Friday, August 23, 2013

Week In Review: August 19 - August 23

What a busy week with lots of changes around here! Max started kindergarten and having him gone during the days will take some getting use too. Max had a great first two days and is the tallest kid in kindergarten. Harrison is so jealous that Max got to start school before him, but having H be the big kid during the days seems to be paying off. He's been doing a much better job of using words and not whining (music to this mama's ears!) and as of today, said no more pull ups/diapers and has been wearing underwear with no accidents. This reaffirms my belief that kids potty train themselves when they're ready. You really can get through potty training with no accidents and painlessness if you wait until your child is fully ready.
With all of the changes about this week, I made sure to do some of the kid's favorite activities. Here's a taste of what the kiddos enjoyed doing throughout the week:

We started the week with a water table car wash (http://ashlen-kidspert.blogspot.com/2013/08/a-car-wash-for-kids.html). 
It was pretty hot this week, so we didn't spend a ton of time outside. When we did though, the kids got to jump in the bounce house, swing, and slide. Here's Bup trying out the climber slide by herself. 
The kids have spent a lot of the week playing with slime. They've made snakes, pretended to cook with it (one child made their slime into a pepper), roll it, flatten it, make it into a ball, and let it run in between their fingers.
Kool Aid painting is always a hit.
Their masterpieces! It was a windy day so they had to be weighed down with the cement blocks while they dried.
Stamps. All of the kids love doing stampers, I  just have to carefully pay attention because it seems kids younger than four, prefer to try out stamping their hands rather than using the stampers. The ink is washable, but it definitely takes some scrubbing to fully remove!

Max's favorite lunch: tortilla pizzas (see previous post on how to make)! I had the kids color crowns (found at Michael's for $2.99 for a 6 pk) to wear during their pizza party lunch. On Thursday, the kids also colored face masks (also found at Michael's, with the paper shapes cut outs for $2.99 for a 6 pk). The kids love coloring these and playing with them. The crowns have made the kids become kings, queens, and pirates. With the masks, they really enjoy playing animals or scaring each other while they wear them.
Max's first day of kindergarten.
Saying goodbye to my baby boy and hello to our new every day normal. I am pleased to report there were no tears (from either one of us) and I held it together surprisingly well. It still saddens me to think he's moved on to kindergarten already, but he was sooo ready so I can't complain or be too sad about it!
The kids and I made M&M Oreo chocolate chip cookies for Max's first day welcome home treat. Using Betty Crocker cookie mix, I gave each child a small bowl that contained some M&M's and Oreos that they dumped into the mix. I put in the egg and butter and stirred it together. 

We also read LOTS of books this week! Next week, I'm going to do a book and a treat every morning. Monday we'll be reading "If You Give A Moose A Muffin" while the kids eat muffins. I'm really excited to try this out with the kids. I like trying new and different things with the kids so I know just what these little minds and bodies are capable of and helps me create new activities for them.

The kids spent lots of time building their own train tracks together. Sometimes it ends in fights and tears because the track didn't get built a certain way, but for two and three year olds, I was very pleased to see them working together to build it. The kids also got to have a play date with one of my friends and her two kids, jump in the bounce house, draw on the chalkboard tabletop, color with markers (we need to work on putting caps back on!), and two of the kids played "vacation." This included pretending the couch was the car and loading all of the toys onto half of the couch, pretending it was their "bags and stuff." I loved the creativity, especially when the other kids joined in!

I will close this week with a cute saying from my middle child, Harrison: He was "helping" me with this blog post and chimed in "so this is your blog, huh? What do you do? How do you talk to it?" "Talk to it?" I replied curiously. "Yea, how do you talk to it to get it to do what you want? Like put pictures on and get the words and letters on you page. Can I talk to it next?" On that note, we are off to the weekend to make some magical memories!