Water Beads

Tim’s sisters had some water beads that they were done with.  They gave us some of them to play with!  Sammy has had a blast with them!  One day we played with them in the tub!  Sammy thought this was the best activity ever!

He tried hard to balance them on his head:

These were definitely hard to clean up.  These water beads had been expanded for a long time and split open easily.  You can’t let these go down the drain either !  We put them in a colander and that worked pretty good!

Wordless Wednesday–Puzzling

Stomp Rockets in the Snow

 

For Christmas Sammy this awesome Stomp Rocket (its on sale right now on Amazon) from my sister.  He had wanted to play with it every day since he opened it.  The first day we busted it out was the beginning of January (yes I am just now getting around to posting pictures!).  It started to snow while we were out there playing!

Not really sure why I am sharing these pictures.. but we had fun trying to catch snowflakes on our tongues:

Preschool Corner–The Snowy Day/Winter

We didn’t do a real in-depth theme for The Snowy Day.  We did have fun reading the book and doing some fun printables from Homeschool Creations!

Sammy working on his Kumon number book:

Get Set for the Code:

Daddy was home when we did this sink float experiment with an egg.  We mixed different things into water to see if it would make the egg sink or float.  Here they put the egg in salt water:

It floats.. Sammy thought this was pretty cool:

Sammy and Daddy had fun with this experiment

Some prewriting tracing pages:

We also played Build and Draw  a Snowman (I drew he built):

I love seeing his little hands writing letters:

We also made butter with Daddy.. I’m not sure what is up with this picture but it was the only one I got of Tim with the butter

Cutting practice:

Sorting Summer clothes and winter clothes:

We wrote messages with lemon juice.  Once it dried we used heat to revel our hidden messages (see below)

Roll, count and mark snowman game.  (from here)

My hidden message to Sammy:

Sammy’s message:

We have slowed down some with our All About Reading activities.. but Sammy still loves the crafts and Ziggy  

For more Preschool posts check out Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations!

Monthly Goal Check-In

So I want to do a month goal check in at the beginning of each month.  I think this will help me to actually accomplish more of my goals by seeing them more frequently through out the year!  So here are the goals I set for 2012:

1. Try 12 new DIY tasks (one for each month).  I am finishing up my list of things I want to try in 2012 but you can see a sneak peak on pintrest.  

Update: I finished finding my 12 DIY tasks for the year.  I completed 1 in January.  I made foaming soap.  I used this tutorial.  It took about 1 minute to make and cost 1 cent!!  I had saved a foaming soap to try this.  I had it sitting around for way to long.  But I dug it out.  Then I used 1/10th of a regular hand soap bottle that I bought with a coupon for 10 cents!  I want to get some more of the foaming soap dispensers so I can make one for each bathroom and one for the kitchen.  I know we will use less soap this way and its so much easier for Sammy to wash his hands more thoroughly! I also wanted to note I am not picking a specific task for each month.  At the beginning of the month I look at how busy we will be and try and pick something that I can accomplish that month!

       2.   Pay off 2nd snowball in the summer

Update: We have been putting as much money to this as possible.  I hope to save even more at the grocery store so we can use this to finally pay off the credit card.  Then we will only have our house debt! 

       3.   Create a 6 month emergency fund  -no update until we pay off the credit card

       4.   Read through the whole bible

Update: I am doing great with this task!  I have an app on my phone (YouVersion).  It reminds me each day to do my reading.  I have either been reading it on my phone or listening to it on my phone. 

        5.  Go through the 2012 Declutter & Organize Calendar

Update: I am getting rid of this goal.  This calendar just wasn’t working for me.  I think it is great for some people but the schedule just wasn’t doing it for me.  So I started searching for a new plan for decluttering and cleaning.  I have been trying something else.  I will give it some time and if it works out for me I will share about it next monthly update.

       6.  Read 2 books a month

Update: I failed at this one this month!  I read half of 2 different books.  However, one of the books is really long.. so I don’t feel to bad!  I hope to get caught back up with this goal soon!

        7.  Do project 365 and post the pictures from each day (I will be posting a week worth of pictures at a time)

Update: I haven’t done very well with this goal.  I am trying to decide if I should just drop it off the list or pick the camera back up and do what I can with it.. thoughts?

         8. Set month goals for cleaning in hopes to create habits in areas I struggle to maintain

Update: I didn’t really set any specific goals for this month and it showed!  For February my goal is to do one load of laundry a day.  A complete load from dirty to put away in their proper locations.

         9.  Meal plan more consistently

Update: I have been doing really pretty good with this goal.  I haven’t been blogging about our meals.. I hope to do better with that. 

 

          10.  Revamp coupons and get motivated to save money couponing

Update: I revamped and started using them again.  Now to keep the motivation up and not to bite off more than I can chew!  Slow and steady!

Where have I been?

I haven’t posted in over 2 weeks.. where has the time gone?  Where have I been.. well I have been here at my house.. doing life!  It hasn’t been particularly crazy or busy but it has been fast and the different events are so varying I don’t even know how to write a post about what has been going on!  So without further ado.. I bring you the random things from my head!

• New Year’s goals – well I abandoned 2.. I promise a post all about these and where I am with them!
• The weather has been insane around here.. Today we will have a high of 65!  You better believe we will be outside a TON today!
• Sammy has finally mastered a tricycle.. He finally figured out how to steer it around things and go backwards.  He did this yesterday in the church.. yes in the church.  I brought his tricycle to the church for him to practice while Tim was working on the sound system.  He loved getting to ride around in the sanctuary!  Next up mastering his bike… his legs are finally long enough for him to actually pedal the bike.
• Sammy and I made a batch of playdough first thing this morning and he has been playing with it for over 2 hours! 
• I have been planning for Sammy’s 5th birthday!  I can’t believe he will be turning 5 in 3 months!!
• I have been gathering stuff around the house for our yearly yardsale.  How is it possible to gather so much clutter every year? 
• Sammy and I made string and cup telephone yesterday.  He still loves playing with it.  I didn’t realize it actually worked until I made one with Sammy!
• Do you ever wish you could pause life and get caught up on things?  Then un-pause and enjoy life without having to worry about all the little things.. I realize this is unrealistic but something my brain keeps coming back to.
• Sammy has been playing in a HUGE box for a few weeks now.  This morning Tim and Sammy added on to it with blankets and chairs! 
• I need to pick my camera up for frequently. I think I am going to hop off the computer and do just that!