Apple theme weeks!!!

To start kindergarten off in a fun way, we decided to do an apple theme. There were so many fun things to learn and do that we made it a two week project. We started off by going to the library and getting a bunch of books about apples and John Appleseed. Lily loved learning all sorts of apple facts and was fast to tell everyone what she was learning.

We had two fun cooking projects during our unit. One was to make homemade applesauce. We peeled and cut the apple and put it in the crockpot. Lily then added sugar and water and cinnamon. It was so yummy for Val and me, but Lily actually didn't like it.

We also made applesmiles with Lily's friend Boston. They used sliced apples and spread peanut butter on it and then used marshmallows as the teeth. It was fun to make and yummy to eat!

Somehow I messed up my pictures as I put them on here...not sure what I did. During math time, we had two fun projects. Lily first colored and cut out apples. Then we used them to count as we put them in the basket and we did some simple addition with the apples. Lily loved this so we did it several times.

We also did an apple graph. Lily asked several of her friends what their favorite type of apple is. The choices were golden delicious, granny smith, or red delicious. We colored in their choices and then looked at the results.

Golden delicious won!!! However, it was pretty close. Red delicious and granny smith tied. Valerie also got to the paper and tried to do a little coloring at the top.

During art time, we had a great time painting with apples. We cut them in half and used it to decorate the apple design.

We thought it was really neat that the seads of an apple form a star!

Lily also did some drawing on her chalk board. Here is a picture of a mommy cat with her kittens. :)

Lily also did some science time with her daddy. They went bug hunting and found a slug and some beetle. They then gave them food and water!

We did some great writing. Here Lily wrote a sentence about her favorite apple. It says, "I like yellow apples."

For writing and science, we talked about seasons and how it affects the apple tree. We painted Lily's arm four times to make different trees. Then she finger painted the leaves and apples on. She also used tissue paper for her spring tree to show the flowers. This was a really fun project.

I realized now that I left off taking a picture of Lily doing her apple poem. It was so much fun. Lily is a little sad that we are done with the apple unit so I may need to find a few more things to do with apples over the next few weeks.

Lily is also super excited about Fall! Can't wait to do some lesson plans on that!

Lily goes to school!

My little girl has started school. Her first day was Monday, August 24th. Her teacher is Mommy(which she is so proud to tell everyone). Yes, Lily is now being homeschooled. We aren't exactly sure what grade she is in though. I have been telling people that she is in pre-k or pre-kindergarten because she just turned 4 in May. However, Lily is telling everyone that she is in kindergarten and in some ways she is right. I taught kindergarten and as I homeschool her, I am using many of the strategies that I learned and she is doing mostly the same thing that my kindergarten students would do. Now Jason said, "Isn't this preschool?" I was quick to say, "no" because this very much is school and she is learning a lot. Lily loves that she is in school and so ofcourse wanted to use her lunch box. She has fun with picnics in the backyard or even on a blanket in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Lily is getting really good at her numbers. She counts to 50 using her number chart. With out her chart she normally has 3-5 errors, but is still doing great. She also has become very good at counting by 10's. I am so proud of her!

Each day we have reading time, she works on her letters and their sounds. She also does word flash cards and can read about 24 words now. She also has about 4 books that she has become very fluent at reading and we work on our reading strategies through those books and adding new books.

There is always time for fun when homeschooling. Every day, we do some fun active play. It is either puzzles, games, playdough, coloring and cutting, or painting.

We are doing school on Mon., Wednes., and Friday for 2 1/2 hrs a day. It is such fun and we will have a lot more updates as we continue to learn and play!

Update on the girls!

Just thought I would update some info. on the girls. Yesterday, I weighed and measured the girls.
Valerie turns 18 mths tomorrow and she is now 30 in. tall and 23 lbs. That puts her at both the 25% for weight and height so although she is small atleast she is proportional. I think it is sweet that I have a petite little girl! Lily has always been my super tall girl and at 4 years 2 mths that hasn't changed. Lily is measuring at 43 in. and 37 lbs. That puts her above the 100% in height for a girl and for weight she is at 70%. She is definitely healthy and with being so tall, she really looks very slim and cute!

Valerie at 17 mths has learned to swing herself on the big girl swing. I got it on video....wish that I could post the video, but Jason says that it is hard with our camcorders movie program. She just pushes her butt back and then goes forward. The other day she was really getting herself to go quickly.

With Valerie turning 1 1/2 tomorrow, I am thinking about all the words she knows so far. She is definitely quieter than her sister, but she still loves to talk.

She is saying:

Mama

Dadda

Here

Thank you

Cheese (for pictures)

head

nose

eyes

ears

No

Yes

More

Dog

Ruff

Meow

Cow

Moo

Oink Oink

And she is learning new words everyday...so more will be to come!

I love my girls so much!!!

Too busy!!!!

So the last month has been too busy for me to keep up with this blog. We had Lindsey visit for a week and that was so much fun. I really am enjoying the age she is at. I also think she enjoyed the girls more now that they aren't so little. It was just a very fun week. I should add some of those pics, but I already filed them away in my computer and I am lazy. lol

After that, I then taught science camp at the Dinospace Adventure Fun Park. I truely enjoyed myself. I loved the kids and I loved teaching and being outdoors. However, it is so hard being away from my husband. Distance truely does remind you of how much you love the simple moments with your sweet heart. When I got back, we spent one night just laying out under the stars planning our future and then falling asleep out there. Jason did wake us up a few hours after though. :)

We also used my paycheck to donate some money to my favorite ministry...that is ofcourse...Sherwood films and we bought a laptop off my dad and we bought Lily a bigger bike. She is just growing way too fast. Here are just a few pictures from the last month.

Father's Day at White Water

For Father's Day, we gave Jason a Red Sox hat. He loved it. The funny part was that Lily had kept the secret about it for two weeks. Then I couldn't find it so we all started looking for it. Jason said, "how will I know if I have found it?" Lily replied, "It is a hat." Thus giving away the surprise. I actually didn't find it until later in the day. We also got him two shirts from Old Navy.

We went to church first thing in the morning. We then went to White Water in Branson for the first time. I wasn't hugely impressed, but then again, I grew up in California and Raging Waters is rated one of the five best water parks in the U.S. But we still had fun.
Lily enjoyed all of the water falling on her. Here is Daddy and Lily letting the water poor on them as it runs down the pipes. There were three different kid areas. We were not sure how fast this pink slide was going to be. It was bigger than some of the others. Luckily, if she sits down on it, it isn't too fast. She loved going around and around and coming out at the bottom.

She went on it about 4 times and probably would have done it alot more if we would have let her get in line more. :)

Valerie's favorite activity was the lazy river. She likes that no water is shooting at her and that she could calmly sit with her sippy on her mommy's lap. So if you get my point, she does not love water parks. Thankfully she was still great!

Here I am with my way too dark baby girl. She tans like nothing else. She is so dark!!!!

Lily and Daddy had a blast in this kiddy area. Even Jason was going down the little pipe water slides. Lily loved it!

This was where we spent most of the day. Good fun!

I also went to my friend, Lisa's baby shower. Alice Jae is due on August 4th or 5th. Kelly threw her a fun shower in her backyard with lots of friends and family. Here is Lisa and Kelly!

Here I am with some of my wonderful girlfriends at the shower. Jessica is next to me and then on the bottom row is Melody, Tara, and Jenni. It was a blast!

Silver Dollar City with friends

Yesterday, we went to Silver Dollar City with our friends: Kelly, Boston, and Baby Bristol. Valerie and Bristol were such good sports since their wasn't a ton that they could do. They both just liked being pushed. Valerie loved her new Little Mermaid Sippy Cup. One of the fun things that we got to do was go see a play. It was Veggie Tales: The Invention of Silliness. It was very cute and the girls loved all of the fun songs.

Then we all got to go meet the Veggie Tales. Lily was especially in love with them. Valerie and Boston liked them, but probably needed a mommy near by.

Lily loved riding all by herself on the ladybugs.

Boston and Lily in the water area. Here they are shooting water guns.

Lily shooting the foam balls out into the ball pit.

This was Valerie's high point of the day. She loved caring balls around and throwing them.

Lily and Boston really loved the teacups. Kelly and I took turns going on with them. It was fun!

It was Kids Fest so they had fun shopping for kids too. Lily and Boston enjoyed dressing up like princesses.

They both ended up getting pretty purple princess hats. It was a great day!!!!

Mommy's birthday and farm fun!

We had a very fun and very busy weekend! This first picture is Valerie in her carseat ready to go to the farm on Saturday, June 13th. Doesn't she look excited! I love her smile and joy! It was Dairy Days at the farm so they had a few extra fun things to do. However, we weren't interested in most of them. They had a cow milking demonstration and butter making that we passed on. Maybe when they are older. Valerie was most in awe of the chickens and roosters. She had no fear and kept trying to feed them. :)

We also had fun making macaroni necklaces and getting free cheese and crackers.

It was super hot, but the girls had fun on the hay bails.

We also got to pet these beautiful horses.

After the farm, we went to Jaylen's birthday party at the park. He had a clown at the party. Alot of kids were a little scared and hesitant, but not my girls. They both loved it. Here is Lily showing off the star that the clown put on her arm. The clown also made balloon animals.

Can you tell that Valerie wanted to be right up front by the clown? She loved Coco the clown!

Here are me and some of my girlfriends at the party: Kelly with Bristol, me, Tina, Amanda, and Jessica.

Then Sunday was my 27th birthday. We spent most of the day at my sister's community pool, tennis courts, bbq area, park, and boat dock. It was really fun and great to have everything all together. Lily spent a lot of the time practicing her swimming skills. Here she was using a noodle to help her float on her back. She was also doing it for about 3 seconds without the noodle.

Jason has the best time playing with our nephew's Jordan and Dylan. They played water football, squirting water, and I think water tag. Fun stuff!

Lily loved going on Uncle Casey's boat. He even let her help drive!

Lily and I then went tubing together. She loved it! She didn't let us go very fast, but she used her hand signals to say faster, slower, and stop.

The funny thing was that after her turn, I went by myself and Casey gave me a wild ride. So wild that I went flying off the tube and Lily FREAKED out as she watched. She thought they had killed me. She was yelling for me and I had to explain that I love to swim and that I wasn't scared or hurt.

Lily also loves jumping in the water. I would say she jumped to my mom probably 50 times. lol.

I had a great birthday. We also barbequed, had cake, and I got some great presents. I got a new pair of black sandals, a new pair of jeans, a gift card to Applebees, a bible, and a few other things. Very fun. Then Jason and I went shopping for just a few minutes and I bought the girls each some new shoes at the Children's place b/c they were 75% off!