Lake Egypt and Family

Over Memorial Day weekend Jeremy's aunts were kind enough to host a mini family reunion at their home on Lake Egypt. All three of Jeremy's sisters were able to come. Which was a blessing; it had been a couple years since we'd all been together.

I feel fortunate to have in-laws who also value family, and who cover my kiddos with affection and love. As a result, my kiddos eat up any chance they get to spend with them. Times like these are one of the highlights of their year. There was lots of laughter, and we left feeling relaxed and refreshed.

One of Jeremy's sisters has kids close to our kids' age and it's so sweet to see them together. There is something special and magical about cousin love. Our daughters are less than a year apart and it looks like they aren't ever going to get any sisters; so it's nice they can kind of fill that role for each other.

The house has everything you could possibly need for having a good time at a lake. Jeremy's Aunts' definitely have the gift of generosity and hospitality. I tried waterboarding for the first time. I was nervous that I would totally biff and fall, but it's not as hard as it looks. It's actually quite relaxing. On our last day Jer and I tried to do some yoga on them...let's just say that didn't turn out too well.

The kids especially loved fishing and going out on the jet ski. Big Buddy tried hard to convince us to let him ride the jet ski all-by-himself, but for at least the next eleven years he's going to have to be content with just solo driving a kayak.

↓ This picture makes me chuckle. BabyZ has a bit of a shoe obsession; if there is a shoe lying around he will try it on. He's even thrown a couple tantrums because people won't take off their shoes for him.

↑ The way she looks at him...so much adoration.

↑ BabyZ looks so solemn but I swear he had a good time.

↑ Leap-frog!

↓ Big Buddy is not a huge fan of physical affection at the moment. He makes an exception for me though - my heart explodes with happiness every time!

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A Little Red Cardboard Barn

We've finished our farm unit and are moving on to a new theme tomorrow - but before we do I wanted share the barn we made. The wooden farm animals came with a beautiful handmade ark that we gave Big Buddy for Christmas a couple years ago. I would someday love to have a wood barn but it's currently not in the budget. So in the mean time we decided to improvise and make our own. I stumbled upon this perfectly sized milk box (4 gallons per box) while subbing and thought it would be sturdy enough to handle play. Hubandie and the boys used an x-acto knife and wood glue to build a barn shape. to get the doors to fold out hubandie used an x-acto knife and scored the inside of the cardboard We then painted with a basic primer and outlined a window and a door with painters tape. cardboard is very porous so priming is a must if you want decent coverage Big Buddy however insisted that we add more windows so it...

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Preschool Syllabus: Dr. Seuss

Normally I'd do a Dr. Seuss unit in March around his birthday. We had to do one now though because on Saturday Big Buddy and I going on a date to a Dr. Seuss exhibit . The exhibit is only at the museum until January and I'm afraid if we don't go now we might not get the chance. We are of course reading lots of Dr. Seuss's books. A great advatage to studying Dr. Seuss in November rather than March is that all his books were available at the library. I also found a great children's biography which is perfect for preschoolers. Pebble First Biographies: Dr. Seuss We've read it a couple times and Big Buddy loves reciting all the facts he's learned WRITING CENTER ADDITIONS big buddy's name in sand paper letters, coloring pages & mazes from seussville.com skills practiced: fine motor, letter recognition, creativity, reading comprehension LEARNING "TRAYS" - I rotate these, setting out about four a day from which the boy...

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Jack-O-Lanterns on the Fridge

Last fall I saw the idea for refrigerator pumpkins with face pieces in FamilyFun Magazine and have been anxious to recreate them ever since. It was pretty quick and easy and since the only thing we didn't have on hand was magnetic sheets ($1.50 with coupon at Joann's) it was also very cheap. my supplies: magnetic sheets, orange & black construction paper, white pen, tacky glue *i know they have self adhesive sheets but my Joann's didn't carry them glued (very messily) and ready to cut Both the boys were quite enthused when they discovered them after rest time :) Hopefully it will keep them entertained until we carve real pumpkins.

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Joyfully Weary

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