Sight Word Air Strip

Had to buy some new baby gates, well official baby gates, since my Jocelyn girl is now climbing over our make shift dining room chair gates that we've been using for months.

Anyhow, Jack was excited to grab the cardboard that came on one of them and he instantly turned it into an air strip.

He was content with just the plain white board, but I thought I'd enhance it a bit, with sight words of course. (Side note: I look at every opportunity I get to be a learning one, and my kids hate me for it. "Ugh Mom, seriously?" They truly hate me.)

I made the runway with sight words, arrows, and a hope that he'd master these words rather quickly. I used some that he knows already to build up his confidence.  I wrote the same sight words on paper and Jack helped me stick them on with tape.  He loves tape.

Then it was time to play.  First we matched the plane to their specific spot on the runway. Practicing reading the words together. Once we/he got good at them, then we moved onto reading each word as our plane traveled along the runway preparing to "take off."

He did a great job! Learning while playing and having fun.

Even though my kids hate me now for wanting to help them learn, I hope one day they realize my intentions were good. That all I want for them is to soar through school. So, I'll continue to work with them and hopefully their teachers will appreciate it - because my kids surely don't. 

"Elmo's not just for babies."

"Let's make some food.  Where is my recipe book?"

"Ha,  that's a baby book Afton."

"Elmo's not just for babies Jack!"

Just another fun, loving, kind words only conversation between my girl and boy. 

We didn't follow the recipe exactly,  but we adapted to what we had.  (And what was less messy, at least for this experience in the kitchen.)

We started with mozzarella cheese. 

We moved onto bread. 

Then it was time for the jam. 

Yummy! 

We tried apples and cucumbers too. 

Afton can't wait to do more from this book.

 Jack said, "Elmo's treats are really good."

"Uh, duh Jack. Because we made them. "

Just One of Those Days

Sometimes there are times in my life where every moment I spend with my children just seem to touch my soul and warm my heart. Moments that make my heart race because these three are mine for all eternity.  Moments that make me wish time would stand still because these three are perfect in every way, even with their faults. Moments that make all my other worries disappear.

When these moments happen, I'm thankful that I can snap a few pictures to help me cherish them for years to come.

These moments are undoubtedly only special to me, (and possibly my Sugar) and I think that adds to why they're so memorable.

Moments at the Library

"So, we're roasting our sentences?"

"Mom,  what in the crap are you doing? You just bought those pool noodles and you are cutting them up? What's wrong with you? And the sticks?  What are we doing?  Roasting marshmallows?"

I explain.

She says confused, "So, we're roasting our sentences? This should be interesting."

I used simple words that Jack could sound out and his sight words we've been practicing. 

Afton was able to explain what nouns, verbs, and details are very well Jack. He knew the punctuation already. "Ms. Bahati taught me those."

Afton added a little more to her sentence so it wouldn't all fit.

Jack built this whole sentence and read it too. 

Afton was proud of this silly sentence. 

At the end Jack said, "I thought I heard marshmallows. So, let's get going on that part of this activity. "

1st Annual Westra Girls Weekend

When I told my girl about this trip that was in the planning stages back in April, she was ecstatic. She asked about it at least once a week, until it was finalized. Finalized, as in getting in the car to drive up to the cabin finalized. She was so happy to spend time with her sweet cousins... oh and the rest of the family too, I guess. (Honestly, she could care less if I was even there. She just wanted her cousins!) She was sad a few of them couldn't make it, but she was comforted when I explained that this trip is hopefully the start of a fun Westra tradition and hopefully those missing cousins could come next year.

It didn't take much for me to talk my sugar into it. Basically, he was just thrilled that he would be able to study at home for midterms instead of staying late every night at school. Plus he would get to spend some quality daddy-son time with the boy. That was all I needed to tell my Jack boy when he got sad that he wasn't going on this trip. "You'll get to have Daddy all to yourself!"

Our fun girl's trip will be told through pictures. Duh!

We left daddy with a treat.

Jocelyn enjoyed her first Chick-fil -A experience.

The tunes on the way up were perfect for the occasion!

"Mom what is that smell? It smells so clean."

I responded, "That's what CLEAN, fresh air smells like."

"Ahhh, I love it. Oh wait, now it's ruined. Did you kill a skunk?"

Girls with Grandma Joy

Morning snuggles on the porch

The Westra Grandchildren out on a hike!

Aunt Cindy made us these cute shirts!

We were all in charge of a meal and a craft.

I created a fun activity for our 4 missionary nephews.

Missionary Madlibs - This way the boys at least got some letters from us! 

We had wooden letters, ceramic creatures, and lots of blank canvas to paint.

Then of course we got to paint nails.

Aunt Cindy and Aunt Alison showed the little girls how to crochet.

The girls had fun playing in a tree house a few houses down.

We made our own princess crowns to wear during our Fancy princess Dinner.

It was cute to see all of the little girls dressed fancy for the delicious meal.

I am missing tons of pictures somehow of all of the fun we had, but I think probably the most fun everyone had there was getting to snuggle the newest Westra baby at the time, Jocelyn. Well, I am speaking for everyone in assuming that, but whatever. She is fun to snuggle.

Aubrey, Angela and Eva with my grumpy girl

Grandpa crashed the girl's get away so he could spend some quality time with Jocelyn. 

Aunt Cindy snuggling

Ashley playing

Ironic that I started this post almost a year ago, and somehow didn't finish it. We have no girls trip planned this year, but at least we can remember the fun we had by looking through these pictures again. I am pretty frustrated that I can't find any of the other pictures that Julie took for us. I think they are on my external hard drive that crashed.Ugh!