Paper Plate Pumpkin Craft

The first rain of the season fell early this morning. It seemed like an appropriate day to make an easy fall craft with the kids. They also needed some winding down after a fun morning of autumn initiation activities - puddle jumping and tree shaking.

{Pumpkin Plate Craft}
Paper Plate - Paint brush - Orange Paint - Construction Paper (green, brown, black) - Glue

I didn't have anything planned so I went with an old standby - paper plates. First, I read It's Pumpkin Day, Mouse, in which the mouse paints different faces on his pumpkins. Then I gave the kids a plate, brush and orange paint. While they worked at covering the entire plate orange, I asked them what face they wanted on their pumpkin (just like in the book) - happy, sad, surprised, silly or scary. They cut out the face, along with a stem and leaves. Then they glued the pieces onto their pumpkins. The leaves turned out to look more like unibrows, so you might want to try to glue crinkle paper on instead. 



Scary, Silly, and Surprised faces.


Noah loves all of Laura Numeroff's Mouse books.


As I said, the morning was spent puddle jumping and enjoying the cool air and cloudy sky.



My niece, Emma, is not afraid of getting dirty.


Noah, new to puddles, decided puddle slapping was much more entertaining. Whatever works, kid.

And there was tree shaking. The leaves aren't quite ready to fall. We only had a few takers, but a few was all we needed.

Welcome, fall. We are so glad you've arrived.

-Amanda

My work day + homeschool update

A week before Noah was born I went on "maternity leave" and 5 weeks ago I started working again. My job? Watching my sister's kids, Emma (3) and Evan (2). It's hard work, but hardly a job. Those kids are such blessings.

It's hard to find words to describe Emma. She is far beyond her 3 years. The girl is crazy smart. Tell her something once and she'll remember it for-ev-er. And she is hilarious. Noelle and Emma together make me laugh all day long. I really need to record one of their conversations. Target almost always is mentioned.

I've been watching Evan since he was around 6 months old. He is the sweetest little guy. I'm amazed by how much he has grown during the past 7 months. He speaks very well and now keeps up with the girls. Noelle and Evan play great together. She acts like his little mommy, it's so cute! She asks him if he wants to hold her hand or if he wants to play a game with her. Sometimes she reminds me to do a better job at being present for them. Last week we were walking to the park and Noelle said to Evan, "See that white car, that's the mail-lady, she brings mommy the mail from the post office." And I thought, man, I should have told him that.

Needless to say, things are busy around here. The only thing keeping my head on straight is a solid schedule. Our day goes exactly like this. 

7:45 - the E's are dropped off by my brother-in-law, Sean. Noelle and Emma quickly examine the contents of the bag Aunt Tina packed. See Noelle's face? "Wow!" I can't remember what was in there but apparently it was pretty stellar. 

7:46 - the girls are in their Princess dresses and dancing around the house. 

8:00 - Breakfast, during which the kids catch up on hot topics such as Hello Kitty, Halloween costumes, & lunch.

After breakfast we wait for Noah to wake up (usually at 8:30) then head to the park until 9:30.
It's a short 4 minute walk, but usually takes much longer because puddles are puzzling obstacles,

mailboxes are a math lesson,

 and trees tell when seasons are changing.
(Grandma taught the kids to shake trees to see if the leaves "fall." Get it?

At the park the fun begins. Their new thing is climbing up all of the slides. Apparently stairs are so last year.

Every stranger we see asks one of these questions
Are they all yours?
Are the girls twins?
Is this a daycare?
or simply,
You sure have your hands full!

Emma

While the big kids play, Noah hangs out with his toys and watches all of the park shenanigans.

Like the Chicken & Fox game. I am always chosen to be the fox, surprise surprise, who chases the chickens around the park until I catch one and "eat it."

Where on earth could those chickens be?

"She's coming...RUN!"

Probably why I've lost 8 lbs since I started watching them again. 

Anyone who is around 3-year-olds knows that it's not all fun and games. I probably say, "please share the toy" and "be nice to each other" and "no mean faces, girls" a dozen times a day.

Timeout for Noelle

On our way back from the park, Evan walks a little faster because he knows it's time for his favorite part of the day - the bounce house!
I set the bounce house up in the garage and after a water break, they go crazy. It's short-lived, between 15 and 20 minutes of bouncing, because once I say the word "snack" they are lined up at the door ready for the air conditioner and ice cold juice.

10:30 - Snack time
During snack time, I put Noah down for his 1st nap of the day. He sleeps until 12:30.

From 11 - 12 the kids play on the back porch with water. We have a water table and squirt guns. They love it.

At noon, the kids eat lunch and then we go into the play room (also the classroom) to do school work. It was challenging at first trying to get the three of them to sit quietly and work at the same time. I tried stations, but that failed. I couldn't be 3 places at once. So now, Evan sits next to me and does 2 activities (coloring, numbers, colors, matching) and the girls do their work (patterns, tracing, writing, coloring, letters, etc). So far so good with this routine.

At 1:15, I start to get the kids ready for nap time. They all go to the bathroom and then I read a book...or three. The big kids nap from 1:30 - 3:30ish, and Noah goes down for his 2nd nap from 2 - 3:30ish (when one wakes up, they all wake up).
The last hour is usually spent picking up all the toys dispersed around the house and playing in the play room. Sean picks them up around 4:30pm and then I get busy making dinner.

Noelle usually asks for more school time after dinner, so we do another 30 minutes to an hour. We both really enjoyed J is for Jesus. I found a Mary and baby Jesus printable HERE. All you need is a toilet paper roll, scissors, and tape.

I cut the pieces out and let Noelle do all of the taping. Heads up - the glue stick didn't work.

The "Mary and Jesus" on the right was printed in black and white for Noelle to color. That one is "mommy and Noah" - so sweet.

So that basically sums up a day in my life. Fun, exhausting, and completely rewarding. 

Sun Craft

It's hot.

Over 100 degrees every day. We haven't been getting out much - other than to take a dip in a pool or get some groceries so I've been keeping Noelle busy with crafts inside.

Noelle loves to do anything with paint and I'm a sucker for hand tracing so this was a great activity for us to do together.

Supplies:

Yellow craft paper

Paper Plate

Yellow finger paint

scissors

paint brush (or just use fingers)

marker

 First Noelle painted the paper plate yellow

While the plate dried I traced her hand 7 times and cut them out.

Meanwhile she practiced using her scissors.

"Mom look! I made silly pants!"

I think I may have a fashion designer on my hands.

Then Noelle glued the palm of the hands to the back of the plate to create sun rays.

And she gave her sun a smiley face.

While we were crafting our sun I talked to Noelle about the Creator who crafted the real sun.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Gen. 1:3

Lesson Learned

Last night I was hit with, "Oh my goodness, I'm going to have another baby ANY DAY!" After a minor freak out, I looked at Noelle and was overwhelmed with guilt. I've been so distracted with preparing for baby brother that I haven't spent quality alone time with her in a while.

So I made the decision to be entirely present for her today. No cleaning or organizing, no computer or phone calls. Whatever she wanted to do, we did. As usual the day started with, "Mommy, you want to play in my playroom?" We played, danced, learned and laughed.

Then while I attempted to quickly make myself semi-presentable to the world in my bathroom she asked me to paint our toes. I pulled out the nail polish box and let her pick the color...

Electric Blue!

Should be a great conversation starter in the delivery room. :)

After taking pictures of our toes she asked me to take a few pictures of her "happy faces." We practice happy face, sad face, mean face, surprised face, etc in the mirror while I do her hair. It's a great distraction when I want to put in pig tails.

Then we took a walk to the park and had a picnic. It was the most beautiful sunny day.

Me and my princess.

"What would you like to do after lunch?"

"See the puppies!"

So off to the pet store we went. We saw puppies, bunnies, turtles, fish, reptiles, birds, guinea pigs and hamsters. More fun than the zoo!

Then it was nap time. I'm exhausted but it was an amazing day. She is the sweetest little girl.

Lesson learned - Spend more time holding her hand and less time holding my phone.

The Number Game

Noelle has been working hard at learning numbers 1-10 this month. She has most of them memorized but still has some trouble with 6 and 9, and for some odd reason number 1.

Here are a few games we play every morning during breakfast and throughout the day.

We started off learning numbers 1-4 with a game we call "Number Boxes."

I saw somewhere the idea to put small objects inside boxes to teach counting, so I used what I had around the house - Tiffany boxes and wine corks (which she calls "blocks"). :)

First she mixes the boxes...

Then one by one opens them up and reads what number is on the inside of the box.

If she has trouble with recognizing the number I remind her to count the corks.

Here she is looking at the number

"Number THREE!"

I should add that she's going through a Princess stage. She insists on wearing a Princess crown and dress at. all. times.

Another game is "Butterfly Numbers." I used the strips of card stock left over from the Visitor Favors to write numbers 1-10. I also drew the same number of butterflies in case she needs help recognizing the number.

To make it a little more interesting she then finds the matching number on her phone.

Lastly we play with boring ole home-made flash cards. I mix them up and quiz her on the numbers. I also throw in a different letter each time we play.

I try to remember to make everything we do a teaching opportunity. At the store I ask her to read the price of an item we are going to buy and then put it in our cart. I love teaching my little princess. It's such a thrill when she gets it right!