Punching Balloons

Kids love balloons.  Especially the giant punching ones.  We had a birthday party last week and these balloons were in the goody bags.

"Run around in a circle!"  They decided it made a nice circular rainbow of colors.  It turns out that punching balloons were used for more than punching.

They wore themselves out. :) Happy Tuesday!  I hope you enjoyed your holiday weekend. ♥

Read A Story

Here is my hubby.  The kids know that he likes to read to them.  Even though two of the kiddos are capable of reading to themselves.  Yesterday, Adam took the kids on a bike ride that was 3.7 miles.  They ended up at our church.  It took them about an hour and twenty minutes because Aidens little bike can only go so fast.  Pedal, pedal, pedal.. "I'm tired." Pedal, pedal pedal.  Instead of making them all pedal back for ANOTHER hour and twenty minutes or more, Adam pedaled back the 3.7 miles in 13 minutes to retrieve the van.  I wanted nothing to do with this, as I really don't like to ride my bike and I don't like the Centennial Trail.  It's straight and boring.  I enjoy walking through Snohomish instead. While they were gone I weeded the garden. ♥

A Giant Emerges

The Mammoth Sunflower stealthily emerged in spite of the cold.  It's hard to believe that in three months it will be up to 12 feet tall, heavy as a small tree.  These are popping up all over the gardens.

Just when I was about to re-plant, the Jack-O-Lantern pumpkin plant popped up.  Still waiting on the other seven to emerge.

Sugar Snap Peas abound- strong and steady.  Some here, some over there, these will be a great summer snack.

The baby corn stalks.  I'm happy to see these because I felt like I didn't till the ground here enough.  It was just me and my shovel.

Yard Boss Niko, no camouflage needed.  He is the boss, everyone knows it.  Every morning, we tour the gardens together looking for new growth.

Frog Puppet

We decided to create frog puppets.   I love these paper lunch sacks.  We have used them for so many things.

These kids are a bit young to be cutting out the pieces, so I prepared them ahead of time. Legs, arms, eyes, tongue, and "speckles".

Hooray for glue sticks!  Remember using paste? I loved the smell of it but it always left behind a crumbly mess.

♫♪We sing "Five green and speckled frogs, sitting on a speckled log, eating some most delicious bugs ♫♪ YUM YUM!  One jumped into the pool, where it was nice and cool, now there are FOUR green speckled frogs." ♫♪
Oh, for all of you who have noticed my horribly out of focus photos, I have been blessed by my father-in-law with a beautiful Nikon camera that works much better than my current camera.  Better photos to come!

Paint Your Name

One of the first things that happens during kindergarten registration is that the nice lady will ask your kindergartener to write his or her name.  Name recognition is part of our preschool curriculum.  The kids find their names on the cubbies.  They raise their hand when they see their name in group time.  They attempt to write their own name on worksheets.  Yesterday, we finger painted our names.

The kids had to find their name before they could sit down.

Finger painting is a great sensory project.  Not only is it squishy and messy, but it's just plain fun!  It's very hard to resist slopping it all over the whole hand and quite possibly up to the elbows.  So far, the kids are great about keeping it where it belongs.  (On the fingers.)

Happy Thursday!

Bouncy Ball Fishing

My handsome hubby cleaned out the garage a couple of days ago.  He found this old kid sized fishing pole and decided to string a bouncy ball onto the end of it for the kids to reel in. 

He took over.  The kids really like him!

He showed them how to cast and reel it in.  Some of these kiddos have gone fishing before.  One three year old just caught his first fish!

They had to re-learn taking turns.  There was a spat....  And grabbing and high pitch whining.  All desperate for their turn. 

They enjoyed "fishing"! 

Fun New Toy

I recently stumbled onto the most amazing website: Discount School Supply .   I found this fun toy for a reasonable price.  The boys were instantly intrigued.  Sturdy straws that they can build large things with.  Fun!

Things are more fun to build when they are large.  My favorite part about this toy is that it fits into a very small box when it's time to clean up.

They built this car together the next morning.  George is in there.

I love construction paper.  I always seem to run out of yellow and white.  On this website I found packs of paper in individual colors for .99 per pack!  (♫♪ Hallelujah Music ♫♪)  Now I don't have to fish through the store bought packs and dig out what I need sheet by sheet.  AMAZING!  Also, I paid maybe $6.00 for shipping, and it arrived two days later.  I will definitely be a repeat customer.  (Nerd alert, I know..) ♥

Go Barefoot

When the sun is out, the shoes come off.  It's time to run around barefoot.  I usually don't wear shoes in the summer time, I have flip flops handy if I need them.  The kids tend to copy me.  I don't mind, we don't have thorns and I always sweep the back patio.  The downside to going barefoot is that I always have what I refer to as "Flinstone feet", but maybe I'm just preparing them for the rocky Washington beaches this summer.  Run around barefoot!  Through the grass, through the puddles, in the garden.  It's exhilarating!

I am attempting to grow cherry tomatoes for the first time.  I purchased two of these Topsy Turvey planters.  What a genius idea!  The roots are all tucked into the planter where the sun creates a nice warm greenhouse effect.  I'll keep you posted on the progress.  Happy Monday! ♥

Music Brightens The Mood

My brother showed me this concert live one Saturday a couple of years ago.  I think Loreena has such a soothing voice.  I started playing her music during my work week when the kids were working at the tables for art or skill building.  I noticed that when I played it, the mood was calm, they were more intrigued with their art and using their own creativity.  The music set the mood.  I wonder if people thousands of years ago loved their music as much as I do.  Happy Sunday!

Art

This is from the art wall last spring.  It's a coincidence that we are learning 'W' this week, and here I found this photo.  Look at those beautiful spring blossoms!  I love art. 

Aiden drew this picture of he and I in my Mothers Day card.  He said he worked extra hard on the fingers.

Here is Isaiah, sailing to where the wild things are.  I love how his eyes are bulging out of his head.  Maybe he sees the "wild things".

Today is a beautiful day!  The lilac tree has bloomed after a year of recovery.  We practically cut it in half because my dad said that it would come back even more beautiful than before.  He was right!
Happy Friday!♥

Can I Pray?

Every day at snack time and lunch time, the kids always ask if they can pray.  They used to sing a little poem to the tune of  Frère Jacques that went like this:
God our Father
God our Father,
Hear our prayer,
Hear our prayer,
Thank you for our snack,
Thank you for our snack,
Amen,
Amen.
They have learned over the past year that God can hear our prayers even when they think them.  They have also learned that EVERY prayer is right, and now they are always fighting to be the first one to pray out loud.  It's great!  Sometimes they add in some tidbits about their morning and some hopes for later.  One time a child even told God that he didn't like the lunch today but he prayed that his tummy would be happy anyway. (Ha ha!)  We have graduated past the song and into real prayer, which is priceless. Happy Thursday!

Let's Escape!

Last Friday- (Remember, Friday is my hardest day of the week..)  SIX kids stayed home!  My first response was,"Let's escape!"  The kids know that means we will go on an adventure.  We decided to go to the Woodland Park Zoo.  I hadn't been there in 4 years, and I felt like spending a small fortune.

The sun was shining, and most of the animals were out and active.  It was beautiful!

Bad photo, (You should be used to that by now..) but the boys loved the gorilla.

The penguins were very playful and active.  They would continually bob down to see the kids, who laughed and squealed in excitement.

The grizzly bears were my favorite.  The kids watched them through this tiny cave for a bit.

There was a sweet tiny apple tree orchard in the farm animal area.  I wanted to bask in the sun on that grass.

Another reason I love my Seattle, murals.  We saw this at a stop light.  So neat!  I can't wait to escape again.

Bubbles

Six kids, six bottles of scented bubbles.  A little bit of rain didn't keep them inside.

Just be careful not to get it in your mouth... they reminded me about "Mr. Yuk".  Good job, kids!  I was so happy they listened during that lesson.

"Let's blow them through the fence!"

The grass was catching them.  It was bubble mania.

Boy were their little hands cold, and bubbly.  I brought out a bath towel for them to wipe their hands off with.   Bubbles are the best.  Happy Monday!

Sunshine

I see sunshine, Happy Saturday!  Not sure if this post will appear, blogger has been having problems lately.

The Big Brag by Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss was really a smartie pants.  Sitting in church last Sunday our pastor reminded us that we are no better than anyone else.  It always seems that it is human nature to remind ourselves how great we are and to belittle those around us with our piddly human achievements.  I immediately thought of this book.  (Typical, my day often revolves around what we'll read at group time.)

Bear and Rabbit decide to put their talents to the test to see who is better.

Rabbit can hear all of the way to that peak in the distance.  Clearly, bear thinks he can do better.

 Bear can smell much much further..so he MUST be the best.

Then out pops worm, tired of the bickering.

He looks all of the way around the world to find,
"The two biggest fools that have ever been seen! And the fools that I saw were none other than you, who seem to have nothing else better to do than sit here and argue who's better than who!"

Then the worm went back to work.  Once again, that Dr. Seuss was pretty smart!