It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

Once again, I did Advent activities for each day of December this year.  And once again, some were a hit and some were not.  Actually, there were fewer activities this year that were really exciting for both boys.  Stirling is at a stage where he doesn't want to do any "learning" activities, and really doesn't like to do a lot of what mom says.  But we did have a few that were more fun for the boys.  They liked "painting" the snow with spray bottles with colored water and playing in sensory bin filled with cotton balls, ribbon, and sequins.  We made clothespin reindeer, decorated candy houses, and also had fun making and playing with sparkly peppermint scented playdoh.  Stirling loved sitting by the tree and reading Christmas books before bed at night.

Of course the boys really enjoyed opening presents on Christmas morning, and we were all really glad to be able to spend Christmas with Moira, Brian, Mackenzie, Opa, and Ry for the first time in years.  The three cousins were so cute together in their Christmas jammies!

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Sedro Woolley with my parents and enjoyed every minute of it.  Grandma "Silly-hat" came up with some great activities for Stirling and Logan, we took walks, and did plenty of sitting around and chatting.  

Stirling dressed as a knight and battled a dragon!

 Sitting with Grandpa.

 Look at these beautiful faces!

Thanksgiving decor- some edible!

Loves!

Farm Kids? and Fall

We Are Here

Well, we did it.  We managed to make a 1300 mile, four day move with two small kiddos and it was relatively painless.  We've been in Ellensburg for about a month now and are adjusting to a new house, new climate, and new routines.  Here is a picture record of our trip, starting in Yuma, and ending in Ellensburg.

Our apartment- all packed and ready to go!

Potty break at a Casino just into Nevada.

Stirling looking at a book in the car.

We had a nice lunch break at a pullout on the side of the road.  No bathrooms, but a nice grassy area with picnic tables.  It was a little breezy and cool- we still weren't ready for cooler temperatures yet!

Look at that mischievous face.  Logan had fun exploring the hotel in Ely, NV.

We had snow in Ely, and for several miles afterward.  It was surreal having been in flip-flops and tank tops two days earlier!

Help!  Stirling trapped me on a luggage cart!

I made this little hanging organizer for all of Stirling's books, stickers, and other "in-car entertainment."

I also made a couple of neck pillows for the boys, which never really got used much.

This rest stop is somewhere between Boise and Ellensburg

Logan slept most of the trip- thank goodness!

And we finally made it to Ellensburg!

We are Moving

Yes, we are moving back- to Washington, to home, to family.  Life is chaos right now with packing and wrapping things up at work, and packing, and packing!  We will be leaving in about two weeks and boxes are already dominating our tiny apartment.  Add a one year old who loves to drag everything out and leaves a trail of oddities throughout the house, and I am starting to go a little mad!  I can't move an inch without tripping or stubbing my toe.  We are happy that we are going to be near family and friends, particularly for the holidays this year.  Our boys will also get to know grandparents, cousins, and all the other lovely extended family that we will be able to see more often now.

"Homeschool" Summer

*** WARNING- this is an extremely long post... you have been warned of impending boredom!



 I had so many plans to do preschool work this summer with Stirling... and while we did do some of the things I had planned, life often got in the way and we accomplished less than what I envisioned. What we did do was have a theme every week for about six weeks this summer. I had books, activities, and simple work to do surrounding each of our themes. I also included (or tried to, most weeks) a letter, number, sight word, and Bible verse. Some weeks we didn't do much with them, and just ended up repeating the same as last week. Our first week was all about superheros- Stirling's current favorite thing to play/watch/pretend.

Week 2 was "Pirate School!" We checked out some fun books from the library for this week, and had fun with finding treasure in the sensory bin. Stirling did some edible letter work- P is for peanut butter, pretzels, and popcorn! I forgot to take a picture of the pirate ship Stirling and I built out of cardboard, craft sticks, duct tape, and copy paper. His superhero action figures became the pirates!

Week 3 was perhaps the best due to lots of hands-on types of activities. We did DINOSAURS this week. We dug for dino skulls in a sand sensory bucket, made a dino skeleton from pasta shapes, excavated dinosaurs from a block of ice using hammers and warm water, made a plaster mold of a dinosaur, and created a dinosaur habitat with rocks, sand, and fake plants. I did spend a little this week to get all the tiny dinosaurs- luckily most of it was from the dollar store.

The following week we did a little bit with the theme "desert." I have to admit, I got a little lazy on this one, perhaps because I wasn't as interested. But, Stirling requested this theme, so I tried to at least do some related activities with him. Really, I would have liked to take him out to the desert... but it is way to hot to go out to the desert in July!

Week 5 was dedicated to the Fourth of July. We did firework crafts, patterns, made a cake and of course lit sparklers. In terms of being educational, this week was not very successful, and we really didn't do much. Around this time, I was also starting to look for jobs, and ended up taking the boys to daycare more than anticipated, so didn't do much "homeschooling."

Week 6 was "Ocean School," and we really enjoyed this week. I felt a little more organized and was able to put together a few fun things. This week was another one that I spent a little more- buying for the sensory bin- but it was worth it. The boys both loved playing with the water beads. Stirling ended up attending the "Balloon Cowboy" presentation at the library twice this week, and both times ended up with a huge sea creature balloon animal hat- super fun!

We did some other random activities as well. I put together a jar of "Boredom Busters" with activities that were simple to do. We also went to the library, once to the spray park, swam, and played outside when the weather wasn't too hot. I enjoyed the summer with my boys, but it did make me realize that I have a lot to work on in the patience department!