The Tot Lot - Play with me

This week we "rowed" the book Play with me by Marie Hall Ets. It was perfect because we did alot of playing this week. We were super busy with activities outside our house but we still managed to work on some of our BFIAR stuff at home too. 

She actually loved this book and although simple, I thought it was cute. As soon as we got to the frog though, she became obsessed with doing the sign for frog and I had to keep re-focusing her. 

She is working on cutting squares for her lapbook.

They had so much fun last week with the sensory bin, I made one for this book too. I went to the dollar store and picked up what they had that went with the book. I bought floral moss and vanilla potpourri for the base. They liked it because it was a way different texture than the rice and beans I normally use, plus the vanilla smelled nice. Then I bought snakes, flowers, a grasshopper, turtles, frogs, and a bunny. 

They both played together nice for a while. Then they started flinging the moss at each other with forks. Oh well, it lasted for a little while :)

This face is just too cute not to share!

Because she seemed so into the frog, I bought this thing at the dollar store. It's a frog thing that lays eggs. She loved this! Here she is filling it up with water.

We checked it after a few hours and the frog had laid one egg. So cute how she was so excited.

Here it is after a day, with lots of eggs. 

One of our homeschool groups has a seasonal party to celebrate all the kids birthdays for that season. Reanna was one of the Fall birthdays so we went to celebrate. Well actually I hosted the party. :) She had the best time because her birthday was on September 13th, it was like she got to have another birthday! 

Here are the birthday kids waiting to be sung to.

Here she is playing with her friend Emma. Like I said the book was perfect for this week because she did alot of playing!

Every other week she takes a music & movement class at one of our favorite places in Vegas...Pinkpeas. Miss Anatasia is so much fun with them and this is her favorite class. One of the best things about it, at $5 a class it doesnt break my budget. If you live in Vegas, you should come!

How fun is this!

By Thursday night, the fun had caught up with her. She said she didn't feel good and had to miss her preschool co-op class on Friday. I dont feel bad though, because she did plenty this week! 

Saturday Sale-ing

Today was a great day of yard sales! Our neighborhood had a community yard sale and so did another community not far away. I love community yard sales because you can hit a ton in a short amount of time. The only thing that bums me out is when all of HOA's decide to do theirs on the same weekend. For those of you that live in Vegas, the Aliante sale is going to be next weekend. Ok on to our loot!

I bought this to be used as a hope chest for one of my girls. I plan to take the stuff off the front and either paint it or stain it. It was $8.00.

Ok below I got some pompoms .75, clear plastic canvas 1.50, silicone snowmen baking pan 1.00 2 egg trays .25, and a Strongs concordance $5. I was excited to get these items, but the lady that sold them and her story was amazing and one of the reasons I love yard sale-ing! Her name was Ruth. She and her husband were missionaries in Russia for 7 years. She had great stories about that time. Then they moved to Florida and ran an emergency shelter for foster kids where they met and adopted their two daughters. They moved here to Vegas and her husband started a Russian church here which is still going strong. But sadly a year ago her husband passed away and now she is moving out of state to get a fresh start. Anyways those of you that know me know I hate crying in front of people. It was seriously hard for me not to cry when hearing her story. I told her I would keep her family in prayer forever and if you readers will too that will be awesome! I just love how God is in all the details of my life, even my silly yard sale-ing hobby. :)

I got this for $2. I needed one to take drinks for basketball games, park days, co-ops, and what not.

2 lunch boxes, a Santa advent countdown....it holds lollipops but Im going to put a fun activity in each one to complete everyday until Christmas (idea stolen from Becky Johnson), a purse for Graisan, 8 things of glass beads, a victorian fashion paper doll book, and a 1930's paper doll book all $1.00 each.

A halloween wig, and a quilt cutting mat .75 each. Yes that's right, the cutting mat was only .75 cents!

A box of animal magazines to use for preschool projects....FREE

3 twilight t-shirts, a hangover t-shirt, and a pair of shorts .50 each

Nicholas LOVES spiderman. I found this costume for $2. Score!

Hippy skirt for me .75

4 magnetized travel games, and cake decorating set .50 each

2 cookie pop pans, paints, hot wheels cars, craft needle, a wax letter sealer .25 each

Shirts for the girls .25 each

I feel so happy with what we found today and more importantly the people we met and the time I got to spend with River. I do not take for granted that in a couple of years he will be gone and no matter how much he annoys me at times I truly cherish the time we get to spend together!

The Tot Lot - Goodnight Moon

This week we "rowed" Goodnight Moon. I have seen and heard of this book many times but never actually read it. I had the expectation that this book was going to be awesome because many people I know just love it. I am not one of those people. Maybe my expectations were too high. I didn't hate it, I just found it to be simple and boring. The nice thing about Reanna is she pretty much loves everything. So she did enjoy the book.

This weeks lapbook printables found here.

A while back I pinned an idea for a goodnight moon sensory bin found here. I ended up making mine with what I could find at home and a trip to the dollar store. I used a moon shaped cookie cutter, 3 bears and a spoon from home. Then I found a cow, the chairs, brush, mouse, and a bowl from the dollar store. What I couldn't find I made from foam sheets. Im not the best artist but she didn't care. She and Nick both played with this all week.

This week she had gymnastics. She is still needing to work on following instructions but this is helping.  It's one of her favorite things.

We finished off this week with a field trip to the Planetarium. Daddy even got to go. Here she is putting pennies down the "black hole".

Waiting for the show to start. It was pretty cool. They geared it for preschoolers, so it was a cartoon about what you could see from your backyard. She listened and watched to the whole thing.

So although the book was not my favorite, we did get to do a lot of neat things because of it. For that Im giving it a good review :).

Saturday Sale-ing

Due to some budget cuts here in the VanDusen house we haven't been able to go yard sale-ing for a while. So River and I were super excited to be able to go today! Graisan had an early Signs of the Spirit performance so she was able to come too. I let River drive for a good portion of the morning which slowed us down a bit, but he needs the experience. Anyways, let me get to the loot....

Here we have 2 origami box sets, 2 charcoal pencils, a plant hanger, and a pair of oven mitts each for fifty cents.

River was super excited to find another currency collector. The guy had a ton of stuff at pretty good deals but this is what he got. A 1963 red seal $2, a 1928 red seal $5, a 1934 blue seal $5 silver certificate, a 1935 $1 blue seal silver certificate, and a 1935 funnyback $1 certificate. He bought this as a package deal for $30. When we got home he looked them up and they are currently worth about $80, although he never plans to sell them. 

I got all these books for a whopping total of fifty cents!

Below we have a tub of lego type blocks but different than any I have seen, some cool transparent shape things I plan to use with the light table, a funky hat, and a pair of reindeer ears. These were a quarter each. I am most excited for the tub of shapes for only a quarter. And yes I will wear the hat and ears (not at the same time), Im a preschool teacher what do you expect?

Ever since my McBestie bought banana split bowls and has been posting pics on facebook with delicious banana splits, I have been wanting my own. Well check that off my list because I found this set for $3. 

And last but not least, I bought the tv and stand for $2. A pair of headphones...$2, and a lamp for the girls room $2. 

Not a giant haul today, but it satisfied our picking urge. I still have to work on the unfinished projects from my previous hauls, or I might get turned in to that Hoarders show. 

The Tot Lot - Blueberries for Sal

This week's book was Blueberries for Sal. It was the longest book so far but super cute and held her attention. 

We made a lapbook from worksheets found at Homeschool Share. Below she is matching up baby animals with their Mammas.

On Daddy's day off, he helped her put her bear puzzle together. He is SO much more patient then me :). Oh and dont judge me on her hair this week. It was one of those weeks.

She played a counting blueberry game with her sister. It is such a blessing to have older siblings that like to help out!

Then she made blueberry biscuits with Graisan.

There wasn't much to this week's lapbook so I let her cut out some pictures and glue it in her book. I have no idea why this pic is black and white.

This was a Lower and Upper case blueberry alphabet. I laminated the pages and had her match them up. At first she was mad because she didn't understand the concept, but she had fun once she figured it out.

Our BFIAR group didn't meet for a field trip this week. We started our home school group co-op today  and she and Nick both had a blast. Sorry I didn't take any pics of that, it would be another blogpost anyway. I actually felt like I didn't do that much with her this week, however looking back she did a lot. That's is the nice things about prepping ahead of time. I highly recommend atleast printing out the worksheets well in advance. Then when you have a lazy week, you can still be productive. 

The Tot Lot - The Little Rabbit

 This week we "rowed" The Little Rabbit. It was quite a different book than the last two we did. The first couple of days it was harder for me to hold her attention but towards the end she was enjoying it. 

We always start the week off by working on the lapbook from Homeschool Share. She just loves cutting! 

 Tuesday she had her first gymnastics class. She loved it and did pretty good, only frustrating the teacher a few times because she didn't exactly follow his directions :). Sorry the pics are so blurry, I had to take them behind the glass.

Wednesday we were back to work on bunny stuff. Below she is making a bunny mask I found Here. I told you she loves to cut!

I found a Mommy & Baby animal matching game here. I laminated the pages so I can keep and use again. These turned out to be the biggest hit of the week, she requested this activity the most!

We ended our week with a field trip to the Springs Preserve. She got to see a couple real life bunnies just like the wild rabbit in the story.