DEVELOPING A SWEET TOOTH

Now that I don't have to be as careful what Morgan eats, I've let her have small amounts of "sweets" which she LOVES, of course. She has had a lollipop, smarties, candy corn, and cookies. Today, I was making some cupcakes with candy corn on top, so I gave her one of the candy corns. Of course she said, "More pease!" So, I gave her one more and said, "Okay. One more." She responded by looking at me and saying, "No, how 'bout five?" Oh boy. I kinda liked it when she didn't know what sweets were!

TOT SCHOOL WEEK OF SEPT. 20 - A IS FOR ANTS

Another week of Tot School is posted on our Tot School Blog. Go check it out!

TOT SCHOOL - WEEK OF SEPT. 13

Another week of Tot School is posted HERE if you are interested in seeing all the fun we had last week with our apple theme!

PUMPKIN PRINCESSES

Even though it was hot and windy today, we ventured out to the pumpkin farm with Cousin Molly. Morgan was intrigued by all the pumpkins and gourds and kept bringing me little ones that she liked. Grandma ended up buying her some big pumpkins and how could I resist her the cute little pumpkins that she kept carrying around? We tried to take some pictures of the two cousins, but it was windy and my camera was on the wrong setting for most of it (and I didn't know it), so a lot of the pictures are blurry. Plus, it's hard to get a one year old and a two year old to both look at the camera and smile at the same time....even with Grandma putting pumpkins and stuffed monkeys on her head.....

And of course, we had to see all the animals.....

What a fun day at the pumpkin farm!

JOYFUL CREATIONS

I am going to put in a little plug / advertisement here for my mom's little business called "Joyful Creations." I personally think she is very talented and sells her stuff at very reasonable prices. She crochets it all herself and has super adorable stuff!

She sells hats (both kids and adults), flower hair clips (for kids and adults), flower headbands, and flower brooches / pins.

Here are some of her pins and flower clips. I just LOVE the ones with the buttons!

Isn't this little girl hat so adorable? The flowers are interchangeable.....you just "unbutton it" and put on a different one.

This is one of her adult hats. Again, the flower can be changed by just "unbuttoning" it.

Aren't these adorable???????? They can be for boys or girls, and she can make any size.

And this is Morgan sporting one of the headband flowers. Again, you can change the flower to whatever color you want. It's so handy to just switch the flower based on the outfit. Morgan also has a brown headband and a black one that I can change the flowers on as well. (Aren't I lucky to have so many cute things at my disposal?)

Here's just another picture showing Morgan's headband and me wearing one of the brooches / pins. (I can also wear it in my hair, too, because she made it with both a hairclip and a brooch pin on the back. How cool is that?)

And this is an old picture, but it shows me wearing a flower clip in my hair, and Morgan wearing a smaller one.

Anyway, here are her prices for anyone interested:

Flowers (brooches or hair pins) - $5

Children's hats with detachable / interchangeable button flowers - $15

Pumpkin and teddybear hats - $15

Headbands with 1 interchangeable button flower - $6 (additional interchangebale flowers - $4)

Adult hats - $20

Sorry for the plug, but I really adore what she does and I'm proud of her! (Can you tell?) If anyone is interested in anything, just let me know! Okay, I'm done now! :)

IT RAINED ON OUR PARADE

Well, I don't have much to share from the P-Fest parade today, because as many of you know quite well who read this blog that it really did rain on our parade today. It started lightning and thundering and they had to stop the parade. We were lucky enough to be at the start of the parade and at least got to see the high school and junior high bands as well as a fire engine and ELMO before it started pouring. Oh well. Morgan didn't seem too bummed by it. After all, she got to see Grandpa Doug, got to eat some smarties candy, and she got to see Elmo! She did enjoy watching the rain from the covered porch of the house we were at, and she kept saying, "Jesus make thunder."

GO BIRDS!

It was homecoming this weekend at Jared's school, so we enjoyed an evening at the homecoming football game. Morgan is at an age where she is really starting to enjoy it, and we can stay longer. We met up with Daddy and ate pork chop sandwiches for dinner, then we went and sat on the big hill on our blanket to watch the game. Some friends met us for a bit as well.

Goofy girl started doing her "exercises" right in the grass in front of everyone. What a hoot.

Then, since she was laying on the hill (with her head going down the hill), she got "stuck" and couldn't get up. LOL!

Clapping for yet another touchdown!

Yelling, "Go Birds!" She's got this down this year! It makes Daddy proud!

Taking a break for some yummy fruit snacks. Another new favorite of hers.

Getting sleepy..... We never stay for the whole game. (Good thing we get in free thanks to Daddy's job.) I always open the windows, though, at home, and most nights, I can tell if they win or not (which they always do) by how many times I hear the band and the horns and cheers.

FUN AT THE P-FEST!

Once again we headed to the P-Fest with Grandma Joy and Grandpa Doug. Morgan had so much fun and fell asleep (snoring) in the car on the way home!


Watching the Kiddie Parade with Grandpa Doug.

Morgan ate a whole hot dog, part of Grandma's pork chop sandwich, and almost this whole bag of chips....which were mine, by the way! Chips are her new favorite "snack." Later in the evening, she even ate a kiddie cone from the DQ.....WITH the ice cream IN it! (Well, I ate out the majority of the ice cream but left enough in it for her to enjoy.) So far, she is still able to tolerate milk products in small amounts, so she got to experience a REAL DQ cone!

This year, Grandma Joy thought Morgan should experience some rides. Only that meant that I had to go on the rides, too. Oh joy. :) This picture is blurry, but it was a huge hit with MJ! After the first ride down, she said, "Do again!" So, back up we went! :) I didn't mind this one too much.

But I have to say the Wiggly Worm ride and the little train weren't necessarily thrilling for me. However, Morgan still talks about riding the train and the duck (for some reason she calls the worm ride a duck), so it was worth it, I suppose. :)

I just love this picture of Morgan. It captures her pure joy and excitement!

We're headed to the parade tomorrow, so I am sure more pictures will be forthcoming!

CALENDAR TIME

Morgan and I started our new tot school "curriculum" this week which focuses on a theme for the week that also incorporates a letter, number, shape and color of the week. I kinda made it up myself from borrowing and stealing ideas from a whole bunch of different sites and blogs. We also started a calendar time in the mornings. We do it right before she does her tot trays. Right now, it takes about 5-10 minutes, but I'll add stuff to it as she gets older and has a longer attention span. We've only done it two days, but so far, she loves it!

Here is our calendar board. I start off by having her put up the new number for the date. Then, she uses her special pointer to point to each number as we count them all. She can verbally count well to 13, then skips a few and says, "20!" But she only recognizes numbers 0-9. So, I am hoping that the repetition of this counting and pointing every day will help her count consistently to 20 and also to recognize the double digit numbers. Again, it's the daily repetition that is key. After counting the date, we sing our "Today Is...." song and our "Days of the Week" song together.

Then, we add a new paper clip to our board as we learn about patterns. I point to each clip and say the color in each row, and when it gets to the new one, I have her tell me what color we need. Then, she picks out the paper clip from a cup and puts it on. She thinks this is so fun. For now, I make each row on the board the same pattern, starting over each time at the beginning of the row. In first grade, we continued the pattern over the whole board, not starting over at each row. But I thought that would confuse Morgan.

After our clip patterns, we sit by our pocket chart and work on the color, number, and letter of the week. I take out the letter tiles spelling the color of the week and have her look at the word card to put the letter tiles in order (with my help of course as needed). Then, we use our special pointer and I say, "Good morning, red." (she repeats) Then, we do our color chant as we point to each letter. ( I do it first, and she repeats.) She really thinks the whole repeating thing is funny. Next, for our number, I help her trace the number with her finger as we say our "chant" for how to make the number. For instance, number one is "Pull straight down and then you're done. That is how you make a one." Next, we use buttons in the shape of the week to count out that number. This week it's easy with one. But she already has gotten the concept because she points to it and says, "One." Then stops and looks at me and says, "Just one." For our letter of the week, we take down the letter poster from our calendar board and we trace the letters with the pointer or our fingers and we sing the Leapfrog song from her fridge phonics toy that teaches the sound of the letter. Then, in the pocket chart, I have her tell me the letter and sound again and we add a new picture of something that starts with that sound.

And then, she sits in her little recliner as I read her a few books that go along with our theme of the week. Finally, we move to the computer and she gets to watch some kind of little video about the letter or number or theme of the week.

OUR NEW PLAYROOM

Morgan got to play in her new playroom for the first time the other day, and she loves it! It feels good to have it done! Of course, there are lots of things I still want to do (like paint the colored bin shelf and the table and chairs white), but for now, it's functional. There are still empty shelves and bins, too, but that's okay. It will give us room to "grow" as we get more toys and "stuff" in the future. I also want to put out some games and puzzles and some of her educational toys, too, eventually. It's nice to be "done" though! It's also nice to be able to have her play in the room when Jared and I need to be down in the basement working on stuff. We haven't used it for tot school yet, but eventually once I organize my new closet in the basement, and get all our supplies moved down, we will do our tot school at her little table.

Those white shelves are the ones I've been "slaving over" ... I mean painting the last few weeks. They used to be in my classroom at school and were that dark fake wood laminate stuff. I researched how to best paint cheap laminate, and even though Jared was not too keen on me using oil based anything, the blogs were right. The Zinsser oil based primer for all surfaces (including glossy) was the key. They don't look like laminate shelves anymore. I think they turned out great. Yes, I didn't necessarily like working with oil based primer, but it was worth it.

Those cubbie shelves were the only thing I went out and bought for the room, and I used a gift card to pay for part of it. The bins I got on Amazon using my Swagbucks gift cards. Everything else was from my old classroom or items I had in the house already that I got at garage sales. Above those cubbie shelves, there is a big blank wall. I hope to convince Jared to let me hang up a big bulletin board right there. Ooooohhh....I hope so. I love decorating bulletin boards!

I also want to put up our alphabet cards all along the wall above the toybox (which was also that ugly brown laminate color before I painted it). And the one thing I don't like about the room but I can't change is that power breaker box right above the easel. Maybe someday we'll paint it or put a little cabinet thingy around it. Who knows.

The room is kinda small, so it was hard to get any really good pictures to give you an idea of how the room really looks all together. It is not the "Pottery Barn" style that I'd love create if the budget would allow, but to me, I love it, because it's......"schooly." And of course, I like that. I feel like even though I don't have my own classroom right now to set up and decorate, I have my own little school room to have fun with right here. :)

TOT SCHOOL - WEEK OF SEPT. 6

We had SUCH A FUN WEEK with our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom theme last week. You can visit our Hart2Hart Tot School blog to find out more!