Super Sebastian

Sebastian told me he was a frog and started hopping... The I grabbed my camera, and he changed his jumping style to "Super Sebastian"

He likes to stand in the kitchen and jump into the living room.
He could do this all day!

 

Elf on the Shelf...A new tradition

This year a new tradition has began. It is called Elf on the Shelf. I see it everywhere and have considered it for a while now. I think now is the perfect time to introduce an elf to the family.  Sebastian is 3 so I think this is a great age. Skylar (10) can help out and Sophie (7months) can grow up with this tradition. Perfect!

Now, being a frugal girl... ok, I'm cheap. So the $30 price tag was a bit much for me to swallow, especially this time of year. BUT, I told myself that it's worth it.

When I got home, I opened the box which comes with the Elf and the story. The idea is the Elf goes back to Santa nightly and reports on the child's behavior. Sebastian has been having some issues in that department lately so I am hoping this helps!

Upon opening I realized that it was pretty floppy. I had been seeing all sorts of ideas on where to place him each day but how would I achieve that? The it hit me..he needed wires in his limbs and Velcro on his hands! So I set to work....

 

Right out of box, he has to be propped up.

Tools needed for his surgery

With a seam ripper, remove a couple stitches from each limb

Make a small loop in a piece of wire



Feed the wire through the opening up the entire limb, bend the other side to so no sharp ends stab you. Sew up the end

Cut some Velcro to sew on his hands

Now the lil guy can move better!

Our December 2012 Activities List

                                
 *All activities will link you to the page w/details*
 1>  Decorate our tree
 2>  Make Salt dough ornaments
 3>  Home made pizza night
 4>  Make Snow Globes
 5>  Make Ice Bubbles
 6>  Decorate Stockings
 7>Make snowflakes (paper and glue)
 8> Make edible trees
 9> Make a homemade gift for someone special
10> Make a Gingerbread House
11> Have a snowman lunch
12>  Bake something for someone else (neighbor/relative)
13> Hot Cocoa Bar night
14> Have a Christmas Movie Night
15> Visit Santa
16>  Make a centerpiece for the Christmas Dinner Table
17> Get in PJs and go for a drive looking at lights
18> Make a magnet tree
19>  Make a Christmasy Dessert
20> Wild Card Day: Kid's Decide
21> Make fake snow
22> Make Magic Reindeer food for the reindeer
23> Ride the Train
24>  Make cookies for Santa

Preparing Your Child for Kindergarten

(source)

Let’s face it: Kindergarten isn’t what it used to be. Right or wrong, it is the world we

live in. The following list is intended to help prepare your child in a variety of

developmental areas to make the transition into kindergarten as smooth as possible.

Believe it or not, just 15-20 minutes of playing and learning with your child can make a

world of difference

Social/Emotional Development

Encourage your child to persist in tasks when encountering a problem by giving

him tasks slightly above his current ability level. When your child cannot find a
solution on his own, encourage him to calmly ask for help.Play board games to practice taking turns.o

Set up several play dates with friends of various ages.

Allow your child to stay with other trusted adults for a few hours at a time prior to

kindergarten (especially if she has rarely been in the care of someone other than

mom and dad).

Tell your child you expect her to clean up after play. You could implement a

ransom box for toys left out

Language Development

Verbally give your child specific one-step and two-step directions and encourage

him to follow through.

Read to your child for a combined total of at least 20 minutes each day.

While reading, point out how to hold a book (right-side up with the spine on the
left) and the orientation in which we read the words and look at the pictures (left
to right).After reading, ask your child what happened in the beginning, middle, and end of
the story.Give your child plenty of opportunities to draw (without coloring books). Ask her
to draw the things she sees around her.

Teach your child the uppercase and lowercase letters and, most importantly, the

sounds each letter makes through play and games. 

Cognitive Development

Have your child help you sort items according to color, size, and shape (laundry,

blocks, silverware, toys, and other household items work well).Teach your child to make various patterns (red, blue, red, blue). Garage sale dot
stickers or craft pom-poms are great for this purpose.

Practice counting aloud to 20 while driving in the car.

Teach your child numerals 1-10.
Count objects in your home. Have your child point to each object as she counts.o

Go on a shape hunt. Point out circles, triangles, squares, and rectangles to yourchild while you are taking or walk or grocery shopping.

Talk about positional and directional concepts like up/down, over/under, in/out behind/in front of, top/bottom, beside/between, off/on, stop/go.

Talk about opposite words (big/little, empty/full, slow/fast).

Physical Development (Gross & Fine Motor)

Give your child plenty of opportunities for outdoor play: running, jumping, and climbing. 

Play catch on a regular basis.

Practice skipping.

Stack blocks together.

Let your child use child-safe scissors to cut out a variety of shapes.

Teach your child to write his name (capital for the first letter and lowercase for the remaining letters). To start, write his name using a highlighter and encourage him to trace over it. Be sure that he forms the letters from the top to the bottom.

Ensure your child is holding her pencil correctly

Play with playdough regularly. Roll, squish, stamp, and even cut it!o

Encourage your child to cut out various shapes using child-safe scissors.

String large beads to make a necklace.

Play with an interlocking puzzle together.

Creative Arts

Always encourage pretend play…occasionally join your child in his fantasy world.

Teach your child to recognize the following colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, black, white, brown, and pink. 

Use a variety of materials to let your child paint, draw and explore!

Say it isn't so!!!!!!!!!

Writing in blue cuz this is just sad. So apparently I have officially ran out of storage on my google account or whatever. Yep, no more pics unless I c&p them from Google OR start paying monthly for more space. ugh. Not so sure how hubby will feel about adding another monthly bill so I can get my blog action on... oy vey! (why can't it be a one time fee? yearly even? I HATE automatic withdrawals!!! ugh)
I have considered deleting some stuff but I don't wanna! Yes, I'm 5. lol. I LOVE pics! How can Google put a cap on my free storage? not cool, Google. not cool at all.
Sooooo hopefully I'll get to add pics again soon... like SOON... how will y'all survive not seeing my pics?! LOL..

Happy Thanksgiving 2012!!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!!!

Glow in the Dark Bath

Sebastian loved his glowing bath

 

"Wanna take a bath in the dark?"
That was the question I asked my lil man and I got the strangest look in return! I set it all up for him and he had a blast. We just used 3 glow sticks, as you can see. I know this will be repeated.
(The sticks were still glowing when I made Sophie's bath but my camera died! bummer. I'll have to get pics of her too next time)

Sophie's New Baby Jail

Sophie got a playland (aka her jail) today! Sebastian had one when he was 9months old and it worked out so wonderfully I knew Sophie needed one too! Love love love it :)

Now we just need to add toys !!

 

One Week Outdoor Play Challenge

Challenge Accepted!!!
I am accepting the 1,000 outdoor hours that Polarn O. Pyret is hosting. They want all 50 states to log their hours and post it to them via blog, FB, email.
Let's get those kids outdoors!! Help make this 1,000 hour goal with me! It will be a challenge for sure, especially with this crazy weather.
I just heard of this so I'm a day late. BUT I will try to get outdoor time logged the rest of this week :)
Log hours here and post pics!!
http://www.facebook.com/POLARNOPYRETUS

and more details
click here



ETA: day 2 (1for us)= 0 time outdoors :(
ETA: day 3= 1hour and 5 minutes (sebastian and his daddy at a park)
ETA: day 4= 0 time outdoors
(wondering if Skyar's school recess counts...)

ETA: total fail, I forgot about this. we did have outdoor time but I forgot to track it!

Our Indoor Halloween aka: Pumpkin Day

So the kids and I all are struggling w/congestion issues, so going out Trick or Treating has been kinda up in the air. Well Hurricane Sandy sealed the deal. Way too cold/windy/rainy to go out. So what to do?
Well, here is how the monsters and I celebrated!!

While Skylar was at school, I had to quickly figure out what we had on hand to create our lil "party".
Chairs and blankets generally spell fun, right? Ok now we have a great spot for watching a movie! Hmmm.. what else?
Activities
*watch a movie
*carve a pumpkin
*roast the seeds
*make a ghost panting

Menu
*orange pop (give a cute name)
*Zombie Brains (pasta)
*Monster Munch Balls (orange colored/flavored drizzled w/chocolate)
that's the plan!

ETA: ok, so the plan actually went pretty well! Here's our night!

Dinner: Dyed green wheat noodles, marinara sauce and boiled eggs. (removed the eggs before we ate, lol)

MonsterMunch Balls

Sophie's Pumpkin Carving Session

She was confused...

I quickly grabbed her Binky... she's a "straight to the mouth" kinda kid

cold, squishy, slimy

GREAT sensory project though :)

It even stretched!

Then I put her inside. She wasn't a fan, too cold

Next came a pumpkin seed craft. (kids didn't want to eat them, lol)

what goes inside a pumpkin?

Seeds of course!

He counted as he did this!! Love when he does that

Finished Pumpkin

Next he just wanted to play in the seeds

So I took a few pics of Sophie while he played

Mum Mum face

Skylar's art

I said "add at least 5 seeds" (Washing and roasting them was too time consuming, lol, I wanted them to do SOMETHING with them)

Her finished project

In the "tent" waiting for Sissy...

 

and watching Spongebob

Messy man, :P

Charlie Brown time now cuz...

Sissy returned from Showerland!!
then finished the night with...

 

oops forgot my fav pic! lol

Footprint Ghost