Kalahari with Good Friends

I don't know how I've gotten so lucky, but I have been blessed with amazing friends. New and old, I have friends who have become family. I tend to hold my cards pretty close, and I'd prefer to keep the ugly parts of me hidden. When someone really gets to know you, though, and decides to love and accept you despite your awkwardness and the ugly struggles of your heart - it is such a blessing!

This past week our family was able to go on a mini vacation with some of our dearest friends. We rented a villa together at Kalahari resorts in Wisconsin. This group is really special; not only do I adore all of the moms, but their kiddos are some of my kids' best friends. We had a lot of fun exploring the water park. We also had plenty of good talks and lot of laughs.

All the kids spent a lot of time on this obstacle course. I soon as a saw it I knew it would be right up Mini Man's alley.

BabyZ is a water park enthusiast! He loved all the slides; none of which scared him in the least! Once he discovered the higher slides that's all he wanted to go down. Which meant Jeremy and I got quite a work out - it's hard carry a toddler up all those stairs! When he wasn't on the slides he was laying down in the water and impressing everyone with how long he could keep his head under.

We had goals of getting a picture of everyone together...it didn't happen. We did, however, get separate shots of the dads, moms, and kiddos.

Some of the ladies let me play hair stylist and give them braids.

This is our second year we've gone to a water park with these friends. Last year, we rented suites, but I think we all agreed that the villa was a better option. It was nice to be in one place together and not feel crowded. The kids loved that it felt like a sleepover. One night we had five kiddos in one bed; they decided it was better to be cramped than to be separated.

So thankful for these wonderful people!

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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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