Fun with flash cards.

Over the weekend I went with my sister, mom, and step dad to look at wedding dresses for my sister. Its actually alot of fun :) And it only took 3 dresses! The 3rd was PERFECT! I'm glad she found a great wedding dress!

While out riding around with David and the kids(we went to look at the church my sister plans to get married in) I saw the big sign up at the school by our house. It was letting everyone know that Pre-K registration for 3-4 year olds is going on now. And it hit me. BAM. Taylor could actually start SCHOOL this year. I mean real school. As in back packs, leaving me in the mornings, being at school etc. I've planned on doing preschool this year with her anyways, but I guess it didn't really hit me. My baby girl is starting school. :(

And she LOVES school at home of course. We do school everyday, whenever she wants to. It's not really school. We just play, color together, paint together, draw pictures, practice our letters and numbers and colors and shapes(she has them all down, so now moving on to different things. Letter sounds, numbers higher then 13, etc.) She loves her little work books and every day she learns something new. May not be anything major, but to her it is. Today we played with flash cards while Ryder was napping.

I laid out 4 random cards at a time. And I would ask her where is letter K? And she would look at them and hand me the letter K. We done all the uppercase and then all the lowercase. She knows them all! Theres a couple she stumbles on but with a little more fun practice she will have them down with out any trouble. I'm starting letter sounds with her, its a little more difficult for her. B,C,E,D,P,M,&N give her trouble. They all sound close to each other(E&P M&N etc.) Since she loved playing the flash card game I'm just going to work on letter sounds with the flash cards.

Here are some pictures of the flash card game :)

The little things

Life goes by SOOO fast. You don't really realize it till you have kids. But it flies by. And life with two children only twenty months apart is super hectic, so it feels as if it goes by even faster, if that's at all possible. Every day is a run on from the last, filled with tantrums, screams, tears, fights, hugs, kisses, and sometimes me locking my self in the bathroom long enough to pee and just take a deep breath before returning to the madness that is my house :)

But as these days run on and on and on together, we forget the little things. The snotty kisses we get and the mommy I miss you comments. We forget how our children used to be babies, and now look at them. Walking, talking, and driving each other crazy :) But life is so full of demanding things, especially for mothers, we honestly forget the little things that make everyone happy.

Ice cream cones for desert one night. Extra long bubble baths with toys & splash fights (which ends with one of them screaming because it gets in their eyes). Or, as in the picture above, playing cars on the porch. Ryder laughed so hard and had a blast playing with that little car. The little things always make us happy. 

So as life goes by, hectic and crazy and the days running together, take a second every little bit to remember those little things. 

My little moments from today? - Taylor telling me she missed me and loved me very much(while crying because it was Ryder's turn in the tub). Ryder giving me big snotty kisses and a huge hug because he didn't want to go to bed yet(he was crying because it was bed time, and it's night 5 of No Binky, and he knows he can break mama's heart) But still, even though it's rough with him screaming etc. that hug and those kisses made my entire day. Just like that little toy car made his day.

Painting beans

While letting the kids paint today I had an idea to paint the pinto beans I had put back to use for a counting game. (Have a bag of pinto beans, and an egg crate, and permant marker. Write the numbers in the bottom of the buckets and then have fun with the kids putting the right number of beans, beads, etc. into the buckets. also good for sorting colors, shapes, etc.)
Anyways. I had just planned on using the regular pinto beans to count out into the right buckets with the kids. Then I thought I could go a step farther and paint the beans, then we can sort by numbers, and colors in the same game!

Of course, with the kids helping they aren't perfect! But they loved helping and once they are in bed tonight I will finish them up and then have the game ready for tomorrow! 

Preschool

Taylor is going to start preschool this year. So I've been making lists of things to buy for home schooling. And I had it all set out to start around August 13th. That would give me time to get everything, and get organized, and have it all planned out. But as soon as I bought the big work book, page protector, and her folder, she was off! Everyday she asks for school. So, for the past week we have been doing school. We have most of the supplies, and she is LOVING every minute of it!

I hate wasting money, and since we will have 3 children going through these materials at some point, I am trying to find little ways to help save money/.materials/etc. So here is how I do work sheets. I put each page in a page protector and then put tape at the top, and then put them in her little folder. I let her use dry erase markers on the page protectors and so far its worked great!

Of course preschool is also ALOT of fun activities. I have a few activities planned out for the week, and we do them either once or twice(or more!) times that week. This week are doing activities that deal with counting and numbers and sorting.

Again, I'm all about saving money when possible! I used white paper and a marker to make the counting mat. Then we used cheerios(that both kids ate while we were doing the activity!) to count out each number. It was a lot of fun and Taylor LOVED it! I plan on putting that paper in a page protector as well, and having a big binder full of fun little things like this to help teach her things. 

I'm working on making bingo games for both. Each game will be with either numbers, shapes, colors, or letters. And as Taylor learns more we will add in small sight words, and things like that. For Ryder I'm thinking about making a special game with pictures of cars/trucks/planes/etc. And then I will of course have to make a special one for Taylor. But you get the idea. Just fun ways to teach them things-and save money at the same time :)

Our 4th of July

Taylor will be 4 this year, and Ryder will be 2. And neither had EVER seen fire works. David worked at a different place all the other years and wasn't off on the 4th so we were never able to really do anything fun at all. This year he had the whole day off, and I knew I wanted the kids to have a great 4th of July.

I added the photos but now I don't have time to get them in order, or the right way :/ So here is how our day went!

We went to the parade. (The kids FIRST parade!) And they loved it! The fire trucks, loud cars, and of course the CANDY!

Then we went to eat and come home for naps. Went back around 8 30 and found a spot to watch the fire works at 10. The kids were GREAT! And had a blast with glow sticks, pop corn I made, and of course watching the fire works. Ryder tried to sleep through them tho...........

David and Ryder at the parade.

Me and David :)

My Taylor Grace

David and his youngest brother Adrian

This is DURING the fire work show. Ryder laid down right when they started and David decided to join him. Ryder was almost asleep but David was watching the fire works lol

Before the fire works

Getting ready to leave to go see the fire works

Kids playing with glow sticks

Right after the parade

Waiting on fire works. David was either doing the duck face or trying to give me kisses..

Me and Taylor during the fire works

Ryder playing with the necklaces

He fell over as soon as the fire works started

Taylor fishing after the parade to win a prize

She got a shark!

Cheesing before the fire works

Patiently waiting on the parade

About to grab some candy

Taylor excited because she had "money"

And finally the last picture, Taylor grabbing up some candy :)

Pictures from our weekend.

Over the weekend David's mom Ann came in to visit. And some how again I didn't get a picture of her with the kids. I MUST do this next time. But for now, here are some pictures from our long weekend!

Ryder plopped down in daddy's lap when Daddy was playing with Taylor. It was really cute :)

Taylor and Ryder went swimming every day of the weekend, but Ryder is a handful. We have to force him to stay in the floatie because he thinks he is a big boy and can just swim on his own.

Both kids playing together in mamaw's yard. Holding hands.

Ryder, holding his ears in the durango. Taylor has the Veggie Tale DVD in the car, and makes us keep it on the theme song so she can sing along. He got tired of it after the millionth time. :)

Taylor sitting with Daddy and watching Cartoons. 

The kids hugging each other. I love pictures like this and moments where they hug on each other. 

Ryder playing Sunday afternoon.

Ryder found a new "hat". He really thought it was a hat. 

Taylor resting while in the pool.

Manic Monday

Mondays. Everyone talks about them, about how rough they can really be. And honestly as a stay at home mom Monday's aren't really too much different from any other day for me. I still do the exact same things I do all week and weekend. 

But yesterday, I had a Manic Monday. Before 8 AM I had swept my kitchen 4 times. Ryder was in time out 5 times, and Taylor had had 2 melt downs. ;/ It just wasn't a great day. 

I kept telling my self, cout down to nap time- count down to bed time- todays not a good day. Tomorrow will be different.

And then, while Ryder was napping and Taylor was watching cartoons, I was thinking all of that again. And then I felt horrible. I'm their mother! I shouldn't be counting down all the time till times when they are asleep. (Granted, they are much better behaved when sleeping, most of the time). 

And just because its a hard job, that never ends, I shouldn't let it get me so down that my patience is gone and I'm just holding on for David to get home so I can go cry because I can't handle them anymore.

God gave me these children. And He knew ahead of time all the things I would face. And He knows that I can do it. And you know what? I made it through the very long rough day. And my being grumpy didn't help the situation at all. My new goal : Try to always be happy. OR to at least not get into the grumpy moods where I let every little thing drive me crazy. They are my children, we will get through this rough phase, and hopefully I will have my well behaved children back :) -SOON. lol