Butt Kicking...Moo Style

This past weekend we headed up north to visit Dan's family in the Brainerd area. It was Great Grandma's birthday on Saturday and Monday was our nephew's 11th birthday. Jason, now 11, had a birthday party at a bowling alley and it was my kid's first experience with it. And they had a blast!! Joshua loved being around all the 'big' boys and keeps talking about his new friend Sam, one of Jason's buddies.

Of the 11 kids playing, only 2 of them were girls-all the others were boys. Madelynn is 18months old and Abbie, Jason's little sister. Joshua, Abbie and Madelynn all used a special ramp that allowed them to get the ball down the alley with enough force to reach the pins as well as bumpers. The older boys did not use the ramp but a few of them did, however, use bumpers. My kids had a total blast...and the best part??? MADELYNN beat ALL of the boys with a high score of 114! She got a 3 strikes in a row and after her 'turkey' so would push the ball down the ramp and start yelling 'yay' and jumping and dancing, it was such a riot!! So Madelynn kicked their butts, and I think all of the parents were informed, but Jason, that the 'baby' beat them all in bowling!! So cute! Here are a few pics of our adventure:

Joshua having his turn at bowling

And a few of Miss Madelynn bowling:

C is for Caterpillar

Last week we started Letter C and Joshua was so excited about it. I don't know why C was so exciting, as opposed to A or B, but it was and it was so cute to watch him get all excited about it. We started the week off with tracing and learning to write a uppercase and lowercase C using the doodle pad and paper. Joshua has gotten really good with his letter, but only writing them when HE wants to write them or saying his famous phrase "I can't know how"-meaning I don't know how, quickly followed by "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". I love that at age 3 he already knows scripture!! Not bad for a kid who has only been forming audible words for less than a year :)

Anyways, moving on with letter C...After we talked about how to write the letter C we worked on lacing the letter C that was shaped like a caterpillar. Joshua loved it and his concentration and expressions are classic :) He's too stinkin' cute!!
After all our lacing fun we worked on sorting caterpillars by size: Large, Medium, Small. Joshua did really well with the large and small caterpillars but the medium ones gave him a bit of trouble. He understood that the medium ones were bigger than the small. He also understood that the medium ones were smaller then the large, but the fact that they were in a category of them own was confusing to him. But when he finally understood what he was doing, it all worked out nicely and he was so proud!!

Yes I did it mom!! And then he broke out into a dance at the table-SO classic and undeniably Joshua!
We worked on those projects the first few days of last week, as well as starting few art projects and working on our scripture verse for these 2 weeks: "Children obey your parents in the Lord; for this is right." Ephesians 6:1

The end of the week brought us new projects, using push pins to trace the letter C, one of Joshua's favorite things to do. He calls the push pins 'pokeys' and loves that he gets to do these but the 'babies' can't. It makes him feel so big and independent and I love that he can concentrate on this project without feeling pressure from the babies (we do this during morning nap).

Besides this project we worked on counting with cotton balls (Joshua can count from 1-20 and from 10-1 now), car track paintings (running different play cars through paint and then across paper). Hmmm, what else did we do last week?? I don't remember.

This week we will continue to work on our scripture verse, work on some caterpillar graphing, caterpillar pattern matching (a 'what comes next' type game to finish a repetitive pattern), finish our egg carton caterpillar and a few other things that I don't remember at the moment.

I'm hoping to blog more this week then I have in the past few weeks so check back soon :)

Also, because I know many of you have asked, a lot of these ideas were taken from Confessions of a Homeschooler

Don't Miss Rachel Coleman Live in Maple Grove, MN May 27th

Ronai Brummett, Master Signing Time Academy Instructor has teamed up with the Signing Time Foundation to present Emmy Nominated Rachel Coleman live in Maple Grove, MN! When: Friday, May 27 · 6:00pm - 8:00pm Where: Lord of Life Lutheran Church18500 County Road 101 ...Maple Grove, MN Ticket Tickets Information: Infants under 18 months $1.00 General Admission Children $5.00 General Admission Adults $10.00 *VIP Infant $5.00 *VIP Children $12.00 *VIP Adults $20.00 BUY NOW Additional Info: The event will be interpreted in American Sign Language for our Deaf and Hard-of Hearing patrons. There will be a Meet and Greet with Rachel following the concert. If you are interested in getting product signed by Rachel it will be available for sale at the concert, or send an email to ronai@signingtimeacademy.c om of what you would like to buy and how you would like it signed and it will be ready for you pick up at the concert. · Need Pampered Chef products and want to help support the Signing Time Foundation. Now you can do both www.pamperedchef.biz/amyni emann Then click Shop Online and enter “Signing Time Foundation” as the host organization and you can choose the Maple Grove event. Less than 2 weeks left... order now

Wrapping up Letter B

Well, here we are, 2 weeks later and just finished letter B. Both kids LOVED making butterflies and learning to write letter B-Joshua can do it if he's focused but not if he's stressed. He has a tendency to say "I can't do it" but then quickly says "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" or says it if we say "I can.." I love hearing him quote scripture and I find him working scripture, prayer, and song in every aspect of play!! Madelynn prays in her own little language and I absolutely love that too!!

Here are a few photos of Moo gluing her butterfly parts to paper (don't mind the hair she kept pulling out her ponytail)

and the finished project

Here Joshua was making his coffee filter butterflies

Step 1: open up a coffee filter, lay it flat and color on it with washable markers

Step 2: Spray coffee filter with water and watch the colors bleed together

Step 3: Let dry (about 30mins depending on how soaked your filters are) and use a pipecleaner to wrap around the center of the coffee filter to make the butterfly's body and antennas

So there you have it, the end of our B week. Monday, of this week (I'm behind I know) we started letter C...that will be coming shortly!

Starting LETTER B

Joshua LOVES doing 'school' at home and asks for it daily and gets SO excited when we start a new letter. We changed our letter of the week schedule to drag it out a bit longer and we are now doing a letter for 2 weeks. For the month of May we started with letter B and will finish with letter C.

Here is some of the things we are doing for Letter B

We started off with our letter B 'poke page'. Joshua loves using the push pins to follow the black outline in the letters

Here Joshua is working on separating the butterflies by size: Large, Medium, Small

We also are working on cutting and pasting skills with Joshua. He loves to glue EVERYTHING. Joshua is starting to figure out how to use a pair of scissors correctly and I am so proud of him!

I have to thank Confessions of a Homeschooler for a lot of the curriculum ideas

Cookie Decorating

Easter has come and gone and I can't believe we are already into the first week of May-time seriously flies anymore!! Dan and I just celebrated our 6th anniversary this past Saturday (April 30th) and this Saturday (May 7th) we celebrate Dan's birthday!! I can't believe, again, it's May already!!

This past Sunday Dan went to a friend's house to game and the kids and I had some of our dear friends over for a playdate!! The kids had a blast but I think their favorite thing of the night, mine too, was the cookie decorating!! The day after Easter I saw this set of cookies on sale for $4.99 (for 1dozen) and I knew that the kids would have a blast decorating so they were a MUST buy, and I am so glad I did. It provided a great activity for all of us, ages 18mo-adult, and they were oh so yummy!! Check out our mad decorating skills!!

Savannah decorating her first cookie

Madelynn thought it was best to eat the sprinkles rather than put them ON her cookie

And then there is Joshua...stealing frosting

A few of the finished projects