Time with my Two

I'm way behind on posting all my random, day-to-day activities with my two munchkins. September seemed like a VERY full month for us, with a hundred things going on. I usually only snap pictures with my iPhone, but there were a few days I made a point to pull out my good camera and take some much better-looking photos. They're further down... so enjoy this long post of their cute smiles!

Grace drew this and said it was a picture of daddy when he's angry. haha 

I immediately texted it to him.

More apple-picking!! Jonagolds this time.

 Cousin time!

 He was laughing because Grace and I were laughing at him. He had no idea there was a noodle on his head! 

 A tired, sick mommy = early bath, PJs, pillow party and a movie until bedtime.

 Our washing machine broke... We had zero $$ to buy a new one or pay someone to fix it... so I did some research online, looked into the part I assumed we needed, and waited until Ryan slept off his night shift. Then we loaded the kids in the car with a snack, and drove to Lancaster (a smaller city south-east of here), promising them an adventure! 

We found the parts store, bought this tiny little motor coupler (hoping it would work), and headed home...

 Then I remembered a friend telling me there is a really yummy donut place down there. So we found it and the kids were perfect happy with their donut adventure! 

Oh and the part ended up being the right thing! Thank you youtube.

 Grace  beats me in Memory pretty much every time we play. She's dang good!

 And out comes the GOOD camera... I should do that more often.

 The kids are obsessed with putting these dress-up necklaces into cups and dishes, pretending that they're food or drinks. The tea kettle is Grace's "pie". I love her imagination.

 Playing with water beads ... they're just so fun!

 Comfy.

 I love this boy in his fall clothes!! I just want to eat him up.

 Learning to jump-rope.

Checking out the Jeffrey Mansion in Bexley. This neighborhood is... incredible. It reminds me a lot of the Yale/Harvard neighborhood in SLC but even more beautiful and with bigger homes/lots. Ok that really didn't do it justice - these are multi-million dollar mansions and the streets are so beautiful! This mansion is a public building and the grounds are full of neat stone walls and walk-ways.

 It also has an awesome park, which we had all to ourselves for awhile, until the preschool classes (held inside the mansion) came outside to play.

 Recently I purchased some backdrops/floordrops for use in my photography "business". I was playing around with lighting and such, and asked my favorite little model to come help me.

 Such a beauty!

Preschool: Letters D and X

 A few weeks ago it was my turn to teach our co-op preschool. I taught tuesday and thursday of the first week and we focused on the letter "d" and dinosaurs.

Some of the activities we did:
-lots of books!
-dino egg search with alphabet letters inside (they matched the uppercase to the lowercase)

-items with a "d" somewhere in the word vs. items with no "d"

-sensory bin with sand and lots of fun bones and skulls to dig up!

-we tried to do "station" activities and then switch every few minutes but it was difficult with that many kids. I may not try that again...

-they went on an expedition to find their puzzle pieces, gathered them, and then fit them together to make an egg.

-snack time was a fossil cookie (sugar cookie with imprints), apples and goldfish.

 -playdough fossils which was a huge hit!

-we also talked and read about ducks, so I did another sensory bin with water beads, water, little duckies, and lots of tools to play with. Sensory bins are ALWAYS a good way to go! (I loved how Logan sat right down with the big kids and was super quiet and easy to please while we did sensory bins)

 I know there were a ton of other things we did for those 4 total hours, but I can't remember them haha. It was a lot of fun though!

The next week I came down with a cold and was feeling pretty sick. I postponed one of the days, so I ended up teaching wednesday AND thursday, still not feeling well. But I survived. ;) And it was still a lot of fun! That second week we talked about the letter "x" and doctors/x-rays/bodies.
 -I dressed up in Ryan's white coat and had all of his little gadgets on me to show the kids (otoscope, gloves, blood pressure cuff, stethoscope, medicine, etc. They thought it was so cool!

-we talked about what Ryan does as a "baby doctor". They each had a doctor kit and gave a baby doll a check up. The really loved that!

 -watched a short Doc McStuffins episode
-read "Fox in Socks" and talked about the sound that "x" makes. I had things inside a box, such as soCKS, roCKS, stiCKS, foX, etc.
-gave them straws, craft sticks, and jenga pieces to build as many X's as they could

 -did eXercises, sang "head shoulder knees and toes", "all made of hinges", and danced to the "skeleton dance" video a few different times.

-talked a little about teeth, and did a math activity by glueing mini marshmallows into a paper mouth

-made an "x-ray" page with their handprints. Grace was the only one who didn't want to do it. :( I was bummed... but I convinced her several days later.

 -snack time included a piece of bread that they could imprint with cookie cutters that had to do with the subject: hand, foot, heart, letter x.

BOY! It was a lot of stuff, and it was always a whirlwind 2 hours each time. It was fun for me a lot of the time too, but I'm glad to be enjoying an 8 week break. hehe ;)

The next week was A is for APPLE, and we took the kids on a field trip to the apple orchard. Cuties!