All About Fall

Today began All about Fall week. This is my absolute favorite time of the year. We've got a lot of fun planned for this week! Today we made a fall tree. Eli and I talked about what colors we see in the fall and that fall was a season. Now for Eli's cute craft!

We began by tracing his hand onto a piece of paper. And he colored it. His arm and hand became the tree trunk for all his fall leaves!

He was suppose to only use his finger to paint the leaves onto his tree; however, he thought it needed to be painted with his whole hand, lol.

Ta-dah! What a beautiful fall tree.

After we washed his hands, Eli colored a letter L for leaf!



Eli just loves doing his "school work"!

Happy Fall, ya'll!

ABC Wednesdays - A is for Aunt Darla's Visit

Today is Wednesday which means Daddy gets to stay home with us! I had read a mom's blog a few months ago and she was talking about how she and her family do "ABC Weekends". The first weekend they did an activity that began with the letter A, then the next weekend an activity that began with the letter B and so on. I loved this idea! However, our weekends are super duper busy - so I thought we would try to do it on Wednesdays when Scott is home from work.

Today was our first ABC Wednesday which means we would do an activity that began with the letter A.

Aunt Darla's Visit

We haven't seen Darla in so long! Her father had been ill and in the hospital and we hadn't been able to get together. So while she was on fall break she came down for a visit. The kids love spending time with her (as do I) but they really enjoyed it this time! She brought presents! She brought Eli an awesome Spongebob bubble blower. He had such a fun time learning how to make it blow bubbles. Daddy even got in on the fun!

It was super cold today! So it was fitting that Aunt Darla also bought him a Spongebob toboggan and mittens! Bri also got an adorable toboggan and mittens.

The kids just love their Aunt Darla!

An Affordable Dinner at Chili's

After naptime we had some errands to run in Knoxville. Once we  were finished we stopped into Chili's and at an affordable dinner :) We used a coupon from the Knox County School's coupon book for free chips and salsa .... I love those things! We then got the 2 for $20 deal and then Eli got his own meal. I had bought a $10 e-giftcard online for $5 - so all in all we ate for the same price we would've at McDonalds :) And we got much more full! Daddy and baby boy love them some french fries :)

Eli then wanted my corn on the cob. He was so cute eating it. He devoured that thing!!

We had an AMAZING ABC Wednesday! Wonder what we'll get into next week for the letter B? Any suggestions?



Old Mc-Eli Had a Farm

We have been super busy the past couple of days thus the lack of blog posts. I photographed a wedding this past weekend and the kids Great-Aunt Robyn let them have a slumber party at her house. They had a great time! From what I hear Eli had deer meat for the first time and Bri had a sucker for the first time. You can always count on doing something new when you go to Aunt Robyn's house :)

Today began Farm week!! Eli loves animals and we have been going over animal sounds. We got out of our routine  a little today because we had to go to the grocery store this morning. So, after nap (while Bri was still sleeping) Eli got to play on the computer. We visited sesamestreet.org and he played a farm animal game. He helped Elmo find all of Old McDonalds farm animals. He loves being able to play on the computer!

It is so cute to watch his little hand use the mouse!

After we got finished playing on the computer we headed to our dining room table. During nap, Mommy had glued some popsicle sticks onto a piece of construction paper to be Eli's "barn". Once he got to his seat at the table, he placed farm animal stickers in his barn! He got to do this all by himself! We made the sounds of each of the animals when he placed the sticker in the barn. His favorite animal sound - a chicken. He says "baak baak baak" - he's pretty adorable :)

Daddy came home later in the after noon and then we got dressed in our matching clothes and headed out to get family photos made. But, that's a blog post for another day.

When we came home, Mommy realized we read our books but forgot to put stickers on our calendar. So, Daddy got to help Eli put his stickers on for the day!

 

Happy Monday from us to you! We hope each of you have a fantastic week!



All About Miss Brianna

Well, today is Wednesday which means that Eli and Brianna's Daddy is off from work. So today there was no "learning" going on just playing. Since Eli gets a majority of the posts I thought I'd concentrate on our sweet little Brianna for this post.

Brianna Robyn is five and a half months old and is growing up way too fast! She has just recently began holding her own bottle which most of the time is very convienent but at the same time is very sad :( This means she is indeed growing up and to my dismay there isn't much I can do about it.

Like I mentioned in a previous post, she is a rolling master now! She is using rolling as her way of getting around. She has even began chasing her brother a little. Scott and I have always said once she gets mobile he better watch out! She has a spinning toy with animals on it that she absolutely loves. She has just gotten to where she can push the buttons and make it go, which makes her very happy!

This is her new trick! I haven't seen her do this before. I was so happy that I happened to have my camera taking pictures of her when she decided to do it!

Brianna has also gotten big enough for her jump-a-roo! She really enjoys bouncing it. Her big brother enjoys "helping" her too!

Everyone had  a great time playing today. We're back to work tomorrow :) I'll leave you with a picture of me and my sweet babies. I'm surprised it turned out so well!!



PS - We'll try to get Daddy in some pictures soon ;)

The Messier the Better!

Eli and I continued our yellow week today with paint and play-doh! Eli has painted only one other time (when he painted the canvas for Bri's room) and he thoroughly enjoyed himself :) It's been raining all day so we talked about ducks. We quacked for awhile and then he got to paint a duck!

After he finished his duck, he got o do a little bit of free paint. This time he didn't just use his fingertip he used his WHOLE hand!

We then went to his room, read our book for the day, and then played with some Play-doh. He loved the feel of it and did a great job rolling it and squashing it!

Brianna is doing great! We recently had her ears pierced and she did amazing! She cried for a minute but once the lady told her she was beautiful she quickly cheered up! Her new trick is to roll all over the floor. She's been rolling over for awhile but now it's her way of getting around. You can put her in the middle of the floor and within a few minutes she'll be on the other side of the room - smiling all the way!

Yellow is for Spongebob!

Today was the first day of yellow week. We began the day with our regular routine - wake up, get some milk and cereal, spill the cereal all of the floor (on purpose) and say "uh-oh", feed the baby and watch Spongebob. Usually, after we watch Spongebob Mickey Mouse Clubhouse comes on the Disney channel. However, since today was Columbus day and all the big kids were out of school (I guess) they showed big kid shows and no Mickey Mouse. Bri went took a nap early this morning too so we began our learning early as well. It was so cute when I told Eli it was time to go to the table and do our school work and he ran to his chair screaming yeah!! I hope he keeps that excitement :)

If you know anything about Eli, you know he is a Spongebob fanatic! So what better way to introduce the color yellow than with his pal Bob. We started with a yellow piece of construction paper and some Spongebob stickers that Grandmom gave him. He loves peeling stickers and it's great fine motor skill practice for him. He then picked out a Spongebob coloring sheet and we only used the color yellow to color. We practiced saying yellow and pointed at other things in the house that were also yellow. We then ran (literally) into his room and put his Spongebob papers on his bulletin board. This by the way, is his most favorite part!

We then read The Lonely Firefly and played in his yellow room!

After we read our book - Eli decided he wanted to take my picture. He's my little assistant in the making :) However, I've got to teach him to point the camera at other people and not just himself. He's so cute - he puts the camera up to himself and says cheese :) Once Sissy woke up we did one of our favorite activities at the moment - "playing" the piano. I can't play very well but I can peck out some notes and he helps :) However, we were interrupted by a knock on the front door. When I looked out the window to see who it could possibly be I saw it was OS Florist. Shocked, I opened the door and the nice man handed me a beautiful vase of daisies and an anniversary balloon. My sweet husband had sent me flowers to celebrate the day he first told me he loved me. How blessed of a woman I am! A sweet and romantic husband and two absolutely beautiful children! Today was a great Monday!

ABCs and 123s

Now that Eli is two, I have decided to start "teaching" him a little. Since his attention span is so small (so is every 2 year old boy's) we're doing thirty minutes in the morning and thirty minutes in the afternoon. This works perfectly with Brianna's nap schedule. At 10am the TV goes off and the real fun begins. Although we may not be doing real school work all the time, we'll be learning colors while playing blocks and coloring.

Today was our first day! I made "lesson plans" on a calendar and hung it on a cork board in his room. IWe also hung up a reading calendar - he gets to put a Spongebob sticker on each day that he sits through a book (this is a big task, lol). Starting Monday we're doing one thing all week. For example, next week is yellow week. Everything we do will have something to do with the color yellow. Anyways - today we spent twenty minutes coloring a fish and talking about where fishes live and he giggled as I made fish faces and we "swam" through the living room!

We did our learning while Bri was asleep. When she woke up we played in the floor. She's getting so big! She can now push the buttons on her toys and make them work. Where did my baby girl go?