July 12-18

On Monday, we just stayed home!!

On Tuesday, my sister-in-law told me about an elementary school that was closing and selling everything they had, so we went and got some great books, games, two desks and a chair for a grand total of $12.00

On Wednesday, 5 of T's cousins came over and went swimming in the pool. T loves that he can be in the intertube by himself now, and he just floats around the pool contentedly!

On Thursday, we spent a while at the library playground, and then went inside for an hour to get books. T loves going to the library and always askes to go.

On Friday, we went over to see some of T's cousins for a while, and then we had lunch with daddy at the Cuban Delight. Friday evening, we went see Daddy's friends' new house, and after that we took T to see his first theater movie: Toy Story 3. T loved the movie (so did we) and he made it through the whole thing! We did the whole movie experience and got popcorn and nachos too:)

On Saturday, we just hung out around the house and went swimming while daddy went out on the boat. That night, we went to church and then to Panera Bread with some of our family.

On Sunday morning, a friend came over to help me with the website that we are trying to get up for the ministry. We worked on it for about 3 hours and then had to call it quits because our brains were turning to mush. This afternoon, T's friend E had her 2nd birthday party at Chuck E Cheese, and we had a good time there. T loved everything, but especially a car racing game where he and Daddy raced each other, and he also loved the game where you roll the balls up into the slots for points (he just walked up and put the balls in).

Books we are reading this week

We got some great books at the library this week:

Hello Baby: This was Tristan's favorite book about six months ago, and he still loves it. The first day I brought it home, he asked me to read it at least 25 times. I am so glad he loves to read!!

Bee-Wigged: This is such a sweet book-it's one of my favorites. It's about a huge bee that loves people, but people don't love him because he's a huge bee! He finds a wig on the side of the road and puts it on, and people suddenly mistake him for a little boy. He goes to school all week, and everyone loves him because he is helpful, funny, and generous. They decide to make him the grand marshal of the school parade. During the parade, his wig flies off and everyone runs away. (They show the poor bee sitting there crying, and seriously, I almost started to cry myself) Everyone hears a voice yelling for them to come back, and the voice is coming from the wig. It turns out the wig was just a really hairy guniea pig named Wiglet, and he tells everyone how truly nice Jerry is and that he doesnt sting. Everyone comes back and cheers for Jerry and Wiglet. Jerry is thrilled that he can finally be himself and and also have friends, and he declares that Wiglet will be his best friend forever!

Muncha Muncha Muncha: About a man who plants a veggie garden and these three little bunnies keep getting into it. He tries many ways to outsmart them, but they still keep getting in his garden and eating his veggies!

Let's Go: Animated pictures of transportation

Sizes: Book about objects that are big and small

Creation: Tristan loves this book- all based on the biblical story of creation

Diary of a Worm: Takes you through the life of a worm

Pizza

One of T's favorite books right now is "The Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza." We did a few activities this week that revolved around pizza.

We made a letter pizza. I found this idea on No Time For Flashcards. I punched out 26 red pepperonis and wrote a letter on each piece. I also cut some green peppers and cheese. I had saved a round piece of cardboard from a frozen pizza we had a few weeks ago, and so we made our pizza on that. Tristan identified the letters when he put them on and sprinkled the other toppings around too.

We also made a real pizza. I pulled one of our dining room chairs into the kitchen, and it was perfect because he could just sit on it and was at the right height. He helped me paint the tomato sauce on (He kept licking it off the spoon), then he helped me pour on the cheese and then the pepperoni.

We have gotten a little lax with our letter of the week stuff (although I do believe he recognizes all of the capital letters). We haven't really been doing too many crafts, and I want to get back to doing at least one craft per week. T isn't really crazy about crafts, so I've learned to just do a little bit at a time on a certain project. He does participate for a couple of minutes and then he's ready to move on, which is fine. I'm going to try to start photographing some of our preschool stuff that we are doing.

T knows the ABC song now and sings the whole thing, although he always leaves out the letter R. He loves to count and will often count the things he sees. His vocabulary is through the roof now, and he is really starting to use sentences. He recently said an actual, complete sentence, even using an article. His first full sentence was "Maggie doodoo's are gross." Haha!!

T also has very nice manners and uses them often. He sayd "Excuse me" if he bumps into you or is in the way (he says "Sorry" for the same scenario). It's so cute because he'll say "Excuse Me Mommy" "Sorry Dada", etc. He says Bless you if you sneeze (although I am trying to get him to say God Bless you), and he says "Tanks" if you give him something. He also says "No Tanks" if he doesn't want something. One day Maggie was follwing him closely because she wanted his cookie, and he kept saying "NO Tanks Maggie.' Sometimes in the bathtub when I am washing his hair he'll say (or yell) "No Tanks." He's so funny!! He also says "please." After we pray he always says "Amen." Amen was actually one of the first words he ever said.

I've found lots of sites with excellent preschool ideas and printables, so I have been trying to print stuff and organize it. Some of the stuff is too old for him right now, so I made files and stuck the older things in there. I'd rather know that I have it rather than try to go back to it later and have it not be there (this has happened a couple times already). I am constantly finding great ideas on the internet and really want to start doing more of these activities!!

July 4-11

(Pictures: T in the intertube by himself for the first time, T hanging on the equipment at the park, and Maggie taking a dip. YOu can click on the pictures to enlarge them-click on the second one to get a good look at T's face).

This year, we just stayed home for the 4th of July. It had been raining for four days leading up to the 4th, so all of our plans had gotten ruined. We did go swimming in our pool on the 4th, and it was freezing since the sun hadn't been out in days, but it was still nice to get in. We just watched fireworks that night in our driveway, which was actually kind of fun. Last year we watched them on the beach, and hopefully we can do that again next year.

On Monday, we just stayed home. I think I am going to stay consistent in not really planning anything for Mondays so that we can work on our preschool stuff, swim, play outside, etc.

On Tuesday, we went to the library. We played outside at their playground and then went inside and got some really good books. T loves going to the library and always asks to go!

On Wednesday, my moms group had our ladies Bible Study at the house here. We decided to study the book called Sacred Marriage. This book concentrates on building your relationship with God, and allowing the struggles that come up in marriage to conform you to be more like Christ. We are going to study one chapter at a time for each meeting (we meet every other Wed). One of the moms stayed afterward with her son, and the four us swam in the pool.

On Thursday, we stayed home and went swimming twice. As you can tell, T loves the pool-and so do I!

On Friday, we met some of our friends at the park and played for a while. Later after T's nap, my sister in law brought over her three kids to go swimming. T loves his cousins and asks for them alot!



On Saturday, I went to a prayer rally in the morning while Daddy and T ran some errands. We just worked around the house and of course, went swimming:)

Today (Sunday): We went to church and will probably just stick around the house. And yes, we will probably so swimming!!

Hope everyone has a good week!!

We have been busy the last couple of weeks, although I haven't taken many pics because our camera died and our charger is missing. We are going to look in one more place for it tonight, and if I can't find it, I am going to have to buy a new one. I can't stand missing out on all these pictures because of something being lost!!

T and I have been staying home alot more than we ever did at our other house, and we go swimming just about every day, although the past four days it has been really rainy.

We went back to a new gymnastics place for him to try again, and he really liked it. His favorite thing was hopping all the way down the tumble track ( a very long trampoline). Like last time, he really enjoyed jumping down with the older girls, and would wait for them to jump down with him. I would love for him to take lessons there when he is older, if he wants to!

I started a ladies Bible study at my house, and we had our first meeting two Wednesdays ago. We will meet every other Wed at 12 to pray and we will be studying marriage. There are four of us at this time.

Last Tuesday was a big night for me. For the past two yeas, I have been planning on starting a pro-life ministry in our community. Everything all came together, and we had our first meeting last Tuesday evening at our church. I am so blessed to have the endorsement of Calvary Chapel, and they are advertising it for me in several ways (in the bulletin, in the minstry directory, and on the website. There were ten of us at the meeting, and everyone was very excited to be there. I got some great feedback, and we are planning on having our next meeting at the end of July. The purpose of the group is to come together to pray, become better educated on the issues, and discuss various projects that we might like to take on.

T had a big accomplishment this past Saturday night at church...he went into the toddler classroom for the first time. WE started out in the family room, and about half way through he was getting antsy, so I walked him down to the room. I expected that I would go in with him and help get him acquainted while he clung to me. Nope!! He went right in and just started playing and talking to the other kids. I had planned on staying in the room for at least five minutes, but after about two, I could tell he was fine, so I took the plunge and signed him in. He saw me leaving and I expected that he would start to cry, and he never did. I stood outside the room for about five minutes , waiting......and nothing. One of the helpers came out at that time, and I asked her how he was doing, and she said "He's doing great, he's still playing with the trucks." I left and went back to the Family room and expected to get paged to come get him, and I never did. When I went to pick him up after church had ended, he was just in there playing with the toy kitchen. The teacher said he did "Awesome" and never even cried. In fact, the only time he did cry was when we picked him up because he didn't want to leave. Ha!

Books we have been reading

Sorry I haven't had much time to come on and update. I really want to keep this up to date, so I am going to try a new approach and see if it works.

Here is a list of some of the books we have been reading lately:

The Little Red Hen Makes A Pizza: this is T's favorite book right now. It's about a hen who needs to keep going to the store because she doesn't have all of the items needed to make a pizza. She keeps asking her friends the duck, the dog, and the cat for help, but they won't help her. At the end of the book, she gives them some pizza, and they help her do the dishes. T loves the part where the big pizza is all finished and likes to name off all the different toppings, especially all the bacon slices. He calls the tomatoes "monanoes."

The Color Box: He loves this book too. It's about a monkey who steps inside a box and goes through different holes. Each hole contains a different colored room. Every time I am finished reading a book, T says "one more time."

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom: This is such a cute book and T loves it. It's about all the alphabet letters racing to the top of the coconut tree. When they all get to the top, the tree breaks and they all fall off. They all go up the tree again, but they have various amusing injuries..(T's favorite page goes..."look who's coming it's black eyed-pea, q,r,s, and loose-tooth t. I always point out that the letter t's tooth is just dangling there, and he thinks that is hilarious!

Oh Boy, it's Bounce: This is a cute book with great illustrations. Bounce is a goofy little spider, and the book just talks about his goofy outings. This was his favorite book to read for a while but now he's getting tired of it, although he did ask for it last night.

Don't Wake Up Mama: A funny book about 5 little monkeys who are baking a surprise birthday cake for their mom while she sleeps. They burn the cake and the firetruck has to come. T calls it the fire-monkey book.

Slowly, Slowly, Slowly said the Sloth: A nice book about a sloth who likes to take his time. At the end, one of the jungle animals asks him why he is so lazy, and the sloth replies he is not lazy, he just likes to do things slowly, slowly, slowly.

Circles and Squares Everywhere: Nice book about circles and squares.

The Number 1: Good counting book featuring one of each object pictured.

Touch and Feel 1,2,3: Another good counting book

Dinosnores: A book about dinosores sleeping that T is not really into

The Little Boys Bible: He loves the story of Adam and Eve eating the apple!