Tumble Bumble-Animal Prints

Caden really enjoyed cutting yesterday so I brought it out again.  This time we cut play dough.  It seemed to be a little more difficult for Caden to cute play dough 

rather than paper with the real scissors.

We read our Tumble Bumble book and matched our little piggy with the book.

Then we made animal prints in our play dough.  

The idea was in our lesson from The Itty Bitty Bookworm.

Today we used our Tot Trays again!  He really enjoys having the activity 

brought out to him on the trays.  I have tried a rug before but he likes the trays better.  

Caden hitting a volleyball

Caden bumping a volleyball

Tot Trays

Today we tried setting up some Tot trays we got from this awesome website 1+1+1=1.  I found some great buys at the Homeschool Store in our area that we used for our activities on the trays.  I looked in the used section and found some great games.  So we tried them this morning, and I presented them on some trays I bought from Oriental Trading (same idea from 1+1+1=1).   

Caden had a very short attention span this morning so we went through 4 trays in a matter of 10 minutes.  

1st tray- Upper Case and Lower Case letter matching.  I used X, Y, Z because those are the letters we are talking about right now.  

2nd tray- Matching textures and colors.  I got this at Wal-mart for Christmas last year.

3rd tray- Matching things that go together.  I didn't take a picture of this but it is just like the puzzle we used at tray 2.  

4th tray- Cutting yarn.  This was Caden's first time to cut, and boy did he love it.  I had to hold the piece of yard so he could figure out a way to hold the scissors as best he could, but he was so proud of himself every time he cut a piece.  Then we glued the yarn on a yellow piece of paper and discussed the letter Y.  

Singing at Mother's Day Out

It was so cute to watch Caden sing at his Mother's Day Out Sing Along.  Well he really didn't sing...the teacher's and Mom's sang! :)  It is so funny because Caden just sat there on his teacher's lap and didn't move a muscle.   He was defiantly not interested in singing.  Even thought he didn't sing or do any of the hand motions it was still so cute to see him with all of his little classmates.

Volleyball for exercise this week

So far exercising has been going pretty good this week.  Tuesday I got to play sand volleyball and had such a great time.  Plus Caden and my husband came out to watch me!

Me and my partner won our first two games and then the next two games we lost.  Main reason we lost was because I am totally out of shape.  I got pretty frustrated because I was so out of shape.  Defiantly got me a little pumped up to get my butt in gear.  

Wednesday I took the kids on a run.  Ya, with the double stroller...it was pretty tough.  Needless to say I only ran for about 10 minutes and walked the rest of the way.  Plus the mosquitoes were pretty bad.  Me and the kids got bit a couple of times.  So next time I am going to try and use bounce...someone says that keeps the mosquitoes away.  

Yesterday I mowed the lawn...that is a good workout especially when the lawn is pretty high.  We skipped a week and boy do you pay for it.  So this week I hope to get in 4 days of workout since I have gotten 3 days in and it is not Sunday yet!      

Grocery Game

Coupon Saving:  20.55

Bonus Coupon Savings:  4.00

Kroger plus Savings:  29.71

Total Savings:  54.26

Hannah's purse

Hannah was so cute yesterday.  She was carrying around Caden's Lightning McQueen bucket, like it was her purse.  It is so hard to believe that Hannah is only 11 months old and she is already trying to carry a purse!  Soooo cute!

Letter X

The letter X worksheet

More X lessons

More X lessons

I decided that I would add a letter each week and Bible lessons along with Cadens Itty-Bitty Bookworm activities.  For the Letter each week I am getting the lessons from Preschool by Stormie.  This site has a lot of other great lessons that I will be using in the future.  I am getting the Bible Lessons from EBible Teacher.  On this site I pick and chose what I need because it is not made for toddlers, but I do like the way it's laid out and the lesson plans are really great.    

Tumble Bumble-Outside Art

Painting the letter X with water.

I can not believe that Caden painted for about 30 minutes with just water and a paint brush.  I really thought he would not last very long at this activity because it wasn't real paint.  

Tumble Bumble-My Favorite Character

Creation Lesson

Creation flashcards

I cut out the creation flashcards and we talked about each one of them. Then we talked about which number comes first and what God created on that day.

We also read our "Bible Book" (That's what Caden calls it) The Very Good Beginning p.15-35.

I got this Creation lesson from ebibleteacher.

We also downloaded some songs.

I really enjoyed reading the lessons and can't wait to be able to do them with my kids when they get older.

Tumble Bumble-making purple

Yeah!  It is a new month and we are reading Tumble Bumble 

from the Bailey's Kit by The Itty-Bitty Bookworm.  

We learned how to make purple.  We talked about the first two colors I put on his paper (red and blue).  I asked Caden what colors they were and then I told him if he mixes them together with his hands it will make another color...let's find out what it is?  

Ccounting with Tumble Down Counting Pegs

I love to listen to Caden counting so I thought I would share.  If you can't hear the video he says, "1, 2, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.  It is so funny how he skips, but knows 6-13.  The activity is called tumble down counting pegs.  I bought it about 4-5 months ago and he wasn't interested in it then, he also wasn't counting then either.

Hannah walking at 10 1/2 months

Doctor

One of the suggested play centers from The Itty-Bitty Bookworm lessons, Miss Polly Has a Dolly is for the children to have Dr. toys to pretend they are making their baby or dolly feel better.  So I bought one at Toys r us.  Caden was semi-interested in all the Dr. tools.  I will be leaving that out for him to get familiar with.  We talked about being sick and how the Dr. makes you feel all better.

Lacing Card

Caden looks like he is interested in the lacing card that I got at Toys r us (here it is on Amazon), but he's not.  He tried it one time and put it down.  I showed him and helped him do it, but still not interested.  I will leave it out so he can keep trying  it to gain more confidence.  

Shape Matching

I cut out the shapes provided by The Itty-Bitty Bookworm and had Caden match the shapes.  Totally got the matching part of the activity.  I asked him other questions like:  What color each shape was?  What was the name of each shape?  Point to the big shape...small shape?  He gets yellow and red mixed up, but always knows yellow.  He knows blue and the sizes of the shapes.  He also gets the triangle confused sometimes.  He knows all the following shapes:  square, circle, diamond, heart, octagon, star but is confused with the triangle.  

Play date and The Itty-Bitty Bookworm

This is a really cute activity from The Itty-Bitty Bookworm!  It is called Fluffy Ice Cream Cones.  I used the ice cream pattern and cut out the ice cream cone on brown paper (I only had one piece).  Then we put 5 cotton balls in a plastic bag.  Added some paint, close the bag and let them squish the bag.  Once completed let the kids take out the cotton balls and glue them on the ice cream cone.  We let the kids continue painting since they enjoyed it so much.  I used the paint brush idea from one of the other Itty-Bitty bookworm activities.  You take a clothes pin and clip a cotton ball and there is their paint brush.

We are finally getting back into the swing of things with our play-dates and Caden's activities because Hannah was sick and then other things popped up.  So glad things are getting back to normal!

We got together with our friend Ra-Ra.  Both toddlers started out rocky...didn't want to share...moody...you know toddlers.  Then we got some food in them and then we did some Itty-Bitty Bookworm activities.  They both enjoyed it!  

Yoga Fitness Plus

Ok, so last week I went to a Yoga class at the gym.  I haven't worked out in about 1.5 years which is very out of the norm for me because before kids, I was a workout freak.  I played competitive volleyball almost everyday.  If I didn't play volleyball I would workout or go surfing.  Everyday was some kind of exercise.  I can totally feel the tiredness in my body and the strength and flexibility is gone.  So my goal is to exercise at least 3 x a week.  Two weeks ago was when  I started.  The first week I did 3x a week, this week has been 1x but the week is not over until Sun. lol  

Last week for my workout was my first time to try yoga.  I was bored, but defiantly felt the workout as I was walking out the door.  I wasn't really excited about trying yoga again.  My plan was to go back to my old workout...ya, you know, the old weights and cardio (boring).  So I decided that I didn't really want to go back to the old workout.  So I tried yoga again because my friend said that there are different kinds of yoga.  I realized that it is hard for me to consistently get out of the house with the kids and put them in the child care at the gym, which I am not fond of.  What I did was look at the ON DEMAND from out cable network.  There I found a great yoga video and it was FREEEEE!  I could only do 35 minutes of it but I did it.  Here is the yoga video I did...Yoga Plus.   The poses were faster than the lady that taught the one at the gym and I didn't have to go anywhere.  The only problem with not going to the gym is for me to self motivate myself to last the entire vidoe.  I didn't today because it was hard and it was my first time.  So next time I hope to make it 45 minutes. 

Wish me luck!!!      

Hannah putting sand in a cup

This was so cute...Hannah was putting sand inside a cup!  Thought I'd share!  She will be 11 months old May 2nd.

April update

April was a tough month for Hannah.  Very fussy...and she really hasn't been a fussy baby except the first 4 months of her life (guess she had colic, you never know at that age).  In the beginning of the month...no wait it was at the end of March Hannah had a little stomach bug and from that point forward her bowls were never the same.  Come to find out she had 4 little teeth coming in all at the same time.  After all the teeth came through Hannah's bowls still weren't the same so the Dr. changed her formula from Similac Sensitive to Enfimil A.R.  Well still didn't work so I contacted my awesome Dr. that is a Chiropractor and studies nutritional health.  He thought it would be best to just start her on Organic Horizon whole milk.  Boy has she been doing great...she has been on it for 1 week and 2 days after she started the whole milk her bowls were back to normal and she drinks more of the milk and is sleeping through the night (for right now)!

So as of today Hannah is back to her to her cute, adorable funny self.  She is also walking...so cute she practices from one end of the room to the next clapping and laughing.  Sooooo cute!       

Our first Garden

Loved pouring and pouring and pouring the water! lol

Putting the seeds inside the pots.

Hmmmmm!  Which one should we plant....hmmm all of them!

Love getting dirty!

Yep!  More water!!!

My Aunt Sharon motivated me to start a garden.  So today Mee-Maw came over to help.  We had hot dogs and then planted.  Caden loved pouring the dirt into the pots and pouring the water. 

Big Machine Lapbook

Caden's completed Big Machines Lapbook

Counting Big Machines

Coloring the big machines.  I put the colors out and had him match the correct color with the correct color machine.

I held Caden's hand to write his name and then he wanted to do it...cute!

Last time we did a lapbook we did not have much success.  Caden wasn't too interested.  He also wasn't as involved as he was with this one.  He enjoyed this one much more!  I got this idea from this awesome site. 

Paper Dolls

In our book Miss Polly Has a Dolly it talks about Miss Polly taking care of her sick Dolly.  So we are learning about what sick is and who takes care of you when you are sick etc.  So Caden made a doll and our next step is to put bandages on her.   

Didn't Caden do good with the face???  I told him we forgot to put her mouth and nose and he said he wanted to draw it.

Cereal Necklace

Caden wasn't really into this activity so I helped so he could at least wear it around his neck.  He wore it for a little while and took it off.  Then I could not find it and got worried that Kelso or dog had eaten it.  Well he did eat it but thank God he decided to leave the yarn!

Ice Cream Cones

I cut 4 triangles for the cones and 4 semi-circles for the ice cream.  I numbered each one of them and told Caden that I had empty ice cream cones and we had to fill them with ice cream by matching the numbers to the correct cone.  

This activity really helped Caden with his number order.  This is his number order:  1, 2, 5, 6, (he's getting louder as he is saying the rest of the numbers) 7, 8, 9999999.  He thinks 9 is like saying 10 (you know the loud ending).   lol

Blake's Birthday and March of Dimes

All the kids ready to walk!  

We walked on Blake's birthday (2nd stroller to the left).

Me and the kids

Daddy and the kids

This is what babies do at birthday parties!  

Can you believe all these kids were born in the same year!  Starting from the left the twins born June 4, Hannah born June 2, Blake was born in April 26th, he was born at 25 weeks check out his amazing story, then Kensley was born on June 16th.  

There's crew again!

Grocery Game

This grocery week was a pretty good week.  I continued to save about the same because I still buy items that we like to eat on a regular basis even if they are not on sale.  You are supposed to buy certain items that are free or that are on sale and stock up on those items.  That doesn't really work for us because I have a picky eater that wants specific items, but I still save money. 

Coupon Savings:  11.50

Bonus coupon Savings:  2.50 

Kroger plus savings:  27.01

Total coupon savings:  41.01

Grocery balance:  138.63  

I also found some other ways that I can save a little more.  The Maynard Moment gives you all the deals from your favorite grocery store and gives you the coupon locations just like The Grocery Game, but it is FREE.  $5 Dinners gives you the deals for that week and tries to make each recipe or dinner for that night under $5.  I saw $5 Dinners on The Rachel Ray Show.  This website What's For Dinner? lays out a menu plan for each week.  I also realized I can double or even triple my coupons at my Krogers.  Why didn't I ask sooner...I will defiantly be doing that my next shopping trip.