The Lord has blessed us tremendously since the last time I blogged. We not only finished our first year of preschool at home, Joey started a new job he loves, our heavenly father granted peace through a time of loss, and we are enjoying summer!

We did finish the pre school co- op year with an end of the year party. I have pictures of the event, but can not locate the card they are on as of now. I will post soon, I hope!

In our preschool at home we continued with our service projects. For the letter U we payed an "unexpected visit to Uncle Josh" (my brother). It was a great lunch and a big surprise to Josh.

For the letter V we gave a Velvet Violet flower to the Vogenitz family. Jack and Ryan are friends of ours and they were thrilled with the flower. They were even excited when I took their picture.

We have not completed the letter W yet, but have plans on delivering a new word search to my grandma who is a widow.

For the letter X we went to New Covenant School and made Xerox copies for Mrs. Lamb. Lillian loved serving in this way and Mrs. Lamb appreciated the work as well.

We have not completed Y or Z service projects either but have plans to complete them by the end of the summer.

Speaking of the summer, we have started our " A to Z Clothesline of  Activities". I found this idea on a blog, but can not find it anywhere now. So if this idea came from your blog please let me know and I will give you credit. I did modify some of the activity ideas to fit our family better. While completing each activity I am going to take a picture and then place the picture on the piece of scrapbook paper under each letter. At the end of the summer I will have an ABC book of our activities. I will use this book with Cely Kay next year for her "school".

                                          Pumpkins before we planted!

                                      They loved digging in the dirt,

                                                  Great helpers!

So far we have completed two of our activities. The first was to plant pumpkin seeds for the letter P. We should have planted them earlier, so we will see what happens. We hope to be able to follow our pumpkins progress and then use the pumpkins for school this fall.

               We swam in our little pool for the letter S! Lillian loved relaxing!

                          Cely Kay found a new love for pouring water on her head!

Toffee Treats for Terrific Teachers

               For the letter T our service project was "Toffee Treats for Terrific Teachers" Lillian put the treat bags together. I helped tie the tags on each bag! Fun to see her enjoy putting these together.

                                                Completed bags!

 We delivered the treat bags to the "Terrific Teachers" at New Covenant school! She was thrilled to go into the office!

        Lillian enjoyed placing the treats in the boxes of each teacher. She also made sure that her daddy received a bag as well! We are in the process of completing our last few projects for the end of the alphabet.

 

       Here is another fun center that we worked on in the last few weeks. Lillian read the number on the snowman hat and then placed that many cotton balls on the snowman's stomach. We also worked on putting the snowmen in order. Fun and easy center to complete!

"School" on Valentine's Day

 We started today by reading this adorable book! In the book the main character collects "raining" hearts one day and then uses them to make each of her friends a perfect card.

 After the story Lillian made clouds out of cotton balls.

 Next she put her hearts under the clouds as if it rained hearts. She insisted her "rain" had to be in rows.

 Our main center for today was a post office. Lillian dressed as a post woman with her mailbag and all. Didn't you know Vera Bradley is now outfitting our postmen and women?

I bought these cute mailboxes at target and used magnetic numbers to label each one. (All materials purchased in the dollar aisle at Target!)

 She then pulled the" mail" out of her bag and matched each letter with the correct mailbox.

 After she put the mail in the box she put the flag up to let me know she was done putting in the mail. Looking back now I guess it would have been better to put all the flags up and then have her put them down when she placed the mail inside.

 

                                      Smiles from the post woman!

                                           Hard at work!

                                              She did her job well.

We finished the day with our favorite center playdoh, cookie cutters, and plastic silverware. I have started collecting cookie cutters everywhere I go in order to have them for each theme so we had hearts of all sizes. Fun end to the day!

Valentine's Party, Letter R Service, and the Letter T

Lunch Group Valentine's Day Party!

The last two years I have hosted our weekly lunch group the week before Valentine's Day. It is a fun time for the kids to enjoy some Valentine treats as well as exchange fun cards.

The kids enjoy the treats and cards and I enjoy fun paper products!

 Valentine exchanging is getting more and more "interesting" as we continue to add children. We had about 9 moms and 15 children present. (Along with 3 more on the way)

 This is some of our group outside for a group shot. Easier said than accomplished!

Lillian, Titus, and Levi enjoying their suckers. 

 Levi really enjoying his sucker!

After the party the Rivenbarks stayed so we could complete our Letter R service project which was to Read to the Rivenbarks. Lillian chose That's Not My Puppy to read. She did a great job and Levi seemed to really enjoy the book.

 Lillian even prompted him to touch and feel on each page.

 As you can see Cely Kay and Mary Kathyrn had other things on their agenda!

 Levi did such a good job listening he was able to retell the story back to Lillian.

Proof of a fun day, a Valentine's basket overflowing. 

This Week's Letter: Tt

This week we are studying the letter T! Our service project will be Toffee Treats for Terrific Teachers! Pictures to come after our project is complete. However, I wanted to share with you our Hot Tamales T from today. So much fun and very cheap.  The box of candy was 98 cents at Wal mart and the leftovers could make a "sweet" treat for someone after you have completed your project. 

 Proud of her T! Next,  Lillian told me some thankfuls to write in her thankful journal. Her are some of her entries from today and a few from days past.
1. I'm thankful for Grandma Chae.
3. For my sucker from Grandpa.
10. For the bubbles the fish make.
12. Seeing Levi's fish.
28. Watching a movie with Daddy.
37. Playing at Titus's house.
39. God making me
43. Playing restaurant with Caroline at Alisa's.
46.Saying hello to Missi and telling her we are praying.

A lot of nights I love to work in the school room and decorate, make copies, plan centers etc. And sometimes  I get so caught up in all of the doing that I forget why I am "doing" the "doing". The above thankfuls are reminders of the reason why. To TRY and teach my daughters that everything we have is a gift from the Lord...knowledge, suckers, grandparents, ability to pray, EVERYTHING he can call MINE.

Finally,  we ended our day with time with my bible study girls. We took a trip to a private nursing home across the street from our house. Last week we stuffed heart shaped baskets with goodies and today we walked them over to the ladies. It was such a joyful time! Each girl in our group explained how they "served the Lord with gladness".
Annaleigh: I love to serve the Lord by helping take care of my brothers.
Caroline: I love to serve the Lord by praying for others in need.
Madison: I love to serve the Lord by playing the piano for my mom and dad.
Kaitlin: I love to serve the Lord by cleaning my room and the house when I am not asked too.
After the girls shared one lady requested that we lead them in prayer. Such a sweet time. Not only for the for the joy we shared with the ladies, but for the blessing that Lillian was able to see others glorifying the Lord through service to Him!

The Letter S

      We invited the Rivenbark's over for some fun S activities.We played with silly string! Levi was good at spraying it from the can, but he did not want to touch it!

           Lillian loved touching it! So much that she "saved" some when we got inside to play with in her kitchen. Fun discovery for me!

                                        Running through the string!

            Cely Kay had fun watching and Mary Kathryn slept through the whole thing!

 Next, we had sandwiches in a sack! We also had sour cream and cheddar chips with strawberries!

                                 Finally we ended with ice cream sundaes!

                              Fun day of the letter S and Sweet fellowship!