Mamarazzi Monday: Day at the Park and more

It is time once again for me to be able to share some of our week in pictures.  

Are you part of the Mamarazzi?

The female version of Papparazzi.  (noun)
"Look at that Mamarazzi!"

The one who instead of cleaning up, says
"Wait right here... Let Mommy get her camera...."

One of many days at the park:

Who's activity gym is this anyhow?

So cute, sucking her thumb.  The other two didn't do this, even though mommy and big brother Steven did.  She calms herself down pretty well and falls asleep by sucking her thumb.  

Some random pics:

Another edition of 

Close up/Whole Picture

Close Up

Whole Picture

This is on our front porch. 

The nest is there from last year.

Close Up

Whole Picture

Close Up

Whole Picture

This was just this evening.

We had to go down stairs because of a tornado warning.

Hannah just laid there content as could be.

W lessons concluded

Well, we didn't do very much this week.  Brother and sisters were down from NY for the weekend and left after lunch on Monday.  So the morning was spent with them.  They spent a lot of time at the park recently.  The girls love swinging and sliding.  Of course, Tuesday was play group.  We did take our two W books with us, a couple of the children have gotten used to us bringing books to read.  The ironic thing is, Tabitha and Amelia rarely want to hear the books while they are there.  The first book we took was: "Diary of a Wombat" by Jackie French,which is a really cute story detailing the daily activity (or inactivity as the case may be) of a Wombat from the perspective of said wombat.  If you are wondering, a wombat is another one of those unique creatures that lives in Australia.  Oh, and they look a lot like bears only smaller.

The story is adorable!  Wombats tend to sleep and eat a lot.  The cute part about this plot is that the wombat gets new neighbors, humans.  It is amusing seeing normal everyday objects from an animals perspective.  

The other book we read several times was "Weaving the Rainbow" by George Ella Lyon and Stephanie Anderson.  The weaver in this story takes care of sheep, white sheep, but she can see a rainbow in their future.  The reader goes through the year with these white sheep who are getting closer to the rainbow.  We learned about shearing and preparing wool to be worked with and a quick introduction to looms and finally we see the rainbow the weaver has seen all along.  

Two great books to go with the letter W.  I wanted to find a way to do a weaving activity with the girls.  And then...another great find at the thrift shop last week.  A book called "Things I Can Make" by Sabine Lohf.  It had a Loom Weaving project!  I followed the directions then did some tweaking.

I took two cereal boxes (one per girl) and cut off the back panel.  Then I cut slits in 2 opposite ends.

I stretched yarn from one side to the other, probably not the correct way as the yarn would pop off when the girls would try weaving.  I rectified that problem by taping the slits closed at the top.

We tore old scraps of material into strips 

which I tied together.  

First they were too long, so I cut them in half, as I decided we could always add on as they were just tied together anyway.  The weaving was definitely too confusing for Amelia, but Tabitha is getting it. She did get tired of it after a few passes through the loom.  We decided it would take a few days of working on it a little at a time to get it finished.  I debated putting it on the shelf as an activity, but Tabitha said she wanted to finish it so she could hang it on the wall.  Maybe I will make an extra one for the shelf, so the girls can work on it occasionally and improve their weaving skills.

We also played the Winnie the Pooh file folder game again.  

Tabitha played on Starfall and wanted to write the words they gave her to go with the e.  She made some of the letters, but I decided I would make some activity pages with the words for each letter (one letter featured per page) written out as dots.  Then she can reuse it over and over as we can put the worksheet for the letter she is working on in a sheet protector and use dry erase markers.  

Tabitha continues to amaze me by being able to spell words orally that we give to her, or she comes up with herself.  I am planning on writing a post soon highlighting some of the strategies that seem to have worked for her with her reading readiness .  Who knows, maybe these same things could work for you.  Of course, who knows if they will even work for Amelia.  All I know is, Tabitha is only 3 1/2 and she can read simple words. And after she sounds it out and realizes what she has sounded out she gets so excited and proceeds to tell me what she knows about the word.

Amelia was enjoying our ABC wipe off book I found... yes you guessed it...at the thrift shop.

However, we have had this book for a couple of months at least.  Tabitha is the one who wanted it and usually uses it.  Today, Amelia took her turn.  Mostly scribbling, but the scribbles meant something to her.  She made some scribbles that looked like V's and called them V's.  So she is definitely catching on.

Today I read a big book called "Spinning a Web" by Lisa Trumbauer.  

Then we made webs.  I glued black construction paper onto a piece of cardboard (actually it was one of the panels I had cut off the cereal box for the weaving loom).  Then I cut out two almost circles and then cut out slits.  The girls twisted yarn around and around to make a web.  

And as soon as I find the blog I found this on I will link to it.

Update: I found the blog where I spotted the idea for this web craft/activity.  Nicole over at Tired, Need Sleep had finished up a unit on bugs.  Here is the link to her Weekly Wrap-Up post on bugs.

To see what others are doing with there tots and preschoolers head on over to 1+1+1=1 and Homeschool Creations

Completing Him Summer Challenge: The Wedding

I am participating in the Completing Him Summer Challenge hosted by Courtney over at Women Living Well. This weeks challenge is simple.   Remember Your Vows - post pictures of your wedding day. We will review the sacredness of this day.

Our wedding was really simple, we were as frugal as we could be.  With our families and friends working beside us we prepared a simple, yet meaningful ceremony.  We had known each other a little over 6 months, but one of the songs that was popular at the time said it so well, "When God made you He must have been thinking about me."  We feel we were brought together in God's timing.  After we stopped speaking "hypothetically" and decided we were to get married, we began to plan.  We enlisted the help of a friend at church to make a slide show which was to be shown during the ceremony.  He skillfully put together the pictures of us (recent pictures, growing up pictures, pictures of our children) to the song "When God Made You." by Newsong.  Here is a link to a copy of the lyrics.  I was fortunate to find a wedding dress on sale at a small wedding shop in the small town where I used to go to church.  My friend and I created our bouquets with artificial flowers.  I made hair clips (finished them the day of the wedding, so like me).  A friend from church styled my hair and all three girls' hair as a wedding gift.  Harold's sister prepared the food.  Someone who Harold knew owned a bakery and gave us a deal on the cake.  And we had the ceremony at the church I attend;  there is no charge for church members.  And to top it off, the church was already decorated for Easter in the light purple color I wanted for our wedding.  We arranged the furniture the night before the ceremony, along with the Rehearsal.  The wedding went off almost without a hitch.

We had my and Harold's mother light the candles and be seated by Harold's boys (Chris and Alex) to the song Wind Beneath My Wings.

Harold, Harold's dad (who was his best man) and Pastor Wally entered to Fun Zone by Weird Al (I believe my hubby has to be Weird Al's number one fan).

The processional was set to the song "Two Less Lonely People in the World" by Air Supply.

I was escorted down the aisle by my two sons to the traditional music.

Looking back on the wedding DVD today as I was trying to remember details (and I also just took the majority of these pictures by pausing the DVD and photographing the screen) I was so touched by all Pastor Wally said about marriage.  Christ is to be our example.  He quoted Paul as the teacher of what love should be from 1 Corinthians 13, part of which we had printed in our wedding programs (which I can't find or I would have included).  Pastor Wally used both the traditional wedding vows and then allowed us to use the vows we made ourselves.  It is by God's grace that we have come together, so his girls, Amanda and Candice sang Amazing Grace.  He also talked about needed Christ in the middle of our marriage to avoid the friction that would come with out him. 

We then showed the "When God Made You" slide show.  After that we joined the separate candles together and lit the unity candle.  As stated by Pastor Wally, "It symbolized how we are made one, our thoughts are to be for each other." And blowing out the individual candles symbolized that we are now united and are not divided anymore.  We then sang "Bind Us Together" which was a song we sang at Koinonia and at my old church and new church.

We were introduced as Mr. and Mrs. 

Then we took pictures while the food was prepared.  These are the only pictures I had until I decided to take pictures of my tv screen today: