Trip to the Fire Station!

About a year and a half ago, we got a chance to tour the Oak Grove fire station, and Jack loved it. (You can see pics from that trip here.) In fact, often when we see a fire truck he’ll ask if it’s going to “Jenna’s fire house.” So when Jenna’s mom asked if we’d like to tour the NEW station with some friends, we couldn’t miss the chance! And this time, Charlie was just as excited as his big brother.

All of the kiddos got the chance to pretend to drive!

We brought Colton along for a “boys trip,” and because he came last time too!

(The picture quality is terrible, I know. With three boys to look after I managed to forget my camera in the car. But at least my phone had a camera to capture something!)

All the kiddos lined up…

(Also known as the pictures where Charlie let a stranger hold him without pitching a fit. Miracle, I tell you!)

Here’s the picture of the kiddos last time. Look how little they were! And, of course, last time Charlie and Madi were being worn in carriers, and Anna was in her mama’s tummy!

Charlie the fireman. Speaking of this little man, he got to bring home two very real souvenirs from his trip to the fire station. One bump on the noggin, and one “Decline for Hospital Transfer” form. That’s right. The kids got to play with one of the water hoses that leaked a little water onto the slick concrete of the garage where we were looking at the trucks. Charlie slipped in the water and wiped out right onto the back of his head. After he calmed down, one of the medical techs decided they needed to do an exam on him to make sure he was ok. So, we got to sit in the back of the ambulance where they checked his vitals and pupils, determined he was probably fine, and I got to sign a waiver that we didn’t wish to be transferred to a hospital.

And here people were afraid I’d go into labor at the fire station. Never a dull moment!

In the event you haven't put Christmas away...

I meant to get this posted sooner. Waaaay sooner. Ah well. Maybe you'll want to use this idea next year.

This year I totally failed at Advent. I hardly did anything with the kids. Advent is my favorite season of the church year, and I want to do better... and next year I will!

I've always love the idea of reading an Advent or Christmas book each day of December as a way to tie into an Advent Calendar. While I haven't made an Advent Calendar yet (I have plans to do that during Lent this year), I have the rest of my ducks in a row. Here's what I did:

First, I pulled aside all the kids' Christmas toys and books. I generally put them away every year so they'll be fresh to play with come November/December.

Next, after Christmas I went shopping to see what simple activities I could purchase on clearance for the boys next year. I bought a few things, a ceramic ornament painting kit, a foam garland stringing kit (totally could have made this but it was $.50), a little activity book, a window cling nativity set, and a few odds and ends I can't recall at the moment.

Then I made a list of all the Advent activities I'd like to do. I wanted to balance the Jesus with the Santa, and put a focus on giving and doing, rather than getting. I wanted to make it simple enough that we could do every day, but meaningful, too.

So... I matched the books up to activities and planned 24 days worth of activities (yes, I know Advent begins before Dec. 1 but we'll likely be out of town with my family until Dec. next year). There are a few dates that I'll stick to (decorating will be first, St. Nicholas Day, Christmas Eve, etc.) but I'll rearrange the days as needed next November to match our schedule.

Advent 2011

I think you should be able to click on the link to view it full screen and download it if you join Scribd. Otherwise, if you're interested, leave a comment and I'm happy to email you copy of the file. :)

My favorite part is that I used our cloth reusable Christmas bags (some are drawstring and some just tie with ribbon), and placed the book, any items for the activity, etc. in them then labeled the outside. All I have to do next year is pull them out, order them, then place them under the tree! Ready to go!

Fireman Jack

A good friend of ours arranged a fun tour of her local fire station. I told Jack the day before and he could hardly contain his excitement! He LOVES any and everything to do with firemen and fire trucks, and the day didn't disappoint! The firefighters were SO accommodating and patient, and went way out of their way to show us around.

They had kid sized firefighter costumes hanging right next to the firemens' real deal outfits. Jack loved dressing up- especially the boots!

I think he looks like he's thinking, "Let's get to work!"

Next they let the kids get up to "drive" the engine, and pulled out all the stops- lights and ringing the bell!

The whole crew

We decided to walk to and from, which was fun except that it ended up raining and of course Jack and Colton decided they needed to carry their own umbrellas leading to several meltdowns on Jack's part. I decided to try out Charlie in the Mei Tai carrier I made him on my back, which was great (you can JUST barely see his foot in the picture)! We put the hood up and he napped almost the whole time. It left my hands free to help the big boys and everyone was happy!

Thanks to Cheryl for taking pictures for me!

Writing on the wall window

Even though I haven't blogged about it in a looong time, toddler learning time happens (almost) daily around here.

One of our current favorite activities is using the foam bathtub letters and numbers to decorate the storm door. Jack gets a kick out of spraying the window, arranging his letters, and even wiping the glass clear with a microfiber cloth after.

What a ham...

He's doing really well at recognizing his letters! He knows maybe half of the alphabet, with new "sight letters" U, R, and W added recently.

Yes, that's still our fall wreath hanging up. What can I say, I really love it. :-)

We've emerged from our status as the Friedrich Infirmary. Charlie had his first go at a respiratory and double ear infection. The littles and I had pink eye. It was good times around here for about a week, but we're all feeling much better and thriving!

Indoor Snow Fun

Ever since we played in the snow, Jack asks about 30 times a day if we can go out again. Since the temps have been in the negatives, I can't really take Charlie out, so I always have to tell him no.

The other day I decided to bring a bucket into the kitchen for him to play with. He wanted to build a snowman, and this is what we came up with. The arms, legs (yes, he insisted on legs) and nose are a kabob skewer broken into pieces.

 

The terrible quality of pictures is courtesy of my Blackberry camera. Oh, well, the joy on his face is evident anyway!

Tot School

Jack is 24 months old

For the past two weeks, Jack has wanted to read "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" multiple times a day. My mom gave me a felt board set with all the letters and the coconut tree, and he loves to play with those. We worked a little bit on letter sounds, but mostly he insists that all the letters make the "sssssss" sound. :-) I'm in the midst of compiling a Chicka Tot Book for the week after Thanksgiving.

Jack plays dress up all the time, but this week he wanted to shake things up a bit by dressing up as his brother. Silly kid!

We broke out the Color Wonder kit that Gigi and Papa Jack gave him for his birthday. He liked coloring for a bit, but then began pretending the marker caps were "horns." Again, he's a silly (if creative) kid!

We visited A Flip Zone on Friday night for some energy busting. Jack had a great time climbing, hanging, and running in circles.

Saturday morning I was watching Kennison and Colton, so Jack had fun playing with playdough with his cousins. He's getting good at rolling.

 

This weekend we went ahead a got out our Christmas tree and decorations. Jack rediscovered his love of the Little People Nativity Set (these are on major sale right now at Amazon and are a great toy, in my opinion!) Meemaw and Papa Jim gave him last Christmas. This year he could identify all the animals (although he thinks the cow looks like a horse), Mary, Baby Jesus, and the Kings. We've been reading the Christmas story at bedtime, and that's an improvement over his initial interpretation of the pictures in the story: Charlie (Jesus), Mama (Mary), Daddy (Joseph), and the Cowboys (Wise Men). :-)

And a few life school opportunities:

He honed his photography skills...

... and got into the diaper cream in the downstairs changing station (now secured in the bathroom cabinet)... twice!

Tot School

Jack is 24 months old.

Tot School this week was all about puzzles, beads and blocks.

I took some of Jack's birthday cards, as well as a magazine picture, modge podged them onto some cardboard, and cut them into 2-3 piece puzzles.

Jack did a pretty good job, and really enjoyed "making the pictures."

I got Jack a set of lacing beads from the $1 spot at Target. He found all kinds of activities to do with them. We laced them...

sorted them by shape,

sorted by color, and stacked them.

Jack also had a lot of fun playing with this wooden puzzle he got for his birthday. I tried to show him how different shapes can fit together to make squares, but he was totally uninterested! :-) He did enjoy building sailboats...

... and rocket ships, too!

We also tried a matching activity that I made, but I think it was a bit too old for him. We'll put it out again soon to try again!

Tot School

Jack is 24 months old

Now that Jack is two, he and I will start working on some slightly more "formal" pre-school readiness activities as they interest him. While we are planning, at this point in time, to send him to preschool two days a week next year, I've always held in the back of my mind that I might like homeschooling, so this will be a beginning step towards seeing how Jack and I work together academically.

Does it sound like I'm taking my two year old's education too seriously? I'm not! No, really! The whole idea behind Tot School is that it's basically just exposing early learning skills through FUN play. Click on that link for a great explanation of Tot School, and the button at the top to see the Tot School Blog.

I'll share a little more of my journey with Jack in the coming weeks, including how I'm planning, what resources I'm using, etc. (Can you tell I'm a teacher at heart ?! Planning always was one of my favorite parts. :-)

But there's plenty of time for all of that later! Here's what we did in Tot School this week! I didn't do a great job of photo documenting, but here's what I did catch...

I made Pumpkin Spice scented playdough, using this recipe and adding orange food coloring and 2 t of pumpkin pie seasoning. I gave Jack a bit to play with and saved the rest in washed out yogurt containers. I let him have a variety of tools, and he practiced...

rolling,

cutting,

making circle impressions with a Duplo,

and finally, sprinkling colored sugar and mixing it in.

While playing with Daddy's old fire station Little People, I broke out the fireman costume I bought Jack on clearance after Halloween this year. He loved dressing up, and we practiced using the clasps.

He spent lots of time "playing cars" this week, and Daddy showed him how to line the cars up like a train.

Jack also spent lots of time on his new tricycle, and even learned to use the pedals a little bit! This is one of the shots taken today after church while we were working on getting some Christmas card shots!

Tune in next week for my slightly more organized version!