Gobble gobble gobble

We're in high anticipation of Thanksgiving around here. I found this adorable Button Turkey idea at one of my favorite preschool idea blogs, Pink and Green Mama. You can check out her version here inspired by My Montessori Journey here. I highly recommend both blogs if you have young preschool aged children- they have super educational and fun ideas! Here's my take on the cute turkey to help kids practice their colors and fine motor skills. It really didn't take very long to make and was pretty simple- I just used felt I had in the craft box and a piece of brown corduroy pants I recently cut up for another project that I'll share about later. I was able to scavenge all the buttons from a collection of buttons that were Jon's Grandma Thwaits'. I love it when I can make something without having to purchase anything for it :) I added the red ribbon for the girls to practice tying with but Shazer thinks it looks silly. Even so, its been a big hit with both girls. It was also a nice quiet activity for them to do at church on Sunday before Sacrament meeting (we had to go early for Jon and Shazer to practice a choir number before church).

Here's our "thankful tree" to get us in the spirit of thankfulness- although we try to encourage that spirit all year ;) There are a ton of these out in the blogosphere but here was my main inspiration.

Some of the things written on our leaves that we are thankful for are:

plants, flowers, nature

music

good food

good education

technology

bikes

crafts

cool toys

backyard

movies

The Marx Brothers

Nintendo (Zelda, Mario, Kirby, Metroid, Pokemon)

family members

nice van

home

rubberized asphalt

recycling

photovoltaic solar power

Percy Jackson & the Olympians (the book)

Calvin & Hobbes

Harry Potter

Here are two of my favorite: 

Yes, Sally is thankful for Smurfette- if it weren't for her being such a girly smurf, humoring mom by watching such an old cartoon would have been unbearable ;)

And Shazer (I can tell from the hand writing) secretly wrote that he's thankful for the "gospel and Holy Ghost" after we had a discussion about the Holy Ghost after church yesterday. What a sweety. 

Sally had her preschool's Thanksgiving party today which culminated in a performance of Thanksgiving poems and songs. I got the whole 7 minute performance this time in its entirety (can you believe I actually remembered to charge the camera last night and clear the memory card?!- pretty amazing!) Blogger won't let me post the long video and I'm sure no one but us and the grandparents are really interested in watching the whole thing- so I had Sally just pick her two favorite song/poems and sing them especially for you -our viewing audience. Enjoy!

Art Masterpiece

I've been volunteering in Shazer's classroom by teaching "Art Masterpiece" lessons. His school has an art teacher that the kids go to once a week but in addition to that the PTSO sends a parent volunteer in 5-6 times a year to teach an art lesson. They have specific works of art to choose from for each grade level but the content and art project are pretty much left up to the volunteer. There were actually two parents that signed up for Shazer's class, me (obviously) and Shazer's best friend's mom so we decided to split up the lessons- I'll do three in the fall and she'll do three in the spring. Which works out really well for me because I'll be busy student teaching in the spring. 

(By the way, my student teaching assignment is all set- I'll be with a fourth grade teacher at Shazer's school and start on Jan 3- Jon has already worked out his spring semester so he's taking classes in the afternoon/evening to be home with the girls on M, W, F until I get home from school and then he'll work on T & Th and take the girls to a good friend from our previous ward- it'll be hectic but it should be do-able and will be temporary. I'll finish at the end of April)

The first lesson I  taught was on my very favorite artist, Pierre Auguste Renoir's, The Luncheon of the Boating Party. It was lots of fun to teach because I'm naturally excited about the subject. I saw the original a few years ago when it was on loan at the Phoenix Art Museum and was completely blown away- it was so stunning I just wanted to sit and look at it forever (as it was I did manage to look at it for about a half an hour with my mom while Jon struggled to keep two small boys from terrorizing the docents). The way the colors and brush strokes work together it's as if there is actual light coming from the canvas- no picture of it can ever do it justice. It's typically on exhibit as part of the Philips collection in Washington D.C. so if you have the opportunity to see it in person it would definitely be worth your while. 

Back to the lesson; I made a PowerPoint to give some background info on Renoir and Impressionism and included all my favorite paintings by him :) I also shared a photo of my mom's work in progress: 

The kids were super impressed with my mom's mad skills :) They especially thought she did a great job with Shazer in the painting and liked the little girls peeking from under the table. 

For the art project part of the lesson I had them use watercolors to paint a scene that is familiar to them. If it had been my own class I would have taken them outside so they could paint "en plein air" like the real Impressionists, but it wasn't- so I didn't. And I have to admit that I was a little bit disappointed in the outcome of their work. I know my own kids have a lot of artistic talent (I'm told all the time) but I guess I take it for granted because I was imagining that fifth graders would be capable of more than just stick figures- but not so much. I completely forgot to take any pictures of the class working on the first project so I made certain to take some the second time. 

For the second lesson (that I just taught yesterday) I adjusted my expectations and felt much more pleased with the outcome. I taught a lesson on Saiki Hoitsu's Cranes- which was a lot of fun because I was completely unfamiliar with this Japanese artist so I was able to learn something new too. I did another PowerPoint (they're kind of my thing) and then my mom totally hooked me up with some brayers and block printing ink that she'd had in her school closet for ages so I had them make prints. (Thanks Mom!!! and Thanks Aubrey for having my girls over for a play date!!!)

We discussed the block printing technique, called moku hanga in Japanese, but instead of actually carving designs into blocks of cherry wood I had them roll the ink onto plastic sheets and "carve" their picture into the ink using Q-tips. Then they placed paper on top of the ink drawing and made a print. It was a fairly simple project but it was a totally novel thing so the kids had a blast. And I thought the finished project looked really cool even with the simplest images. 

Totally FUN!!

Here are a few of my favorite: 

I was able to stay and do an observation (I've got to get 100 hours in- but don't worry I'm almost there) and I was even able to help his teacher out by grading some assignments. It was a little bit disconcerting though when his teacher and I were discussing a student's incorrect answer and his teacher asked "But isn't Cuba close to Spain?" ...um...NO!! 

She did give a great math lesson on fractions, though, so I guess math is her strength and not so much geography- now I know where to supplement ;). I've really enjoyed spending time in the classroom again and I'm starting to really look forward to student teaching now instead of dreading it like I have been. 

And here's an extra treat for reading all the way to the end (or skimming at least). We just got Shazer's school pictures. Isn't he just a doll?! He's the sweetest, brightest, most well behaved kid too. It'll be so devastating if/when he goes through a rebellious phase- our other three have already given us enough grief that its just the norm with them ;) 

Follow the Prophet

Yesterday after church, I asked Sally what her favorite part of Primary was and she started singing this song- it was so cute I asked her to sing it again on camera. She's such a hoot! Her little vibrato in one of the last "follow the prophet"s cracks me up.

"Icky!"

Yesterday Sophie brought me someone's mini chocolate bar to unwrap for her. I did, and she went merrily on her way. A few minutes later, she came back with a messy chocolaty face and handed me this (see photo above) and said "Icky!" At first glance I thought she'd managed to unwrap a banana flavored tootsie roll (which, by the way, tastes nothing like banana- I can't stand "banana" flavored candy). But upon further inspection I discovered (you guessed it) it was a yellow crayon. "Icky" is right! As you can see she got a pretty good bite out of it. So funny! 

While I'm talking about Sophie I should mention how all of a sudden in the past couple of weeks her speech has really taken off. But instead of her saying a lot of new words- she's been busting out all new complete sentences. 

Some of her favorites: 

"I don't want to!" most commonly used when I ask if she needs a diaper change.

"Give it back!" mostly overheard while playing with Sally

"What did you say?" when asking for clarification not usually repetition. 

"Come on, Mommy!" all throughout the day when she wants to show me something.

"I'll eat you up!" mimicking me and used when she wants to be tickled and kissed.

She's also been singing a lot, her favorites lately are the Itsy Bitsy Spider and Jingle Bells (I'm really not sure where she picked this up but she's got me singing along all the time now and totally making me want to decorate for Christmas. But I'm determined to grant Jon's request to hold off until after Thanksgiving- although its going to be really hard!)

Can you tell we adore our baby?!

(It breaks my heart a little bit that she's already fitting this dress and that Sally has grown out of it)

Adieu to...

...making fun costumes,

...wearing Halloween clothes,

...cute window decals and spider webs,

...spooky wreath and welcome sign,

...ghostly LED lights and more spider webs,

...making Halloween sugar cookies,

...and eating Halloween cookies,

...spooky homemade luminaries,

...creepy chandelier netting and spiders,

...black paper bats, 

...cool decorative masks,

...Sally's spooky (adorable) decorations,

...Mom's cards of Halloweens past,

...ghosty BOO tree,

..."quothe the Raven: Nevermore"

I'll miss you so! Until next Halloween. 

Halloween 2010

Since Halloween was on the Sabbath this year we decided to skip the trick-or-treating and just have a little family party at home and pass out candy to other trick-or-treaters. I had to take advantage of my last photo opp with the kids in their sweet costumes before the sun went down. 

Too bad we didn't realize Shazer was missing his hood.

Decorations ready for the trick-or-treaters.

Witch's hair (aka dyed spaghetti).

Potions (aka soda) to drink, witch eyes and fingers (olives & pickles) and mummies (hot dogs wrapped in bread stick dough) for dinner. By the way, the witch's hair did NOT go over well- the color was just way too off putting for the kids, although Jon and I thought it was delicious ;) The big hit for the kids was the hot dog mummies- they gobbled those up fast. They loved the silly names for everything. Although Sally kept having to reassure herself... "that's not really witch hair, right mom?" 

"Eye Scream" (lifesaver gummies with a choc covered raisin in the center and vanilla pudding molded and frozen in an egg carton. 

"Brains!!" Sally's favorite, "that's really watermelon... right mom?"

"Apple Spider" for Sophie

Bobbing for apples

Shule played too but for some reason my flash didn't go off so his pictures didn't turn out.

Sally gave a worthy attempt but eventually cheated and grabbed it out with her hands.

Sophie didn't even try it with her mouth but she sure got soaking wet ;)

Forty-five minutes after dark and still no trick-or-treaters. The girls decided to practice with each other. We figured that we wouldn't get a whole lot of trick-or-treaters because our street is the farthest back in our housing development but we thought we'd get more than 3 (which was the final total for the night). We'd even bought candy because we didn't want to take from the kids but now we've got enough to last until next year. So if anyone needs a sugar fix- you know where to come :)

FINALLY, our first trick-or-treater! A cute little dinosaur that's Sophie's age from four houses down that we see all the time going to the park with his Grandma. Sally was thrilled and every kid gave him some candy. Then nothing again for another fifteen minutes. Then I thought about the other houses on our street that were decorated so nicely for Halloween and how all of those new neighbors of ours were having the same experience of waiting anxiously for virtually no one. So we decided to go meet some of our neighbors. We left a bucket full of candy at the door and went trick-or-treating on either side of our street. And we're so glad we did. We met some really nice people and they loved seeing the kids all dressed in coordinating costumes that they could easily recognize. Some people were even waiting in their driveways and door ways for trick-or-treaters! We saw a few more kids out on the street, but there were so few that when we got back, the candy in the bowl we'd left out wasn't even noticeably taken. 

A few more things I want to remember. Sophie's "twick-o-twea" was SO cute! Shule bailed on us after just going to the houses on one side of the street and Shazer was ready to be done a few houses later! My kids just don't have the drive for free candy that my brothers did- every year they were the first kids out and the last kids in and they would come home with huge pillowcases full of candy. Sally wanted to keep going but we just wanted to hit the houses on our little deserted street so we took her to a couple around the corner and then came home. At one neighbors house, Sally had a melt down because Shazer rang the doorbell and she had wanted to, so the nice old man closed the door and waited for her to ring the doorbell again. So nice :)

I didn't get any cute sleepy pictures because we got back home pretty early and got them out of their costumes and into their pajamas before they started getting really sleepy. We'd had so many sweets we decided to hold off on the donut on a rope game until FHE tonight. It was a very fun and memorable Halloween. Hope yours was too!