The kids were in rare form on Saturday. Here’s a bit of what they were up to.
Ben & Rosemary put this little number together.
And this one too
And we finally got the exersaucer up for Charlotte. She’s scooching around now so I’m happy to have a place she can play and stay in one spot.
So far things are going well with school. Here are a few things we’ve done over the last few weeks.
We charted how many vans, cars, and bikes we (and a few other people we know) have.
Our short vowel towel
We painted some trees when we were learning about Mike Mulligan
Ben painted too.
When we read The Story About Ping, we did a Will It Float experiment.
And we made yogurt parfaits for lunch one day after Rosemary checked out a princess cookbook from the library.
Another Harvest baby is on its way so that meant it was time to make another baby gift. Tried a painted onesie this time. I made one for Charlotte too…in orange and blue.
A couple Fridays ago the kids and I stopped by the mall to return something. We grabbed some lunch and spent some time in the play area, but this was by far the best part.
Check out that pose!
Charlotte just took it all in.
Then they had to get their pic with the headless mannequins.
Ben (with hands crossed over chest): I want to stay little!
Rosemary: You don’t want to grow up and have a mustache and have your own children and marry someone you love and be a daddy, then a grandpa, then a great-grandpa?
I loved this exchange for many reasons. Especially learning that in Rosemary’s mind having a mustache is as integral a part of being a grown up as having children.
This week was busy. Not sure if all will seem so full (I’m kinda hoping not, but thinking that they will). Here’s a look back.
Tuesday night Rosemary started back to ballet. I was very surprised by her decision. I really thought she’d choose to continue with gymnastics but she said she wanted to do ballet again so that’s what we’re doing.
Here Rosemary is with part of her handwriting assignment for the day.
For one of our art projects for A Pair of Red Clogs we made paper dolls wearing kimonos. The directions are available here.
For the most part I’m really happy with how the first week of school went. Rosemary is an eager learner. She just really enjoys it so that has really made it much easier. She has certain things she does NOT like, but we’re working on having a cheerful attitude about all things (or at least not voicing all of her opinions!) The hard part isn’t teaching Rosemary, the hard part is doing it while parenting Ben and Charlotte and keeping all the other things we’re committed to going. Kind of like juggling, just with a lot of different balls.
On Thursday Rosemary went to her last gymnastics class of the summer. Even though it was just a few weeks, I think Rosemary really improved and she certainly enjoyed it.
On the balance beam. She’d drive me crazy on this and deliberately fall off. Crazy girl!
To wrap up the week, since we learned about Japan we took the kids – all of them! – to Yamato for dinner on Friday night. For the most part, it went well. Ben freaked out when the chef lit the hibachi grill on fire. Rosemary covered her ears during that part…I have no idea why…it’s not like it’s loud. And Charlotte would not sit quietly in her carrier and insisted on being held during dinner (which is somewhat rare at this point). I was seated beside a couple on their first date. I’m sure they loved sitting by our crazy family. And it was super awkward as the guy kept putting his arm around his date and she kept checking her phone. Wow. What an evening!
The kids played with some new Cars 2 cars they bought with birthday and piggy bank money.
And Rosemary actually liked the food!?! She loved eating the shrimp, rice, and noodles with her chopsticks.
So overall, a great week, but busy. Think this might be a glimpse into what the year might be like.
August 10, 2011 - 7 months
So loved by big brother and big sister
This past month just flew by. Between vacations and getting ready for kindergarten, I feel like I blinked and Charlotte was suddenly 7 months old.
This month she came so close to sitting on her own. She’ll balance a few seconds before toppling over to her tummy or back.
She’s babbling more. Rosemary and Ben were so excited when she started saying ‘ba-ba-ba-ba-ba’ the other day and keep trying to get her to say it again.
She’s eating a meal in the morning and in the evening. Sadly, she’s just about weaned now too. I would guess that in the next few weeks, if not days, that she’ll be completely bottle-fed. I’ve got a stockpile of milk in the freezer though that we can use for some bottles. I thought maybe Charlotte would be the one that I actually nursed until she was a year, but my body just had other plans.
First sippy cup attempt
First dip in the ocean
The kids woke up pretty excited about the first day of school. Rosemary was eager to get ready and wear her special first day of school outfit. Both Ben and Rosemary were completely ready by 7:30 this morning. That’s pretty quick considering they aren’t allowed to come out of their rooms until 7.
Our big kindergartner
(Check out last year’s first day of school here and see how much she’s grown)
Finding their desks
Ben was excited about the Handy Manny stuff and he had his own box of supplies and mat for songs and stories
Ready for the day (at least Rosemary and I were, Charlotte was ready for her breakfast!)
A quick photo with daddy before he headed off to work
I had bought this outfit over a year ago. I know that most days we’ll be lucky if Rosemary even matches, but it was nice to have a special outfit for the first day. And she did everything herself, even the buttons on the shirt. I helped a little with the hair.
After pictures, we started off our day by ringing the school bell then saying the pledge to the American flag and the Bible. Then it was music time followed by some reading. This is part of the day where Ben can be just as involved as Rosemary. And I think it’s good for Ben to have to sit still. Hopefully it will help prepare him for his preschool class that he starts in September.
Dancing away
Next Rosemary and I worked through her first math lesson then moved on to handwriting. Ben mostly played and Charlotte was napping. After handwriting, it was snack time.
We made fruit smoothies in the baby bullet with yogurt, milk, and frozen fruit. They were really good. The kids got a little bit of a play break too so that Charlotte could eat. Then we started back up with Rosemary’s reading lesson.
The last subject of the day was Five in a Row and Ben can be involved in part of this too. This week we’re rowing A Pair of New Clogs. We read the book, colored the story disk and put it on our world map over Japan, and colored the Japanese flag. Rosemary also made a cover for her Five in a Row notebook. Later this afternoon we played the weather-telling game from the book and made a chart of our predictions. Based on that, it’s supposed to snow on Saturday. Ya’ll better get your parkas handy.
Once Rosemary finished coloring, it was time for lunch and school was done for the day. Yay! We made it!! It wasn’t perfect and I can see how I need to be flexible with Ben and Charlotte and still need to figure out some paperwork stuff, but overall it went well and Rosemary is excited about school tomorrow.
Getting ready for their Lunchables and juice boxes.
After lunch Rosemary was desperate to have recess. I’m not sure where she learned about recess, but she knows that it’s an integral part of the kindergartner’s day somehow. Unfortunately, it was quite rainy today. And the time we tried to go out between lunch and naps it was too thunder-y to even play in the rain.
Disappointed in the rain
Ben still braved the elements
To occupy herself, Rosemary tried Ariel’s wig on Charlotte. Charlotte was not a fan.
She also put her Build-a-Bear glass slippers on Charlotte’s tiny little feet.
Rosemary got to choose what we had for dinner and she picked spaghetti without sauce. So basically she just asked me to boil water for her. The rest of us had meat sauce and salad. About half way through and Rosemary was ready for some sauce too. We had brownies and ice cream for dessert and Rosemary got to use the You Are Special plate.
