Tigers

Ethan requested a week to learn about Tigers.  He has a stuffed animal tiger that he sleeps with every night.  He loves to pretend to be a tiger and has quite a fierce roar.

Ellie liked 'Auntie Tiger' it was a like a Little Red Riding Hood type story.

we used our sandpaper and yarn strips as our 'Tiger Stripes' to practice making letters.

Practiced some math

Gavin is thinking of other words that begin with a 'T' and drawing them

We painted paper plates to turn into Tiger masks

Did some preschool packs on the touchpad

turned our lunch into tigers

And made a quick trip to the zoo.  You can't really see the tigers in this picture, but they were there.  The babies have grown quite a bit.

Camping

We had a chance to go Camping again.  Since it was the week that Gavin and Elise's family was also going to go camping for a family reunion, we did a theme week for learning time about camping to prepare.

Monday is trash day.  It happens to be the kids favorite day to play outside.  They take all the neighbors boxes that are being thrown out to build forts with all morning.  Then we get to put them back for the trash pick up in the afternoon.

We did some activities to learn about the different animals and tracks they make

We learned about fire safety

And the kids set up a pretend fire outside

The kids got to help prepared the meals for our camp trip

And finally we were off.  Enjoying the time to explore the river

hike up the rocks

Grandma and Grandpa Finlay drove up Saturday morning to join us for breakfast and a hike around the lake.

There was a rattlesnake in our path.  

Fly on the wall-a Friday

I meant to keep track of a Friday in June and missed it.  I've done a Wednesday and Thursday so far, and have been trying to go in order from there to get a full week.

This is July 27, 2012  Another 'day-in-the-life' at the Finlay's house


6AM-Running with the Coyotes
Moved my long run to today, as tomorrow is going to be busy.  Got out at 5:30 to get my run in before James needs to leave for home.  The family, I assume is all still in bed sleeping.
I don't mind the coyotes when they are down by the river, but there are a lot on the bike path.  They creep me out a bit.

7AM-Still Running
Legs were feeling achy at the start, and was nervous about an injury so kept it slow, but was able to finish strong.  9.82 miles in 100 minutes.

8AM-Getting James breakfast as he runs out the door.
Friday we typically have carmel biscuits and scrambled eggs.  Ethan is helping unload the dishwasher.  Brielle is still upstairs getting dressed and ready for the day.

9AM-Making my Bed
When I got home from running, both kids were sleeping in our bed.  James said he got up shortly after I left to go running to get some work done.

10AM-Teaching Brielle Piano Lesson
Brielle a couple weeks ago asked if she could learn to play the piano.  I've been sitting down with her for about 10 minutes each day.  Her attention span doesn't last much longer than that, but she is enjoying the lessons so far.

11AM-Mopping Kitchen Floors
I've been seeing some scouting ants in my house this week, so I'm trying extra hard to keep the kitchen and dining area clean.  Once again, I'm amazed by how messy our kitchen floor gets.

12PM-At the Grocery Store.
I needed to go Wednesday, but I don't care for shopping, so put it off until today when I used the last of the milk and last egg for breakfast.  It couldn't wait any longer.

1PM-Cleaning up from Lunch
Brielle requested grilled cheese, grapes and carrots.

2PM-Arranging Rides for YW Temple Trip
Both kids napping. (good thing, because it's a late night tonight).  Young Women are going to temple tomorrow and we need enough priesthood to come.  I'm calling to confirm who is coming and how many each car will fit.

3PM-Packing Up Car
Trying to make sure I have James' extra clothes, Kids swimming stuff and pajamas, and all the library books so we can stop there on the way to Finlay's.

4PM-Visiting Teaching
Visiting with and inactive lady.  The kids brought some notes to write, but keeping asking me how to spell words or write letters.  I finally give them the touchpad to play on so I can carry on a conversation.  The roommate of the lady I was visiting then became fascinated with the worksheets I put on the touchpad for the kids (she use to be a teacher) so we had a touchpad class.

5PM-Stopping by Library
Dropping off books, picking up new books and letting kids turn in their summer reading program papers.  They get coins to buy prizes with for reading.  It is always a tough choice for them to decide what to get and how much to spend.

6PM-At Finlay's House
Brad and Margaret are hosting a party for the cast of Crazy for You.  The kids are swimming and everyone is having a great time.

7PM-Leaving Party, picking up YW
James rode his bike up to his parents house.  I turned kids over to him for the night while I head to a sleepover with the Young Women.

8PM-Watching Opening Ceremonies
Everyone voted to watch Olympics (which I was happy about!).  They Bishop and his Wife are hosting us for the sleepover as they have plenty of floor space.  Luckily they also have a large screen T.V. perfect for Olympic watching!

9PM-Still Watching Olympics
Everyone brought snacks to share.  Muting commercials to talk.  We have a great group of Young Women.  10 were able to come tonight.

10PM-Playing Games.
playing sculptionary (pictionary with playdoh).  Re-discovered that I am not a great artist.

11PM-Starting Movie
Some of the girls want to wait for USA to be shown on the screen, others are ready for Newsies to start.  The girls are all spread out all over the floor.

12PM-Drifting to Sleep
Young Women are starting to fall asleep.  I am dozing in and out as I wait for the movie to end.  Hoping for some sleep before another busy day tomorrow.

I Love America

A few random pics about our 4th of July Week

Enjoying popsicles with the cousins outside the firework booth

The Young Women were in charge of our ward's pancake breakfast on the 4th.  (It is their camp fundraiser).  The primary kids got to sing some songs for us.

We enjoyed dinner on the 4th at our friends house overlooking the city.

Which has a pretty great view.

'Firework' painting (the kids love the salad spinner)

Star Shaped Sandwiches for lunch

Firework Muffins for Breakfast

Olympics

We've been having fun getting ready for the olympics around here this week. 

We participated in a cultural exchange.  We got a package from England and had fun learning about kids that live there.  They included flags, postcards, money samples and small toys and treats.

The kids enjoyed decorating.  We're still cheering for USA, but it is fun to support the hosting country as well.  Ethan loves the double decker buses.  Brielle loved the pictures of the Royal Wedding and Queen Elizabeth.

A lot of ideas we've used this week came from I Can Teach My Child who made a free e-book of Olympic Activities. 

Also 3 Dinosaurs created a preschool pack for the Olympics

We made Olympic Ring cookies.  Ethan is obsessed with the Olympic Rings and points them out every time he sees them.

Swimming Events

Letter O for Olympics

Discuss Throwing

'Beach' Volleyball (Using a balloon)

The Olympic Ring Toss

The kids choreographed their floor routines for gymnastics.  They were hilarious.

The balance beam

The Vault

Family Campout

We live at the base of San Gabriel Canyon, only a couple miles from the Angeles National Forest.  This campground is about 30 minutes from our house, but with no city lights and no cell phone reception, it makes you feel like you have traveled far away for this weekend vacation.  Our weekends have been packed, so when we finally had a weekend that was mostly free, we jumped at the chance to head up the canyon.

The kids favorite part was the river that goes through camp.  They collected rocks to throw in over, and over again.

The Warnicks joined us for dinner.  We roasted hot dogs and had a baked potato bar. (I cooked the potatoes in the crockpot before heading up the canyon.  They were wrapped in foil, and I planned to warm them over the fire, but they were still hot when it was time for dinner.) And then of course roasted marshmallows for s'mores.

James was very proud of his fire.  In the times we have been camping together, fire-building has not been his strongest talent.  I remember one camping trip we took (in Michigan?) when it had been raining and starting a fire was proving to be a difficult task.  I recall him saying we were close enough to town we could order a pizza for dinner.  I think I finally got a fire started, using lots of paper from our AAA travel books.  We now carry those books in our camping gear.

Our air mattress apparently had a leak, Ethan joined us in bed, a dog barked for what seemed to be all night long, and it was light out by 5:30am, but we got what sleep we could.

Because sleeping in a tent under the stars is an exciting adventure.

We made scrambled eggs for breakfast that we ate with rolls, (and had left over potatoes for those of us that are potato lovers).  Enjoying hot chocolate by the fire in the middle of the forest is a pretty great way to wake up.  As a side-note, the gas was leaking in our camp stove, so James started a big fire, in a place were we weren't actually supposed to have a big fire.  Luckily he got it out, got the stove fixed and working so we could make breakfast.

We then took some time hike around and explore the river a bit more before heading back to reality. 

Fish and Grunion Run

Brielle requested a week to learn more about Fish.  I've had a Grunion Run on my list of things I want to do, so I planned the Fish week to correspond with the Grunion Run for our field trip.

Grunion are a type of fish that lay their eggs in the sand.  It happens at high tide during Full or New Moons between the months of March and July.  The problem is, that it takes place in the middle of the night, between 11pm and 1am.  

We had a picnic on the beach, and then did some geocaching while waiting for it to be time.

During the months of March, June and July you are allowed to catch the fish.  It is interesting to see the wave come up and the beach covered in little silver fish.  You can grab them off the sand, but you have to be quick before the next wave come and they go back in the water.

As for some of our learning time activities:

We've done graphing with goldfish before.  I added an extra challenge for Brielle to do more math by adding her rows together.

We worked more with patterns

and I had the kids work as a team to line up the fish in ordinal sequence

We got out the chopsticks (working on finger dexterity) to sort fish

learned how to draw fish (I forgot to take a picture of the books for the week.  But, I liked that this one had facts about the fish on one side, so I could teach the kids more about the fish as they were drawing. This was called How to Draw Fish, by Justin Lee.)

And we practiced number recognition by playing Go Fish

Food

I have a fish shaped cookie cutter, so we had a lot of fish shaped food for lunch

and even tried to make fish out of our snacks (idea from here...which is much, much cuter.)