plain and simple

{one of norah's first "people" :)}

{check that runny nose, courtesy of the colds that have been through us all at least two times this fall}

i am much more apt to post on this thing if i remind myself that my posts don't have to be elaborate or fancy. so that's exactly what this is not: elaborate or fancy. here are ten random things about lately...

1. we are plugging along with preschool. if anything has been gained it is norah's social skills. it is so fun to watch her use her imagination with her little friends.

2. we have been enjoying our Truth in the Tinsel advent experience this month. it's simple: a daily scripture relating to the Christmas story and an ornament craft.

3. i don't know how this happened, but Christmas is less than ten days away (whaaa). my good intentions of making handmade gifts this year have once again disintegrated. i am convinced that amazon can read my mind and i think i am ok with that.

4. joe takes the bus to work almost everyday. he works in tyson's corner which is a 20 minute drive without trafffic. on some mornings, it can take over an hour to make it there (dc traffic is horrid, really). he opts to take the bus so he can relax and make it to work in 20 minutes (the bus pretty much has its own highway).

5. most days i feel like i am a referee around here, but then there are those moments when they snuggle on the couch and watch curious george together. i melt.

6. i so want these glasses. unfortunately, i have already spent my Christmas money. santa? are you out there?

7. we are going to the temple to see the Christmas lights with friends tonight. a perfectly free date night, if you ask me.

8. my brother got a little rottweiler puppy and i cannot wait to see ivan get his little pudgy hands on the thing. ok so his pudgy little hands on anything is the. cutest. thing. ever.

9. anyone have any magic tricks to get a 3 year old to take a nap? help.

10. NYC this Christmas. 'nuff said!

halloweenie

a petite butterfly and a chubby bumble bee.

a most unlikely pair.

a bumblebee with a slight addiction.
a mommy bee who can't resist.

alive and well

oh my goodness. 4 months! that's a record for me. we are alive. we are well. we are busy! i decided to start a little in-home preschool with a few of norah's friends and it has been so fun (and a little time consuming). i'm also working on 18 credits this term (ay caramba)! you see, blogging is what i do when i'm avoiding the things i should be doing. so here i am! joe started a new job at freddie mac in september. we are enjoying the stability of salary life :) we have been living in virginia for a year and a half now and we still love it. we have made so many amazing friends here. that's about all of an update i've got. i'll leave you with some of our a-mazing family pictures that our good friend sydney took a few weeks ago. enjoy!

to see allllll of them, go here.

Tiny Tot School

{Ivan is 12 months old}

Now that Ivan is officially 1, I am starting to do some more structured play with him (so fun!) Here are a few things we did this week..

I put all of our animal magnets from our M&D Puzzle Book into a plastic container and let him loose on the dishwasher. He loved putting them on and taking them off. I would name the animal as he picked them up and sometimes he would try and repeat it!

This simple activity is great for fine motor and cause and effect. An empty juice container and some fuzzy pom-pom’s.

Now that is concentration! ; )

He dutifully placed each and every one of the pom-pom’s into the container, and then wondered how the heck he could get them out!

I showed him how to dump them out and he started placing them right back in!

He still loves to work on getting the coins into our Piggy Bank (this was a gift, but my Grandma bought it at Kohls for 1/2 the price that Amazon has it listed at, wow!)

…and when he does, he is so proud!

Letter A–Summer Mode

We are officially in summer mode which means we will put a pause on our letter-of-the-week stuff (we’ll pick it back up again in the fall) and just do some fun themes and other activities.  We did do a little bit of letter A review but mostly just had fun..

Since “A is for Astronaut,” I put together this fun sensory bin filled with our Moon Sand, this toob, rocks, glow-in-the-dark stars, and beads.

We read this awesome book to go along with it!

I switched out her rice box and filled it with Aa’s and anything I could find that started with A.

She got creative and used brother’s Potsy toy to transfer the rice into..

And then served me some “letter A soup.”

I hid some jewels inside her Play-Doh for her to find (she picked black and white this time). 

Then she balanced the jewels on a craft stick with stickers on it.  This was more challenging than I thought it would be!

She rolled the Play-Doh into a snake and then I gave her her scissors to practice cutting with.  Love this activity!

She thought it was cute that she made a bunch of “people.”  She’s pointing to the baby, of course.

Then she wanted to do the same with the black Play-Doh.  You better believe we talked about skin tones ; )

I put a small paper clip on each of her vocabulary words and she used her fishing pole to fish them up!  She loved this.

She watched letter Aa on Starfall.

We painted on watercolor paper using colored ice cubes!  Fun!

I put our foam letters (A-M) in a bug catcher (from Target dollar spot a while ago).  She had to close her eyes (she loves this), pick one out, tell me what it is, practice the sound it makes, and then find the corresponding flash card laid out on the ground.  She had lots of fun with this game!

All matched up!

I got these cute little ring toss games at the Target dollar spot recently (I may have bought one in almost every color). 

I was saving this puzzle for a unit on the body, but a babysitter came over and found it.  She has not stopped asking for it.  She LOVES it.

We did some tracing..

Using our Kumon Workbook (inside a sheet protector).

She did really well with this.

And diligently erased her work when she was done!

I found these plastic nuts and bolts at the Target dollar spot recently (love that place).

She struggled with these a bit, good fine motor practice!

I tried to get her to lace these ABCs..

But she preferred to line them up instead : )