Thursday, February 23, 2012

Ava Turns 4

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Well its been over a month ago now, but my little princess did indeed turn 4 recently.  I continued in my tradition of taking her and a friend to the American Girl store for tea to celebrate her actual birthday.
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Ava told me early on in the year she wanted a “cooking party” after I had taken the kids to Little Chef’s Cooking Academy. I knew I could do a home party for much less money than the $30 per child the Cooking Academy wanted.  Thus evolved the idea for a Raggedy Ann and Andy Cooking Party!
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All of our chefs were divided up into 3 groups.
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Pudding Parfait Chefs
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Cupcake Decorators
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Fruit K-Bob Designers
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We all had such fun making and EATING our treatsSmileCooking 097Cooking 067Cooking 068
We also had some super fun and yummy cupcakes from the fabulous girls at Red Raspberry for the mommas to enjoy…..and the birthday girl of course!
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Of course a special cupcake for our birthday girl to blow out her candles!
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Ava was blessed by her friends with lots of fun presents to open!
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After presents, Ava had a little treat for all her friends! Party Goodies 015Party Goodies 014
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Lastly, I want to thank a few people who made this day possible.
Ava’s Nana…who made all the little girls their Custom Made Raggedy Ann and Andy Cooking Aprons.
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Ava’s Mimi who came to help with the K-Bobs…..
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Marisa at Swanky Soirees for her creativity in creating the graphics for this Swanky Soiree!
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THE very talented photographer, Chelle of Chelle Cates Photography for the amazing party pictures.
Last, but most definitely not least, Ava’s Daddy for going to work everyday so she can enjoy a birthday celebration!
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Monday, February 20, 2012

Hands On Math and Art!

Its been a while since I have been excited enough about a “mommy school lesson” to blog about it. I am preparing to homeschool my oldest next year and am enjoying dabbling in a few curriculum recommendations when I get the chance.  Todays post is about TLC ART. This is a program that one of my dear kindergarten teacher friends does in her kindergarten class weekly.  I decided to do one of the online sample lessons with my crew! Take a peek.
Materials given to each child.
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Children do not know what they are making but must listen and follow directions. 
For example:
“Find your black rectangle. Glue it horizontally to the bottom of your paper”
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“Place your blue rectangle horizontally on the left side of your paper.”
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“Place your red square on top of your red rectangle
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Other Math Vocabulary/directions used in this lesson were:
“fold the rectangle in half”
“cut a circle”
Wa….lah! Our final product
Zachariah…Kindergarten age 5. 11 months
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Levi…Pre K4…age 5. 3 months
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Ava..PK3…Age 4.1 month
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I did have to guide my kids and teach them what these vocabulary words meant during this lesson.
I LOVE this….and didn’t waste any time ordering 3 more units….stay tuned for ABCS, Space, and Stages of a ButterflySmile