Before.

After and…

there she is!

From Gmpa; a warm outfit to keep her warm in the winter and flower seeds because her flowers didn’t make it last year that we planted. We’ll try again this year…

From Gma; a love shirt and skort outfit. Gma said it reminded her of all the love she has for Isabel…

From the Kinne’s; she got this cool tie-dyed jacket and a “My Little Pony”.
(which btw…is a 5T!)

The front and back of the jacket have the same design; a heart.

A close up of her My Little Pony; Star Song.
(Isabel wanted me to add this photo – “So they can see it close, Momma.” she said)

From Uncle Ron, Aunt Sarah, Aunt Crystal, and cousins; $20.00 which she’ll be saving in the bank.

And last but not least…

From the Ware’s; a very adorable “Hello Kitty” backpack, which she wore all morning long and refused to get dressed because she didn’t want to take the backpack off.

Thank you, everyone! She’s showered with so much love…

We made a total of 5 flowers; 2 blue, 1 pink, and 2 red.
They were super easy to make and gave Isabel more practice with scissors!

She gave each of us one of her flowers.
Gino got a red one, Gabbi a blue one, and I got the pink one.

Since wearing it, she has told Gino and I several times that she plans on wearing it to school…I need to get the second one made!

Also today, we working on cutting and pasting and finished up our Kumo book that we started about a year ago. She was excited to receive her certificate of completion! She’s gotten very well at handling scissors and pasting is a breeze! Great job!

Her last few projects in the book were cutting curved lines and zig-zags.
Open mouths.

Closed mouths!

The last few projects were cutting apart a page and then re-assembling it to make a whole picture, like a puzzle. She really liked these projects. The bird and the hippo were leftover projects from the last time we worked in the book.

Cherry tree and rocket.

So proud of her work! Hurray for Isabel for learning how to cut and paste like a big girl! You’ve come so far in the year since we have started. Keep up the good work!

Excited to get some new gifts.

First a new safety helmet.

Mommy’s favorite gift for Isabel…an iron-on shirt of Lula!

“A Nemo game, Daddy!” she says.

Final gift…a new Big Girl Jesus bike!
The bike has flowers and doves all over it and the first thing I thought of was…
“It’s a Jesus bike! How cool is that!?!”

I think she likes her Jesus bike!

With help from Daddy, not to ride into anything…
a ride around the kitchen/dining room before cake.

Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you
Happy Birthday to you – Isabel
Happy Birthday to you!

You have grown so much this year…the year ahead has so much new growing to do! We can’t wait to see what God has planned for you!
Remember God loves you and we do too! We love you, Ladybug. Happy Birthday!

The birthday girl is awake!

A birthday girl breakfast; waffles and fruit.

Mommy and Isabel. She spent the day playing with pre-party balloons and decorating her own cake which she thought was so cool!

She decided not to go with cupcakes this year and went with a cake instead. She chose milk chocolate cake with milk chocolate frosting and flowers for the decoration.
Gino did the flowers and sun. Isabel put the candies on and I did the wording and ribbon along the edge.

Let the celebration begin!
I bought this balloon kit at Wal-mart that came with a small helium tank, balloons and ribbon. So while Isabel and I went to get Gabbi from the train, Gino stayed home and filled a handful of balloons! She was so excited!

A birthday girl dinner; she wanted PB&J for dinner but after a few ideas from Dad and Mom, she decided on spaghetti (w/meatballs) again this year.

Anyway, upon arriving, the doctor enters and begins to ask Isabel her name, how old she is, who I am, and why she’s here today. Isabel goes along answering all the questions, except for two! She did an amazing job! She got a special treat for doing so well! Isabel only got “nervous” when the doctor looked in her ears.

Thankfully, Isabel had a simple diagnosis and didn’t have an ear infection. Hurray! One ear had a bit of fluid and we were given a prescription for ear drops and the other ear…her ear drum was pressed up against the back bone in her ear (like when you change elevation and your ears “pop”) and we were given a prescription…for GUM! My mouth dropped open for that one! Just your regular chewing gum nothing special there. (We are believers that children shouldn’t have chewing gum…at least until their 30.)

So after stopping at Wal-mart and getting the ear drop prescription, we head home and after giving some ground rules about chewing gum. I give Isabel her first piece of gum. She did very well and chewed and chewed and chewed for about an hour. This continued throughout the day (and the following), as was directed by the doctor. The following day, after I gave Isabel her ear drops and gave her some gum to chew. She went off to play. When all of a sudden she bursts out screaming/crying! She comes running in to me crying and upset, that it took me a moment to figure out what she was trying to tell me.

“Momma, it was my throat!” she says crying.

“What did your throat do?” I ask.

“It was my throat that swallowed it, Momma!” she says again crying.

“What do mean?” I ask a bit confused by all the fuss and tears.

“Momma, it was my throat that swallowed the gum. It wasn’t me!” she says crying.

Gino and I just looked at each other and tried not to laugh! She was so upset over her throat swallowing her gum that it took me 10 min. to calm her down! Silly girl…

Oval.

Crescent and star…again both pages have minimal coloring in the areas that need to be colored.

This was a matching and pasting project.
I cut out all the shape for her because they were so small.

Shape recognition.

Smallest to largest.
Her number writing skills need a bit of work since her 2’s look like 1’s and her 3 on the honey pot is backwards. But she did it!

Follow that pattern.
This was so fun to watch her do; the large gift on the top in colored because “it has paper on it so no one can see what’s inside”, she says. The short gift on the bottom is a bit big but it has a smiley face in it! She really enjoyed this one and I enjoyed watching and listening to her do it!

Last one…follow the pattern.
She drew each correct shape/color but then had to color each one in.
(Each shape is completely colored in compared to when we first started the book…)
Great job Isabel and congratulations for completing your shapes and sizes!

Circle.
To get her started, I did the blue one.

Square.
Which if you notice…I actually did for her because at the time, she didn’t understand what to do…I should have waited.

Triangle.
Notice her coloring at the time we started; she never would fill in the area to be colored. In her mind, I think, she just needed to color the number 1 yellow, the number 2 blue, and the number 3 red – nothing more.

Rectangle.
Again, I did the dot to dot and I should have waited.

These last 2 pages are shape recognition review.

]]> http://www.espinozafamily.net/blog/2010/01/04/learning-with-pooh/feed/ 0 http://www.espinozafamily.net/blog/2009/12/26/project-cutting-board/ http://www.espinozafamily.net/blog/2009/12/26/project-cutting-board/#comments Sun, 27 Dec 2009 00:00:51 +0000 Carey http://www.espinozafamily.net/blog/?p=2798 When Gino started working on Isabel’s table, we decided in secret that he would also make a cutting board for Gabbi for Christmas. Enjoy!

Cherry and maple blocks being glued together.

After the first drying, Gino cut them, flipped them with the end grain facing up,
and then…

…glued them together again.

Then he rounded the corners, planed, sanded, and then sealed it with a salad bowl finish (which means it’s safe and non toxic!).

The finished cutting board top.

The finished cutting board bottom; it has rubber feet to keep it from slipping.

Christmas Day
Gabbi with her new cutting board.