chris' 30th

Chris' 30th birthday was Sunday and since he was working we just had a little celebration. Look for another post about the big camping party later!

birthday cake in the great hall



and some people who may or may not live on our floor got him these



can you guess what they mean?
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socks for Socrates, Aerosmith for Aristotle, and play-dough for Plato

for aunt beth

Saturday Chris ran in the Race for the Cure in honor of Aunt Beth. A few of the students and one of the coaches also ran. Unfortunately, there was a mix up and they ended up running in the non-competitive race so he doesn't know what his time was. Elle, Mops, and I pinked out and stood out front of the school to watch for him because the race went down 10th. We'd thought we missed him, and decided to go across the street so Elle could watch the cheerleaders. Then we noticed another bunch of runners coming and before long we spotted Chris. It was incredible to see so many people supporting research to find a cure for breast cancer.


the cheerleaders we watched for a while

chris is the little guy in lime green


just a few of the people that went by OSSM

it's pumpkin time!

Pumpkin Patch 2011



Gordon the jack-o-lantern

*window crayons worked great for coloring and wiped off easily when we were done cutting!




Now if she just wouldn't be scared of it when he's glowing!

i'm cheating on jbf

Just getting the word out that the Sweet Repeats consignment sale is this weekend and I'm consigning with them instead of JBF. I love JBF, but they weren't taking bedding or shoes for the Norman sale so it wouldn't be worth it for me to consign with them this time. I volunteered and consigned for the OKC sale and had a good experience... except someone opening up the bedding set I was selling and misplacing the quilt. (Thankfully, I found it in the lost items at pick-up.) Which was really disappointing since it was a larger item that I was trying to sell. I had it taped shut with packing tape and in a big ziploc bag, but apparently someone really needed to take the quilt out of the bag to see it.

I decided to try Sweet Repeats to get rid of the last of Elle's outgrown clothing and the bedding. The sale is Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the Edmond Armory. I went last year and found a few things, but it is still a newer sale so they don't have as many consigners, which means smaller selection. So far it's very similar to the JBF process except they have you pin the tag on the label of the clothes. Things I like about it so far: I don't have to drive to Norman, you only have to volunteer 3 hours to shop early, I got a free reusable bag for consigning, lower consigning fee, the tags are smaller so you can use fewer sheets of paper and less ink and you can use any color card stock, no entrance fee the first day. Things I'm worried about: it's a smaller sale so this could mean my stuff actually gets looked at or they don't have enough buyers. And they don't have a bar code system so I'm curious how they keep up with tracking the items. Things I don't like: they don't take Old Navy children's clothing or Carter's brands from Walmart or Target.

I'll let you know how it goes!

tt: fire prevention week

This week for "school" we did the letter Bb and fire prevention week.

Monday the girls made fire trucks for a snack/craft and practiced their stop, drop, and roll. We also read Corduroy Goes to the Fire Station by B.G. Hennessy.
We used a graham cracker with red icing for the truck, chocolate cookies for wheels, a chex cereal piece for the window, pretzels for the ladder, and a red gumdrop for the light.


We also got lucky because the room had some fire engine puzzles.

stop, drop, and roll!



I have a great curriculum book called Sesame Street fire safety station that includes a cassette tape. (Click on the title for information about the curriculum. It says they restrict sending the kit to preschools and fire stations, but it never hurts to try and order it. There's also several for sale on amazon.com.) We listened to the stories and songs on it this week. We also played a game called "red dot, blue dot". We went around the house and put red stickers on hot things, and blue stickers on cold things. Elle also went around and looked for all the smoke detectors. The curriculum comes with a coloring book and to get a copy click here.



For letter Bb we made a bear out of a B and did some sidewalk chalk writing.

cattle rustlers

This past weekend we took a trip to the Waugh farm since it would be our last chance before the baby comes. Saturday we helped Uncle Ken move cows. He's trying to wean some calves and he had too many bulls in one area. We first stood guard as Ken moved the cows from one pasture across the road to another pasture. Then we 21st century "drove" the cattle over to the corral to be sorted. Elle and I watched from the pickup as Chris, his dad, and Ken sorted out the calves and the bull. Then they had to get the bull in the trailer and we followed him to his new pasture. It was really interesting to see that part of the farm life.

toddler tutoring

I've officially started "school" with Elle. We're just doing a few things each week and keeping it low pressure, for both our sakes. We try to do calendar every day and then on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays I'm planning activities to go with a theme and letter/number for the week. Tuesdays and Thursdays she still goes to Sonshine School and her teachers this year have really stepped it up. Chris and I both feel it's time to be more proactive at home. But, I also don't want to take these precious toddler days away where she's able to explore on her own, learn through play, and enjoy being a toddler. I know from firsthand experience once she goes to official school it's more and more "academic" and less play. So, I'm trying to find activities that are fun, age appropriate, and won't taint her experiences once she actually gets to elementary school. Basically, I'm trying to find things that she may not do in a regular classroom or steer away from things she might do later on (because inevitably teachers use a lot of the same activities) so that I don't take the excitement away from her once she's in a classroom.

Here's her school nook:


Last week was our first official week of toddler tutoring. The theme was apples and the letter obviously was A. Here's some of the things we did for the week:

Mondays we go to Mayfair and play with Elle's friend Olivia while her mom tutors an elementary student through the mentorship program at the church. Since we're in the room that the girls go to for bible class I decided to do some of our school activities there so that they wouldn't get bored playing with the same things week after week. (I'm hoping Olivia's mom is okay with her being one of my guinea pigs!)

We ate apples and peanut butter for snack while I read Amazing Apples. Then the girls made "apple pies". I printed a circle on a piece of paper and they painted the crust with a brown paint/glue mix. Next, we sprinkled cinnamon on the glue/paint mix and added apple cutouts. Another cute version of this would be to use a paper plate with the ridges.


(These are great science books for younger students because they aren't very long, but have a lot of good information.)

We also worked on recognizing the letter Aa. I found a suggestion to call the uppercase letter the "mommy" and the lowercase the "baby". At first I wasn't sure if this was a good idea, but the last time we were at the zoo I noticed Elle calling the bigger animals the mommy and the smaller ones the babies. I also remembered most of my students in kindergarten still checked for understanding when I used the terms upper and lowercase by asking whether I meant the big or little letter. (Chris also informed me that the terms uppercase and lowercase come from the printing press days when they had the larger letters in the upper drawer or case and the smaller letters in the lower drawer or case.) So, I guess it doesn't matter that much.

We also made apple trees using cut apples dipped in paint.



Unfortunately, the only apple orchard I could find in OK is in Porter, OK so we couldn't do that, but I do have an apple picking movie from my teaching days.

We also read The Apple Pie Tree by Zoe Hall, which I would have used on Monday, but I couldn't get from the library in time and Clifford's Apple-Picking Day by Samantha Brooke.