Little bowlers!

About a week ago, our church had an end of school year bowling party for the kids! It was alot of fun! Darryl was working nights, so he couldn't make it, but the boys had a blast. We hadn't taken them bowling since living in Germany, so this was really Ayden's first trip being able to do it all by himself.

It was the first time we had seen these little track things for the kiddos to use. Very cool!

They were happy to see their little friend, Skylar there, they love her!

And some of the other older ones too.

Caleb got tired of using the track thing, he much rathered just throwing it out there. LOL

That is SO his personality too!

Ayden LOVED it, he much preferred the track, he did great! He sometimes tried to 

pick out the weightier balls which was quite funny to see!

They had a great time, and they keep asking when we're going with Daddy!

Soon I hope. :)

School time--outside!

After Cbear got finished doing his handwriting papers,

and Ayden finished going over a few ABC's,

we headed to the great outdoors for some fun learning time.

First we looked at the weather outside, and

Caleb decided it was definitely sunny!

And we sang a song about it too!

Then I wrote a bunch of numbers, (10-30)

and had him stand on each one and tell me what it was.

Then after he successfully told me the right answer, he got to cross it off!

He did well, and really liked being outside!

Though, I did notice that the concrete trucks going by sure had

him distracted a few times. Haha

Then, I made hopscotch squares, and took our blend ladders out.

When Caleb would hop on them, he had to say the blends.

Ayden even got in on the hopping action.

The boys just loved jumping into the squares!

And it was so nice to be outdoors for part of our school time today!

Kiddos artwork display board for my dining room!

I have a stainless steel fridge, which limits the amount of my kiddos artwork

I can display on there. I use the double sided sticky things from Scotch which I love, but I only use a few...

I also have a corkboard in their toy/schoolroom that I display some artwork too!

But I have been wanting something to display in my dining room.

Something cute, and fun, that matches the colors!

I really love all kinds of colors, so choosing is a bit hard.

But my dining room is yellow, and possibly soon to be orange!

So this is what I came up with..

board from hobby lobby: $3.50 (1/2 off)

letters $.50 a piece, (they were also 1/2 off)

scrapbook paper $.59 a piece

The glue, paint, & mod podge I already had.

So about a $7 project!! :) I love being frugal!

I painted the edges of the board, didn't have to be neat!

While that was drying I painted my letters a pretty orange!

I just mixed red & yellow together to get the shade I wanted.

Here are the letters after painting!

Then I took some brown and white paint and covered up the green,

then sanded it a bit.

I love the banged up/distressed look on things.

This was the difficult part! Setting the paper just right on the board.

Then I went to town with the mod podge!
Then I cut out little pieces of paper the same size as the clothespin, and

mod-podged those on! SO fun!

Then I used a ruler to line all of the clothespins up just right...

Next was gluing the letters on! Yay gorilla glue!

Here's the finished product! Sooo cute! i love it!

And here it is in my dining room, being put to good use! I love it!

And I love having the kiddos artwork to look at and talk about

while we eat dinner together. :)

Love it!

Pre-school in the fast lane!

We had another fun week of school since being away from home.

Caleb's done really well with it, and I'm glad we've kept up

with it, despite how busy we've been!

Here's a typical day..

He does wonderful with his handwriting!

We went over his letters/sounds/recognition.

All repetitive--all the time.

Love that!

I wrote some words on the board which he had to sound out..

and got to cross off when he read them!

Didn't have a problem with any.. I'm so proud. :)

Then onto the sentence reading.

He has to tell me what makes it a sentence, and then read it.

He's catching on quite well!So after the first sentence I wrote another one below it.

It read, "Caleb is fun."He thought it was the funniest.thing.ever.See? Ahh what a cutie.
Then we did some math. He connected the dots, and counted as he did it..tracing and saying the numbers..

and a numbers guessing game.. He excels in math,

just like daddy!

Then we did some number flashcards, and a little more reading from his

blend ladder book! And that was that!

So glad we can travel and still get our school time done!

Although, I have to say, I am loving the LifeLearning we do too.

Just watching him be a kid, play with toys, enjoy the grandparents!

That's why I haven't done too much school with Ayden here, he's not even 3 yet, and I'm not stressing it. There are things taught by Grandparents that

neither of them can and will never get from a textbook.

and those things, they're priceless.

Super snazzy DIY personalized child aprons!

My boys LOVE being in the kitchen.

They love to help cook, bake, microwave, make messes on the floor, all of it!

So while at Hobby Lobby the other day, I decided they should have aprons!

Cute, boyish aprons.

Since I'm still here with mom, she was checking out the material, while I was checking out the apron and iron-ons.

When I went back to her she had this CUTE Thomas material that Caleb loved, and then we found some Mickey mouse material right by it!

Perfection!

So what I have here is a yard of each fabric (could totally use a half, or less) $2

Some cute iron-on letters for their names $3.99

2 child size aprons ($2.99)

sewing machine, thread, iron

We made a pattern for our pockets out of construction paper and cut it!

So thrifty, huh? haha
We doubled it and put it back to back, pinned it..

and sewed it! Then we also folded the top over, and

pinned it,

sewed it, and then turned it back the right way!

Here it is pinned on the apron, ready to be sewed on!

Here's Mom, starting to work on Ayden's since we figured out where we were going with Caleb's! You can tell she's been sewing much longer, her's is straighter than mine! lol

Me sewing!

Sewing the Thomas pocket on!

After the pocket was sewed on, I got the iron-on letters out for their names!

And..well..duh! Ironed em' on! :)

Caleb was quite anxious to use his "cooker thang".

And here it is! He loves it!!

I think it turned out SUPER cute!
And cheap at roughly $8 a piece, could have been cheaper had I gotten less fabric! :)

And here's Ayden's all finished! Ahhh too cute!
Caleb got to using his right away.

You see, it was my mom's birthday, and since we were here we had to make her a cookie cake!

My child would NOT stop eating the chocolate chips..

Even after I put the egg in it, before mixing it, he just ate around it.

Kids these days..

And here's Ayden with his on! So adorable.
This was such a fun project! One of my last while I'm here visiting, and

I'm so glad I got to do another with my mom, especially on

her birthday! So fun and didn't take long at all!