A Bunch Of Photos

"Stop following me!"  Baby Zuko still follows Smudge around.  In reality, Smudge has warmed to Zuko.  They play a little bit here and there, but Smudge still mostly keeps to himself.  Zuko is very brave to insist that Smudge pay attention to him.  We didn't get anything done in group time.

Does it look like I am hoarding cats?  They are like the Three Musketeers.  They all came to see us at group time.

"Pay attention to us."

"Come here Zuko."

"Ok, but my back will be to you."

"Well, I'll come closer, but only with my back to you." 

We honestly just didn't get anything done.

It became a laugh fest.

We completed a worksheet about the letter O. 

The kids love to have their picture taken.  I just snapped away as they played.  

"Take a picture of me rolling this truck!"

Batman came tumbling in upside down.  She was making sound effects.

"It's my turn now!"

More batman sound effects. :)

"I see you Cole."

♥

I just snapped away.   I love to capture them.

Praise God that Spring begins tomorrow!  I hope the weather gets the memo. ♥

He noticed the blossoms on the plum tree.
♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Green Day

We got into a lot of green paper yesterday.  It matches my ugly green counter top.  Perfect!

 I had three girls dressed in green.  We created some fruit loop necklaces.  It's funny because I had taken the supplies out for this project on three separate occasions and for some reason or another, we had to put it back without creating the necklaces.  

I used a hole punch to prepare these shamrocks for the necklaces.  

It was a quick project.  Good thing that we had two projects to complete yesterday!

We moved forward.  The girls glued shamrocks onto their hat strips.  Simple, yet effective.  It's always fun to create something green to wear on St. Patrick's Day!

Cute!!

We noticed the bluebells popping up.  We also noticed that most of the plants we see coming up right now in the garden are green.  It was a day about green!

On a side note- this guy had a strawberry with his lunch that had a nose.  We had to add eyes.

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

'Night 'Night, N

 The photo doesn't do any justice to the dark sky I was trying to capture.  It was so cloudy and we were just watching the sky roll into itself.  

We worked on the letter n.  

The kids put their n's to bed.  We added fabric blankets and a moon.  Sleeping eyes really finished the project.

G' Night, n! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  My corned beef will take a crock pot dive around 10:00.  

♫Now playing at Henle House- "Circle Of Joy" .  I'm not sure who the original artist is, but this has always been on my St. Patrick's Day playlist. ♫

Library

This guy needed it's 6 year maintenance.  That means that I've been running Henle House for 6 years.   I didn't realize that it had been that long.  Time flies when you are busy enjoying the best job of your life,  right?  We escaped for a bit yesterday!

Any time I choose to take the kids in the van with me, this backpack has to come along.  It's filled with emergency contact paperwork for every child in my care, and for myself as well.  We also have a giant first aid kit in the van.  I feel like I could practically perform surgery with that kit if necessary.  These are just a couple of things that the state requires me to have on hand. 

"Ready?"  Thumbs up and smiles are good signs.  We hopped over to Everett AAA to drop off the fire extinguisher.

We went to the library afterward. 

We had the children's section to ourselves.  Bliss!

The library is always an easy visit.  The kids are usually very well behaved.  With the two girls that I had I felt like I could've completed this trip sleepwalking. 

 While the kids are browsing books, I fill our group time book bag up.  The goal is to find some great books that are age appropriate.  It can take a while to find books that fit the bill.  It can't have too many words and has to have a storyline that they can follow.  I love to find concept books, too.  

Table envy happened for a minute.  It would be neat to have the space for a cool table like this at Henle House.

Smudge should be on the cover of this book.

The girls were happy.

They usually have to tell me what they see on every page.

I think I turn on my autopilot. "That is AMAZING."  "So cool, thanks for sharing."  "Yes, I see that."  

She'll choose this one, and this one, and this one..(drop)  wait..this one.. 

It was a great little outing!

Here is a perk of having a teenage daughter with the same shoe size and shoe taste as myself.  I bought her some Nike's for track, and she didn't stay in track because of the crazy scheduling issues.  I was  in the market for some new walking shoes.  I bought those heel boots a while back and have never worn them.  I traded her the boots for the Nike's.  Permanently.  We both wore them today.   Score!

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

♫Now playing at Henle House-  "I'm Free" by Kenny Loggins. ♫

Play Is Important

As much as I would love to drill preschool into the minds of young children constantly, it is so important to take time to just play.  It might sound like I made the decision to be lazy-- and maybe that is the case.  I don't regret it!  When kids have the opportunity to just play, they are learning social skills.  They are learning to compromise with each other.  They learn empathy.  They learn to work together in teams.  I can just imagine the way different parts of their brains are lighting up as they dive into a free play activity.  I will never forget just playing for days as a child.  I want to make sure the kids who spend so much time with me remember that there were lots of fun times!  They love when they get to choose their own activity.  These two chose to dress up for a little while.

This wig has really been around forever.  We used to put it on our old cat, Chloe, when she was sleeping.  Ethan wears it to school every time they have a wild hair day.

By the time they were finished with dress up time, there was a mountain of evidence.

This was abandoned once we realized the sun was warm.  It had been a very cold bus stop visit in the morning-- brrr!

My heart is happy to see them in the sunshine.  

Something exciting has happened-- I didn't kill this Amaryllis and it actually bloomed!  (After two winters.)  For those of you who don't know, I am ok at gardening.  However, every time I have an indoor plant of any kind, it dies.  I try very hard, too.  This beauty survived! ♥♥

Another exciting thing is that our daughter Stephanie has been working on publishing a children's book.  I love her idea of a super hero cat.  Here she is with her Grandpa (my handsome hubby's dad).  He is an incredible artist and is illustrating the book.   He was showing Stephanie the steps and about shading.  

Here she was last night at school, educating people about the process of authoring and publishing a book.  She looks awfully grown up- I am very proud of her!

♥♥♥Happy Thursday that feels like Friday!♥♥♥

Spring Fever

Look how hard he is concentrating!!  I am in love with the fact that the kids love preschool.  They try very hard and are proud of their work.  We are working on the number 14.

I know I have told you about this before, but we are still working on writing the letters in our names.

What a beautiful job she did!!

We glued on 14 diamonds. ♥

We rushed outside into the sunshine.  Something amazing happened-- we found some carrots in the garden from last summer.

"Want a bite?"  "NOOOOOO...." he replied.. LOL

Ok carrot gardeners, why do my carrots always look stunted like this?

We took a walk around the yard looking for signs of Spring.  The Forsythia is blooming!

A strawberry plant is waking up.

This pumpkin is in the same place we left it in November.  The kids are learning what happens to an old pumpkin. 

Meanwhile, the daffodils in the front yard are getting tall!

Praise the Lord, the glorious sunshine is shining on Henle House!  I feel refreshed, so thankful for a change of season.  All of the kids have a spring in their step.  We've all got Spring fever!

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥