Transportation Fun

We had a great time with our transportation unit. We didn't get to everything this week since Daddy was home Monday and we pretty much relaxed that day. We hope to finish up next week.

We did get to do some great things, though.

Bekah had a great time with this transportation matching game printed off from Homeschool Creations. You can find a whole Transportation packet here.
We also a painting activity with our cars and planes. Bekah really loved making tracks with the cars and planes wheels.
Bekah sorted things that go onto these printables I found at Printable Share.

Bekah's favorite activity this week was the craft we did to go with the story of Jesus calming the seas that I found at I Can Teach My Child.
It was a great week.

I'm linking to Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations.

stART - Jesus Calms the Sea

This week we read the story of Jesus Calming the Sea from our Young Readers Bible. Bekah really loves when we read her Bible to her. I saw this great idea at I Can Teach My Child. She has tons of great ideas on her site. We had a great time doing this story and craft together.

First, we read the story together. Bekah then decided that the stormy side should be black with blue rain drops, black clouds, lightening, and purple waves. She loves to paint, so this was a perfect project for her. We added a boat attached with a brad so we could rock the boat and Jesus sleeping (which I drew for her). She helped color him and thought he looked great in his "yellow jammies."

You've gotta love her placement of the lightening bolts and the rainbow blanket! I love the imagination of a 4 year old!

Then instead of waiting for it to dry and doing the calm seas on the other side of the paper, we just did another one. (what can I say, we were in a hurry since baby sister was napping!) =)

Bekah made a beautiful blue sky with pink clouds (I guess she's heard that pink skies are a sailors delight!) and blue water. We added another boat, Jesus calming the sea, and a sunshine.

I am linking to stART at A Mommy's Adventures and Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted Art.

Indoor Car Wash

Just recently when we were coming home on a bitter cold afternoon, I pulled into the garage and Bekah spotted her blue ride on car. She looked at me and said, "Oh, we should wash my car today..." Um, Bekah it's 10 degrees out....I don't think so! But, then I saw this awesome post on Frugal Family Fun and KNEW she would love it! It only too a few minutes to put together with things we already had and there we had an indoor car wash. Now, I won't lie to you, this made a bit of a mess, so next time I will put a towel under the water dish and that will help that problem. However, this entertained her for AT LEAST an hour. This made me a very happy Mommy!
I cut a few car shapes out of foam.

I then filled an 8x8 dish with warm soapy water and put a piece of sponge and towel next to this.

Bekah used her washable markers to make the cars dirty.

Then she used the dish of water to wash them. We had fun listening to the Car Wash song as she cleaned them.

So fun!

Things that Go Sorting

This week we're working on a transportation unit. One of Bekah's favorite Baby Einstein videos has been On The Go, so she is really enjoying this unit. Today we did a Things that Go sort. It was pretty easy for her, but she really enjoyed doing it.

I printed these off from Printable Share and just used her toy cars, planes, trains, and boats.

Making Crystals

Bekah has been getting some fierce cabin fever lately, so I've been trying to do a variety of fun projects with her. She absolutely loved this project and we still have our crystals on our windowsill.

All we needed was a jar, borax, boiling water, pipe cleaners, and string. Bekah made her first pipe cleaner into a snowflake shape while I boiled some water. We tied a string to our "snowflake" and attached the other end to another pipe cleaner. I poured the boiling water in our jar and we stirred in Tablespoons of borax until we couldn't get any more to dissolve (saturated solution). We lowered our "snowflake" into the water and waited for our crystals to grow.

My Heart is Like a Zoo - stART project

This week we used the book, My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. I saw this book mentioned on a few different blogs and decided it would be a great Valentines Day project. After reading the book, I asked Bekah which animal she would like to make as a craft. She chose the lion (I think because it's on the cover of the book). So, I cut out all the parts we would need and Bekah glued them together to make the lion.

After making the lion, Bekah then decided we should make the owl, so we did. Then she decided we should make the frog, so we made the frog. And finally, she thought the crab would be fun to make, so lastly, we made the crab. We've really enjoyed this book and making these cute animals together.

You can see what others are doing for stART at A Mommy's Adventures.

Wordless Wednesday: What to do with your Bumbo box

We bought a Bumbo seat for Sarah and Bekah had the greatest time with the box:

Stickers and Shapes

Bekah has always loved playing with stickers, so when I saw this idea, I was excited to do it with her. However, it got lost in a pile somewhere and didn't get pulled out until now. This great idea came from Muffin Tin Mom and didn't require much work on my side at all!

I already had star stickers on hand, but you can really use any small stickers to do this project. We just printed out the shapes (you can even draw these free-hand) and Bekah put the stickers around the outline of the shape.
Simple and fun!

Valentines Day Muffin Tin Monday

Happy Muffin Tin Monday. We haven't done a muffin tin meal in awhile now, but with today being Valentines day I figured it was a perfect time to start up again.
Bekah had her breakfast in a heart shape muffin tin. She had:
Life Cereal (her current favorite), heart shaped banana pieces, & strawberry yogurt with valentines sprinkles.

You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom.

Simple Way To Say 'I Love You'

One night as I was taking a bath I spotted Bekah's bath crayons in the corner of the tub. I grabbed the orange one (her favorite color) and wrote "I love Bekah" on one of the tiles. After she found her little "love note" she exclaimed that it "made her day!" That night when she took a bath she wrote me a note: "Bekah loves ME". (ME was her sounding out and spelling mommy.)

Since that time we all write notes back and forth with bath crayons. Some times when I clean the tile there are 5 or more notes we've written. It's just a simple way to say, "I love you"!

Happy Valentines Day!

Hetty's 100 Hats

We did this project when we were learning about the letter H. I have to admit, I ended up being the one to make the hat, but I do think Bekah thought it was pretty neat that you can make a hat out of a piece of newspaper.

Hetty's 100 Hats is an adorable book by Emma Dodd. It's about a little girl who starts collecting hats. She is determined to have 100 hats. At the end of the book, there are directions included to make your own newspaper hat. Bekah really enjoyed this story, but did not want to wear her hat. Oh, well!

Puffy Paint Snowman

I found this easy idea for a puffy paint snowman on MeloMomma. First, I made a mixture of white glue and shaving cream. (Our kitchen ended up smelling like an old man, but the craft ended up being very cute!)

I set up Bekah's art easel for this project, which she loved. I had also cut out black dots and an orange triangle for the nose.

I love simple crafts like this!

Sarah's Birth Story

The week before Sarah was born I had a doctors appointment. The doctor told me that he was pretty positive he would not see me the following week for my next appointment. He was sure I would have delivered by that time. Well....a week later I was driving to my doctors appointment...feeling very angry with that doctor and not very happy that I was scheduled to see my least favorite doctor in the group. It was also a bleary and rainy day, which didn't help my mood. As I drove past Dunkin' Donuts I thought what a great idea it would be to surprise Bekah and my mom (who was watching Bekah) with donuts. Yummm!

After a short wait the nurse took me back and checked my blood pressure. It was elevated and she kinda hinted that I might be having the baby that day. I wasn't having any contractions, though, so I thought maybe she was joking. When the doctor came in to examine me he found that I was already 5 cm. Because of that and my raised blood pressure he immediately sent me next door to Labor and Delivery. I was so excited that I called Nathan before I even made it to the elevators! He was at work (which is an hour away) and I knew the first thing I needed to do was to call him. When I got him on the phone he was as excited as I was. I reminded him to take his time....I wasn't having any pain and didn't even know if they would be keeping me. I was actually still thinking I would be getting donuts soon! I called my mom who said, "I KNEW I should have gone with you!" She had my dad stay with Bekah and she came to be with me. It was such a whirlwind of a morning.

It felt very surreal as I drove myself over to labor and delivery. I stood making out papers at the front desk very thankful that I wasn't in pain...yet. The doctor on duty there checked me and decided to start pitocin. (I had this same drug when Bekah was born.) The nurse was wonderful and I was surprisingly calm through all of this. My mom and Nathan were there in no time. It all went rather quickly. I got to the hospital at 11 AM. They started the pitocin at 1 PM. Sarah was born at 5 PM. It was a very smooth birth and I ended up not having any problems with my blood pressure. (Thank the Lord!). She cried right after being born (it was so good to hear that cry) and she weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz.!

One thing that shocked all of us is how alert she has been right from birth. She loves checking out her new world.

I feel extremely blessed by God for what He has given me.
Here's Bekah meeting her new baby sister for the first time.

I'm Back......

It's been a very busy few months since I've blogged last. First of all, I am now a mommy of two!

Our baby daughter, Sarah, was born in November and has been keeping us busy. Things are finally settling down into our "new norm", so I plan on blogging more now. I really wanted to just take this beginning time to focus on my family. It was great to take a break, but I've missed blogging and I love being able to look back at our memories and things we've done.

It's great to be back!