted, so I went ahead and made a few printables yesterday.

Click the picture to download this pack for FREE!

This is much smaller than my typical packs, and it was created just for my own kiddos…but hopefully some of you will be able to use it in these last days before Christmas, too! (I’ll probably expand this for next year, but this year it’s just the basics that we’ll be using here today!)

This pack contains:

count & match cards
J is for Jesus magnet/bingo marker page
circle what's different page
counting mat activity
addition mat activity
handwriting practice (letter C, c)
color sorting (red & green)
shadow matching
scissors skills

Graphics by Maree Truelove ~ used with written permission from the artist

http://www.etsy.com/shop/MareeTruelove

2TeachingMommies and Confessions Of A Homeschooler also have some great, free candy cane printables that you could use along with these.

Itsy Bitsy Learners has a “Candy Cane CHRISTmas” pack available for purchase, as well.

Tot School – Christmas Trees

2011-12-16T14:17:00.001-06:00

(Alex is 47 months, Max is 27 months)

We only did one day of Tot School this week, but we’ve had a lot going on! Between shopping trips, Christmas baking, and other little things, our time has been filled.

On Wednesday, when Grace was here, we spent some time doing Christmas tree activities. We read the book The Legend of the Christmas Tree. This book is a little complicated for 2 – 4 year olds, but I know for sure that Alex understood these basic concepts:

The tree is a triangle. It has three corners to remind us of the three-in-one God: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.

The lights on the tree remind us that Jesus is the light of the world.

We went on to do some activities. Most are from 2TeachingMommies Christmas Tree unit. The tree sizing activity is from Homeschool Creations.

Alex and Grace did the tree number order puzzle. For some reason, this was very tricky for both of them. They were good until about 7, and then (perhaps their patience wore out…) had trouble getting 8 – 10 in order. We pasted our Christmas trees to construction paper.

We did the shape tree activity. Max, who normally loves matching shapes, just wanted to use all the piece to make a really tall Christmas tree. Grace loved this activity and did it very well. Alex wouldn’t do it. ;)

I printed three copies of the magnet page. The kids took turns using magnets to fill the circles, and then afterwards, they used bingo markers to decorate their trees. Max is absolutely captivated by this activity! I left it on the counter, and he did it several time throughout the day!

Prewriting – following the lines to put the star on the Christmas tree

Cutting, sorting, and size-sequencing their Christmas trees.

I’d printed this page for Alex, but Max did it…and did it well! I was SHOCKED!
He was so proud of himself that he did it again and again!

We finished by making edible Christmas trees. Each child got a sugar cone, a small cup of green frosting, a kid-sized knife, and some sprinkles and mini M&Ms. We had some good, sticky fun!

My kids are just LOVING all the crafts and sticky messes we’ve worked on this month!
Perhaps this month is a prime example of why I need to pull out the paints, frosting, sprinkles, and glue a little more often! We hope that you and your little ones are truly enjoying your activities this month, as well :)

You can learn more about RRSP, Preschool Corner, or Tot School by clicking on the links below. You’ll also see what other moms are doing with their tots and preschoolers!

Christmas Cookie Fun!

2011-12-16T12:37:00.001-06:00

It started out when we invited ONE neighbor to come over with her TWO kids. We planned to spend the morning making and decorating cut-out cookies together. Somehow, I kept inviting more people to come! I’m so glad, though, as we spent a wonderful day together!

Four moms, ten kids, lots of noise, plenty of sprinkles, and a whole lot of sticky fingerprints…yes, it was quite the morning! The kids went back and forth between playing and helping, the moms enjoyed chatting as we worked, and we all had lots of cookies to bring home and deliver to a few neighbors and friends.

Sprinkles, anyone? There are three very well decorated cookies on this plate!
Wow, Alex! ;)

We did the cut-out cookies with all the children, and then two of the moms had to leave to deliver kids to afternoon kindergarten. April and her boys stayed to play until naptime and to make candy cane cookies together. Sweet April also helped me clean the kitchen, which was a nice treat at the end of such a busy day.

This morning was SUCH fun that April & I are already planning to do it again next year!

Tot School – Christmas Fun

2011-12-09T08:50:00.001-06:00

Alex is almost 4, and Max is 27 months.

We’re doing a mix of typical tot school and Christmas activities right now. We’re reading a little daily devotional book, using our Countdown Chains, and every day there’s something little (a book, a craft, stickers) in a gift bag under the tree.

The kids SO look forward to checking out the gift bag under the tree each morning. They know that Mommy is the one putting things in there, but it doesn’t ruin the fun. One day, there was a paint with water book that my mom found on clearance last year.

Another day, it was magic capsules that grow in water. After the capsules had grown, we used the sponges to stamp & paint on construction paper. (Thanks, Jess H, for leaving a comment on my blog with that idea!)

Their favorite Christmas story so far is Room For A Little One. It’s a sweet story with pretty watercolor illustrations that shares the birth of Jesus in a different way. It’s not 100% realistic, as animals don’t talk, but it is a beautiful story. Alex walks around the house now saying, “There’s always room for a little on here!”

One of the activities in our Christmas Countdown devotion book was to trace Christmas cookie cutters, color them, and hang them on the tree. I knew my boys would NOT want to color, as it’s just not their thing. Alex has been asking to paint lately, so I got out the finger paints. We were out of paper plates, so I stuck the (non-toxic) finger paint on the boys’ lunch plates.

Below are the pictures of Max’s first time fingerpainting…I didn’t even think about that fact until he SCREAMED. Apparently, while the bright colors LOOK pretty tasty, finger paint doesn’t taste very good. Whoops! Nothing a nice, big sippy cup of apple juice couldn’t fix! ;)

After the little taste-testing incident, Max refused to touch his fingers to the paint. I grabbed some q-tips to use as disposable paint brushes. He painted just a bit, but decided it was more fun to match the cookie cutters to the shapes that Mommy had traced on his paper.

Alex had a good time, though! He had so much fun smearing paint that you can’t even see the original colors anymore…it’s just a blend of Christmas-y colors.

We mainly used resources from Over The Big Moon this week. Alex enjoyed the size-sequencing of baby Jesus in the manger. This week, I cut a sheet of construction paper in half and taped the two strips together. I asked Alex to sequence the pictures from smallest to largest, then glue it to his paper. He did a GREAT job!

Max was determined to do the “Which One Is Different” page. I helped him make the first few circles; after that, he scribbled on the correct pictures.

When he finished that page, he moved on to pre-writing. Sort-of. Really, he just wanted to scribble on the page. He tried, though. He SO badly wants to do what Alex does!

Alex, on the other hand, does a pretty good job with both of these activities!

We played this Christmas shape game from Living Life Intentionally. Each player gets a tree and six shapes. You take turns rolling the die, then placing that shape on your tree. The first to fill their tree wins the game.

Max thought he was playing, but really, he was just randomly placing shapes on the tree as he desired. He’d roll the die on occasion just for fun.

Alex stamped the J and j, and Max just stamped on a piece of paper.

Max definitely has his own ideas for what he wants to do during Tot School these days. I’d love to do things that are more to his level of learning, but he wants so badly to do what Alex is doing! Oh well ~ he’s still learning, just in his own way! :)

(The J is for Jesus page is also from Living Life Intentionally.)

We hope that you & your kiddos are having fun rogether as you anticipate the coming of Christmas!

You can learn more about RRSP, Preschool Corner, or Tot School by clicking on the links below. You’ll also see what other moms are doing with their tots and preschoolers!

If You Give A Mom A Muffin

2011-12-05T20:49:00.001-06:00

A friend shared this today, and it made me smile. I thought some of you might understand :)

-------

If you give a mom a muffin,
She’ll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She’ll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She’ll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she’ll find dirty socks.
She’ll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She’ll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She’ll look for her cookbook (“101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger”).
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The check book is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She’ll smell something funny.
She’ll change the two year old’s diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She’ll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
And chances are…
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

O Christmas Tree…

2011-12-05T12:36:00.001-06:00

…or why you should hire a babysitter while you assemble your new Christmas tree! ;)

The tree we’ve had in our living room for the past 7 years is pretty bare looking. It’s the one I bought for my apartment when I was single. It cost a whopping $50, I think…and it looked it!

Keith decided this year that we needed a nicer tree in our living room. We bought one a few weeks ago, and it’s supposed to be the kind with fold-up branches for easy assembly and storage. SUPPOSED to be. I guess that’s only after you struggle through the first-time assembly.

Now, I”m a firm believer in waiting until AFTER Thanksgiving to set up the tree. One holiday at a time for me, thank you! :) Normally, Keith is fine with that. This year, he was let out of work early on the day before Thanksgiving. With a little extra time on his hands, he decided to haul in the new tree and all of our decorations. He emptied the contents of the tree box all over the floor, only to find out it wasn’t quite as simple as we expected. In fact, it was a bit challenging…made even more so by two eager little helpers who were hauling branches off in all directions, stepping on branches and bending them, and getting into all of the ornament and decorations boxes…all while I was trying to make dinner.

Oh, the chaos! We never did get the tree finished that night. We worked on it again on Thanksgiving morning…with our little “helpers” being just as helpful as the night before. We decorated it on the day after Thanksgiving…and by this point, you’d think it would be easy. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough lights for the tree…trip #1 to town. Then there wasn’t enough garland for the tree, and we still needed one more string of lights…trip #2 to town. We couldn’t find the ornament hooks that we’d purchased last year, resulting in Keith repurposing a whole bunch of paperclips. By this point, many of our ornaments had been broken by eager, excited little helpers. By this point, both adults in the house were REALLY trying to keep our crabbiness to ourselves so we didn’t ruin the kids’ fun.

CRAZINESS! I told Keith that, if it wasn’t for the joy of children, I’d probably hire of babysitter next time we assembled the tree! I never realized it would be so difficult to decorate a tree with little ones. There’s hope, though…next year, we’ll know how to assemble the tree correctly. Next year, we’ll leave all ornaments in storage until we’re ready to put them on the tree. Next year, we’ll wait until after Thanksgiving, too!

I waited until the tree was fully assembled to take any pictures. That way, we were all smiling in the pictures.

All’s well that ends well, though ~ Now that the tree is decorated and finished, it really does look pretty. The boys are doing a pretty good job of leaving the ornaments on the tree. They LOVE getting to push the button on the power strip to light up the tree each afternoon. They’re excited about the Christmas Surprise bag under the tree, with a book, activity, or dollar store item for each day. We’re making some fun memories, and I love that the boys are so excited for Christmas to come!

Thanksgiving Random Pictures

2011-12-05T12:12:00.001-06:00

I’ve mentioned before that Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. It’s not really commercialized, and you can just focus on family and blessings. We did that this year, but not in the typical, relaxed way.

I have to admit that my camera didn’t come out very much on Thanksgiving day or the day after. Thanksgiving Day ended up being a little crazy. Keith decided he wanted to use his free time in the morning to put up our new Christmas tree. I always prefer to wait until after Thanksgiving, but he had the time…so I didn’t want to complain. It turned into a crazy mess – the tree was far more complicated than we’d realized, and the kids were running away with branches or stepping on them as we worked…CRAZY!

Somewhere in the chaos, I managed to wash my hair, nurse a baby, make two dishes to bring to Thanksgiving dinner, and get the car loaded with all our “stuff”. Alex was grumping and being stubborn ~ he didn’t want to eat. the pb & j sandwich I’d slapped together for his lunch. I told him he could either eat and get down, or he could sit there until we left. He chose to sit there until we left. I ran to dry my hair while the boys were eating sandwiches.

Keith came and got me about 5 minutes later, asking me to take a look at Alex. As soon as I saw my little boys’s face, I instantly felt like the worst mom EVER. Poor Alex…the allergist told us that Alex is NOT allergic to peanuts, and we believed him, even though we had been pretty confident that Alex was allergic. He still hadn’t eaten his lunch, but he must have touched his sandwich, then rubbed his eyes. His eyes were all puffy and swollen, and he had hives all around his eyes. (We’re praising the Lord that Alex stubbornly chose not to eat it!) We gave him Benadryl, and we grabbed the epi-pen handy just in case. We drive past a town with a hospital on the way to my parents, so we threw the kids in the car, started driving, and figured that if we needed the ER, we’d know it by the time we passed it.

Thankfully, there was no need for the ER. We drove straight to my parents’ house to spend time with the family.

We were back at my parent’s house again the next day, as my mom always does a homemade soup & bread dinner on the day after Thanksgiving. That was my birthday, so we did a birthday time for me and for BoGyeong, my brother’s family’s exchange student. She obviously loves little kids, and Alex is in LOVE with her. He calls her “BoGUM”. It’s so cute!

My sister brought their new puppy, Maya, over for a while. She’s so cute, and the kids loved her.

We just didn’t feel very relaxed, and there wasn’t any time to sit down & count our blessings. Thanksgiving had a very rushed feel to it this year, and I’m a little disappointed by that. Next year, the tree isn’t going up until after Thanksgiving…and NO peanut butter sandwiches will be around, either! We definitely enjoyed the family time a lot, though! :)

Tot School – Thanksgiving

2011-12-05T11:48:00.001-06:00

Alex is almost 4 (!), and Max is 27 months.

I’m a little behind on Tot School blogging…I’m a little behind on family blogging, too! There just aren’t enough hours in the day when you have three little ones! :)

We only spent one day on Tot School during the week of Thanksgiving, as we had grocery shopping, Bible study (for me)/Preschool Bible class for Alex, and Daddy had some time off from work. We chose to just work at the kitchen counter, with three kids lined up on stools.

For the most part, I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves this week.

Max took the finished maze from one of the “big kids”, tried to do it himself, and then he scribbled all over it and yelled, “I did it!”

This measurement sheet drove Alex crazy. I think he understood the concept, but he was annoyed that he couldn’t color in EVERY box!

Max was the only one who wanted to build words this week…he just matched letters until his attention span gave out.

Cutting & gluing – Alex is a very big fan of those activities right now! We chose to cut & glue the 4-part puzzles together this week because of some little kids who are on a glue stick kick! ;)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Christmas Countdown Chain printable free

2011-12-01T12:24:00.001-06:00

It’s hard to explain to little ones that there are still 24 days until Christmas. Since we put up our tree, Alex is asking me every day, “Mom, is it Christmas yet?” When you’re little, you need VISUAL reminders.

This got me thinking about the Christmas Countdown chain that I used to make with my second graders every year. (I mentioned that in my last blog post.) You begin on December 1st with a chain of 24 links, then you remove a link each day. As the chain grows shorter, your kids have a visual idea that the wait for Christmas is growing shorter!

For my boys, I designed a new star topper in Photoshop. After printing and laminating one copy for each boy, we made paper chains together. I stapled the chains, but Max handed me a green chain, then a red chain to practice colors. Alex helped me count to 24 links. Both boys hung their own chain on their bedroom door.

You can keep it just that simple, OR you can use it as I did with my second graders: write a simple prayer request on each link. As you remove it before bed at night, include that request in your bedtime prayers with your children. My second graders wrote down their classmates name. For your family, you could pray for friends, relatives, neighbors, or anyone/anything else that comes to mind.

As long as I was designing a printable, I figured it might as well be shared. Sorry for getting this out on December 1st…it was a last-minute project! I guess you can always make 23 links if you do it tomorrow! ;)

Click on the picture to download…

Train Tot Pack (free)

2011-11-29T15:58:00.001-06:00

You’re probably focused on Christmas-y ideas and activities this month. I know that’s been on my brain for the past few days! This tot pack has been in the works for a while, and there hasn’t been a ton of extra time for creating. I’d hoped to be working on a Christmas pack by now, but didn’t want to put this promised pack on hold…

My boys ADORE trains! Often, as soon as they hop out of bed in the morning, they are playing at their train table. One boy or the other usually has a Thomas train in his hand. They BEG to watch Chuggington on TV! (They have a Chuggington book, and I didn’t even realize it was a TV show until my neighbor clued me in…we don’t usually watch anything other than PBS!) The number one item on their Christmas lists is more trains!

Alex was super excited to wake up from his nap one day and find me creating train-themed printables. He grinned and said, “Are these for me? For Tot School?” He was thrilled, and I hope your little engineers will love these pages, too!

I try not to include the exact same pages in every pack, just to keep things creative. There are some new activities like an alphabet mini book with cutting, matching, gluing, and tracing. I’d love some feedback on the new count & match/add & match cards. (I’m hoping these will work in a pocket chart, but I have to admit that we haven’t printed them yet!) If you’re disappointed to find your child’s favorite activity is missing, let me know…I’ll be glad to create something for you!

CLICK HERE to download the train pack FOR FREE at my Teachers Pay Teachers store. Hopefully this is easier than 4Shared! I’d love your opinions on whether it’s easier to download a free file from 4Shared or Teachers Pay Teachers.

I started a Pinterest train pinboard, but haven’t had much time to fill it yet. If you’re saving this pack for later, you can always check back for new additions to the board! :)

This pack contains 27 pages of printable learning games and activity pages for 3 - 5 year olds. You'll find:
~ scissors skills
~ graphing activity
~ shape matching
~ size matching
~ ten-part puzzle (number order practice)
~ circle what's different
~ handwriting practice T and t
~ rhyming words activity
~ alphabet mini book (match upper/lowercase)
~ train cars for counting
~ prewriting
~ missing numbers
~ count & match puzzle cards
~ add & match puzzle cards
~ dot marker page
~ Find the T and t page
~ Word Builders (spelling)
Graphics © Zenware Designs and Babystar Design
Purchased at MyGrafico

By the way, since my brain is still stuck on Christmas right now, I wanted to point you to Over The Big Moon’s adorable Nativity Preschool Pack. I’ve had some requests to make one, but I think you’ll find this so adorable that you won’t want anything more! Be sure to leave a thank-you comment for Pam ~ it’s always nice to have your hard work appreciated! :)

Countdown To Christmas

2011-11-28T23:52:00.001-06:00

Last year, while hitting the after Christmas sales, I came across a really neat children’s board book. It’s called Countdown To Christmas, and it is a very simple book of Bible verses and activities to use from December 1st – December 25th.

There’s nothing profound about this book. It’s not amazingly theological, nor is it designed to teach the details of the Biblical story of Jesus’ birth. It’s meant to teach and remind children that Christmas is the celebration of Jesus.

This is perfect for moms (like me…) who aren’t planning elaborate crafts or big projects, but want to make the Christmas season fun and meaningful. Each page of this board book contains a paragraph to read to your child, an activity, a prayer starter, and a Bible verse for the day.

The first day explains that Advent (or “coming”) is the time when we are waiting for Christmas to arrive. The verse is 1 Kings 8:20, “The Lord has done what He promised.” The activity for the day is to create a paper chain with 25 links, then remove one link each day until Christmas.

When I taught second grade, I’d expand on that idea with my second graders by writing a classmate’s name on each link in the chain. The chain was hanging from a yellow paper star. As you removed the link each day at home, you were to take a minute and pray for this classmate. You could do the same with friends, family, or other prayer requests! We wrote a a poem on the star that went like this:

Each evening as your prayers are said,
take off one link then hop in bed.
When only the star is left to shine,
You’ll find that it is Christmas time!

Other activities in this book include tracing Christmas cookie cutters on paper and cutting them out to make simple ornaments, wrapping a doll in a towel as if you’re swaddling a baby, making napkin rings from sections of paper towel tubes, and cutting travel pictures from a magazine of things you’d pack for a long journey.

I’ve linked (with a referral link) to Amazon in the picture of the book. It’s a good price, but you also might want to check at Walmart or keep an eye out for this book at the clearance sales after Christmas!

We’re also going to do Christmas picture books for the 12 Days of Christmas. We don’t have 25 Christmas stories yet, so we’re cutting it a bit short. I plan to place a book in a gift bag each night so that the boys can open the bag each morning to find the Christmas story for the day. Occasionally, I’ll throw in a little surprise – a candy cane, a craft, or a small present. (My sister found a snow-covered Thomas train on clearance after Christmas last year, and I’d like to give that to the boys before Christmas so they can enjoy it! I figure that will go in the bag on the first day!)

For a REALLY neat idea for the Christmas Book Bag, check out Michelle’s post at Musings of Me! The bag itself is interactive…you need to read Michelle’s post! It’s such a beautiful bag; I’m drooling over that picture! But we’ll stick with our paper gift bag filled with tissue paper since I can barely sew a button! ;)

Black Friday Sale: Little Monkey Printables

2011-11-24T22:25:00.001-06:00

I hope you all had a WONDERFUL Thanksgiving! Ours was a little eventful, but we still had a great day with family! We are so VERY blessed!

Everyone loves a Black Friday/Cyber Monday Deal! This weekend only, save 20% on Little Monkey Printables at Itsy Bitsy Learners. Combined with the newsletter discount of 25%, you’ll save 45% on the Bitty Buckaroo or Woodland Friends preschool packs!

If you haven’t subscribed to Itsy Bitsy Learners newsletter yet, then TeachersPayTeachers has a deal for you on Cyber Monday: Save 20%, and then save an extra 10% using coupon code: CMS28

Owl Tot Pack (extra pages)

2011-11-20T22:57:00.001-06:00

We used our Owl Tot Pack last week, and I created a few extra pages that I thought Alex would enjoy. Hopefully your little ones will appreciate these, too!

roll & graph activity – picture cube, graph, and graph questions page
(yes, one page says “spin & graph”, and I didn’t fix it…sorry!)
handwriting practice
scissors skills
circle the smallest

Download it for FREE from 4Shared:

http://www.4shared.com/document/Lq5TknFe/owlextrapages.html

You can find the original Owl Tot Pack here:
http://mamasmonkeys.blogspot.com/2011/08/owl-tot-pack.html

Thanks again to Belen at PixelPaperPrints for allowing me to use her graphics!

We also had lots of fun making these cute pinecone owls that I found on Pinterest…

GIVEAWAY: Zookies Diaper Cover

2011-11-18T06:00:00.000-06:00

Recently, I had the opportunity to review a free cloth diaper cover for Zookies. What a fun treat! I’m excited now to share a FREE DIAPER COVER with one lucky reader! (You can enter using the “Rafflecopter” at the end of this review post.)

It all started when I asked about a discount if I would review her covers on my blog. Michele, the owner/seamstress replied quickly to ask if I would be interested in hosting a giveaway instead. Like I told Michele, you could have peeled me off the ceiling after I read her generous offer. I was hoping for 20% off, and instead, I received a free cover! Thank you SO MUCH for your kindness, Michele!

Along with the free cover, I opted to order one additional cover because I wanted to try out two different styles. Michele was SO easy to work with, and she customized the covers to suit exactly what I wanted.

The package arrived only a few days later, and the covers are BEAUTIFULLY made! I couldn’t have asked for anything nicer. They look so cute when they’re wrapped up in the package!

Our free cover is a medium in “Little Ellies” print with snap closures. (She also offers hook & loop, but – in my experience - snap diapers tend to last longer.) I asked for pocket flaps to be sewn into the cover so that prefolds and diaper inserts will stay in place nicely. It was barely out of the package before I was changing Jensyn’s diaper so that we could try it out.

Could a diaper possibly any cuter than this? I love the diaper AND the print!

Judging by weight, Jensyn (about 15 lbs) is right on the border of a small or a medium Zookies cover. She’s still wearing a small in her current diapers, but I opted for the medium cover, figuring that would leave plenty of room for her to grow. Thanks to the cross-over snaps, I was able to get a pretty good fit. It’s still just a touch too big around her thighs, but we didn’t have any trouble with leaks.

The second cover (which I purchased) is a one-size with an adjustable rise that ranges from 13” – 19”. I was very curious to see how the Zookies one-size cover compared to a Flip diaper cover, as that’s what we normally use around here for older babies/toddlers. The Zookies covers appealed to me because they reminded me of a Flip cover, but with the cuteness of patterned fabric. I chose to go with this pretty, girly “Flower Power” print.

This picture shows it snapped down to a 13” rise…

If you’re familiar with Flip covers, you know that the “shiny side” of the PUL is facing out. This makes it easy to wipe away any slight dirty spots on the cover so you can immediately reuse it. On a Zookies cover, the “shiny side” is hidden. This way, you can use the cover as a swim diaper without irritating your baby’s skin. Both ways have their pros/cons, but I thought I’d point out that difference.

Jensyn isn’t wearing Flips just yet…I’ll wait until she’s about 9 months to make that switch. For this comparison, I tried both diapers on my 25ish pound two year old. (Oooh boy, flower print on a boy…I’ll have to delete this picture as soon as the giveaway is over, ha ha!) The Flip, with only one layer, might be a tad bit trimmer. With the fold-over-elastic edging, the Zookies cover is just a bit thicker around the edges. Both covers give a pretty similar fit, though, and I have no complaints at all about the fit of the Zookies cover.

The shape of the Zookies diaper cover is somewhat different from a Flip. That’s certainly not a problem; it’s just something that I noticed. The pocket flaps on the Zookies are much sturdier than the flaps on a Flip cover. I was VERY impressed with how well the Zookies flaps held in every insert we tried.

yellow-edge GMD prefold, stay-dry flip insert, organic cotton Flip insert

Zookies one-size with a Flip stay dry insert

Larger prefold diapers (a Green Mountain Diaper yellow-edge) fit wonderfully in the one size cover. Smaller prefold diapers (a GMD orange-edge) fit nicely in the medium diaper; I don’t think you’d want to use it in the sized cover if you have the pocket flaps sewn in. I find that to be the case with Flip covers, too…tiny babies really do need sized covers, in my opinion! :)

Zookies one-size with a tri-folded yellow-edge GMD prefold

I don’t have a picture of the orange-edge GMD prefold in the cover, but here’s a size comparison of the two. Can you see why the orange edge might be a bit small in the one-size cover?

Michele’s diaper covers are available in a HUGE variety of prints, You can customize a diaper just about any way you want…fabric choice, hook & loop or snap, pocket flaps or no pocket flaps, sized or one-size…to get the perfect diaper for your little one!

You can also send her a favorite fabric, and she’ll make you a custom diaper! How fun is that? Michele said it takes a 20” x 20” piece of fabric for a one-size diaper. Guess what Jensyn’s getting for her first birthday?! (Uh, not that she’s allowed to turn one. She’s going to be my baby forever!)

The quality of Michele’s work is excellent, she’s super-quick to respond to messages, and we’re thrilled with the diaper covers we’ve received. I’m very impressed with these covers, and I will definitely be back for a few more!

You can check out Michele’s diapers and other crafty items (snack bags, gift sets, and more…) on Etsy, but I also discovered that she has even more fabric options available on her website. Here are the links to visit both sites:

http://zookiescrafts.com/

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Zookies

Here’s what you’ve been waiting for…

the GIVEAWAY!

Michele is providing one free diaper cover of your choice to one lucky winner. She will ship internationally, so all mamas are welcome to enter this giveaway. Giveaway ends November 30th, and the winner will be announced here on December 1st.

There are TWO mandatory entries, and the rest are optional entries just for fun.

Fluffy Little Bums…

2011-11-17T22:19:00.001-06:00

Alex, 6 months old, wearing a cloth diaper

I’m very excited to have the opportunity to host a cloth diaper giveaway starting tomorrow! Before the giveaway, I wanted to share a little about how we cloth diaper…

I started looking into cloth diapers about 4 years ago, just before Alex was born. It’s something that I just felt compelled to try. I was surprised to see that cloth diapers are not just Gerber prefolds, safety pins, and plastic pants anymore. The new options are much nicer!

There’s no more “swishing” in the toilet. We keep a plastic kitchen trash can with a PUL (waterproof) liner in our laundry room. When we change a diaper, we just toss it into the can. (If it’s dirty, we “plop” the solids into the toilet first.) Every other day, I wash by doing a cold water rinse, a HOT wash with a diaper-safe detergent, and a few extra cold rinses to be sure all the detergent has washed out. Every once in a while, maybe once a month, I do an extra wash with a bit of bleach.) That’s it!

We started out trying a variety of diapers. I tried everything: prefolds and covers, fitted diapers with separate covers, snap diapers, velcro diapers…and I got a pretty good idea of what I liked best.

In those early days, I really came to appreciate the diapers that were most similar to a disposable. Still adjusting to being a mommy, I didn’t enjoy any sort of prefolds or complicated diapers. My favorites were BumGenius one-size diapers (which are like a washable disposable with velcro tabs) and FuzziBunz (which are very similar, but have snaps instead of velcro).

Alex, around 4 months old

When Max came along, I purchased some used Bum Genius x-small and small diapers to use for the first few months. (DiaperSwappers is an excellent place to purchase gently used baby diapers.)

Max, around 2 months old

When Max began using the same BumGenius that Alex was using, we started having a problem ~ after 2 years of regular use with Alex, and now the washing/drying demands of TWO children wearing the same diapers, the velcro just wasn’t holding well enough to stay on a wiggly toddler. Max could still wear them just fine. Alex, however, would be running around the house, and suddenly his diaper would fall out through a pant leg!

Max, around 4 months old

That’s when Cotton Babies was introducing their new Flip diapers. The price was right, and I was confident enough in cloth diapering to try something a little less like a disposable. I fell in love with the simplicity of the Flip diapers!

Max, 2 years old, in a Flip cover

I used Flips on Alex until he potty trained, and Max is still wearing Flips every day. Jensyn will begin using these soon, too. They’ve held up WONDERFULLY, and I have no doubt they’ll last through Jensyn’s diaper days, too.

Flips are very thin, PUL (waterproof) covers with flaps inside to hold an insert in place. They have absorbent microfiber inserts with a soft, stay-dry suedecloth lining that goes against baby’s skin. (They also sell organic cotton inserts for those who prefer to avoid synthetic fibers against baby’s skin.)

You simply pop them into the reuseable cover and snap it on the baby. (They’re available in snaps or velcro, but at that point, I was not a big fan of velcro on diapers that needed to last for a long time!) When you change the diaper, you slip out the insert & set a new one in the cover. If the cover gets a little dirty from a messy diaper, you can swap it out for a new cover.

We ended up purchasing 6 Flip covers, 12 inserts, and 4 organic inserts. We also have some prefold diapers (you know, the “old-fashioned” diaper) that get used when we’re behind on the diaper laundry. I just fold them into thirds and pop ‘em in the Flip – no pins involved!

Jensyn, just a few weeks old

When Jensyn came along, I purchased some clearanced BumGenius small diapers. (Cotton Babies no longer be sells their sized diapers, so I snatched up some REALLY inexpensive pink & purple diapers.) These fit her well, and we’ll be able to resell these with no problem when she outgrows them.

Now that she’s nearing the point of outgrowing these, I wanted to get her a few girly-colored diaper covers for Christmas. There’s nothing wrong with yellow, green, and blue…but a little pink won’t hurt. Besides, this little girl has EVERYTHING she needs…and she deserves to get SOMETHING for Christmas!

The next post, scheduled for tomorrow morning, reviews the diaper covers that we’ve been trying out this week. I’m excited to have the opportunity to share a cover with one lucky reader!

My Reasons To Smile :)

2011-11-17T22:09:00.001-06:00

These kiddos melt my heart…all three of them, playing happily together with Jensyn’s toy. This lasted for about 20 amazing minutes…no fighting, no whining, just smiles and giggles.

Orange slice “disguises” at lunch…mustaches, goatees, and even sunglasses. Never mind that they’re not supposed to play with their food; Mommy even got in on the fun today!

Oh, did those boys laugh when Mommy gave Jensyn a mustache.
Jensyn, on the other hand, just wanted to LICK her mustache! ;)

Tot School – Letter X and Owl

2011-11-17T22:02:00.001-06:00

Alex is almost 4 (46 months), and Max is 26 months.

This week, we worked on RRSP Letter X and we did an owl theme. The kids were pretty excited! Max is fascinated with owls, and he spots owls in many random books as we’re reading. He even finds owls in tractor books! :)

This week we used Raising Rock Star printables from 1+1+1=1 and free Owl printables from my blog. (I’ve also created a few new printables to meet Alex’s current interests; you can find those here.)

We read several books from the library ~

Wow Said The Owl (great for 2 year olds, teaches colors, Max loved it!)
Berkeley’s Barn Owl Dance (didn’t really care for this one)
White Owl, Barn Owl (great fact/fiction mix, and Alex loved it!)

The nice thing about Alex’s name is that we’ve now covered each letter in his name in the first 6 lessons of RRSP. I made him a laminated name practice page to use with dry erase.

He is scissors-crazy (in a good way) lately! He’s finally interested in cutting on the lines, and he’s doing a pretty good job. It’s still not a smooth cut, but he’s getting there!

I made an owl roll & graph, but Alex was annoyed that he was supposed to be recording his results. He just wanted to roll and roll and roll…so much for that activity! It’s cute, though, and I’m sure it will benefit somebody’s kiddos! ;)

Max tried, too. Then he smushed the cube, rendering it useless. Sigh.

Both boys LOVED this “circle the smallest” page.
Even Max scribbled on the smallest one in each row!

Alex “made stairs”…or sequenced owls by size…

He LOVES using the letter tiles to build words.
After he builds them, I show him how to use the letters to sound out the words.
Alex loves letter sounds right now.
He’s not quite ready to sound out words, but he’s willing to listen to me sound it out.

Max had to try, too…although he’s obviously not ready for this yet!

Number Order Puzzle…it took a little ‘pushing’ on my part to convince Alex to do this activity, but he did a great job once he decided to try!

Dot Painting – a current favorite…
and the reason that the boys are getting the real dot markers for Christmas :)

Owl Shape Puzzle…Max did this every day! Alex tolerated it.

Pre-writing for Alex, scribbling practice for Max

Five Little Owls poem with manipulatives…Alex LOVED making the owls fly away!

Finding and stamping this week’s sight word (little) in the RRSP Mini Book

Stamping for the sake of stamping, because Mommy wouldn’t give him the mini book ;)

Practicing his Xs on the Bible verse page

This little boy loves his colors…but has no clue about color names.
We keep trying! This week, he matched candy heart erasers to the colored dots, matched the velcro colors, and matched the color words to the correct spot.:)

Tower Building…although crashing it is the best part for Max!

We’re finished with all of our tot school papers for the week, so Friday is for fun! Grandma & Papa collected some pine cones for us, so we’re making pine cone owls tomorrow morning! Wish me luck…glue guns, googly eyes, 3 tots and a baby, and sticky-sappy pine cones should be interesting! If they actually turn out, I’ll post about them next week :)

I wish life wasn’t crazy with three little ones. My boys loved the owl theme, and I would LOVE to have gone into more depth with the science-y side of things. Maybe next year we’ll do this again, but put more emphasis on the factual information. I hope so!

You can learn more about RRSP, Preschool Corner, or Tot School by clicking on the links below. You’ll also see what other moms are doing with their tots and preschoolers!

Homemade Foaming Soap

2011-11-17T11:14:00.001-06:00

This idea has been floating around the internet for a long time, and I just got around to trying it today. Money Saving Mom posted on her foam soap about a month ago, and that reminded me to give this a try. I thought I’d share this here in case anyone had not heard of this idea. It’s a great money saver!

My sister Deb was kind enough to give me an empty foam soap container the last time we were at her house. (Thanks, Deb!) It’s been sitting under my bathroom sink for a few weeks now.

We were down to the last few pumps in an old container of soap, so I figured it was time to try making foam soap!

I opened up the almost-empty bottle, propped it on top of the foam soap container, and then let it drain in. I also added three squirts from another bottle of soap, as there wasn’t quite enough left in the old one.

I added very warm water, very slowly, to keep it from foaming while it filled. I put on the lid, set it next to the sink, and gave it a try. (I wish soap could always be nice & warm when it came out of the pump…that was nice!)

Now we have a full container of soap at almost no cost. I could get used to that! My boys are going to LOVE that it foams, too!

In Her Own Time…

2011-11-16T11:29:00.001-06:00

It would figure that I’d post about Jensyn still not sitting or rolling much, and then days later, she’d have both skills figured out!

Our little sweetie is now rolling…and getting stuck in funny places.

She’s also sitting on her own, and she happily plays. She’s still a bit wobbly once in a while, but she is enjoying this new way to play! Oh, and I think the bouncy seat might be a thing of the past…since Jensyn is definitely not laying back and relaxing! ;)

Good job, Jensyn!

Thanksgiving Bingo Game

2011-11-14T22:00:00.001-06:00

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-Bingo-Set-4-game-cards-spinner

I recently received a helpful comment about the Thanksgiving Bingo game included in the Thanksgiving Preschool Pack. A reader pointed out that it contained an error on the blue card. She also mentioned that she and her son were frustrated by the spinner combinations that did not appear on his Bingo card.

The link above will take you to a FREE download for a “redo” of the Thanksgiving Bingo game. It contains 4 Bingo cards, and the new spinner has less options…which will, I hope, leave your children less frustrated as they play this game.

Thanks for understanding, and THANK YOU to the reader who was kind enough to point out the mistake! I really do appreciate it! :)

Little Adventures Preschool printables

2011-11-14T07:28:00.001-06:00

When someone leaves a comment on Our Little Monkeys, I almost always take a few minutes to visit their blog.

This past week, Amanda left a comment on my Woodland Friends post. I ended up spending more than a little time reading her blog after that! She started a small preschool in her home, and it’s called Little Adventures Preschool. They do some REALLY neat activities! She’s one brave mama, as there are even pictures of toddlers and preschoolers body-painting her living room! ;)

She’s made a few free printables that are just ADORABLE. They’re a little different from the typical tot pack/preschool pack pages that you see on many blogs…and they’re lots of FUN, too!

She has a Thanksgiving math pack with grid games, geometric solids, and a few other match activities. She also has an Animals In Winter pack (using the same graphics as my Woodland Friends pack, if it matters to you…) with a few math games, as well.

She’s slowly adding new printables to her blog. When I asked permission to share her blog here, Amanda mentioned that she’s working on a winter themed pack too!

I’m so thankful to the mamas who have shared my blog and helped it grow. It’s always fun to have a chance to return the favor. I’d really encourage you to check out the Little Adventures Preschool blog. Her activities are loads of fun, and her printables are adorable!

Woodland Friends preschool pack

2011-11-11T11:33:00.001-06:00

$2 at Itsy Bitsy Printables
(Be sure to sign up for the newsletter to receive a 25% discount!)

This pack contains over 25 creative, fun forest themed activities for your 3 to 5 year old to enjoy! You'll find 51 pages, including 3 instructional pages for parents and 46 printable pages for kids.

There are 2 mini-book choices: “I see” and “God made”,
so that you may choose the one that suits your needs.

You'll cover skills such as:

~ prewriting

~ beginning handwriting

~ counting

~ beginning letter sounds

~ number order

~ sorting

~ size sequencing

~ graphing

~ shapes

~ memory game

~ introduction to rhyming

~ scissors skills

~ and more!

Graphics: Scrappin Doodles

**This pack is a complete makeover of the Wildlife Pack formerly available for $1. This pack contains the original 12 activities along with 15 *new* activities to enjoy with your child! If you previously purchased this pack from my blog, you should have received an e-mail from me with a link to re-download the pack for free.

Big Bunch of Pictures

2011-11-09T15:42:00.000-06:00

One of our favorite snacks…smoothies! This was our favorite combination so far ~ blueberry banana. YUM!

Playing trains with the neighbor boys…you’d hardly know there were 4 boys in the house, as it was nice and peaceful. (I wasn’t allowed to watch them play; apparently, they can’t pretend and imagine when they’re being supervised…)

Grandma & Grandpa S came for dinner, and they brought souvenirs from their recent vacation. I had two happy little boys!

Family Movie Night – Toy Story & a “popcorn picnic” on the living room floor

playing with their plastic Thomas track at Grandma & Papa’s house

Alex is playing his favorite board game – Diggity Dog (or “Diggy The Dog”, as Alex calls it…) with Mommy. Max is in the background playing with some of the extra dogs. I guess we had an unofficial “hat day”, as even Jensyn is wearing her hood while she watches us play! ;)

My little rock stars…

For those who read my Tot School posts and see the mess of toys in the background, I’d like you to see that the room is often tidy. The boys like to play upstairs in the morning, and we generally start school at 10 AM when the baby goes down for a nap. By then, the boys have strewn toys everywhere. It really is a fairly organized room :)

(view from the stairs…tot school is off to the right)

(view when standing by the window…tot school is in the left corner behind the slide)

Max was SO cute. While I was cooking dinner, he drove his 4-wheeler into the kitchen, sat down on the floor with a book, and proceeded to “read” it to himself from memory. He actually got quite a bit right, which is really impressive since it’s a library book we’d only had for 2 days!

I haven’t taught them any rules yet, but we recently opened the Connect 4 game that’s been sitting in the closet for forever. Boy, did they ever have fun…hours of fun…with this game!

Jensyn ~ 7 Months

2011-11-08T12:39:00.001-06:00

Jensyn getting so BIG!

Okay, technically that’s not true. She’s a peanut. She’s in the around the 12th percentile for her weight. Still, she’s growing up too fast!

Jensyn celebrated her 7th month by having her first bout of the stomach flu. Ugh. Poor baby. Max started early in the morning and was sick until 1 PM. Lots of hand-washing, hand-sanitizing, and encouraging the kids to keep their distance from one another…I tried everything in my power to keep Jensyn from the germs, but what can you do when you’re the lone adult in a house with 3 very small children?

No sooner had we gotten the boys settled in bed for the night than Jensyn started getting sick every 5 minutes. This went on for a couple of hours. She wouldn’t nurse, of course. We tried Pedialyte in a syringe, but it wouldn’t stay down. She was beyond miserable…just laying in our arms, eyes wide open, totally spent…no smiles, no cries, nothing. Poor baby girl.

We called the pediatrician, and we were prepared to bring her to the ER for dehydration, but suddenly she settled down, perked up, and started smiling at us. She slept in our bedroom that night so we could keep a close eye on her through the night, but she ended up being just fine after that.

We’ve introduced the cup (with water), and she enjoys playing with it. She certainly does not have the hang of really drinking more than a sip or two just yet. She likes to fill her mouth, then let the water run down her chin.

Jensyn still enjoys food. I think she prefers carrots over other vegetables, as she rarely turns her head away from those. She almost always finishes a whole container of carrots. Generally, I give her fruit for lunch, veggies for dinner, and rice cereal (with water & a splash of apple juice) at bedtime. Sometimes, she eats a whole container. Other times, she’ll only take about 10 bites.

She’s tried bits of cracker and bread now, too, and I’m thinking we’ll probably try Puffs in a few weeks. She loves to lick fruit, too.

She still nurses wonderfully, and (most of the time) she’s good about not trying out those new teeth. It only took about week of “don’t bite” said in a loud voice to teach her to behave! Jensyn is more easily distracted when nursing during the day now. (There are so many things to see; why stop to nurse?)

Jensyn is fascinated with her tongue. It’s ALWAYS hanging out of her mouth! She’s also fascinated with her toes, and this picture does a great of showing both of her latest obsessions!

She loves to jump, jump, JUMP! This is one of Jensyn’s happiest places when she’s not in Mommy’s arms.

She loves her brothers, and they love her. Alex is so good, so gentle, so sweet with his baby sister. I love how he tries to take care of her, to talk gently to her when she’s upset, how he always want to see his baby sister in the car to know that she’s okay.

Max isn’t quite so gentle, but he does love her! He loves to give her toys, to make her giggle, to sit in a chair and hold his baby sister. Sometimes he forgets what’s appropriate with a baby, but overall, he’s an excellent big brother!

Jensyn LOVES the doggy! The feeling isn’t exactly mutual, but as long as Maggie can give her kisses, the dog is okay with the baby…until the fur-pulling begins, that is! ;)

She’s still a pretty routine sleeper – up between 7 – 8 AM, naps for about an hour (sometimes longer) around 10 AM, naps for 2- 3 hours around 2 PM, and goes to bed around 8:30 PM. She generally wakes once to nurse during the night, and it’s usually around 3 AM. Sundays and special days always throw us off a bit, and time change last weekend was…interesting. She was all out of sorts the next night, but she seems to be getting back on track.

Daddy has his special time with Jensyn while Mommy bathes the boys before bed. Usually Jensyn is super-sleepy by the time I’m finished with the boys, so she’s fussing. On this night, she fell asleep in Daddy’s arms.

Jensyn is most definitely a mama’s girl right now. Nothing is better to her than being with her mommy. Other people are fine UNLESS I’m around. Then, only I will do! Here, Grandma S is playing with Jensyn…who wanted to come back to Mommy!

This little miss gave up her pacifier long ago, but a pile of pacifiers was sitting in the corner of her crib. Not long ago, I got her up from her nap, and she was desperately trying to shove a pacifier into her mouth. Now, she’ll take it for a few minutes once in a while.

Jensyn can sit up on her own and roll both ways, but NOT if Mommy is around. If I try setting her on the floor, she has a FIT! I still set her on the floor and sit right next to her, encouraging her to sit, roll, or play…but she’ll SCREAM. When I’m not around, Daddy can get her to sit for a few minutes or roll around to reach toys on the living room floor. I guess you’d call that stubborn. I still make her try for a little while each day, but it always results in tears. All in time, right?

Here she is trying out her cousin’s old swing at Grandma & Papa’s house. Although she’s getting big for it, she really enjoyed it!

I’m probably cloth diapering her more than 90% of the time now. Thanks to the VERY HELPFUL SUGGESTION of a reader, we’re using coconut oil as a rash cream/barrier with every diaper change. What a difference that has made! It took about a week, but now there’s no more rash at all! I *love* cloth diapering my babies, and I love that it saves us money! :)

Just a few cute pictures before ending this post…

I really can’t believe how fast this year is FLYING by. We love every moment of these sweet baby days. I mean that, too…even 3 AM doesn’t seem so bad when I think that, so very soon, you’re going to be a big girl.

We love you LOTS and LOTs, Jensyn Kate! Happy 7 Months, sweet baby girl!

The Story

2011-11-05T12:34:00.000-05:00

Our church is reading through The Story this year, with each age category (adults, teens, children, preK) working at their own level of understanding. We’re up to the book of Joshua, and Alex is coming to know his Old Testament stories better than we thought possible for a three year old.

His New Testament, though…well…we’re gonna have to work on that:

Lunchtime, a few days ago…

Alex (playing with his noodles): Look, Mom! I made a cross!

Mom: Nice, Alex! Hey, do you know who died on the cross?

Alex: JESUS!!!!!!

Mom: Well, do you know WHY he died on the cross?

Alex: Uh, because he was getting old?

Trunk or Treat

2011-11-04T13:32:00.001-05:00

I don’t get very into Halloween. We don’t decorate, read books about it, or do anything very special. Most years we go to the pumpkin patch, but we didn’t fit that in this year. We do let our kids enjoy an afternoon of dressing up for fun.

Last year, we took Alex and Max to a friends’ church for their Trunk Or Treat. There are TONS of cars handing out candy, inflatable slide & bounce house, and lots of fun for the kiddos. We decided to do it again this year. This was the Saturday before Halloween.

Max was a furry green monster…in a costume that was just a bit too small. He wouldn’t let me try it on in advance. I only bribed him to wear it by promising that people would give him candy if he put it on. (Bad Mom!) Once had had it on, he was pretty proud of his costume.

Surprise, surprise…Alex was a firefighter! He asked if he could bring the garden hose along with him to put out any fires. We decided that much be a bit much to haul around! ;)

These pictures were taken on the hay ride. Just like last year, the boys were more interested in our friend Scott and his tractor. The hay was just a nice place to sit while they watched him drive!

Jensyn wore her darling little pumpkin hat. It’s hand-crocheted, and it’s so pretty. It had the perfect shade of green on the trim – a deep sage color, rather than a bright green. I found it on Etsy for only $6…my steal of the season! ;)

Afterwards, we stopped by Grandma & Papa’s house to trick or treat. When I went to get Jensyn out of the car, I found her sound asleep like this…

On Monday, we did something we have never done before…we went to trick or treat at a few homes in our neighborhood. I really have no interest in my kids trick or treating, but Alex was excited about it…and a few of our neighbors complained last year that they wished we’d bring our boys around.

Our firefighter drove his fire truck (with Daddy pulling the dog leash to speed things up…) and we visited a few neighbors. (7 houses total) We spent more time chatting with neighbors than we did getting candy, I think.

Our boys got TONS from the neighbors, though, because they were the ONLY trick-or-treaters in our little neighborhood…so everybody unloaded their candy on us! (With only 18 homes on 1 acre lots, most of the neighborhood kids choose to go elsewhere.) They prefer the suckers, but I admit to steering them towards the CHOCOLATE…so they could share with Mommy! ;)

Alex had a FIT at home before we left, and we almost didn’t go. He refused to say the words “trick or treat”. He thought he could just stand silently and hold out his bag. We told him that if he couldn’t use his manners, he couldn’t get candy. He came around, and after “practicing” at our own front door, he did a great job. Here they are next door at Preston & Jordan’s house:

Now they’ve been asking for candy for every snack time, after every meal, and even for breakfast. (Hey, I’d love to have a few Kit Kats for breakfast, so how can I blame them for asking!?)

I’m not giving in every time, of course, but they are each having a piece or two of candy every day. In a few days, their stash may just magically disappear…and they might get a prize in their bag instead. (Perhaps a few new Hot Wheels cars?)

So there you have it, our low-key Halloween! :)

Tot School – Letter E and Fall theme

2011-11-04T11:30:00.001-05:00

Alex is almost 4 (46 months) and Max is 26 months

This is actually last week’s post, one week late. We didn’t do tot school this week; we were taking a week off and just enjoying ourselves – playing games, playing outside, reading lots of books, going to the library, just “being”.

We used Fall themed printables from Homeschool Creations and Raising Rock Star printables from 1+1+1=1.

Yes, Alex wore a firefighter hat and duck slippers to do autumn-themed printables. Oh, to be three! ;)

I know it’s hard to tell what this is, but this is the directional words mini book. You cut out apples, read the page, and glue the apple into the correct place on the page. Alex really enjoyed this activity! After we glued all the apples, we went through the book with a red bingo dauber. Alex stamped the word “is” (this week’s sight word) on every page.

Max had fun sorting these foam blocks from Target’s dollar section on our color sorting mat. He just adores building towers out of anything we have on hand!

Alex & Max both matched the cards.

Alex was all excited when he saw this counting game set out for him…until he realized that you can’t SPIN it. After that, he didn’t care at all. If we did it again, I’d probably add a spinner and have him clip the correct number on the spot when he spins it.

Doing the 10 part puzzle…and proud to finish it correctly!

Alex is starting to cut on the lines…finally!
(He’d still rather cut a paper into confetti, but at least he’s trying.)

This week’s RRSP mini book…Alex is going through the book and circling the sight word “is” on every page.

A few weeks ago, we spent the day at a friend’s house. The children played while the mommies made busy bags. Both boys were excited to try the button snake that my friend Lori made for them.

I reintroduced bingo daubers (dot markers) a few weeks back, and both boys are in LOVE! Max also used candy heart erasers (?!) to cover the holes on the pumpkin page.

Here’s a little view UNDER the table as Alex is working…

Shadow Matching…

If you’re happy and you know it, your face will surely show it!
(Max’s favorite tot school song…there’s a happy face on that popsicle stick)

Cutting, sorting, and gluing apples and leaves…
love the look of concentration on that little face!

I love those wobbly little letters on the middle page…I might just be a little sad when he’s better at writing his name. It’s just too cute right now!

(Max did the dot page on the left; Alex did the dot page on the right)

You can learn more about RRSP, Preschool Corner, or Tot School by clicking on the links below. You’ll also see what other moms are doing with their tots and preschoolers!

Bitty Buckaroos Preschool Pack (Itsy Bitsy Learners)

2011-11-01T15:38:00.001-05:00

With the encouragement of a few friends and family members, I’ve decided to try selling some preschool packs. The graphics come at a cost, and a lot of time & love goes into creating these packs. With that in mind, some of my new packs will be available on Itsy Bitsy Learners website under the designer name “Little Monkey Printables”.

Don’t worry ~ I understand that not all of you can afford to pay for a tot pack. Everything on THIS BLOG will still be available for free. I aim to get out one new free pack per month, and there are no plans to change that. I’m in the middle of working on a TRAIN pack for all the Thomas fans out there! It won’t specifically be Thomas trains, but there are some similar graphics that your little engineers will love! Hopefully that pack will be ready & available for FREE in a few weeks!

The new Bitty Buckaroos pack is the cowboy themed pack that I mentioned a while back. It’s available as an instant download for $2.99 at Itsy Bitsy Learners (and also Teachers Pay Teachers if you prefer that site). There are familiar activities that you’ve seen in my packs before, and there are also lots of NEW activities – even some geared for slightly older kids like the pages shown below.

Uh, the mistake in the “Missing Number” sample is NOT in the actual pack.
It was corrected…I just forgot to correct the sample! Sorry!

This pack contains 40 pages: title, credits, 35 printable pages and 3 instructional pages for parents. There are 28 different activities for you & your child to learn and play together!

Here’s the complete list:

Addition Mat
Beginning Sounds
Counting Mat
Circle What’s Different
Circle The Smallest
Color By Number
Connect The Dots
Count & Clip
Count & Color
Do - a - Dot C is for Cowboy
Find The Letter (Uppercase and Lowecase)
Finish The Pattern
Find & Stamp
Handwriting Practice
Maze/Path (beginner & advanced pages)
Measurement
Memory Game
Missing Numbers
Prewriting Page
Puzzle Cards
Scissors Skills
Shadow Matching
Shape Matching
Size Matching
Size Sequencing
Sorting Cards
Ten Part Puzzle
Word Builders

All graphics are used with permission from KPMDoodles (Etsy) and Alice Smith (DigiWebStudios).

For those of you who read all the way to the bottom, here’s a little hint for you…you can get 25% off at Itsy Bitsy Printables if you subscribe to her newsletter!

Thanks!

Another Alex Funny…

2011-10-31T11:58:00.001-05:00

Just getting this one written down before we forget…

Last night at dinner, Max let out a bloodcurdling scream because he didn’t want to eat his dinner. (Sigh.)

Alex jumped because he hadn’t expected that, and he said, “That really scared the NIGHTLIGHTS out of me!”

Silly Max…

2011-10-24T10:31:00.001-05:00

We’re finally reaching a point where Max, although he still speaks with only a handful of consonant sounds, is really starting to talk. He puts together sentences, shares his opinions, and is starting to make us laugh. This stage was so much fun when Alex was little. I’m looking forward to giggling at Max’s words in the coming months!

Last night at the boys’ bedtime, we read our story and got ready to pray. As always, I asked Alex and Max what was the happiest thing about their day.

Alex answered, “Playing with Daddy!”
Max parroted his brother, “Pway wiff Daddy!”

I then asked the boys, “Who would you like to pray for tonight?”
Alex said that he’d like to pray for Max.
Max said that he’d like to pray for Sax.

The conversation then went like this:

Mommy, quite confused: Sax?

Max: Yes.

Mommy: Do you mean Max?

Max: No.

Mommy: Do you mean Alex?

Max: No.

Mommy: Then who do you want to pray for?

Max: SAX!

Mommy: Who is Sax?

Max: I doh-know.

Mommy: Then why do you want to pray for him?

Max, very insistently: Pway foh Sax!

So we did. Alex giggled through the entire prayer. Whoever Sax might be, he’s been prayed for by two goofy, giggly little boys! :)

Making Baby Food

2011-10-23T16:04:00.000-05:00

This little sweetie likes to eat! I started her on cereal at 5 months, then added fruits & veggies a few weeks later. Most days, she really enjoys her food!

When Alex was little, I made almost all of his baby food. It was mainly for the sake of saving money. I planned to do the same when Max was small, but on the day that I tried, our blender exploded and sent shards of plastic all around the kitchen. So much for that plan! He was our Gerber baby. :)

We have a new blender now, so out came the bags of frozen veggies! The boys were all excited to help. We steamed the veggies, then tossed them into the blender with a little rice milk and some brown rice cereal. (Why? I don’t know! That’s just how I do it.)

Alex lined up the old Gerber containers, I filled them, and Max put on the lids. Who knew that making baby food would be a fun family activity?

For approximately $3, we made 14 containers of vegetables for Jensyn. I’d say it’s worth the 30 minutes we spent on this project!

And Jensyn? Well, she’s glad we did it, too!

Tot School – Letter Ff and Fire

2011-10-23T08:07:00.001-05:00

Alex is 3.5 years old, and Max is 25 months.

This week, we worked on the letter Ff, and we also did a fire theme using these printables. We did two mornings (45 minutes each) of tot school, and we fit in a few random activities during the week as well.

Alex has recently discovered the he LOVES using dot markers. He had a great time finding and stamping the Fs on this sheet!

Alex half-hearted worked on this color the fire hydrant page, and Max (who you can’t see…) worked on the color the ice cream cone page left over from last week.

Max LOVES to use any sort of matching cards. He happily matched shapes for a long, long time!

Alex and I played the Fight the Fire game. (Yes, he dressed in his fireman coat to do tot school!) We quickly discovered that it’s way to easy to win, so we made new rules. Use a penny instead of dice, go forward one if you get heads and stay put if you get tails. That way, you don’t win in 3 rolls :)

Alex loves to do pre-writing pages, although he hates for me to tell him how to hold the marker.

Calendar time…

Count & Clip cards

More matching with Max. I left one sheet of the nomenclature cards whole, and then Max matched the pictures. Maybe some day we’ll use these for their intended purpose, but this works for now! :)

Max drove a wooden car with dice on top.
I’m sure there’s something educational about this, ha!

Alex practiced making uppercase Fs. He doesn’t mind doing this, but he won’t make all 9 of the letter. He only does 3, and then he’s finished. Fine by me, as long as he practices a few times! :)

Alex & Grace worked together VERY nicely to complete this Lauri fire truck puzzle that my sister gave us a few months ago.

We made chocolate chip banana muffins. Yum!

This is the first time that Alex has tried a word building activity. He’s been kind of resistant to this activity up until now. He was still hesitant, but caught on quickly and really enjoyed find the letters, making the words, and sounding them out with Mommy.

Max “matched” letters on this beginning sounds page. He so badly wants to do what his big brother does, but (obviously) doesn’t understand yet. He asked me often, “This go here, Mommy?” So cute! He only got one correct on the whole page, but he had fun trying!

Yep, back to the fireman’s costume…Alex cut (with some help, but he tried…) the sorting cards. Then without one bit of help, he sorted and glued them into the proper categories.

I moved the shadows and shape matching cards to the pocket chart, and Max had a great time hiding the pictures behind the shadows and shapes. He’s VERY good at matching these!

I finally realized that how I word this activity makes all the difference in how Alex completes it! Alex does much better if I say, “Which one doesn’t match?” rather than “Which one is different?”

He’s so cute about saying “uppercase F, lowercase F” as he’s working on his letters.
Nevermind that red is supposed to be the color of the week; Alex was determined to use GREEN for a lot of things!

Here are some samples of his work this week. The color the hydrant page was half-heartedly completed, but Alex was very proud of the sorting and stamping pages.

I snapped this to show how we’re using the letter/number/sight word for the each week. The one for this week is clipped on the front of the pocket. Behind it are the cards from each previous week. We go through the cards together each week, reviewing the letters and numbers. He still doesn’t have a grasp on the sight words, but we’ll get there whenever he is ready for that! :)

I’d really hoped to make dalmation pudding for dessert after dinner on Friday night, but it didn’t happen. Oh well – maybe we’ll do it for lunch sometime this coming week…even if it no longer matches our theme! :)

I’ve thought for a while that Max would really enjoy working with tongs, and boy was I ever right about that. He knew JUST what to do, and he happily filled every hole in this ice cube tray and then started over again!

Alex used our big pom poms to fill the muffin tin while he waited for his turn with the tongs.

After that, Daddy changed the rules and….uh…gave the boys a science lesson about catapults and simple machines. Yeah. That’s what this was! ;)

Then Max started throwing pompoms all around the room. Yep. Great educational value! ;) They had a LOT of fun, though, messing around with Daddy…and that’s worth it!

You can learn more about RRSP, Preschool Corner, or Tot School by clicking on the links below. You’ll also see what other moms are doing with their tots and preschoolers!

A Day at the Park

2011-10-22T15:50:00.000-05:00

We’ve had some amazingly beautiful days this month! Considering that’s October, and it will soon be chilly & gross, we’re taking advantage of the nice weather while it lasts.

So when Keith’s Uncle Jim called to see if we’d like to go for breakfast and play at the park, while I *really* wanted to get something accomplished, it was too hard to resist!

Grandma & I took the three kids, met Uncle Jim & Cailin at Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and then headed to Lemon Lake to enjoy the beautiful day. It’s so pretty there, but especially so at this time of year. The trees were so gorgeous!

I can’t believe I *almost* said no because I wanted to clean my house. We would have missed out on a great time together & a beautiful day! The mess was still here when the chilly, rainy days rolled in. So glad we went, as we truly enjoyed this day!

Cousins

2011-10-21T15:35:00.001-05:00

I am getting backed up on blogging about family events! I got started on that Thanksgiving pack, and I just couldn’t stop. Expect a lot of new posts in the week to come as I work at getting caught up :)

Kyle & Jess had their fall break a few weeks back, and they asked if the could come & spend the night at our house. We gladly said yes, as we love to have them here!

It was a crazy week leading up to this visit – sick kids, doctor visits, etc – so we scrambled to do yardwork while the weather was nice, get laundry done, attempt to tidy the house, make room for them to sleep, and grab some groceries on Saturday morning before they arrived. (Kyle slept in Alex’s top bunk, which Alex thought was pretty special.)

Kevin & Leanne were bringing the kids and staying for lunch, so we invited Grandma & Papa to join us. I got home from the grocery store, started the clothes dryer, made lunch, took care of kids, and then realized there was a fire in the clothes dryer. I ran outside to tell Keith, and he was talking to our brand-new neighbor who I hadn’t even met yet. Not wanting our new neighbor to think we were CRAZY, and knowing the fire had burned itself out, I waited until Keith had introduced me & we’d chatted for a few minutes. THEN I told Keith about the fire, he went in to take care of the dryer, and I opened up the house to let out the stink.

Five minutes later, everyone started arriving. How’s that for a fabulous way to welcome six guests to your house for lunch? :)

I don’t have many pictures, but we didn’t do anything amazing – played games, hung out around the house, went to Dairy Queen, and just had a nice at-home weekend with Kyle & Jessica. I’d thought about going to the pumpkin patch, but then realized we couldn’t fit everyone in our car! So much for that idea! As it was, we had to take two cars to Dairy Queen & church!

We “returned” Kyle & Jess on Sunday night (again using 2 cars) by meeting halfway at McDonalds. This was SO nice…Kyle & Jess kept our boys at McDonalds play place for dinner while the adults (& Jensyn) went to the pizza place next door. That’s a nice benefit to having older nephews & nieces! :)

We had a fun weekend with the kids, even though we wish they could have stayed longer & we could have done a bit more!

P.S. We’re getting a new clothes dryer tomorrow! ;)

Thanksgiving Tot Pack

2011-10-19T16:38:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving happens to be my favorite holiday. First of all, I was born on Thanksgiving Day. Second, and more importantly, it’s a fairly non-commercial holiday in which we show our gratitude to God for who He is and what He does for us.

It’s important to me that my children know the story of the first Thanksgiving, so that’s what this tot pack is all about. Click on the picture below to download. ENJOY!

11/15/2011:

updated Bingo game to correct the error in the one included in the Thanksgiving pack:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Thanksgiving-Bingo-Set-4-game-cards-spinner

11/2/2011:
My goodness, you guys are amazing! The pack has been downloaded well over 2,000 times! If you’re having trouble getting it to download, it’s because so many of you are trying to grab this pack at the time same! Try this alternate download site, and I’d love it if you left a review/comment there after you download:

http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Little-Monkey-Printables-31

If you have trouble downloading this pack,
please CLICK HERE for directions on 4Shared downloads.

SPECIAL THANKS to Courtney & Lisa for suggesting activities for this pack!

If you like the Thanksgiving pack, please take a look at this pack
available for $2.99 at Itsy Bitsy Learners & TeachersPayTeachers:

Want More?

If you’re looking to teach your child about the first Thanksgiving, including some of the history of this holiday, this is a GREAT link. Michelle at Musings of Me created this ADORABLE printable book with her son, Channing, last year. Click on the picture below to see the artwork for each page.

LOTS of Thanksgiving printables are available from 2TeachingMommies, including this roll & graph activity:

1+1+1=1 offers a fun Thanksgiving pack, including this cute color by number turkey:

Several years ago, my neighbor boy & I made this felt “Spin a Turkey” game, based on a game found at Let’s Explore. Be gracious…we were working with random felt scraps and the cutting skills of a 5 year old! :)

A few cute Pinterest ideas for you…CLICK HERE to see more.

Tot School – Letter I and Ice Cream

2011-10-14T12:33:00.001-05:00

Alex is 3.5 years old, and Max is 25 months.

Okay, let’s try this again. Letter I, take two! This week went MUCH better! We only fit in 2 days of Tot School, but that’s because we were enjoying what will probably be the last of our 70 degree October days.

We completely ignored our RRSP board this week. I tossed in a few letter I practice pages in the middle of our other activities, and we talked about the memory verse for a few minutes. Alex & I even sat together and reviewed the letters, numbers, and sight word for each week…with smiles on our faces.

That’s not to say Alex was 100% cooperative – he still had his moments. (For example, he was willing to cut a blank piece of paper into “confetti”, but he wouldn’t even consider cutting the lines of his Bible verse paper. I didn’t argue.) Overall, though, this week was very nice for all of us!

Max amazed me! He couldn’t match the letters, but he sat down and very intently worked on putting each of the 26 letters in the correct place. He’d ask me “Where does this go, Mommy?” I’d point to the correct spot, and he’d place it there. I can’t believe this little boy’s attention span!

I got a quick video of Max working on this letter page,
and Alex needed help during that time…so here’s a little peek into our morning.

Alex used his counting cards to count out the correct number of ice cream cones.

Alex had fun circling the pictures that were different. Every time I think he’s got this mastered, he surprises me by making a strange choice on these pages. Guess he’s just keeping me on my toes!

Max matched uppercase letter I cards.
Alex wanted to try it, too.

Alex had trouble with the ice cream truck puzzle,
but he did a great job on the ice cream cone!

(In the background, you can see my little Tornado & his aftermath of dumped toys…)

We “retired” magnet pages for a while, as Alex wasn’t interested.
When Grace pulled out this page, though, Alex was very jealous.
I think we’ll be trying again in the coming weeks, as Max would probably enjoy these too.

Alex & Grace played the Race To The Ice Cream Truck game.

Max made tall towers, knocked them down, and built them again.
This involved lots & lots of giggles.

Max built ice cream cones just for fun.
Alex & I rolled and counted how many scoops of ice cream to put on each cone.

Alex practiced writing the letter I.

Alex sat on my lap, and we went through these cards from RRSP to review letters, numbers, and sight words. He doesn’t “get” the sight words yet, but he does know the sound that each letter makes. He tells me the letter & number on each card. I’m just casually sounding out each word and telling him what it says. I figure that, in time, he’ll start to understand that these letters make specific words.

Prewriting – can you tell he’s proud of himself?

Max colored the ice cream cones because Alex didn’t want to.
Max didn’t really get it, but he had fun coloring.

Shadow matching – Alex didn’t want to do it this week.
The shadows this week were rather hard for Max, but he kept trying!

This week, we used RRSP and our own Ice Cream printables.
The magnet/Bingo marker page is from Making Learning Fun.

You can learn more about RRSP, Preschool Corner, or Tot School by clicking on the links below. You’ll also see what other moms are doing with their tots and preschoolers!

No More Curls

2011-10-13T08:12:00.001-05:00

I left Max’s curls to grow for a long time, as I wanted him to have those adorable curls for his 2 year pictures. You may remember how that turned out…the pictures certainly didn’t highlight his curls!

After that, I just dreaded cutting of those adorable curls. Once I finally decided that maybe it would be okay to cut it, the kids started getting sick one-by-one. I put it off because I didn’t want to have sick kids on the day of the haircut appointment.

Finally, Daddy had enough. Last Saturday night, he decided we were cutting hair after supper. Oooooh boy – he’s never cut anyone’s hair before. I was pretty worried about how he’d do with curly hair on a wiggly toddler.

Max was definitely a bit wiggly and unsure about this!

Daddy’s a pretty good barber, though! Max is sporting an adorable new haircut…and I (almost) like it better than those wild & crazy curls. He looks so cute!

Good job, Daddy!

Watch out, Alex ~ Daddy might be after you next! ;)

Thank You, Lilia’s World!

2011-10-13T07:52:00.000-05:00

A while back, Lilia’s World Boutique kindly agreed to do a giveaway on my blog. She sells the CUTEST flower clips. They are very reasonably priced, and they are oh-so-adorable! You can clip her flowers onto any headband or hat, and having interchangeable products is a fun way to match any outfit.

After the giveaway (won by Angela W), Lilia’s World sent me TEN headbands and TEN flower clips. That was a wonderfully sweet gift! We wanted to pass it along, so we shared a few of them.

Our neighbors have a brand new baby girl, so we gifted baby Sophie with a few new headbands and flowers…and a business card for Lilia’s World, too! ;) The rest are hanging the wall over Jensyn’s changing table, and she loves to look up at all the pretty colors while I’m dressing her.

After two little boys, it was a real treat to buy girly accessories. Lilia’s World was my first Etsy purchase, and I was so impressed! When I wanted to make a change to my order, I got almost an immediate response. How’s that for customer service? I received the package quickly, and she’s great with all customer service questions & correspondence.

She’s adding some new products, and she’s got pictures on her Facebook page of some adorable new items that will be available soon. I don’t often use this blog to “advertise”, but I wanted to THANK Lilia’s World for the generous gift. We love these products!

Check out her website at http://www.liliasworld.com or the Lilia’s World Facebook page.

Our Little Monkeys

African Safari preschool pack (FUNDRAISER)

Can We Do A Project?

Alex’s Birthday Party

Valentine’s Day PreK Pack from Over The Big Moon

The Little Things

Max Sings

Bounce!

December Randomness

Christmas with Grandma & Grandpa

Happy 4th Birthday, Alex!

Christmas with Grandma & Papa

Christmas Morning

Candy Cane tot school

Candy Cane Mini Pack

Tot School – Christmas Trees

Christmas Cookie Fun!

Tot School – Christmas Fun

If You Give A Mom A Muffin

A friend shared this today, and it made me smile. I thought some of you might understand :)

O Christmas Tree…

Thanksgiving Random Pictures

Tot School – Thanksgiving

Christmas Countdown Chain printable *free*

Train Tot Pack (*free*)

Countdown To Christmas

Black Friday Sale: Little Monkey Printables

Owl Tot Pack (extra pages)

GIVEAWAY: Zookies Diaper Cover

Fluffy Little Bums…

My Reasons To Smile :)

Tot School – Letter X and Owl

Homemade Foaming Soap

In Her Own Time…

Thanksgiving Bingo Game

Little Adventures Preschool printables

Woodland Friends preschool pack

Big Bunch of Pictures

Jensyn ~ 7 Months

The Story

Trunk or Treat

Tot School – Letter E and Fall theme

Bitty Buckaroos Preschool Pack (Itsy Bitsy Learners)

Another Alex Funny…

Silly Max…

Making Baby Food

Tot School – Letter Ff and Fire

A Day at the Park

Cousins

Thanksgiving Tot Pack

Tot School – Letter I and Ice Cream

No More Curls

Thank You, Lilia’s World!

Christmas Countdown Chain printable free

Train Tot Pack (free)