The Beach- The Big White Rock

Last weekend (yeah I know I'm a little slow), we went to the beach for the day to enjoy the beautiful and unusually nice weather.  

Hannah and Ethan enjoyed throwing rocks and sticks into the water.  I enjoyed listening to the sounds of the waves.  Nothing is more relaxing the the sound of waves crashing.

This is Hannah's new "cheese" pose. The beach is covered in drift wood and it was fun to see what Hannah and Ethan would do with it.  Ethan was determined to get that piece into the water.

Andrew and Hannah making a sandcastle.  Meanwhile, Ethan and I took up camp on our blanket.

This is the big white rock.  Hannah desperately wanted Andrew to take her up there.

She got her wish.  Andrew piggy backed her up there.  I thought she might die in the process.  Thankfully for Andrew, she did not.

 

Coming back down.

Hugging my girl, safe on the ground.

Ethan wanted to go too, but he had to be content to just touching the rock.

Playing the drums and playing with cars.

Climbing the drift wood pile.

Cuddles before we left.

Look what I spotted!

  

A view of the pier.

Wordless Wednesday

A Birthday Skirt

I cannot believe that my sweet girl is nearly four.  I will hang on to the last of her "three year oldness" a tiny bit longer.  In the meantime I have been thinking ahead to her birthday and I decided to make her skirt for her party.  I followed the tutorial for a Market Skirt but without the pockets.  I am in NO WAY a sewer.  But I like making things so I thought I would give it a try.

A birthday skirt for the birthday girl.

Hannah thinks that whenever I am making something new its for her, so right away she wanted to know what I was making her.  I also needed her to try it on several times to make sure it was fitting properly so I couldn't keep it a surprise.

She would not stop dancing, I'm surprised I even got a picture at all.  I think she likes it.

Randoms

I have a camera that I keep upstairs.  It's a little fritzy at times.  But we bought in Korea and therefore am sentimentally attached to it.  Since I keep it upstairs I end up with some very random pictures that I often have forgotten about by the time I get around to emptying the card inside it.  Have a look look at what has been sitting around for the last couple of months:

Hehehehe These are Ethan's basket pictures that I took in December (2.5 years).  I took them right after he fell and got another bruise.

Sibling hangout time.

Hannah and Ethan have a new favorite game.  They pretend that Ethan bedroom closet is a house and they can spend a lot of time "setting" it up.

Who doesn't like a sleeping child picture.  You can tell these are old because he still had a soother.  Although it's pretty obvious he wasn't using it.  Hannah climbing to her death in her sleep.

This is how Hannah spends most rest time in the afternoon, hard at work at her little desk making stuff.

Reading before bed,

Same jammies different night.  I have no idea what prompted her to put a diaper on over her jammies.  She is such a turkey sometimes.

Hannah spend one afternoon making a clothes line and hanging clothes off of it.  

These pictures require a little explanation.  First, Ethan has finally decided that we would like to learn how to take on and off his clothes all by himself.  Let`s just say his sister`s clothes are easier to put on.

Here they are pretending to have swimming lessons.  The dresses are bathing suits and the blanket is the pool.

Hannah was in dire need of a cuddle one night.  Andrew "reluctantly" agreed. :D

I love the random moments.

Week 21- Letter S

Week 21- Letter S

Language Arts and Reading: 

 This week was the letter S and Hannah and Ethan both enjoyed dotting their picture of a Skunk.  We were "suppose" to paint it and use white paint to make a skunk stripe.  But dot markers are so much more fun.

Our book this week is "The Carrot Seed" by Ruth Krauss.  This is a super simple book about a boy who tenderly cares for a carrot seed he planted while everyone tells him nothing is going to grow.  Even in it's simplicity (or maybe because of it) it is a sweet and lovely book.

What could be sweeter than my two sweeties reading it together.

Math: Squares

We learned all about squares.  

Hannah and Ethan are both well aware of what a square is, so we focused on how a square is similar and different from a rectangle.

We also spent some time figuring out how to make a square from other shapes.

Afterwards, Hannah and Ethan sponge painted a square painting.  Well Ethan did that, Hannah's was a little more abstract. hehehehe

Nature:

The plan had been to do some activities on sunshine.  Well it rained ALL last week so we scrapped that idea, and instead did an experiment on making rain.

 

Rain, lots and lots of rain.

 

This was very simple and did a good job of explaining the process at a level Hannah and Ethan could understand.  We filled the vase with boiling water and covered it was a plate.  Finally, we covered the plate with ice. The steam from the hot water rises and condenses when it hits the cold plate and then falls as precipitation  (We followed the instructions over at I Can Teach My Child).  This did work and the kids enjoyed it, it didn't "rain" so much as dripped though.  I think that was mostly due to my vase.  I need to try it again with a jar to me sure.

  

Faith Foundations:

This lesson focus was very similar to last week except instead of the sense of touch we were looking at the sense of smell.  To be thankful and appreciative of their sense of smell.  To know that this sense is a gift from God who created us.  As well as to be aware that our sense of smell can help us sense danger.

  

I put our several different things for Hannah and Than to smell.  Hannah liked the smell of the flower the best and Ethan pointed to the banana.

 

I lit a candle and then blew it out so they could smell the smoke.  I was impressed that Ethan and Hannah both knew what to do if they smelled smoke.

 

 

Art:

We made sock puppets this week.  They helped design their individual puppets.  Hannah's puppet has the long pink hair with big googly eyes and NO tongue.  She was adamant about that detail.  Ethan's puppet on the other hand, has short red hair with very small eyes, and of course a big red tongue.  Here is Ethan wearing both because Hannah will not put hers on.

 

 

Hannah and Ethan made sun pictures.  The plastic forks are used to make the sun beams.