WHAT WE'VE BEEN UP TO...

It's been a bit unstructured around here lately which frustrates me, but that is just the season of life we're in right now. I don't have time to write an in depth post, but here are some pictures of some of the things we've been up to the last few weeks in no particular order....

Coloring coffee filters and cutting slits in them to create "firecrackers." I forgot to take a picture of the final product.

I drew firecrackers on a black piece of paper with white crayon, and she helped me use squeezable glitter glue to trace over the lines. I had to help her quite a bit since the bottle was hard to squeeze, but she loved the final product.

Punkin loves blowing bubbles!

Playing in her sandbox is another favorite activity these days.

Drawing in shaving cream. Here she said she was making rainbows and clouds.

We were lucky to have the opportunity to go with Cousin M to see Rachel Coleman live in concert. She is the lady who does all the Signing Time DVD's for those of you who are familiar with those.

I think Punkin enjoyed Hopkins almost more than Rachel. Shhh....Don't tell!

She really enjoyed going to Grandpa's church for their end of summer / kick off to school family event. The bouncy slide was a huge hit, and she could actually do it this year by herself.

And she had her face painted for the first time. She insisted on being a tiger, so the lady made her into a "girlie tiger."

We spent quite a bit of time doing Carisa's Powerpoint lessons, as well as www.starfall.com.

Once the hot weather let up a bit, we spent many evenings outside going on walks and drawing with chalk.

Dot markers are always a favorite.

Another way to keep her occupied while I feed Firecracker....Stickers.

One actual tot school activity we did spur of the moment because she was begging for schooltime ....I wrote a sight word on a card and she had to read it to me, then use her water dropper to drop water on the letters in order. She LOVED this.

She has played with playdough a lot lately.

Daddy ordered something that came in this big box, which provided many hours of imaginative play. Here she was using it as her "crib."

Helping me make blueberry muffins one morning while Firecracker was taking a nap. She was a good little helper one night when I decided that the stroller needed to be washed.

Well, that's it for now. To see what other tots have been up to, visit 1+1+1=1.

ANOTHER LOW KEY WEEK

~Punkin is 36 months old.~

Punkin spent a lot of time "playing" with Firecracker again this week. She still continues to adore her.

One day when I set Firecracker on the couch, Punkin went and got her doll and set it next to Firecracker and said, "Here. You can play with my baby." Well, at least for now, she's willing to share.

TOT TRAYS

We actually did our calendar time and tot trays quite a bit this week! Punkin really was into the tot trays since I finally changed them out this week.

Sticking golf tees into styrofoam and then balancing marbles on the tops. We've done this a lot before, and she seems to enjoy it more each time.

Lite Brite....She would put in lots of lights and then pretend to blow out the "candles."

Punkin got this Leapfrog Scribble and Write for her birthday, and she loves it. She really is pretty good at making the letters using the ABC setting.

This is just a silly little pegboard that I got for a dime at a garage sale a long time ago. She just loves putting the pegs in and out of the holes.

Connect Four. Simple and easy and fun!

She enjoyed using this mini bowling set I got at Dollar Tree awhile back.

And Hi-Ho-Cherrio. She still isn't really interested in playing it the way it is supposed to be played, though.

WE DID SCHOOLTIME.....ONE DAY

Punkin got a new Kumon cutting book for her birthday. She loved it and did a great job!

Then, she asked for pretty paper to cut, so I got out some scraps of construction paper and let her just go at it.

All of a sudden, she declared, "Mommy, look! I made K, M, M." Then, she turned to Daddy and said, "Daddy, I made your name in cutting. See? K,M,M spells Daddy!" Okay, so she is a bit off on her spelling, but..... :)

We did a few pages from a free Highlights magazine sample I got in the mail. She loved this page where she had to find the correct puzzle piece sticker to put on the page. Then, we found all the things on the page that started with the letter P.

Another page was a hidden picture hunt. She used a marker to circle all the hidden objects in the picture.

We also worked on this magnetic word spelling book.

OTHER FUN

Punkin got this Play Doh cake making set for her birthday as well. We spent a lot of time one day making cakes, cupcakes, cookies, ice cream cones, etc.

We made it through another week. I'm looking forward to starting the second lesson in Carisa's powerpoints next week. To see what other tots were up to this week, visit 1+1+1=1.

BIRTHDAY EDITION

It was another low key week around here as we geared up for Punkin's 3rd birthday and continued to adjust to a new baby and no sleep! But once again, we did do our new calendar time and powerpoints a couple days, and she continued to play with her same old tot trays (which I did get around to finally switching out at the end of the week.) Our formal "schooltime" is what is lacking these days as that takes more prep on my part and is supposed to happen in the afternoon after naps, which now tends to be Firecracker's fussy time. But we'll get back to it....someday!

Punkin is still a fan of puzzles. This one is one of the ones in her tot trays.

Punkin loves the new powerpoint shows we do on the computer. And she is good at pushing the button to make the show advance.

We have also done Starfall a lot this week. We always started with L since it went along with the powerpoint shows. Each time it came to this game part of the show, she would pick out the letter that didn't belong and say, "That [k] is not an L! Silly [k]!"

And she continues to read lots of books.

Punkin made lots of pictures for Grandma this week.

I am impressed with how well she does now at putting these 25 piece puzzles together. We have done this one a lot, so she is getting pretty good at remembering where the pieces go.

Punkin wanted a strawberry birthday cake for her birthday. So, this is what I came up with, using a heart shaped pan. It was also made out of strawberry cake mix and strawberry frosting.

Her "party" was pretty low-key, too, with just our families. But she didn't seem to mind.

All she kept talking about the weeks before her birthday were candles, balloons, party hats, and of course a strawberry cake. So, that's what we had.

I can't believe my "baby" is three years old. Wow. Where did the time go? Can I brag on her here for a second? I have been slowly introducing sight words to her, but we hadn't done anything for a few weeks due to baby sister being born. When I got out her words the other day to go over them again, she spouted all 7 of them off to me with no problem (see, on, up, and, sun, cat, dog). I have to say that as a former first grade teacher, it excites me to pieces to see her learning words so easily at this age. :)

To see what other tots were up to this week, you can visit 1+1+1=1.