Preschool

The other day I started looking at preschools for Jordan to maybe attend, but was soon frustrated by how expensive they all are. $40 a week is not in the budget right now, especially for something that I felt I could easily do at our house for a minimal amount of money. So, after a week of planning and preparing Jordan, we started preschool today. Last week I spent a lot of time looking at websites and books coming up with fun ideas for our preschool. I came with a different theme for each week and got started on all the planning.

This week our theme is winter. Our art projects, songs, math, science, sensory activities, snack, large muscle activity and letter of the week will all have to do with that theme. I also bought a huge bulletin board at the D.I. to decorate each week and checked out a whole slew of books on snow, winter activities and animals that migrate or hibernate. I am excited! (If you can't tell)

Jordan had a lot of fun this morning and so did I! Sam was kind of in and out of the room, but he had fun when he was there. I came up with a transition song that when I start singing the boys know it's preschool time and run to their toy room to sit down. It's called Once There Was a Preschool (to the tune of Once There Was a Snowman--a favorite song in our house right now)

I sing:
Once there was a preschool
preschool
preschool
Once there was a preschool
Fun
Fun
Fun!
Meet at the table
the table
the table
Meet at the table to
Learn
Learn
Learn!

I was pleased to see how excited the boys got this morning when I started singing that song. They ran as fast as they could to their little table to start.


We started out talking about winter, playing our bulletin board game, singing a few songs and reading a book.

Then we made marshmallow snowmen.

For math we did mitten patterns.

Then we had a sensory activity with different white things in zip lock baggies, since the color of winter is white. This was the biggest hit of the day.

"Rice is crunchy and hard!"

"Soap feels smoooooth!"

"Cotton balls feel like a pillow."

I'm just happy with anything...

Then we learned the letter W, and made winter W pictures.

For science we mixed colors in spray bottles and then sprayed the snow outside.

I usually want to have a snack that they help prepare and that is healthy, but today I thought hot chocolate and candycanes would be a lot of fun!

We'll do preschool Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Everything lasted about 60 minutes today and didn't seem too long or too short. This will be fun!

If you're interested my two biggest resources for activities and art projects are,

notimeforflashcards.com
If you haven't ever been to this website and you have little kids, go check it out! It is awesome! We have been doing art projects on her website for over a year and they are all so creative and fun. We love the letter of the day, we'll be doing one each time we have preschool.


This book is fabulous! They have 67 themes with theme goals, bulletin board idea, music, fingerplays, sensory, math, social studies, large muscle, science, dramatic play, arts and crafts, field trip, group time and cooking ideas for each of those themes!

Christmas Eve

We had a great Christmas Eve. We had a full day and when we weren't somewhere doing something I was in the kitchen cooking and baking.
We started the day off at a nursing home in Tremonton to give a little program. We read the Christmas story and even had a few actors to help out. We didn't get as many helpers as we thought we would have because some of them were sick, so we had Mary, Joseph, a shepherd, a sheep and an angel.

Jordan was the angel. His costume made me giggle, he did not like it at all! It's a long dress tucked up into his pants. :)

Sam was a sheep. He kept pulling the cotton balls off his head so as the afternoon wore on his hat became a little lopsided and funny looking, but of course he was still cute and charmed everyone.

We sang some Christmas Hymns...

And then Benji did a little Christmas rap while my kids danced...because nothing says Christmas spirit like MC Hammer.

I had to take pictures of the old people while they watched Benji. They were not amused.

Sam would walk up to this woman and jump. She would smile at him and he loved it. I looked at this picture a week after I took it and laughed out loud for a long time. Sam has the same hairdo as that lady and most of the rest of them in this photo. I didn't realize it at the time! :)

We then got ice cream cones and then off to Grandma and Grandpa Hadfield's for soup dinner.
Then the annual white elephant game.

But the Hadfield white elephant gifts are actually pretty cool! A huge bag of M&Ms just for him! What a lucky guy!


I made sure to get a family picture at every party we went to. So here is the first of many!

Then we went home, got in our Christmas jammies, made cookies for Santa, and read the Christmas story. The frosting on my cookies was supposed to be red, but it turned out hot pink.


The boys each got a cookie before brushing teeth and off to bed.
Some of them tried to steal another one when nobody was looking.


After Santa left his presents under the tree, I had to take pictures of all the decorations in the room because there was this awesome magical light in the room...

It made everything look beautiful.


Proof that I was there!
And, because I like to keep it real, I'll let you know that not everywhere in my house looked magical. After a day of making soup, cookies, Christmas breakfast and everything else this is what my kitchen looked like.
It's like an I Spy photograph. I spy a box of tissues, a video camera, and a large bag of chocolate chips. Okay, that was a joke, you don't have to stare at this picture any more than is necessary. Hahaha.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning started with our traditional breakfast. I look forward to this breakfast all year long and I've had it as long as I can remember. It's creamed eggs over homemade rolls (that I forgot to bake, so it was toast this year) with little smokies and juice.

Then we started opening up presents. The boys were so excited and happy to see that Santa came and left them gifts under the tree, they were also excited that he ate his cookies.

We don't have too many present opening pictures because we filmed the whole thing.

Sam opening up his Alien from Jordan. It was a hit!

Sam also got a cool basketball hoop from Santa that plays music and teaches numbers.

Jordan opening up the mailbox he asked Santa for. (Don't tell him that it's a baby toy, it's what he reallllly wanted!)

Opening his sing-a-ma-jig! These things are so cute, both the boys got one.

Then we opened up presents in out stockings. When I was growing up Santa wrapped everything in our stockings and we loved it. So now Santa wraps everything in my boys stockings. I do have tons of stocking pictures. This is only a few....



This is the face Jordan would pull after opening every present. He would say, "WOW! Wow, this is cool. Wow!" This is a Matchbox car that says "Goodyear" on the side of it. Jordan was impressed.

Jordan's favorite color is purple. He always asks for purple cups, but we only have one, so he got a few more in his stocking.

Sam mostly loved the chocolates.

Showing dad his Goodyear car.

The boys in their new clothes from Santa with all of their presents....

During Sam's photo shoot he started kissing his stuff.