Ice Cream Sundaes!

One of the things I wanted to do this summer was to make ice cream sundaes at home together! So I bought our favorite ice cream and all the sundae toppings I thought my boys would like! We had Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla ice cream, hot fudge, chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, m and ms, chocolate chips, and cherries! I let the boys build their sundaes themselves. We don't keep ice cream and a lot of sweets in the house so this was a huge treat. We had my parents over for dinner and had this for dessert. The boys were so excited they told Nana and Papa that we were making ice cream sundaes the moment they walked in the door. It was a lot of fun!

Daddy and the boys building their sundaes!

JP liked the m and ms and cherries!

Nana and Papa enjoyed holding baby brother while the big brothers made their sundaes!

Smiley boy! Someday he'll get ice cream too!

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Kids Bowl Free

We are diligently working on completing items off of our Summer Bucket List. One of the things we've wanted to do is to participate in the Kids Bowl Free program.

You can learn more about it my clicking on the picture below. But here is a summary for you: Select bowling centers and schools around the country are participating in the first ever Kids Bowl Free program. This program is designed by bowling centers to give back to the community and provide a safe, secure, and fun way for kids to spend time this summer. Children whose age does not exceed a limit by a participating bowling center are eligible to register for 2 free games a day, all summer long, courtesy of the participating bowling centers.

The Daddy helping CA.

The Daddy coaching JP.

Bowling with my boys!

We had a blast! It was so fun! This was a fun indoor activity to do on a hot day! We did have to pay for the shoe rentals, but the games were free! A fun savings! Another mama I met at the bowling alley shared with me that she bought her kids bowling shoes at Academy Sports. She bought them one size up and allowed her kids to wear two pairs of socks so that they can wear them this summer and next summer. Smart tip! We might be heading to Academy soon. :)

Swimming Fun!

We have had fun in the sun together as a family. We have enjoyed our community swimming pool a few times and the boys have taken swimming lessons for two weeks.Their skills have really improved!

The boys were in separate classes for swim lessons so this provided the opportunity for the Daddy and I to have some one on one time with each of the boys. On this particular day I was able to get in the pool with CA to work on his new skills.

After lessons the boys received a brownie from their teachers.  JP was quite proud.

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Birthday, America!

We've had a great week celebrating the 4th of July together as a family! We hosted a play date with some dear friends earlier in the week. I made a red, white and blue muffin tin meal for the kids and chicken salad for the mommies. 

I didn't have 4 muffin tins, so I just used a red plate and white muffin liners. The muffin tin meal had strawberries, blueberries, mozzarella cheese, pretzels, and a star shaped sandwich.

The boys and I made a Fruit Flag together. I got this idea off of the Sprout Online website. It was very fun to make together! 

I ran out of strawberries to make it look more like a flag, oh well. It was fun and delicious!

Happy 4th of July 

from our Home to Yours!

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The Children's Museum

One of the things on our Summer Bucket list was to visit the Children's Museum. We did this last week and had a blast!

The museum had a special Magic School Bus weather exhibit and the boys loved it!

JP was so excited to see "Elsie the Cow" again!

  

 

 

Making big bubbles with Daddy!

Love these 2 so much! 

We are having a great summer so far!

The Grouchy Ladybug

This week we read The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle. The Grouchy Ladybug argues over aphids for breakfast with a friendly ladybug.  The Grouchy Ladybug wants to fight, but backs down and says he wants to fight somebody bigger.  The animals he encounters get larger and larger, but the Grouchy Ladybug continues looking for an animal to fight.  Eventually he's smacked by a whale's tail and lands right back where he started.  Tired, hungry, and wet, the Grouchy Ladybug learns how nice it can be to share.

We discussed the words grouchy and friendly before we began reading the book. I had both the boys make friendly and grouchy expressions. Then we read the book together. While reading the book JP began to say the repetitive text with me.  After reading I asked the boys these important questions to ask your children while reading:

• What happened in the beginning, middle, and end of the book?
• Who was the main character?
• What was the problem in the story?
• How did the problem get solved (resolution)?
• Where did the story take place? What is the setting?
• What do you think will happen next?
• How do you think this character feels? 
• Does this book remind you of anything in your life?(Text to self connection)
• Does this book remind you of another book? (Text to text connection)

And so many more! Questioning and discussing the text while reading is so important at any age! 

Reading the book in our pjs.

I made animal picture cards in a Microsoft Word document to go along with the book. The boys organized the animal cards by size. Then we put the animal cards in sequencing order according to the order of who the Grouchy Ladybug met. You can download the picture cards for free  here.

We made ladybugs out of red foam, and black construction paper with googly eyes and our black bingo dotter.

We made a "T chart" of grouchy and friendly words and examples from the story. We discussed manners along with it. This idea didn't go over as well as I had hoped, maybe my boys are a little young for "T charts". I facilitated most of the thinking for this activity.But that is ok, I modeled for them the differences in the story of grouchy and friendly.

We also acted out the story recalling the sequence of events and repeating the repetitive text.

Overall we had a great time reading and rereading The Grouchy Ladybug. It is a book our family would recommend!

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