Small Town Parade!

The small town of Bulverde held their annual parade in honor of September 11th so we decided to check it out.

 

Allie was SUPER excited that they offered pony rides.

 

She couldn't stop petting her horse, Batman.

 

Kenzie got to ride too and loved it!

 

They handed out little flags to all the kids.

 

We managed to fit some school work in over the weekend.

 

The girls absolutely love this planet puzzle!

 

They are doing great!

21 Weeks - It's a BOY!

The last 5 weeks:

• My tummy has definitely grown!
• I suffered from a terrible virus for two weeks which drained all of my energy and kept me in constant pain.
• I am feeling constant baby movements and Bryan even got to feel the baby!!
• I had an extensive ultrasound done and baby looks great.  All the important parts are there, in place, and perfectly formed. I go back in 8 weeks for another look just to be sure everything still looks good.
• I have gained a total of 5 pounds so far this pregnancy thanks to eating healthy, walking, and the occasional torture of the elliptical.  So far so good!!

Oh, and, we found out we are in deed having a BOY!

We got rid of all of our baby stuff RIGHT before we found out we were expecting again so my days are currently filled with finding a crib, car seat, bedding, etc. for baby boy.  It is not fun I really don't like this part of having a baby.  I am terrible at making decisions on things like this but I am excited that all of these things will be welcoming a new bundle of joy before long.

I leave you with a new tummy pic!

First Day of Homeschool Pre-K and Tot School

We started school on labor day this year.  Not for any special reason it just worked out that way and since Bryan worked on labor day it was just like any other Monday for us. 

The Botanical Gardens near us was opening a new butterfly exhibit in the middle of September so I decided we would study the life cycle of butterflies for the first two weeks of school then take a field trip to the butterfly exhibit.  So...I made butterfly pancakes!

 

I checked out several butterfly books from the library.  The girls got to choose their own binders to keep their assignments in.  Both of them chose horses over any of the Disney character binders!  

I was proud.

Kenzie is in Tot School or Preschool and Allie is officially in Pre-K.
Kenzie was very excited to be starting school with big sister.

 

I put their names on drawers and this is where they will keep their binders and school boxes.

We started out with circle time.  We sang a song about butterflies with our instruments and looked at our butterfly books.

Of course we did the weather, day of the week, month, date, shapes and colors for Kenzie, and counted to 30.

 

Every day before we sit down to work on our assignments we say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Kenzie knows half of it by now.  Allie learned it last summer and is happy to help sister with the words.

 

Working hard on their assignments.

Allie's writing assignment each morning is writing out the memory verse of the week.

Kenzie was excited to use scissors for the very first time and of course she loved gluing!  She requests a cutting activity every day now.

Kenzie did great with her coloring assignment.  She had to color each butterfly the same color as it's wings.

 

We had a great first day and since I am late getting around to posting this we have already gone on our first field trip to the butterfly exhibit.  Pics of that day to come.

First Day of Dance Class!

A new year of dance class started today.  Allie has the same teacher that she had over the summer and she was very excited about that.  This was Kenzie's first day in big girl dance class.  They start at age 3 but since Kenzie is a sibling of a student and she took dance at another studio this year they let her do a trial class.  Kenzie went to her class for the first hour then Allie went to her class for the next hour.

Allie was able to do some schoolwork while Kenzie was in her class so that worked out great.

I was nervous for Kenzie but she did great and they are going to let her continue with classes!  Thank goodness because I had to buy her tap shoes in wide and I can not return them!  Her precious little chubby feet.  :)

I noticed she had an issue staying in her place when they weren't doing anything.  She did everything the teacher did, heel/toe, shuffle step, curtsey, plea, etc. but when they were lined up waiting their turn she would run off to the side or jump around.  I thought for sure they were going to tell me she needed to wait a while before joining dance class there but they said she did great and they would work with her on staying put.  Hooray!  If only both girls went during the same hour!

Enjoy the pics from the girls first day of dance class for the 2011/2012 year.

I made them a special breakfast to celebrate the first day of dance class.

Yes, that is supposed to be a ballerina pancake!  Best I could do free hand but the girls loved them so that's all that matters.

 

Arts and Crafts Summer Camp at Home - Day 5

For our final day of Art Camp the girls wanted to paint.

Allie chose to paint a shelf she made at Home Depot a few months ago and Kenzie chose to paint a birdhouse left over from their birthday party.

 

 

 

Next the girls painted a few gifts for their cousin Cassie.

Allie chose to paint a castle and Kenzie chose to paint a piece of cake.

 

 

Then Allie painted a unicorn for me.  :)

I love all of the details she added to it like painting on a saddle and a bridle.

 

Those these are crafts that we do on normal days, it was fun giving the week a name and making the girls feel like it was a special event planned for them all week.  

Arts and Crafts Summer Camp at Home - Days 2-4

Here is what we did for Art Camp at home on days 2, 3, and 4.

On day 2 we made jewelry.

The girls strung beads to make necklaces and bracelets to keep in their treasure boxes.

 

On day 3 we made popsicle stick art. 

For Kenzie I wrote her name with glue and she placed the popsicle sticks on the glue to spell her name.  Allie drew her own letters and pictures with the glue and placed the posicle sticks over the glue.

We also used the popsicle sticks to make several shapes and letters without gluing them to anything.

 

On day 4 we did shape art.

Allie cut out her own shapes.  Some of them she did completely on her own, like the door for her house, other's she had me draw a window or triangle and she cut them all out on her own and glued the pieces where she wanted to make a picture from shapes.

 

 

I love the way Allie's turned out.

 

For Kenzie I cut out several shapes and let her glue them on the paper and had her tell me what each shape was before she glued it on.

 

Of course she had to add stickers to hers as well.

  

 

More on our final day of Art Camp at Home to come!

Arts and Crafts Summer Camp at Home - Day 1

This summer I decided to do some summer camps at home for the girls.  We started with Art Camp in July.

On the first day the girls painted Art Camp t-shirts!

I bought them in larger sizes so they can wear them all year each time they paint.

 

Allie has been asking for a treasure box for quite some time now so when they were finished with their t-shirts they started painting treasure boxes.  They each picked out felt to glue to the inside bottom of their treasure box so any treasures put inside would have a soft place to rest.

Allies treasure box.

 

Kenzie's treasure box.

They made these boxes a month ago and they still play with them every day!

More on the other 4 days of Art Camp to come.