More Critters ~Part 2.

As we have been dealing with critters inside our house, we also have one cute critter outside that came to visit us.

{I hope you are enjoying my stellar photography skills here.}

Jax spotted the bunny and was so excited that she was hanging out in our back yard.  He immediately got a carrot out of the fridge and threw it to her. 

I was surprised she didn't run away from the flying carrot.  She just kept on nibbling on the grass, ignoring the kids.  So Jax figured she must have not seen the carrot.  

Overheard:

Jax:  Take the carrot.  It's for you.

Bunny:  Nibbling on grass.

Jax:  You need to eat the carrot.  Come on.  Eat the carrot.

Bunny:  Still ignoring Jax.

Julie loved the bunny too.  The bunny left only when Julie started to run after it.  And even then she just gave herself some distance and kinda hung out with us while we played outside.  {The bunny is still in the picture.  She just blends in so well.}

We left the carrot for her, and the carrot is gone today.  Either the bunny finally found it, or the squirrels or mice got a hold of it. 

Or some other rascally varmint that I have yet to discover.

RRSK: Playing

Jax is 4 1/2 years old.

With Justin being gone on a mission trip last week, I decided we'd take a break from Tot School and just play.  

Being a single parent is hard work.  So I figured the less I had to plan, the better!

We started off the week by going to the indoor playground at the mall.  

Another day we went to the indoor playground.

See the full gallery on Posterous

And yet another playground...

See the full gallery on Posterous

We played outside in our pool.

I caught him sitting in one of the canvas bins watching TV.  How he fit into that is beyond me.

We played with bubbles!

And Jax got a new Angry Bird puzzle!  We worked on this together as well.

And that was our week.  Lots of fun!

Photobombed.

I'm having some back problems.  As I was laying on the floor and playing on my computer, little Jules climbs on my back to sit down.  (She thinks that anyone's lap (or back!) is fair game as long as you are on the floor.)  It actually felt good for her to be sitting on my back.  And she was just playing away, so I thought I would take a picture.

Me:  Julie...cheese!

And then outta nowhere.....

Boom!  Photobombed by Jax!  

He went back to watching TV.

So I tried it again, this time getting all of Julianne in the picture.

Me:  Alright, Julie!  Smile!

Photobombed again!  This time is even bigger than before!

There is no third time.  I gave up trying to get anymore pictures.

The post about nothing. Or mice.

Last week, Justin took the high schoolers on a Mission Trip.  Which meant that I kept things going on the home front. And since our trip to Arkansas, I've learned that Julianne hates road trips.  So I couldn't really go anywhere with the kids.  That would be torture to myself her.  So I ended up finding some simple things to do around here.

But as the week went on, I was tired.  You can see I took less and less pictures as the week went on, (see Project Life Tuesday post) because it took energy to get up and find my phone, which was always located up high so Julie won't eat it. 

Note to Apple:  Why make the iPhones so shiny and pretty that even 16 month olds want to play with it?  But when it ends up in their hands, they immediately malfunction?  

Cause I wouldn't know.  Ahem.

All that to say, that I'm glad Justin is back home!  Parenting is hard enough with two people..let alone one!

Speaking of little critters...we've been dealing with a mice issue.  Long story short, mice have come into our house and proceeded to make themselves at home.  So we retaliated with poison, mousetraps, etc.  And yet, they still called our house their place.  When we went outside, we saw where they could possibly be coming in.  We stuck steel wool up in there hoping that would fix it.  

And it did.  For a week.  

So while Justin was on the Mission Trip, I was laying on the couch watching some 19 Kids and Counting.  I saw a flash brown from the couch to the ottoman.  

Nah, that couldn't be a mouse...

Oh, but it could.  Not only that, the little guy stuck his head out of the ottoman and peered at me.  As if I was in HIS house.  He stared at me so long that we made eye contact.

People...I made eye contact with a mouse.

He tucked himself under my ottoman and then proceeded to run around.  

I then proceeded to freak out.  I jumped up on the couch, then jumped over to the recliner.  And then ran down to the bedroom to put on some boots.  I don't know why, I just have this fear of being barefoot and stepping on a mouse...

Yech.  Even thinking about that grosses me out.  

Anyways, after I was all suited up with my winter boots on, I proceeded to spray peppermint essential oil all around.  Mice hate it.  And I didn't see him run around again.  

The next day I went outside and saw that although they may not be able to chew through steel wool, they can burrow around the steel wool.  Gross.  I stuffed more steel wool and then called our rental agency.  And after some go around, they got someone out here to seal the foundation  Whew.

Maybe that will fix the problem.  I hope.

Cause making eye contact with a mouse, is just plain creepy.

Goals for this Week

Personal

Read pages 22-25 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 6 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

School

Letter Ii (We decided to take a week off on Tot School.)

Letter Jj

Home Management

Organize Tot School storage boxes on top shelf.  (I didn't get to this because I was busy getting some shelves installed in 3 our our closets.  Go me!)

Catch up on Project Life.  (Just need to print out pictures.)

And here are this week's goals:

Personal

Read pages 25-28 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 7 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

 

School

Letter Ii

Plan Letter Jj

Home Management

Catch up on Project Life...journal last week and print out pictures for June.

I'm linking to Money Saving Mom!

Project Life Tuesday

See the full gallery on Posterous

Tuesday (19)

Since it was hot out, I took the kids to an indoor park.  This park is geared for older kids, but that didn't stop Julie at all.  She thought she could do all the things that Jax could...and more!

Wednesday (20)

A bucket of bubbles sitting outside on the sidewalk?  Yes, please!  These wands made it so easy to make bubbles.  Both kids loved it.I wondered where we could get the bubble wands at...and then I realized, probably in the store that put out the bucket of bubbles.  Duh.

Thursday (21)

We stayed home today.  I set up Jax's kiddie pool and once he put his slide in it, he was all set!

Friday (22)

No picture.

Saturday (23)

No picture.

Sunday (24)

I love how Julie is driving Jax's remote control car.  And she's pretty good at it!  They both were playing cars together and it was really cute.

Monday (25)

No picture.

RRSK: Letter Hh

Jax is 4 1/2 years old.

This week was about the letter Hh.  And I didn't have a theme to go with it.  I knew it was going to be a shorter week for us because on Friday we planned on surprising Jax by going to the museum.

1.  Working on cutting and gluing his sight words.

2.  Letter Hh maze using magnet pom-poms and cookie sheet.

3.  Working on his Father's Day card.  He drew a picture of all of us.  So cute!

4.  Working on the hot/cold temperatures with RRSK.

5.  The museum has a little stage where both Jax and Julie loved to climb on.

6.  There were all sorts of sensory items in there.  Jax is feeling a bear's fur.

7.  Roar!  They had a lot of costumes too!

8.  This puzzle was hard, but with both of us working together, we did it!

Sources:

RRSP from 1+1+1=1

Letter Maze from 1+1+1=1

RRSK from 1+1+1=1

YCR #3 from 1+1+1=1

Sight Word Cut and Glue by AWTRF

Father's Day Printables by 1+1+1=1

Project Life Tuesday

Tuesday (12)

Oh Angry Birds.  They are still a favorite in our house.  And even though Jax has Angry Birds Knock on Wood and Angry Birds Spring is in the Air, he really wants Angry Birds on Thin Ice.  So we are encouraging him to work around the house to save his money for it.  So far he has $6 and is halfway there!

Wednesday (13)

Enjoying the beauty outside.

Thursday (14)

We went shopping to help Justin pick up some things for the Mission Trip.  Jax loves the tents at Dick's Sporting Goods.

Friday (15)

We went to the museum and the kids had a blast.  I'm always behind the camera taking pictures, so I was glad Justin caught this picture of us playing.

Saturday (16)

No picture.

Sunday (17)

For some reason, Jax had convinced himself that he was really missing out by not eating Taco Bell inside at Taco Bell.  He did not like that we only used the "driveway".  So tonight, we went inside to eat and he was so happy!

Monday (18)

I took the kids to the mall to play at the kiddie area.  Julie is now tackling slides like a pro.  And of course, Jax IS the pro!

Goals for this Week

Personal

Read pages 17-21 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 5 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Read Chapter 9 of Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesteron  (Finished!)

School

Letter Hh

Letter Ii

Home Management

Organize Tot School storage boxes on top of bookshelf (Halfway done!)

Catch up on Project Life Album (nope.)

{And now for this week's goals}

Personal

Read pages 22-25 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 6 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

School

Letter Ii

Letter Jj

Home Management

Organize Tot School storage boxes on top shelf.

Catch up on Project Life.

I'm linking to Money Saving Mom!

Fun at the Museum

I love that we live ten minutes away from downtown.  There is so much to do, yet you don't have to feel like you have to do it all in one day.  

Cause we can't.  Julie cannot miss her nap time.  And we'd all be miserable!

We decided to pop on down there for Jax to play at the museum.  They have a great Discovery Room that Jax can play in.  And as we learned, Julianne had fun too!

Jax loved to look out the window with the binoculars.  And Julie loved the puzzles.  And she's getting the idea of them, but can get easily frustrated if she can't get it right away.

Jax also loves the classes with the live animals.  His favorite part?  He can touch the animals!  This time he touched a bird, lizard, and guinea pig.  He kept calling the guinea pig "Rhino" off of the movie Bolt!  So cute!

So fun!

RRSK: Letter Gg

Jax is 4 1/2 years old.

This week we learned about the letter Gg and Gg is for Curious George!  Jax loves Curious George so he enjoyed this theme a lot.

1.  Pre-writing with Curious George.

2. Jax is really into graphing and throwing the dice so this was a given that he would love it.  Bonus:  I now know all the names of the characters!

3. Watching our new Letter Gg song....Go into the world and preach the gospel to every creature.  Mark 16:15.

4.  Curious George Connect-the-dots from PBS Kids.

5.  Coloring our new sight words from 1+1+1=1.  Jax had a hard time with this because he didn't want to follow directions at all.  He wanted to color it his own way!

6.  Taping his Bible verse each week continues to be a highlight for him.

7.  Jax loves to type on my computer and print it out.  This time he was typing words that he remembered and I was so impressed!

8. Sorting people and animals with Curious George characters. 

9.  Cutting and gluing his Bible verse with his new left-handed scissors!  He was so happy to get these!  They work great.

10. Phonics with RRSK.  He can do this worksheet all on his own now!

11.  Jax thought it was fun to work on this paper.  He had to place the yellow hat over/under/beside the man and Curious George.  This was a great way for him to practice these words.

Sources:

Curious George Printables by Living Life Intetionally

RRSP by 1+1+1=1

RRSK by 1+1+1=1

YCR by 1+1+1=1

Curious George Connect the Dots by PBS Kids

Sight Word Color by Number by 1+1+1=1

 

::The Pinterest Experiment:: Raised Salt Art

All right.  Second week down on working on my Pinterest boards.  This time, I decided to try some art instead.  

I really need to be more intentionally and let Jax play with art.  But it's messy.  And guess who normally cleans up those kinds of messes?

Yeah, me.

But, on that note, let's begin!

I found Raised Salt Art about a month ago from One Perfect Day.  We had all the ingredients and it seemed easy enough.  (But note, you can google this and it pulls up several different ways to do this!)

Ingredients:

Construction paper

Water

Food coloring

Glue

Salt

Dropper

Bowls

Cookie sheet

Goal:  To watch the colors slowly travel among the glue and salt!

Directions:

Mix food coloring and water together.  We used about 10 drops of coloring per bowl of water.

Place a piece of construction paper on the cookie sheet.  Use the glue to make designs.

Sprinkle the salt over the glue and shake it off.  (Hence, the reason for the cookie sheet!)

Using the dropper, drop ONE drop of color at a time along the glue/salt.  And watch that color travel!

::Verdict::

This was fun!  But don't expect this art to last.  As soon as it dries, the salt falls off and makes a huge mess.  

Also, make it a point to your child to only put ONE drop on the line.  If you put several drops of color at the same time, it doesn't travel as clearly.  

Jax enjoyed this project, but as a 4 year old, he didn't like that he couldn't pin this up when it was dry.  And (if you can't tell!) he always wanted to put more drops on which just made the paper wet.

Don't miss my Homemade Diaper Rash Experiment from last week!

Project Life Tuesday

See the full gallery on Posterous

Tuesday (5)

Justin's mini-me!

Wednesday (6)

Bubbles!

Thursday (7)

Jax's new scissors from Amazon came in the mail today!  He was so excited.  We have to make sure he has the special left-handed scissors, not the ones that say they are both right and left handed scissors.

Friday (8)

No picture.

Saturday (9)

Justin went to a baseball game and caught this great sunset!

Sunday (10)

Psalm 104...is exactly like 1000 Gifts!  Time to start my list!

Monday (11)

Julianne NEVER gets any attention.  This poor girl had her spoon handing out of her mouth and start giggling at herself in order for us to notice her.  Sheesh!

Goals for this Week

Personal

Read pages 12-15 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 1 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Reread Chapters 5-8 of Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesteron

School

Letter Gg

Plan Letter Hh

Home Management

Organize Tot School storage boxes on top of bookshelf

And now for this weeks:

Personal

Read pages 17-21 of The Proverbs 31 Women by Courtney at Women Living Well.

Read Chapter 5 of 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp

Read Chapter 9 of Orthodoxy by G.K. Chesteron

School

Letter Hh

Letter Ii

Home Management

Organize Tot School storage boxes on top of bookshelf

Catch up on Project Life Album

I'm linking to Money Saving Mom!

RRSK: Letter Ff

Jax is 4 years old.

This we we learned about the letter Ff and Ff is for Firefighters!  Jax wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.  So this lesson was a hit with him!  All the sources are linked below for reference.

We made fire!  Well, not literally.  But I used the trusty ol' recipe of shaving cream + glue + food coloring = FUN!!

This paint mixture dries in 3D which made it look like fire.

1. Jax measured the  firefighter tools from Firefighter Kindergarten Printables from Homeschool Creations.

2. This Ff phonics sort is from the Kindergarten Printables from Homeschool Creations.

3. We glued different patterns with the Firefighter Lap Book from Homeschool Creations.

4. Jax working on the YCR sight word puzzle.

5. He loved this Firefighter graphing from the Kindergarten Firefighter Printables from Homeschool Creations.

6. Letter maze from 1+1+1=1.

7. We painted the RRSP Biible verse together.  There cannot be any white paper showing according to Jax!

Of course, we did much more but this is what I captured on camera this week!

Sources:

RRSP from 1+1+1=1

Firefighter Tot Pack from Our Little Monkeys

Firefighter Kindergarten from Homeschool Creations

Firefighter Preschool from Homeschool Creations

Fireman Preschool Pack from Homeschool Creations

Letter Maze from 1+1+1=1

RRSK from 1+1+1=1

YCR #1 and #2 from 1+1+1=1

Southern Living

I really enjoy the south.  Here's one reason why:

Fried ice cream?!?  Yes, please.  It's every bit as good as it looks.

Next up, we discovered these the other day.

Do you eat these with your BLT sandwich?  Or would it be too much of a BLT overload?  I dunno.  But these are GOOD!  

And lastly, Jaxson informed us last night that "dinner" is really called "supper".  I'm not sure where he got that from, but I do believe that boy has embraced the south as well!

::The Pinterest Experiment:: Homemade Diaper Rash Ointment

I've decided to start working on the pins on my boards on Pinterest. 

(But then again, aren't we all???)

First up, Homemade Diaper Rash Ointment.  I came across this pin and found it on Mom on Dealz.  But then I googled it, because seriously...it really can't be THAT easy.  Sure enough, google produced a bunch of results for me! 

I usually buy Bourdox's Butt Paste and that can cost anywhere from $4.99-$6.99 for a tube of it.  And it doesn't last long around here.

::The Experiment::

Supplies:

vaseline

cornstarch

clean and empty baby food container

plastic spoon

 

I mixed equal parts of vaseline and cornstarch.

It took a while to get all mixed up.  And it was super messy.

::The Verdict::

Eh, it was just alright.  I really wish I could say this was a miracle worker.  But it wasn't.  I would much rather go buy the diaper rash cream than make it, because it was really messy and hard to mix up. 

But, if I didn't have any thing on hand, this would be a quick fix until I could go to the store.

::The Pinterest Experiment:: Homemade Diaper Rash Ointment

I've decided to start working on the pins on my boards on Pinterest. 

(But then again, aren't we all???)

First up, Homemade Diaper Rash Ointment.  I came across this pin and found it on Mom on Dealz.  But then I googled it, because seriously...it really can't be THAT easy.  Sure enough, google produced a bunch of results for me! 

I usually buy Bourdox's Butt Paste and that can cost anywhere from $4.99-$6.99 for a tube of it.  And it doesn't last long around here.

::The Experiment::

Supplies:

vaseline

cornstarch

clean and empty baby food container

plastic spoon

 

I mixed equal parts of vaseline and cornstarch.

It took a while to get all mixed up.  And it was super messy.

::The Verdict::

Eh, it was just alright.  I really wish I could say this was a miracle worker.  But it wasn't.  I would much rather go buy the diaper rash cream than make it, because it was really messy and hard to mix up. 

But, if I didn't have any thing on hand, this would be a quick fix until I could go to the store.