Preschool Corner *Friday's Nature Table *Garden Challenge *Kids Get Crafty * Read, Explore, Learn

These are the books that have been on our theme shelves the past couple of weeks. We have enjoyed them all!

And this is what it looked like around here a couple of weeks ago.

Here are three more books that have been fun to look at and have served as resources and inspiration for many of our gardening projects.

Our Spring/Gardening Sensory Tub

Black beans for soil, green paper shreds for grass, a wind-up butterfly and kaleidoscope from Hobby Lobby, a mini-pail, shovel & rake, compostable peat pots (won't break!), packets of seed (that are to remain sealed - I left the seeds so they will make a sound when the kids shake them), and washed plant markers from some of our purchased plants. They also have their little Tinkerbell watering can nearby to use (pretend) with the tub. I still want to print off pictures of seedlings and flowers to put on craft sticks, so the kids can pretend their plants are growing.

Some of our Kid Activity Projects

I got the kids little pots.

They added faces with acrylic paint.

Left to right: Tornado, Sissy, and Dash. (I drew a face on Sissy's for her to paint.) They added soil. Tornado planted chives (which looks like grass) in his pot, and the other two planted grass. They're going to see whose pot gets some growing action first. They also added soil and grass seeds to this baking pan. We wanted to make a jungle for our animals like Mama Jenn did. They also got their Crayola brand My First Garden: pumpkin pack started. One of our main goals with gardening this year was to grow pumpkins and gourds since we always seem to spend too much money on them for decorating in the fall. The kids just had to water the little soil pellets and wait for them to plump up. Then they buried the seeds within each pellet and cover with the lid provided until we start to see seedlings sprout up.

Other Gardening

I got very energized and motivated this year to create a butterfly garden and a vegetable garden. Papaw instructed us to use our garden hose to mark off our area, then we dug it up and filled with with soil and growing material. Sissy was very determined that she was wearing the perfect outfit for gardening; after all, it did have flowers on it.

This is Dash's very own garden spot.

He planted flower seeds and lined rocks around it.

All three of the kids have been very hands-on with all of our gardening work. (Sometimes they pour too many seeds in one spot, though.) I will admit that part of my failure as a gardener in the past has been my laziness to go outside and water. But now I have 3 kids who love to play in the water water plants, so that's great! Sissy especially loved adding little shiny stones to the indoor plants.

I'm very excited about all of my houseplants!

I had a bunch of old craft sticks the kids once decorated. We used those to label all of the indoor and outdoor plants. There are a couple of vegetables outside labeled "mystery vegetable" because somehow we got them mixed up. Adds to the excitement, I guess!

During a break in planting, the kids used all of the empty pot containers to set up an "icecream store." We all had to buy something from Sissy.

In our garden: we mostly chose flowers that are especially suited for a butterfly garden.

We have flowers, vegetables, and herbs all mixed everywhere within the borders of the garden and outside. We'll see how it goes.

Papaw generously donated two park benches he wasn't using. For the outline, we re-used stones that were on less obvious parts of our property.

And here are the pots on one side of our front steps. I was especially excited about my new little gnome (and 3 little owls not shown). I've always wanted gnomes in my garden. The kids did, too, after seeing Gnomeo and Juliet.

I printed off the Garden Pack, which is really cute, from Homeschool Creations. We were technically too late to enter the first link-up for the Gardening Challenge at Homeschool Village, but we took on the "challenge," regardless.

Link-ups:

Read, Explore, Learn at JDaniel4's Mom

Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations

Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted Art

HSV Garden Challenge at The Homeschool Village

Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onion

Project 365: Sprinkler

Saturday, April 9

The kids played in the sprinkler today after we got home from Dash's soccer game. Sissy was the only one who actually bothered going upstairs and putting on a swimsuit. Tornado wore pants, and Dash even left on his soccer socks.

Project 365: The Wonder Place

Friday, April 8

I had a great day. (The only bad part of our day was: still no air-conditioning in our car! It was hot today!) One of our babysitters met the two youngest ones and me at The Wonder Place in Little Rock. She supervised them for 3 whole hours (I checked on them by text periodically to see if they were ready to go yet, but they weren't!) while I ran errands and ate lunch with my husband.

They performed a little puppet show for me when I came to pick them up.

Help! I'm being attacked by a shark!

We went to the mall next because I had a gift certificate to Gap. Dash has been really into "fashion" lately (not kidding!), and he needed some new clothes. I wanted him to pick out his own things. (He actually didn't like this outfit I picked out for him to wear today; he didn't think it looked "good enough." I convinced him he wanted to wear something sporty and comfortable to The Wonder Place.) It's so cute the way he goes in his closet at home and puts outfits together. Then he uses water to fix his hair at the mirror. I'm not making fun of him at all, but it makes me giggle; I love it!

Project 365: Tennis Anyone?

Thursday, April 7

After supper tonight, Ryan took the kids to play tennis in town. I know Dash in particular has been rarin' to get to the courts.

What a sweet group of kids who always get along and always obey their parents.

They also got to run around the park for awhile!

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Lori at The Davidson Den is hosting a giveaway for Seeds Family Worship cd's. These seem like a great way to help (you and) your child memorize scripture in a fun way. Head on over; the giveaway ends Sunday, April 10!

Project 365: And Now I'm Caught Up

Hopefully, now, I will go back to my daily Project 365 posts instead of letting it pile up on me like this. It makes it really hard to keep up with "what" happened "when." So - disclaimer - I'm not 100% positive every picture goes with every day, but if not, it's pretty close, and the information is accurate. This is the point in which my sister Cary would say, "Just post a picture and make up a date," just like she may or may not have done in her scrapbook. I have "weird" honesty/accuracy requirements for myself, though. I'm honest. I'm "weird" like that.

Sunday, April 27

The bad part about today is Daddy (Ryan) left us for 5 whole days. Booooo! He had job training in Dallas. The good thing is he was able to take a few days off last week during Spring Break. He worked a lot outside, trimming, cleaning up our land...

and mowing. It now seems like our 1.25 acres is so much bigger. He finished up right before he left to make his flight.

The kids and I went to Sam's Club with Mom and Dad. And, YAY!, I now have my own card.

Monday, March 28

Today, my sister-in-law sent me these pictures of my nieces and nephews. My 9 year old niece sold out her wares at this craft fair.

And how beautiful are they at a fashion show?

Tuesday, March 29

I now have the butterfly/vegetable garden I've always wanted. It's a work in progress, though, so more will be added.

Happy birthday to my now 6 year old!

Wednesday, March 30

I also have some houseplants now! Because our house is designed so contemporary, it doesn't always feel very "homey" to me. That has been my project lately: make our house a home. I think the plants help, plus I always like having indoor plants for improving air quality.

Thursday, March 31

My 6 year old and I have been butting heads a lot lately. I wouldn't normally want my kids out of my sight for this long, but my parents happened to ask if they could take him on a mini-vacay at just the right moment (my breaking point). I also thought it would be helpful as I was cleaning house and getting ready for his Saturday birthday party. My Mom texted me this picture today of him with his 2 year old cousin.

I'm afraid he wasn't always on his best behavior...

...but at least he got to spend time with loved ones. And I know he appreciated the special attention.

Friday, April 1

I was ahead of the game this time. Most of the party decorations are prepared and were hung by the time I went to bed.

*Best parts of the day: Daddy and Dash both came home! Yay! Ryan pulled into the driveway several hours before I thought his flight even arrived.

Also - I didn't realize it was April Fool's Day until later on in the day. Tornado, Sissy, and I were going to Wal-Mart. I was trying as hard as I could to think of a fun prank to pull on the kids, but nothing was coming to me. I finally just looked in the rear view mirror and exclaimed, "(His real name), there's a worm on your head!" He immediately started squealing, bouncing up and down, and swiping at his head before I said, "April Fools!" He thought that was really funny.

However, I soon regretted even bringing up the holiday because those two would not let it go. The entire ride to Wal-Mart and the entire walk around Wal-Mart consisted of one joke after the next. And they weren't terribly funny, either; bless their hearts. :) It was all, "Mom! There's an airplane on the ceiling...April Fools!", "There's a monster! April Fools!" I tried to laugh and play along the best I could...but this got old really quickly.

This was actually the funniest one: there was some sort of advertisement on the baby carrots package about a "trip to Hollywood." So Tornado said, "Mom! The carrots are going to Hollywood...April Fools!" haha.

Saturday, April 4

My 6 year old's big birthday party. Pictures to come...professional photographer took them, and I don't have them back yet.

Sunday, April 3

Lots more life left in the big cardboard boxes we used for fun and decoration at Dash's birthday party.

Monday, April 4

Sissy is running to see Daddy as he pulled into the driveway. She was breathlessly saying, "Daddy's home, Daddy's home" the whole time.

Tuesday, April 5

Ryan did the dishes for me after I went to bed - for the second night in a row! And since my friend Ambra washed all of my dishes after the birthday party, I'm getting very spoiled.

Wednesday, April 6

The kids found a bag of marbles that I had hidden when Dash was younger. (He was terrible about putting small objects in his mouth. I had to go through the house and bag up EVERYTHING that was a choking hazard. I didn't have to do that with the other two.) Anyway, the have been playing marbles all morning!

They make ramps with objects on the train table. Apparently, soccer shin guards make great ramps.

Project 365: And Now the Big Catch Up Begins

March 20

My daughter is a collector of little pieces of paper. Ryan and I are afraid she's going to end up on Hoarders one day. Here is a sample of what is in her "bag" at any given time. Of course, there's Googie's business card from her previous real estate company, a tag I cut out of her dress, a price tag, and play money.

A couple of days ago, she had a purse full of tiny cut up pieces of paper. As we were getting back into the car at Wal-Mart, several pieces of the paper fell out, some of them blowing away. She squealed in horror, "My papers!" I was ridiculously trying to save as many of these pieces of trash as I could.

This is a picture of one of her cubbies in her room. Cards she has made, little coloring sheets, index cards, stickers, scribbled on church prayer request forms, the cardboard that comes with sticker pages - and one of her favorite things: the subscription forms that fall out of magazines. If she sees one, her hand reaches out as quick as possible to snatch that little treasure.

One of her babysitters was here the other day, helping us hang up laundry, and she pulled a price tag off one of her new dresses. Sis immediately latched onto it. "Can I have that?" - and put it with the rest of her "things."

March 21

Sissy made a floating vase with the dandelion flowers she picked for me.

May 22

This is the thing I DO NOT understand about my youngest son. There are moments he comes to me with his head hanging down, "I did something you're not going to like." or "I'm sorry; I didn't something really bad." He's remorseful and asks "if I'm mad at him." Examples of these times: spilling water on the floor, accidentally getting a hole in his pants - or like this time, sneaking paint out of the house and painting an old tire and parts of their "clubhouse" they had been working on. (You know, things that I'm not mad about at all.)

I have NO IDEA why these accidents and moments of silly childhood fun cause him to care about punishment or disappointing me. Because the talking back, the fighting with his siblings, the running from me - you know, the things I really do care about...these things don't seem to register with him.

This was the clubhouse area with our shiny black painted tire.

March 23

Look out. Ornery meets Ax.

Speaking of "ornery," as we were leaving my parents' house, Dash informed me he had put this thorny branch in the driveway so that it would poke a hole in Papaw's tires. Typically, his orneriness is not mean-spirited, and I really don't think he meant this as such. It was just an example of the curiosity, clever, and jokester within him melding together.

March 24

Dash and Sissy used this old dog bowl they found outside to make, what they called "mud pies." I caught them trying to put it in the oven. I did let them put it in the oven, but I obviously did not give in to their pleas to really cook it. I really hope I made it clear that 1) Plastic (and also dirt, for that matter) is not meant to be cooked in the oven. And 2) They are, under no circumstances allowed to start the oven on their own for any reason.

March 25

Big work day outside. I happened to look out the side window to see Dash trying every which way to unattach his coat sleeve from the bird feeder. Not sure how that happened. Daddy soon came to the rescue.

March 26

After another day of working outside, this is the game that my little ones created. We heard and saw them running around the house, chasing each other, and squealing for the longest time. We finally realized they would go to the outside faucet, fill their mouths with water, and play chase. Then, they would end up spraying their mouthfuls of water at each other.

Enlarge the pics to appreciate these great action shots.