Dinosaur Park

We finally got away for a night as a family. The next morning we took the kids to the Dinosaur Park. We had a great time and practically had the whole park to ourselves. Here are pics of our cute kids!

Smoothie Monster

Matthew has many nicknames around our house (depending on what kind of trouble he is causing at the moment). One of the names we have given him is "Smoothie Monster."

For breakfast almost every morning, we have smoothies. Matthew absolutely loves smoothies. He loves to help make them (he is always the first one in line to help mommy turn on the blender--followed of course by Emily and Spencer), but he especially loves to eat them. He loves to eat them so much that he will finish off his entire cup of smoothie within seconds and ask for more (I have to admit I really should be happy about this because smoothies are really good for him). However, this little smoothie habit has developed into a problem because if I do not watch him, he will finish off his entire cup and then swipe from other people. Sometimes he will pour smoothie from another person's cup into his own, or just drink directly from their cup.

The other morning Jim sat down to breakfast and when he picked up his smoothie cup, at least half of the cup was gone. This is what our smoothie monster looked like . . . does he look guilty to you???

This is our smoothie recipe:

2 Cups milk
2 Cups frozen strawberries (we buy the big bags at Walmart)
1 Cup Yoplait Light vanilla flavored yogurt
1 tsp. vanilla

Growing Gabe

Our baby is growing! He is almost seven months old now and we are starting to see his cute little personality develop. It is so fun to watch him explore the world around him. He is usually at two extremes--really happy, or really grouchy! However, he almost always has a smile for anyone who will talk to him and give him attention--he loves people! Gabe loves making noises (talking) with people, laughing (he has the cutest little giggle!), and he has even started to squeal when he is mad at someone or wants attention. He knows his mommy and gets mad when I try to leave the room or he hears my voice and I am not giving him attention! He's spoiled, but very cute!

Sharing

When I taught my kids to share, I didn't exactly have this in mind . . .

Matthew was the blessed recipient of a bag of candy at church today (can you tell Jim helped me with this wording?) Matthew told me on the way home from church that he was going to "share with everyone," and that is exactly what he did! When I came into the living room, they were taking turns licking the same lollipop--Emily, then Spencer, then Matthew! Gotta love kids!!

Grumpy Spencer

With Halloween just around the corner, it's time to figure out costumes for four kids (not a fun project!) Spencer has wanted to be Iron Man, then batman, then some star wars character that I don't know--he has just kept changing his mind. I have not been excited about Iron Man since I'm not a real huge fan of $20 dorky looking costumes, and a huge part of the costume is the mask which he can't wear to the church halloween party, and which I really don't want him wearing trick-or-treating since he won't be able to see. I have really been hoping that Spencer would change his mind, but I wasn't prepared for this one . . .

Sunday morning Spencer came into our room first thing and got up on our bed. I talked with him for a while and then asked him what he wanted to be for halloween. (I was really just hoping he had changed from Iron Man to Batman.) The response I got surprised me--Spencer said "Grumpy Bear." "What?" I said. "What is grumpy bear?" Spencer then proceeded to explain "You know, mom. He's a blue bear, and he has a white tummy with a cloud on it." Then all of a sudden it clicked--he was talking about a Care Bear! My son wants to be a Care Bear for halloween! (It should have clicked sooner what he was talking about since I grew up in the Care Bear era where we had every Care Bear figure ever made, including the Care-A-Lot playground. I was a huge Care Bear fan!)

So, how was I supposed to respond to this request? I didn't really say anything. We just moved on to something else while I thought to myself "There is no way I'm letting my son be a Care Bear for halloween!"

Since this time, Spencer hasn't even mentioned the Care Bear thing--he's back to changing his mind between Iron Man, Batman, and that star wars character I don't even know. In the end I think Batman is going to win out with a little persuading from mom. I think Spencer and Matthew would make a great dynamic duo of Batman and Robin. I've got to get working on those costumes!

Matthew's Clever Comebacks

Okay, so Matthew is our child that makes everyone smile. He's got this little dimple when he smiles that is so cute! It is really hard to discipline him sometimes because he just makes us smile. However, he is also our troublemaker, and if I turn my head for even a minute, he is usually up to something. He just helps himself to whatever he wants, and gets in to almost everything.

The last several days he has been telling mommy and daddy that we are mean if we get mad at him and put him in timeout. He will say: "Mommy, you are so mean. I'm going to tell daddy on you!" to which I respond the other day, "Go ahead!" Matthew thought for a second and said: "But daddy's not here, he's at work!"

So on to today's trouble . . .
First, Matthew got in trouble this morning with daddy for calling Spencer a name. Matthew's comeback when daddy put him in timeout was "But, daddy, I love Spencer!" (Cute, isn't he?)

This evolved during the day as he got in trouble with other things. He would say: "But, mommy, I love you!"

Next, he got into the freezer and ate all of the ice-cream bars (with a little help). When I soon found the wrappers on the table and asked who the culprit was, the kids all pointed to Matthew. Matthew looked at me and said "But, mommy, I shared--I shared with everyone!" (yes, I was laughing while trying to explain to him that sharing is good, but that he should have asked first.)

Then, tonight we were asking the kids to clean up the mess they had made, and Matthew was not helping very well, so I reminded him that he should be helping, and his response was "But, I can't, my hands are full!" I told him his hands were not full, and that he needed to help.

Later, when daddy asked him to get ready for bed his response was "I can't, my hands are full of . . . (looking down at his hands) fingers!" Then to prove his point, he grabbed the fingers of one hand with the other. Clever kid!

There really is never a dull moment around here with four kids. I just wonder what it's going to be like when they are all teenagers--they are full of so much personality already!

Emily's Lost Tooth

Emily lost a tooth yesterday morning. She put it in a little plastic baggie and proceeded to carry it around all morning against the advice of mom and dad who told her that she was going to loose it! Mom and dad's do know what they are talking about sometimes, and Emily did end up loosing her tooth--it was nowhere to be found at bedtime. To say she was a little upset is an understatement. But, in an effort to sort of teach her a lesson, we looked for the tooth to no avail, then sent her to bed without a tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy, and told her we would look for it the next morning.

After she was in bed, I could hear her rustling around. She got up to go to the bathroom and told me that she just couldn't sleep unless she found her tooth. A while later she got out of bed again (she only did this because daddy was gone last night), and brought me a letter she had written. Here it is:

Here is the interpretation:

Dear Tooth Fairy,

I know that there is not a tooth under my pillow, but I lost one and it is in the living room or in the kitchen. If you don't believe me, look in my mouth. And if you don't take notes, then visit tomorrow. Please do it, and you will get my tooth.

Emily Goostrey

Man, we love this girl. What would we do without her? Life would be a lot more dull around here, and my kitchen table and floor wouldn't always be covered with one of her million art projects (usually involving glue and little cut up pieces of paper!).

We did end up finding the tooth, and the tooth fairy visited last night, so all is well!

Here's our toothless Emily: 

Volcanic Eruption

Scripture Heroes

These are our scripture heroes! This was our first time getting together to act out scripture stories. The kids had a blast and were so cute! This is Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem. Can you tell who is Laman, and is that a hammer and nail gun in those little hands? It worked out perfect that we had a Lehi, Sariah, Laman, Lemuel, Sam and Nephi. I think Emily was okay with being so outnumbered this time since she always feels so picked on with only brothers and boy cousins. One time she commented on a date night while we were watching cousins "Mom, only one more boy, and it would be Snow White and the seven dwarfs!"

The Iron Rod

This week we are studying Lehi's dream in the Book of Mormon for our school scripture study. Usually we get together with cousins to act out the scripture story or do some sort of activity together, but this week we have other plans. I wanted to take the kids back to the "I Am A Child of God" Exhibit at the Church History Museum because they have a display/hands-on activity for Lehi's dream with an actual iron rod. We went there tonight for Family Home Evening. The kids had a great time, and it reinforced our talk this morning about holding on to the rod and making it to the tree of life so that we can partake of the fruit which represents the Love of God.

Volcanoes

Along with dinosaur week, we made a volcano to errupt. Jim made the volcano out of plaster of paris using newspaper and a small plastic soda pop container. He had a great time doing this project and trying to make the volcano as real looking as possible. He sat there for hours making it look just right :) When it came time to paint the volcano, Jim suggested we paint it gray. We didn't have gray paint, but black and white make gray, right? Going on the paint looked gray, but dried it looked a whole different color--blue. I'm sure there are blue volcanoes somewhere! It worked just the same and the kids enjoyed watching it errupt. Matthew kept saying "Again, again!" We set off three or four explosions before deciding to trash the volcano since it would be hard to store and we would just want to make another one again sometime. Next time I think we will try paper mache!

Here are some good links for learning about volcanoes:

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/player/environment/environment-natural-disasters/volcanoes/volcano-eruptions.html
This is video of a volcanic erruption, and there are other videos found on this site as well.

http://www.fema.gov/kids/volcano.htm

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/ngkids/0312/main.html

http://www.weatherwizkids.com/volcano1.htm

Super Kids

Early this morning there was a quiet knock at our bedroom door and a giggle. When we opened the door, we found Spencer and Matthew dressed in their superhero capes and superhero hats (on backwards!) Emily got up shortly thereafter and then we had to have a picture! These sure are wiggly superheroes!



The story behind the hats . . . we bought the superhero hats right before we went on vacation in July. Daddy needed a new hat to cover his head since he gets burned on the top of his head within five minutes of being outside, and the boys wanted hats to be like daddy. When looking for hats, Daddy took Spencer and Matthew off with him to look for hats while Emily and I looked at something else. They returned shortly with my two superheroes--Spencer as Batman, and Matthew as Spiderman. I asked daddy where his hat was, and he said he couldn't find one. He went back to look again, and when he returned, he was Superman! No luck finding Emily a hat, so on to the next store . . .

Daddy took Emily off to look for a hat, and when she returned she was Supergirl! With everyone having a superhero hat, mommy had to have one too! Besides, I couldn't let Superman walk around without Superwoman!

When Stacy took family pictures for us, we had to try one with our superhero hats. They were pretty wiggly superheroes back then too, so we didn't get a great picture!

Family Pic w Hats

The story behind the capes . . .

I was at the church during a Super Saturday Relief Society for another ward where they were making these capes. I knew the kids would love them, and decided to make them for Christmas! With the help of my sister-in-law who can find anything on the internet, we found this website. Jim helped me start these after we put the kids to bed on Christmas Eve. Did I mention that these were a Christmas present??? Anyways, Jim's parents were here for Christmas and they helped us wrap presents while we started this crazy project (which we didn't end up finishing until Christmas day, but it was nice to have one more special present after everything else was unwrapped.) These capes are not hard to make--I just wouldn't recommend starting them the night before. Although, I do know another crazy person who happened to do the same thing the night before a birthday :) (Only because her boys were tying everything around their necks to be superheroes like their cousins. I almost made capes for them for the same birthday, but I would have ended up starting them the night before and decided not to--good thing I didn't!!)

pics of all the kids in superhero capes

Super Woman

So I titled this entry "Super Woman" because I am feeling like anything but super woman this morning, and I need to find her!! I can't seem to get anything done--maybe that has to do with the fact that I am on the computer trying to avoid doing the stuff that I can't seem to get done--hum . . . I feel like I am in a cycle of being really productive one week, totally falling apart the next, then trying to pick up the pieces the next. Keeping that in mind--I am in week three of the cycle which means next week should be really productive (as long as it is only a three week cycle!)

I would like to know the secret for being highly productive all of the time. Come on, I know there are people who do it--at least it seems like they do. I never show up at their house at 12:00 noon when they haven't gotten in the shower, combed their hair, and can barely open the front door because of the piles of toys that have migrated to the front room in just the last two hours, or the diapers that a two year old thought were really fun to dump out of the diaper basket, but not so fun to pick up. I'm only relaying this story because this was my life yesterday when someone from the Relief Society came to my house to bring me a birthday card (early mind you--how come I can't even get out birthday cards to people period, let alone early??) I was upstairs when the doorbell rang and I was yelling downstairs "Don't you dare open that door!!!" Of course, you can't really pretend like your not home when you have great kids who look out the front window at the person standing on the porch and wave--love those kids!!!

So I answer the door. But what do I say?? Do I start with apologizing that I look like I've been run over by a train, or do I apologize for the toys that almost fell out the door as I opened it? I did neither. I just stood their embarrassed with the door only partially opened and thanked her for bringing the card. Then I closed the door and hit the shower, vowing that I would clean like a mad lady to make my house spotless, and make sure that I showered first thing the next morning so that I would never have to experience that embarrassment again!

So, you ask why I am again sitting here unshowered with a very messy house?? Not sure! Guess I wasn't embarrassed enough yesterday--could someone please ring the doorbell and help me out of this mess!!!

Little Mermaid Musical

Emily tried out for a musical at the elementary school called the Little Mermaid. They let her try out because I agreed to play the piano for them. It was put on by the Missoula Children's Theater group--they came here from Missoula and spent a week working with the kids and then putting on two performances on Saturday. Emily got to be a seahorse and was so excited with her little part. It was a busy week for us rehearsing every day, but in the end it was a fun experience that we look forward to possibly doing again next year!

Book of Mormon Scripture Study Outline

This is my scripture study plan for this year - Book of Mormon. The lessons coordinate with the Book of Mormon Reader. I have this in table format on my computer (much easier to figure out), but since I can't post documents in a blog, this will have to do until I get my website up and running.


First of all, we bought the $3 hardbound missionary Book of Mormon for each child and had their name imprinted on the cover for another $3. There is something about having their name printed on the front that makes it extra cool. Besides, it solves the problem of fighting over Books of Mormon and makes mom's job much easier! The one downside to these Books of Mormon is they do not have the Doctrine & Covenants or Pearl of Great Price, so I had to glue things in the front and back cover (Articles of Faith and Joseph Smith Experience) so we could mark all the scripture mastery and have a place for the Joseph Smith stickers.

Our scripture study with the kids works like this: every morning we have a devotional that goes like this:
Song (same song every morning that goes with scripture story)
Prayer
Scripture story--learn or review (monday we learn the story/read from BOM Reader or scriptures, then tuesday through friday I let the kids take turns reviewing.)
Scripture mastery--learn or review
Additional activity as follows:


Monday - nothing additional--it takes longer to tell the story and introduce scripture mastery
Tuesday - scripture marking & scripture sticker (see notes & picture below)
Wednesday - scripture illustration - the kids draw a picture of the scripture story (see notes & picture below)
Thursday - scripture activity - this can be lots of different things. We get together with our cousins on this day and either act out the scripture story using costumes (see Scripture Heroes post) or do some sort of activity (see scripture activities post)
Friday - scripture hero day - if we have learned about a new main character from the Book of Mormon, then we make a goal in a book that I created with pictures of the scripture characters and lines where they can either make a goal such as: "I can be like Nephi by being willing to do what the Lord asks--I will Go and Do!" If there is not a new scripture character, then Friday is a game day/review time with memory games or other fun scripture games to play.



This is our Scripture Hero/Scripture Journal Book:





I put in enough sheet protectors for the year, and then we just keep adding the pictures as we illustrate the stories. Sometimes we take them when we get together with our cousins and the kids do sort of a show-and-tell and explain their pictures to each other.



To go along with everything, I made scripture stickers for all of the stories we are studying. I did this using the pictures from the Book of Mormon reader which are posted on the Church website. I looked through the Book of Mormon reader, decided which pictures I wanted, then cut and pasted them from the Church website into a word document of Avery Labels. If you don't want to use labels, you could just print them on paper, cut them out and glue them (that sounded too messy for me!) A word of advice if you are using labels, you will need to cut around the picture, and it is much easier to do this beforehand rather than have your anxious children watch you cut them out when they are just dying to put them in their scriptures (believe me, I know!) Also, when cutting them out, peel the entire label off the sheet, cut out the picture and then put the picture back on the label sheet. If you try to cut out the picture with the label backing, it is very difficult to get the back off when it is time to use it! Besides, it is a lot easier to keep track of an entire sheet of labels than a bunch of small pictures that are hard to keep in order.


Here is what the labels look like: (side note, we have a color laser printer. If you have an inkjet you might want to put contact paper over the sticker so it doesn't smear when the kids run their fingers across or get it wet as you know they will! You could actually try just printing the pictures on paper and cutting a piece of contact paper slightly larger than each picture and using the empty contact border to stick the picture to the page instead of messing with glue--somebody let me know if that works!)



My sister in law also came up with the idea of sort of a scripture cue card to help us know exactly which scriptures to mark, which page to put the actual sticker on, and to use as visual cues for the kids. This is what they look like:



I put them on rings and then every Sunday as I get ready for the next week, I just move the next picture(s) over from the stories who haven't done yet to the stories we have done. I also like to take this to church so the kids can flip through and review the stories we have covered so far by looking at the pictures (which are the same as what is in their scriptures), and my older ones can read the scriptures and scripture mastery stuff that is on the back.









This is the main plan, which I will adjust here and there as we work all the way through it.

SS=Scripture Story
BOMReader=Book of Mormon Reader
S=Song
SM=Scripture Mastery




Scripture Mastery Note: There is not a scripture mastery for every week, some are intentionally left for review. Also, some of the scriptures I have simplified for kids. I made posters for the scripture mastery that I put on the fridge and we periodically review during the day or at meal time. My sister-in-law made posters with graphics, and pictures she either cut out or drew. I can't draw and I know that I am way too much of a perfectionist to have made something that I would be okay with--every graphic would have to be the same type or something, so I never got around to doing this even though I think it is a good idea for little ones! We seem to do fine with the kids just repeating what I say.



SS: Joseph Smith
BOMReader: Chapter 1
S: The Golden Plates (pp.86)
The best simple Joseph Smith account came from Preach My Gospel, and this is what I used in the back cover for our scripture marking and scripture stickers. Look under my post for Joseph Smith Experience to see exactly what I put in the back cover.

Letter D Theme - Dinosaurs

Dinosaur Book List:
How Do Dinosaurs (count to ten, learn their colors, play with friends, clean room, go to school, eat their food) series by Jane Yolen & Mark Teague
Dinosaur ROAR! By Paul and Henrietta Strickland
Ten Terrible Dinosaurs by Paul Strickland
Can I Have a Stegosaurus, Mom? by Lois Grambling
Dancing Dinosaurs by Sally Lucas
Usborne Touchy-Feely That's Not My Dinosaur . . .
Oh My Oh My Oh DINOSAURS! by Sandra Boynton
Usborne Dinosaurs by Fiona Watt and Rachel Wells
Danny and the Dinosaur books by Syd Hoff
Dazzle the Dinosaur by Marcus Pfister (There is also a movie of Dazzle the Dinosaur)
Ten Little Dinosaurs by Jim Harris (There is a version you can buy with the fingerpuppets that is so cute!)

Dinosaur Worksheets:
There are tons of great dinosaur theme worksheets for Pre-K through 3rd Grade on Learning Pages, but you have to be a member to access this link. Membership is free! To sign up for a free membership, click here. When prompted, store your username and password in your computer so you don't have to login in every time--it is so easy that way! Learning Page has some of my very favorite worksheets. They also have dinosaur fact files and clipart. You will be seeing more links to their resources!
After signing up for a membership, click here to access the dinosaur files:
http://learningpage.com/pages/menu_wkshts/fact_dino.html

Here's another great link for dinosaur math worksheets for different levels--through 5th grade:
http://www.kidzone.ws/math/dinosaur/index.htm

Fingerplays and Songs:

http://www.everythingpreschool.com/themes/dinosaurs/songs.htm

http://www.bry-backmanor.org/dinosaurs/dinofingerplays.html
This one has a cute dinosaur hunt rhyme (like Going on a Bear Hunt)

10 Little Dinosaurs Felt Board Story: Color Black & White I use this to count backwards, skip count to 10, and basic addition/subtraction (there were 10 dinosaurs, I took two away, how many are left?)

Dinosaur Alphabet Book: Color Black & White

Make dinosaurs of different colors--out of felt or colored paper, or just color dinosaur pictures different colors. Play sort of a memory game where you have the kids close their eyes and take away a dinosaur. When they open their eyes, they try to guess which dinosaur you took away.

Activity Ideas:
Make dinosaur sock puppets using felt to make teeth and scales, and buttons for the eyes.

Make dinosaurs out of salt dough and bake in the oven until they are hard. Paint when finished. Use toothpicks to help add details such as eyes and mouth and form scales. Also, make fossils this way by pressing a plastic dinosaur into the salt dough then baking (you could also use playdough to do these activities and not bake or paint it.)

Salt Dough Recipe:
2 Cups Flour
1 Cup Salt
1 Cup Water (add slowly)
Knead for several minutes, then let sit about 20 minutes before beginning your project.
Bake at 200F until salt dough is hard and dry (a few hours--watch closely!!)

Have a dinosaur dig--hide dinosaurs in a bucket of sand, sandbox, or big container of beans and let the kids pretend to be a Paleontologist by digging to find the dinosaurs.

Visit a dinosaur park/museum

Make a volcano and talk about Pangea (see volcano posting)

Snack Ideas:
Dinosaur chicken nuggets, donuts, jello jigglers in the shape of dinosaurs, dinosaur fruit snacks, Sunny “D”