Spelling

Grant is flourishing with his reading and spelling and just loves to spell.  He'll find any excuse to spell a word. Sometimes it's a little difficult to carry on a conversation with him because he wants to spell his response rather than say it...and following the spelling can get a little trying at times.  :-)

We were making some Valentines the other day and the kit came with some sparkly pipe cleaners.  He went over to his tool kit, found the wire cutters, and got to work.  This is what he came up with:

This morning we were working on the digraph "th" and practicing spelling words.  After we finished, he asked if he could spell a few words on his own.  This is what he spelled: sloth queen.  He wanted me to take his picture so we could show Daddy later.

So of course Kate wanted HER picture taken with her "spelling."  

A Few New Favorite Quotes

Context: Nate was out for the evening with a friend and I was putting the kids to bed.
Mom: Daddy loves you guys!
Kate:  Huh?  Daddy loves guys?

Context: Kate got a new toy shopping cart and Grant saw he pushing it for the first time.
Grant: I like it!  You look like a wife!

Context: Grant got some of his Jello onto a piece of paper that Kate was drawing on.
Kate: Granty put Jello on my paper.  That's WUDE! (She frequently is accusing Grant of being rude.)

Context: Grant was trying to decide what he wants to be when he grows up.
Grant: When I'm a teacher, I'm going to have the boys sit at one table and the girls at another table.  Because sometimes it's hard to tell which ones are the girls.  Oh, unless they have a ponytail."

Christmas

I'm finally posting pictures from Christmas.  When I take too many pictures, it takes a while to sort through them all.

 Christmas morning, Grant was so excited to dive into gift opening.  He crawled under the tree to try to decide what to open first.

 One of my favorite gifts every year

 Checking out Kate's new tent

 Grant was very excited about his Lego train.  He'd been asking for one for quite a while.

 At one point, Grant disappeared and I found him in the tent, playing with his new favorite toy...Rainbow Dash.

 The kids got some candy in their stockings and decided they should try to down it in one sitting.  I think Kate actually finished all of it.  Grant's lasted longer.

 3-D Sharks!

 Kate got a set of Hello Kitty Lip Smackers...she was SO EXCITED.  She put it on her lips, her chin, her cheeks...everywhere.  

 Even on her Daddy...

 Gumballs!

 Giving the birds and squirrels a little Christmas treat

 Grant played while Nate put together the Minecraft Legos

 Dressing the magnetic dolls. She did a good job of putting together matching outfits.  But that's not surprising--she's very observant about clothes and loves to look at clothes when we're out shopping.

 There were a lot of pieces to put together for the Lego train, so I got to help out.  It was lots of fun!  I was disappointed that there wasn't more that I could help with.

 Nate and the crazy kids...can you tell they were having a good time?!?

 Look--I actually did it!

 One of Kate's favorite things she got was a hair set--a blow dryer, comb, flat iron, and a pair of pretend scissors.  Nate let her work on his hair many times over the Christmas break.  He's a great sport!

A happy boy and his new train

Learning about Clouds

In science, we are learning about weather.  One of the lessons was on how to identify different types of clouds.  It was a perfect day for it since we had a few different types we could check out.  

Lunch with Lili

Jill and I got to have lunch with this fashionable bunch today.  That's a whole lot of look for one table!

Aquarium

I'm trying to do a lot of schooling on M, Th, and Fr so we can take Wednesdays to do something fun together.  This was our first week with that schedule and we headed to Long Beach to visit the aquarium.  It's one of Grant's favorite places and it was a fun day.

New Cart

Kate found this cart at Target on Tuesday when we were shopping.  She just started pushing it and I figured it was a good thing to help her feel like part of the team instead of just sitting in the cart while I shopped.  She was SO excited.  She would tell every person we saw in Target, "I got my own cart!"  She followed me all around the store and found things to put in her cart.  I might start bringing it with us on future trips. 

Fruit Eater

The kids and I were making a Pinterest recipe that called for orange peels.  I had scooped the flesh of the oranges out and put them in a bowl.  Next thing I knew, Kate was going to town on the oranges, gobbling them up.  That girl loves her fruit.

My Little Knight

We cleaned out Grants room (AGAIN) and reorganized his stuff so he could find things better.  He came to visit me during naptime one day in his knight's outfit that had been missing for a while.  I think he's the cutest knight ever.

Costco Shopping

They won't be able to ride in the cart for too much longer, so I needed to get a picture to remember shopping at Costco with my little pals.