Oso pardo, Oso pardo Que Ves Ahi?

I'm super excited with how nice my stick figure puppets came out for the book Oso Pardo, Osos Pardo Que ves ahi?

Last year this book was used in the Spanish class that I volunteered in and I feel in love with the book. I want to kids to get a good hands on experience with the book so that they will really cement the animal names and colors into their memory.

My set has been laminated to add to it's durability  The kids set won't be laminated, but are on card stock so they should last through a lot of play.

I traced the animals from the back page of the book. I needed to make a few changes because even tracing them mine didn't turn out looking as good as the book. I then cut them out, colored then, laminated them with my Purple Cow laminator I got from Costco a few months back and finally taped them onto the large popcicle sticks.

We've already learned out colors, so the new words this lesson will be the animal names. I'm excited to bring my bag of animals to help us learn their names and to have the kids say the animal color and name. We'll use my animal puppets during the lesson until they make their own.

I really like having the kids bring home something to show their families what they are learning, and then for them to turn around and teach their families.

We got some white stuff!!

We have had such a mild winter here in Iowa. I don't mind not having alot of snow, but come on we need some to make the cold temps bearable. Today we finally turned white again with freshly fallen snow and it was absolutely beautiful. 

School was cancelled for the 4" we got because yesterday we were in the upper 50's and had thunder and lightening. The rain that came down yesterday turned to slippery ice under the snow, so they thought it safest to keep the kids home. Too bad the Recreation department didn't feel the same way, so Rebecca and I still had to head out for swim lessons. The roads weren't actually that bad, but that's probably because the plow had just gone down our road minutes before we left and we have a very main road 2 streets away that gets a lot of attention because of a big hill on it.

I found face masks for the kids for $4 at Walmart a few months back. Ammon has been living in his this winter. It got so stinky and he kept wearing it, so I finally had to take it away to wash it. I love how bright his eyes are in this picture. He was loving the snow, but not loving helping shovel it so he could go play in it.

Rebecca is warming up to her swim lessons. While she's in her lesson I went and walked on the treadmill in the exercise room for 20 minutes. It's nice to get some exercise in somewhere other then our basement!

A cold week in Iowa

It's been cold here. Really cold. Too cold to be outside playing. 

So there's been alot of indoor playing going on.

We've had some electronic game time. Some cooking time. Some movie watching time. Some reading and cuddling time. Some game playing. Some warm baths and pj time.  Some sickness. Some cookie time.

And some piles of blankets to keep the frozen air out and the warmth in. 

Project Life 2012

In 2012 I used Project Life by Becky Higgins to keep our family scrapbook.  I did a great job keeping up to date for 6 months with a picture and journaling card filled for each day. Then the next 3 months I did half daily pictures/half weekly pictures and most of the journaling is done. The last 3 months of the year I used a weekly pictures and have the pictures in, but I still have most the journaling to finish.
I don't have it completely done like I was hoping to, but I do have all the pictures printed and in the album. That is a huge task in it's self. Since I take all my pictures digitally I forget so often to print any, so they are stuck on my computer. This album forced me to print them and now we can look at them in the album.
This year I'm using another blog to put my daily pictures and journaling on. I'm enjoying the ease of moving the picture straight over to it without printing it out, but I'm also missing seeing them printed and in an album that anyone can see. At the end of the year I want to print it out in a book so we can look back and see our year.

Twinkle Toes

Oh my sweetness look what started today! 

Rebecca absolutely loves to dance. We catch her dancing to music or dancing to her own signing at home all the time. She was so super excited to get dressed in her dance clothes and start class back up today.

Pinkalious Rebecca

Seriously this little girl melts my heart! She's growing up so fast and I so want to find the pause button and push it for a good long while. But since I haven't been able to find that pause button I do my best to soak up her (and the older kids) and take lots of pictures so I can always remember these special times when they're young.

Today Rebecca was our Pinkalious Girl. From head to toe, she had something pink on. Her overalls had pink flowers on them. I love that this pink princess hat is finally fitting her just right and it looks so cute on her. Her shoes are pink converse I got over year ago on a huge clearance at Target.

Lately Rebecca after getting her hair done, or putting on an outfit will ask if she looks pretty. I tell her she looks pretty in whatever she wears, but that she's also very pretty inside too. She's pretty because she loves thers, she gives us hugs and kisses, because she shares, cares about others, plays with us, laughs, is kind, loving and friendly. I've been trying to tell her everyday what things she does that make her pretty on the inside so she doesn't start to think that beauty is something just on her face or clothing choices.

Corrine's 1st Viola Concert

Corrine has been excited and nervous for the day for weeks.

She's been playing the viola since September and has really learned so much. We just love the sound of her playing. She enjoys playing it and it has helped her to learn the piano also since she can read music easier.

Tonight they combined 4 different schools, both beginning and advanced groups, for the concert. It was a packed house with lots of people standing in the back! This picture is only half of the group.

Rebecca and I went to Costco today and picked her up some flowers. Rebecca picked the brightest ones she could find! The bunch was so big that we only brought half of it for Corrine and the other half is at home hiding.

Corrine was excited to get the flowers and has already made sure we know that they are her's and she'll be putting them in her room!

We love you Corrine. We are so proud of you for getting out of your comfort zone and learning the viola, and then getting up in front of so many people are playing!