Winter Lapbook

Since winter is almost over...:)

This was our winter lapbook we did in January. I have had the pictures for a while and just never got around to posting it. So here it is for you. Olivia cut out the snowflakes and painted them with glitter glue.

Olivia did not memorize this bible verse. (She has about 16 other verses memorized) It isn't easy to find verses to go with our topics sometimes. We read it a lot. We talked about how God gives us seasons. We talked about what months are winter. In the "S is for snow" book, she had to pick out Ss. We also worked on writing Ss and it was around this time that she learned to write her last name.

We talked about weather and read lots of books on this topic. Since we are in NC, we talked about rain and ice as well as snow. :) Fortunately she did get to see some snow.

We read a poem with some vocabulary words. She had to trace the words, although that is not pictured here. Olivia cut and pasted circles to make a snowman and drew a face on him. She has not taken quickly to drawing or coloring so this was a difficult activity for her. She does love to cut though. The snowflakes on this page are painted with colored epsom salts.

This was an activity she did at our homeschool coop. We spent time at home talking about appropriate dress for winter weather since she has often put on her sandals to go out this winter. :)

This picture is another activity she did at our coop. I wanted to include this one so you could see how she writes her name. Although, in the last two weeks, she can write her full name now. I will have to take a picture of that soon.

I put this picture of the tree without its leaves on the back of her lapbook because one of the things she says a lot is that the trees are sad without their leaves. Again she painted snow with the epsom salts. Its a messy craft but fun too!

Posting bonanza

OK, there is a flood of posts this morning. I've fallen behind on the pictures we've been taking, so I've gone ahead and added everything at once. Enjoy!

Gabe Sleeping

Imagine finding this when you go in to wake him up:

After I checked to make sure he was breathing, I had to leave the room to keep from laughing out loud.

Winter Wonderland

Well, The weathermen got it right! We got 6" of beautiful snow overnight.

Olivia and I went out and made a snowman to bring inside and observe what happens. Olivia's hypothesis is that he will "lose his air."

We brought him in at 9:00am, put peppercorns on him for eyes, a nose and buttons.

By 9:15, he'd lost one eye, his nose and a button.

9:30: Olivia says, "He's melting into water!"

9:45: "He's dancing!"

10:00

10:15

10:30: We came down just in time to see his head fall off.

10:30: closeup

10:45: He's fallen over.

11:00: "he's getting smaller"

11:15: not much left

11:30: "He fell in the water"

Olivia and Gabe pics

Rebecca got a couple of cute shots of the kiddos.

Gabe in the bathtub

Gabe is so different from Olivia when it comes to the bath! She used to cry and wail when she was his age and he loves to kick and splash. I guess it's just being a boy. :)

Rebecca's Final Project

Rebecca and her friend, Kim, took a cake decorating class at Michael's over the last 4 weeks and this is what she can do now! Sadly, we didn't get to eat this one. She brought it to work and it disappeared in 20 minutes, so it must have been good.

Pics of Rebecca and Gabe

Hey gang,

Rebecca brought Gabe over to our friends Aaron and Kim's house Last week. Aaron's quite the photographer and he got some great pics and put them on his blog. Check them out and if you ever need a photographer for something, he's your man!

Valentine's Day Lapbook

Olivia is standing in front of the poster we made to talk about love. It has her bible verses...1 John4:19 (yes, i just noticed that the poster is wrong), 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, and Jeremiah 31:3. We talked about the specifics of what love is and how we show love.

This is the front of our Valentines lapbook. She used heart shaped cookie cutters and finger paint to decorate it.

The top pocket has hearts with numbers on them that Olivia put in order. She can now put them in order 1-20 all by herself. The bottom pocket (i need a larger pocket) has the Valentine that I made for her and its envelope. She helped me put it in the envelope and address it. Then we took it to the post office and bought a stamp for it. The postman showed her how he put it in a bin to sort it and then that it would go to the car of our delivery person. The next day we received it in our mailbox. Olivia was very excited!

The inside flap has our bible verses and the legend of St. Valentine. We read the book "The Story of Valentine's Day" by Nancy J. Skarmeas.

These are some mini books that we used to talk about our mail and the experience we had mailing the Valentine. The top one lists the steps in order with words and Olivia matched pictures to them. The bottom book is of two stamps she colored herself. She put a heart on one and a person on the other. Sorry we didn't open them for the picture.

This is another book we read called "Cranberry Valentine" by Wende and Harry Devlin. Olivia really enjoyed this one. We counted things in the book, like how many buttons were on Mr. Whiskers coat and how many ladies were in the sowing circle. We also talked about some of the common symbols of Valentine's Day, like love birds, hearts, balloons, cards, and flowers.

We also read "The Valentine Bears" by Eve bunting. We did some more counting of the hearts in the book and we also made a list of preparations that Mrs. Bear went through on her Valentine's Day to make it special for Mr. Bear. I wrote the list while Olivia told me what she heard in the story. The address flap is from our mail discussion. We are starting to learn our new address. I helped Olivia write the address.

This is her candy heart graphing. We did one each day for 3 days. At least she had to work before she got to eat her candy. She did this one mostly by herself.

Most of my resources came from homeschoolshare.com and the TotallyTots blog.

Kiddo Pics

Here are some cute pictures of the kiddos for y'all.

Olivia doing a wonderful job of learning to draw hearts. They aren't as easy as I thought. Keep in mind, I've got less drawing talent than a monkey.

Olivia learning about the letter D.

Olivia and Gabe playing together. Gabe is doing very well with sitting in his high chair and loves to sit and watch Olivia eat. He's getting really quick with the hand-to-mouth coodination and, if you're holding him, will try to grab food as you put it in your mouth. He also loves to grab cups and put his mouth on the rim like he's trying to drink.

Gabe's Dedication

Ok, We had Gabe's dedication over 2 weeks ago, but I was dumb and left the camera in my father-in-law's car, which we didn't realize until they were already near Charlotte. We got it back over the weekend, so now I can finally post the pics!

Gabe with his Great-granddad

Pastor Don Miller of Westover Church talking to us about dedicating Gabe.


Pastor Don speaking the verse we chose for Gabe. We picked 1 Chronicles 16:11 - "Look to the Lord and His strength. Seek His face always." Pastor Don said he'd never had anyone pick that verse before, which was pretty cool.

Pastor Don praying for Gabe and for us. We were so happy to have all the generations of both families represented on stage with us. From left: Mom and Dad Sarine, Granddad Baldwin, Dad and Mom Baldwin (sorry mom, you were hidden behind us), and then us, of course. There were a bunch of folks that came to support us as well and we thank all of you for being there. You've been a blessing in our lives and we're glad Gabe will grow up knowing all of you.

Olivia In The Snow

Olivia ran around in the snow this evening declaring, "It's Christmas!"

Olivia's Dance Recital

Olivia had her Little Gym "recital" last week and it was sooooo cute!



They also had to do a gymnastics "routine" on the bars.

She also did a ballet dance and a balance beam exercise, but, unfortunately, I screwed up and taped over it. :(

They were each awarded a medal for completing the course. Our daughter is such a ham.



And we followed it all up with celebratory ice cream cone. She always gets this god-awful, fluorescent-colored stuff that's got a blue dye that is practically a tattoo on her tongue and lips.

Just Some Cute Pics

Making Cookies with Aunt Kelly

Rebecca's Aunt Kelly gave Olivia a great gift for Christmas. She gave her a bunch of cookie cutters, a gingerbread man apron, cookie decorating stuff and a promise to come up and bake cookies with her! She came up this past Saturday and helped Miss O make some delicious Christmas cookies. Olivia had such a fun time! Unfortunately, we didn't think to grab the camera until things were being cleaned up.

mmmmmmmm.....Cookies....