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Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Letter B

     Moving along the alphabet, on to the letter B! Trying to keep things fresh, I returned to a favorite activity for tracing our letter- bingo daubers.

Ready to start our lessons.

JT loves using the bingo markers.


JT and Mason carefully forming their "B's"

Perfect placement of the circles!

Ella was in the mood for orange B's.

We then colored our B is for Bee page.

JT started off tracing "bee" first. He is loving learning how words are written, sounds they make, and words the letters start with.

Color time!

Bee-u-tiful!

Monday, September 23, 2013

Fall Burlap Wreath

     It has been 2 years since I was bitten by the Pinterest bug and made my first wreath. Since then, I have made a wreath for every season and I believe 2 Holiday wreaths (Christmas and American Flag). I've been wanting to make another wreath for a while and I decided to make a new wreath for my favorite time of year- Fall!!!

I have pinned several burlap wreaths on my Pinterest and I thought it was best suited for the fall season. I went to Hobby Lobby and bought all of my supplies. Wire wreath form, two rolls of burlap ribbon, floral wire, and a few autumn colored floral decorations.

I followed the step by step instructions I had found and started with weaving the wire through the burlap, then twisting it to the wreath form.

This is the part that is simple, yet tricky. I used the directions that seemed to be the most simple (less things to cut and tie off). All I had to do wad weave the burlap under and over the wire form. The tricky part was to leave loops in the each of the sections and keep the weaving closed together as you continued weaving.

I ended up playing a bit with the weaving technique and the tightness until I was happy with how it was progressing. I think I started over 3 times before I was convinced I was heading in the right direction. After that trial and error, it took me less than an hour to complete the burlap.

Note to self- burlap is pretty messy!

There was burlap lint everywhere! I wanted to vacuum the dining room anyhow.

After the wreath was finished, I jazzed it up with these pretty fall berries and leaves. I didn't take photos, but I used a wire cutter to cut off small sections of the branches and arranged them on the wreath. I secured them on the wreath with some more floral wire.

The finished project! I was pretty pleased with the outcome. I might try for a fuller effect next time.

The Apedaile6 front door is ready to welcome our guests and Fall!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Alligators

     In continuing our letter focused lessons, the kids and I worked on a fun Letter A craft. Making an object out of the letter of the week! 

We started with large letter A's that needed some coloring.

 I was really pleased to see that all of the kids started off with tracing their letters rather than coloring.

Then, they each added several colors to make their letters come to life!


After they were finished coloring, I cut out their A's, and they were glued to a piece of paper. Our A's were ready to be transformed into Alligators!

Ella carefully placing her alligator's teeth


JT showing our patent pending "Pat Pat" move for making glued items stick. We added some eyes after the teeth.

A is for Alligator!

Ella looks a bit frightened of her alligator.

Mason has a friendly alligator.

Big success for our first letter animal craft!

JT's first sport

     The time has come for JT to begin his official sports career. His first sport, soccer. This summer, JT really enjoyed many evenings in the backyard dribbling the ball and playing with his sisters. He would keep asking when he could play soccer, so John and I decided to sign him up for his first club season this fall.

 After buying all of his new soccer gear, JT was ready for his first ever practice! He was SO excited!

 Our little star sat patiently in his chair while John tied his cleats.

 While we waited for his Coach and the rest of the team to arrive, JT and John warmed up.

 He approaches every kick with gusto!

 The soccer field is HUGE. There are several age groups ranging from 4 to I imagine 16/18 years that practice at the same time. To give you an idea of how big this field is, the largest size soccer field(maybe close to a regulation size?), this entire area can fit 4 deep and 2 across-8 total large fields here. 

 Great  shadow shot.

 JT's under 5 soccer team. Except for the little boy in the batman shirt, that is the Coach's younger son and he joins the group often.

 Lots of learning the basics- kicking, stopping, and that we don't run for the ball after it's out of bounds. That last skill is tough to master at this age.


 Thumbs up to Coach that JT is ready.

 The team even scrimmaged a bit.

 Fighting hard to get the ball.

 JT stayed with it and scored!

 GOAL!

 Nothing but focus on the ball.

 Another thumbs up to Mom and Dad for his efforts.

 I have NO clue what JT was doing here, but this picture is simply hilarious!

A very sweaty boy who had a great first practice. Mid 90's for our first week of soccer is not what we envisioned, but hoping some fall weather comes soon.

Monday, September 16, 2013

Crabs

     In continuing in our letter of the week theme (B didn't get proper attention due to several of the children being  out sick that week), it is now Letter C's turn!

Any guesses what we might be making?

First we "pat patted" the C sideways on the paper.

JT must be one of the fastest patters around!

Ella patting her claws in the perfect place.

Mason all smiles, like usual.

Time for his claws.

C...

is for...

Crabs!!!

They made the most adorable crabs on the block!