7 Years Old!!

Wow! How is my big man 7 already!  Captain got to celebrate his birthday twice :)  First, a few weekends ago when we were in our hometown with the grandparents.  We had our favorite artist Tajci come to do a concert at our parish (visit her website www.idobelieve.com to read her amazing story and see some videos).  Captain was excited because she and her kids (who are his new friends) got to sing to him :)

 Enjoying those race car wheels!

 A bow and arrow!!!

practicing...in full gear (new birthday pjs!)

Then we had a little celebration last night on the real birthday with our wonderful friends!

enojying the new Nexus :)

Happy birthday to my first born and may God bless him abundantly this coming year and Our Lady protect him in her mantle.

Tot's first lapbook!

Little Tot finished his first lapbook ever and does he love it :)  He loves being like the brothers!

I chose Thomas of course for it.  I got it from here.  She has created tons of them and they're free!

Here he is with his shape cards.

He took coloring his trains with such seriousness.  He was so organized about it too!  He'd color the light, then wheels, then window, then steam stack.  He loves repeating the colors after me.

Putting together the counting items...

and here's the finished lapbook (tot book) :)

 He was instantly so good at refolding the accordian fold...I was impressed!

 Than of course Rex had to pull all his out and go through them all again!

Peace and love...

Lauren

Thanksgiving...a little late :)

Ok..I'm a little late posting our Thanksgiving week, but still wanted to show the grammas the cute things we did :) 

Sorting odd and even numbers...

 Finding the hidden turkey (number recognition)

 Thanksgiving math...he did great!

 patterns..

 Cutest song...I sang a song about turkey feathers and they had to find the color and put it on :)

 LOVED this...I laminated the cards and he clipped the right number of objects.

 Little tot loved his trays with pompoms.  I think after the holidays I need to make him some Montessori trays :)  He's getting so big!

and finally...rolling a dice and building an Indian :)

Hopefully after Christmas I'll be quicker with the posting!

Blessed Advent!

Jesse Tree ornaments!

 I'm SO excited!  My Jesse Tree ornaments arrived yesterday (minus two which she'll be sending soon!).  For all of you who don't know, I joined in Jessica at HouseWifeSpice in a ornament swap.  We had about two days to do 32 ornaments.  I was assigned Judith - here are my swords.  

So I made 32 Judith's (I had to make them from things I already had so I made simple stitched felt swords) and women from all over the US and some from Canand made theirs :)  I've been wanting to do a Jesse Tree for years, so when I saw this - I jumped on it!  

And here's the beautiful ornaments...

 Each are so uniquely designed - I LOVE them! 

Sweet Moses in his basket

I love the baptism shell and Isaac's sacrifice logs.

The beautiful book of Law, Jacob's ladder and David's slingshot!

I think one of my favorite is the pregnant Elizabeth!

We put Jesse's shoot and Creation on right away (and then the Fall of Man today).  

To go along with our Jesse Tree, we are watching Holy Heroes Advent Adventure everyday and using their Jesse Tree DVD for a great visual for the kids. 

 Another thing I purchased that I LOVE and will use every year is the Jesse Tree ebook that Ceanne made this year at http://www.sanctussimplicitus.com/  - definitely one of my favorite websites.  I'm so happy I bought the ebook.  You can order the spiral bound book also, but my finances allowed for the ebook!  It's written for 3-4 grade level, but even my preschooler can follow along if I change some words for him :)  He loves taking turns after lunch answering all the questions about the story.  Today he pretended he was Adam and I was his child and he told me the story about the garden and the snake...and of course the promised Redeemer!  LOVE it !

Blessed Advent! May we prepare our hearts for the coming of our Lord...