Tot School

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Johnsie is really into letters. He is always making his legs into letters. It is so funny. I need to get pics of it.

We were making letters on the geoboard. I didn't get a picture of any letters. Sorry.

Still working on letters.

Patterning. We love this Melissa and Doug toy.

We worked on vehicles this week. We made a train track out of tooth picks. Johnsie was very adamant that the caboose go behind the engine and not at the end. To each his own. :)

Sorting vehicles and non vehicles. Get it here and here

We stuck some vehicles stickers, I had purchased awhile ago from the Dollar Tree, on a scenic coloring sheet.

Creating vehicles out of our building set.

What We Are Reading

Click the button above to see what others are reading!

Duck Soup was our favorite book this week. Duck is trying to make a wonderful soup and he goes out to the garden to get some extra ingredients when his buddies come in and think he has fallen into the soup. It was really cute.

Chickie got Robot Zot for Johnsie for Christmas. He is really into ro bots right now. And Jon Scieszka and David Shannon are always AWESOME!

We prefer the elephant books of Mo Willems but this one was cute too. We checked out the pigeon website Pigeon Presents and it had some fun things for Johnsie to do.

Poor Suzy Sue has something very important to do but, the farm animals stole her potty so, they can use it. They want a clean farm. Finally Suzy gets her potty just in time.

Johnsie loves Max and Ruby. And this book was just right for Johnsie because Max makes a mess.

Manny's Birthday

My guy is 12 today.
We are so proud of the person he has become.
Love ya bud.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Home from Haiti

I am so happy for Sarah. Finally, was able to bring Reese home to MN. There were so many obstacles they had to overcome but, now they are home.

Sarah and her husband have adopted Reese from Haiti. When they were at the airport ready to leave they were mobbed by people who were calling them missionaries and saying that they can't take their children. Sarah and 2 other women were taken into police custody and questioned. Finally, after days of craziness the Haitian authority proclaimed that Sarah's adoption of Reese was legitimate and they were allowed to leave the country. They are finally back in MN.

Sarah was Johnie's ECFE (early preschool for MN kiddos) teacher. She was so wonderful. He loved her and so did I. Her oldest son also played hockey and sometimes Manny's team would play against their team. She has been keeping us all abreast on facebook and she recently started a blog The Thacker Pack.

You can see some of her story on CNN. They were recently on Anderson Cooper.

A Trip to Jersey

We took a trip to Jersey a few weeks ago. Here are some pics I took.

My niece Momma Bubba (as Daddy calls her) or Boo (as Mommy calls her). And Molly the dog.

Every picture I took of my nephews was horribly blurry and out of focus. Next time.

Chloe- the 18 week old Great Dane. Such a sweet girl.

Max and Chloe.



Max

Nice Check

Playing some games while we are waiting for the games to begin.

Check out this video to see Manny giving a nice check. He received one too but, I was following the puck and just missed him getting checked. The one he gave was much better.

And this is Johnsie being bored at his brothers game.

The Art Box

Nicole is hosting this weekly activity over at Tired, Need Sleep. All you
need to do is fill a box full of crafty stuff and leave it out for your kiddo to use all week.
Let them create whatever they want.

Johnsie painted with a plastic newspaper bag that I folded up, and then snipped the ends and fastened with a twisty.

Cool, spattery effect.

Using lots of paint,

and then using the end of the paint brush to make designs.

Dollar store find. We are going to do a transportation theme this week.

Michaels---$2

Johnsie loved painting this.

Of course it had to be green. His favorite color. We want to paint the belly red but, since he hasn't stopped playing with it yet, we haven't got that far.

When Manny and I came home from hockey practice we were given this wonderful picture made just for us. Thanks Johnsie.

We are really into H's and A's

It was a good week!

Mirror Mirror

Thrifting again. Oh No.


I actually saw this mirror the day before and passed on it. The next day I just had to go and get it. It is made really well and fairly big. I plan on painting the frame black. When it is finally hanging in our new house I will do before and after pics. It was $5.99. On the 27th the thrift store is having a 50% off everything sale. I was just too scared it wouldn't still be there.

I picked this hand and foot puzzle too.

Ok, so when I first started college this book was required for my Psych 101 class. I fell in love with it. I still have my copy somewhere. Quote---"Play fair. Don't hit people. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody. "

Anyway, this last summer I found this book, of course, at a thrift store and loved it too. Fulghum is so easy to read. His books are made up of short stories and ideas. Quote--- "Above all, if what you've done is stupid, but it works, it ain't stupid."

So, the other day I found this book.

And this book. I am so excited to read them. Each chapter in Fulghum's books are usually independent so they are great to keep somewhere where you can just pick it up and read it for a few minutes.

I have heard this is a great book but, I have never read it. I saw the movie yrs ago. I can't resist a good book for $1.00.

Kitchen Cabinets

We are using Starmark cabinets. The quality of these cabinets are amazing and the self closing drawers are totally cool.

The cabinets shown in this picture are the same style and color that we ordered. I would have liked darker but I really didn't want it to look too library. We went with Cappuccino. I really wish there was a color in between Cappuccino and Chestnut

..............Champagne .........Natura...........Oregano............Caramel.............Cappuccino

Stains

............................Amber...........Honey............Butterscotch..........Paprika..............Chestnut

In person the Butterscotch and Caramel were too orange and the Paprika too red. Oregano too green. I personally would have loved the Champagne but, Ryan wouldn't hear of it.

The style of the cabinet door is called Bedford. Nice, clean and simple.

This is the our layout.

8 ft tall pantry. Bottom 4 shelves are sliders. So cool



Tall display cabinet in the corner. Sliding garbage/recycling cabinet to the right of stove. Lazy Susan in the corner and a tall skinny cabinet for cookie sheets next to the sink.


Another Lazy Susan in the corner and the end triangle cabinet is going to just be display shelves. Trying to save a little cash there.

At the very end is a book case.
We are going to make the counter top hang over on the far side to make a breakfast bar.