Crafts, Letters and Numbers

We have been busy today. This morning while Gavin was at preschool and Austin was napping, Kaitlynn and I did our first craft together. We made a corn on the cob and glued popcorn onto it. It took Kaitlynn a few minutes to get what I was doing, but once it was time to glue the popcorn on, she took over. She dipped the popcorn into the glue and put it on her cob with no problem. She really enjoyed squishing the popcorn too!




When Gavin got home, he worked on his numbers and recognizing uppercase and lowercase 'B'. Then he made a toilet paper roll bee craft. He really enjoyed gluing on the stripes!




Austin tried apricots today. He loved them. So far the only thing he hasn't been thrilled with is peas. I think because they were jarred peas and canned peas are always gross. We'll try again when he can eat real peas. Tomorrow he's going to have green beans. I also think he's teething. He is drooling everywhere and is constantly chewing on his hand. But, he's still happy most of the time!

On a side note, this week I made a recipe for veggie cobbler I found in this month's Family Fun magazine. It was really good! It has peas, carrots, corn, potato and squash (it's supposed to have broccoli too but I forgot to get some until I was already in line at the grocery store - next time!) in a vegetable broth with a cup of milk in it to make it like a chowder. Then you make corn bread batter and pour it on top. It turned out really good!

Our Kitchen

Here are some before and after pictures of our kitchen. It's not exactly done. We still need new countertops and lighting and to get our dining room table out of storage, but, it's so much better than when we started. We started with horrible, dingy, country wallpaper and barn red beadboard. The ceiling had cobwebs and dust all over it.
I stripped the wall paper and just doing that helped a lot. Then Steven took all the popcorn off the ceiling painted it. I finally settled on a color thanks to my Aunt Joan. She came over to help me pick out colors for the house and then came back the next day to bring me a book of paint colors from Pottery Barn. I love Pottery Barn and had no idea they had colors picked out! So, the kitchen is a Pottery Barn color (Benjamin Moore paint) called Hawthorne Yellow. I think it's beautiful and cheery. The beadboard is Windham Cream, another Benjamin Moore color. I found a super deal on some botanical prints on eBay and they bring in some more color. I really like it! Steven hasn't said anything about it so I assume he likes it too! Enjoy!

A Beautiful Day

Well today turned into a beautiful day! After the kids woke up from their naps (even Gavin took a nap today!) we went out on the deck to enjoy the warm sunshine for a while. I cleaned up the sand and water table and put some water in and Gavin and Kaitlynn had a great time pouring, splashing and tossing water everywhere!






After we came back inside, dried up and changed, the kids played all afternoon. Gavin built a tower of Duplos and then tap danced around it.





Kaitlynn actually managed to build a tower five blocks high with regular blocks but I didn't get a picture because I was holding the bottom blocks steady for her. Austin was trying to put everything into his mouth. I gave him some different teethers but he just can't keep anything in his mouth even if he can get it in there. I did get a picture of him napping! Lots of fabrics in that picture...

Toddler Fun

So this morning, I got out some toys that Gavin used to play with when he was a toddler. I thought Kaitlynn would enjoy having some more age appropriate toys to play with while Gavin plays knight. However, Gavin decided that he really wanted to play with the toys too since they were obviously much cooler than what he was already doing. So they played together!




Then Kaitlynn decided to read a book after spending a while talking on the phone.


Austin hung out in his car for a while and then took a nap! He's been napping a lot the last few days so I think he's having a little growth spurt.

Sidewalk Chalk and Books

This morning, Gavin and Kaitlynn colored on the front porch with sidewalk chalk. Gavin drew fire trucks and ladders. Kaitlynn tried drawing for a few minutes, she even tried to color the flowers, but then she decided that it was more fun to take the chalk out of the can and put it back in. Then we came back inside and Gavin read Robinson Crusoe to Kaitlynn - it sounded a lot like the lyrics to Yankee Doodle. Then we read one of our library books about bees. Kaitlynn was not super interested in the bees. I don't really blame her.

Meet Kaitlynn

Kaitlynn is going to be staying at our house part time. So far she is making herself at home and Gavin is really enjoying having someone to play with. This morning they played together in the kitchen for a long time. In fact, that's what they are playing with again right now!

Painting

After working on his letters, Gavin made a bee painting. First he glued circles together in front of a hexagon to make a bee coming out of a hive, then used a crayon to add six legs, a face and antennae, then he painted around the hive. He did a great job! Usually he only uses two or three colors and most of the paper is left unpainted, but today he used lots of colors and painted everything! It looks really nice. While he was painting, Gavin told me about bees, including the little known facts that they only come out at night when it's going to rain which is why there are black storm clouds and a sunset in his picture.

P.S. Gavin doesn't have a shirt on because he was painting today. It's just easier that way!

Beginning Sounds

Well yesterday we were busy doing laundry and getting out our fall clothes and putting away our summer clothes. I think Gavin was a little upset I didn't have any activities planned for him. So today we worked on identifying capital and lower case 'A' and then cut out pictures of objects that begin with a 'B' and glued them onto a beehive. I guess I should mention that Gavin is interested in bees right now so we went to the library on Tuesday and got some books about bees so we will be doing bee projects for the next week or so. Gavin is very proud of himself because he knows his letters so well - he doesn't even need my help anymore!

Learning Letter 'A'

Technically, Gavin already knows his letters and the sounds they make, however, they are learning letter 'A' at preschool this week so we are working on letter 'A' at home. If he's going to learn to read in French he has to learn in English too! So it was really simple and took him about two minutes to do two worksheets. He is really good at picking out beginning sounds in words. He had fun though because I got out the markers!

More Food for Austin

The doctor told me a couple weeks ago that Austin would only eat a teaspoon or two a day and gradually work his way up to more food. So I've been holding back on the baby food because I worry that giving him too much at once is bad for his stomach. This afternoon he was acting like he was starving and he'd just had a bottle about an hour before that so I fed him a pouch of mango (I found some frozen baby food that comes in little pouches but they have the same amount of food as the jars). Anyway, he ate the entire package! Then he polished that off with half a jar of banana. He was so excited and happy while he was eating I didn't want to take it away from him. Hopefully he won't get a tummy ache!