Mom and Maddie's Saturday Afternoon Stroll

Today, while dad and Ethan went to watch Uncle John place third out of 16 for wrestling, mom and Maddie decided we were going to go for a walk. It was such a BEAUTIFUL day, and mom wanted to take advantage of maybe getting some photography practice in. Well, that didn't work in my favor, but I did get to spend some quality time with my favorite daughter, exploring the outside, teaching her how to stop and look both ways, showing her different aspects of the nature around of, and of course to stop and look at the bears (statues) at the house up the street.

When we got up to the end of the street, Maddie pointed toward Highway 47 and kept asking for grandma and grandpa. I love that my kids are so directional that they know which way it is to get to places. So I asked if she wanted to walk to grandpa's house (which wasn't the best idea, since all we had was a water bottle, a camera and a backpack and leash) and she said yes. So off we went! We walked past Ace Hardware, and up to the sidewalk to safely cross the major roads. Of course at this time, Maddie was complaining because she had to be held, instead of being able to walk. We made it safely on to Quince St, and made our way to grandma and grandpa's house, which was just under a three mile walk ahead of us.

As we passed McMenamins, I realized that it probably wasn't the best idea to walk all the way there, since we didn't have a stroller for when her little legs couldn't carry her anymore. But we pressed on. We heard a dog barking across the street, to which my lovely and amazing child decided she was going to yell at and tell to be quiet the entire time. Then we passed by a wonderful older gentlemen and stopped to say hello, and wish a good afternoon to, upon carrying on.
We kept walking, and all of the sudden, my little lady's little legs were just not going to hold out anymore. And me, not having the best of backs, wasn't able to carry her the rest of the way, either way that we went. So we kept pressing on. Now mind you, I've done this walk quite a few times, but every time I've been prepared with a stroller, or a wagon, or even a bike trailer. But today, since my so lovely daughter wanted to wear her Minnie Mouse backpack, I was completely unprepared. And then, it donned on me. I was smart enough to leave our extra carseat in my parents car MONTHS ago. And since we were already half way there, I was sure grandma or grandpa would be willing to come save us from our not so smart decision. Sure enough, grandpa Doug came to the rescue. We loaded up the little lady in Ethan's carseat, which was able to be adjusted to keep her safe, and made our way to visit with grandma and grandpa for the afternoon. They were so kind, they fed us lunch, let us snack on whatever junk food we could find, and watch Prince and the Frog and Mickey Mouse for the afternoon. It couldn't have turned out more perfect.

And even though I didn't get to do any photography today, I wouldn't have changed to time I got to spend with my sweetest daughter, the fresh air and nice walk that we did get and the wonderful afternoon we spend hanging out with the grandparents. A great Saturday afternoon exploration!

Wordless Wednesday: Joy

I absolutely LOVE my daughter!

Ethan and Nolan Sleepover Palooza!

We're at this really fun age with Ethan where we're seeing him just coming out of his shell, and seeing him want to develop strong friendships and relationships. For months now he's been talking about Nolan, and wanting to have him come over, and hang out with him. So finally, an opportunity arose where we were able to invite him over for a sleepover. Last Friday, all Ethan could talk about was how "Nolan is coming over, and we're going to have special dinner, and play games, and watch movies". It was so fun to see his excitement as he awaited for the day and time that his friend would be coming to hang out with him. Nolan's parents were so nice to let him come over and stay the night, and we're hopeful that soon, Ethan will be able to return the favor and go spend the night at Nolan's house. Here are some photos of the evening!
Getting ready to play the "Five Little Monkeys" game - - it actually is really fun for a kids game. The boys did SO great at playing it and following the rules. And of course they loved when the Monkeys fell off the bed!


Here's the boys and their best acting skills. Nolan is pretending to take a bath, to earn his bath time token. And Ethan is pretending to zip up his PJs to get his Pajama token. They were a lot of fun to watch!

The boys getting ready to see if the Monkeys are going to fall off the bed or not.

Playing Wall E on the V-Smile. Ethan got this game machine when he was 2 years old, and recently just got back in to playing it. They were GLUED to the TV for the rest of the evening, which was really only 45 minutes, since it was close to bed time.

We had so much fun having Nolan over. We got to watch "How To Train Your Dragon" and "Toy Story 3" and play games. And the boys got to play some video games too. They had fun having a "Pajama Jam" and Nolan loved getting to sleep on the top bunk of Ethan's bunk beds. Allan got to read them a story, and say prayers with them. And he told Ethan that when the lights were out, they could whisper and talk to each other, because that's what you do during sleepovers. And as soon as he got the light off and was just outside the door, her heard Ethan whisper, "Hey Nolan, what are you doing?" and the two of them talked for about 10 minutes before they fell asleep. It really was a fun night!

Maddie is excited for when she'll finally be able to have her own sleepovers!

Porter Preschool has BEGUN!

So every since I opened my daycare in 2007, I have had this GOAL and DREAM to do a preschool program with the kids, that has been a long time in the works. I started with having POSTERS hanging all over my living room, and later decided that my personal life was being invaded by my daycare life. So I had to go back to square one. At the time, none of my kids were old enough for the workbooks that I had bought for them to work in, and so I had to take another step back. During this last Summer, I had decided I was going to get things in to motion. I was going to take advantage of the good ideas I had, and see what I could do to work with them. And then a lot of bad things came my way that caused me to have to put my plans in motion. I had gone through the loss of my grandma, which was a very sudden loss, and went through some additional loss in other areas of my life. And it put me in to a funk. I had no more desire to research options for my preschool program and the truth is, I would read stories here and there, we would color, and for the month of December we watched preschool based television programs, but the more the time passed, and days went by, I knew I needed to kick myself back in to gear. And so I started getting really in to looking for websites that offered preschool ideas, getting a more clear understanding of what I needed to do to start a program, and where I needed to start. I focused on how I was going to make it age appropriate for each kid, and how I was going to tailor their learning to each of them. I got excited again. And I started conversing with a friend of mine who had kids roughly the same age who was looking in to starting a program with them as well. And together, we formed some pretty good directions to head.

Then, she gave me an idea of a way that I could have amazing preschool displays, while not having to have my house decorated like a classroom. I was able to create preschool boards, using the display boards for presentations, and came up with some starting points for how I was going to do them. I would have one board for the 2's and 3's, and another board for the 4 year old (my son) that would help keep him encouraged to keep learning. I enlisted to help of the greatest dad in the world, who was able to laminate my projects for me to add to my boards. I also found supplies from things I already had around the house. All I had to buy was some Velcro, rubber cement, crazy glue, and paper fasteners. And low and behold, I had a direction!


I knew one of the big things I needed to start with when it came to the two year olds, was working on shapes. So I found some basic shapes, and added Velcro to the back's of them. I wrote underneath each one what shape was supposed to go where (of course, reading is not going to come until much later, but the basic recognition of the word was what I was going for here) and could remove them and ask the kids what shape is what, and show them where it goes.
I also knew that directions is a big thing to start with the kids. Ethan is a VERY directional kid, he picked up very early his ups, downs, lefts and rights, and so I knew that was something I definitely wanted to work on with the kids. So I have two arrows, and four directions, and I'll work with the kids on which way is up, down, left and right.

I was finally able to find some time and space to get everything spread out, and start to get my visions up and running. I spent an entire Sunday gluing, spacing, Velcro-ing, and getting ready. It was a very fun and productive time for me and I really felt like I was on the track to where I wanted to be heading with this next step in our daycare.
And of course, no preschool display board is complete without a farm! This was my last, and most fun idea. We can do matching, we can work on animals and sounds, and sing songs and play games relating to animals with this simple addition. I really loved how this turned out.
And of course, we will have alphabet and numbers to work on. It's all very exciting. Here is the final look of what our very first preschool board looks like. Still a lot of space to add, and to make changes when we need to, but it's a start, and I'm so excited to see where it goes!



Then comes Ethan's board. A fun challenge for me, as he is in a preschool already, and I wanted to work with him on things that they weren't already working on in class (since we already do his "homework" with him in that area). I wanted to find the things that I really saw him needing to work on, and the things that sparked his interest. So I came up with a fun board that will not only allow him to start learning a bunch of fun things, but will be able to be used for the younger kids as they excel in their areas. Learning days of the week, months of the year, telling time, learning about seasons, and the difference between day and night. Also focusing on the weather, and allowing Ethan to look outside and know what the weather is like by how the sky looks. This was very fun for me because I was able to create pictures with hands that turned, and of course have a lot of Velcro items for him to be hands on with. I also plan on working a lot with the "yesterdays, todays, tonights and tomorrows". Here are some photos of what his board is going to look like. It's not completely finished, but I still have time to get his program up and running! I will also do workbook learning with him, letter writing, name writing, and things like that.



How amazing to see all of this coming together. I'm so excited to see where this takes us, as well as see the kids start to develop more and more each day!