Fire trucks, pumpkins, and Tot school oh my!

So we have been so busy around here lately and I have not been in the blogging mood. We are finally getting this place in order so we can put it up for sale and it looks so good. Now we just have to keep it this way which is not easy with two little ones running around.

On a side note I feel I have to address our pictures... I have noticed most of the time my boys are not dressed or half dressed... Ok we do get dressed everyday. Most of the time we do school in the morning before we head upstairs to make beds and get ready for the day. A also dislikes pajamas most of the time and likes to sleep in his pull up so in the morning I usually do not put him in them until we get dressed. He is also potty training which helps explain the pants missing most of the time. With M, he is a terror to change and get dressed. He wants nothing to do with it so a cute little clothed bottom you get to see most of the time. Ok... so we do get dressed just in case anyone else noticed that most of my pictures my boys are missing clothing.

We have been doing a pumpkin theme this month and A is loving it. He has learned the 5 little pumpkins song so most our activities I have tired to base around that.

we made a five little pumpkin folder which I used to keep all of his worksheets 

Our pumpkin craft A made for his favorite neighbor Miss Barb. 

Some of our Pumpkin worksheets and activities... Thank you Confessions of a Homeschooler!

 Here we were sorting pumpkins into the correct cup. Each pumpkin had a number on it. It was fun for oh about 30 seconds and then A decided it was time to put them all in one cup and mix them up... I am so glad he has so much patience (insert sarcastic tone here).

This worksheet, A had to color the 3 pumpkins and them I cut them out and he had to glue them in order, Large, Medium and small. He actually did really good but was a little confused since he was not familiar with the word or concept of "medium".


I was so excited to introduce this simple beginning pattern worksheet for A. I had no clue if patterns were even in his range of ability but he got it! I had to slow him down and repeat the pattern a few times but I was so happy that he was able to comprehend.

 Here is the sweetest picture. A was so excited he completed the worksheet. I am so glad he gets proud of himself. 

Here we were sorting pumpkins sizes again. A tolerated this one a little bit longer but as soon as I got up to take care of our Itty Bitty, that was the end. 

We continued on our slow lesson of Creation. We are on day 6 now. A had to color a six and them place stickers on it. He also did a worksheet where he had to place his fingerprints on. He really enjoyed this. 

This may not look like much but to my sweet little A, he had spelled his name. In sheer excitement he ran over to me in the kitchen yelling "mama mama, me spell A...." 

A fun game we played was a color hop. I called out a color and my little jumping bean had to hop to that color. 

some miscellaneous activities we did were...

"help" his little brother with his school

practice cutting

cut and paste dino number matching worksheet

We have also had many field trips over the last couple of weeks. 

We had a play date at the zoo with our good friends Jessica, her two little ones, Angela and her new baby. Us mama's got to talk cloth diapers which we all do and love and the little ones, got to play. 

We also attended the open house at the fire station right down the street from us. To A this was as good as Christmas morning. A LOVES anything "fire truck man".

Our township had a Halloween event for young kids at the local park. They got to walk a path and get candy, pick a pumpkin out of a pumpkin patch, and have cider and donuts. I think as Christian parents we have struggled with how much "Halloween" we allow into our children's life.  As A and M get older I am realizing that they are surrounded by "Halloween" and we don't want to seclude them but edit and filter what they participate in. So for right now our take is they can dress up in nothing "dark", We avoid typical Halloween type items such as skulls, ghosts, vampires and such, and we participate is church events instead of trick or treating. 

Cider Mill

Lastly on one of our nicer days, I took the boys to one of our parks. A is starting to get more daring which means this mama's heart is starting to jump out of my chest. A did really good but did get his feet caught under him while trying to go down a slide and face planted on the ground. Luckily he was ok, but that was enough for me. How am I going to survive this age!

And here was just a sweet (rare) moment between the boys. 

Climbing to new Heights

These past two weeks have been busy and exciting. A started gymnastics and absolutely loves it. We have been wanting to put him in it for awhile but last week I decided it was time. His first class, he did cry when him and daddy when out there but he soon got over that and was jumping on the trampoline like a pro.

We continued our study of creation and worked on Day 5. A got to color fish and glue pictures of different types of birds on his number 5.

A is ABSOLUTELY obsessed with the moon. We have no idea why or where it came from but if he sees it he starts screaming and every night daddy has to take him outside to see it. If there is a book with a moon in the picture we are not allowed to turn the page. Since this is one of his new passions, I decided to do an art project and make a moon. I read somewhere (sorry I can't remember) to mix glue and shaving cream to create a puffy paint. A colored to moon yellow first and then he had a good time spreading the puffy paint on. After we sprinkled it with some glitter. Needless to say this was on of his favorite projects and the moon is now being displayed next to out TV per request of A. 

Messy Hands!!

This is before it was completely dried. I did cut it out that evening. 

A loves his worksheets and so do I. A gets very excited to use his school pencils. This week we worked on our pre-writing skills. A is getting a little better but still has a hard time focusing and slowing down. He would much rather just make a circle. 

I also introduced a new worksheet to A. I wanted to see where he was at and if he could understand the concept. On the worksheet there were objects shown from different angles and you had to match them. A totally understood the concept and could match them all. He did have trouble drawing the line from one object to another so I had to help him with that. 

A also got to make "Jesus Corn" anything that we do christian related, we label "Jesus" for A. This helps him connect what he is doing. I found the printable a very long time ago and came across it when trying to organize my stuff. The actual printable was two hard for A so we adapted and made our own Corn with q-tip painting. 

Black - I was lost in the darkness

Red - Jesus died and shed his blood for me

White - Now I am clean and mu sins have been forgiven

Blue - I have been baptized in the Holy Spirit

Green - I am growing in my relationship with God

Yellow - I have the promise of eternal life to walk on streets of gold. 

At the dollar store I had picked up these paper fish. I did not know what I was going to do with them so I just had then laying around. I decided to try a more interactive game which because of our Itty Bitty Infant M, we do not get to do very much. I put some letters that I knew A could recognize along with some shapes and numbers and we went "fishing". In theory this would have worked a lot better but A didn't seem to mind at all and even continued playing it later in the day. 

The tape wasn't that sticky so A decided to just press it on the fish he wanted to catch. M Is lending a hand.

A got use his imagination a lot these past weeks. I am so amazed at the things he comes up with.  A and his daddy were playing a guessing game where A had to act out something and I had to guess. A acted out a mailman and loved this. The next morning he woke up and wanted to play mailman again so we decided to make him his own mail carrier. 

A asked for my brush one afternoon. When I asked what he needed it for he said he had to brush teddy's hair. I didn't think anything of it but when I walked into his room this is what I saw. 

I asked him what he was doing and he said he was cutting teddy's hair. We cut A's hair at home with his daddy's clippers and he was pretending to do the same to his teddy. 

And as we enter another fall in Michigan, our weather is so unpredictable. One day its 90 and the next its 60. We decided to use the nice days while we have them so we headed to the park. We do not get to go very much because its hard chasing two little ones going in two directions and with the water at our park, it makes me nervous. This particular visit was a very important one for A. He finally ventured to the top of the "big" slide on the little kids play structure. 

And here is a favorite picture from this week. I had to get up and go do something so I asked A to cuddle his brother for me. He did such a good job.