All About Caleb

This week Caleb is turning one year old! We celebrated on Saturday since Tommy's parents came up for the weekend to see us. First he opened some presents, with lots of help from his brother and sister. He got some bath toy doggies and a snuggly musical elephant to sleep with. He also got some new clothes, a pair of shoes, some cars and airplanes and Duplo Legos to play with Isaac. Tommy and I got him a new dresser and night stands for his room. YIPEE! No more piles of clothes in the closet! :)

 

 

 

Then he got his first birthday cake. I got a mini cake all for himself. It was soo funny to watch him try to figure out what to do with it and how to eat it.
Check out the video!

 

 

 

Then Tommy gave him a scoop of ice cream. He put the whole scoop in his mouth and rubbed it on his tummy and cried because it was soo cold. He definitely liked it though. He's really working on walking. He can make it almost the length of a room. This morning he walked from the kitchen table to the fireplace, stopping a few times to steady his balance.
Here is a video from last week.

Jumping Fun

For something fun to do, and to get some energy out (which we ALL did), we went to a place that has tons of trampolines. We jumped and bounced for a hour and boy were we exhausted. We all had lots of fun. Yep, you can jump up on the slanted walls too. 

Lily insisted on wearing her fluffy skirt. The place had this foam pit you could jump into and Lily landed in upside down with her feet in the air. As she struggled to get out she lost her skirt in the pit. It was so funny watching her try to get out and grab her skirt at her knees too.

Yep, that's me doing a cool trick.  Way to go Tommy for nailing this shot!  Sorry it is soo dark in these pictures.  I did land one flip too, but that was it.  Tom did a few flips but sadly Shauna didn't attempt it.  Probably a good thing. ;-)

Caleb was a trooper watching us all have fun on the sidelines with Tommy.  Tommy ran 20 miles that morning so he wasn't up to jumping.

Two Thumbs up from Isaac!

This was the funniest thing that happened.  Somehow the other kids picked up on the fact that Tom is tons of fun (not too hard) and they started following him around and telling him to bounce them.  It was hilarious.  He would bounce them for a bit then jump away and they would all follow him.  We were just cracking up watching it.

Turtle Art

We made these cute turtles by painting the bottom of a cake pan and making a design by erasing with q-tips.  Some turned out super cute.  Isaac's was ... um... interesting. :)

Here is Lily's. :)

Lily's first Post... about herself

Lily
.very creative
.loves to sing
.loves to read
.loves to plan parties
.loves to dance
.loves the movie 3 ninjas .p.s. you should watch it one time
.loves fashion
.loves first grade
.loves baking cookies
.loves going swimming

Lily's 1st Week Test Scores

Lily took some placement tests at the beginning of 1st grade. Here are her scores. In reading she is at a 2.6 grade level.

In math she is at a 1.9 grade level.

All well above average. Way to go!

This week's pictures

 We had some rain earlier this week!  It was soo awesome to watch and feel the cool weather for a few days!  Isaac loved getting outside and playing in the puddles.

My sweet Caleb, despite all this bonks and bruises, he's a super happy kid!  He gets a new bonk each day it seems and his new favorite place to be is on the fireplace... actually in the fireplace, eating and spreading rocks everywhere.  I'd put up and screen but I'm afraid he would just pull it down on top of himself.  We need a different kind of barricade.

 One night Lily counted up all the box tops I've been saving for awhile.  She had a system and tally marks and everything. It was soo cute.  After that project she decided to count all the money in her piggy bank.  Then the next morning she wanted to go to the store and spend her $11.68. 

I felt a little bad for her as she walked down the aisles at Toys R Us looking for something she could afford that she wanted, that was WORTH ALL her money.  She finally picked this little mini kitty that moves its legs back and forth.  Glad she is happy with her purchase.  She's now broke.  Guess it is time to start doing some chores for allowance so we can buy more kitties?  Hmm...

Preschool Time

For preschool this week we played lots of animal action games, such as marching slow and fast while shaking maracas to the different beats of different animals.  We also practice with our rhythm bells, learning to play at the right time and in order first, hopefully building up to playing a simple song next week. :)  We also sang songs about apples growing from seeds to trees.  For story time we read a couple books about apples.  Then we took a field trip to my backyard to check out the almond tree (wish I had an apple tree).  We picked some leaves and almonds and brought them inside for our art project.  We tried doing leaf printings on our paper to resemble trees, but the kids decided finger painting this part would be more fun.  Then we painted the trunks with some cool stripy paint brushes.  After that we stamped apple prints with apples.  Each kid got to put apples on their tree for how old they are!  Then we attempted to make mini yarn baskets by dipping yarn in glue and wrapping it around a cup.  They weren't too interested in this.  Lily enjoyed doing it after school though.  She uses her yarn bowl for a little kitty bed. ;)

 

This week's Preschool project

This week we spent more time in music and learned about the different instruments and what sounds they make. Then for our story time we read "The Dot" and "Ish" by Peter H. Reynolds. They are both about abstract art and how things don't have to look "perfect" to be art. Then we talked about Kandinsky's "Color Study of Squares" (above) and created our own replicas.

The second one with the four purple circles is Isaac's.

This one (above) is Lily's.  She definitely understood the concept.  Below is her rainbow fish from the week before.

A few photos

Isaac running through the water at the splash park

This is how Caleb crawls across the grass now, hands and feet.  He is close to walking!

Caleb playing with his car

Caleb climbing up the stairs

Isaac and Lily playing on the computer together.  So cute!

ACTION!

Lily made her own movie this weekend... she does this quiet often but this one is the most entertaining.  It actually has a plot, a storyline, and a catching ending.  Hope you enjoy it and don't get too sea sick from watching it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdaqoHpZFUU

Music and Art Preschool

I started a little preschool project with Isaac and some friends this week.  One day a week we will get together and do music and a fun art project.  Today we had some fun singing, dancing, playing with maracas, tambourines, drums and bean bags.  I was surprised to find how LITTLE time and how MUCH energy this part takes.  It was fun to be silly though, I think I have missed that since Lily was that little.  Isaac had a blast.

Before art time, we read Rainbow Fish and Hooray for Fish.  Then we used liquid watercolors (so much better than the cakes) to paint an ocean.  The kids practiced filling the whole paper with paint.  I heard "I'm done" a lot and would come check and find more white spaces for them to fill in.  As the ocean scenes dried we covered a print out fish by gluing on tissue paper and aluminum foil scales.

I think they turned out awesome.  Isaac was soo proud to show his dad when he got home.  He can't wait until we have school again with all his friends!