B is for...BUSY

This week started off slow, but by Wednesday we were crazy busy. In fact, looking back, everything from Wednesday on is just a big blur. Add exhaustion to it, and it is an even bigger blur. Our Awana year at church is coming to an end (whoohoo) and I have been preparing for our Awana Fair on Wednesday night, which will mark our last meeting of the year. I am just a little stressed and still need a couple more people in order to have someone at every station. I have a lot of things to do this week to prepare for games, so this week up until Wednesday will be hectic too, but I am ready to get it started and get it over with. This past week had been spent planning and going shopping for fair games, plus things for our Awana end of year award ceremony. I think I have it all, or at least I hope I do.

We were only able to get three lessons in this week. We will continue working on the letter B tomorrow and start our C lessons this week. I have a lot of fun activities planned, so we should have a good week.

Now on to the biggest event of the week/weekend. My sister graduated with her Bachelors degree in Radiation Sciences(with honors and got the outstanding student award in all of the radiation sciences department). How awesome is that! I am just a LITTLE proud of her. She has accomplished so much and I know it has been a long and hard 6 years for her, but she never gave up. I love her so much and God really blessed me with her as a sister. She is not only my sister, but my best friend. My camera was MIA. I kept forgetting it at all of the important events. Her husband threw a surprise party Friday night for her then we went to both graduations on Saturday with a cookout at my parents afterward. The kids had a blast. Although it was hectic, it was a very good memorable week. Here are some pictures.

This week one of our lessons was on balloons. The girls loved playing with the balloons. This was their snack. It was supposed to look like a balloon. Kristen wanted a face on hers. They basically just licked the icing off.

They made balloon necklaces.

Not sure why Kristen was crying. Lauren started crying because Kristen was. This was their craft. They drew a picture of where they would want to be if they were a balloon. Kristen drew the fair and the ferris wheel.

Here are pictures of the girls with their baker's hats on.


They got to bake a cake for a snack and decorate it. Kristen was super excited. Lauren just wanted to eat the sprinkles.




This was the finished product. A cake FULL of sprinkles. Don't be fooled by the parts that look like there are no sprinkles. There were clear sprinkles there.

While we waited for the cake to bake we played with play doh and made some cakes. This was the first time Lauren played with it without eating it. What a milestone!



They also made Bee bookmarkers this week. They both LOVED it.



This was Kristen bed one night when I went in to cover her up. She is really going to be a hoarder.

Last, but not least. This was the cake I did for my sister's graduation cookout.

School Evaluation

We went today for Lauren's school evaluation. When we left the house she seemed nervous almost like she knew something was coming that she wouldn't like. She started crying while I was filling out paperwork in the school office. Cried the whole time that we were walking down hallways to the preschool room and for a little bit in the classroom. She finally calmed down and really enjoyed playing with the blocks, puzzles, books and chalkboard in the room. It took an hour and a half for the whole evaluation, but both the teacher and speech therapist that we met with were very nice and Lauren really liked them. She will qualify for speech therapy only, so she will go to the school twice a week for 30 minutes. She will start in September with the school year. I have to get her registered so I will go sometime next week to get everything notarized. I will stay with her during therapy. I have to say, that when we were in the classroom and they were talking about her possibly going 4 days a week to school, I thought I was going to have a panic attack. She just seemed too small for that big classroom and for that big school. She even seemed too small for that big table she was sitting at. I was a little relieved when they said she would only need speech. Whew.

Fun Week

This past week has been a really fun and enjoyable week. I have made a decision to spend more quality time with Kristen and Lauren and do more fun things that they like to do. Not to mention incorporating learning into our daily lives. I have had to rearrange my schedule in order to fit everything in, including all of my housework and laundry, but things have worked out good. Kristen enjoys her school time and makes me feel good that I am actually making it fun with games and songs and crafts included in it. The big milestone is that you can ask her to write an uppercase and lower case A and she can do it all by herself without you showing her. This week we are going to be working on the letter B and she is so excited. I spent a good majority of my day yesterday planning and coming up with fun things and crafts to do. The Internet is a wonderful source of information and ideas.

This week when we were learning that A is for alligators I had a really neat snack planned. The night before I made rice crispy treats with frosted flakes instead of rice krispies and put green food coloring in it. If I could imagine what alligator skin looked like that would have been it. I just knew this was going to be a big hit. When I announced after lesson at snack time that we were going to be having alligator skin as a snack this was how the conversation went.

Me: "Guess what we are having for a snack today?"
Kristen: "I don't know."
Me: "Alligator skin!"
Kristen: "That's gross."
Lauren: "Yay!" (while clapping)
Me: "It's not really alligator skin. It is cereal and marshmallows that mommy made green."
(Once I cut the snack and gave it to them)
Kristen: "It's green." (with an I can't believe this look on her face)
Me: "I know, alligators are green so their skin is going to be green."
Kristen: "I don't like green. I only like strawberry."
Me: "Well, sorry, alligators aren't strawberry."
(Lauren is REALLY enjoying her alligator skin)
Kristen: "I'm not eating it."
Me: "Okay, but this is the only snack you will be getting. You will have to wait until lunch to eat."
Kristen: "I'll try it." (Takes the smallest bite known to man)
Kristen: "I don't like it."
Me: "That's fine. You don't have to eat it."
Kristen: "What else can I have."
Me: "Nothing"
Then she eats half of her alligator skin.




Thursday' snack was a better hit. I made acorns out of mini vanilla wafers, peanut butter and hershey's kisses. They were so cute. Both girls ate them all gone.

A day at the park

Diaper Diva

The Letter A

I am trying to teach my girls some things and trying to be productive in our at home life. Kristen loves it and Lauren likes it. Lauren has issues transitioning from one activity to another if she really doesn't want to do it. She says "No" as loud as she can with a little bit of a growl, but we are getting there. We are focusing on one letter a week and this week we have been focusing on the letter A. Recognizing it in upper and lower case, practicing writing it by tracing and recognizing it in other words. She has really caught on and is doing great. We have an A poster I printed off and colored with both upper and lowercase and we talk about it a lot. My goal was for her to be able to recognize the letter and possibly be able to write both upper and lower case all by herself. I wasn't going to expect the writing it all by herself, partly because I didn't know if she was ready to be doing that or not. But, I am very happy to announce that today, our second day working on the letter A, she is already writing it all by herself. I am just so proud of her.

Here is the apple craft we did yesterday. Kristen enjoyed dipping her half of the apple in the paint. Her's is the one with all of the apples. Lauren liked rubbing the paint on her hands like lotion.


This is today's craft. It is supposed to be ants crawling up the letter A. This is Lauren's. She got pretty violent dipping her little finger in the paint and putting it on her paper. She loved it and had me laughing. She would look at her finger and say "Uh oh".


This is Kristen's. She wrote the letter A on her paper all by herself. I was one proud momma!


We had ants on a log for snack. This is my nice clean Kristen who barely makes a mess when she eats and has to have a napkin, fork, and spoon. She doesn't like anything to get on her clothes or her hands.


This is Lauren who likes to rub things in her hair, on her clothes, on the table.

Happy Mother's Day

Mothers Day 2011 was GREAT! I actually got my presents last night because the kids and Paul couldn't wait to give them to me. I thought that was sweet. I got some Ghirardelli chocolate squares with caramel, which is so yummy. I had been wanting a wall clock, and Paul and Kristen picked out the perfect one. But the best gift of all was my charm bracelet. Every charm was specially picked out for me and it meant so much to know that Paul and Kristen picked them out. I absolutely LOVE IT!!! I am so lucky to have my girls and to be their mother. I love them so much and thank God everyday for making me their mom. I am so blessed. Here are some pictures from Mother's Day.

Here is a picture of me and girls this morning before church


Here is the craft Kristen made me in Cubbies at church


Here is craft Kristen made me in Sunday School


Here is the flower I got from Lauren. She decorated the pot.


Here is a picture of the clock I got for Mother's Day


Here is a picture of my charm bracelet. It was the BEST most PERFECT gift.


I spent most of the day working on printing out worksheets and craft supplies for Kristen and Lauren's lesson times for next week and the week after next, but it is something that I enjoy doing. We are going to this week implement a responsibility chart. Every day both girls have 4 responsibilities to do. As long as they get all 4 Hello Kitty's on the chart, they get to do something they don't get to do everyday like play a game from the top of the closet, play with playdoh, play with tub paint, etc. If they don't get all 4 Hello Kitty's on the board they will get things taken away. I don't for see that happening, but I want them to start getting used to doing things to help out. Kristen is very excited about it. Here is a picture of chart.
I have a lot of fun crafts and snacks planned for this week, so more posts to come!

Cutie Pies

Three Word Phrases

I am so happy to announce that Lauren is now saying three word phrases. Here are some things I have been writing down for the speech therapist.

"I want more"
"Bug fly away"
"I want down"
"I want up"
"I want cup"
"I want snack"
"No, it's mine" (you can guess who she uses this with)
"I want cookie"
"I want candy"

Sometimes she puts please at the end so that makes it four words.

Here is a video of her asking for candy. She is just so cute!