Word Puzzles

Tonight my hubby came home with a present for me. It was something I had waited years for. I finally entered the world of the iPhone! I have had an apple laptop for years and always wanted an iPhone to sync with it. For one reason or another, either the plan we had or some other reason it never made sense for me to get an iPhone. For sometime now we knew I would get one, but we had to wait until our plan made us eligible for a discount on a new phone. Today was the big day! I am excited because it has a super camera in it, and I can sync my pictures to my laptop so easily. I was amazed how fast they appeared on the laptop with no hassle at all. Well, enough about my new phone but after several years of waiting I am super excited.
Tonight my little girls found excitement in putting together word puzzles. I love to see them get excited about something like this. I am a little sad though as I look at these pictures and see how fast my Annagrace is leaving her preschool years. She is five and will be moving on past preschool before very long. It has been fun having my three littles all working together, but Annagrace is showing signs of growing older. She is sandwiched between my older two and my younger two, so sometimes she is running around trying to be older. At other times she is having fun with the younger two. Oh why do they have to grow so fast? Trying to enjoy the moments while they last.........

Keeping them Busy!

Here are some recent teeny tot activities happening at our house. Abbie Joy received the Melissa & Doug puzzle for valentine's, and Annagrace loved a beginner's sewing kit. The girls also enjoyed the alphabet sticker matching activity. I'm always looking for new ideas as this trio of little girls loves for me to keep the activities coming.

Mixing Bowls and Sticker Fun

Recently I was mixing up some cake mix and allowed Lilly Faith to assist me. She loved the opportunity and loved the cake mix batter! In fact I was able to hide some of her medicine in the cake mix which was so helpful. I think I am including my little ones in my work more than ever before. They love to help, and even though it takes me a little more time they are being trained and developing a love for the home arts. Not to mention it is just time invested in them that makes them feel important.
Also, Abbie Joy has recently been enjoying making pictures with a page of stickers. She was so meticulous about putting all these little stickers on her paper. Since we are going through a lot of stickers it is important to find a good deal on them. I often find whole sticker books at Michael's for a dollar, and of course a coupon brings them down even cheaper. Those are two activities my girls have enjoyed in recent days.

Fun Little Workbooks

We recently started Annagrace and Abbie Joy on some fun little workbooks. The artwork in the books would suggest that they originate with the Amish or Mennonite people. They are simply illustrated with themes such as indoor and outdoor work. The activities have been fun such as learning how a place setting goes, matching, coloring, beginning writing, etc. I like the simplicity of the pages, and since I love all things Amish they are attractive to me. :) Annagrace was happy to finish her first book this week.
One funny thing to note is that Abbie Joy's book directs her to color different pages different colors. Basically there is a color focus for different pages. If you thumb through her book you will see that she is VERY partial to the color pink. At times I was able to convince her to try another color, but pink is her color of choice even if the whole page is supposed to be yellow.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&ie=UTF8&field-author=Study%20Time%20Publishers

Tot School Happenings

Here are a few of our recent Tot School activities. You can see that my sweet Annagrace has a bandaid on her face. She took a fall and cut herself right above the eye. She was sleeping and rolled off the bed hitting her eye where the skin is thin but the bone is hard. We took a late night trip to the emergency care, but thankfully no stitches were needed. We are thankful for the Lord's protection even while we sleep. We have been doing a few Valentine's Day crafts. I found the wooden heart at Michael's, and the girls enjoyed coloring. Some other activities have been counting bears and magnets.


In peace I will both lie down and sleep;
for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
-Psalm 4:8

More Tot School Activity

My girls recently enjoyed several new puzzles from the Dollar Tree. Abbie Joy has also been loving her princess magic marker set she received for Christmas. I love magic Markers! She does not get the ink all over her, and she loves to see the color appear on her paper. What a win win situation. :) We have also been having fun with our new singing Crayola holder which sings songs as we take the crayons out. http://www.amazon.com/Fisher-Price-Made-Musical-Crayon-Caddy/dp/B004ND7FMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1327466142&sr=8-1

Fun With Ice Cube Trays

I recently purchased some fun ice cube trays from the Dollar Bins at Target. We have been trying to find various fun uses for the trays. Yesterday we filled them with rice. Today we used salad tongs to pick up counting hippos and drop them into the trays. After that fun we filled our cubes with yummy snacks. My little learners pretended to be making cookies with their snacks.

Fun With Rice

What can you do with rice? Color, Stir, Pour, Fill Trays, and Make a Mess!!!