Sense of Sight and Wrap-up

 Our last 2 days of the 5 senses were awesome! Here's what we did:

March 5, 2012 - Today we learned about our sense of sight. We talked about our eyes, the different things we might see, and read a Magic School Bus book about the senses. We played lots of games. and made some really cool stuff.

For our game I put a lot of different objects on a tray. The kids had to hide their eyes while I took something away. Then, they had to tell me which object was missing. They got it right every time! Smart kiddos!

We also got out magnifying glasses (I forgot to take a picture because we were just having that much fun) and looked at a bunch of different objects (crayons, orange peels, coins, plastic bugs) I had one big magnifying glass and then gave the kids their own. It was a hit!

We also glued googly eyes on our paper to remind us that our eyes help us to see.

Another fun craft we did was to make a pair of glasses using pipe cleaners. Whew! What a busy and fun preschool day!

March 7, 2012 - Wrap-up to the 5 senses was another fun-filled preschool day. We made the letter X out of sticks and velcro. I still think that is an awesome idea. Now, if I could find sticks that are curvy, that would be amazing! Then, I could make all the letters!

We did a few fun activities to quickly go over sense of smell and sense of taste (they were more fully covered at someone else's house). I had a bunch of different things in cups for the kids to smell. They each smelled it and guessed what it was. I put pineapple juice, ketchup, mustard, apple cider vinegar, and apple juice. They got almost all of them right!

For our sense of taste, we had a bunch of different things to taste: fruit snacks, sugar, salt, honey, and others.  They had to tell us what it was and if they liked it. Another hit! This is why the 5 senses are awesome - everything is a hit!

We also made little packets to put our papers in. The kids got to color each of the pictures representing the 5 senses and glue them on the front. Inside went each page we had done for the 5 different senses.

I think it turned out amazing! Another week of preschool done - it was awesome, fun, and tiring. :)

The cover 

This is for sense of taste

This is for sense of smell. We sprayed perfume on it when they were finished coloring and gluing! 

Being Cute and Having Fun

 March 2, 2012 - Nothing out-of-the ordinary happened. My girls were just being cute and funny. I love that! Aria is really getting a personality! She is just a fun little baby and really wants to move! Uh-oh for me. She is already on the move.

Eve loves sitting in the boxes that we get when our fruit and veggies are delivered. For some reason, this box must have been extra tasty because I found her biting it. Funny Eve :)

March 4, 2012 - Grandma and Grandpa Rowberry got to come over and play games! It is always the best when grandma and grandpa come to play!

Sense of Touch

 February 29, 2012 - Our preschool lesson was about the sense of touch. I started off with some baggies filled with shaving cream. In hindsight, I should have done paint, I just didn't want to pay that much. Ah well. The kids used their fingers to make circles and whatever else they wanted to make.

We were still going over the letter W, so we made some out of sticks and velcro. We took them apart and put them together and it was a lot of fun!

We also felt rice and beans. We talked about what it felt like and the kids LOVED playing with it during free time. Rice and Beans = Always a good sensory activity :)

We even traced our hands to learn how we can touch things.

I also put various objects in socks. I had the kids feel it and guess what was inside. Then, we pulled it out to see if they were right. For the most part, they got them right!

We also played and played and played!

Then, we made our touch turtles. I had a baggie filled with lots of different objects: cotton ball, tulle, rubber band, sand paper, felt leaf, puff balls, velcro, and bendable wire. They glued on the ones they wanted.

Next we had free time and this is what they did:

Another great day of preschool!

Glasses and Sense of Hearing

February 23, 2012 - Another great day at our little park in Virginia. It was pretty bright, so Reed and Eve wanted to sport their sunglasses. Reed was especially excited because he got new sunglasses! All-in-all a successful day.

February 27, 2012 - I taught preschool on the sense of hearing. Can I just say how much I love teaching about the 5 senses? I think it's one of my all-time favorite things to teach. There are so many things to talk about and experiment with. The kids always have a great time - especially at this age because they are just so curious about everything! Well, we started off just playing. They all had a blast!

Then, we talked about the letter W and decided to make one with our bodies. :)

Our shape was a circle and we tried that with our bodies as well. It did not work quite as well as the W, but it was still fun.

We experimented with different instruments, rhythms, and also played a game where they guessed what something was by what it sounded like.

We made banjos out of paper plates, rubber bands, and stirring sticks (the ones you use for paint). The kids loved decorating everything and playing their banjos after it was all done. Great day!

I'm back!

Well, after a little hiatus, I am back to the blogging world. I will definitely be updating about our latest happenings, mostly for myself. It's nice to be able to look back and know when things happened. Hopefully, other people out there enjoy seeing my life through pictures and a few words. In case you are just tuning in, we made the trek across the country (well, I flew with the kids and Tyson drove) and are now living in Las Vegas, NV! Yet another adventure has begun for the Walker family. Lots of stories to tell and life has been super busy, but great! So, I am going to get started on my updates! Welcome back, blog - it's been too long. :)

Tot Clock, Baby Blues, and Eve's Best Friend

 Reed has a new love and affection. It is called My Tot Clock. I was talking to a friend recently and she had mentioned this specific clock and how much she loves it. After looking at options, I decided to buy it (a used one because it was about $20 cheaper). I mostly got it for Eve. She was starting to wake up early and come into our room. I wanted her to stay in bed, even if she wasn't asleep, but realized that she might need something to be able to tell when she was allowed to get out of bed. Most of the reason she started waking up early (at least we think) is due to our paper-thin walls and small living quarters. Tyson's alarm goes off and the whole apartment can hear it (and it's on vibrate). We'll see what happens when we move and our walls are on opposite sides of the house and the master bedroom also has a bathroom attached to it.

Anyways - I got the tot clock and have loved it! You set the awake and sleep times. The clock saves it and automatically turns yellow when it's time to be awake and blue when it's time for bed. You can have music playing and a story to listen to at bedtime as well. But, you can also turn this option off. You can have music playing for wake up time as well - but again, you can turn this option off. There is a red button for time out (or whatever you choose to call it) and a green button for encouragement. There is also a light blue button for nap time (you set the amount of time for each of those buttons. After the allotted time, it turns yellow again). The kids have really loved the clock! Time outs are better because they can see the clock and see it turn yellow. It is also amazing how fast Reed can get dressed when I turn the clock green (I set it for 5 minutes and he is usually dressed in under 3 minutes - socks and all. Without that clock, it can take him up to 25 minutes to actually get dressed). It has been a great motivator for my kids and Eve stays in bed until the clock turns yellow! So, yes, it was worth the money because it has saved some of my sanity (albeit, most of it is already gone).

Reed loves to take pictures of the new clock. 

All of my children have beautiful blue eyes. Both Tyson and I have blue eyes, so the blue is pretty much inevitable, and I am not-so-secretly hoping that one of my children has the purple-blue eyes that are extremely rare (I call them Elizabeth Taylor eyes). Maybe someday :) Although all of them have blue, each has a different shade of blue. Awesome! I just wanted to show off Aria's baby blues. I get comments about her beautiful blue eyes almost daily. Her eyes just 'pop' she looks at you. So beautiful and deep. Her are her baby blues :)

Doesn't it just make your heart melt?! (February 20th)

Being a happy girl! 

Aria's stare. 

She loves her bebe pod!

Eve is such a happy and friendly little girl. She loves her siblings (although Aria still gets a bit nervous because Eve can be pretty rough) and plays awesome with other kids. As I got thinking about it, I wasn't sure if Eve has any actual friends. I know that she is 2 and that most 2 year-old children don't necessarily have real friends because they still love playing by themselves. But, they are starting to really like interacting with other kids. Well, since Eve has been interacting with Reed since day 1 (pretty much), she plays very well with other kids and we discovered she knows all the kids' names in nursery! 

She was sitting at church one day and looked over at a boy in preschool. She said, "Mommy, there's Grant!" I had no idea she knew who Grant was. She then pointed to 2 different girls names Sadie and told me their names. She's a genius! :) But, her best friend (my guess, anyways) would have to be James. During preschool James' mom and I switch off watching James and Eve. They both get excited to go to the other person's house. They play famously together and have recently started making each other laugh and giggle! So, James gets the best friend status. Thanks James, for being such a fun boy for Eve to play with! She loves it and talks about him often. 

Eve - so happy that James is sitting next to her (February 20th)

James during snack time. 

Saying Good-bye

I am a pretty nostalgic person. Things as silly as papers from elementary school evoke emotions and memories. For that reason, it is sometimes hard for me to part with things, even if I haven't thought about them in years.

Recently, I have begun packing to move to Las Vegas. Before the real packing begins, I have to sort through all the stuff we have and throw stuff away. Some of this is easy, but most of it is not. I probably spend way to much time analyzing if I will use it again or whether I should keep it or not. What I really should do is close my eyes and throw it away. I might just start doing that. Once it is gone, I find myself not missing it (usually). It's a work-in-progress definitely. 

I feel better after some of the clutter surrounding me leaves, even though I still get nostalgic. Ah well, that's how life is. I hope I can keep it up. I wish I could afford to throw almost everything away - it might just be a whole lot easier to throw an entire box away not knowing what was really inside. 

I decided if I know I don't need it anymore, but am having a hard time giving it away, I will take a picture of it, so at least I have some record of it and can look at it if I would like. So, here are some of the things that I recently said "Good-bye" to. 

This was unplanned. It is the vase from my best friend's wedding! I still love it and miss it, but it got broken and had a huge crack down the side. So, for safety reasons, I had to throw this one away. 

We got this for Varsity volleyball when I was a junior.

I have never worn it and didn't really intend to, so I gave it away.

This is my club volleyball jacket. I have not worn it since I was in high school, so I said, "Good-bye."