Backyard Snack

What is better than a PB&J sammie with fruit and cold juice on a summer afternoon?  Not much:)

Orchard

Our little family is very blessed.  My husbands grandparents are still alive and healthy.  They live just down the street from us and run a large orchard.  They have peach, apple, pear, cherry, and plum trees.  They plant a *huge* garden every year with tomatoes (hundreds), peppers, eggplants, berries, grapes, squash, onions, garlic... the list goes on and on.  

Their home is an environment filled with love and growth.  Cameron is so blessed to be able to have this amazing space to learn in.  He can run wild, plant flowers, water the lawns, play on the swing set and get really really dirty:)  

Here is a photo of him at the very far end of the orchard, under a fruit tree.  He's turning the water faucet that irrigates the tomatoes.  Look at that smile.  What a lucky little boy.  

30th Birthday

My sweet sweet hubby turned 30 last week.  I love him so much, and I wanted to plan a secret getaway to California with spa treatments and horseback riding... ya that didn't happen.  He insisted that we didn't have a party, and ignore the day as much as possible.  I was working a 12 and he was laying sod, so he almost got his wish.

Almost. 

I decorated the guest bedroom with balloons, streamers, confetti, all the good stuff!  There was a cake from his favorite bakery, and a spread of presents set up on the bed.  30 presents, to be exact.  Of course not all of them were nice ones, but his big present was an iPhone.  I shut the door to the room and booby-trapped it with crepe paper so I would know if he sneaked a peek!  

Helium doesn't last very long.  if you set up a party the night before, don't inflate your balloons!

Blowing out candles with Dad

Presents!  I wanted to make them cute and I had just bought one of those foam letters/numbers/animals tubes from Michaels... so there ya go!

Yeah, iPhone!

Cam colored while the hubby worked his way through all that wrapping paper:)

...and then he found Dad's Kit Kat bar!

Sod

Yaay!  We started our remodel/addition 2 years ago in August 2010, and we are *finally* laying sod!!!  My sweet hubby put down about 4.5 pallets' worth...on his BIRTHDAY!  I married a keeper:)  Our wonderful neighbors also came and helped him.  Heres a few pics.

MAPST

I love Cameron's school teacher for many reasons, currently because she tells me what the kiddos are working on each week.  I like to try and have relatable activities at home so we can cement those ideas

Tracing letters in play sand

Matching objects to their corresponding letters.  He blew me away!

Stamping

Scissors practice!  I love the toddler learning scissors, the stickers are Dr. Seuss from Michael's.   He's doing pretty well with this.  

Jungle Animals

Well...that's what the package called them.  I will use the word 'jungle' loosely.  

In the blog world, there are so many amazing, talented mamas who put together units for their kiddos, full of related activities.  Here's my best shot:)

I printed out a coloring page for each of the animals in the collection.  

Finding animals in the pinto beans!  He loves this one.  I hate pinto beans.  

Heres a shot of the animals we are learning about.  They came in a package at my local grocery store, for like $2.00

Ok, my printer us out of blue ink, so use your imagination:)  We matched the animal to the food it eats

Matchin game with mom and baby animals

Here's the game, I got this from our Museum of Natural History

Puzzles

Did I mention we like puzzles?  Here are most of Cameron's wood puzzles, most are Melissa and Doug

Montessori Works cont...

A few more activities. 

Matching lids to boxes...from Hobby Lobby

I like this one a lot.  The sponges are placed in a dish of water, and Cameron has to use the garlic press to wring out the water and place the dry sponges in the bowl.  It's a challenge and he thoroughly enjoys it!

Using droppers!  One day I will get brave and add food coloring to the little dishes of water.  But not yet. 

Melissa and Doug placemat with some of Cam's play kitchen utensils.

A Montessori Must!  Flower arranging... I used a parmesan shaker from the dollar store.  Of course I had to put Easter grass in it to pretty it up:)

Pouring rice or water...whatever spills I am in the mood to clean out of my light beige carpet

Pouring Pinto beans.  He does this one really well

We had a good time with this one!  I put pipe cleaners in a parmesan shaker from the dollar store, then grabbed some neon pony beads that were the same colors.  He has to match and use super intricate fine motor skills. 

Tonging buttons

Tonging Pom Poms.  I *love* my painters tray, it was like $1.50 and I use it so much!

Tonging counters into ice cube trays

Montessori Works

All the books tell you to make your tray works inaccessible.  They should be kept in a classroom, and the kiddo only allowed to play with them at specific times.  I didn't read about that until after I set up that cubby table in the living room:)

So, my guest bedroom/craft mess is being converted to a classroom/bedroom/craft mess.  Ya it's going to be interesting.  I just have one bookcase in there now, so my tray works are tray-less.  I tried the traditional approach and was only able to fit like 6 works.  I am not abl to set these up as often as I like, so I want to put out a bunch of them.  

So, enjoy!  Sorry the crap lighting.  My crafty space is the worst lit space in the house.  Figures.  

Spooning using colorful animal counters

 Clipping small clothespins to a bowl

Push pins into cork board

Magnifying glass work with sand, leaf and pinecone

Sequencing

Tonging gems into ice cube trays from IKEA.  Aren't those tongs cute!

Stretching hair scrunchies over a tube

Washing Diesel.  :)