Happy Monday!!

Greetings Friends!!

I hope you had a lovely weekend.  Ours was relatively uneventful yet very productive.  I spent most of Saturday lesson planning, cleaning and organizing the classroom for this week's theme of Scaly and Slimy!!  

this is how Katie greets Ian after a long work week!

I try to spend my weekend mornings much like I do on the weekdays - walking and enjoying the sunrise.

My husband and kiddos spent a good portion of the day outside (yes even though it was hot and swampy here) planting bulbs and preparing the gardens for some transplants.  He even let Ty use the whipper a little bit!  (very exciting!!)

I read to the children every night...this weekend we finished one of our favorite books called Mandy.

I love that they snuggle and hang out together all.the.time.  

We spent time with family yesterday enjoying the football game!  We also spent a great deal of time outside as it was SO gorgeous!!

always searching for critters!

just classic!

never stops moving! 

workin their core!

haha!  you can't catch me!

swoon

Our day today started out pretty routine.  Everyone was tired from the weekend so T slept late which forces me to adjust our day slightly to make sure that we have enough time to cover what I want to cover.  K gets ahead but that allows her to have free time which she loves.  We're all very excited for our Scaly and Slimy week ahead!  I've got art projects, cool science experiments, fun facts and other ideas to bring Scaly and Slimy to life! 

T loves his am yoga so he did some solo while K was finishing up her spelling.  Art journaling was themed around their favorite reptile or amphibian and why it's their favorite.  

k LOVES frogs - she themed her page around this beautiful 3-D sticker she had

T loves the basilisk lizards!

focused and heads down cursive practice!

very hard at work

We have Ari's first Little Gym class of the season today and everyone is excited!  But first up...snack time!  Thanks Auntie for the blondie brownies!!

no that's not a mole...it's chocolate!

yum - it's treats like this that make a GF life tough! ;)

Little Gym is a place near us that offers kids classes to all ages.  It's a great way for the littles to get exercise, work on gross motor and socialize.  Here's Ari running all over the place!  

ha!  i caught him still for one second!

and he's off again!

After class it was off for a quick trip to Barnes and Noble!!  (our FAVORITE place!)  I picked up a story book to read on Thursday - 9/11.  I got a book that was assigned for our Mother/Daughter book club and then the kiddos each picked out some things.  I could spend days there!! We, of course, had to play with the awesome puppets they have!

Then it was home to finish the day!  We did a reptile/amphibian related crossword and word search together; my kids love these.  Then we read a story - K read to us from this book:

Then we read this book:

The illustrations are beautiful!!  Then we did a bit more math and then onto our science experiment!  Today we made bubble snakes!  All you need are empty plastic bottles, duct tape, an old sock, water, sudsy dish soap (we used Palmolive), and food coloring (optional).  

Cut the bottom of the bottle off and slide the sock on the open end of the bottle until the sock is flat (drum like) on the newly cut open part of the bottle.  We left the cap on the top until we were ready to use them.  Then we used duct tape to tape the top of the sock to the plastic bottle.  We mixed equal parts water and soap then dipped the flat sock part into it.  We then opened the bottle (where you would normally drink from) and blew!  Out came bubbles in the shape of a huge snake!!  The kids giggled and had the best time with them!  But thennnnnn...came the food coloring!  We dripped food coloring onto the sock and did the experiment again and watched the colorful bubble snakes fly!!

Oh they had a fantastic time!!  They stayed out for about an hour playing and mixing colors!  I got a big thumbs up on this one!  

Everyone's covered in color and I couldn't be happier!  The school day is over - for now!  K starts her sewing class tonight and we're starting a new book together.  YAY!

Until tomorrow friends!!