Tot School Weekend Play

We've had several super-relaxing, no-plans weekends lately.  And we LOVE it!  Both kids battling some school-exposed germs, tired from the over-stimulation of the school week and craving some time at HOME without scheduled commitments, has lead us to keep our calendar pretty much wide open.  Our time at home has been mostly unstructured - free play without television, except for the occasional library movie - and they've even gotten into helping me more with a little cleaning if kept in brief periods.  I'll take it!  On this particular weekend, however, we broke out some new and old Tot School materials in the morning and dug in. 

A butterfly matching file folder game:  one half of each butterfly is taped down to the inside of the folder and Sophie had to match the laminated other half to it's appropriate spot.

Will worked with math flash cards and Unifix cubes.

Sophie threaded pony beads onto different colored chenille stems poked into a styrofoam disc.

Beginning letter sounds: letter magnets placed on different images on top of a cookie sheet.

A "Hot or Cold" file folder sort.  She did awesome with this.

A digraph sort for Will.  "Ch", "Sh" and "Th" bags to sort various images that begin with those digraphs.

"Building" shapes using labeled popsicle sticks and templates drawn onto card stock.

Diamond and square: 

Pentagon:

Rectangle:

Parallelogram:

Matching fruit - half to whole - file folder game.

Leaf matching game:

This was originally Sophie's, but Will took over and "guided" her through it.  ;-)  Upper and lower case letter match.

We didn't get outside this morning but a little physical play to get their bodies moving is so helpful in making nap time easier.  So I remembered some silly stickers that came with our last helium tank for birthday party balloons.  I blew up two balloons and let the kids pick some silly facial feature stickers to decorate them with.  Then they got really into a stimulating game of don't-let-the-balloons-touch-the-ground.  :)

And yes, it worked.  They both conked out for naps.

 

On Sunday, the kids made birthday cards for Craig while he was outside working.  Will's cracked me up with all the goofy wording he chose for his card.  What a nut.

Making homemade (felt) pizzas before bath time this evening.

I've been meaning to break out the puzzles again soon.  I miss doing those!

What We've Been Reading

These are all from late September...

The Gruffalo was definitely a huge favorite.  We have since borrowed the movie version of the book and the kids LOVE it!!!

Fall... 

Eric Carle... 

Back to school... 

Hilarious... 

Sweet... 

We've read every other of Karma Wilson's Bear books, so why not? 

Silly faves of Sophie's... 

Makes me want to go to the beach!!! 

Mama love... 

Learning... 

InstaFriday

A bit of a repetitive InstaFriday post because I've already covered three of the measly five pictures in previous posts.  Gonna' do my best not to Instagram major events anymore since I usually take plenty of camera pics of said events.  InstaFriday will hopefully continue on as a glimpse of the smaller moments in our week.  :)

 

Butterfly house visit:

Apple orchard visit:

 

On our eighth anniversary (October 2nd), Craig and I took the day off to spend together and enjoy a mid-day date.  It was really nice... if a little over planned. 

I hadn't intended to spend the morning of my anniversary at the metal scrapyard!  ;)  But with little other free time to make that trip, it made sense to get it out of the way sans children.  So we took the trailer (already loaded up with all the old siding from our house) and sold it!  Amazing that they can use all that to make new things.  And also nice to get a chunk of change toward the new siding!

Anyway, following that romantic adventure, we dropped the trailer off and drove to Will's school to meet him for lunch.  He wasn't expecting us so it was so fun to see his shock and confusion when we were waiting for him outside his classroom door before he walked down for lunch.  Craig and I didn't eat there... just sat with our little buddy while he ate and chatted about his day.  It was so fun to see him interacting with all his new peers and hearing SO MANY kids saying "Hi, Will!" as we walked down the hall and sat in the cafeteria.  I was thinking "who's kid are you?" as he chatted easily and intereacted with everyone.  Will sooooo takes after his dad in this regard.  Mr. Big-Social-Circle seems to be adapting to meeting TONS of new friends with ease.  I just didn't get that gene. ;)  I was always friendly acquaintances with everyone but my intimate social circle was kept very small.

Following our meet-up with Will, Craig and I had lunch at Claddagh's Irish Pub (YUM! Thank you, Groupon!) and then caught a movie afterward.  Trouble with the Curve... GREAT movie!  Our movie ended just in time for us to go pick up our CSA vegetable bag at the hospital pick-up location and then we had enough time to swing by the Dairy Depot for a strawberry cheesecake ice cream cone before picking up the kids.  I had in mind a little more chill time when taking this day off, but it was a good and productive day nonetheless.

Our fridge is loaded down with fall art work right now:

Another glimpse of our corn maze hike on Thursday this week:

Ehh... not my most interesting InstaFriday, but I'm checking in anyway!  :)

Fall Adventures: Hay Ride & Corn Maze

Craving a little much-needed family togetherness time, we plotted a weekday evening when we could sneak away from the normal routine and get our FALL on.  :)  Given that it was a perfect weather evening, we were especially grateful that Craig took a break from the house project to spend it with us. 

I received a Groupon offer for Fleitz Pumpkin Farm to take my family of four on a hay ride and corn maze venture for $5.  So I bought it and we made use of it this night.  It was a great time!

[Camera battery died here.  The remainder are iPhone pics.] 

We capped off the evening with some donuts and called these good memories.  :)