goodbye from here..

Well, I've decided to no longer post on this blog. I'm really enjoying keeping a separate daily photo project going at {365 moments}, so you can keep up with us there if you'd like. I may still share Tot School and activities like that from time to time on the new blog, but I just don't want the responsibility of that right now.

I do hope that you will continue to visit us at the new blog! So see you there:)

a new project

The idea of documenting an entire year of your life through pictures is nothing new...the whole project 365 thing has been around for a while. I've really been wanting to do this, especially as Noah is growing and changing every day.

So I've started a separate blog called {365} moments that I'll be *hopefully* starting tomorrow to do it! I'm really excited, and so hope that I'll be able to keep up with everything. I think it'll be fun to come up with new picture ideas every day and to see how different our lives are one year from now. I'll still be doing tot school and such here though!

Feel free to pop over to the new blog...or not. I'm doing this one just for us:)

tot school - letter s

Noah is 21 months old.

Well..here we are again! We're all moved and settled back in pretty well now, but still decided to keep tot school kind of light this past week. Given Noah's recent attitude changes, I think we'll be keeping the activities light for a while until I can get a better control of his behavior. It certainly it improving, but slowly. I have to remind myself that this is a completely normal stage and that I have to choose my battles wisely. Overall, I can't complain...even at his worst behavior moments, Noah is the best little guy I could ever ask for:)

Letter Ss

Ss is for snake, spider, silly, sort....

Noah LOVED making his Ss is for snake picture this week. He did great connecting the glue dots.

He also really enjoyed making the snake colorful with paint. Apparently this kind has purple eyes..

I also made Noah an Ss is for spider picture after seeing it on No Time for Flashcards. I say I made it because I did make it..the whole thing:( Noah absolutely refused to help with it, but I thought it was too cute not to finish.

We pulled out the playdough and made snakes, spiders, and more.

We also got a little silly with the playdough and made snot. Yes I just typed snot....hey, it went with the Ss theme!

Noah worked on sorting pasta. Actually, he enjoyed pouring practice much more than the actual sorting, but at least he was happy:)

We also spent lots of time outside enjoying the sunshine! On Wednesday, our life group (bible study) at church finished up for the summer with a pool party and potluck. Jimmy had to work, but Noah had an absolute ball playing the pool with the other kids (there were 9 kids there, from Noah at 21 months up to the two teenage girls). I didn't get any pictures at the party since I had to be in the pool the WHOLE time with Noah, but he sure was worn out! He didn't even wake up for me to put on his pjs!

Otherwise this week, we pulled out some old favorite activities found in the move...like pipe cleaners into a spice container.

Another fun thing we've been doing lately is working on learning the beat with music. Noah LOVES the Seeds Family Worship music, so we've been using that to pat the beat on our bellies, dance, and praise God all at the same time:)

Noah has a new-found love of coloring since we've set up an art table in his room. He especially enjoyed making Father's Day cards for Daddy and Papa:)

That's it for out week! See what others are up to in tot school and share your own ideas at 1+1+1=1!

love you daddy...

i love you daddy!

tot school - letter x & random

Noah is 20 months old.

I will apologize upfront for my lack of pictures this week. Despite me never seeming to have the camera around, we finally really had a great week of tot school:)

Xx is for x-ray

For Noah's letter page, I tried to tape off a negative space painting to look kind of like an x-ray of a hand. We painted the whole black construction sheet with white paint using a pipe cleaner...

Certainly not the prettiest page in our letter book, but Noah enjoyed making it:)

I printed off x-ray cards from Chasing Marcus and Noah enjoyed going over those all week. He has known his body parts for a while, but seeing just the x-ray pictures was a new challenge for him!

I also made a face "puzzle" for Noah to review the parts of the face. **Please don't laugh at my VERY lacking artistic skills!!** It was also a good opportunity to review that we have two of some things. Noah put this picture together without any help..I was proud of his placement!

Sorry this picture is sideways..can't get it fixed.

Noah also worked on a more difficult puzzle to review body parts. (Sorry I forgot a picture!) I think it has 6 or 8 pieces and they are not the chunky-style he usually works with. Those were getting really easy for him, so a $1 Target find was a perfect way to test his readiness to move up. He did really well with the new puzzle by the end of the week, though he is still having trouble fitting the pieces together exactly.

Finally, we made Xx's out of bones:) Not real bones...I cut different sized bone shapes out of cardstock and Noah had to match up their lengths, then make Xx's. This was a big hit, so I hate I didn't get a picture:(

Other fun things Noah did this week included:

*Coloring a birthday card for his Papa (my dad)

*Play outside...A LOT! He worked on learning how to peddle his tricycle, splashed in his water table, and helped his Granny pull weeds in her flower beds.

*Read LOTS of like-new books (I switched around his book basket)

A couple of other things around here...

*Thanks a million for the behavior advice last week! As you can see, Noah was much happier this week, although the twos are here to stay:) I'm really working on choosing my battles and keeping his routine as predictable as possible...the latter especially seems to do wonders with his attitude.

*We're moving again! Actually we'll be moving back to my great-grandmothers old house that we lived in last year. I'm SUPER excited...while the move out was necessary at the time, we just aren't happy in our current place. We are beyond thankful that we have the opportunity to move back to such a wonderful (albeit small!) place. Hopefully things will go smoothly and we'll be settled in completely by the end of the week.

That being said, who knows what our tot school will look like next week. If I have anything to share, I'll be here, but if not, we'll be back asap when we get settled back in. Hope you all are having a fabulous summer so far, and we'll see ya when we see ya!

See what others have been up to in Tot School and share you own ideas at 1+1+1=1!

tot school & help needed!

Noah is 20 months old.

I debated not to even worry with posting this week for Tot School. We've adjusted back to our regular routine after our Disney vacation just fine, but we haven't really gotten back into the groove with Tot School just yet. I'm hoping to get back to our usual routine starting tomorrow.

We didn't do anything specifically planned, but there was lots of fun with playdough! We reviewed colors & matching and worked on shapes with it, and had some imaginative play making foods too.

Noah played LOTS with his MegaBlocks and Duplos this week too. He loves to build "BIG uns" and then "cash it":)

He has also reunited his love affair with our old Guitar Hero controller. John Mayer and Elvis concerts must be played daily so Noah can jam:)

Sorry all of those pictures were from the same day, but we have seriously and officially reached the terrible twos! Noah has been fiercely defiant the past four or five days, totally disobeying even the simplest things and throwing MAJOR fits when he doesn't get his way. While I know this is to be expected at this age, his independent streak has started to worry me because he is rebelling against safety precautions (like holding hands in public, staying out of the street, etc). I've prayed and prayed for God's guidance, and I'm hoping someone out there can offer some seasoned parenting wisdom on how to not suppress Noah's needs for independence while helping him learn obedience and keeping him safe. Thanks in advance for the help:)

My apologizes for such a poor Tot School post, but we'll be back to our regular activities next week...Lord willing Noah behaves!

See what others are up to in Tot School and share your own ideas at 1+1+1=1!

we're home!

We drug back into NC on Wednesday afternoon after a very full week of fun at Disney World:) I'll spare you the majority of the 582 pictures I took...but here are a few of my favorite memories from the trip!

Jammin' with a street band in Animal Kingdom..

Swimming at the resort..

Honey I Shrunk the Kids play area in Hollywood Studios..

Meeting all the characters:)

Noah was SO excited to meet each and every character there! I was so happy that he wasn't afraid of them....to our surprise, he just loved and kissed on all of them:)

Breakfast at Chef Mickey's with all of Noah's favorites:)

My favorite meal of the week....Le Cellier Steakhouse in Canada at Epcot. SOO yummy:)

My second favorite meal of the week....San Angel Inn in Mexico at Epcot:)

Dinner at T-Rex in Downtown Disney...my vote for coolest atmosphere:)

Since our FAVORITE RIDE EVER (Rockin' Rollercoaster in Hollywood Studios) was closed for refurbishment after we were only able to ride it ONCE, mine and Jimmy's favorite ride of the week was Expedition Everest at Animal Kingdom

Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin...Noah's very favorite ride of the week:)

Kilamingaro Safari (sorry for spelling!) at Animal Kingdom..

Festival of the Lion King show at Animal Kingdom..

Spectromagic Parade at Magic Kingdom..

Wishes fireworks show at Magic Kingdom..

Noah's FIRST haircut! Rex, the barber, was amazing with Noah and was so clever to keep him occupied with the stickers:)

Showing off his new big boy haircut!

My favorite family shot of the week:)

Hope you had a lovely week last week too! We're all still resting back up, so I'll see ya when I see ya:)

tot school - letter o

Noah is 19 months old.

Letter Oo

Oo is for octopus & ocean!

We've had a fun week learning about the ocean & the animals that live in it...especially the octopus:)

Noah really enjoyed all of the printables this week! He even asked to do some on his own, so you know they were a real hit. They came from Confessions of a Homeschooler and the Ocean Tot Book from 1+1+1=1.

I continue to be impressed with his patterning skills...I think I need to move onto something harder for him.

He did really well with all of them, though. I think his favorite was the number cards. He loves playing with the mini paperclips:)

Our books for the week were:

Squishy Turtle & Friends

Rainbow Fish

We made just two art projects this week because we ran out of glue and I kept forgetting to get more...oops!

We made his letter page and a toilet paper roll octopus (not my original idea, but I've seen it several places). He was SUPER proud of both of these projects!

Noah enjoyed playing with his ocean puzzles, especially the magnetic "fishing" puzzle:)

It was also VERY warm here this week, so we spent several days outside and playing in the water.

While he played a bit with the ocean animals I put in his play sink, he most liked dumping the water over his head:)

This was my favorite picture from the week!

That's about all for this week...I kept it light because I've been finishing up my nursing finals and (more importantly!) packing for Disney! We won't be here next week for tot school, but we'll have LOTS of pictures from our trip when we return. Enjoy your next couple of weeks, and a (late) happy mother's day to you all:)

Share what you're up to in Tot School and see other's ideas at 1+1+1=1!