Sportin' Daddy's New Hat

Quinny decided it was time for her to start supporting our family teams. We are supporters of both the Tarheels and the Seminoles and we are teaching the girls to be fans as well.

First Day of Mommy School

This year I am having Mommy preschool in our house. I found a plan online to teach Ellie some basic skills this year and I am adding some skills I have of my own. After teaching from 2 year olds to 2nd grade since I was 16 in a variety of environments I am now able to use my skills on my own children. Ellie already knows her basic colors and shapes as well as all her uppercase letters as we have been working on them, but this year we will review them and learn to write them as well as work on numbers. I have so many materials from my teaching years and as I got things together to teach her I realized I kind of missed those teaching years. I have not been in the classroom in almost 3 years after being in a classroom in some capacity for around 12 years so I am excited to dust off those old supplies and get to work having fun. We are also doing a theme a week, which was suggested on the lesson ideas I found online, and I have decided on a theme for each month as well. Last week we learned about cows and this week we are excited to learn about the jungle. Our theme for the month is apples. Last week we worked on the letter A, number 1, the shape of a square and learned about cow facts and sang cow songs, read cow books, did cow crafts and read cow poems. We also sorted beads and animals by color. We work together for about an hour and on Fridays we get to do crafts involving our theme for the month, apples. This week we did apple prints as our craft. A friend of mine taught her girls last year and found a calendar with crazy days for every day of the week, like cheese pizza day or read a book day. I looked it over and picked a fun day for each week and last week we had cheese pizza day and made cheese pizzas for dinner that day. Ellie got to make her own little cheese pizza and she loved it.

I am just as excited as she is to have school time at home. I love crafts and fun activities and am having a great time watching her learn as that is the reason I wanted to be a teacher. Watching a child learn and absorb information is one of the most rewarding things in my life and I am happy to be able to use my teaching techniques on my own children now. We would love for Ellie to be able to experience a year in preschool, just a couple days a week and just a morning program, which they do at tons of churches around us, before she heads off to elementary school. We a couple years before we would look at doing that and at this point I love teaching her the skills she is ready for and stretching her to learn new things every day.

We are looking forward to learning more next week and having chocolate milkshake day (I think Daddy is going to enjoy these special days just as much as Ellie and I.)

 

Learning fine motor skills

 

Our Classroom

 

Bead Sorting

 

Making Pizza

 

One Cow Craft

 

While Ellie is at school, Quinny is busy growing while sleeping or playing on her play mat or sometimes watching her own learning program on her Baby Einstein videos. She has been wonderful and has not been fussy at all while we are busy at school.

 

Apple Prints (Daddy was pretty impressed with the finished product!)

Last Family Trip to the Pool

Labor Day was the last time for us to go to the pool for the summer as a family. We loved going to the pool all summer and got our money's worth for sure. Next year it will be easier as Quinn will be older and can enjoy it more. We had a great time and are looking forward to joining the pool again next year!

Family Beach Time

We love going to the beach every year! We look forward to going from the moment we leave the year before. It is the one trip we take that is just our family and it is always at the end of the summer when Ben is done with his crazy busy summer and it is right before the craziness of fall starts up. We usually go for 3 nights and 2 full days and are blessed to be able to stay at a great beach condo owned by our friend's parents. They let us stay there at the family rate which is an unbelievable rate for such a beautiful place. Without their extreme generosity year after year there is no way we would be able to have such a wonderful family vacation.

We got there on Wednesday and settled in and hit the beach. The first day and half was cloudy but we headed out to the beach anyways and even though it rained a little bit we stayed out there since there was no thunder or lightning and it was great. All the kids were back in school so the beach was not crowded and the girls did great. Last year Ellie really took to the beach and this year was no different. She loves the water. We would get out there at low tide and Ben and I would switch off who sat down at the water and played with her while the other one sat with Quinn who enjoyed some good beach naps. Quinn also liked the water and did great at the beach with no complaints. The first day we went out in the morning, went back for naps and then came back out in the afternoon and the second day we stayed in all morning and then did a long 6 hour stint in the afternoon, which worked out great. We did not even go to the pool this year since we had been going all summer and we wanted to enjoy the beach as much as we could. We played a lot, made sandcastles, collected shells, went on family walks on the beach, ate great food and had a family movie night watching "The Lorax", which was really cute, but nothing like the original, which I loved as a kid. We are already looking forward to next year, Ellie actually asked today if we could go to the beach next week. I told her Daddy had to work and we would have to wait until next year and she said Quinny and her and I could go and Daddy could stay home to work. (She obviously LOVED the beach as she never wants to leave Daddy behind when we go places.)

 

Not happy we were leaving her at home.

 

Getting ready for the beach.

 

This is the life!

 

Beach wore her out!

 

And wore her out too!

 

Loving her first trip to the beach!

Play Date for Quinn

Ellie has a great group of friends and gets to have play dates all the time geared for her, but Quinn has a social calendar of her own. She has a few friends of her own that were all born within a few months, weeks and even days of her and she is getting to see them just like Ellie gets to see her friends. She has her friend Laine and her new friend Beck. She loves to get together with her friend Kendall, who is Ethan's sister, so that is great for Ellie since her buddy is Ethan and she has a little friend named Avery. We had Avery over to the house so the girls could play and the mommies could visit. Avery was due about a week before Quinn but ended up coming 2-3 weeks after her as Avery wasn't quite as ready as Quinn was to come out into this world. Ben and I used to be in a small group with Avery's mom and dad pre-kids and it is great to be able to still get together in this new phase of life. We are looking forward to another couple of play dates before Avery's mommy goes back to work.

Playing Around with My Sister

Quinn loves Ellie and Ellie loves to play with Quinn. It brings so much joy to my heart to watch them play together and to pray over their growing relationship. I can't wait to watch them grow together and watch their relationship as sisters develop. Right now Quinn is mesmerized by Ellie and Ellie adores Quinn and I pray that their adoration for one another continues at the end of every day in their lives no matter what the days battles may be.

Ellie and Her Man

Ben was doing a volunteer push a few weeks ago and needed some props. He brought home three of these men for me to cut out so he could put them together and Ellie loved them and requested a smile, which is what she calls pictures, with them. This is the only young man she will be getting close to for quite some time as I am sure her Daddy will not be letting her get close to any boys for quite some time. :)

Quinny Jumperoo

Quinn tried out her Johnny Jump Up and was OK with it. We will give it another whirl next week. Ellie loved it once Quinn got out and she could put all her dolls and animals in it one at a time and swing them. Ellie asks me to put the swing up for her dolls all the time now so at least someone gets good use out of it! :)

 

Needed to rehydrate after all that jumping and swinging.