Thankful Thursday

First off I want to take a minute and say hello to my newest followers! Thank you so much for your interest in my blog! I always get so excited to have new followers and I am thankful for each one of you. =)

I am also thankful that my sister, brother-in-law and nephew are coming to visit for a couple days. I haven't gotten to see them since Christmas so it will be so nice to have some time together. We will be going to our family's annual picnic at my dad and stepmom's. It will be a blast! We will have lots of food, cornhole, a remote control racecar track, horse rides, wiffle ball, water balloon games, and all kinds of fun stuff! Its kind of like a big family reunion every year. I am so thankful that we will get to see aunts and uncles and cousins that we grew up with but hardly ever get to see anymore since we have all grown up.

I just hope being almost 9 months pregnant that I won't get TOO hot & sweaty lol!

So....what are YOU thankful for?

Tot School - Letter "J"

 

Jimmy is 28 months old

Last week was Letter J Week!

Here is what we did:

Letter J on Starfall.com 

We made the Totally Tots J is for Jaguar foam letter. Jimmy loves it and calls it "meow meow". Ahh my sweet boy, loves anything to do with cats!

Letter J Tracing page from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Its really hard to see since Jimmy wasn't pushing very hard with the crayon, but he did outline it! His favorite part was dotting the J.

Alphabet Matching sheet from Confessions of a Homeschooler, just the first page, A-L, since we are only up to J. He did this perfectly, I think he could have done the rest of the letters with a little help.

We practiced with the clothespin again, with the letter J card from 1+1+1=1, the clothespin abc's. Jimmy still would rather point to the correct letter, but he has figured out how to open the clothespin. Now he just needs to learn how to clip it where he wants it!

Oh, I almost forgot, I must not have taken a picture...Jimmy worked on his Bottle Top Name card from 1+1+1=1 again. Very fitting for this week since his name is Jimmy! He has that pretty much down pat, except that he would rather mommy put the letters on because he can't lay them on the card perfectly lol!

Outdoor fun!!
We went to the park this week! We had a picnic with a very good friend of mine. Then we played on the playground. Jimmy loves the slide and he went down it SO many times! After that, we took a walk around the pond and got to see all the swans and ducks and geese. Jimmy had a blast!

 To see more swan photos, check out my other blog here.

That's it for Letter J week. Thanks for stopping by! Make sure you head over and check out the other Tot School posts for the week at 1+1+1=1

Tot School - Letter "I"

 

Jimmy is 27 months old

Last week we focused on the letter I. I think we only spent about 2 days on it, but we got a lot accomplished in that short time.

First, the Letter I on Starfall.com

Next we did the I is for Iguana foam letter from Totally Tots. We added stripes on the tail to give Jimmy a little more to do/glue on. He enjoyed it!

He glued the tongue on and stuck out his tongue when he was done, cute!

 

We did this really cute Ice Cream Cone matching game from Home Grown Hearts found here. Jimmy did this one perfectly! I was so proud of him, he even surprised his dad! If we asked him to match a certain color, he did, he knew them all.

I printed out this really cute Inchworm size sorting activity from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Jimmy didn't quite get the concept yet, but we will work on it! He wanted to play "house" with the inchworms, he made the biggest one the daddy and the smallest one the baby...so he knows they are different sizes, that's a start!

I LOVED this Brown Bear Heads & Tails matching activity from 1+1+1=1. Jimmy matched them all up perfectly. I would say he has his colors down (of course you can't tell from the pic because by the time I got the camera, he was ready to be done)! It was so cute though, he made the animal sounds as he matched each pair up.

We also tried out this activity from 1+1+1=1, the clothespin abc's where you have to find the lowercase letter. I thought it was so cute so I just gave Jimmy the "letter I" one since it went with this week's theme. Jimmy found the lowercase letter just fine, but he had trouble with the clothespin so we will be working on learning how to correctly open and close it. Oh and then the dog chewed the clothespin up a little later so its a good thing I have a huge supply of them for hanging laundry out lol!

That's it for Letter I week. Thanks for stopping by! Make sure you head over and check out the other Tot School posts for the week at 1+1+1=1

Baby Update! 32 Weeks

I had my 32 week appointment today, everything went great. Except for the part where little Jimmy decided he wasn't going to listen to me....when we first got to the dr. office, I was in the bathroom and I had to, ya know, provide a urine sample, and SOMEONE decided he wasn't going to listen to mommy and stay put, so he opens the door. Its one of those doors with the lock that unlocks when you open it from the inside, wish it was a separate lock!! OY, talk about a Not Me! Monday moment! Then once we were in the exam room, Jimmy decided he would once again turn the lights off and climb on the chairs and once again NOT LISTEN to mommy!! Arrrggghhh!! Its kinda hard to talk to the dr. when you have a 2 yo running around like a crazy child. Luckily this was just a regular visit where the dr. measured my belly and listened to the baby's heartbeat. I think Jimmy will be going to his grandma's house for the next visits though, its getting closer to the due date and I am not going to have him opening the door while I am getting checked to dilation or anything lol! I tried not to provide too much TMI, but this IS about pregnancy! ;-)  

Oh and the dr. had a hard time getting a good heartbeat reading because the baby would not stay still! He did finally get a good reading and he said the baby is very active!

Ok, time for a belly pic:

Annnd...I just realized I am wearing the same shirt as in my 28 week photo lol! Check it out and you can see how much I have "popped" over 4 weeks!  I am also getting a couple more stretch marks, booo!! Not to make anyone hate me lol, but last time I only got itty bitty ones above my belly button. Well....I am a little bigger this time around and I am getting more of those pesky lines showing up =(  I will say that I got horrible stretch marks on my thighs last time, that is my real problem area, not fun! Alright, that's it for now, I will try to post another update in 2 weeks after my next appointment.

Rockin' Green Soap Giveaway!

Hey Cloth diapering mama's and everyone else who ever does laundry! Head over to Life as a Preemie’s Mom's blog to enter to win a 45/90 bag of Rockin’ Green Soap. Hurry, ends May 23!

Uprinting Poster Giveaway!

Hurry and head over to my other blog, Cross Creek Farm, to enter to win an awesome 18x24 poster print from Uprinting.com! Ends Sunday, May 23rd, so get your entry in today!!

Looking for Find Me Friday?

Just a quick reminder that Find Me Friday has moved to my other blog, Cross Creek Farm. So if you have been missing it, please head over there and join in! Click the button below or in my sidebar to be taken there.

Tot School - Letter "H"

 

Jimmy is 27 months old

Last week we did Letter H activities. We didn't get too much accomplished, but we had fun!

Letter H on Starfall.com.

H is for Hippo foam craft. Another one I came up with! I am on a roll lol. Jimmy got to do more with this one too, like the giraffe. He got to color the foam gray and glue all the toes and ears and tail on.

We did another "stained glass" project, this time a hummingbird.

We did the hummingbird craft in honor of Phoebe, the hummingbird we have been watching on a live stream video. She has a nest and the two eggs just hatched a few days ago. Check it out here.

We read this book (I was short on letter H books!)

I printed out these super cute color matching cards from 1+1+1=1, check them out here. Jimmy just loves them, but we are working on him actually matching them instead of just playing with them.

That about sums it up! Hope you enjoyed reading about our week.

Make sure you head over to 1+1+1=1 to see what other tots are doing!

H is for Hippo

Another foam letter craft! Go me!

Materials:

• Gray or white foam sheet or construction paper (or any color you want really!)
• black & white foam or construction paper scraps
• Scissors
• Googly eye
• Glue
• Gray crayon if you are using white foam 

 How to make the Letter "H" Hippo

1. Have your little one color the foam sheet gray if you are using white foam.
2. I outlined a capital H onto a sheet of white foam (colored gray) - I just used the scissors to make an impression and then cut it out. You could also trace a letter H onto the foam or paper with a pen.
3. Cut out a circle or oval for the body and a head shape (I made the H on half a sheet of large foam and cut the extra pieces out of the other half). I just free handed them and cut them out.
4. Cut out 8 toes from the white foam scraps (flip over the gray colored scraps if you did it that way) and a little tail from the gray colored foam.
5. Glue the body onto the H. Then glue on the head, tail and everything else as pictured.
6. Add the googly eyes and you have your cute letter H hippo!

Tot School - Letter "G"

 

Jimmy is 27 months old

Alright!I am getting my post up earlier this week, yay me!! ;-)

Last week we worked on the Letter G. Here is what we did:

Letter G on Starfall.com

Letter G Giraffe. I came up with this, I am so proud of myself lol. Jimmy loves giraffes so I really wanted to make a letter G into one. Turned out it was really easy and it came out so cute (if I do say so myself). And it was one of the better foam letter crafts because Jimmy could actually do a lot of it on his own. He put all the spots on himself. If you need instructions to make one, check out my post here.

 We made a Garden with his sticky foam flowers and critters. He is really into stickers right now so he had a blast.

We read some "Letter G" books:

I finally got out some pasta and containers and let Jimmy play with those. He was entertained for a long time!

We worked on Jimmy's bowling skills...

I finally made these Bottle Top Name cards from 1+1+1=1. Jimmy LOVES them! I made 3 so far - Jimmy, Mommy and Daddy. He has been doing very well with them (though for this photo he wanted to just line the lids up, isn't that the way it goes lol!). I am going to make more with words to go along with the letter of the week, just need to get more lids!

Hope you enjoyed Letter G week. See you next week for fun with the Letter H!!

Make sure you head over to 1+1+1=1 to see what other tots are doing!

G is for Giraffe

Yay me! I came up with another foam letter craft all by myself!

Materials:

• Yellow Foam sheet or construction paper
• Orange Foam sheet or construction paper
• Scissors
• Googly eye
• Glue

 How to make the Letter "G" Giraffe

1. I outlined a capital G onto a sheet of yellow foam - I just used the scissors to make an impression and then cut it out. You could also trace a letter G onto the foam or paper with a pen.
2. I used the extra foam from the inside part of the G for the giraffe's head. I just free handed a head shape and cut it out. I also free handed an ear and horn on a scrap piece of yellow foam and cut them out.
3. Cut out a bunch of orange spots and a mouth and nose from the orange foam
4. Glue the head, ear, horn, and orange pieces onto the G as in the picture. 
5. Add the googly eye and you have an awesome letter G giraffe!