Random Picture Friday

Hi all!  It's the weekend...and we are very excited about that around here.  We have a birthday party and lots of non planned family time this weekend.  Horray!  Have a blessed weekend everyone!

Children's Museum with Claire

Lily loves watching Luke.

Kevin is such an awesome Daddy!

Baby Lily and Baby Tess on a playdate.

We were waiting for Daddy to get home.

We had a fun morning playing at the library.

She is the sweetest.

Luke stacking soap we got from the 'cuts' (truck).  We love Amazon.

Luke helped me bake some 'yummies' today.

Random Picture Friday/Valentine's Day Weekend

All of my pictures this week are from last weekend.  Kevin and I took the kids for a family date Saturday morning, and then my parents brought my Grandma Hines over from Dubuque, Iowa to meet Lily Jo.  It was a memorable weekend filled with lots of playtime and snuggles.  Kevin and I even snuck away for a few hours for a date.  This weekend will be a bit more low key, which is just fine.  Hope you have a blessed weekend!

Luke's first donut (Valentine style) at Winchell's in Omaha

We braved the cold for some jungle and aquarium fun at the zoo.

How cute is this one?

Great-GaGa Hines playing puzzles with Luke.

Snuggles with Lily

We were baby-less for a few hours! 

Four generations of ladies

It was so great to spend so much time with my Grandma!

Tot School: Hearts {27 months}

Did you all have a great Valentine's Day?  We sure did.  We had a morning family date that was just the best, despite the cold.  Here is what we were up to during Tot School the past week.

Valentine Sensory Bin

Rating: 4/5

Skills:
Sensory development
Colors
Shapes: heart

Activity:
I presented Luke's Valentine sensory bin to him and he was most interested in the Valentine duck.  We talked about the hearts that were in the basket as well as the colors (red, pink, and white).

  
Filling the Dump Truck

Rating: 5/5

Skills:
Art
Fine motor development
Shapes: heart

Activity:
Luke was floored when I showed him the dump truck coloring paper.  His new thing is 'ohhhh' and there were lots of 'ohhh's.  The idea was for him to 'fill' the dump truck with heart stickers.  He did that a bit, but also wanted to use car stickers (of course).

Foam Hearts

Rating: 5/5

Skills:
Shapes: heart
Fine motor development
Sensory development
Colors

Activity:
Using a bowl of water, Luke wet down the hearts and hung them on the window.  Did you know that foam sticks to glass when wet?  Try it sometime.  Luke loved this one.

Felt Hearts

Rating: 2/5

Skills:
Shapes: heart
Fine motor development
Colors

Activity:
Luke was not a big fan of this one.  He put the hearts on the felt board, but then he moved onto something else.  

Stamping Hearts and Valentine Stickers

Rating: 5/5

Skills:
Fine motor development
Shapes: heart
Colors

Activity: 
Luke loves stamping.  When I make cards using stamps, he always wants to be my helper.  We talked about the shape of the heart and he loved using the Valentine stickers GaGa Diane got him.

I am aware that Luke has the same shirt on in each and every picture...how did that happen?  It's one of his favorites right now, so he wears and I wash often.

Linked up at:
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net

Random Picture Friday

Hope you have a wonderful Valentine's Day weekend...spent with the ones you love!

Pizza night with the Plagmans! (They're the best.)

 How can you not take a selfie with this cute?

Melts my heart.

Deep in conversation...

Kevin reading Luke's new Valentine book from Auntie Paige, Eric, and Coop.

Luke's 'Valentine' outfit

Lily's 'Valentine' outfits (and there are more)

Lily Jo is 3 months

Our sweet baby girl is 3 months old.  Where does the time go?  She is proving to be quite the happy and fun baby and we are treasuring every moment.  Here is what our Lily Jo has been up to this month...

• Lily is one smiley baby.  She smiles when Kevin and I talk to her and read her books.  Her favorite game is pat-a-cake.  She is working really hard to laugh.
• Lily nurses 5 times a day and takes one bottle from Daddy at night.  She still spits up...a lot. 
• She takes one morning nap and one afternoon nap a day for around 2-4 hours each.  Sometimes there is a third nap in there as well.  Lily's longest stretch of sleep at night is around 5-6 hours.  We are hoping that improves with time.
• Lily sleeps swaddled with a pacifier.   
• Lily is officially out of the 'newborn phase'.  She isn't able to sleep as well on the go anymore.
• Lily's favorite books are 'The Very Busy Spider' and 'Brown Bear, Brown Bear'.  She gets excited when we pull these out to read to her. 
• We had Lily's 2 month well visit on January 21.  She weighed in at 11 pounds 11 ounces (44.99%), was 24 inches long (92%), and her head circumference was 41.3 centimeters (98%).  I guess our kids are going to have big heads.  

Lily at 2 months
Lily at 1 month
Lily Jo Forristall

Tot School: Triangles {27 months}

We are still learning about shapes here on the trail.  The past two weeks we tackled the triangle.  Triangle is not the easiest word to say for a two year old, but he worked hard trying to master it.  Here is what we did with triangles the past few weeks...

Triangle Sensory Bin

Rating: 3/5

Skills:
Sensory development
Shapes: triangle
Vocabulary
Colors

Activity:
Luke explored the triangle bin for a short while.  He tried really hard to say 'triangle' as we talked about the shape and ran our fingers around it, but he couldn't quite get it.

Dot-a-dot Triangle

Rating: 4/5

Skills:
Fine motor development
Shapes: triangle
Colors
Vocabulary
Writing/Drawing

Activity: 
I gave Luke a triangle sheet from www.3dinosaurs.com and some dot markers and he got to work.  He still hasn't quite figured out how to put a dot on each circle, but it's coming.

***Sorry, no picture.

Gluing Triangles

Rating: 5/5

Skills:
Fine motor development
Shapes: triangle

Activity:
Luke enjoyed this activity a lot.  I put glue on the paper and he placed the triangles on the paper.  He doesn't like getting his hands too dirty, so he didn't want to touch the glue.  

Counting Triangles

Rating: 2/5

Skills:
Shapes: triangle
Numbers/Counting

Activity:
We used number cards and counted out the amount of triangles for each card.  He definitely wasn't into this during Tot School this week.  He likes the number cards, but doesn't really want to count the shapes.

Decorating a Triangle

Rating: 5/5

Skills:
Shapes: triangle
Colors
Fine motor developmentArt 

Activity:
I gave Luke some paint to decorate a triangle.  As much as he loves paint, this activity didn't last as long as I anticipated.  He is more into 'playing cars' these days.

Linked up at:
http://www.1plus1plus1equals1.net