Montessori Lessons

Here are a few of the new Montessori inspired lessons we've been testing out the past few days. I've found some awesome printables on Montessori Mom and Montessori for Everyone and I've given the laminator a good workout these past couple of nights to prepare the new lessons. The boys have been responding SO well to them - Sawyer has been asking "Can we do more school now?" over and over again, so it must be working!

Springtime Themed Matching Cards - First lay out one whole set in neat rows, and then take the second set and match them up with the first set.

Dice Sequencing Strips - Making Them All Read "One"

Sutton likes to try it too, even though he doesn't really understand the concept yet

Matching animal cards (4 sizes each of 3 different animals) into the correct order on the corresponding chart

Grandma got Sawyer this really cool write-on/wipe-off book for tracing letters and vehicles. He did all the letters here except the Ks and the uppercase G!

They're both still REALLY into the pouring exercise. We've switched to dry pinto beans to make it a little easier, and now we've progressed on to also transferring from one bowl to another with a spoon.

Transferring water from one dish to another with a big sponge

Definitely a big hit with this guy!

Holly, this is as close as I can get to laminating the kids to clean 'em off easier lol!

Sawyer playing the Shamrock Pattern Match file folder game that I made last night. This one was a lot tougher since the patterns are really similar, so it took him awhile, but he was so proud when he correctly finished it!

Arts & Crafts

We've all been stricken with nasty colds this week, and the boys stayed home from daycare on Tuesday, so we've had a lot of time to work on art projects this week while we've been laying low. We've also been trying to take advantage of the breaks in the rain to get in some outdoor time. Here are some highlights of the week so far...



It started as simply painting a big rock that Mommy found in the street...

...it quickly progressed into finger painting...

...and then into a sensory exercise in paint squishing...

"These are my favorites: pink and purple"

We picked up some foam door hangers from the Dollar Tree (out of all the shapes available, the boys both agreed that they wanted the ladybug ones), and they had fun personalizing their own door sign with foam stickers

Mr. Arts-and-Crafts

Sutton loves water...what more can I say?

Extreme Birthday Party

Today we had Sawyer's 3rd birthday party at Extreme Gymnastics in Loomis. You might rememer that we went to his friend, Ty's, party there back in November and had such a good time that we had to be copycats and have our party there too - complete with some of the same friends. Luckily, the kids didn't seem to mind a bit :) We had 14 kids (if you count babies Stella and Sophia) and a whole bunch of adults, and each and every one of us had a blast playing on all the gym equipment - balance beams, bounce house, zip cord, rings, trampolines, parallel bars, the foam pit and all the other great things they have there . I think the photos can speak for themselves, because frankly, I'm exhausted after such a long day! Thanks to everyone for coming out and spending the afternoon with us. We love you all!



Photos of the gym from their website - it was kind of hard to get good pics of my own because it was pretty dark inside since it was so rainy outside



This was pretty much how it was set up for the party today



Ty, Saw and Jedi listening to the rules of the gym being explained



Mitch & sleepy Sutton







Cake time!

It was almost physically painful to do this!

Taking a break in the foam training pit

Sutton LOVED the foam too

Getting ready to jump in from the high dive

Taking a spin in the rainbow tunnel mat

Krista and Granddad testing out the balance beam

Sawyer wants in on the action too!

We didn't open presents at the gym since we had a limited time, so after the boys came home and napped, it was present time - he could hardly wait! Sawyer got some totally awesome gifts - thank you, everyone! We're going to be working on making and sending thank you notes tomorrow, but I just wanted to say thank you right away to everyone for their generosity. He loved everything, and we really appreciate it!

Aunt Judi got him a weapon pirate sword, a pirate shirt and a cute Calvin Klein jacket

Aunt Debby got him SOOOO much fun craft stuff that he couldn't wait to take it out and play with it. He even stopped opening other presents for awhile so that he could paint for a bit!

One of his favorite presents - a fire station from Gigi and Granddad

The fire station pretty much took a starring role in the rest of the evening - he kept pretending to rescue people and kitties stuck in a tree. Super cute!

Playing fire station (aka "fire chief") with Grandpa

His magnetic dress up boy from Hattie (she also got him some cute clothes and a watch that he's totally diggin'!). He's in the middle of saying "Cooool" here lol.

Two new monster trucks from Nathan and Mason - he also got walkie talkies from Mason, which are super cool, but he doesn't quite grasp the button pushing concept yet (Mommy and Daddy have been having fun with them though!).

Ava got him a super deluxe 8,000,000 piece Play Doh set...okay, maybe that's a slight exaggeration...but it is huge and totally awesome!

This is one happy birthday boy! :)

Monster Truck Cake

Holly and I stayed up until all hours of the night last night creating the most perfect monster truck cake for the birthday boy...well, actually, Holly made most of the cake. Her awesome piping skills were responsible for the body of the truck, and I spent most of my time perfecting the wheels and suspension and picking out a picture of Sawyer to laminate and stick behind the driver's seat. It was a good team effort, but seriously, if she hadn't been here to help me (aka graciously take over for me), I'd still be sitting at the kitchen counter terrified of messing it all up and not even starting it! It came out awesome, and everyone was impressed - mission accomplished!



Holly and her magical piping skills



The finished cake

The birthday boy ready to go out for a spin!

The final party presentation - LOVE IT!

Happy 3rd Birthday Sawyer!

I'm this many!


I can't believe my little baby boy is already three! Honestly, it really does seem like three years has completely flown by so quickly, and he is really such a big boy now. Gone are the days of baby babble, diapers, and sleepless nights...welcome to the philosopher stage: "Why this? Why that? Why, why, why?" He has also managed to become quite the negotiator, and every dinner time or bedtime isn't complete until we've managed to strike a deal that satisfies him. Just one more bite of chicken, and then I can have dessert. Just one more story and one more glass of water...and one more kiss...and one more hug...and one more story, and then I'll go to bed. It has been such a fun process watching him grow up so far, and I'm really very excited to see what the future has in store for him.

We celebrated his birthday today with breakfast at Panera with Grandma and Grandpa (yum!), and then we went to Gigi and Granddad's house to spend some time with Papa Ron. Little did we know that Grandma Ardy, Aunt Debby, Krista, and Stella were also going to be there! We had so much fun hanging out with everyone, but the boys both have been sick, so it took them a little while to snap out of the funk and warm up to everyone being there. Papa gave Sawyer a Spiderman ATV (which Sutton has pretty much staked his claim on!), and after we came back home the boys spent the rest of the afternoon riding the ATV and Sawyer's new big boy bicycle that Mitch & I got him. We finished off the day with pizza at Mark & Monica's, and the boys had a short Friday Night Movie Night with Grandma and Grandpa watching a half hour long penguin movie that came with Madagascar 2. Tomorrow we're going to have a proper movie night and watch the whole movie in the hide-a-bed with some yummy popcorn that Grandma brought us from Popcornopolis - can't wait!



Mastering his new Tonka big boy bike didn't take long, but it did take some intense concentration at first!




Look at me, I'm doing it!



Finally getting to put together the wooden garbage truck project that he earned for having two weeks of (mostly!) all stars filled in on his to-do chore chart

Sutton taking a ride with Daddy

Our Week In Photos

Birthday cupcakes for our friend, Jaxon, who turned 2 this week

Jax, the birthday boy enjoying his treat on Monday

Blue frosting is a horrible thing to have to clean up! Note to self: it also makes for rainbow colored diaper messes...not recommended for the faint of heart.

Sawyer reading to Hattie on Wednesday

Hattie's turn to read to Sawyer - he definitely got his "good sharing star" on his to-do chart that day!

In a gigantic pile of Mardi Gras mask making mess (he was so impressed with his mess that he's actually using my old camera there to take his own picture of it)

The finished masterpiece

My new favorite Montessori activity - "Practical Life" - washing the windows

They couldn't get enough of the squeege!

It even resulted in some awesome teamwork (and the windows actually DID look clean when they were done!)

Examining the worms on the patio after the rain storm on Thursday

Sutton relaxing on Granddad's mushroom stool on Friday

Peek-a-boo Birthday Boy!

Playing the copper mushroom like a drum cymbal - Granddad's garden is so much fun to play in!