Magna-tiles + light box = fun!!!

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Fun with a Printer's Drawer

A vintage printer's drawer might seem like an unusual Christmas gift for a 3 year old, but it was perfect for our sweet E!!!! She loves to set up and arrange her vast collection of toob figures on the small shelves.
This simple and fun activity keeps her busy for hours, and I love to listen to her "talk" her figures. She usually likes to play in this space by herself, but sometimes she'll let me join her, so I can have some fun, too!

New Orleans with Kids

We had a fantastic time on our recent road trip to New Orleans.  It took us 2 days to get there, and the girls were great travelers (thank goodness)!  O(6) studied this map as we traveled. She learned the location of many states, and she was especially excited to learn how to spell Mississippi!

On our first day of vacation, we went on a tour of a Creole Plantation (Laura Plantation).  The girls were enthralled and listened intently throughout the tour.

O(6) dug into the crawfish that we had for lunch, but E(3) was a little more hesitant.  Later in the week I bribed them (with chocolate) to try fried alligator, and they loved it.

We went to City Park several times, and the girls loved it every time.

O(6) drew a picture after our trip to see a graveyard.  The girls thought the raised gravestones were very interesting.

Riding on a steamboat on the Mississippi River was a HUGE hit with the girls! They loved watching the paddle wheel and touring the engine room.

Since these girls are obsessed with history, they were super excited to sit next this statue of an "old time" lady in the French Quarter.

Both girls were so excited to choose special Mardi Gras masks!  We read the American Girl Marie-Grace and Cecile books while we were in New Orleans, and the girls are excited about having a MG and Cecile Mardi Gras party now that we have finished the series of books!

The girls played with their Marie-Grace and Cecile paper dolls every afternoon in our hotel room.

O(6) told us that it was her dream to walk through revolving doors, so we stopped and went into this fancy hotel.  The girls were SO excited.  I love that such simple things make them so happy!

Back to City Park!  The girls had fun climbing the trees...

And running, dancing, and playing in this memorial.

The girls were SO excited when this ice-cream truck came by when we were playing on the playground.  They've never seen an ice-cream truck before, so this was a special treat!

The girls were excited to ride a streetcar on Canal Street!

We loved walking around the French Quarter and Jackson Square.  We watched a fun magic show!

The girls threw coins in the fountain and made wishes in front of St. Louis Cathedral.

They were excited to take money to the street musicians in front of St. Louis Cathedral.

When we asked the girls what their favorite part of the trip was, they said that swimming in the hotel pool was the best!  I'm not surprised!  The hotel pool is the best part of most of our trips :)

A Ballerina at Work

While E(3) is in dance class, O(6) has fun doing her schoolwork at the desk in the dance studio dressing room. We save math workbook pages to do at dance, and O loves this!

Revolutionary War Studies

I just found this post that I wrote and saved a few months ago, but never published.  Hope you enjoy it :)

O(6) was excited to receive her American Girl fun pack last month, and we've been studying Felicity ever since.  She received Felicity paper dolls, Felicity short stories, and parchment paper and a quill pen.  Both girls loved writing with a quill pen.


We've enjoyed reading the Felicity Mystery book, Felicity short stories, and listening to the Felicity audio books via Tales 2 Go on our ipad.  In addition to the Felicity books, we've read many, many books related to this time period.

Both girls love playing with Redcoat and Continental Army toobs.  E(3) is somewhat obsessed with General George Washington, and she loves to play "George Washington and the Drummer."  She has had her fairy toob figures teach George Washington to fly, which has been very entertaining.

We have several of these "If you lived at the time of..." books, and they are fun to read.


George the Drummer Boy was one of E(3)'s favorite books.


She loves playing with our drummer boy.  I'm always the drummer boy while she is George Washington.

While I was reading the book, E said "turn back, turn back!" I turned back to an earlier page, and she quickly matched  a figure to the page.


E's favorite book about George Washington is George vs. George.  This is a wonderful book, and we've all learned a lot from reading it.

Both girls liked Sam the Minuteman. 

We all LOVED reading Sybil Ludington's Midnight Ride.  We returned this book to the library about a month ago, and E still talks about Sybil.

Healthy Lunches/Dinners While Traveling

We recently went on a road trip to New Orleans, and it was SO much fun...one of our best vacations ever!  We spent 4 days in the car, and I was determined that we would  not feed the children fast food while we were traveling.  I am happy to say that we only stopped at one fast food restaurant during the whole trip (chick fila), and that was just because they have an indoor playground, and it was pouring down rain (we liked for the kids to run, jump, and play every time we stopped).

On our way to New Orleans, we ate lots of fresh fruit and vegetables.  The girls had oranges, grapes, baby carrots, bell pepper, peanut butter and jelly spins, celery, and organic lollypops for dessert.

When we got to the hotel, they had cheese melts on whole wheat bread, avocado, apples, grapes, and oranges.

 Shortly after leaving New Orleans, we stopped at Target and stocked up on fresh fruit and vegetables for the long drive home.  We had hummus and guacamole for dipping, string cheese, turkey, carrots, grapes, and raw green beans.  Delicious, easy, and healthy!!!

More Initial Consonants Work

We finally made it back to our school room after more than 2 weeks off!  It was quite an adjustment to be back in there, but it ended well...phew!

E(3) had fun completing this initial consonants work.  I printed and laminated these cards several years ago for O(6), so I'm not sure where they came from...I'm hoping someone will recognize them and let me know, so that I can add a link.

To do this work, E(3) named the picture, said the sound for each letter listed, and then circled the letter that matches the picture.  She was leaning over on my lap and snuggling me the whole time she worked.  At one point, she paused in her work and looked at me and said "When I grow up, I'm going to make art to put in museums and be a ballerina."  Love her!

Sorry for the long break...

We left for a super fun and amazing road trip on Valentine's Day and didn't get home until Sunday night.  I unexpectantly had to work on Monday (and then again on Wednesday and Thursday), and now sweet E(3) is sick.  So, I'll be back next week with some new and exciting bloggy goodness :)

More Preschool Reading Work

E(3) LOVES to do reading work!  I do NOT make her do this work...I give her the opportunity, and she either takes it or doesn't.  If she doesn't want to do the work, that is absolutely fine.  I follow her lead, and right now she wants to read like her big sister! (but she spends most of her time engaged in pretend play, listening to us read books to her, and playing outside...she spends less than 15 minutes a day doing reading work and only about 3 days a week....I don't want to push reading on her as it is not really developmentally appropriate for a 3 year old.  However, since she wants to read desperately, I'm not going to deny her. She's having fun, and that is what is most important!)

She loved reading simple words using the sandpaper letters last week!

E loves the spinny speller!

Since O(6) is doing All About Reading Level 2, E(3) was THRILLED when I ordered All About Reading Level 1 for her!  She begged to read the stories and was disappointed that the lessons didn't have her reading stories right from the beginning.  She loves reading the words on the green cards, and she had fun making the words on the Spinny Speller match her flashcards.  I love that the lessons are so short and engaging for her.  We haven't done any of the worksheets yet...I'm not a fan of worksheets, but E really wants to do them, so we probably will.  (I'm not a fan of flashcards, either, especially for E's age, but she loves them, so she reads them).

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Valentine's Paper Dolls

I'm so excited about the Valentine's paper dolls from Lily and Thistle that we are giving our girls for this special day!  I realized that the paper dolls would be the perfect activity for a Valentine's party with their friends, so they'll be getting them a little early....pics to be added after the party.  (I wanted to post this now so that you would have time to by your own set for your sweeties!).

Click here to go to the paper dolls.  I'm especially excited about the included subscription for the Outfit of the Month club (Around the World)!

More Valentine's Work

I wrote letters and numbers on these shiny heart stickers for O(6) a couple of years ago, and we use the same ones every February.  E(3) has LOVED working with these letters.  She asked me to make words for her to read, and she did a fantastic job reading them. 

E(3) also enjoyed putting the hearts in the container...one heart per opening.  She started off using chopsticks, but ended up using her fingers.  It was too difficult to pick up the stickers with chopsticks...even for me!

E was proud of the long word that she made.  After she finished making it, she said "Read it for me, mama!" 

Valentine's Work

The girls were excited when I found these cookie cutter hearts from last Valentine's Day!

Both girls had fun putting the hearts in size order.

After putting the hearts in order in a line, they put them inside each other to check their work.  Fun and simple!