classic ives

suckin' her thumb and twirlin' her hair. 

 classic.

the grocery store

We've been busy lately.  busy.  I don't know with what specifically, but playgroup, taking max to school, picking him up, his 100 mile club, volunteering in his classroom, sewing, packing...everything.  The days just fly by and I don't know where they go!

So, today, I took a break...I needed to get some stuff from the store, so on the way out the door to take Max to his morning run, I grabbed Ivy's toy shopping cart that her sweet cousin gave her a while back.  She loves the thing around the house...but nothing compared to taking it to the store for reals today!

 She did EVERYTHING today.  

I told her what we needed and where it was, and she grabbed it off the shelf.

 If it was a little too high, I picked her up to get it.  She chose the bananas, the cucumbers and chose what cantaloupe to get.  She was very particular as to where to put things.  She didn't like the stacking idea, the bananas HAD to go under the cart, and the meat was not her favorite thing to have in her cart.  (hilarious)

 She battled her way around end caps and mid-aisle displays, and around old ladies who were just too slow for her patience ( I totally know that feeling!)

 She was so proud of herself!

 Then she unloaded all of her goods onto the conveyor belt, by herself.

 She swiped my card, pushed the buttons on the debit machine...and then she got a pink balloon for all of her efforts.  

and she was sooo happy!

Max is famous!

There's a new Pediatric Clinic in Gilbert, AZ...who just happens to be my awesome Peds Doc Brother-in-law...and thank goodness he is, because we call him constantly for advise on what shots we should give, how much medicine to give, and if we really should go to the Dr...or just have someone to ease our minds.  He's awesome...and here's his newest flyer starring...our favorite: Max! (upper left)..isn't he YuM!?!

So if you're in the market for a new Pediatrician, and you live in AZ...seriously...Steve's the best!

What Max has been eating lately...

he's gotten one of the legs in his mouth already, just he tip...oh man...I wonder if he'll continue to eat it!

I got this lollipop for him when he turned 4...so, over a year ago, and he wouldn't' touch it then.  no way, no how.  So I showed it to him again the other day, and he was so excited!  I guess Kindergarten does something to a kid!  I'll show you progress as he goes...Nasty!

I got a brand new pair of roller skates

I sent Jeff to Wal mart to see if he could find a new tire for Ivy's little hand-me-down bike that our friends gave us.  He came back with a brand new bike...I guess it was cheaper than buying to new tires!

Anyways, Ivy was thrilled to have a big-girl bike, especially because she hasn't been able to reach the pedals on her little trike.  Anyway, she can ride this one!  woo hoo! so fun!

 Her friend Jaxon came over to ride bikes one morning, and they were out there for almost 2 hours.  (nice, I can just sit on my extremely lazy bum in the driveway and watch!)

Conference

Normally, the FHE before conference, we learn about King Benjamin and how he built a tower so that he could speak to all the members of the church.  All the people gathered around that tower and set up their tents to listen to their prophet.  Then he wrote down what he had said, and sent it around to all the members so they could re-read it and remember his counsel...hmm, sounds familiar, and I think it's so appropriate for my kids to learn about why we have conference, and how important it is to listen to our Prophet today!
So, we normally break out the little kiddie tent, call it a reverence tent, and give the kids a few conference activities to do in their while we're listening.  We usually only make them listen to the Prophet speak on the morning session on Sunday...one talk is MORE than they can handle normally.  I talked about it here.   BUT this time, Jeff was gone at work, I was too lazy to walk out to the garage and get out the tent, let alone set it up by myself, so we make-shifted a tent and called it good.  

 We made it through 5 talks...they were so enthralled with their activity books this year...I was so impressed.  

anyway, i love this tradition that we have an just thought I'd share it...again!

Playgroup Strikes Again!

I loved doing play group a couple of years ago with Max...It was just Max and another cute little boy his age, it was easy to plan stuff for two, fun to make stuff for just 2, and I actually LOVED doing it every week.

Last year, we attempted a playgroup with Ivy, and in hopes of giving ourselves more free time, we did it for 2 weeks straight...well, 5 girls (or boys, for that matter) for two weeks straight makes me want to stab out my eyes...I might be the only one!

Anyways, so with not feeling 100% with our little rookie on the way, the thought of doing a big group again made me cringe.  So, we kept it small again this year, with 3 girls (the other two went two are older and went to "real preschool" and we chose to do take on one week at a time!  It's waaaay better!  way!

So, 2 weeks ago, I was in charge of the letters C and D...and my lens on my camera was giving me fits, so I didn't take many pictures, especially on C day...but I still thought I should record what we did!

C was for caterpillar...we learned about them, did a flannel board story, did some color matching with caterpillars, 

 worked on numbers and counting (which also starts with a C..)

and then for snack, we read the very hungry caterpillar, and wandered around our yard snacking on the same foods the very hungry caterpillar ate...apples, pears, plums, strawberries, oranges, a sucker...and lastly, a leaf (a piece of lettuce)...the girls were hilarious with the fruit.  ha!

anyways, that was C...

 D is for Desert

learned about deserts from a couple of books, learned where the desert was in the US, and what kind of animals and plans live there...and why other animals don't!

We explored a desert scene chock full of desert creatures, eek!

We learned about the plant life in the desert...

...and then created our own using green salt dough and broken spaghetti noodles

 and we talked about the scary animals that live in the desert...ok, mostly just this one that Grandma brought us.  yikes!

 Then we worked on the letter D with Dots, of course...they loved this activity...those dot-a-dot paints from Lakeshore are awesome!

Little Turkeys

They sleep with the hall light on and the door open "big" per Ivy's request.  How on earth did this happen without us hearing them? 

What a bunch of turkeys!

...and really, how did they fall asleep right next to each other?  that never happens!