Back to the Books

I finally got around to taking some of the pictures off of my phone. A few weeks ago we read the book "Bedtime for Frances" written by Russel Hoban and Illustrated by Garth Williams.

We have a few different Frances books and Ruby has always really liked them. After reading this cute (and all too familiar) story about Frances not wanting to go to bed we did some talking about Ruby's bedtime. She talked about all the things she does before she goes to bed. She did a great job walking through every detail (we have essentially done the same things since she was about 3 months old).  

Ruby decided that her favorite thing to sleep with was her pink princess bear.  I "drew" a picture of the bear for her to color and she was super excited and focused.  She spent a lot of time coloring her picture and wanted to do several more.  She tried cutting the bears out but needed some help from Mama.  She played with those bears for several days after we read the story.

Coloring with her sister

Like any true artist she had to have a model

I am not an artist but my 3 year old doesn't care :)

We finished off our time by watching "Frances: Bedtime for Frances" 

on Netflix Instantly

I know I know

I haven't been posting the weekly books/activities that I am doing with Ruby for the past 2 weeks.  We have been doing stuff but our life is pretty hectic right now.  We are working hard to get our house ready to put on the market and that is no small feat with 2 little ones.  Hopefully I will get a second in the next couple of days to put some photos on here.

Our Telie

Telia (we sometimes call her Telie) has been so much fun lately.  She is super happy and starting to communicate in the cutest ways.  She likes to say "fuff fuff" when we ask her what a dog says and she says "peez B" when we tell her to say "please Ruby".  Doesn't get much cuter.  Here are some pics that I have taken with my phone lately.  Enjoy!

Loves black beans just like the rest of us

Messy Spaghetti

Lovin on her baby

Checking out her Mo Willems book "Today I Will Fly"

Little feet

An Elephant is Faithful 100%

This week we read "Horton Hatches An Egg" by Dr Seuss.  

We had a nice chat about what it means to be faithful (Horton is faithful to sitting on the egg in the book)

Ruby colored this picture of Horton from Seussville.

Thanks to suggestions from Homeschool Share I boiled an egg and let Ruby take it apart.  She cracked it and we talked about the outer layer, the inner layer, the egg white and the egg yolk.  She really like being able to break it all up and peel it by herself.  She actually liked it too and ate 2.5 eggs all by herself!  Telia didn't care for it though.

If you haven't checked out the Seussville website then you should.  We watched some clips from lots of Dr. Seuss cartoons including some on Horton.

We also watched Jim Henson's Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss on Netflix!

If you give...

This week we read the book "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" by Laura Numeroff and Illustrated by Felicia Bond.
I have no idea how to make a link with this picture of the cover of the book but I got it from www.amazon.com

This week we read the book and since we read it often I paused and let Ruby finish parts of the story. We also made up a story about Ruby. I started with "If you give Ruby a...." She decided to go with the cookie theme but we had a little more fun with it and didn't follow the original story. I got those ideas from our Harper Collins "Treasury Picture Book"

We also made some oatmeal cookies from this cookbook that I have.


I put too much flour in the cookies therefore Ruby kept referring to them as muffins :)


Ruby and Brian enjoying their cookies...yes, he is a tough guy



This is what Telia does while we are baking...she runs around the kitchen snacking on crackers


Mmmm

Chicka Chicka

I have decided that once a week I will post about a book we have been reading and an activity that we did along with the book. I figured if I post about it here then I will be more accountable to doing these things with the girls.

Today we read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr., John Archambault and Illustrated Lois Ehlert

We have read this book a million times but today we did a few different things with it. I had Ruby point to all the letters as I read them...she really liked doing this. We also took a "field trip" to the store and bought a tropical fruit- Pineapple! She could not stop talking about how "prickly" it was. We talked about other tropical fruits like coconuts (from the book) and that mama doesn't like coconuts so we don't buy them :)
---quick side note. I usually pretend like I like all the foods that I don't really like in front of Ruby (i.e. green, yellow, and red peppers and onions). I just figured this was one I could care less if she ate or not.
I really wanted to make a coconut tree out of construction paper, put it on the fridge and use fridge letters as we read the book too. We don't have all of the letters in the alphabet anymore though so that will be for another day.

I got some of these ideas from Homeschool Share.

Our first ever prickly pineapple

Ruby showing Telia the book

We used this pineapple to make a smoothie along with
mandarin oranges, bananas, and almond milk.

Ruby didn't like the smoothie but Telia drank some of it.

Romans 8

I didn't give up anything for lent...instead I (along with many many others at Sojourn Community Church) are memorizing the whole book of Romans. I haven't ever memorized that much at one time. I am slow but working on it. I am up to verse 6 now I think. It has been great to have something specific to focus on in the bible and to have friends that are doing it with me.

EDIT: Oops, not the whole book...Only Romans Chapter 8!

The Bee Tree

Last week we read the book "The Bee Tree" by Patricia Polacco and did a little cooking activity with it. This is a great book that Ruby loves to read about a grandpa and granddaughter who follow a bee to find some honey. Lots of people in the town end up going along for the adventure and in the end they eat honey and biscuits. So, we made some homemade biscuits and honey after we read the book (thanks to our friend Sarai for the idea).

Ruby sifting the flour and other ingredients.

Telia was running around playing while we were cooking

Our homemade biscuits (1st time ever). Yes, you can make them without a biscuit cutter as evidenced by the below picture.

Books

I am really excited about some of the books we got for Christmas and thought it was a blog worthy topic


Brian received the following books

Come thou Long Expected Jesus




Kentucky Off the Beaten Path


Filling Up the Afflictions of Christ


I got the following books:

The Green Smoothie Revolution

Treasuring God in Our Traditions


Ruby received

Full Moon Rising



Telia will be reading

Black on White

Our Favorites

I thought it would be fun to talk about some of our recent favorites

- PBS is a recent favorite. We turn it on everyday around 10:00 and watch Sesame Street for a few minutes before nap time. We also can catch some clips on http://www.pbskids.org/

- Ruby has been loving this box that Brian got her at Aldi

- Brian got this study bible for Christmas and it has been so helpful as we have been reading through the old testament

- This is the cookbook that I got for my birthday from my brother and sister in law Tina. It has been great with helping me figure out how to cook seafood. I highly recommend it.

- Brian's new favorite game (although we don't own it) is called Ticket to Ride (but we call it the train game)


- Space heaters and electric blankets

- I think Ruby's favorite book right now is


-We have re-vamped our budget and have finally found something that works. This has lessoned stress on our marriage which is awesome. Mostly we got some ideas from a financial counselor (i guess that is what he was doing but maybe not his exact title) at church and put them into practice.

-Peanut Butter with Chocolate Chips


-One more thing (actually adding this after I posted it once)...this is a great website that I have forgotten to look at but today pulled it up. Great craft ideas for kids. It is called the Crafty Crow and I think you will like it...well if you like crafts, and kids, and maybe not all my male followers out there (daniel ems i know you are reading this :) )

Updates

-- We just finished a 6 week class at our church and read the book "Shepherding a Child's Heart." We learned a lot from the other parents in the class.--Ruby and her cousin Holden hung out today at a neighborhood chilli cookoff.

 

--Ruby went to her 1 year check up and was 18 pounds 11 oz and 28 inches long.  She got her first ear infection 2 weeks later and by that time was 19 pounds 8 oz!  That is a far cry from her birth weight of 5 pounds 1 oz.

--I started watching a friends 4 month old during the week on this past Tuesday.  This is why I haven't blogged very much lately.  Little Moses is a great baby and it has been good for Ruby to learn how to share and be kind to him.  She really likes having him around.  We will be hanging out with Moses until November.  

--Brian and I just started watching "Band of Brothers"  

--The weather here in Kentucky is getting a little cooler and I am super excited about the fall. I get to carry around the fall colored purse that my friend Sarah made for me a few months ago. She also made Ruby's dress that she wore to her birthday party.