i'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!

woohoo!  after more than three months without a blog post...i have a lot of catching up to do:)
i just uploaded 408 photos onto my laptop (which works some of the time)...thus the LONG blog break.  i will be reliving our summer alphabet adventures...which will lead into a 2012 alphabet.  we were not able to complete the entire alphabet this summer, but i WILL finish before this year ends!!!  we have had a birthday (gavin), the start of school, playdates, etc. that just HAVE to be documented...ha!  i will leave you with a few pictures from our trip up mt. pleasant this past week.  it is just beautiful this time of year.  be back very soon. 

amber

my two favorite guys!

a little belated, but happy father's day to my wonderful hubby...he is an awesome dad, he works so hard, and puts up with me...enough said!

this year he had to work on father's day, so we took a little road trip after church to visit daddy and take him some goodies.

captain farmer:-)

we gave daddy a grill basket and grill spatula-type thingy...but my favorite thing to give...each kiddo did an "interview" about daddy. 

and...my other guy {we do this ting...i say, "you are my FAVORITE boy!" and he says, "you are my favorite mama"} just graduated ...

from safety town!!!  it is the beginning of his school career.  this yea... kindergarten ALL DAY!

stay cool and remember how lucky you are,
amber

Big B, Little b, B, B, B!

anyone remember that book?

so, last week we tackled two letters of our Summer Alphabet.  this post is devoted to our "b" activities...

Build a Fort

this was a whole family fun activity!

who knew a few dining room chairs, a sheet, some blankets and pillows could be so much fun?!  I did!  ha!
we snuggled together and watched an episode of "Good Luck Charlie" together.  joe and i did not last in the fort as long as the kiddos did.  i sure hope we are building memories to last a lifetime.

the letter "b" in sign language is formed by holding your four fingers up and folding your thumb into your palm. as you can see...

we learned the words...
brother (hand formed as if making a duck bill...open and close at forehead) {silly, belle}

brown (form a b with your hand and slide it down the your cheek)

and bible (middle finger taps one palm, other middle finger taps the other palm, close hands like a closed book, open hands like an open book)

thanks for looking in on us.  next post will be about a few of my favorite guys...and then our "J"ammie day:)
amber

"M" Mail letters to loved ones

so...yesterday we wrote letters to loved ones.  i won't mention who got letters, but scribing for gavin and josie was pretty funny.  gavin started safety town yesterday (a two week class on all types of safety...yesterday was fire safety) so that takes him away three hours a day.  it was nice to see the kids writing letters.  admittedly, i don't write letters/cards enough.  it was nice to put pen to paper! {and not fingers to keyboard}

without further ado... the letter "m"

we learned the signs for:

monkey {slide arms up and down from your waist to your armpit}

milk {form a circle with all your fingers...open and close them}

mom {thumb to chin with all five fingers out}

if anyone noticed...i forgot to take pictures of the signs yesterday...so they are in different clothes.

amber

then and now

 my how they have grown...this year i took pictures on the first day of school and on the last day of school.

ok...teacher pet peeve...i TOTALLY misspelled "preschool" in the first picture and it drives me crazy!

wow...STOP GROWING!

and just to throw in a few more pics {so no one feels left out...ha}

josie on her first day of dance and on her brother's last day of preschool...borrowing his sign.

tomorrow we will do another Alphabet Summer activity...i think i am more excited than my kiddos:)
amber

summa summa summatime!

it is the beginning of summer...that time when i feel full of ideas, time, excitement, etc.  a few months ago i started thinking about what i could come up with to keep the kiddos busy and keep their brains engaged.  i came up with the "summer alphabet"...we assigned an activity for each letter of the alphabet.  we will choose a letter (some need more time/planning) and we will not be doing the alphabet in order.  we have cute little envelopes with a letter and an activity inside...

in addition to doing the activity sometime during our summer day we will also learn how to sign the letter and three words that start with that letter.

cat  (pointer and thumb form a circle and other three fingers pointed up...pull out as if pulling on whiskers)

candy (pointer finger on cheek/dimple and twist it back and forth)

chair (make a "c" with your hand and hang two fingers on the bottom of the "c")

today we obviously started with the letter "c" and our activity was chalk paint for the sidewalk.  here is what you need...(and water)

and it looks like this...love neon food coloring

then...HAVE FUN!

with a brief break to run to mama from a passing motorcycle...

thanks for stopping by,
amber