Catching up! The end of September!

Day 91 Saturday-
Today Nana Babs and I went to the Farmers Market with Pip.  We had a blast picking out fruits and veggies and Payton felt great ownership in being a part of the ladies day out and picking our food for the week.  She was a doll.   The agreement was she got the morning with us running errands and the Bay got the afternoon picking out a new stroller for Jasper.

To market to market...

After the market we stopped by Linda's house so Babs could see it.  Miss hanging out with my buddy...this work stuff stinks!  We head back home to pick up Bay so we could go to Mandarin to the beautiful consignment shop they have there. I love this place because you can walk in with baby stuff and walk OUT with CASH if you haven't spent it on a new fun toy.   They hand you cash for your things.  They are VERY picky and its just amazing the prices they have.  We saw a woman walking in with a beautiful grey and blue Baby trend stroller hardly used at all.  We were tempted to talk to her outside the store but walked in to check things out...  The prices on strollers were 40 ish dollars and they just weren't up to par.  They were no where near as cute as hers.  So while she was standing in line to sell hers we approached. " Hi are you selling?"  " Yes I am" she responded.  "Ok well they are selling the strollers for 40$ over there and there is no way they will pay you that much for it..."  she cut me off, " well you pay me 40 and its YOURS!"  What a DEAL!  A STEAL!  Stole her right out from under their noses!  Everyone was happy !  ( Well perhaps not the store owner but oh well.  So Barbara bought Jasper a new stroller, a more functional one that works WITH his current baby trend car seat and is so much easier than the sit n stand we had.

LOVE IT!

Ok so that was Saturday...
Day 92 Sunday
Honestly....don't recall what I did.   We cleaned and cleaned and reorganized the house, finished hanging pictures and shelves that got lost in the mix and just hung out with the kids while Nana took a much deserved day off.  She went to the movies and piddled around town while we got the house ready for her arrival back home.  The kids were great and it was a stormy day so they were patient with us cleaning while they watched movies and played blocks.  No pics...oh yeah wait.  That night we sat on the porch and blew bubbles with the kiddies!!!

So the the week started....
Day 93 Monday- Day 97 Friday
What a great week.  Apart from seasonal issues with my sinuses and the girls not feeling 100% either, the week at school and home was good.  This week we finished our unit on our community and world around us so Ms. C and I decided to give the children a mini unit on fairytale stories.  Amazing that these children don't know fairy tales!  They only know Disney...which yes some are fairy tales but...seriously....a true fairy tale has a princess, a bad character a  good one, a problem a resolution a Once upon a time and a happily ever after.  Oh yes and D and J(children in class)...no Dinosaurs are not fairy tales, neither is batman or spiderman or Ben-10.   UGH!  Like pulling teeth but so much fun!  The kids created fairy tale wands for the girls and wizard staffs for the boys.  They created a boat from their "favorite" voted on fairy tale, Peter Pan and a pirate treasure chest.  We have swapped out the trade centers and put the boat and treasure chest out for October.  This is also considered a tribute to Columbus...I mean he had a boat right?  See :) its all related.  Next week we start the unit on the body.  How we use it etc.  Lots of fun to come from that...secret taste tests between lemons and oranges, salt and sugar.  :)  Feeling tests with peeled grapes, cotton balls, feather, sand paper etc.  I can't wait to get creative with this one!  Smell tests with coffee cinnamon, vanilla, and citrus.  So much fun!  Now to enjoy a weekend with the family.  I tell you its 50 out ( saturday morning)  and feels like winter its awesome!  Going for a morning walk with the kids!
All for now enjoy the pics!

construction begins on boat

fairy tale quilts

another quilt

pirate treasure!

Day 86-90  Monday - Friday

Like I have said previously, the days blend together so I am doing my best to relay all that happens during the week.  I take a lot of pics so its sometimes the best way to show what I have done!  However this week I did not have a chance.  Class was very busy.  This week at school the children worked on community helpers, firemen of course being the highlight for all of them.  They have decided they want to build a 3d fire truck.  And this coming week has another 3d construction piece....so I need to find some cardboard boxes stat!  I love projects like this.  Kids learn, they are busy and they work hard and long to get a completed project.  We shall see what comes of it.  We talked about blueprints and sketches and the children practiced making fire trucks out of foam blocks.  I can show these pics because there are no children faces present.  We also

My budding artist!  Painting herself as an artist.

I love that she knows INDIGO and VIOLET lol

Fire truck blue prints! LOL

"There's got to be two pedals one for revving up and one for when you go to fast."  I love child quotes

 So the kids worked a lot on their names as well.  Florida is much different than RI in that they want children to learn LOWER case first.  Up north I recall Bay learning all capitals first.  They prefer that children understand that your name consists of one upper case and the rest lower case letters.  It amazes me that some of the children can't hold a pencil or cut paper with scissors.  Such a basic need that I was never taught to teach if you get what I am saying.  Nobody teaches you to TEACH a child to hold scissors.  I do a lot of " open shut open shut open shut" hand over hand.  Sounds easy right... you go do it LOL.  Children have soft hands too...meaning they don't push down enough to even see that they are writing....or the complete opposite, the rip the paper every time they try to write.  It is an interesting grade level that is for sure!  In this week, Friday couldn't come quick enough.  Bay had been sick and stayed home with Nana ( thank god she is here to help...), I am not feeling 100% and I just need a break from all the "Miss Christen's".  Nobody talk to me.  My weekend is here!  Ahhhhhhh.

Complex stroll!

Days 84-85 Saturday-Sunday

Roger came to visit for the weekend again giving Nana Babs a much deserved break from the kiddies.  Saturday morning Roger and Josh went to get new SNEAKS...who knew that tires for a car were called sneaks?  Babs slept in at the hotel, and I cleaned and prepped meals for the coming week.  It was nice to have a lazy Saturday morning ( even though I worked hard) alone with the kids and getting the house in order.  I feel so out of touch and disconnected all week long that the weekend is a time of peace, reorganizing and relaxation, something I think I took for granted being a stay at home mom.  Although trying to raise kids, do papers and maintain a house was rough too!  I am enclosing some nice pics of the lake out back and just some cute pics that Bay took while on a stroll with Nana!  There are pics of our wonderful neighbors as well who I adore!  Teresa and Dawn.  Sunday was a great day too just prepping lessons for the week and getting all my duckies in a row so I don't feel so frazzled!

Bay took this of pippy while on the walk!

Teresa!

Dawn

Bay swinging...Pip took this one.

Moon is reflecting in the water

I love the mirror image...

Handsome man...

Ok and now to write about the week! 

First FULL week of school....smokey

Day 79-83  Monday- Friday
Well...here starts the first full week of school...a nice cool morning, however the smoke in the air meant two things.  Fires are still burning, and the kids can't go out for recess.  CRAP.  I brought my inhaler to school because mold and smoke are my asthma triggers.  This smoke sits heavy in the lungs too and leaves ash on the cars! The days were great kids are working on advocacy, respect, self determination, working together, among other things this week in school.  This curriculum is very strange....run through a computer program called Galileo.  You put the key term for the week like "respect" and then you plan your lessons by adding another search term....shapes, colors, literacy, math...etc.  This way you are teaching children core concepts while introducing kindergarten readiness.  Very cool.  I know lots of people have been missing pics of the kids and what not...here are some goof around pics from the week along with some teaching pics...I have to be careful I can not have any of the kids in the class in them so....kinda hard.  I can't recall my days and what I did on each one, everything is running together because the days are so long...still trying to get in the flow of things!  I can tell you that next week we are concentrating on the world around us.  So families, friends, and community helpers.  God knows I did an entire Kindergarten unit on that so I am READY!  Enjoy the pics!

This was a group mural that we did, it was a project about working together.  We needed a BLOCK box...so the kids MADE one!

She so pretty!

TADA!

A new love...Leaf art !  This is my Parrot

Rat

Baleigh did this turtle...

Class Guinea Pig...OREO really sweet....

Who knew that chalk on black paper was so....exciting?

vrooooom....

how interesting....

what good sisters!

How big...

hmmm....almost twinsies?

goofing with mom

hi!

I wonder if I could eat one...

gooooffffy

we are goofs

tv.....like crack

hello....

sunset out back

All for now....unsure of the weekend ahead we shall see!!!

Farmers Market!

Day 77- Saturday

LAZZZZZZY.  That was our Saturday poolside.  We had a great visit from Linda and her daughter Krysten and we spent a bit by the pool however it was COLD!  Once the clouds covered our view it became too cold to even go in the pool.  It has been in the 60's at night here so the water temp is dropping.  Our pool is open year round...not sure about swimming on Christmas!   It still is high 90's during the day but just doesn't feel that hot anymore...glad it is cooling down.  Josh and I took a stroll down to the lake behind our town-homes and unfortunately didn't see any alligators ;)  but we saw lots of duckies.  We will bring the kids sometime soon but I do NOT want them falling in because there ARE alligators...ok maybe I won't bring them.  Oh yes and Jasper got to try his first bit of rice cereal today....he did very well and made a yummy mess!

 Day 78- Sunday

Today we went to the farmers market with Linda and got some amazing deals!  Spent 20$ total and got a huge variety of veggies, plantains, avocados, limes, jalapenos eggplants, fruits you name it I got some..and 3 lbs of Mayport shrimp for 10$!  crazy!  I have to admit I was nervous...this is in the bad part of Jacksonville, up by the main city but by god it was fun, worth it and not that hot!  I hope to make this a weekly ritual because it was such a great experience! 

At least 40 stalls just like this one....beautiful produce!

This sucker was the size of my hand

We came home and went swimming for a few hours with the kids.  The pool felt so refreshing.  All summer it was like bath water so it was nice to actual get relief from the sun.  I am happy to say that after a few weeks out of the sun I am now revived, tanner and happy :)  Josh made some AMAZING smashed fried plantains with guacamole....OH MY LORD heaven!  Where have these been my whole life!!

Now to relax with a rum and diet and think about lessons for this coming week.  This week we concentrate on advocacy, leaders, teamwork and self control!  So exciting!! :)