The One Where Jade Turns 16.

 

Wednesday was Jades birthday. Did I mention that she is 16? When did I get old enough to have a 16 year old? 

The week of her birthday was pretty hectic, and I didn't even get her cake baked until the afternoon of her birthday! Monday night, our AC went out, and it started warming up in the house, so there was NO way I was going to bake her a cake on Tuesday. The repairman didn't even pull up until around three pm on Tuesday. Luckily it was an easy fix and it was only 94 that day. We survived...that's what we are, survivors, lol!

So Wednesday afternoon we had a small party for her at my place where I gave her some gifts, and the kids drew cards and books for her. We had planned on having another family there originally but it ended up being only us which was way calmer and less stressful than it would have been if they had come, there's only so much chaos one can take, my kids carry enough chaos with them without added unruliness. Jade was actually extremely happy it worked out that way. 

After our impromptu party we had an appointment to make, and there was the business of changing our telephone numbers that rendered us phone-less for 30 minutes. 30 minutes without a phone when your kid is one place and you are another is kinda stressful, and add on the fact I was waiting for important phone calls as well, but I survived. It's amazing that we depend so much on technology. 

After the phone fiasco, we all loaded up in the car and took the littles to Grandma and Grandpa's house, they were super excited, they rarely get to see them , just about every 3 months or so, and they had been begging me to take them. Then Jade and I were on our way to pick up Mallissa from her house to celebrate with us (can you believe even after recovering from major surgery she was still able to come be with Jade on her day, Love her to death!). One more pit stop to get Jades friend Austin and we headed to Joes crabshack for dinner. Mallissa and I spent the time there trying to embarrass Jade:) We had fun, and Jade did too, until the Crab Shack staff got ahold of her, lol! 

Then it was off to the movies where we loaded up on popcorn and slushies and watched Ted. OMG, it was so funny, I wasn't sure how interesting they could make a movie about a talking bear, but it was good. We let Jade and Austin sit by themselves so Mallissa and I could catch up. It was an amazing night full of laughter, and good friends and we finally pulled in the driveway around 2am! Jade was happy she got to spend it with her boyfriend and her "Auntie Mallissa". I was just glad to get out of the house without the little's!

Milla's First day of Pre-K (At Home of course!)

Today we started an "official" PreK routine. Milla already works on letters, numbers and math on a daily basis, everything being built into her routine already, but this morning we started working more in depth and set aside a chunk of time in the morning to work together one on one. When I say one on one I really mean that I worked with Milla while Christien and Zoe interrupted us constantly. Christien just to interupt, but Zoe actually made a couple of ABC books for Milla to review, lol!

 I had planned an "official" back to school photoshoot, but as you can see, Milla decided a career option for her would be professional hairstylist. I think she succeeded in the "Scene" hair, all she needs is a little hair dye in black or pink and she is the epitome of style. Wouldn't you agree??

As part of our letter review we decided to make an ABC book. We found a lot of inspiration on Pinterest but I ended up using a ton of resources from Homeschool Creations, today in particular The Letter A. We used her printable Do A Dot letters, her apple core craft, and lots of other ideas. I recommend you check her out! All her printables are FREE!
Here are a few scenes into our morning.

 We started off the session writing the letter A on her white board. We didn't spend much time on the letter A today because she already has most of the beginning of the alphabet and letter sounds down. This was really a review and so we can make her Alphabet book. (A 3 ring binder with page protecters sectioned off for each letter of the alphabet. We put her crafts and work into it for her to review).

 Here she is working on her Letter A collage and her fine motor skills. Her little tongue kept flicking in and out of her mouth as she cut, it was very amusing to watch :)

 A is for acorn. I am actually surprised at the skill level of her cutting as we have not worked on this much in a formal setting. We have art supplies at hands reach for all the kids to use whenever they want. This makes us an extrememly popular house for the neighborhood kids because their parents dont let them paint, cut and create at home whenever they want (how sad!).

 There is her little tongue flicking out :) Told ya she was cute!

 The Do-A-Dot activity sheets from Homeschool Creations. She loved this activity, our Do-A Dots are very well loved around here!

 I told you Zoe made her some books. This one even had some activities in it for her to complete. Zoe is a great teacher! She made up a game called Learning frog when she was in Kindergarten and walked around with a frog floaty around her waist while she taught Milla to sing songs and do simple math and counting.

 Using the glue stick to create the Apple craft from Homeschool Creations. It's such a cute craft!

 And this, my friends is why we always buy non toxic supplies, on occassion my little humans like to "taste" the supplies. Mostly for the giggles and the shock factor, although I may be wrong. Black stamp ink MAY be delicious for all I know....

The last thing we did before starting story time was make these apple prints for our book. Milla wasn't as into this as I thought she would be, but eh.... She was more interested in story time with her favorite books....

Tomorrow we move onto reviewing the letter B and creating more pages for our ABC book. Honestly though, Milla prefers just using Hooked on Phonics and reading books all day:)