"D" week

I am really enjoying our weekly books, as is Gemma and even Kolbe is beginning to enjoy "big kid" books more.  It is so nice having some rhyme and reason for the books we check out at the library.  We keep a handful of ones that Gemma picks out in the basket in her room to read at nap and bedtime and such, but our letter ones go on the fireplace to enjoy throughout the week and specifically during circle time.  There are so many good books out there.  For kids and adults alike.  So many good books.  I heart books. Some of our favorite "D" week books were:

Make Way for Ducklings

How do you Count a Dozen Ducklings

Dilly Dog's Dizzy Dancing

Curious George's Dinosaur Discovery

If you give a Dog a Donut

Duck at the Door

Webster J. Duck

Harry the Dirty Dog

Daniel and the Lions

So many ducks!!  We did a fun duck craft.

Our verse of the week was "Do to others whatever you would have them do to you." which was very good for Gemma to learn (and hopefully remember).  We also had a fun song to help us learn the verse from our Bible CD set that is similar to this one.  Here are the kids playing the maraca I made while we sang one day.  I need to make another one so they don't fight over it.  ;-D

For religion we read the story of Daniel and the Lions and painted this picture.

We also celebrated the Feast of Our Lady of the Rosary (October 7). I printed off a coloring picture of the rosary and Gemma used small stickers for the Hail Mary beads and large stickers for the Our Father beads.  She had a lot of fun with this and did a very good job.

And a few more snapshots from our week:

Gemma in what she calls her "party dress" - a patriotic tutu and her dress-up apron.  She is serving cupcakes.

Playing with beans.

Enjoying time with cousins!!

One of our many walks to the park!  We are loving Fall!!!

Grandbabies galore

"More"

I think I've mentioned before that Kolbe does really well communicating with the few signs he knows (namely "more", "milk" and "all done").  Here are a couple pictures of him signing "more" (which for him is typically a fist against an open palm instead of the standard two fists).  On the left he is signing for me to swing him more at the park, and on the right (with cousin Anna) for more graham crackers.

Christmas eve

Christmas eve we always celebrate with my in-laws. It is a fun, relaxed, enjoyable time and I always look forward to it. Lots of good food and drink, hanging out, chatting, listening to Christmas music, opening presents of course, watching the kids play (Gemma, Kolbe and their cousin Cooper) and just enjoying being all together as a family (one of Aaron's brothers lives back east and he has a sis away at college). There was no one around to take pictures of the whole group, so we had a guys picture and a gals picture, which was kind of fun.

The guys
The gals (I felt under-dressed, everyone else had just gotten back from Christmas-eve Mass, whereas Aaron and the kids and I went on Christmas morning.)
Me and my sweet girl.
How she's changed since last year and the year before.

And of course my honey and me!
My belly is much smaller than it was last year (and three years ago) at this time. ;-D

All three kids had fun play with Kolbe's new Zany Zoo from his grandma and grandpa.
My sis-in-law made a cool slide-show of pictures from the past five years, so we all had fun watching that. Except Kolbe. He was so worn out from all the festivities that he decided to conk out for the evening. Here he is snuggling with grandma while mommy and daddy got Gemma ready for bed and loaded the car. As you can see, grandma was more than happy to hold a sleeping baby.
Definitely another great Christmas eve in the books!

Fun in a box

My mother-in-law bought a new steam cleaner, and the box kept my children and their cousin entertained for the better part of an evening.
Where'd everybody go?
BOO!

Autumn park-time

We have been trying to make the most of the outdoors while the weather still permits. My sister had asked us to come play at "their" park in the small town where they live several months back, and we finally found the perfect afternoon to do so. Our park days are definitely numbered, so we thoroughly enjoyed this. The park was super-neat, and there were several items (see-saw and merry-go-round) Gemma had never tried, so that was cool.

The babies had a great time hanging out in the swings while Gemma played.
Look at this BIG slide!
Having fun on the see-saw. After a few times up and down she told me to get off so she could do it herself, then was a bit confused when she stood and it didn't automatically take her up. So funny!
Taking a spin on the merry-go-round!
Just hanging out.
And then. She found a kitty. Oh. My. Goodness. Cutest thing I've witnessed in a long time. This cat must live in a house where there are children, because he was very patient with her. Although after 10-15 minutes of this, he got away and then wouldn't let her within 10 feet of him. She was hilarious though, she'd clap her hands and yell "CAT" at it, trying to get it to come. Yeah Gemma. Cats don't listen. Sorry! She had a blast with him though; and NO we are NOT getting her one for Christmas.
Then she hugged and kissed every fire-hydrant on the way home. Weeeeeeeeird...
It was a fun way to spend the afternoon, especially since the time change she and Kolbe have been getting up from their naps by 2:00 or 2:30 and that makes for longer afternoons. It was a great time for all of us! We'll certainly be missing our time outdoors in the very near future. Ahhhhhh, winter...

Happy weekend, everyone!

Rub-a-dub-dub

Priceless. Does this one really need any sort of caption? It was some wild crazy wet times, and we may never do it again, but boy was it cute!

Bibs

My husband's Uncle Tommy and Aunt Lorrie came to visit several weeks ago. They make the trek several times a year and we always look forward to the opportunity to see and visit with them. Aunt Lorrie is an incredibly crafty gal, and always brings some sort of project to show me or work on together. This time it was bibs...and not only did she bring enough oil cloth material for several bibs for Kolbe (yet to be assembled) she also brought some sweet little girl print for my two nieces. The bibs went together very quickly and easily (holler if you'd like the pattern), but I do think I'd like to find someone with a serger I could use next go-around (these are just zig-zagged). It would just give them a cleaner edge. They still turned out super-sweet though, and with some heavy-duty TouchTape for velcro we were even able to outsmart Ruby, who thus far had ripped off every bib she's met! Don't they look adorable?! And speaking of the cousins, here's the most recent pic of the three babies together...Anna @ 11 months, Kolbe @ 9.5 months and Ruby @ not quite 8 months. Aren't they cute?!!

Apple week

Last week was apple week at our house. We had some fun activities and started the week off by making applesauce on Monday morning with some apples from my sister's tree. First we read Applesauce Season together. It was a fun, educational story and worked well after modifying it a bit for Gemma's level of understanding/attention.
It turned out SUPER tasty. We just cooked the apples down in the crock pot and added some butter, cinnamon and brown sugar. Typical Gemma fashion, I think she tried about one bite. Silly girl. Bubby, on the other hand, LOVED it (sans sugar/cinnamon/butter) and I even made another batch later in the week to freeze specifically for him. WHEW! I've peeled a lot of apples lately. 'Tis the season. ;-D
Wednesday was the hilight of the week, when we took a trip to an apple orchard with my sister and her children. The day dawned just perfectly...sunny with a crisp chill in the air. The perfect fall kind of day for picking apples. We had a great time and my sis went all out with some really neat activities for the kids when we got back from the orchard.

Picking apples
Having fun together! Gemma and I ended up in matching hoodies...didn't even plan that!!
Cousins!!
I love this picture.
She dutifully toted her box all over.
Where's Gemma?
Tossing apples in the box is fun, just don't toss too hard!
God's beautiful creation.
Kolbe decided to grab a little snooze.
Our "catch" for the day, around 20 lbs (yea, more peeling for me!)
Time for apple crafts! Gemma got to use paints for the first time!!
Getting their feet painted for the footprint tree trunk.
Blowing the paint around to make the tree-top.
Sometimes fingers work better! ;-D
Adding some sparkly red apples to her tree.
Finished work of art.
Bobbing for apples (slices). "You want us to what?!!"
Taking turns and enjoying some tasty, fresh-picked apple slices!
Who knew bobbing for apples was a full-contact sport!
Sweet Gemma chewed up a bite of apple and crawled over and put it in her bubby-brother's mouth for him. I suppose she's seen me bite large pieces of food into smaller bits for him. It was really sweet.
We also enjoyed reading Apple Harvest a couple times throughout the week. I really like the series from which this book came. The books are geared toward young preschoolers with short concise sentences and wonderful photographs. As we were talking about this book, I was mentioning to Gemma all the tasty things we could do with apples: applesauce, apple pie, apple crisp. I said, "you like apple crisp, don't you Gemma?" To which she looked at me and very seriously replied, "No, I just like grandpa Chris" (who is my dad). Apparently she didn't hear the "p" on the end of "crisp". She cracks me up!!

The week was a success for sure, and we still have lots of apples with which to make yummy treats! Happy autumn, everyone!!