"Little Girl School" (August through October)

This year we are doing a preschool co-op with a few other kids.  I wasn't sure how it would work but it's been a lot of fun.  When we first got the group together there were only little girls so Lydia started calling it "Little Girl School"... however we did get one little boy who joined us.  Lydia especially loves to have it at our house.
We did a bear theme one week (when we were learning letter B).  We did patterns with our counting bears and did a "bear hunt" for the letter B.

and danced with our teddy bears to "Teddy Bear's Picnic".

We even had a picnic with our teddy bears!

The kids really get along pretty well and especially love their free time to play together at the end.

The other moms come up with lots of fun ideas and activities to do!

The next time I taught we talked about the grocery store (for G).  The kids loved grocery shopping for items with a letter G on them.

We even graphed goldfish.

One of the days we got to go on a field trip to Trader Joe's!  The kids got to see all the behind the scenes stuff and even ring items up at the register.

Every one came home with a goody bag full of treats... even the moms!

They've also gone on a field trip to the pumpkin patch at Gilcrease Orchard.  That was lots of fun!

Lydia is so patient with crafts and loves to do fun things with her preschool friends.

We have had a fun time with our preschool group so far this year.  It will be exciting to see what else we get to do!

Lydia's birthday!

Lydia was so happy to be 4!

She got to go to preschool on her birthday and it was decorated with balloons and they sang happy birthday to her.  She felt so special!

It was hard to wait all day long until Dad came home so we could open presents.

This year she asked for an Elsa cake... so I did what I could to appease her.

I think she was quite pleased with the entire day!

Lydia is 4! (finally)

For the last 5 months (at least) Lydia has been asking when it is her birthday!  Now it is finally here!  Lydia is such a sweet girl.  Lately she has loved her babies so much and gives them unique names (the latest is Hot Sauce).  Other things she loves: our preschool co-op, dresses, her long hair, reading books, storytime, helium balloons, helping in the kitchen, playing in the backyard (as long as she has a friend or brother with her), popcorn, having friends over to play, playing the piano, Halloween, coloring, taking selfies with my phone, and snuggling.  I'm sure if I sat here long enough I could come up with many more things... but this is off the top of my head.  We are so happy to have Lydia in our family! 

What is your favorite...
color? purple
food? pizza
toy?   ALL the toys!
show? Moana
animal? pandas
book? Where The Wild Things Are (she practically has the entire thing memorized)
song? the Elsa one (Let it Go)
What do you like to do?  go to little girl school (preschool)
Who is your best friend?  Piper
What do you want to be when you grow up? a big mom
Do you have a boyfriend?  um no

I am - a girl
I am afraid of - monsters!

I like - balloons

I like to eat - pizza

I don't like - punching people in the face (?!?)

I know - how to read a book by myself quietly

I want to be - a mom when I grow up

I like to watch - Moana!

My hero is- Mom because she got a balloon for me

I cry when - "mom and dad bes mad to me"

Mom gets mad when - there's no party hats

Mom is happy when - she lets me play my time and lets me watch a show

I can't wait for - growing up!

Something Mom says to me -"It's time to go get pumpkins."

Something Dad says to me - "It's time to go get popcorn."

My favorite place to go is - the pumpkin patch (Gilcrease Orchard)

My Mom makes me laugh - when she makes silly faces

My Dad makes me laugh- when he makes me have silly faces

I know my mom loves me because - she always lets me watch a show and play my time

I know my dad loves me because - he lets me play on his ipad

September Fun!

James started flag football again.  He really loves playing with his friends.

 I got a phone call one morning from the school (which, in my experience, is never a good thing).  Alex had hit his mouth on Jayden's head while playing tag and chipped two of his adult teeth. His teeth really hurt so I brought him home.  Luckily we were able to get him in to the dentist that same afternoon.  The dentist put a filling on the lower tooth (it was chipped pretty badly).

 Lydia was bored and needed to take selfies while we waited.

All fixed!

Then we had my birthday!

It was a great day because it started off with pie for breakfast!

Lydia loves to do dishes.

 Lydia likes to take pictures of me sometimes.

Since my birthday was during the week and we had mutal that night we decided to eat out on the weekend.  We took the entire family.

We headed up Mt Charleston for our ward's annual Picnic in the Pines.

 I practiced doing french braids in Lydia's hair.

When we went out for the mail one day Lydia asked me to take her picture....

... and then asked to take mine!

Henry decided at the last minute to dress up for "Rock Your School" day.

I was teaching a lesson to the Laurels about the words we speak.  I had seen this experiment online and wanted to see if it really worked.  I had two identical jars of rice sitting on the same shelf of my kitchen.  To one jar Lydia and I spoke nice, kind, loving words (I love you, I appreciate all you do, you are a great jar of rice, etc)  and to the other jar we said hateful, hurtful words (you're the worst!, I hate you!, you are so ugly).  Lydia thought it was great fun.

At the end of the week our hate jar had dark moldy spots.

Our love jar on the other hand was pretty much the same as the beginning.  (I did find one spot of white, fluffy growth by the very end). Some of the girls didn't believe me and asked what I had done differently!  It was a good object lesson.

It's fun to see when William's face (or silhouette) pop up on his friend's instagrams.  These were from a campout.

Lydia loves to color and she does such a great job of coloring it thouroughly and in the lines!

Lydia was trying on her great-great-grandma Ruby Peterson's fancy earrings.

My boys always have a great time with the Rain Gutter Regatta.  This year we just had Alex racing.

Yeah for September!