Fun with the letter M

It was my turn again to teach for our preschool co-op this week. I was bound and determined to chill out a little bit and go about things much more simply this time around. I always find such a huge amount of fun things to do that I can't control myself, but I actually really enjoyed our time this week instead of shoving the kids out the door at 11:30am! LOL!

The letter M was great fun! Tuesday, we did three things:

~Learned about Monkeys!!

We acted like monkeys jumping on the bed while we sang that song. I read a book called Too Many Monkeys that was really cute! We moved up to the table to make paper plate monkey masks. The kids colored the back of the plate with brown and/or black crayons, then glued on the eyes, ears and nose & mouth pieces I had pre-cut.

For snack, they had 1/2 a banana and peanut butter crackers. Hannah being silly with her snack.Then I let the kids have "recess." They did some MONKEYING around on the swingset. :)~ Explored with Magnets!!

I made each of the kids a magnet stick by gluing a round magnet to the end of a craft stick. I provided a tray with a variety of items and asked them to pick an object that they thought would stick to their magnet. They loved doing this!!! Then I brought out some wooden Thomas trains and had them try to repel the trains across the table by putting the magnet wrong sides together. Lastly, I let them play with Magnadoodles and Magformers.

~ Counted with M&Ms!!

I gave each child an M&M graph that I made and a cup with 20 M&Ms in it. First, they sorted the M&Ms into colors, then they graphed them. We went around the table and I asked each kid which color of M&Ms they had the most of, then the least of. Who knew math could be so fun??!!

Today (Thursday), our activities were centered around three books~ If You Give a Moose a Muffin by Laura Numeroff, The Marshmallow Incident by Judi Barrett and The Mitten by Jan Brett. Yes, once again, the children's book NUT comes out in me!!!

Here's how the agenda went:

- sang Do You Know the Muffin Man

- read the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin

- moved to the table to practice writing our letter M's

- had "recess" in the backyard then came in for a snack of muffins, milk and mandarin oranges. the kids gobbled the muffins up and I bet they didn't even realize how healthy they were!

This dude loves preschool too!

- read The Marshmallow Incident- glued colored mini marshmallows on a capital and lowercase M template.

- read The Mitten

- kids "needled" (as one of the girls referred to it as) their own paper mitten then colored and cut out the animals to tuck into their mitten, just like in the story.

I think it's safe to say that everyone had a good time!! Only two more times of teaching before preschool is over!

HAPPY New Year {2011}

I'm gonna back up a few nights first....

Since we were hosting a party at our house on New Years Eve, we decided to do a mini celebration with the kids the night before with cousins at Derek & Kristin's house. Fireworks are now legal in Arizona (not anything that shoots into the air) and it's been so WEIRD seeing firework stands on corners everywhere! We bought up the motherload and had a blast (no pun intended) lighting them off with the kids. Preston was absolutely terrified of all the noise. He was fine to watch from afar. haha! Matt finally coerced him to hold a sparkler, but my camera battery had just died, darn.

Daddy helping Brooklyn light a firework!My chicken self. Look how far I was standing away from the thing as I was trying to light it!Hot chocolate!

Like I mentioned before, we had a couples party at our house on New Years Eve. The theme was "There's an APP for that" and everyone brought an APPetizer to share. ;) We had 7 couples here and it was so fun! We bought Just Dance 2 for the Wii and tried it out for the first time. It was a RIOT watching some of those guys bust a move!

Above: Rocky Tuner, Matt
Below: Preston Strebeck, Rocky Turner, Craig Connolly

We did a little Guitar Hero too, then the guys went outside to light off more fireworks while the girls stayed cozy warm and watched from inside. Funny to see how fireworks turn them into little pyro boys!!

We counted down to the New Year (thanks Carson Daly) then kissed our sweeties and cheered to the upcoming year with sparkling cider. I look totally exhausted in this picture. 'Cause I was.

Here's the group, minus one couple who had to jet out early.

2010 was a pretty good year for us. When I look back, I can't think of anything really negative. We've been really, really blessed, especially with Matt's job. I know we are lucky to be employed by a company that treats us so well and has encouraged Matt's growth in his profession. He works hard to provide a living for our family and he does such a good job. We are looking forward to even more excitement and fun in 2011!!

I like to RIDE my Bicycle~

We've been slacker parents and haven't really been on the ball when it comes to teaching lifelong skills to our kids in a timely manner. But my theory is the longer you wait, the quicker they learn! ;) This applies to potty training, shoe tying and bike riding.

Brooklyn and Blake both received big kid bikes WITHOUT training wheels from Santa Claus this year. Matt had taken the Monday after Christmas off so we figured that would be the perfect time to teach them how to ride. Blake had a bit of an advantage because two years ago, he was successful at learning how to ride a two-wheeler, we just haven't upgraded bikes and their scooters were so much more fun. Brooklyn has always spazzed at the mere mention of removing her training wheels, then it's too hot during the summer, blah, blah, blah, excuse, excuse, excuse.

We headed to a retention basin in the front of our subdivision (we met up with Derek, Spencer and Andrew, who was also learning to ride his bike) that provided super hills for the kids to practice their balance skills. Both of them did excellent right from the start, although Brooklyn got so nervous if ANYthing/one came within a 100 mile radius of her while riding. haha!

Videos~

Off they go!Preston and Gavin loved being pulled by Daddy in the bike trailer!

The hardest part was teaching how to get themselves going on their own on flat ground, braking and turning. After LOTS of tears and drama from our girly girl, I think it's safe to say that we officially have ourselves two bike riders! And I know in these pictures, neither has a helmet on but that's because when we went to fetch them (meaning helmets they got as TODDLERS), we quickly found out their heads have grown significantly and sitting on the back porch being baked in the sun results in straps that dissolve into dust at a single touch. Oops! But I assure you that I ran out and bought NEW helmets that day because all of a sudden, I'm a paranoid freak now that my almost-eight-year-old babies are riding bikes in the street all on their own. ;)

Preston turns TWO!!!

I can't believe my BABY is already TWO years old!!!!!

Fresh out

3 months

6 months

9 months

1 year

18 months

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We had Lebaron family pictures scheduled on his actual birthday (Monday), so we celebrated the day before with dinner and a little family party at our house. My parents and sibs all came over, Matt's parents, Mike & Melissa and Derek & Kristin brought their kids.

More Toy Story toys!!! THIS is the item that I nearly didn't get on Black Friday.
I was SO excited to give it to him and he LOVES all the little characters!What toddler doesn't love a tunnel to crawl through???My parents gave him this wheelie motorcycle. He prefers to ride it. Haha!His "cake," a huge cookie.
We made personal pizzookies for dessert.

Preston is obsessed with Toy Story (particularly Woody) and motorcycles, airplanes, helicopters and garbage trucks. He's so, SO good to let me brush his teeth every night. Preston is a little chatterbox and is constantly talking up a storm. I sometimes forget how young he is because he talks so much! He'll pretty much say anything you ask him to. He knows almost all his colors (struggles a bit with red). Preston LOOOOOOVES his Daddy!!! When he hears that garage door open in the evening, he goes running to greet Daddy! Still likes to be outside just bopping around, riding his little "bike" or trying out one of the kids' scooters. He's a good listener and pretty good eater. Sometimes he shows his toddler independence by refusing certain foods. He loves eggs, berries of any kind, pineapple, chips & guacamole, "mungers" (cucumbers), broccoli (finally!), cheese.

He has been my most, how do I put this gently, BUSY child. A bit naughty, if you will. Anything that can be gotten into, he gets into it. He stands up in shopping carts, he's dug into his own poopy diapers too many times to count. He recently busted the glass in one of the doors of our entertainment center. Surprisingly, he's the only child who hasn't attempted to climb out of his crib by this age!! And he'll probably do it tomorrow since I just jinxed myself. Although he can be a bit of a troublemaker at times, he still is such a sweet boy. I love when he holds my hand while we walk to change his diaper. I love that he knows Star Wars charaters names thanks to his big brothers. I love when he sings "Jesus Wants Me for a SunBEAN." I love that he lists off names of family members (cousins, uncles, aunts). I love that he'll snuggle me. I love my Presty-boy!

Happy Birthday, dear Preston!! ☺

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I had been prepping him beforehand that when he turned two, binkies get broken and that big boys don't need binkies anymore. He only had two binkies that stayed in his crib for naptime and nighttime. Of course I was a little nervous that this would completely wreck my good sleeper. I let him have his binks for naptime on his birthday but I snipped the tips off before bed, showed him the binkies, then had him put them in the garbage. Oooooh, he was NOT happy!!! He tried just hanging onto it with his teeth. LOL! I was a little sad to traumatize him like that on his birthday, but he only cried for maybe 10 minutes before going to sleep. Since then, he's taken a little bit longer to fall asleep at naptime, and he still talks about his broken binkies, but I'm surprised that it hasn't really affected him much at all! It was easier than I thought it would be!

~Last night with binkiesA quick suck before chucking them into the garbageWhat??? I want my binkies back!!! Priceless!

{2 yr stats}

weight- 29.7 lbs 71st %ile
height- 35 in 68th %ile
head circ- 20 in 93rd %ile