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 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. 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Blueberry and Broccoli with a Baby

My Boys (and Girls)

Tuesday afternoon, Davis took the girls up to his parents' house so they could spend a few days alone at grandma's house - something they have been talking about and looking forward to all summer.  That's about three and a half hours away, so Davis spent the night and came home Wednesday afternoon.  So I got to spend a day at home with just my boys ~ how fun!

{random picture of my farmer's market sunflowers ~ aren't they pretty?}

I never get to just play with the boys.  So often I am busy with homework or piano practice or general girl drama, or running errands, cleaning and doing laundry... but not on the 4th of July! I was at home, with no car and no plans, and I was not going to waste that precious day!

We stayed in our pajamas all day, which was lovely.  I grabbed every left over random veggie out of the fridge and made a huge omelet for the boys and I to share.  After breakfast, Henry and I made homemade finger paints from a Pinterest recipe - sugar, salt, cornstarch, water (I didn't measure) heated until gloopy, then food coloring.



A big white sheet of paper ~ so much possibility!



Messy fun!  {Henry is THE most expressive kid I have ever known. He will be an actor some day. Or at least, he should be.}



And then, of course, he made me paint a train.  He was so bossy about it. 

"Needs wheels! Paint it train!"



We built blocks, and read books, and crawled around on the floor making funny sounds with Wyatt.  Whenever I take a picture of Henry, he makes me also take pictures of his toys.





Wyatt... was Wyatt. He is just so laid back and happy.  ALL the time.  Always, always.

 

{eating purple hull peas from the farmer's market}

Unfortunately, Henry was coming down with something ~ you can see it in his puffy eyes.  He ran a fever Tuesday night, and his breathing was gunky, poor guy.  So we spent some time just laying on the couch watching Blues Clues.  He loves Blues Clues, which I think is adorable, because none of my kids have had a favorite TV show at this age.

Henry's fever and breathing made me uneasy, which earned him a spot in our bed the past couple of nights ~ even though he takes up an entire king sized bed.



Today I came home from work, and Davis had built a castle out of a cardboard box with Henry.  Boxes are the best!



I miss my girls.  I gave Sophia a talk before they left about not fighting and being kind to each other.  Sophia called me today and said, "you know what we talked about?  We've been like that, and we haven't had a fight ONE time! And when we ran out of popcorn, I let Amelia have the last few pieces."  I love my girls.  And my boys. I'm one lucky mama!

And wife too ~ Davis and I had a date night tonight.  We went to eat burgers and see Spiderman.  All last minute plans ~ and fun!



As much as Henry loves hanging out with his mama, he REALLY loves his favorite babysitter, Amber.  She works in our church nursery, and Henry claps and dances around saying "Am-buh! Am-buh!" I came home and that stinker was asleep on top of her chest on the couch ~ she said, he just wouldn't sleep any other way.  Uh huh.

It's been a fun, fun couple of days.  But I'm beat ~ and my throat is hurting, which means I have picked up Henry germs.  But it was totally worth it.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Brothers

Swimming

I don't have much to post these days, because it seems like anytime we have a spare hour or two, we are at the pool.  It was already well over 100 degrees every day the last week of June (I am so dreading August!) so there isn't much to do except sit in the house under the a/c or go swim.  With four kids who NEED to get outside every day, we choose swim!

Amelia is a little fish like she's always been and is swimming on her own.  Sophia, who has always been very cautious around water, is getting there.  Wyatt, the laid back little guy, is perfectly happy to just float around in his floaty thing.  But Henry, oh my... he is just crazy.  Just like with everything he does, he is NOT lacking in enthusiasm.  No matter how many times the lifeguards and I yell at him to "WALK" he runs everywhere.  Henry has no "walk" mode.  And tonight Davis and I had him swim back and forth between us underwater - and he did it! Without any lessons or anything, he knew how to swim.  It's so funny to me, to see how some kids are just more natural in water than others.

Henry also wanted to jump and be thrown into the water over and over and over again. 



Such a crazy boy!

And the best thing about swimming? The kids all CRASH when it's bedtime! We've been heading to the pool as soon as I get off work, eating dinner at the grill there, and then swimming again until bedtime - we get home, everyone rinses off in the shower, and it's time for bed.  Of course mom and dad are the most tired ha! 

Wordless Wednesday ~ Double Gap

Ta Da!

Henry started lessons at the Little Gym last week - so fun! I've never enrolled a two year old in anything before, and I'm kind of against it on principle, but I bought these lessons at an auction last year and thought I'd give it a shot.  Henry is SO active and a little injury-prone, so I thought a safe place for him to get out some energy and work on his coordination might be good.  And boy was it ever!

"TA DA!"

Henry LOVED it! It was a mommy-baby class, and I was so exhausted afterwards. But he was too, and that's what counts.  When I buckled him into his car seat, he rubbed his eyes and said "I hungrin'! Need nap!"  I love that he says "hungrin" for "hungry" - we say that it's an adorable combination of "hungry" and "hankerin'".  If you're not from the South, you may not know what a hankerin' is...

Anyway, I just have to brag for a minute. Henry was smack-dab in the middle of this age group, but I think he was the only one who was potty trained, and he was SO great about following directions and participating - especially for his first time.  And he was very coordinated and strong.  When we got home, after his nap, he started practicing "forward rolls" (or somersaults as we call them!) and mastered them - all on his own.  It's fun being so proud of a toddler :)

The Weekend

We had such a fun weekend, even though it was a scorcher and I'm already counting down the days till fall weather (around here - that's November!)

Friday our dear Texas friends (from here and here) came to visit us, and we had the best time with our EIGHT kids!



Saturday evening we had a big spaghetti dinner, and then Camryn and Sophia had a sleepover.



The girls were SO excited about the sleepover - it was Sophia's first and Camryn's second.  They drank tons of chocolate milk and painted their nails, and at 11pm when I went to sleep, they were still giggling.



Saturday was so, so hot.  We took the kids to the splash pad.













Wyatt just sat in the grass and playing with a lens cap - that is soooo fourth baby, right? I mean, with Sophia I would have had a whole bag full of toys!



And then we grilled for dinner.



Other than almost burning down the house, it was all a smashing success.

Everyone CRASHED that night!

Then Sunday we had a nice, mellow father's day.  I'm so thankful for the fathers in my life - my Daddy (who sailed off to Portugal on Sunday from NYC!), my husband (the best BEST Daddy I could ask for for my kiddos), and my Heavenly Father (who spoke to me through a wonderful sermon and many "ordinary things" on Sunday).



We got Davis a lighted Kindle cover - because he's been complaining about trying to read at night.  He loved it (and now I want one!)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Eyelashes