I feel as though life has been on speed mode for the last month and a half. I have been horrible about keeping everyone up to date on daycare (and life in general) happenings. Things haven't been exactly the funnest, with majority of the daycare supplies packed away with we were at the "old" house and then getting into a routine and schedule at the new house. We've still been taking things pretty easy, but this week will be the first week in many that we have a week packed with activities to do!
Here's some of the things daycare has done since the beginning of February:
We did a few Valentine's crafts and games leading up to February 14. Nothing like we've done in the past but still a few fun things. You can read about that here.
A time out for a Scrabble game one evening after packing. We still have yet to unpack this game, but the big kids called dibs on it this summer already!
Random wet spot on the floor. Luckily we haven't had any random wet spots or stains at the new house....yet. I'll give it a few more days.
The Trolls Movie was a hit when we watched it one afternoon (we also added popcorn and M&M's to the fun). The kids are still obsessed with this movie. We also listen to the soundtrack at least once a day thank you to Pandora, which means all of the kids are now obsessed with Alexa and Pandora.
How two year olds play a matching game: turn them all over, find something that looks similar and call it a match. I was actually impressed with some of their matching skills. For example: one of the matches was every card that had a red shirt on it.
Shaving cream hearts were a hit! We're doing something similar for Easter soon.
A pizza party with homemade party hats! Followed by another Trolls dance party.
All of the girls had a Doll Day. There were so many American Girl dolls in the house that day!
One of the great parts about moving: I had so many things I wanted to get rid of. I had the kids use up a lot of art supplies (such as this scratch art paper) so we didn't have to pack them up. Bonus: now we get to order brand new supplies in the coming months!
We tried out a homemade kinetic sand recipe. It was no where near as fun as the stuff you can buy in the store, but it was a heck of a lot cheaper AND the kids didn't seem to notice the difference.
"Brushin' baby's teef." We then had to wash the doll toothbrush because the kids tried to brush their own teeth with it.
The littles LOVE their bigs! There's always someone (who's obviously much cooler than I) to play with, read stories, and what the littles think is pretty cool, clean up for them. No wonder they love when the big kids are around!
The NO button provides plenty of laughs....and a headache for me!
We've been spending quite a bit of time the last month putting the blocks in alphabetical order and spelling out simple words.
I get ridiculously proud of the kids when they put to use things that I tell/teach them. I have two kiddos that play together very well, of course they also make each other just as mad as they do happy. However, at two years old, they do an amazing job using their words with each other. I've commented many times that I've had kids who would be apt to backhand a kid for doing something they didn't like (actually fairly common in the two year old world) but I'm constantly amazed at how grown up two two year olds can seem.
We had a cold, rainy day, but we saw a worm poking up in the mud just out the front door. We brought the worm in to get warm and examine it. The worm seemed pretty happy to go back in the cold mud once we were done with it!
Fun in the snow one last time before moving.
A touchy breakfast at Perkins because of where someone was sitting? Or the color of crayons one kids got that the other didn't? One kid spoke the way another didn't like? Or something completely irrelevant was said but it suddenly mattered? All of the above? I really can't remember but I remember the looks she gave to all of us throughout the meal. It was not a pleasant meal.
Then we did hair cuts for all three kids.
The week before moving was a tough one for all of us. In between packing all of the last minute stuff, trying to keep up with every day life, and making sure the new house was ready to go.....we'll just say it's not a week any of us wish to repeat, as evident by the oldest's writing.
These kids can sit and look at books (and "read" them to each other) for half of the day!
Picking out our new table (that we said we weren't going to get). It has been amazing to have an actual dining room that isn't just kids tables and chairs....and yet there's been a few times when we've eaten at those little tables since we've moved.
The cookies at Homemaker's. Also known as bribery for behaving while mom and dad look around at furniture.
This was one of my favorite moments since I've opened my daycare. The kids had been doing some type of project that required them to roll their sleeves up. When we were done, they obviously rolled them back down. One little boy kept trying to roll his T-SHIRT down and couldn't get it. Before I could jump in, a little girl grabbed on and said "I help you!" and they pulled together. It was the sweetest and funniest thing to watch!
We didn't do much for Read Across America (Dr. Seuss's birthday). However, we did read The Lorax (one of my faves) and make Truffula Trees using
forks and pink paint.
We moved, had two days of "regular" daycare (which means only two days trying to figure out our routine and get everyone comfortable with the new house) and then spring break hit. We REALLY broke in the new house with all of the kids running around! While it was hectic personally, we still had a lot of fun! Read about SB 2017 here.
Having the bball hoop in the daycare room has been a highlight for all! Nearly everyone we practice shooting baskets and play on the number rug before lunch.
Now that life has slowed down (slow for us at least) a bit, I'll be back to posting our daycare happenings regularly. There will even be some new big ideas that I'll be testing out with the daycare (can anyone say Mud Play??!!?).