Happy Thanksgiving!

It was my turn for Tot School again last week and the theme was Thanksgiving. We did lots of things - read stories about Thanksgiving, made finger puppets, made turkey puppets, pretended to play instruments in a Thanksgiving parade, and dressed up like Pilgrims and Indians. We also had a mini-Thansgiving snack and another "turkey food" snack (rice krispies, raisins, and cheerios) and pretended to eat like turkies - so silly!

Nick's Truck Party

Ever since Nick started playing with toys, he has been obsessed with toys that have wheels. Especially big construction-type trucks. When I gave him a few party theme choices, I wasn't surprised that he picked a truck party.

His party was an hour after Alli's, over lunch-time. We started out playing with toys and coloring truck pictures. Then we had hot dogs, chips, and fruit (Nick's favorite). He also got to have 3 friends at his party (since he is 3). After lunch he opened his presents and then we had cake. I made him a dirt cake with trucks on it. He loved it and wanted the trucks off of it as soon as he saw it.

Brian made him a sandbox for his birthday. It was a cool day, but just nice enough for him and his friends to go outside and play for about 20 mintues.

To finish off the birthday (and to give myself a break) we went to Red Robin for dinner. We let them pick what they wanted off the kids menu. Alli chose spaghetti and Nick chose macaroni and cheese. The servers brought them ice cream sundaes and balloons and they sang to them. It was a really fun day!

Pink Princess Party

Alli and Nick recently turned 3! I was hoping to be able to have another combined party, but Alli was very insistent on having a Pink Princess Party for about the last two months. I didn't think Nick would really enjoy this theme (haha) so I decided to have two small parties on the same day.

We started out the party morning with getting ready for Alli's party. I decorated Makenna's room for Alli's party since her room is painted pink. We gave Alli a present right before she needed to get dressed - it was a new pink dress-up dress with a matching crown and earrings set. She was so excited!

I wrote on the invitation for the girls to wear a princess dress. They were all adorable. Alli got to have three friends since she is turning three. My mom and sister also came (BIG help!).








They decorated crowns, colored a princess picture, danced, opened presents, and had cupcakes and a special pink fizzy Kool-aid drink. Alli loved all her presents and loved playing with her friends. I can't believe she is already 3!

Halloween

We had a great Halloween this year. I was so worried that Nick would be sick, but he got better right before the big day! Of course I was sick on Halloween morning; luckily I was feeling much better by trick-or-treating time.

We went to the pumpkin patch about a week before Halloween. It was a beautiful day and very busy Saturday at the pumpking patch. We found two perfect pumpkins. The only problem was that all of the wagons for carrying pumpkins were already taken. Alli was SO upset. If we would have known we would have brought our own wagon. She cried the whole way home ... luckily only 5 minutes. To make her feel better we told her that when she got home she could pull the pumpkins in the wagon around the neighborhood. This made it all better. We even put Kenna in the wagon and she seemed to enjoy the ride.

The next step was carving pumpkins. We did this the day before Halloween. We let Alli and Nick each pick a pattern out of the book. Alli picked a bat and Nick didn't care so I picked out a castle for him. They had fun helping us pull out the icky seeds. Alli only tried it once, but Nick kind of got into it. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures of the finished product. Alli and Nick loved going outside in the dark in their pajamas to see the pumpkins glowing. They thought it was spooky and Alli kept reminding herself "its only pretend"! They insisted on going out to see the pumpkins every night until they got thrown away (which turned into a big tradgedy).

On Halloween night my sister was so nice to have us over for dinner and treats. Alli dressed up as Cinderella, Nick as a fireman, and Makenna as a dalmation. Of course they thought trick-or-treating was the best thing ever and Alli has told me over and over again since that she wants to do it again. Okay, how about in a year?

Learning Numbers

A couple of weeks ago it was my turn for tot school again and the theme this time was numbers 1-5. The first project we did was a number chart with a seasonal theme. I cut out shapes of pumpkins, cats, spiders, leaves, and candy using the cricut and then had the kids glue them onto the chart. It worked out really well for me to put glue dots on the paper for the kids and for the kids to pick out the shapes.

The second project was number caterpillars. Alli and Nick really liked this project because they saw a Little Einsteins movie about caterpillars and they have been collecting leaves outside to "feed to the caterpillars".

For playtime I had number file folder games and a number puzzle.

I also set up a "store". I saved empty cereal boxes, shampoo bottles, egg cartons, etc. and put them all out on a bench. I printed out play money and gave the kids each $5. I told them that everything was $1 and they could each pick out 5 items. It worked for about 2 seconds and then it turned into a free-for-all with the kids grabbing anything they could and not caring at all about the money (they even started stealing items from eachother)! They really liked this game and ended up playing it for the majority of the time each day, but I don't think they really got the counting concept from it. Ha ha...maybe when they're a little older or one-on-one. I'm just glad it kept them busy and happy.

Golden Gate State Park

Nick is doing much better now...big relief. He stopped throwing up on Friday night and he's been fine since. I still don't know what all of that was about, but I do feel somewhat confident that a virus was involved since the whole family was sick at some point or another. I just don't understand why he was sick for 2 1/2 weeks and the rest of us were sick for only a day here and there. We are still going to talk to the GI specialist to see if something else is going on.

About six weeks ago we spent a Saturday morning in the mountains, enjoying the beautiful fall weather. We went near Golden Gate State Park (nice and close, we didn't want to drive too far with the kids). I love Golden and these mountains. It brings back memories of college and days when I had time for trail running and mountain biking ...aah nostalgia. But anyway, on this day we went on a very short hike; 1 mile tops. The kids enjoyed it and ran the first 1/2 mile and then Nick dragged the last 1/2 mile. The trail we went on had lots of old farm equipment on display. Nick especially like seeing all the equipment as he likes anything with wheels. We are going to try and do more hikes and maybe even a {very short} backpacking trip next year. Afterall, this is why we live in Colorado!