Category: General

Several weeks ago Isabel noticed some of the girls at school with nail polish on. She had asked me if she could have some too and I told her no because we didn’t have any polish. I think the last time I painted my nails was when I was 13 or so, I’m just not into polished nails anymore. However it stuck in my mind and yesterday while we were running into Rite Aid, I noticed the polish and decided to get a bottle (and remover) just for her… a purple sparkle color that when brushed on is very light in color!

The basic equipment needed for our “mini mani”

Before the polish…

I think she’s excited!

I have some toe dividers that I got from a gift bag when we were going to MOPS (4 yrs ago!) and decided that they would work at keeping her fingers separated and free from smudges. Which actually worked out beautifully!

Waiting very patiently for her nails to dry.

… a little later I found her using the dividers for a comb!

… and after. I applied 2 coats just to make it a bit brighter then just the 1 coat.

Later that day… when she was in her tumbling/gymnastics class she had to stop the class from doing their routines to show off her painted nails!
But she forgot to show anyone in class on Wednesday!

Today Isabel was playing with Legos® and when I asked her what she was making she showed me this…

Flying through the air… is it a helicopter?

Taxiing on the ground… is it an airplane?

We finally ran out of play dough a few months ago and I have been wanting to make a batch of my own. I remember making it when I was in high school for the Sunday School class that I taught. This morning however, I made some simple cooked (I’ve never made a cooked dough before) play dough. When I first began to make it, I didn’t think it was going to work out (to runny) but after a few minutes it turned into dough rather quick in the pan. After taking it off the stove and out of the pan (with rubber gloves, it was HOT!) it turned out rather nice. I like the texture, smell,  and cleaning up any play dough bits stuck in hard to reach places is simple; just rinse under warm water! Also, I like that if at any point the dough begins to dry out, which happened several times. Just stop what your doing and gather all the dough in a ball and work it for a few minutes. Unlike the store bought dough, when it dries up it’s thrown away. So we’ll see…

Simple ingredients for this dough, baking soda, corn starch, and water. I cut the recipe in half because I did’t have enough baking soda which ended up making a good amount for Isabel to play with.

Loading up her shape maker for stars, circles, and crescent.

Stars to begin with.

Now it’s circles. Your hands do tend to pick up bits of dough as you play with it but that washes off very easily.

Later she made a pie with eyes. What fun!

No school today due to the weather. Bummer!… and the sun was out too (but it was very cold!)!

Since we had to miss school, Isabel wanted to play school. I was the teacher and she was the special helper for our class. I thought it was a great idea since we haven’t worked on numbers, letters, and writing small words in a while now. So I got out the easel and we sat in the kitchen to work. Enjoy!

Isabel has actually been working on her own writing and leaving messages on her easel. This one is from yesterday that I found after we got back from soccer. It should read, “Isabel (shop) is closed for a nap (she went to soccer). No. But After (soccer)” She did very well sounding out all the words on her own.

This one I found this afternoon before we started playing school. She almost has it! Way to go sounding out the words.

To start off with I had her write numbers in sequence, like write the numbers 5 through 9 or 12 through 15. Then I did that with the alphabet as well. We did this for a bit and then I had her write her name (written at the top of the easel). She can get through her first name really quickly but her last name, she sounds it out and works over each letter. Its fun to watch!

Then I got the words that we were having her learn 2 years ago and had her write them on the board. She did a very good job. She had a little trouble with the word “you” but we worked on it together and hopefully she’ll get it next time!  After she would write the word on the board, I would have her tell me what the word was; like what is a pig? what do you do with a hat? what is a rug? what is a lip? She thought this was fun. I also used it in a sentence several times and would make up silly sentences as well…

My lip can run on a rug.
I saw a bat out the window at night.
You can use a bat to play baseball.
The pig sat on the boy who wore a hat.
Where does milk come from?

We will have to work more on word building in the future as it gets closer to kindergarten in the fall. We had a lot of fun!

Today after school and lunch, I headed out back with Isabel to practice for soccer tomorrow.

Gorgeous day to be out practicing soccer.

Running to get the ball.

Getting ready to kick.

We chased each other around while we dribbled the ball up and down the yard. Our “goals” were the area behind Isabel (above photo) and to the end opposite end of the grass before the bushes along the fence. We had fun but it was a bit cool, might need to wear gloves next time but so glad the sun was out… We’ll see how she does tomorrow at Soccer Shots.

After church, while Jeannie was getting ready to head back home, these 3 were whooping it up in the front room.

Dancing around or falling over… Lots of laughter and squeals of joy!

Aaron playing a tune on the Pooh piano.

Cute little cousins… Isabel, Aaron, and Shianne (Shi).
They had so much fun this weekend!
Thank you for coming and celebrating Isabel’s birthday with us!