Big Energy-Little Learners...Can I do it all?

Valentines day is coming soon so the kids made these festive paintings.  (mommy helped a little with the tape)   They used their hands, different sizes of paint brushes, and toilet paper roll stamps.  They each painted 3 pictures!   I only framed 2 each but they look really nice. The kids are super proud to see them hanging on the walls.   Plus it did not cost me money for Valentines decorations.

The sickness still has not completely left by body it is lingering by a cough and fatigue. I think I am still sick from a lack of rest.  I woke up irritable this morning and am still feeling irritated.  As you can guess this made for an aggravating day. I wanted to do preschool today because I knew Athena would be home all day and we did not do anything yesterday due to the sickness fatigue. When I finally found energy to move it was 11 am. I contemplated starting the set up but knew my irritation would put a damper on the learning because my patience was low, plus both kids were asking me to play with them. So we had kids day. I got myself dressed and did Athenas hair started doing Spencers when I noticed how long his hair was. I cut it while the kids watched an episode of Dinosaur Train.  Not to bad on mommys nerves. The little dragons had lunch while I folded laundry and drank some coffee.  After starting a new load we played with play dough. We made littl...

We wrapped up the letter Rr and season stuff today.  The library books are due so I wanted to get the last minute Discovery Pack activities out of the way.   It seemed like a really long day today.  Most likely because it was Monday and I had a busy emotional weekend.  It was also the first day I was feeling better from 'the sickness' so I was trying to clean up the things left undone while mamma was sick.   (One of the most frustrating things about being a mom.) On top of that Spencer come over with hives all over his body so he was irritable and Athena was up late and it was her first day home from a couple days at the bio's house.   I think Mondays are the hardest days.  Stations I set the rocks out again for observation The reading station And some dry erase flash cards  from the Discovery Pack.  Preschool We started off with some math from the work books.  It was like pulling teeth to get correct...

I found some star ice cube trays 2 for $.50 at Wal-Mart and have been waiting to use them.  I filled them water and added a couple drops of food coloring.   Spencer was excited at first then scared when the ice cubes hit the water.  He did not like the color expanding as the ice melted.  But after the first few he enjoyed trying to catch them in the water. You can see three star ice cubes in the picture to the right.   Athena did not play with them she just dumped them all in and was laughing as the bath water changed.  I thought she would want to play around with them more, hold them or move them in and out of the water.   Shows how much mom knows.  I refilled the ice cube tray for another fun bath experience.  Perhaps next time we will stick to one color.  

After two nights of NyQuil and two boxes of tissues later I am finally feeling better! I woke this morning with a mild sore throat but the ear ache, stuffy nose, no voice, super sore throat, and chest pain was all gone. During my absence from my blog me and the kids did some valentines art work.  I have not bought the frames for the pictures yet so I have not posted the project. They really enjoyed it creating them.  I will get it posted soon. Athena was with bio mom for the weekend so today has been rough. For the first time Athena yelled at me. Luckily all the kids are sleeping (I am watching Little Isaiah today too) and I am sneaking a mom moment to blog :) I want to start with the good news.  We made it to church on Sunday and it was a huge success!  I have been working on getting the family together Sunday mornings and researching churches online to find the church right for us.  We have never been huge church goes but I have been involved ...

I have the sickness :( ....again.  The second time in a month.  Therefore I have been slacking in many areas, including my blog.  For the few who are following, I apologize. Sunday it was just me, Jerry, and the sickness so nothing much happened. Monday Spencer and I were able to spend some good quality time together.  I was sick but was able to sit in front of the heater bundled up playing with play dough and cars.  I made him a small track for his cars and that kept him pretty occupied.   Tuesday Athena was home and Liam was over.  I put on a Disney movie for the two of them and lay down to rest not having any sleep the night before.  That gave me a little over an hour of rest (sadly no sleep.)  After the movie I prepared snacks and started re arranging for preschool.  Spencer arrived. For the sensory station I set out some rocks for observation. I knew being sick the rice would not do.   This ...

I am almost at a loss for words.  Today was a hard day for the kids and for me.  Yesterday was so great with my renewed patience and great attitudes from both little ones.  I saw the other side of that card. The day started good.  Athena and I spent some good quality time together while watching Taylor Swift music videos.  When Spencer was dropped off (2 pm) all things changed. Athena ran to the door in high hopes it was her mom and cried in disappointment that it wasn't.   She checked out the window multiple times then said "Mommy is not here yet.  She is not coming today." Her attitude changed from happy little dragon to fire breathing tail slashing dragon. She started misbehaving doing things she knew she wasn't allowed to.  I turned a blind eye to most of it knowing she was acting out and not wanting to give her the negative attention but after so many times I had to discipline.  :( Her bio mom did show around 5:30 pm...

Puppets!  Yes, today we made puppets! Spencer picked the dog-mommy helped cut everything but the head- Athena picked the cat-and cut it all. She named her Cindy Cat. We will get back to the puppets later... If you want to read about the puppets I will title a portion of the blog and you can scroll down to the title and continue reading. (I am not sure how to link it yet) Today started with a cranky attitude.  Athena woke up upset.  She has been asking about her bio mom since Tuesday which is the normal day she is supposed to be picked up.  But bio mom did not show, call, or text. Wednesday she told me she wanted to go to Granny's to see her mom.  I told her I would contact her mom so we could plan it. Then she said "Why don't you ever let me see my mommy?" This hurt.  I know she doesn't understand but we really try to keep communications open with her so she does not feel we are keeping her from her mom.  Her mom not showing is a...

Last night after feeling bummed I decided I would try out a new activity with the kids.  I do not teach preschool on Wednesday.  Wednesday is the kids day.  We play pretend, barbies, cars, or whatever the kids want to do.  It is usually a play in the kids room day but sometimes our imaginations take us elsewhere.  Anyway, today I decided to add some art to our kids day. A little off topic-I haven't told the kids that I call it kids day, thinking about it now it might be a good idea and something they look forward to. Hmmm Back to today's kids day... I saw the recipe for this play dough on  littlehandsbigwork  it is another mommy blog I enjoy reading. I wrote it down and told myself it would be a fun craft to do with the kids (like many things I write down and end up not doing.) After my feelings last night I decided to jump in with both feet.  I had no reason not to. I began gathering supplies and noticed on the recipe it calls for 1/2 a ...