preschool week 2

Can I just tell you how much we are loving this weather!? Come on Fall! So I got a little inspired by the weather & threw out some of the  'themed' stuff & made it an anything goes week...

 Due to the incredible weather- I decided that we would get ready to take a Nature Scavenger hunt. I printed off pictures of things we would find on a nature hunt. She cut & glued them to an egg carton. We got all prepared to go & then terrible three's kicked in & we had a major melt down so now we are prepared to go next week! LOL.

 Mr Acorn Man! Karly loves Acorns- I don't really get it but she collects them, I find them all through out the house (obnoxious!) but I thought he was pretty cute! She colored & glued- I was just happy that his 'parts' all ended up in the correct spots!  ;)

 acorn man template

 I'm always trying to find new ways to do things. I have these popsicle trays that I NEVER use. Karly thinks it is SO much to play with Qtips so we turned it into a counting game.

YAY for a gorgeous day. we woke up on Wed & I could no longer resist we packed a bag & headed to the Botanical Gardens. One of our favorite places! We spent the entire day, walking, talking, learning. One of my favorite days that I have spent with my little love in a long time. No rush, no plans, no schedules, no phones, just me & her walking through the gardens creating forever memories!

Mirrored Image-- this was a 1st for her. I was so proud of her.

Journal Time-- So I stole this from my mom who is a 1st grade teacher. Every morning her students come into class they have journal time. SO I picked up a notebook for $1 & let her decorate it with stickers & glue on her name... I told her that every day we would begin with journal time. This might be her most fav part of 'school'. Our first day was: Draw a picture of a rainbow.

Bragging Rights- a few months ago we did rainbows & colors. I gave her all the colors of the rainbow but gave her no directions. With no prompting she got all the colors in the correct order!!! YAY! I love when I see my work with her is paying off!

 Animal Collage-- Ok so I am guilty that I don't let her have scissors often. I have heard so many horror stories of little girls cutting their hair that she only gets them if I can watch everything she does! So needless to say we need more scissor projects. I gave her some old magazines & had her cut all the animals out that she could find & then we made a collage with the pictures.

 Letter S- The one letter that gives Kar a lot of trouble is S. She always wants to call it a C. So here is to many more S projects to come!

 Big & Baby Letter Memory Game. I have stacks of old business cards that I cut in half. On one half I put "M" the other half 'm', mixed them all up & had letter memory. I dud use matching colors for the letters to help sight recognition.

 How many fishies? Started our first project on measuring. I think she ate more that she measured :)

Farm Animal Sewing. Check out that proud face! 

That's a wrap of our preschool mornings! :)

Mommy Preschool- Week 1

So fall is here, or at least it is suppose to be according to the school :) Hard to believe when its 100 degrees outside! Fall is not only my favorite season but I am one of those dorks that loved starting school, picking out new folders, notebooks, I still as a grown up love to go thru the school supply section! Just gets me excited- I know I'm such a nerd! I am especially excited this year because we have decided to have "mommy preschool". To everyone their own opinion, but I just have a thing against traditional preschools (maybe because I used to direct one but regardless we have decided that it is not for us) One of my most fav things in the world is developing curriculum for classes so this decision for us was a no brainer... just as in the past I have shared different ideas & projects I have decided that I would choose some of my favs to share with my blog world...
 So we kicked off our first this week & here were some of the fav's:
1- Sticky Numbers
Used cardstock to make a long row. Wrote the number on top of the card & she had to put the correct number of stickers in the correct number box.

SHe was VERY proud of herself! (only making one mistake!)

#2- Hard vs Soft & Float vs. Sink
I had a pile of things hard and soft and she had to separate them into the correct containers. I also used tricky thinks such as play dough which is soft with a hard container to see how she would problem solve. She chose to put playdough in soft "because you don't play with the container!" lol.  I repeated the same activity filling the containers with water & she had to try & figure out which ones floated & sank.

#3- Differences in Fruits & Veggies
First we talked about that was a fruit & what was a veggie and what makes them different...
We had a bowl full of a variety of different fruits & veggies & she had to separate them in to the correct fruit or veggie plate. Talked about how they grow, what they smell like, who/what eats it... This was awesome because after we plated them I told her she could try any of them, she tried more different things than she has ever been willing to try before!

#4- Money Mix
I took a veggie tray & filled the dip part with change (Quarters, Nickel, Dime & Penny) and she then had to separate them into the correct section. For every one she got in the correct spot she got to put in her piggy bank (You better believe that we hit up the $ store later that day! LOL) She really like this!

Along those same lines...
#5- Acts of Kindness
In my attempts to teach her about money I stumbled upon the idea of a homestore. I liked the idea but I thought it needed something more so I turned it into Karly's Acts of Kindness. Whenever I see her doing something especially kind that I did not ask her to do, I give her money. She then can use the money to buy something from her acts of kindness box.

You can see there are prices & colored stars. So if she gets a green star she can find something in the box with a green star to buy or she can save her money and get a silver star item... this is AMAZING!!!! And working INCREDIBLE! For instance she randomly told her Dad "Daddy I really like your hair cut, you look nice" He gave her .25, yesterday she picked up trash that was sitting of the table without being asked she got .75, today she held the door for an elderly man so I gave her $1.00. She is now always looking for ways to help! And she is starting to get the beginnings of earning money & saving. I really am loving this idea more & more. But I'm gonna have to get more rewards here soon! ;)

#6 Eating Fractions
I work a lot with her on numbers & math topics because I know the statistics of girls who struggle in math. We made a Quesadilla & then I let her use the pizza cutter & we learned how to make 1/2 & 1/4... This was a huge hit! She likes getting to eat her projects! LOL.

So these were the highlights of our first mommy preschool week! Hope you enjoy them :) Stay tuned & please share ideas, I love finding new creative things! There is nothing more rewarding than watching that spark go off when she 'gets' it!

Mederma saved my marriage!

while my posting lately has been pretty much non existent, don't worry, I am still out here! :) guess you could say I was 'blog fasting'.

and with that I am only here for a short one today! If you've read any of my previous blogs you know that turning 30 has been a bit flaky for me. I started feeling like I was falling apart so I dug out my inner super hero & went to work reading tons of books & research as to why I was falling apart. All that said. I am totally & completely changed my diet, we are eating CLEAN, hooked up again with my girl Jillian (can I tell you how excited I am for her new video coming out!?), started taking better care of myself & poof like magic or should I say science all my 'issues' have sided and I feel better than I did at 20!

 One of my biggest concerns was that I was no longer able to wear my wedding ring due to a metal allergy, I suddenly developed. WELL, I had picked up a tube of Mederma for those last few pesky stretch marks I have... thinking to myself "This $40 cream have better work!" while I was trying to rid myself of my baby battle wounds I realized that whatever lotion was left on my hands I just rubbed in... in 2 days my finger was totally cleared & I have been wearing my wedding ring for over a week now! This was SO worth the $40! Not sure what it is doing for my stomach but it totally works one way or another! It is so nice to be able to wear my wedding ring again. thank you merderma!

Homemade Pop Tarts-- I think SO!

Homemade Pop-tarts-- I think SO!

For some reason breakfast is the most difficult meal for me when it comes to feeding my child. Probably because I hate breakfast during breakfast, give me a slice of pizza or leftovers, not eggs & bacon. I am odd, I know! I feel like all the breakfast things out there for kids are packed with sugar &, or salt. I have burnt her out on so many protein & fruit smoothies. I have ran out of ideas on healthy breakfast & I refuse to let her eat mini muffins every day of her 3 yr old life! I stumbled on a recipe for Homemade Pop-tarts that sounded delish even to me. We ventured out & made delicious 'healthier' pop-tart alternative. They were really easy & Karly loves that she got to help make them!

We used whole grain pie crust (you can use whatever recipe or brand you like)

Spread the dough out on a cookie sheet. Cut the dough into rectangles.

Pick up whatever kind of jam, fruit or filling you like (we chose cherries for Karly but I really want to try pumpkin)

Spoon in the filling into half of the rectangles

then cover the filling with the left over rectangle pieces

fork the edges together & poke holes in top just like you would a pie

Cook 400 degrees for 15 min.

Let cool. Then decorate as you please. I made cinnamon sugar topping for myself but kar wanted icing so I used my sugar cookie icing recipe but cut the amt sugar in half. I wouldn't go as far to say that they are the healthiest breakfast out there but they are definitely tons healthier than store bought & much much tastier!!! 

If anyone has any other great & easy healthy recipes for the AM please share! :)

Summer Loves

I love summer! Its my childhood love, in the pool by 9, picnics, bbq's, catching fireflies, sidewalk chalk, long walks-- I love how it smells, tastes, the sounds, I love it all! I think my little girl feels the same way; even though if you ask her she will tell you she wants it to snow because she really loves frosty! LOL. This is the 1st week in awhile that I have been able to get back in my groove, days full of fun. I thought I would share a couple ideas I have found that were a hit!

I introduce anthropologist Karly. We had been learning & reading about how scientist sometimes have to dig up bones & I found this great idea. Take a tub fill it with water & drop in any little objects you can find: shells, crayons, figurines, anything! I gave it a couple tools & she went to work 'digging'. She loved it!

"If You Give a Mouse A Cookie" DAY. This is one of my daughter's favorite books. I bet I read it at least once a day. Probably because she shares the same love of cookies! I cut out circles for cookies (I was out of brown paper :(  and numbered the cookies. Picked up a bag of M&M's and Had her count out the #'s of M&M's... Oh & of course for every cookie she counted right she got some M&M's for herself ;) Later we baked cookies in "C" shapes. While the cookies were baking she drew a picture & we hung it on the fridge with scotch tape just like the story, she thought it was SO funny that we were doing everything the Mouse did in the story. Very entertaining :)

In honor of National IceCream Month we chased down the icecream truck! I can always hear the song but, the truck never comes down our street! I was determined to let my child experience the ice cream truck even if I had to drive to it, luckily this day it actually came down the road. Now Karly's world has been rocked! "Mommy when I get big & go to college I'm gonna be an ice cream truck driver!" LOL! Big goals ;)

Working at the Car Wash!

This was a precious moment for me! She did not know I was listening as I overheard her talking to her baby about 'water safety'. DOn't you love the baby's life jacket! Man my kid is so inventive, if only I could say she gets it from me! LOL. Definitely looks like me, acts just like Daddy! I'm not complaining she is bound to be successful with those genes :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer as much as we are!

Court's visit to the Lou

All too long ago a very dear friend of mine moved away. Which one you might ask?! Haa! because it seems to be a curse of mine, every time I get really really close to someone they move. ugh, I hate it. Enough of my pitty party. My very bestest buddy in the entire world (a.k.a Courtnee Jordan) came in town for a week-- aahhh ahhhhhaaa (those are angels singing! I was SO happy!) I swear we only took about 2 breaths because we had so much to catch up on. Baby, baby baby (Oh wait am I singing Justin Beiber! haaa!) Karly would not let Court out of her sight even to pee ;) We had a packed week full of fun. I don't think i have eaten so much in ages, but oh so yummy! Deweys, Lolas, Cryanos, McGurks, jilly's, Starbucks of course.... yummm. Lots of shopping, Muny, lost in the east side (not our best moment!), Jive & Wail (even if between the 2 of us we only know two 80"s songs! LOL!) SOOO MUCH FUN! It all came to an end too quickly & was just long enough for me to feel like she never left. I was holding together pretty well, until about an hr after Court & Jas left Karly says , "Mommy my heart feels so sad!" in that moment I became a huge bowl of sobbing mush! I realize often how lucky I am to have found such an incredible friend. I swear they are little clones of me & Jason it is scary! My sister separated at birth! There are not many people in this world that I can spend every waking moment with & never get tired of, but she is that girl for me! Lots of love Court-- here are our pix! And we cannot wait to come see you in Aug!

PS: I am still dreaming about that darn cupcake!

To all my lady friends out there... HELP!

OK so if you are 30 or over I need some serious advice!

I hit the milestone about a month ago & since then I have started falling apart :) no joke.

My skin has gone haywire, with massive breakouts. I have never had skin issues prior. I have changed all my skin care & started using stuff for acne but it is totally not working. Everyday I wake up with more & more unwelcomed visitors!

I can no longer wear my wedding ring because every time I wear it I get a ring of blisters on my finger. It is horrible- they itch & hurt at the same time! Once the blisters have popped the skin peels leaving the skin very raw & tender. I have wore the same ring for almost 10 years & never had a problem.

On top of this my cycle is gone crazy! I feel like I am falling apart. Skipping months at a time & no I'm not pregnant. Jason says Im going through early menopause which I am all for, lets get this over with but I don't think he is very accurate!

I mean I have always heard that your body goes through major changes at every decade but this is ridiculous! Ok so I need help anyone out there got anything for me? I will take any advise I can get I am desperate!