Bb is for Butterfly

Last week we focused on the letter Bb.  

We made butterfly wings using a butterfly-making (decorating) kit I found on clearance at Hobby Lobby.  We had fun using glitter glue and rhinestones to decorate them!

Ava's finished product.

Gracie's.

Mine.  =)

Then I tied some string onto them so the girls could wear them.

We used round stickers on the do-a-dot pages.

We did a cut-and-paste activity.  Ava went the extra mile by cutting strips of 'long grass' for the butterfly.

Matching up the lowercase and uppercase Bb's.

Size sorting.

Another lowercase and uppercase matching game.

Letter Hunt worksheet.  Circle all the Bb's!

'Bb for Banana' sign language papers.

I found some neat Maze books at Dollar General for $1.  They do them with pencils so I can erase them and use again.

We worked on our dry-erase books.  I've been having them use markers but I've just discovered the dry-erase CRAYONS!!  They work just as good, easily wipe off with a wet cloth, and I don't have to worry about their clothes!

We caught a butterfly!

Amarah was over at the time so she got to share in our excitement.

Alyssa watched the excitement from the comfort of her private pool. 

(the water table!)

We used the paint markers on the do-a-dot pages as well.

We rented a couple of butterfly books from the library and several about Bears. 

Their favorite was 'Baby Duck's New Friend.'

Lacing letters.

A few tracing worksheets.

Poke pages.

Gracie drew a B!

Complete the pattern.

We made banana bread!

Gracie insisted on doing the egg herself.

She was unpleasantly surprised that it got on her hands.

Flour everywhere!

 

The finished product!  (minus half the muffins)

Yum!!

We are currently working on Cc for Caterpillar!

Wordless Wednesday

Ode to Jode

My sister-in-law Jody has been such a blessing to me since Ava and Gracie came along.  I was completely lost, overwhelmed, and exhausted (and probably had some postpartum depression) when the girls were small.  For several months she would let me drop them off at her house on Thursdays and I would go home and SLEEP.  That helped me more than I could ever say.  Thinking back on some of the things I did or said, I know she must have thought I was crazy, but she never said so.  LOL!

Ava and Gracie have adored her from the beginning.  Here's Gracie at 2 days old, already giving her kisses.  They called her 'Dahju' until they could say Jody.

She is so much fun and I'm so glad the girls have her in their lives.  She helps me out with babysitting and definitely has made my life easier! 

They have been cooking with her long before I let them cook with me.

They love to go to her house and she lets them get good and dirty!

We LOOOVE Aunt Jody!!

Father's Day

Ava was up early so she helped me make homemade buttermilk pancakes for Joel.

As soon as Gracie woke up, we wrapped his presents.

Then made cards for him that look like a white dress shirt with a tie.

Ava made this one:

Gracie made this one:

We glued this on the inside and also wrote a note.

Ready to surprise Daddy!

 I failed to take any other pictures so here are some of Daddy and his girls throughout the last few years:

Joel and his brother Jason, each with their sets of fraternal twin girls.  What are the chances???

Daddy's arrival home from work has always been a highlight.

He keeps us laughing!

The girls love to wrestle with him.

We are 3 lucky girls to have him! 

Happy Father's Day, Joel!  I don't know what we would do without you!

Matt & Amanda's House

is where we are today!  We drove up last night and are planning to go to the zoo today.  When I told Gracie that we were going to Matt and Amanda's house, she started jumping up and down, yelling "Yay!  Matt and Amanda's house!!!  I want to go!  I want to go!  Yayyyy!!"  So I grabbed the camera and told her again:

A Few Recent Pictures

Story Hour at the library.

Using the computer at the library.

Painting at my friend Barb's house. 

(while I packed for the road trip!)

The gang.

=)

Painting at our house, since they loved it so much!

I gave them too much paint the second time and Gracie took great delight in mixing them together, much to Ava's chagrin.

Swimming at Barb's house. 

Ava had the BEST time and has been talking about it for the last 2 days.  =)

Lately we've used our pool about every day.

They have been waking up around 6:30 lately so here we are at 6:45 AM.  Its so nice out in the mornings so we usually head out back first thing and spend about an hour playing.

Sprinkler + umbrella = FUN!

Some recent quotes from Ava:

Yesterday she wanted to go outside after her nap but I told her we needed to wait until Gracie woke up because Gracie might be scared if she didn't know where we were.  Ava said, "Jesus will help her not be scared."

Last night as I tucked her into bed she said, "You're a smart princess, Mommy."

=)

The A says, "Ahh"

I love this video!  I was in the dining room and overheard Joel doing this with them in the living room so I grabbed my camera and had them do it again.  Much of the credit for them knowing all the letter sounds goes to the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD, which I HIGHLY recommend! 

And a couple of cute video clips from yesterday:

Gracie figured out how to turn a C into a G and they both had fun doing that.

I was so excited when she made this B, since that's the letter we're working on this week.  =)