Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

Reese, 7 months

Valentine's Day Homeschool Ideas

This year, we're taking the day off from our regular curriculum for a day in February to have some fun with Valentine's Day themed activities! Here's a bit of what I have planned so far....I would love to hear any ideas you have to add to our list!

*Of course, the obligatory Valentine Candy Heart Math activities.

Predicting how many hearts are in the box

Identify how many tens & ones in the estimation number & actual number

Sorting by color & phrase

Graphing the results for number of each color

Creating word problems & algebraic equations using the numbers of colors of hearts (How many green and orange hearts do you have? If you have 3 green hearts and you need a total of 7, how many more do you need...3 + x = 7)

Identify greater than/less than using colors

Use an internet site to create a pie graph showing different colors & discuss different types of graphs

*Using a large version of graphing paper, Mom will draw hearts & we will use RedHot candies to find the area & perimeter of different hearts.

*Play a matching game using "broken hearts" and addition facts

*Play Heart Bingo

*Play Hershey Kisses Battleship.

Using a 10 x 10 grid, we will label the x-axis with letters and the y-axis with numbers. We'll place a few Kisses on our grid and will play Battleship. This will help teach map reading skills, along with graphing skills and how to read the x-axis and y-axis of a graph or map. If you find the Kiss, you get to take it & eat it!

*Using a Hundreds Chart and clues, solve the Valentine's Day Hundred Chart Puzzle

Reese will have to follow my clues (Place a heart shape on the number that is equal to two tens. Place a heart shape on the number that is 10 more than 36. etc) in order to solve the puzzle, which ends with a picture.

*Place Value Chocolates activity

By reading the clues (I have a two in the thousands place. I have a five in the ones place, etc) we'll find the chocolate with the correct number and glue it into place. As an extension, all even numbered chocolates will be colored dark brown and all odd numbered chocolates will be colored light brown.

*Make Sparkling Valentine's Hearts with borax

We'll shape pipe cleaners into heart shapes & suspend the shape into a large jar by a pencil. The Borax solution will crystallize on the pipe cleaner. We'll talk about the science behind our work. The Borax dissolves in warm water but when the water cools, the molecules of Borax crystallize 0ut of the solution and stick to the pipe cleaner. We'll use our hand-held microscope to view the crystals.

We have been studying body systems in Science already, so I don't think we'll focus too much on the heart & it's job. If I can find an appropriate picture book about Milton Hershey I'd like to read that as well...or maybe there's a good website about him. Need to check that out...

So, we'll be doing a day full of math & science activities for our Valentine's fun :) What are your plans?

More Christmas Fun...

On Christmas Eve, Grammie reads 'Twas The Night Before Christmas every year...

Reese decided he needed 10 carrots for Santa's reindeer. No less would do!

Christmas morning, and Reese shows us that this year, he is SIX!

Austen & Sissy came over and then the present-opening fun began...

Mommy was so busy enjoying the morning that she didn't get any more pictures of our Christmas!

Christmas Cookie Time

Once a year, at Christmas, we go all-out with our cookie decorating! Mommy & whatever kids are home help me roll the sugar cookie dough & cut out our cookie shapes. After we bake them, Mommy makes special Royal Icing and colors them & puts the icings into piping bags.

This year, it was Reese, Daddy, Grammie, & I that did the cookie decorating & we had great fun. It was the first time Grammie had decorated cookies...can you believe it?

Reese chose the blue icing which had a small tip & it was kind of hard to squeeze out...

Here, Reese is working on Sant's special cookie...

The finished cookie was a tad...red....and Santa was very thankful Reese made such a special cookie with lots of icing & sprinkles of every variety!
We set a special table for Santa with his cookies & a plate full of carrots for the reindeer...

Merry Christmas!

Grammie & Reese having a fun Christmas Eve...

Random Pictures From The Past Few Weeks :)

Working hard at homeschool....
Family picture, Thanksgiving 2009

Jessie, Reese, & Austen, Thanksgiving 2009

Brothers!!

The Christmas tree is decorated & we're excited about Christmas!

Pumpkin Express

After driving by the FM Pumpkin Patch and finding it closed, yet again, we decided to head out to the Pumpkin Express to meet up with our friends. Turned out to be a great choice, because even though it was really muddy, there was nobody there for most of our visit!

Reese was all about the "scary face" this year. Apparently, smiles are not scary enough...

Although, he would oblige me every once in a while with a smile :)


Lots of fun jumping of the big hay stack!

He liked to jump and then run to see the picture on my camera...

The only thing I don't care for at Pumpkin Express are all the creepy Halloween things they have. There are "cute" Halloween things as well, but this haunted house facade behind Reese is one of those creepy things I don't like...but he does!

See? Creepy. Not my style. But it's his!

Another big jump off the log tunnel!

My boy...

See you next year!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Happy 4th of July...Come see Reese at CheerUpNation.Com!

Reese was featured on Cheer Up Nation today for their 4th of July photo :) This was 3 years ago and it was just the perfect photo...

Check him out, and have yourself a fun 4th of July (or as Reese still calls it..."four-fifths of July")

Don't Eat The Daffodils!

Around these parts, folks visit the Arboretum during the Spring

to take pictures with the thousands of tulip & daffodil blooms for scenery.

Being a new Mama, I felt it was my duty to follow suit,

so we headed to the Arboretum one Spring day

when Reese was about 9 months old.

The finished picture turned out cute...

just look at those TOES...

But I so vividly remember Reese kept falling over as I was trying to snap a picture.

Not "fall-on-his-face" falling over...

More like "Mom, what are you doing? I'm not sitting here" falling over.

And if he wasn't falling over, he was turning around

trying to eat the daffodils.

Or eat the grass.

Or eat a bug.

Or eat the mulch.

Good times....good times.....

Time To Dye The Eggs...

Finally!

This year Reese wanted to help dye the Easter eggs!

Usually, he's not interested at all.

Just not a "crafty" type kiddo.

But for whatever reason, he wanted to

Do.It.All.By.Himself

this year!

He always makes me laugh...

he is so meticulous about things...

When I bought the egg dye kits, I don't know WHAT I was thinking.

I bought two kits.

One was a cute kit with smiley face stickers.

The other?

A kit that included GLITTER to shake your dyed eggs in.

I mean, who doesn't want glitter in the refrigerator,

and all over food they're about to eat?

Luckily, I was able to talk Reese out of the glitter pack and

we went with the smiley faces instead.

Which turned out darn cute!

Egg Hunting Time!

We had a great big fun Easter Egg Hunt with our

Early Childhood PTA friends on Good Friday.

I love Reese's egg hunting method...

It's not a mad dash to grab ALL the eggs he can find.

No.

He carefully walks around and picks up only the eggs that are the right color,

or are "boy" and not "girl" eggs,

or are hidden in just the right place.

I think he ended up with 6 eggs and was thrilled with his stash of chocolates and gum!

**Thanks to my friend Kim who was in front of all the egg hunters and captured the great picture of Reese as he ran to the very back of the field to grab his first egg!**

Happy St. Pattys Everyone!!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

Checking In, Heading Out!

Catching up before we head out tomorrow morning for Hawaii!

Last Friday, we joined our CoOp friends to see

"Click, Clack, Moo" at the Dallas Children's Theater.

It was a GREAT performance!

Afterwards, when trying to decide on a lunch location,

Some of the Mommies had dueling iPhones!

Mrs. Holly led us all to Steak n Shake for lunch which was a great choice!
After a big morning of theater & lunch,
Reese zonked out in the car on the way home!

For Valentine's Day on Saturday, Reese & Jessie got little gifts from Jeff & I.

Earlier in the week, Reese worked hard on signing his Valentine's cards for his CoOp buddies.

Those boxes for his name were tiny!

Reese found some "edible paper" in the gift section at WalMart & I told him if I bought it, he'd have to wait until Valentine's Day to open it.

He waited for over a week to taste it...he asked every single day if it was time to eat it yet!

Finally, it was Valentine's Day & Reese wrote a message on his paper...

And took a bite!

Hmmmm....not as good as he thought it would be...

We attempted a bowling trip, but the wait was SO very long on Saturday.

We ended up heading home with one very sad little boy...

We ended up bowling on Sunday though & had a great time together!
Can you tell who bowled in the Junior Bowling League?

Reese had a blast bowling too!

Sissy & I didn't use the bumpers once. Um. Maybe once.

Or twice.

Hope your Valentine's Day was fun!!

What Can You Find For Your Sweetie?

Click the link above...what can you find for your sweetie on Valentine's Day? Amazon sorts it out by category with SO many choices for each group! And while you're at it, you can send a link to your sweetie as a hint of what you'd like :)

Happy shopping!! :)

**This shameless plug comes to you because our family will get a small percentage of each purchase if you click on our link. My hope is to build up our fund for Science supplies! So know your order buys Reese some school stuff!**

Happy Year of the Ox!

I'll make a full post about our awesome trip to the

Dallas Nature & Science Museum on Monday.

But I wanted to post a few pictures today...

We met up with three of our buddies and were treated to

some amazing Lion Dances to celebrate the Chinese New Year on Monday!

It was a perfect morning with our buddies.

Thanks MeLissa for coordinating the trip :)

Christmas 2008: A SmileBox

My new favorite way to share pictures is with SmileBox! As you watch, if you click on the pictures you'll see larger ones. There's also a few videos stuck in there too!

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Daddy Hit The Jackpot!

See what Daddy found at the store....way to go Daddy!!

From Our House To Yours....

Sending Merry Christmas wishes your way...from our family to yours....

We've had the best time with all 3 kids together in one place! Lunch together...

And making cookies for Santa was especially fun!

Everyone got in on the decorating...even Daddy!

Austen worked hard on his cookie for Santa

Jessie puts up with my picture taking...
Reese needed blue icing for his Christmas tree....

A plate full of Christmas cookies to share...

And a special letter to Santa:


Dear Santa, These cookies r for you. Love, Reese

A special plate of cookies for Santa...one cookie made by each of us...

Opening Christmas gifts together...Daddy got a very special, handmade gift from Grammie!


We hope your Christmas was a fun-filled morning with many blessings!