Avi - 06/30/2021

Avilene missed out on French toast for breakfast. Poor girl. :) For lunch she ate a large serving of Hearty Paleo Stew with meat, cauliflower, broccoli, sweet potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, and carrots. She ate two servings of saltines and ate tropical fruit. 

Lots of phrases we use as adults do not translate for "concrete thinking" children. They may be able to understand a few of the phrases if you take time to explain what it means, but generally speaking that too is a waste of time. Haha. One of the most obvious would be "it's raining cats and dogs." So Avi was yapping at me about something and I told her she sounded like "a broken record." "What does that mean?!?" That made me laugh. Uh, never mind. (I remember lots of old records getting stuck!!)

First picture: Avi has been untying my shoelaces relentlessly so I told her she needed to learn to tie shoes and then she could tie her Dad's shoes together. :) Haha. You're welcome. So I finally took my shoes off so she could practice and she got a pretty good knot in a short amount of time. I didn't show her either. Following picture: Avi doing some creative drawing. A couple of those are "mermaids" One is a "man" and she informed me those are called "mer-man." :)

Next picture: These guys were cleaning the asphalt with an air hose - prepping for repairs probably. It was a bit noisy and you won't find Miles in the picture. He watched, but from a considerable distance. Then we saw some more workers! This time it was the garbage men - recycle day - picking up our recycled materials.

Last picture: After we came inside I got Miles out of his wet clothes and into some pajamas before lunch. I was in the kitchen for a couple of minutes and he was snuggling with Avilene when I turned around. He kept jamming his face down into the couch. :) He loves his Avi and she adores him too.

Avi - 06/29/2021

Avilene had no waffle and ate half of grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate chicken, whole wheat tortillas, ate corn, and two servings of baked cinnamon apples. 

This first picture is from yesterday afternoon and I loved the amount of supplies and hard work the girls were putting into their work. Good job everyone.

Next two pictures: Avi and Nora were playing a couple of my newer games. The first one is a matching game that's pretty simple, but has several different cards of objects so they don't get bored quickly with the same card. In the second picture they are playing a "Connect Four" game. If you look closely you can see Avi is holding the Connect Four board and she's slowly moving it to her left trying hard to manipulate the spot where Nora is trying to insert her color. Tricky little Turkey. So I informed her that probably wasn't allowed in the rules. Haha. Creative; yes. Legal and Fair: no. 

Next picture: There is nothing that attracts a crowd at Childcare like a bug trying to find it's way across the patio. Haha. I actually ended up tossing this roly-poly into the grass because 5 kids were all claiming ownership and no compromise was in sight. Last picture: They wanted to do the "painting with water" activity again this morning. So it became a "clean the toys" activity too. Child labor laws?!? :)

Avi - 06/28/2021

Avilene ate kix cereal and no fruit cocktail for breakfast. For lunch she ate two servings of ground turkey, no toasted whole wheat sandwich thins, ate avocado, tomato, and 2 bites of black-raspberries. She said, "Too sour!" Nora said, "These are SO Sweet" and she had 3 large servings!! So that's how the different taste buds work!!

First picture: Atley and Avi were playing a couple new games I got and I like how Miles was keeping an eye on their activity. Cal is with his Grandma today so Miles was doing his own thing most of the morning as the girls played in the Preschool Room. 

Next picture: Love Nora's face in this picture: "OH MY GOSH AVI!! YOU ARE SOOOO GOOD AT THIS GAME!! :) It's a pirate ship and Avi balanced lots of goods on the ship. Needless to say Nora was impressed and so was I. So for the Grand Finale Avi had to show us she could pick it up without spilling any. Nice work Avilene. I wanted a picture of her doing that and I missed Nora's reaction, but it was probably similar to the first reaction. haha.

Here are a couple pictures from outside this morning. Avi asked if we could do bubbles and so we chased bubbles - in the shade. And then Avi had fun with the car ramps and playing with the little cars. She had it all to herself as everyone else was tired of that activity from the last 2 weeks. :)

Avi - 06/11/2021

Avilene ate oatmeal and dried cranberries (after saying she'd eat 1 cranberry, then she ate all) for breakfast. For lunch she ate tilapia, most of whole wheat elbow noodles, ate green beans, and applesauce.  

Avi and Atley doing some Art while waiting for Science with Lauralea to begin. :)

Science with Lauralea: today's theme is "Birds." Obviously this is a wide ranging subject, but we talked about some basic things most birds have in common. How are they different from us? The kids (with some prompting) came up with good answers; "wings, feathers, and skinny legs." Ha. We also talked a little about why some birds do not fly; including the subject of hollow bones and more dense bones.  In the first picture the kids are looking at a variety of feathers and examining some differences in feathers; some help them fly, some help keep them warm. Every feather has a purpose. Following picture: We talked a little bit about different beaks and feet and the usefulness of each one. 

Next two pictures; Making our own bird feeders using pine cones, peanut butter, and bird seed. We spread the peanut butter on the cones and the kids rolled the cones (trying to avoid getting poked) in the seed. Second picture; Here's what the bird feeder cone looks like completed.

Here's the primary reason I LOVE this last picture so much!! For me it basically epitomizes the personality of all 3 girls. This is how I've seen so many activities proceed with these three. There was leftover bird seed from the activity described above and we decided to scatter it on the grass in front of the big window. Lauralea had the girls line up so I could get a picture and then her instructions were pretty basic; "Ok, toss your bird seed." Starting from the left; Atley is literally tossing everything including her bird seed!! Haha. Middle; Avi is trying to carefully scatter the seed. On Right; Nora is holding her bird seed and watching the others first before she does anything!! This picture captures it all so perfectly.

Avi - 06/10/2021

Avilene ate two servings of blueberry bagel and ate peaches for breakfast. For lunch she ate a large serving of our homemade hamburger & sausage pizza with meat, pineapple, peppers, olives, and tomato sauce. She ate the whole wheat pizza crust we serve on the side, and half of her pineapple on the side.

First two pictures - I recently posted a picture of Avi and Atley playing Tic Tac Toe on the sidewalk/patio outside. Now they've moved it inside. I love this as they're continuing to take turns and learning strategy too. I heard Avi tell Atley; "It's all about blocking people!!" Haha. 

Next picture: This scene made me laugh! Silly kids. I'm not sure what Avi was doing, but Cal and Miles were looking for Svea. Cal was saying, "Svea, are you in there?!" He was referring to the clothes rack. "Svea, are you in there?" Miles is peering in from the other side. Meanwhile Svea was yelling from the bathroom to let me know she was done. Haha. Avi knew where Svea was and I think she too was just getting a kick out of these boys looking for Svea. 

Next picture - Avi and Atley continuing to do more creations. They'll do different Preschool activities and go back to the Art several times every morning. Following picture: Now this is typical Avi; gotta experiment with everything!! (And that's a positive thing!) She's got a fistful of pens and doing some more art work. 

Last picture; Avi was playing with the boys on the mattress; lots of jumping, rolling, "tossing" them, and then she moved to the couch and they immediately followed. She is really good with these little ones. Well done Avi. 

Avi - 06/09/2021

Avilene had breakfast at home. For lunch she ate half of her pork roast, ate whole wheat tortillas, bite of potatoes, and ate fruit salad. 

Important Notice (Smiley Face) : Science with Lauralea will be Friday instead of tomorrow. Lauralea will be out of town on Thursday. I've already been telling the kids because they're always asking how many more sleeps until Science. 

Picture from yesterday afternoon at the Snack table. Quit dinking around at the table!! Delete that idea for a moment!! Let me get a picture first and then quit dinking around!! Haha. As you can well imagine she LOVED looking at this picture of herself. She asked to see it again this morning. Now you have this as keepsake in your Blog forever Avi. :) You can proudly show it to your Mate someday!!

Avi is a busy girl so it's pretty easy to find things to write about in her Blog. HOWEVER, it's getting more challenging as she gets older and here's why: She stays engaged in the same activity (or switches to something very similar) much much longer than she once did so it seems like I'm waiting to get a different picture. This is a pretty common picture: Avi engaged in an activity and Atley intently watching! 

Last picture; These three girls starting a matching game. Avi actually left in the middle of this one; said she was "tired of it" and Svea went on to get lots of matches too along with Atley. (Svea and Atley were not sad to see Avi leave. Haha.)  Avi went to the Daycare Room and played with Miles and Callahan on the mattress. 

Avi - 06/08/2021

Avilene ate two servings of cinnamon/raisin English muffin and 2 bites of dried plums for breakfast. For lunch she ate bites of chicken, most of brown rice, no broccoli, and ate strawberries.  

Well I'll start with a couple pictures using the same tool I posted a picture of yesterday!! I love showing Avi's creativity!! Yesterday she called these "humans" so today I guess we have "more humans." Starting at the top in her words; "lightbulb, decorations in the house, Mom, Dad, dog, child, and cat." :) Then in the 2nd picture I'm sure everyone can guess this: "monster!" Haha.

Next picture: I like this one left over from yesterday outside. Avilene was taking a short break and I like the spot she chose to chill out. The second stroller was working good for a foot rest. :) Following picture and also from yesterday, Avi piled up these noodle accessories and was using them in a precarious manner. Ha. If you look close you'll see she's balanced and not using her hands for steadiness. :)

Last picture: I found this tracing tool in the back store room and the kids were enjoying working on the alphabet. It's amazing what you find when you just keep digging back there!! :) Actually that's not really very true. Lauralea has it amazingly organized!! (As usual!!) Thank you Lauralea.