Packing

Turns out the kids think they are coming with us.  Hehehehe

Less than a week until we leave.

One size doesn't fit all!

Apparently, the size 4 diapers are too big.

Y wrap up and Z Preview

We are slowly making out way to the end of the alphabet and I am super excited.  Excited for many reason but I think its nice to finally reach full circle.  So before we have a look at the activities for Z, here is what we did for the letter Y:

We grew yellow animals out of small dollar store capsules, and even though I said it would take a couple days that sat and watched anyway.  Then finally they got to open their jars and play.

We made yellow Y collages.

Happily stamping yarn designs (or not to happily).

Hannah practiced counting.

Probably my favorite picture, here is Hannah teaching Ethan how to use the Jumbo push pin.

Letter Z:

Letter Z box: Zipper, zero, zucchini, zebra, letter z, and a z bean bag.

Matching the animal toy to their photo

Making a sticker zoo. (Source: Little Giraffes)

Zoo cage and lock game.  For this game I will hide the keys and when Hannah or Ethan find them they can unlock the matching cage to free the animals. (Source: Homeschool Share)

This is a terrible picture, it is a zoo animal shadow match. (Source: 2 Teaching Mommies)

Gluing Zebra stripes on the letter Z.

Ethan's Birthday

Almost two weeks ago we celebrated Ethan's birthday with a fish party.  After all he is o"fish"ally 2 now.  Here are some of my favorite pictures from the party.

My mom and Andrew's mom hard at work.

The fishes that decorated the room.

Ethan and his friends.

Hannah and Daddy.

The cake!

I love this picture of Ethan blowing out the candles with has hands on his cheeks.

Inside the cake was wavy blue.

A basket photo for the birthday boy!

Problems, Parties, and Planes

I ran into some problems this week with blogger and not being able to pull up any of my photos.  So if you've wondered about my absence it was impart due to those problems that I think are now fixed.  The photo of Hannah reading was my attempt to check and all thing look good so far.  Thank you Andrew for pointing me in the right direction.

The second reason fort he slow down has been parties.  No no I haven't been out parting late a night but we did just celebrate Ethan's 2nd last weekend (photo's coming) birthday which included a visit from Andrew's mom.  Then there is a baby shower for my sister and her beautiful son this weekend (photo's also coming). 

Third and finally, and probably the most time consuming, is that Andrew and I are in the process of planning and preparing for a trip that we leave on in 2 weeks.  We are gone for two weeks and the grandparents (all 4 of them) have graciously offered their time and love to take care of our 2 noisy children.  We are overwhelmed to have such wonderful arms for Hannah and Ethan to cuddle with while we are away.

All of this funnels into needing 1 thing: time.

So bear with me and I promise to be back in full swing by the end of July but it will be pretty speckled until then.

Do I sound like that???

Children are like little mirrors.  They reflect back at you all the love and energy that as a loving parent you eagerly give to them.  They also reflect back your weaknesses.  Things they say or do that you just know they did because their eyes are always watching you.  I'm far from a perfect parent, but I am a parent who deeply desires to improve over time. So I could only laugh as I took the following video of Hannah and Ethan.  I'm not sure what they were doing that led to this conversation. but I'm glad I caught it.

Wordless Wednesday-Happy 2nd Birthday Ethan

Afternoon Quiet Time

Once lunch is cleaned up, it is time for Ethan to have a nap.  I fondly remember the days when Hannah napped after lunch too, but one day in September, Hannah stopped napping: Cold Turkey.  They was no slow down, just an immediate halt to all things napping.  Since then she has what she calls "rest time", it is neither restful nor quiet, and truthfully there are afternoons when I am more tired after rest time than before it.  On a good day, she plays and reads quietly in her room for the majority of Ethan's nap.  Then she reads and plays quietly in my room.  Those are the good days.  I'm not really going to describe a bad day, its too taxing. :D  I will however "show" one relatively bad day.

On the particular day in question Ethan napped well but woke up early.  Hannah did not manage to stay in her room for even 5 mins before needing something.  Turns out that was the relative "calm in the storm" portion of or afternoon.

Hannah and Ethan had not been playing well together, and they were NOISY, VERY NOISY and I had a headache.  After yelling several times, I separated them into their own rooms and  told them to read quietly on their beds until I came back.  After I calmed down I checked to make sure they were both still breathing and I couldn't find Hannah.  She had sneaked out of her room and climbed into Ethan's crib.  They were finally quiet so I left them alone.

Aren't they cute?  Take note of what there wearing.  Hannah is in the pink pants.  When I finally went back to get them out of their prison they were happy and calm.

At some point they had even traded pants. 

Letter X Wrap-up and Letter Y Preview

Hannah, Ethan and I had a really good time working our way through our X activities.  Andrew was even able to join in a little bit.  We didn't really do anything messy so Ethan was happy.  This week I'll be bringing out the paint so stay tuned.

Hannah is playing with the letter box things, while Ethan ripped off the sticker from the lid.

Hannah had fun doing the X maze, I'll have to print out some more of these because she thought these were lots of fun. 

Working away.

Oh, how much I love these two!

This was definitely a favorite.  It took me a bit of playing to fill the glasses so that they sounded right.  Then I added the food coloring.  I'm not sure why the red is more orange than red (especially since its called Christmas red).  They played their homemade xylophone happily.  It is now sitting on my windowsill and looks pretty when the sun is out (which it hasn't been)

Matching colors.

I had so much fun watching Hannah play tic-tac-toe with Andrew.  He explained it and she seemed to pick it up quickly.  Then after a few games she started cheating.  Hahahahah Andrew would win and she would remove one of his pieces and put hers down instead.

Coming up soon! 

Letter Box Y: Yukon pin, yarn, yo-yo, yellow block, letter y, and a y bean bag.

Yellow cube counting.

Yarn Block Painting (Source: Print and Pattern).  I also left some extra peices of the yarn so that Hannah and Ethan can drag it through the paint.  We will see if Ethan sits at the table with us.

Yellow sponge animals.  These little capsule animals are fun for the kids to watch grow. I thought they could choose and put their capsules in their jar and watch them grow.

Yo-Yo Fun: We are going to make a water balloon yo-yo each, and they can also try their hand at a real yo-yo.  (Source: Delightful Learning)