Ok, Time for some speedy catch up again. I have a feeling it will be like this for a while since I am about four weeks away from giving birth to my third child, and I highly doubt my kiddos will give me the time, and peace, and quiet to blog. But hey as Frank Sinatra sings….."That's Life". Any who Things are going pretty well around here considering. I'm definitely moving a bit slower these days, and I look like an old woman trying to walk on days I am having some particular pains. For the most part though surprisingly, I feel better now than I did in my second trimester. I think it's because I feel a little less exhausted during the day so I can somewhat keep up with the kids and manage to put dinner on the table. Don't misunderstand me though people, I am definitely third trimester exhausted, it just isn't as bad as it was a few months ago.
Ok Let's recap the last few months now. I know my daughter is just turning three this September, so she doesn't need to be in school or anything, but over the summer I got really excited about having something to do with her each day when fall came around like projects and crafts and holiday stuff and what not. So I have been building up my arts and crafts supplies, and found some great websites with crafts that help introduce and expose your young ones to the letters of the alphabet. This is by no means meant to be extensive, and I don't expect her to learn all that I teach her, but it gives us something fun to look forward to each day and I have it all planned out anyway so why not? In the spring time I did all my research and actually planned out what we were going to do each week starting in August. We do a letter a week so she gets lots of exposure to that letter and becomes familiar with it. We definitely have days where she is not in an obliging mood, or I don't feel like pulling anything out, but I made it so we could be flexible. It's actually been really fun so far, and I can't believe how quickly she catches on with some things, once she does it once or twice it becomes easier for her each time.
SOOOO, My man is officially a UT GRADUATE!!!!! Yay!!!! I'm so proud of him for pushing himself and finishing school on top of working a full time job, and spending time with his pregnant wife and two kids. He is a Champ and I love him sooooo much!!!! So I threw him a Graduation/Fourth a July Party to celebrate. I think I have been nesting but I don't have a new room to redecorate for baby, so my nesting has filtered itself into creating a "school" schedule for Annie and I complete with fun seasonal/holiday crafts and activities, and throwing a party for Scotty. It's all great stuff though so I'm not worried. so let's get some visual displays of our lives the last couple months……….
Here we have our very first craft we did together. This was just a summer thing to do one day. She was super excited about gluing on the googly eyes. We both enjoyed this one together.
We did go to the YMCA a few times this year. Not as much as I would have liked, but like I said earlier, being pregnant and having two young kids has made getting out and about a little difficult for this momma.
The kiddos sure enjoyed it when we did though.
We also managed to get out on the boat a couple times. Not near as many times as last year, but I'm proud that we got out at all. HAHA.
Our little boater girl loves being on the boat right now. The faster we go the better. She is always telling Scott to go faster Daddy faster!!!
This little guy still doesn't know what to think about it all. He needs more exposure to it. HAHA.
Here is another summer craft we did. We made a pretty little sun. She did such a good job putting the glue stick on each triangle and glueing them on the sun. This was also helping her get more familiar with her shapes too.
Working so hard.
Proud of her work.
Here are some pics from the party I threw on the 4TH for Scott. I went all out. Like I said, I think this was my "nesting" outlet.
Most of these ideas came from that addictive Pinterest website.
I actually really enjoyed setting it all up, and putting it all together. My only draw back was I think I didn't plan and make enough food to fill everyone up. I'll know better next time.
The kids even got to have sparklers. I think we only had two injuries from this but they were minor so no worries.
Another fun thing we did one day this summer, was this ice cream printable unit I found online for free. She got to practice co-ordination with dot-a-dot…..
coloring with the right colors that each ice cream cone needed….
This I was afraid she wouldn't understand, and the first time we did it, she didn't know how to find the one that was different, but the second time she did it on another project she got them all by herself. See what a little exposure can do?
She was amazing at this one. I didn't even help her at all, and she matched all the correct shapes together.
Since we were working with ice cream and it was a hot summer day, you can't not eat ice cream!!!! I loved getting to incorporate things like this.
Of course we had to dress up for some free chick-fil-a.
Look at that cute little herd of calves. SO cute!
I just had to throw this in there because I love his little smile. His big sisters stethoscope was his absolute favorite toy for a while.
And yet again we did another little summer project. Annie got to make egg carton caterpillars. It was fun for her, because she got to put glitter, sequence, paint, googly eyes, and even pipe cleaner antennas on them.
Finished work of art.
We got to take our care group couples out on the boat for some fun time on the water, and we ate dinner at a yummy little restaurant you can park your boat at called Willies. This was a fun evening, and I can't believe how many couples we had too.
Back to school now. Ok, I have to admit when we started this drawing the numbers thing, Annie had no fine motor control over her little fingers. She was all over the place on the cards. It's funny because In my sin, I grew impatient with her and expected her to know how to do it after I explained it only once. Of course she didn't and I very quickly realized this whole schooling thing is going to help me grow in patience as well as teach Annie new skills. And sure enough, after a couple days of practicing, she improved 100%. Just look at the pic. Only a couple mistakes, but for the most part she learned to take her time and stay in the lines and she did wonderful. I'm so proud, and thankful that the Lord opened my eyes to see what I will be needing to work on, when we do actually start school.
My aunt and uncles family was in town vacationing, so we did a low country boil in the mountains with them. As you can see this was one large set-up. That's because my parents with their seven kids, combined with my aunt and uncle and their seven kids, plus all the married/dating significant others, plus grandkids on both sides made one huge group. It was so fun seeing everyone and catching up with them.
Here are all the pregnant mommas to be. From the left is my cousin due I think in November/December, me, due in September, my cousin in-law due about four days after me, than my sister who is due on Thanksgiving. Yes my sister and I are due only 2 1/2 months apart. It's so fun being pregnant together, and we are both having girls. So much for borrowing her baby clothes again. HAHA. Looks like I'll have to stock up on some girl stuff.
My little man and his big cousin TyTy. They are both so adorable. Well at least I think so. And hey theres hudson in there too, running out of the picture. He must not have wanted to be caught on camera. HAHA.
The one and only family shot. I am terrible about getting a good family picture every once in a while. The last one was probably when Calvin was born. No joke, it's probably true. Sad, but true.
I managed to scramble enough energy to take the kids out front for a picnic on the lawn one day when it was fairly decent weather.
This boy was so happy about it.
Now on to the beginning of our adventures with letters. We started our letter school a couple weeks ago at the beginning of August. She got to do some dot painting…..
shape matching….. and some other stuff I didn't take pics of but, all this was exposing her to the letter A while also building her motor skills.
More swim time at the Y. Daddy got to join us this time.
Handsome.
He loves his sisters kitchen. So many fun things to put in his mouth, and throw all over the floor.
Annie's cousin Libby had a tea party recently and we got to dress up in our finest princess/tea party attire. Sorry about the picture quality, but something happened while my pictures were downloading. Here I am in all my pregnant glory. Can you see how big and round that belly is? HAHA.
All the little princesses at the party. Miss Libby was such a good little hostess making sure everybody was introduced to each other, and knew where they were supposed to sit and everything. She is definitely good at hospitality.
Annie was the youngest one there but managed to conduct decent enough manners to fit in with the bigger girls. It was such an amazing set-up, my sister Shannon did a great job making everything so real and pretty for the tea party.
The letter B was a fun week because there is so much out there that starts with B. We had so much stuff around the house to make it more fun too. She likes getting to paint, and is actually getting better at staying in the lines. We did a Banana cut out project…..
made a school Bus…..and of course sang the wheels on the bus while glueing…….
We even made a butterfly with leaves from outside that have already started falling off our poplar tree….
We read Books…..
Built with our Blocks…...
Even Calvin got in on the action…..
Blew Bubbles…….
got dirty blowing colored bubbles……..
Even our dog Maggie had some fun with the bubbles.
They even got to enjoy a Bubble Bath. See what I mean. There is so much for the letter B.
The cousins came over for a couple hours one day during our letter C week (which was just last week) and they got to join in on our fun.
We made caterpillar C's, and I must say little TyTy was enjoying it the most I think.
He loved glueing on the pom-poms, and was so good at it too.
Now I know it's not quite fall yet around here, but I have been dying for it to be fall, partly because I know I will have a new baby in the fall, but also because it is my favorite season and time of year to start the holidays. I mean come on, who doesn't like this season. Anyway, I am throwing in some fun fall type crafts for us to do along with our letter learning each week. This week she made a handprint fall tree, and decorated it with fall colored leaves with her fingers.
This is something I'm not sure i'm a big fan of yet. It's a sensory bin. I'll explain how it works later on another post, because right now I need to tend to my children so i'll just leave it here. We are all caught up anyway.
Yours Truly
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