P is for Penguins

Last week we talked about the letter "P" and focused alot of our attention on penguins. What interesting birds. We decided to change the scenery on the wall in the living room.We made momma and baby penguins out of construction paper. I just cut out the shapes and the boys glued them together. Brodie is getting really good at figuring out how things go together without me even telling him.

The Christmas trees were an added feature later on. We decorated these foam tress as a family event one evening during "family night". I bought a package of 50 foam trees and set out glue, glitter, pom poms, sequence and other materials. The kids and adults had a good time!

For some new games I made this game with the idea stemming from here. You take a cereal box and cut the top off. Print off the penguin and glue him to the box cutting a hole in the mouth. Print off the fish. (I printed 30, 2 pages, 15 for each child) Take turns rolling the dice. Whatever number is on the dice is the number of fish you put into the penguins mouth. Whoever runs out of fish first, wins. Drew really liked this game. I also did a color match game that I printed off from Making Learning.Brodie did a really good job matching the upper case and lower case letter of the alphabet using these fish cards.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Sunday morning we headed out to get our Christmas tree. We always get a real tree and this year we decided to visit an actual tree farm. We went Kidman Tree Farm in Polk City.Despite the cold temps we had a great time. We went on a wagon ride pulled by two Clydesdale horses. That was definitly everyone's favorite part. Drew was even brave enough to hold the reins and drive for a bit!We visited Santa. Only Drew and Tony sat on his lap though. Brodie was a little too nervous and just told Santa what he wanted for Christmas while his head was hiding between Will's legs. We got to see a reindeer named Mistletoe. And of course we picked out the most perfect Christmas tree. We decorated it Sunday night. I love watching the kids go through their box of ornaments. I remember how fun it was when I was their age and how much fun I still have looking through my box and remembering where I got certain ones. We always got an ornament each year. Now, I always get my kids an ornament each year. I mark them so they now whos is whos and they each have their own box to put them in. When they get older and leave the house they can take that box with them to put on their Christmas tree and hopefully start the tradition with their family. This truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Thanksgiving and Family Pictures

We had a nice long Thanksgiving weekend. We spent part of the weekend with Will's parents at their house. We played cards, drank coffee and enjoyed their fireplace. Friday Mom, Jenny and I had a ladies day out and left all the guys at the house. We went out to lunch and spent the afternoon touring little boutiques and antique shops. We had a great time and it was nice to be out and about without any children!

Sunday we had Thanksgiving dinner at my moms house. I love being surrounded by family. We are so lucky to have everyone live so close to us. We don't have to travel far to see anyone. Dinner was great and all the cousins had a good time.

Each year at Thanksgiving I try and get a family picture taken of us to use for our Christmas cards. It's never very easy to get a good shot of all 6 of us at the exact same time. This year proved to be no different. No one was really in the mood for their picture. I think Tony was the only one who cooperated for the 5 minute photo session. Who would have thought pictures could be so stressful.

This is how it all began. Drew on the floor. Typical.Followed by Brodie on the floor. What one does, the other follows. Ok, standing up pictures not going so well let's all sit and try. Nope, that doesn't work either.
Jake is thinking, is this what my life has come to?Alright Brodie if you aren't going to smile, we will make you smile.Now he is really mad. Drew is outta here.Ahhh, the proud parents.Believe it or not we did get one decent photo out of that mess. This will be our holiday photo this year.Thank you Jen for capturing such a memorable Thanksgiving photo session! Hopefully next year will go a little better.

T is for Turkey and Thanksgiving

I know I am a little late in posting this. It's been a busy week so far. Drew battled a fever for about 36 hours but seems to be better now.

The last week and a half we have been talking about the letter "T". We have done lots of turkey and Thanksgiving activities. We made handpainted turkeys.We made a couple different kinds of turkeys just cutting shapes out of construction paper.Here is a picture of our Thanksgiving tree. For the last week we have each written down one thing each day that we are thankful for on a leaf and then we put it on our tree. The boys had fun with this activity. I cut out a large circle from cardstock. This was our "plate". I gave them each some grocery ads. I told them to pick out what they would chose to eat if they could plan the Thanksgiving dinner. It was pretty interesting to see what they picked. They cut out the different foods and then glued them onto their plates. This was Brodies.He picked ham, oranges, corn, broccoli, blueberries and at the last minute found some candy canes.

Then here is Drews. He picked peanut butter and jelly, donuts, cookies, juice, chocolate milk and marshmallows!We also did some crafts with Indians and Pilgrims. We talked about how the Indians taught the Pilgrims how to hunt and plant. It was funny, because you can just see the wheels turning in Brodie's head. Then today he asked me, "are the Pilgrims and the Indians coming to our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow?"

Tonight was family night. We made these cute turkey cookies. Even Jake who is almost 14 said "Gee mom, this was a really good idea, this is fun!" That made me smile.

Somebody was hungry. And we couldn't figure out who or what it was. I have had nibbles out of all my pumpkins. But this pumpkin in particular must have tasted pretty good.

Then as I was cooking breakfast one morning I saw him (or her). It has been out there daily for the last few days eating away.Now this is all that is left of my poor pumpkin.

Happy Birthday Drew Bug

It's hard to believe that 3 years ago Drew was born. I'll never forget how excited Jake and Tony were to have yet another brother! 3 years have gone by way to fast.Drew has been a wonderful blessing to our family. We love you so much buddy, Happy Birthday!

S is for Spiders

We wrapped up the letter "S" this week. We talked a lot about spiders. Here are a few more crafts we did. We made this spiderweb using marbles and paint. I just put a piece of construction paper in a pan, added some white paint in the center and a marble and had the boys tilt the marble back in forth through the paint. After it dried we added a diecut spider.For this craft all you need is:
egg carton
paint
paint brush pipe cleaners
googly eyes
I cut apart the individual egg containers and had the kids paint them. Brodie of course chose blue since that is his favorite color right now. Once dry, I poked 8 holes around the sides with a tiny screwdriver this way they could put in their own pipe cleaners for the legs. Then we glued on the googly eyes.
Linked to Learning Through Love at My Family My Forever.