Shaving Cream Painting

For many more crafts see my Tot School label :)

For this craft you are supposed to use shaving cream. But we didnt have any at the time so we used hair mousse. The shaving cream definitely wouldve worked better. But Connor enjoyed it just the same.

Step 1: I sprayed the mousse onto a cookie sheet and Connor spread it around with his hands.


Step 2: I squirted (and sometimes he did) the food coloring of his choice onto the mousse and he swished it around. I then added a second color of his choice.


Step 3: I gave him a piece of white paper and he gently pressed it onto the cookie sheet. I pulled it off and laid it to dry. I then rinsed the cookie sheet and dried with a paper towel so he could try new color creations. I had paper towels handy for his very messy hands too. Here are the 3 he made:


*Warning* Dont do this craft if you dont want your childs hands (and arms in Connors case) dyed different colors for days!

Pics from the Lakeside Trail

Here are pics from our walk down the Lakeside Trail. It was one of the places on our To-Do list this summer.

Workbooks

TO BUY OR GET MORE INFO ON ANY OF THE BOOKS SEEN HERE, CLICK ON THE TITLES BELOW!

Here are the workbooks i am using this year. I tend to go a little overboard and cant choose. So i just get them all! Of course im not using every one every time. And half of some of the books will be used next year, when Connor is 4. My favorites from this bunch are the Preschool workbook, the Seasonal Activities book and the Bible Sticker Book. All were bought at used curriculum sales and the big Upstate NY LEAH sale.

Letters of the Alphabet Wipe-Off Book
Colors, Shapes and Sizes Reusable Activity Book
Little Cats ABC Paint Book
Kumon My First Tracing Book
Kumon Lets Cut Paper
3,2,1 Learn (not pictured)
My Big Bible Sticker Book
Seasonal Activities Grades PreK-
Learn Every Day Preschool

The I-Luv-You Challenge

Check out this great idea my friend Traci has on her blog. It goes great with my journaling idea! (see Parenting) Thanks for the idea Traci!

I will be trying this challenge out soon and ill let you know the results!

Journals

Baby books are great! I have one for each of my kids and they are great for keeping track of important milestones.
But another idea i do is journaling. I bought a journal for each child about a year ago and started jotting down different things that each did that i want to remember. Funny things they said, cute things they did, or even a little personal note from mom or dad at that moment in their life.
Keep your journals (and a pen) someplace they will be easily accessible so you can jot something down quickly, before you forget (mommy brain anyone?). I keep mine in my living room in a basket next to the couch. And dont forget to date each entry!
I read through the journals the other day and was amazed that i had already forgotten about so much in just one short year! I love knowing i have these precious memories preserved. For me to read and remember and for them to someday also.

Where we've been

One of my life goals is to visit each of the 50 states. I know this will take a long time and we probably wont be finishing it until the kids are out of the house and we are retired, lol. Unless we go on a road trip, which would be fun and great for homeschooling :) But either way, hopefully i will get to accomplish this goal someday. Here are the states we've already visited:

2003-North Carolina
2004-Ohio
2005-Virginia
2006-Massachusetts
2007-New York (city that is. But hey, it can count!)
2008-New Hampshire
2009-North Carolina again
2010-?? Im going to start looking into where we are going to visit next. Mike wants me to start surprising him and not letting him know where we are going to go. We'll see how long that lasts ;)

ARE YOU GOOD ENOUGH TO GET INTO HEAVEN??

Take this simple test to see if you are "good enough" to get into heaven, good luck!!!

http://www.wayofthemaster.com/goodperson.shtml

Things to do this summer...

Here's a list of some things we'd like to do this summer. We'll see how many we actually get done... (the bold ones with stars and italics are ones we've accomplished so far)

• *Build a patio*
• *Go to Seabreeze*
• *Walk along the Lake Ontario Beach Trail*
  
• *Go to the beach*
• *Go on a boat ride*
  
• *Have a picnic*
• *Take Connor miniature golfing*
• *Host an Ernst Family BBQ*
• *Take Connor to Red Wings game*
  
• *Sign Connor up for a Half-Pints camp at the Y *
  
• A 1-night stay somewhere. Maybe Buffalo, Syracuse or Niagara Falls?

Themes

Here's the homeschool themes I've compiled and decided to do with Connor starting this fall: (in no order)

Families
Taking care of myself
Cooking/baking
Halloween
Thanksgiving
Christmas
Valentines Day
Easter
Fall
Winter
Spring
Summer
Animals of the land
Animals of the air
Animals of the sea
Opposites
Rhyming
Bugs
Music
Creation
Noahs ark
Jonah
David and Goliath
Community helpers
Trucks
Eric Carle theme
Feelings
Fire Safety
Worms
Bears

Heres a great site to get different theme ideas http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/allthemes.htm

My first post!

So.... im not even sure where to begin. This is my first post on my new blog! I have no idea what this blog will become, i just think it will be fun to try out :) Ive had fun looking over other peoples blogs lately and have been dying to try my own. Hopefully over time it will turn into something fun and i will be able to share my memories and ideas and people will be blessed by it. Thanks to all the great bloggers out there for inspiring me!