Getting Ready for Thanksgiving

I love my husband.  Don't get me wrong.  But when he volunteers us to host Thanksgiving in the middle of November...

I know that he is just trying to be helpful to the rest of the family.  Our grandparents who usually host are getting older and struggling with health problems.  My MIL (the best party-thrower and cook I have ever had the pleasure of meeting) is sooo busy these days.  This year will actually be a small gathering, only 6 1/2 total.  So I guess I can't really be too upset:)  It's kind of an honor to me, so I am planning of making the most of it.   Now that I have had a few days to process, I'm getting kind of excited!

So, I have been busying myself these last few days off with getting my house decorated and thoroughly cleaned.  I guess I need to start finding and trying some recipes, too!  Below are some pics of my fall decorations.  I made some of them (yaay for crafting!)

My centerpiece!  I am so happy with it, thanks Pinterest for the inspiration.  Please ignore the dirty table top and the messy kitchen in the background, lol

Fall Wood Crafts!  I found this at the Wood Connection in Murray, and I *had* to have it:)  They have so much cute stuff, it is hard to not buy piles of stuff.  My poor hubby is so confused by my obsession with that place, 'Oooo two by fours' he jokes:)

Here are a few shots of my entry.  I love to decorate that little area for Holidays; it is small enough that it's not overwhelming or too time consuming.  I made the little 'I heart Autumn' sign and turkey.  Cameron found that funny little bird on the dollar=spot section at Target and carried it around with him for like, half an hour.  So, me being the push-over I am, got it for him:)  I *really* have to update my family picture... Cam is only 3 months old in that one, lol!!!  

Oooo, I am so proud of these frames, haha!  Just scrapbook paper and cute foam stickers.  The wall in the dining area got kind of a makeover during the remodel.  My hubbster re-built it and framed out the window, it looks great.  But it is kind of... um, left of center:)  I'm sure we are the only people that will ever notice, but I have been itching to put some frames up to the right of that window.  I was thinkin I could switch out the photos/paper for different seasons.  Anyway, got these put together and now I just need my man to hang them up for me.  No, I'm not a diva; he is just REALLY protective of the walls since he built most of them, ha!

Cute little pumpkins from the wood store.  They were fun and quick to put together.  Looking back on it, I'm not sure why I painted them brown...??

Look at this cute banner I made!  I freaking love my Silhouette, it would have taken me forever to cut those out.  I finally found twine at WalMart and just tacked up the flags with little clothespins.  Easy Peasy!  The turkey, leaf and pumpkin are also from the Wood Connection...wish I had a more rustic orange for that pumpkin!

Chika Chika Boom Boom

Time for New Units!  It really was sad to put away his Farm and Insect activities, they were really fun to put together.  But they had been out for a while, and he was losing interest.

Cameron has been *obsessed* with numbers and letters lately.  He sings his ABCs constantly and points out letters he knows whenever he sees them.  "Look at those ABCs Mamma!  What are they doing up there?"  He watches that Super Why cartoon religiously (he even sings along with the songs!)  

For a while now, Cam's had a really good grasp of numbers 1-10.  He counts  everything.  Sometimes, he would get too excited and count too quickly so that he would have a larger number than objects.  We have been working on that and now he is counting slowly and using his little pointer finger to keep track. 

I am amazed every day at how quickly these little toddlers learn.  I suppose it goes hand in hand with how astonishingly fast time is passing.  I feel so much internal pressure to keep up with his development and thirst for new knowledge...it's hard even with a three 12hr shift per week schedule.  

This post will focus on out Chika Chika Boom Boom activities.  Cameron *loves* that book, we read it constantly.  So, in perfect Montessori fashion, I am Following The Child.  Ha!

Here is a shot of our Chika Bookcase.  I probably could have filled up at least another one, there is so many great ideas and printables out there.  On that note, many thanks to makinglearningfun.com.  I mentioned a few posts ago that I am desperately short on trays... and that is sadly still the case.  I have found a set that are the perfect size, colorful, and not horribly expensive but I just cannot quite justify the expense.  However, clipboards are about $1 and have worked really well for this mostly-printable unit. 

Here are some sequencing cards that I laminated and made number chips to go with.  Like I mentioned above, Cam is great at counting but I don't think he can relate a written number to an amount.  So, I found some foam numbers and stickered them to those wood rounds from Hobby Lobby.  The zero is red because it is an entirely new concept for him.  Numbers are taught to start at 1, the absence of a number has been confusing for him.  

This one might be a bit of a reach:)  I think it is supposed to be card game for older kiddos; I am having him find the shape from the card and color it the appropriate color.  

Here is another Chika shape activity.  Cam has a good grasp on the basic shapes... too early to learn hexagons and parallelograms?  I cut out the corresponding shapes, colored them the same colors as the worksheets, and laminated them.  

Here is one I have been wanting to do for soo long!  Finally found jumbo push pins at Office Depot (duh).  The coconut tree is thumb-tacked down to two sheets of corkboard.  They fit really snugly inside the lip of the tray, so they stay put.  He likes it so far!

Again, I am trying to 'Follow The Child' and incorporate his love of Play Doh.  Seriously, that kid and his Play Doh.  Anyway, the stamps are these cute little alphabet stamps from Michaels.. they are less cute now that Cameron opened them up and destroyed the original box.  The roller and scissors are from a little kit from Target's Dollar Spot.  On a side note, Cameron is *rocking* scissor practice!  I wan't going to set those out, but he found them in my school supply piles and wanted to use it.  He was able to hold it correctly with his right hand only, and cut completely through!  So proud :)

I really enjoy using these magnet/Do-A-Dot pages whenever I can find them.  I don't currently have enough magnets, so I am planning to glue some to Pom Poms.  That keeps making Pinterest appearances, so ya know I gotta try it:)

Coloring pages

Matching specific colors to their names.  Too advanced, I know... But if he can recognize the first letter of the word, I think he can muddle through

The purpose of this activity is letter recognition; he matches the letters on the worksheets to his Melissa and Doug magnetic alphabet.  I need to break this up into 2 or even 3 different trays, cuz it is just too overwhelming to sift through 24 letters.  But I don't have any more paper trays.  Sooo....we will see:)

Coconut counting and number recognition.  Cameron is supposed to roll the dice and then put that amount of magnets on the coconut tree.  I made the die with a little craft paint and some foam number stickers.  It reminds me of the HIT trademark that is on all the Thomas and the Train stuff...

Same activity, different tree.  Makinglearningfun.com had coconut tree templates, so I had to make a few:)

Sorry this picture is soooo awful!!  I promise it was cute before my toddler stumbled across it.  I found a Chika coconut tree window cling *with* coconuts!  I was so excited, I actually bought this several months ago cuz it was too perfect.  Cam loves those crazy window gels.  There are still a few surviving fall leaves that are stuck up on top.

Here is a shot of his magnet/Dri Erase board that is in his 'cwasswoom.'  I cut out another coconut tree and am using his lower case Melissa and Doug magnet letters to go with.  I'm hoping to have Cam put up the letters as we read the book... Let ya know how that goes:)

Craft Room

Just now realizing that I have posted incessantly about removing my craft desk and how it  improved Cameron's classroom... but I never mentioned what I did with that desk:)  If you remember, it was a hollow core door on top of 2 WalMart bookcases that were only about 30 in tall with 3 shelves.  Those stayed in Cam's classroom because 1) duh, I needed bookcases and 2) they really weren't working out with my desk.  They were difficult to get to... I had to stand on my head and crawl under the desk to find anything.  Totally inaccessible.  The desk itself was moved into the office, and the two chairs and table that were there got banished to the living room.  

Well, my good friend Michaels had these great craft storage cubes that you can mix and match.  *And* when stacked one-on-top-of-another, are perfect desk height:):):)  It's maybe a little difficult to see, but I was able to get a great mix of shelves, drawers with dividers, cubbies, slats and even a 12x12 filing cabinet.  *Perfect* for my scrap booking paper!  I'm pretty happy with the ribbon/embellishment organizer that sits in the middle.  I like my cute stuff, and I want to be able to see it, lol.  

The Silhouette craft cutter works sooo much better in the office, too.  That is where the computer with the Silhouette program is located, along with the printer.  It is a lot easier to use that before, when I would spread my stuff out all over Ian's desk... and then get all pissy when he put things away and I couldn't find them:)

There is a caddy that is like a lazy susan in the corner, it was a life-saver on the old desk, but I really don't need it here.  There is all the room I need in the top drawers.  So right now, it's empty... and that kinda makes my eye twitch:)  But as with any bin or drawer, it will soon get filled up, I'm sure!!

Of course, it's not complete.  I am not happy with the cork board... and there are some shoe boxes that are *gasp* not painted or Mod Podged:)  I also have a new sewing machine (thanks so much, Kari!!!) that I need to set up.  But all in all, I am soooo happy with this!  It is working out great.  Also, it was really not that pricey thanks to several 40% off coupons and several trips to Michaels, lol

Pumpkin Crafts

Ok, I've posted about pumpkin picking a few times now, but no posts about the carving!!  The following pictures are of all the pumpkins we amassed at said pumpkin patches, and some that we were given.  Cameron's grandpa is a Farmers Marketer with several urban farms across Salt Lake.  He gave us a few large Cinderella variety pumpkins, these were kind of challenging because they are short and squat:)

Thanks, Pinterest:)  Cameron did not like this one at all; he said it was a 'scary pumpkin'.  I took it down off the shelf to show it to him and explain that it was just a pair of plastic teeth...and the teeth totally jumped out of the mouth and hit him in the chest.  You can laugh, it's ok...I did;)

 Since the little guy is kind of young to actually carve pumpkins with a serrated knife, I found these great plastic pieces from the $ store that just stick on.  You might remember them from the Halloween Goodie Bag I made for him while I was in NC.  They do have a sharp edge for puncturing the skin, but Cameron is really safe with these after we had the *sharp* discussion:)  

Cinderella pumpkin!!  I did actually carve this one myself, I know it's a little lopsided!!

 The next two are close ups of different sides of the same above pictured pumpkin.  I found a package of foam stickers at (ta-dah) the $ store.  Cam loved these!  I coached him on where to put the pieces, but he put them all on 'all by by myself' :)

 'Mommy, look!  He's smiling at me!'

 OK, this one is hard to see, but I am really proud of it!  Pinterest told me I could use a cookie cutter instead of a knife to make shapes.  There is a cat, a pumpkin, and a half moon shape.  See them?  Cameron helped me pound them in using a hammer, he *loved* that part.  'Mamma, what you doing with Daddy's tools??'

  I think I saw this in a Martha Stewart Mag... it's little mice peeking through holes in the pumpkin.  Cute, right?  Ya, not my favorite either:)

Halloween Costume!  I'm a skunk.  My husband, a man in his 30's, is much too mature to dress up for silly children's holidays:)

Too My Space-y?  I don't know how to take a self portrait and not look like a 16 year old tramp.   The hooker boots don't help either, lol!!

Pumpkin Pickin'

I cannot say enough positive things about Cameron's school!  Putting him in a Montessori based pre-school was *seriously* the best parenting move I've ever made.  He has thrived there!  The following pictures are of a field trip his class took to a local pumpkin farm earlier in October.  The little girl in the pictures is his best little friend, and that's her momma there chaperoning them.  I was working that day so I couldn't go :(  But I enjoyed the pics, and Cam even brought home a pumpkin!