Caroline's 4th Birthday

I can't believe my baby is 4! Caroline Hope, you are growing up way to fast! We had a fast and furious birthday celebration this year a day early since Josh was working on her actual birthday and we had church functions to work around the day we did celebrate. Caroline had promised me she would stop growing at 4, but I think that she's had a change of heart since she keeps asking me when she is going to turn 5.
4 is such a big age. Caroline just figured out how to buckle herself in the car by herself, which she is extremely proud of and mommy is extremely thankful for given that in a few months we will have 4 kids to buckle in! She loves to announce how big she is and tell others about her birthday. She is doing very well with her preschool work, I know she enjoys doing things just like her big sister. For some reason she has been going through a mommy clingy stage. Which is just fabulous because Sydney is doing the same thing. Oh it's great to be so loved......Maybe they can choose Josh next time ;)
Here are some pictures of our quick celebration:

yes, I made it myself! ;)

Rock Star Preschool

This week we have started a wonderful curriculum that I just happened to stumble upon while looking for some resources for teaching Bible class. We had been doing some simple theme units manipulatives that I was checking out for the Johnston County Partnership for Children (click to check out their stuff!) It's so nice to have a place to check out tons of things for the girls, even Sydney! This group has a membership fee which is pretty minimal. While we are still doing theme units we have added some simple, yet powerful, curriculum called Raising Rock Star Preschool. You must check out this site! She has so many tools not just for preschool, but for toddlers and early elementary. We have been having a BLAST this week and I, for once, feel like I can actually do this homeschool thing!

To start off we needed some Popsicle sticks for one of our activities. The girls were so glad to be able to assist me in my quest for Popsicle sticks. They humbly and happily ate some Popsicles for me :)

Here is Makayla working on some letter tracing for the letter Ll that we are learning about this week. I have our worksheets in page protectors so we waste less paper and I can use the same sheet for all 4 kiddos! We use dry erase markers and wipe when we're done. This is a technique that I picked up while tutoring at Huntington Learning Center.

Caroline is concentrating very hard at cutting out our Ll words for the week. I had to reprint this page since she is still working on her cutting technique :), but it was good practice! The website recommends putting the word cards in a baseball card pockets, which I happened to have from my couponing days. It makes it easy to save and flip through each letter!

Here is Caroline working on a puzzle during center time. Thanks to some generous folks that Josh works with for donating some homeschool supplies to us! I don't know what we would do without them!

Sydney is learning how to be a lady by balancing a cup on her head at dinner...ok, not really, but it was pretty funny so I had to snag a picture!

Posing pretty to show off our Calendar Time. Our friends from church gave us the magnetic calendar. Since my background is in teaching I have a fun little routine we do almost each day to work on months, days, seasons and such. I was blessed to have a great Kindergarten student teaching placement.

Each week there is a new sight word to learn. I was soooo impressed at how quickly the girls grasped the concept of a sight word! This week we learned the word "See." This picture shows Caroline reading our "I See" book.

Here is Makayla reading. Notice she's in Jammies! Isn't homeschool life great!

Each week there is a verse to memorize that starts with the letter of the week. This week it was, Let your light shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in Heaven. Matthew 5:16. It's nice to help me learn new scripture as well as placing those seeds in my girls hearts. This picture is the girls coloring their verse.

Our theme unit this week has been the Food Pyramid. I wish I had more pictures of the fun we have been having with that. The girls say we have a "fun house" with all the posters and toys we have for this unit. On this day we studied the fruit group so we made some fruit smoothies for lunch. I think they enjoyed them!

She might not look happy, but Sydney enjoyed hers too!

To practice our verse and cutting skills, the girls cut out our verse and taped it together and used the verse to measure things around this house. This week our verse was longer than Caroline!

Makayla really enjoyed the measuring and had fun going around the house measuring just about everything.

Some things that don't have pictures

Since there were so many resources available for this weeks theme unit, I was able to do centers with the girls after our lessons. We had sorting baskets of food by color, food hand puppets, a Food Pyramid chart where the girls got to put the right foods in the right part of the pyramid. We moved the toy kitchen out of their room and the girls could play with tons of food as we learned about each section of the pyramid. I also made some sorting activities in file folder games, not as popular, but still fun. We listened to some silly food music that came with our kits from the Partnership for Children while we played.

Another perk of the Partnership is once a month they do a story time and activity. It is sponsored by Target and they provided a copy of the book for each family. The girls had a great time meeting new friends, hearing the story and making a craft. Since the story was about a Hen, the farm and her chicks we decided we needed to go and visit the chicks for sale at the local hardware store. They loved it! Although, I was disappointed that they added a "No Touch" sign that was not there the time that I went to check things out. We also took some time to wander through the plants, as I am trying to teach them the names of different flowers.

Non-school Activities

"The Bean" aka Sydney has cut one of her top teeth. The second should be coming any time now. She has also been able to pull herself up at least two times that I have witnessed and crawled on her hands and knees across the room!

We also got the call that Makayla's T-ball season starts this Saturday, so we are gearing up for practice!

Phew...what a busy week!

The Day

We had a monumental day a couple of weeks ago. The magnitude of the day keeps showing itself, so I figured I should share with the world the positive side effects from "The Day." A couple of weeks ago we had finally set up a playdate with one of our new homeschool friends, well really, it would be the first time that the girls had really met these new friends. It had taken some effort to coordinate and I was a little nervous about having new people in to our home. So I went all out, as in, I cleaned my house! I offer that courtesy only to first time visitors. After that, you get to see how we really live. The girls room was a MESS!! You couldn't even walk through the floor. So I set them about the task to clean it. They actually volunteered to clean as soon as the finished breakfast; they were so excited to have a new friend come over to play. We had until 1:00pm, so we had PLENTY of time! The girls asked for my help so I helped them designate tasks and break chores into steps. It awful hard not to get sidetracked when you're putting away all those fun toys. Let's just say the girls focus was challenged. After an hour and a half of work, the room didn't look much better. They were starting to get tired and come up with all sorts of ailments that would prevent them from cleaning their room. Time was ticking! I let them know that if their room wasn't cleaned, they would not be able to have their new friend over. Humph, they didn't really like that! After one more hour their room still wasn't clean. It was now noon. I knew that with as long as it takes for them to eat lunch, there was no chance of the room getting cleaned before our company came over. I made a tough choice, but knew it was the right thing to do. I picked up the phone and called the mom. I let her know that my girls were not behaving today and that it would not be a good day for a playdate. She surprisingly understood and said her kids weren't in that good of a mood either. The girls were upset. I expected as much and honestly would have been disappointed if they weren't. But really, they made the choice, not me. So now it's nap time. I encourage them to rest because they are in a bad mood, informing them that it would help give them a more positive attitude. For some reason, they did not heed my advice. The played all during naptime, interrupting the nap that I should have gotten. Mommy was NOT a happy camper. Naptime generally ends around 4pm. Some might stop with punishment after the canceled playdate, but that wasn't the point was it? I told them to clean their room and they didn't. It was time to learn a lesson! I let them know that they were to finish cleaning their room before they could have any dinner. But surely I couldn't be serious? I wouldn't deprive them of dinner? Try me! We don't live in the third world, they aren't starving. They will survive! And, their room will be clean! They huffed and puffed testing the limits. I set about making dinner and playing with Sydney. By the time dinner was ready at 5:30, they were still not finished. Sydney and I had a lovely dinner together. It just so happened to be bath night as well, the girls favorite. I let them know that if they didn't clean their room in time, not only would they miss dinner, but also bathtime. Once they saw me eat dinner alone, I think they were starting to get the point that I was serious. Oh, but once I started the bath water for Sydney they really got the point! By 6:30pm they finally had a clean room! By this point they were VERY proud of their accomplishment. They realized that they really could clean their room all by themselves! Their food was waiting for them at the table. I didn't even hear them complain about what I made! I put Sydney to bed and then gave them their bath and got them ready for bed. Even if the story ended there, it would have been a good one! But no, it goes on! The next day was prayer group day, which means a few moms and their kids come over and the moms talk and pray while the kids play. The kids had a great time and when they left, the room was still clean! They had picked up after themselves, a first! Ever since that fateful day, the girls have been able to reasonably keep their room clean. They even voluntarily clean it up on their own. It makes a mom proud! That day was not a fun one. As a mom it can be hard to follow through with consequences. Now that my girls have such a since of accomplishment and responsibility, I'm glad I stuck to my guns.

Mom of the Year

Just when I feel like I am getting life somewhat under control..... This past week has been filled with some quite humbling mommy experiences. Here we go ladies, time to de-cape Super Mom! Award Number 1 Let me begin with a simple trip to the Doctors office. Caroline needed some forms filled out and since we had never done a well check-up with our Dr. in Clayton and since it's soooo close to her 4th birthday, we just went ahead and scheduled her 4 yr. check-up. For a last minute appointment in order to get our paper work filled out as quickly as possible we got the marvelous time of 10:30, right in the middle of Sydney's nap. What are ya gonna do? These appointments generally don't take very long and there are typically toys in the examination room. I leave the diaper bag in the car... All four of us ladies wait together for Caroline to be called back. We wait, and wait...and wait. I had worked really hard at prepping Caroline for the examination since she typically freaks out at the slightest thing. She did excellent getting weighed and measured. Then we get our room. No toys, bummer. That's ok, Makayla and Caroline are great at entertaining themselves. Until the Dr. chair bumper derby starts. We wait, and wait...and wait...and wait... for the Dr. to come in. My arms are getting tired and Sydney is getting cranky, I finally give in and let her play on the floor. GROSS! The Dr. comes in, I give him the forms and we start the examination. I guess he didn't understand me correctly because he did a 3 yr. check-up, really? It's less than a month from her birthday...work with me here! She does great, Sydney eats the paper from the examination table, no crying or shots involved this time! We leave the office at Noon! That's an hour and a half at the dr.! We get out to the car and find it running. How odd! Did I leave the car running the whole time?? I check my purse for the keys and they are there; I must have hit the automatic start fumbling to get everyone in the van, phew! I get everyone buckled, the luggage and stroller stowed and shut the truck. Why did the van turn off, and didn't I just hear all the doors lock? All the doors LOCKED. With my kids, my purse, my cell phone, the keys, everything but me inside the car! GREAT! I try to get Makayla to unbuckle herself and open the door. Good for the car seat company, bad for me, she can't get the bottom unbuckled. As I'm telling the girls to sit tight while I go back inside to make a call a loving mom asks if she can help. I borrow her cell phone and call 911. As I wait Caroline is screaming and Makayla is looking at me like I'm dumb. Sydney is peaceful which is a relief. The cop arrives and provides little assurance. He can only bust a window and the fire department is at a house fire, but someone should be on their way soon. He starts encouraging the kids to unbuckle themselves to no avail. He walks around to Caroline's side and talks to her and then pulls to sliding door handle....and it opens. Boy do I feel dumb! Lucky for me we have one faulty door that does not always lock with the others. I really wish I had tried all the doors before I called the cops! Good thing I pay taxes! I thanked the cop and went home (one block away mind you) and cried to Josh. He brought me flowers home that night. Award Number 2 One of the other weird things that Josh and I do is have our kids sit with us in church. We really enjoy getting a chance to worship as a family and answer questions as they arise about service. It can be really challenging some Sunday's, but well worth the effort. Sydney joins us, in the hopes for her to join us full time, but understanding that the nursery is always an option for her. Since she is doing so well at sitting up, we often let her sit and play with toys in the pew (she is the only one allowed to play during worship). Josh and I typically split kid responsibilities. One with the older, one with the baby. For some reason Josh was really engrossed in the sermon and I was controlling all three at one time. I turn to tell the girls something and out of the corner of my eye see Sydney starting to make a head dive off of the pew! My cat-like reflexes come into play and I have just enough time to catch her by the back of the dress and pull her up to safety. After the many gasps from the pews behind us (we sit in the very first pew, so I can only imagine how many people witnessed this event) I was mortified and decided it was time for Sydney to join her friends in the nursery! Award Number 3 And finally... mommy mess-up number 3. So the reason that Caroline had to get this Dr. form filled out is because she was undergoing sedation to get a tooth pulled. My baby! She's only had the tooth for 2 years and it's already rotted enough to have it pulled! After talking with my Hygienist friend I was lovingly shown that people aren't born with rotten teeth, it's improper care that causes the cavities. I rotted my baby's teeth! Oh, the guilt! And to have to be sedated on top of all that! Caroline started off well, but since she decided to spit out half of her sedation medication, she came to when they were putting the gauze in to absorb the blood. She was NOT a happy camper about that and threw a royal fit. Luckily Josh was there and he was able to maintain control while I showed Makayla around the dentist office (she had never been to this office before). Since they removed a baby tooth and since it will be such a long time before the permanent tooth grows in they have to insert a spacer to keep the room for the new tooth. Which will be placed at the end of April when she get the other FIVE cavities filled. So my sweet Caroline has a huge gap in her mouth where a molar used to be. I can't believe the Tooth Fairy had to come and visit a 3 yr.old. She was very nice and gave Caroline two packs of stickers. One pack she stuck all over her body within the first 5 minutes of waking up. Hey, after seeing that big ole' tooth, she deserved to do whatever she wanted with those stickers! Thanks for the dose of humility, Lord.