Showing posts with label girls. Show all posts
Showing posts with label girls. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Thursday, July 12, 2012
Getting Ready for the Beach
We are headed to the beach for a week on Saturday! I am so, so looking forward to it ~ we've needed the kind of vacation that involves sitting in the sand. And nothing else. (With an alarm system and house sitter back home ~ so all you crazy internet robbers, forgetaboutit)
I'll be posting some of my road trip with lots of little kids tips AFTER the road trip, because Lord knows if I start talking about it now, the trip will be doomed! I do have lots of little tricks up my sleeve, so hopefully it will be a fun and easy trip.
To get ready for the beach, we have been doing some beach and ocean-themed things at home with the kids. We set some summer goals at the beginning of the summer, to keep us on track (if you want to really get behind summer goals, check out someone who REALLY does a great job ~ Shawni at 71 Toes!) Sophia really needed to work on her spelling before 2nd grade, and Amelia is so very close to reading on her own. We've mostly been reading lots, Sophia has been writing in her journal, and there have been many days of happy freeform artsing and crafting. But this week, we themed things up!
First, I found two great sources for beautiful printable worksheets ~ some of these were PERFECT for Sophia and Amelia's levels. Here and here. That allkidsnetwork site has been a great source for some phonics sheets for Amelia too (I may have posted about that already?)
Then, we dug out our Usborne Encyclopedia of Seas & Oceans. I LOVE Usborne books ~ I find myself just sitting and looking at the pictures myself. This has been a great resource, because I think the kids will get more out of our trip if they know what creatures they are looking at, how the tides, work, etc. We'll be taking it on our trip, too.
I'll be posting some of my road trip with lots of little kids tips AFTER the road trip, because Lord knows if I start talking about it now, the trip will be doomed! I do have lots of little tricks up my sleeve, so hopefully it will be a fun and easy trip.
To get ready for the beach, we have been doing some beach and ocean-themed things at home with the kids. We set some summer goals at the beginning of the summer, to keep us on track (if you want to really get behind summer goals, check out someone who REALLY does a great job ~ Shawni at 71 Toes!) Sophia really needed to work on her spelling before 2nd grade, and Amelia is so very close to reading on her own. We've mostly been reading lots, Sophia has been writing in her journal, and there have been many days of happy freeform artsing and crafting. But this week, we themed things up!
First, I found two great sources for beautiful printable worksheets ~ some of these were PERFECT for Sophia and Amelia's levels. Here and here. That allkidsnetwork site has been a great source for some phonics sheets for Amelia too (I may have posted about that already?)
Then, we dug out our Usborne Encyclopedia of Seas & Oceans. I LOVE Usborne books ~ I find myself just sitting and looking at the pictures myself. This has been a great resource, because I think the kids will get more out of our trip if they know what creatures they are looking at, how the tides, work, etc. We'll be taking it on our trip, too.
I found this fun, fun Ocean Animal Movements game on another blog, and it is perfect, because there are parts of it for Sophia, Amelia, AND Henry! Go here and read about it and get the printables. For three kids, we had them all go through all of the cards, mimicking the movements. Then for Amelia, we would say "find the animal that starts with __" or "find the animal that ends with __" to work on her letters. For Sophia we did the verb part of the game and had her "find the animal that __" and inserted the action word. Then for Henry, we worked on colors. I printed these on white paper, but I colored in each animal a different color, so we did "find the ___ animal" and said the color. Fun!
Another game that I got for free online was this sight words game from a teacher's blog. Race to the beach! The girls are playing that today, so I can't wait to hear how it goes. Easy to print off and all we needed was a couple of playing pieces and a dice.
Aside: One thing I struggle with as a working mom, is wanting to do these things with my kids, but not being able to. I feel like sometimes I rush home from work to get dinner on the table, and then I spend the rest of the evening with the kids practicing piano, nagging them about chores, and getting everyone to bed. They are tired by the end of the day, so it's not a good time for us to work on school work. I have said it before, but I am SO, so lucky to be married to a fabulous dad, and he is good about working with the kids on schoolwork. He just needs a little help figuring out what to do. So I have been preparing things for him ~ for example, for this week, I made envelopes for each day of the week, and on each envelope I wrote the day of the week, and then "to help prepare for our beach trip..." and then gave the girls some extra chores (like helping with laundry, etc.), and then I wrote out which of these school activities they are doing for the day and stuck them in the envelope.
Anyway, finally, I found an online printable first reader about the beach for Amelia ~ but sadly I can't find it again. I should have bookmarked it! It was just a little black and white booklet that I printed off and stapled together. And then for Sophia, I created two writing prompts instead of her normal journal writing - one is to write some sentences about her favorite sea animal, and the other is to pretend she is a dolphin and write about that (and draw a picture).
These are all easy, cheap, and fun things for the kids, and have helped to build the anticipation for our trip.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
My Little Ballerina
Thursday evening was Amelia's dance recital. I have to say, I have dreamed about this sweet moment almost my whole life - having a little blonde girl, dressing her in pink tights and a black leotard and sending her off to dance class every week, and then watching her twirl on a stage, meeting her after the performance with a big bouquet of flowers. Love. Love. Love.
Amelia begged and begged to take dance lessons, but I made her wait until this year. I have found kids are much more committed to activities they choose to do and really WANT to do (building up a little anticipation is an advantage here!) And so last September, I watched my little ballerina walk into the dance studio with a big grin on her face. There were times this year that she didn't love ballet so much - she said her teacher was mean. Just a little aside about that... it is no fun hearing that a teacher/coach is "mean" because of course we want our children to be surrounded by supportive and adoring adults. We have been HUGELY blessed with great teachers for our kids at school so far. I also think if there is truly a teacher or coach who is abusive toward children (I had a nun in Catholic school who bullied me viciously and unnecessarily) it's our job to stick up for our kids. BUT. I also think having a tough teacher, or one whose personality just doesn't work well with our kid's, or one who just isn't that great, is a good thing every now and then. Some day these kiddos are going to to venture out into the wide, wide world. Out there they will have a boss who is unfair, a college professor who is grouchy and mean, a police officer who is on some crazy power trip. And when they are in that situation, they will need to know how to deal with someone whose rules they must live by, even though they may feel picked on. A little tough skin and ability to navigate those situations is a good thing. Plus I'm BIG on following through on commitments. So, we struggled through ballet at times this spring.
But like all things that are hard work, the pay off was BIG. Amelia was beaming after her performance! She did a perfect job and she knew it. I have been talking to Sophia a lot about why we do hard things and how rewarding it is to accomplish something that was difficult in the process.
Before the show, I took her to my hair stylist for an up-do.
I really took her for a quick bang-trim the day before, and Janice told me to just bring her in so she could to the bun. I don't own enough bobby pins or hair spray to do it myself, so instead of buying those I just had Janice do her hair - and she did a much better job that I could have.
I also put a TON of stage make up on Amelia. I told my friend that I was going to have to get in touch with my inner Toddlers and Tiaras mom to do my kid's makeup and take her to a salon. I was joking, but at the dress rehearsal a mom actually freaked out, cried, and stormed out. Really. Over a preschool dance recital.
That was right before the show - butterflies in her tummy. But they were happy, excited butterflies!
Their dance was adorable. That's Amelia right in the middle.
Sophia took this lovely picture ha!
My sweet ballerina
And then she was tired of posing and took off!
The recital for this dance studio is way too late for this age group. Amelia's dance started around 7:30 (her normal bedtime). She had to be there at 5:00. We didn't get out of there until after 8:30 (and we left before all the dances were done). But I had promised to take her out to pizza afterwards, so we went and had the most fun time sitting and talking late at night over pizza (it reminded me of this).
Now she is BEGGING to do dance again next year. We'll see.
Amelia begged and begged to take dance lessons, but I made her wait until this year. I have found kids are much more committed to activities they choose to do and really WANT to do (building up a little anticipation is an advantage here!) And so last September, I watched my little ballerina walk into the dance studio with a big grin on her face. There were times this year that she didn't love ballet so much - she said her teacher was mean. Just a little aside about that... it is no fun hearing that a teacher/coach is "mean" because of course we want our children to be surrounded by supportive and adoring adults. We have been HUGELY blessed with great teachers for our kids at school so far. I also think if there is truly a teacher or coach who is abusive toward children (I had a nun in Catholic school who bullied me viciously and unnecessarily) it's our job to stick up for our kids. BUT. I also think having a tough teacher, or one whose personality just doesn't work well with our kid's, or one who just isn't that great, is a good thing every now and then. Some day these kiddos are going to to venture out into the wide, wide world. Out there they will have a boss who is unfair, a college professor who is grouchy and mean, a police officer who is on some crazy power trip. And when they are in that situation, they will need to know how to deal with someone whose rules they must live by, even though they may feel picked on. A little tough skin and ability to navigate those situations is a good thing. Plus I'm BIG on following through on commitments. So, we struggled through ballet at times this spring.
But like all things that are hard work, the pay off was BIG. Amelia was beaming after her performance! She did a perfect job and she knew it. I have been talking to Sophia a lot about why we do hard things and how rewarding it is to accomplish something that was difficult in the process.
Before the show, I took her to my hair stylist for an up-do.
I really took her for a quick bang-trim the day before, and Janice told me to just bring her in so she could to the bun. I don't own enough bobby pins or hair spray to do it myself, so instead of buying those I just had Janice do her hair - and she did a much better job that I could have.
I also put a TON of stage make up on Amelia. I told my friend that I was going to have to get in touch with my inner Toddlers and Tiaras mom to do my kid's makeup and take her to a salon. I was joking, but at the dress rehearsal a mom actually freaked out, cried, and stormed out. Really. Over a preschool dance recital.
That was right before the show - butterflies in her tummy. But they were happy, excited butterflies!
Their dance was adorable. That's Amelia right in the middle.
Sophia took this lovely picture ha!
My sweet ballerina
And then she was tired of posing and took off!
The recital for this dance studio is way too late for this age group. Amelia's dance started around 7:30 (her normal bedtime). She had to be there at 5:00. We didn't get out of there until after 8:30 (and we left before all the dances were done). But I had promised to take her out to pizza afterwards, so we went and had the most fun time sitting and talking late at night over pizza (it reminded me of this).
Now she is BEGGING to do dance again next year. We'll see.
Wednesday, May 9, 2012
Violin and Soccer
May has turned into Crazy Month now that I have school-age kids. It seems like there are always a million things going on. Henry is soooo close to being potty trained, and I know if we had just one week that we could keep him home instead of slapping a diaper on him to drag him out of the house, he would be there. But it's just so hard right now - so many busy, busy things going on!
Sophia's soccer season ended and her team celebrated with pizza last week. We lucked out big-time with her coach this year! He taught them some amazing soccer skills, but more importantly, he taught them to play with integrity. The girls learned to be gracious and kind, to win and lose with grace. At the pizza party, the coach praised each girls' strengths and gave out trophies.
(I have gotten bad about not taking my camera anywhere and just using my phone to take pictures. I am trying to do better, I always regret it!)
I was so proud of Sophia this year! She went from being timid and knowing nothing about soccer to giving it her all and playing some pretty great offense. We're excited about starting up again in the fall.
Last week Sophia also had her end of the year violin program at school.
It was such a treat - those first graders were adorable. Sophia LOVES violin! And I was so impressed with the older grades. They started off with 1st grade and then 2nd, 3rd, etc. all the way through middle school. Wow - it's amazing to see their progress!
These are Sophia's two little best friends - they are as sweet and polite as can be. And funny too!
The next few weeks are full of more fun end of the year stuff, including Amelia's ballet recital. It's so funny, I am once again thinking that "the year" runs from August to May, now that I have kids in school.
Sophia's soccer season ended and her team celebrated with pizza last week. We lucked out big-time with her coach this year! He taught them some amazing soccer skills, but more importantly, he taught them to play with integrity. The girls learned to be gracious and kind, to win and lose with grace. At the pizza party, the coach praised each girls' strengths and gave out trophies.
(I have gotten bad about not taking my camera anywhere and just using my phone to take pictures. I am trying to do better, I always regret it!)
I was so proud of Sophia this year! She went from being timid and knowing nothing about soccer to giving it her all and playing some pretty great offense. We're excited about starting up again in the fall.
Last week Sophia also had her end of the year violin program at school.
It was such a treat - those first graders were adorable. Sophia LOVES violin! And I was so impressed with the older grades. They started off with 1st grade and then 2nd, 3rd, etc. all the way through middle school. Wow - it's amazing to see their progress!
These are Sophia's two little best friends - they are as sweet and polite as can be. And funny too!
The next few weeks are full of more fun end of the year stuff, including Amelia's ballet recital. It's so funny, I am once again thinking that "the year" runs from August to May, now that I have kids in school.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Siblings
As a mom, there is just about nothing better than witnessing the love between your children. And there is just about nothing worse than seeing your children fight with each other.
Both the girls are amazing older sisters to their brothers! Amazing - helpful, loving, playful, patient, fiercely protective, always. Always.
With each other, they went through a phase of fighting last year that broke my heart. It really tore me apart every time they were less than loving toward one another. And thankfully, that phase seems to have passed, and the girls are once again the loving sisters that I know them to be. They have been playing together beautifully, sharing, laughing, sticking up for each other. Sophia has been letting Amelia sleep in her top bunk with her, because Amelia has been having nightmares. They play American Girl dolls and dress up for hours without coming out of their room. Wednesday Sophia has to have an MRI that she will be sedated for, so I told her it would be hard because she wouldn't be able to eat before hand and she would probably get really hungry. I told her when it was over, I would take her out to dinner ANYWHERE she wanted to go (she said "even IHOP?!" Ha ha!) Well, yesterday she said, "Mom, I really want Amelia to come with us to dinner after my MRI, because I don't want her to feel left out. And I need to check with her whether she wants to go to IHOP, because I want to pick a place she likes too."
Best feeling in the world. Total mama happiness. Love. Love. Love.
Both the girls are amazing older sisters to their brothers! Amazing - helpful, loving, playful, patient, fiercely protective, always. Always.
With each other, they went through a phase of fighting last year that broke my heart. It really tore me apart every time they were less than loving toward one another. And thankfully, that phase seems to have passed, and the girls are once again the loving sisters that I know them to be. They have been playing together beautifully, sharing, laughing, sticking up for each other. Sophia has been letting Amelia sleep in her top bunk with her, because Amelia has been having nightmares. They play American Girl dolls and dress up for hours without coming out of their room. Wednesday Sophia has to have an MRI that she will be sedated for, so I told her it would be hard because she wouldn't be able to eat before hand and she would probably get really hungry. I told her when it was over, I would take her out to dinner ANYWHERE she wanted to go (she said "even IHOP?!" Ha ha!) Well, yesterday she said, "Mom, I really want Amelia to come with us to dinner after my MRI, because I don't want her to feel left out. And I need to check with her whether she wants to go to IHOP, because I want to pick a place she likes too."
Best feeling in the world. Total mama happiness. Love. Love. Love.
Love.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Birthday Week
Birthday Week has come to a close! Amelia turned FIVE years old on Tuesday!!
Her morning started with her five balloons and her favorite breakfast (cinnamon rolls) - and of course a quote from Dr. Seuss's birthday book on sparkly pink paper
Then I brought cupcakes to Amelia's school. I made "hot chocolate cupcakes" - the cake is made with cocoa and the frosting has marshmallow creme in it.
Aren't they cute? They looked like little cups of hot chocolate and her class loved them! They were big, and everyone asked for seconds.
My camera died, so here's a phone photo from school. Mmmmm CUPCAKE! Ha!
There was even a Brian Kinder concert at her school that morning - it was really cute!
That was all Tuesday.
Then today, Amelia had her party at The Wonder Place. I'm a big fan of just having parties at our house, but she wanted to invite everyone in her class plus a couple of other friends, so we decided that was too many 4/5 year olds for our little house!
It was a rainbow-themed party - easy and happy.
Her big gift was a bicycle (before Davis raised the handle bars and adjusted everything for her)
Henry liked it too
Party favors were packages of modeling clay.
Amelia's friend Stella - love this sweet girl!
Wyatt chilled in the Ergo even though it was crazy loud and hectic!
The kids had fun playing and no one wanted to stop and pose for pictures.
Her rainbow cake was a very happy cake. And yummy too.
Amelia was so funny opening presents - the kids were closing in on her shoving their presents at her and talking over each other, and she kept saying, "calm down, guys!" Ha ha!
Sophia got her a "Baby Snow White" - have you seen these? They are Disney princesses as babies. Silliest thing ever, but she LOVES it. Seeing the girls pick out gifts for each other is one of my favorite things - it shows how well they know each other and how much they love each other.
And! Kit got a horse! Wow, those American Girl doll things are so cool.
Our sweet birthday girl - she doesn't like posing for pictures.
And Quiet Wyatt
My dad came to town for the party too! He took the girls swimming at his hotel this morning so I could finish the cake while the boys napped. We came home to some beef stew in the crock pot and now we're all ready for bed!
It was a happy, happy day!
Her morning started with her five balloons and her favorite breakfast (cinnamon rolls) - and of course a quote from Dr. Seuss's birthday book on sparkly pink paper
Then I brought cupcakes to Amelia's school. I made "hot chocolate cupcakes" - the cake is made with cocoa and the frosting has marshmallow creme in it.
Aren't they cute? They looked like little cups of hot chocolate and her class loved them! They were big, and everyone asked for seconds.
My camera died, so here's a phone photo from school. Mmmmm CUPCAKE! Ha!
There was even a Brian Kinder concert at her school that morning - it was really cute!
That was all Tuesday.
Then today, Amelia had her party at The Wonder Place. I'm a big fan of just having parties at our house, but she wanted to invite everyone in her class plus a couple of other friends, so we decided that was too many 4/5 year olds for our little house!
It was a rainbow-themed party - easy and happy.
Her big gift was a bicycle (before Davis raised the handle bars and adjusted everything for her)
Henry liked it too
Party favors were packages of modeling clay.
Amelia's friend Stella - love this sweet girl!
Wyatt chilled in the Ergo even though it was crazy loud and hectic!
The kids had fun playing and no one wanted to stop and pose for pictures.
Her rainbow cake was a very happy cake. And yummy too.
Amelia was so funny opening presents - the kids were closing in on her shoving their presents at her and talking over each other, and she kept saying, "calm down, guys!" Ha ha!
Sophia got her a "Baby Snow White" - have you seen these? They are Disney princesses as babies. Silliest thing ever, but she LOVES it. Seeing the girls pick out gifts for each other is one of my favorite things - it shows how well they know each other and how much they love each other.
And! Kit got a horse! Wow, those American Girl doll things are so cool.
Our sweet birthday girl - she doesn't like posing for pictures.
And Quiet Wyatt
My dad came to town for the party too! He took the girls swimming at his hotel this morning so I could finish the cake while the boys napped. We came home to some beef stew in the crock pot and now we're all ready for bed!
It was a happy, happy day!
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
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