Avi - 8/28/2020

Avilene ate oatmeal and no dried cranberries for breakfast.  And they were off to Seeley Lake at 11:00.  At breakfast she asked if the "big parachute like mine came yet."  I just ordered it yesterday Avi.  She said, "I know, but DID it come!?!"  Haha.  No.  And Avi, I decided NOT to do overnight express delivery because we're gonna start working on a concept for you called delayed gratification.  Don't be too concerned though, We're gonna start slow Avilene, that parachute will be here Monday.  :)  Sorry, I think I'm funny.

Lots of pictures left over from yesterday!!  First - This is what frequently happens at Nap Time.  (That's Nora on her Nap Mat behind Avi.)  Avi is very quiet and always whispers, but the question is always the same; "Do you wanna take a picture?"  Little Cutie.  I Love this kid a lot.  Second picture; This is left over from yesterday, but I just wanted to show you an activity/puzzle that Atley and Avi were having fun with.  There are several different patterns for them to follow while matching the shapes and colors.  Good work girls.  Third picture: Some outside fun building with the "what ever they're called."  :)  

Next picture: I'm impressed with how well Avilene did cutting out the "face" she drew.  That's not easy to cut a circle that small!  The girl has great dexterity!!  Last picture: "Hey Gary!!  Do you want a picture of me on my horse?!?"  Some day I should take (and post) a picture of Avi EVERY time she asks that question!!  Haha.

Avi - 8/27/2020

Avilene had three servings of blueberry bagel and two servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate  two servings of hamburger and sausage pizza with meat, pineapple, peppers, olives, and tomato sauce.  She ate whole wheat pizza crust (which we serve separate) and ate pineapple on the side.  During Lunch Avilene asked, "How do you know these peppers (in the pizza) are good to eat?"  This was the only answer I could think of:  "Well they were in Costco's food section so I just made an assumption.  And I guess there is a certain amount of faith involved too."  Haha.  

First picture: Atley and Avi were doing some art work - drawing and putting stickers on their papers.  Following picture;  If you already saw Svea's Blog then this is part 2!!  This was a funny sequence here.  Atley was in the chair and the other three girls were pushing it around and around as fast as they could go!!  Callahan was frequently in the road and about to get trampled so Avilene said it was time to put him in the chair.  Which was fine with Cal!!  Avi is giving him a boost up into the chair.  :)

Last two pictures;  Avi, Atley, and Nora played with the parachutes (your big one and my little one) most of the outside time this morning.  (Avi and Nora are under there!!)  The Nelson family may be happy to hear I ordered my own parachute today!!  Haha.  I have a small one, but this one is twice as big and the kids LOVE it.  So it's time for Little Treasures to get their own!!  Before we rip your's and I have to buy two of them!!

Avi - 8/26/2020

Avilene ate two servings of whole wheat toast and ate grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate pork roast, bites of whole wheat tortillas, ate carrots, and two servings of fruit salad.   

Avi and Atley were sitting on the play sinks/stoves and specifically trying to sit in the sink bowls.  Avi said, "Why doesn't my butt fit in here anymore?"  I never said a word!  I don't care if they (females) are only 4 years old, there isn't a safe answer to that question!!  :)  I know, I know I'm not funny.  (Except I think I am.)  

Avilene has never done an activity that isn't worthy of a picture.  She cracks me up; "take my picture Gary!" "Do you want a picture Gary!?"  And I love taking the pictures!  First picture she made a car and second picture she was having fun with the legos. 

Next picture: Jumping across the room in her sack.  You would have been a good "gunny sack" racer back in the day Avi!!  Last picture; Then she was walking around the room with the sack over her head and Atley was cracking up.  Avi let Nora play with the sack for a long time as well.  She even let Nora wear the "Cat Boy" mask too.  

Avi - 8/25/2020

Avilene ate two servings of whole wheat English muffin and ate dried plums for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, maybe a bite or two of brown rice, maybe a bite or two of stir fry vegetables, and ate mandarin oranges.   

This first picture is actually from last Friday afternoon when everyone (except Miles) was at the fence waving bye to Lauralea.  Then I have a couple pictures left over from yesterday afternoon.  (Speaking of yesterday, I have NO pain today and I'm so thankful!!)  Second picture; While the rest of the kids were sleeping Avi was getting all the padlocks opened!!  :)  Good work Avi!!  Third picture; She frequently has stems of grass in her mouth when we are outside!!  :)

Next picture: You can see what this activity is about; putting the different colored hippos on the correct spot and then they can count them all up.  There are some 1 + 1 and 2 + 2, but then lots of them are obviously a bit advanced.  Avi was up for the challenge and even though she didn't quite get 16, she was very close!!  Good work Avi.  Last picture;  Avi showed up in her "Catboy" suit and she was letting Cal and Miles play with the tail; well at least until the tail got pulled off!  :)

Avi - 8/24/2020

Notice Everyone:

There will not be a Blog today.  Lauralea is covering for me at 11:00. I have a painful swollen disk in my

lower neck and I'm receiving an injection today.  All prayers and thoughts for a successful injection are appreciated. 

Blogs should resume tomorrow. 

Avi - 8/21/2020

Avilene ate two servings of brown rice and two servings of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate three servings of salmon, ate half of whole wheat dinner roll, bite of cauliflower, and ate mangoes.  At lunch Atley started this conversation: "If I have a baby my Mom will be a Grandma!"  Avi yelled, "If I have a baby my Mom will be a Grandma!" And Nora chimed in with the exact same phrase!  They were SO excited!!  They kept talking, but I was snickering too much to hear the rest of the story!!  I know it wasn't that funny, but I remember my kids saying things like that before I was hardly past 30!!  Yup, Life happens!!  

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon when Avilene was honing her hammering skills.  Nice work Avilene!!  Second picture: Atley and Avi are waiting for Nora to return one of their cars.  You may not see Nora in the picture immediately, but look at the lower right-hand corner and you'll see her leg.  Haha.  These three girls were playing with the battery-powered cars again on the hardwood floor.

This next picture made me laugh!  I said, "That looks VERY comfortable!!"  Avilene said, "Well it's NOT!!"  Haha.  Little Goofball!!  Following picture: I haven't had the "coloring" books out for quite awhile and they've been doing lots of creating their own art lately.  And I love seeing what their little minds come up with!!  Avi said this is a picture of "a person walking on a trail."

Last picture: Avi and Atley were SO excited to see a grasshopper!  We rarely see them in the yard here; but there are plenty of them around!! I know there have been lots near Atley's house!!  

Avi - 8/20/2020

Avilene ate two servings of whole wheat English muffin and ate mandarin oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bite of meat balls, ate whole wheat elbow noodles, peas, and applesauce.   

This first picture made me laugh so I have to explain why!!  Avilene made the "A" you see in the picture from "Tinker Toys" and she wanted me to take a picture of her "A" so bad!!  I forgot about it and I was taking a picture of the activity she'd completed.  She sprinted over and grabbed the "A" to get it in the picture too.  So Cute!!  Second picture; Putting bunny ears on Miles.  He was totally fine with it and never moved or changed expression!!  haha.

Next picture; The three big girls were playing with the battery powered cars up and down the hallway - primarily having races!  Then they were running the cars through the archway you see in the picture.  Following picture: Lauralea helped the girls make some paper airplanes and Lauralea also took the picture of the girls flying their planes.  

Last picture: I like asking the kids about their pictures they draw.  "This one is a girl" pointing to the left of the picture.  "This one is kind of a scary ghost."  Pointing to the right side of the picture.  

Avi - 8/19/2020

Ok, I did Avi's Journal and then I have no idea what happened and where it disappeared to!!  Let me know if you get two of them.  So I'm just gonna do Avi, Atley, and Nora's Journal the same just for today. I don't have time to redo the whole thing.  I'm still trying to get used to the new formatting!! 

So the Lunch conversation was most interesting today!!  I was dying laughing.  Atley was expounding; "Joe Biden is the President. Presidents have to help people. And they write on a piece of paper. Donald Trump doesn't say good words."  Nora said, "Why?"  Atley said, "Because he's a bad guy and some people like bad guys."  Again Atley emphasized the extreme difficultly of the presidency because they have to write on paper.  LOL!!  So I asked her if the president was working on his "ABC's?" Atley said, "I don't know what they do."  I said, "I don't either."  This reminded me of when Tate Templeton was about Svea's age and he came to Daycare one day and said, "I"m Barack Obama and I approve of this message."  :)

I've been working hard to help the three oldest girls work on solving conflicts in ways that do not include screaming, crying, hitting, or getting mad and saying things like, "You can't come to my house!"  "You can't play with my toys."  "I'm not going to buy you a birthday present."  (Yes I heard that one today!!)  Today Nora was yelling at Svea; "I don't like that Svea!!  I don't like that Svea! I don't like that Svea!"  I couldn't see that Svea was doing anything so I asked Nora, "what is Svea doing?"  Nora said, "She's peeking at my face."  Ok then.....so sometimes the conflicts are not what I consider super serious.  :)  But in Nora's mind it was obviously very serious.  

Both of the pictures from today involve the three girls playing together and they'v been doing this frequently so there have been lots of opportunities for conflict resolution!!  Playing at the Doll House and Playing with the cars in the hallway again.

Avi - 8/18/2020

Avilene ate two servings of waffles and two servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, whole wheat tortillas, bite of corn, and ate baked cinnamon apples.   At the breakfast table Atley got the conversation going by asking, "Well did everyone have a good sleep last night!?!"  Haha.  

These first two pictures are leftover from yesterday afternoon.  First one; This is typical Avi doing something cute and then saying, "You wanna take a picture?!?"  Haha.  Well sure, who can resist doing that?!?  Second picture: Avilene helping sister get her dress-up shoes fastened.  

Pictures from this morning;  Here's a picture of some of Avi's art work.  This is a pretty detailed drawing of a ship in the middle of water and you can see a distinct perimeter around the water.  Avi has lots of detail in this picture and I always like having her explain her pictures to me.  Very interesting.  Second picture:  This looks like some physical education class or yoga class, but they were just playing with their cars.   The cars are battery-powered and the girls were making bridges for the cars to go under.  Last picture: This is an example of "friend helping friend."  Avilene was teaching Nora how to do this activity.  Avi said, "You match the shapes and match the colors."  And she pretty much described it perfectly!!  It's not as easy as you might assume because the shapes are a challenge.  

Avi - 8/17/2020

Avilene ate kix cereal and two servings of mixed fruit for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground turkey, half of whole wheat hamburger bun, ate avocado, small serving of tomatoes, and two servings of cherries.  At breakfast I said, "Hey Avilene, Sylvie was here yesterday."  Avi said, "Yes I know that."  So I asked, "How do you know?"  Avi said, "Because Mommy doesn't want Sylvie going with boys at night on the highway." Haha.  Well I think you may be combining two stories here!!"

Here are some pictures from Avi's morning!  The kids are playing with Miles on the mattress.  He made it up there by himself and they all loved it.  Miles was mostly concerned about grabbing the bill of Avi's cap!!  In the second picture I let Cal go out into the Preschool Room so he could watch Avilene play on the dance game.  Lauralea was watching this and said Cal had a big grin on his face.  

We did a book, toy, and puzzle exchange on the weekend and Avi did lots of activities in the Pre-School Room.  She likes this puzzle in the next picture and works on it every time we have it out.  Following picture; This activity involves shapes and colors and it lights up a phrase.  You can see the one on the floor that says, "Girls Rock."  Last picture; And exploring all the doll house accessories in this exchange.  

Avi - 8/13/2020

Avilene chose to not eat breakfast.  For lunch she ate pulled pork, two servings of whole wheat toast, ate peas, and three servings of watermelon.    

This first picture was taken moments after Avilene arrived.  Nora said, "I want to do a piggyback.  When they all three pile on like you see in the picture they call this "stacking up."  Haha.  That's a pretty good description.  Nora said, "I'll be on top because I don't want to get squished!!"  Good thinking Nora.  Avilene is pretty tough not to collapse under the weight of Atley alone; Atley is a big girl!  

In the next picture they are playing the "Cootie Game."  They each have to build a "cootie" and there are dice involved.  But at this point we just skip the dice!!  In the following picture you can see the cooties that Atley and Avi have built.  They think it's funny because there are three kinds of "feet" available.  No shoes, shoes, and roller blades.  So they were mixing and matching.  :)  I like how Miles is photo-bombing in the background.  

Next picture:  Everyone was excited (no one more excited than Avilene) because Miles was standing at the window on a yellow bench this morning.  Avi was demonstrating how to pound on the window.  Haha.  In the last picture she was trying to coax him into interacting with her.  

Avi - 8/12/2020

Avilene ate three servings of whole wheat toast and ate mangoes for breakfast.   For lunch she ate ground beef with marinara sauce on top of whole wheat spaghetti noodles, no cauliflower, and ate fruit salad.  At snack yesterday afternoon Nora was talking about a "calapitter."  Then Avi and Atley kept saying "calapitter" over and over and over.  I'll be danged if there wasn't a couple of moments there when I couldn't think of the right way to say "caterpillar!!"  Haha.

These first two pictures are left over from yesterday afternoon.  I'd just changed his diaper and when I sat Miles on the floor I put him behind Avi's head.  It was so cute; he was messing with the bill of her hat and Avilene was loving it!!  And he was examining and touching her face.  :)  Second picture: Avi had this scarf on Cal's head, but then she put it on her own head.  Which of course I thought was adorable and had to get a picture.  She is such a cutie with that awesome smile.  

Next picture: We played a game of Farmyard Bingo with the three oldest girls.  I was trying to get a decent picture and it wasn't working too well so I asked if they'd each look at their game board.  And they were very cooperative as you can see, but it looks like they're praying.  Ha.  "Thank you Lord for this game....." Last picture: My parachute is much smaller than the one Avi and Svea have!!  But it covered the wagon!!  Haha.  And Nora and Avi in the wagon.    

Avi - 8/11/2020

There will be no Blogs today.  I have a 12:30 appointment and Lauralea will be covering for me. Blogs will resume tomorrow the 12th.  

Avi - 8/10/2020

Avilene ate bites of bran cereal and bites of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of chicken, ate half of pita bread, ate avocado, cucumber, and three servings of pears.   I have a note left over from Friday afternoon and I already told this to Molly, but I'll Post it here too.  I started reading (and singing) the book "Down by the Bay" and Avilene said, "This book is so annoying!"  LOL!!  I roared.  And of course I asked her "why?"  The only thing I could understand was because of "all the animals." And she stuck with that answer.  :)

It was so nice to have Nora and Miles back today!!  First picture: And this is what it looked like when Avilene arrived; "Piggy Back Rides!!"  This was so cute and they were laughing and giggling.  The excitement level was pretty high this morning.  (There was LOTS of loud talking and excitement and it didn't appear that many - or any - were listening.  Haha.)  In the following picture you can see the tape measure laying between Nora and Avilene.  Avi had been measuring Nora and told her it was "42."  :)

Next picture:  We moved the blocks of wood (these are the ones we use for our "nailing" activities) over on the dirt.  Then we're gonna look under the blocks in a week or two weeks and see how many bugs have moved in there.  Last picture; Atley providing the muscle for a wagon ride.  Thank you Atley.