Last Day As A Teddy Bear

Today was Joshua's last day as a Teddy Bear! He had a blast at his party today. They played in the sprinkler, ate Popsicles, and tried to catch bubbles from the bubble machine. Joshua was all about the sprinkler, of course!! The Popsicles were the biggest hit for the kiddos! When I came back at 2 to pick him up I also had to clean out his cubby of all of his things. Kind of sad, because my little boy is growing up right before my eyes and it seems to be happening so fast!! Today, kind of brought me back to the first day we walked into the Teddy Bear class. Joshua crying and plastered to my leg not wanting to let go and both teachers trying to welcome him in and me being nervous when I finally left wondering if he was going to be ok. Oh how much he has changed since that first day. He loved his class, his teachers, and friends that he made over the school year. So, today Joshua was crying but not because he didn't want me to leave, but because he didn't want to leave his classroom. It made me feel good that he was so comfortable and had so much fun that he didn't want to leave. I finally convinced him to go with a promise to watch Elmo when we got home and goldfish(he said no to that offer a few times before he finally decided that it sounded like a good deal). I am so thankful for Mrs. Pam and Mrs. Elaine, they made Joshua's first year at a "school" a success. Joshua had such a full day today, that tonight he climbed up in my lap at 8:15 and said "momma night, night" and then climbed down and walked to his room and crawled into bed. I haven't heard a peep out of him since I shut the door. It has been a good day! Now on to the next chapter in the book, being a turtle!! I have posted a few pics below of his party today!

Here is the Teddy Bear class minus a 2!

Some of the kids with Mrs. Elaine and Mrs. Pam

Mrs. Elaine, Joshua and Mrs. Pam

Bubble Fun!

Every Friday since June they have enjoyed Popsicles on the playground and since today was their "Friday" they got Popsicles

Just cute!!

Almost forgot, at the beginning of the school year Mrs. Pam said that by the end of the year one of her goals would be that she would have all these kiddos drinking out of cups with no lids or straws and would have them using good table etiquette and she accomplished that goal! Pretty impressive, I think, considering she had 14 two year olds to teach!!

Welcome to the Turtle Class

On August 23rd, Joshua will be in a new classroom, with new teachers and new friends! It is hard to believe that Joshua has been going and loving this school for a year now! Since, Joshua was born in 2007 he is the oldest in his class right now, so the school decided that it would benefit him more if he skipped the 2 year old class and went right into the 3 yr old class, also known as The Turtle Class. Dan and I agree that this is probably the best thing for him to do, but I know it is going to be a big adjustment, because he is going to not move with any of his friends from the class he is in now and he will have to make all new friends, which isn't a bad thing, but Joshua is a very structured kiddo and doesn't handle change very well, but I know he will adjust beautifully. He will become completely comfortable with his new teachers and make new friends, just like he did while he was in the Teddy Bear class.

Over the past couple of weeks, Ms. Elaine(his favorite) has been taking him over to The Turtle class to meet his new teacher, Ms. Joelene(JoJo) and get accustomed to going to that class. He was not happy about it! I guess he will just have to do it cold turkey come August 23rd. He does wave to Ms. JoJo and say hello now, so that is a huge step. They have given us a "jump start" packet, so we could read over and get an idea of what goals they will be teaching and trying to reach over the school year.

There are 4 main goals that the teacher will try to achieve with each student during the school year and they are as follows:

Goal #1: Reinforce Social and Emotional Development

Example: making choices between 2 or more things, taking turns, table manners, learning how to appropriately interact with peers and teachers.

Goal #2: Potty Training(HOORAY!!!!!) Potty Training will be the main focus for the first 2-3 months. Let me tell you how excited I am about this goal, SUPER EXCITED. Hopefully, it will help seeing other kids go to the potty and make Joshua want to do the same!!

Goal #3: Reinforcing Fine and Large Motor Skills

Example: cutting with scissors(age appropriate ones), learning how to properly hold a crayon/pencil, putting simple puzzles together, walking in a line, etc.

Goal #4: Intellectual Development

Example: Following simple directions, learning colors, body parts, numbers, begin matching shape, color and size, asking who, what, when and where questions, etc.

I am so excited for Joshua to start this new class with his new teacher and friends! He has learned and gained so much from being in this school! I am so happy that we found this school for Joshua to attend!

Be sure to check back on Aug. 23rd to see how Joshua's first day as a Turtle went!

Sing A Song

Joshua has been singing alot lately! Here he is singing "Sing A Song" from Sesame Street. Turn up the volume and enjoy!!!

Imagination!

Joshua's imagination is starting to expand more and more everyday! Here lately we have turned into butterflies and flown up,up in the sky! We use fly swatters for our wings! Joshua came up with this idea all on his own. He also has been cooking breakfast for me at school with their pretend kitchen, while we wait on his teachers. I have had fried chicken, milk, mac and cheese and many more "pretend" foods for breakfast. All of these foods are washed then "stirred" in a pot before plating and eating! He loves the kitchen at school, he also likes dressing up in different hats! One day he put on a firefighter hat and pretended to be a fireman! Sometimes I will pick him up from school and he will have all these random band-aids on his arms and legs. Come to find out they were pretending to play doctor. Joshua is a very good doctor. He checks your ears, nose, eyes, head and mouth, to which he says "say ahhhhhh" and "open wide". After your check-up he will tell you "good job" and give you a hug! It is so cute to see Joshua being creative and using his imagination! There are endless possibilities!!!!

Dr. Joshua checking daddy's mouth

now the head,

ears look good!

Suuupper Jooosh!!

Girls Weekend 2010

This past weekend was my family's annual girl's weekend! Where the girls go one way and the men go the other along with the KIDS!!! I look forward to this weekend every year! Every year I look forward to the fellowship with all the ladies, the swimming, the shopping and the RELAXATION! Everyone trickled in at different times on Friday and a few showed up on Saturday. Below are a few pictures of our relaxing weekend!

Most of us girls in the pool!

Pretty Pedicures!

Relaxing and chatting while getting pampered! We took up all the seats they had at the spa! Awesome!!!

We did a lot of girl talk around this table!

I will never get tired of saying this, I love my family and I love the women in my family so much! It was so much fun to sit and chat to the wee hours and not have to get up at a certain time or hear little voices saying "mommy! mommy!" We all enjoyed our time together and wish it could have been longer. We actually talked about having it twice a year instead of just once a year, but we are still working out the kinks on that!!

Fun with Fruit!

Here are some creative ways that I have seen in magazines and on other sites to help kids eat their fruit. Joshua, so far still loves fruit, so I really don't have that problem, but it is still fun to be creative with what he eats to change it up a little.



Fruit on A Stick:

Use kabob sticks and layer any fruit of your choice on the stick. You can find these kabob sticks at your local grocery store. I put Joshua's favorite fruit on the sticks and he loved it! Dan and I even like it as a quick snack to grab on the run.

Frozen Yogurt Popsicles:

Any fresh or frozen fruit or flavored yogurt(yoplait, dannon, etc.) will work. I used leftover frozen blueberries for the recent Popsicles I made. All measurements are approximate to taste. You are the best judge. After you blend the yogurt, fruit and a little bit of milk or soy milk, you want it to be the consistency of a smoothie. Just pour the "smoothie"mixture into plastic Popsicle containers(you can find these at Target, WalMart or the grocery store). Put in the freezer for a few hours and then enjoy. This is a great healthy alternative to regular Popsicles and you can have fun and have the kids help as well. Great for hot summer days!!

Frozen Grapes:

Any seedless grapes of your choosing. Put them in a plastic freezer bag and into the freezer and eat them as a nice frozen treat or plop some into a glass of water for a nice refreshing cool beverage.

All these ideas I have tried and have been successful with Joshua and Dan and I even enjoy them. The best part about these ideas is that you can create them your way and they are all kid friendly and a fun way to get your kids to eat fruit and involve them in the kitchen.

WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T PLAY WITH YOUR FOOD!!

"Birthday Cake to Me"

Joshua has been going around the house lately and singing, "Birthday To Me, Birthday Cake to Me". I know he is trying to sing "Happy Birthday", but I am pretty sure it is a bit early for that. I think it might have something to do with his friends at school. Alot of them have birthdays in the spring and summer, so I guess they have been singing alot of the "Happy Birthday" song and having a treat as well. Yesterday while at the store, Joshua asked me if he could have birthday cake. I tried to explain to him that it was not his birthday, but that did not fly with him at all! I thought about it for a minute and decided that this is actually the first time that he has shown interest in something in the kitchen, so I decided that we would make cupcakes just because. So I let Joshua pick out the cake mix and the frosting, and he picked out confetti white cake mix and pink icing! This was a long thought out process, seriously we were on the baking isle for like 5 mins. It was fun though. He then thought he could have them right then, so that was a whole other explanation about how we had to bake them. Come to find out, two year olds could care less about the process, all they know is they want it and want it now....who knew(wink)?!?! I told Joshua that he could help me make them after he woke up from his nap, so after he woke up we proceeded to make "birthday cake to me" cupcakes and it went a little something like this:

Oh the memories that were made during this. I loved it! It was the first time Joshua has ever wanted to help in the kitchen. I have tried numerous times before but nothing until yesterday! He had such a great time mixing, pouring and watching the cupcakes bake in the oven. He enjoyed getting to "ice" his cupcake and adding the sprinkles. It was funny, because he licked the sprinkles off the icing of the cupcake and then just ate a couple of bites and was done. I thought he would eat the whole thing, but he isn't big on sweets, so that is probably why. What a fun experience and memory this was for both of us.

P.S. Since there were 24 cupcakes that were made, we decided to have a lesson in sharing as well, and we decided to share some with my office and give one to each of Joshua's teachers! We kept a couple for ourselves as well.