I am so excited that it is fall.  I love the weather, the beauty, the food, but most of all, the structure.  Next week is going to be super fun with Moms Rock (a group for moms with young children) starting and Joe and I are joining a small group for young families, which will meet at our house.  My mentor job is really great and I look forward to talking about Kindergarten for 30 minutes every week (we talk on Facetime when my girls are napping).  

Here are some pictures from our adventures at the Children's Museum and Zoo over the last couple of weeks...  

I wish this picture wasn't so blurry because it's the cutest!

Yawn is an adorable board book with rhyming text that is perfect to read before naps and bedtime.

Y is for Yellow

All of these books were super cute but, Press Here is one of those books that every child should experience.  It is an interactive book that you and your children will love, just trust me and go get it!

This week we mainly focused on the color yellow.  Yellow is Mia's favorite color so we devoted the week to the color.

For our Yy sheet, I took out yellow crayons, markers, paints and stickers and let the girls go crazy.

link to Yy sheet

We also planned a yellow themed play-date (unfortunately, Naomi woke up with a fever the day of the party so we had to cancel) but since I set everything up the night before, the girls and I still enjoyed the party with the three of us!  When Mia woke up and saw the decorations, she said, "Mom, it looks so beautiful!"  That made it all worth it.  : )

  

I made yellow play dough and packaged some up in to give to our friends.

The girls made yellow crowns and decorated them with stickers and markers.

 

 Y is for Yummy and Yucky

Yummy Yucky is a favorite book around here.  It has a simple text that lists yummy foods and yucky foods.  After reading, Yummy Yucky, I had Mia tell me some foods that she thought were yummy and foods that she thought were yucky.  We then made a little book with her answers.

 As most of you have seen on the news, we've had some crazy weather over the last couple of weeks.  SO much rain!!  Luckily, we didn't have any flooding except for the crawl space under our basement.  We are so thankful that we replaced all of our leaky windows several months ago because we would have had some serious issues if we didn't.  

Don't you love Naomi's grumpy face?!? Haha...she has been a little difficult lately.

Now that the weather is back to normal, we will continue to enjoy the beautiful weather that this State offers (majority of the time).  And, we did finish the alphabet (even though Miss Mia was getting a little burnt out so we didn't do much for z).  I will post the letter y and z soon!!

Can you believe that this little cutie will be 3 in a little over a month?!?!

God blessed me with some pretty amazing grandparents.  Everyday I'm thankful for all they have done in my life; I know my life wouldn't have been the same without them.

I am also so thankful that my girls have such amazing grandparents that love them so much. I know their grandparents will always be important people in their lives, even if we are miles and miles apart.

Today we thank you for coming to visit us, playing with us, having tea parties with us, making us feel special, buying us presents, babysitting us, hugging us, feeding us and most of all, loving us.

Happy Grandparents Day!  We love you all and miss you!

"Some people care too much, I think it's called love." -Winnie the Pooh

On our Xx sheet this week, I thought Mia would be able to write the letter x all over.  Bad idea on my behalf because she wasn't ready for this and got stressed, which resulted in her scribbling all over.  

Quickly, I thought of a plan B- I gave her a variety of different x stickers to stick on the sheet.  She loved doing this and even decided to use stickers to write her name.  (Even though I don't scrapbook much anymore, the supplies sure come in handy!!)

Jessica's X-Ray is a great book about a little girl who breaks her arm.  While she is at the hospital waiting for her cast to dry, she goes on a tour and sees a variety of different x-rays. Actual x-rays are included, which makes this book really exciting!

X is for X-Ray

 

I painted the girls' hands white and made a print on black paper to look like an x-ray.  (After we did this activity, I wondered if Mia thought an x-ray was just a print of a body part instead of a picture of the bones.)  I'm not too worried about it since she's 2, but it's something to think about.

Naomi (15 months)

Mia ( almost 3)

We also went to the Children's Museum and played in the kid-sized veterinary clinic that has dog and cat x-rays available to look at.

X is for "X Marks the Spot"

While Mia was napping, I set up a little treasure hunt to help identify the letter x. This may look like a lot of work, but it only took like 5-10 minutes to set everything up!

 Supplies needed:  homemade treasure map, treasure (I used kid's jewelry that we already had) and blue painter's tape.

Directions: Stick an X (and treasure) on various places around your house.  Then, create a map or just draw pictures showing where to find the treasure.  I gave Mia verbal clues to help her identify the pictures (probably due to the fact that I'm not that great of a drawer!)

Be prepared...your child will want to do this over and over!

Both of these alphabet books are really cute.  Alphabet Mystery has vibrant pictures of the lowercase letters.  We read this book during x week because the story is about x, who runs away because he doesn't feel that important.  The other letters go find him and the story ends with him feeling very special (you'll have to read the book to find out why).

X is for Xylophone

Mia really enjoyed this project and was able to do the gluing independently. She actually completed it on her own, which is why I don't have more pictures.  For the directions, visit No Time For Flashcards.