Button Jar

in an effort to encourage positive behavior from ely, we started a button jar. i did this in my classroom and it works great. whenever ely does something positive, like following directions or being kind to her brother (which is the real reason for the jar!) she gets to put some buttons into her jar. when the jar is filled, she gets to choose a special treat. the first time she filled the jar up, she wanted to spend the at daddy's work. how cute?! we couldn't spend the day at daddy's work, so we decided to have a special lunch with him.

this time when she filled up her jar, i picked her treat...i took her to build-a-bear. i knew that she would love it and she did! she can wrestle and get dirty with all the boys, but she is definitely a girly girl! she loved trying dresses on her dog and looking at all the accessories. boy, there are ALOT of things to waste your money in at that store! we were trying to keep costs down, so she got to pick a less expensive animal and one dress. because we went on a weekday, there was no one else there, so the staff spent alot of time with her making the trip worth while. so here we are with ely's new dog kelly...

filling kelly up

each animal gets a heart inside the fluff. the lady had ely touch different parts of her body to help bring kelly to "life." here she's kissing the heart so kelly knows she loves her. ely loved this!

you have to give your dog a bath!

brushing kelly

dressing kelly

Walking...Well, Almost Still

Almost Walking...

i've been asked a couple of times to post josiah walking. this was taken about three weeks ago. he's not walking yet, he still has to use the walker but he's much faster now. he pulls himself up on everything and i can see the idea stating to dawn on him that he could use his little feet to get to the next place. hopefully not until after our midwest whirlwind trip!

i'll try to take more video and post that tomorrow! enjoy!

Meet Our New Neighbors!

a bird family has moved in right outside our bathroom window. last week, we started to hear little peeps outside the window and could see little beaks popping out. if we watch for awhile the mama bird comes and feeds the babies. ely has named them (of course): towel, showel, tbowel and monkey. i don't know which one is which. :)

they're little, but they're loud!

this is when i thought one of the babies was going to fall out!

the mama bird feeding one

Her First Novel...Well, She's on Her Way at Least!

being a teacher, i'm always on the lookout teachable moments. the other day ely asked how pasta is made so we went to the computer and watched a youtube video about it. we both actually learned alot! (i still can't get her to eat any other shaped pasta! only macaroni. "it just tastes different, mom!") we've looked up horseshoes, chameleons and islands lately. ely has a thirst for knowledge! she loves to learn. when we read a book, it takes us twice as long because i have to stop and explain what "slathered" or "stray" mean. i don't mind; i love that she's so eager to learn. we've started teaching her the sounds of the alphabet lately. she knows all the letters and now knows half of the sounds. i thought it was time to start learning how to write. i turned our hot water closet door into a chalkboard (to my husband's dismay) and that's where we practice. here's what we've been working on:

can you tell what it is? it's her name! the y still needs some work, but i'm pretty proud!

and here's her self portrait. actually i think it's a clown. that's his hat on top! there's nothing she can't do.

A Preview of Preston's Play

if any of you wanted to see a preview of preston's play, here it is! ely is actually studying to be preston's understudy. :)

i've been running lines with preston the last few weeks and apparently he's not the only one who's memorized them! just another reminder that little ears hear everything!

Festival of Books

i have been wanting to go to the festival of books at ucla for years and i finally got the chance this year. we joined the verwys family for a day of books and entertainment. this year's theme was the very hungry caterpillar, one of ely's favs! eric carle (the author) was there doing a book signing and reading, unfortunately we didn't get to do either one! the line for the signing was so long and the reading was too late, but we still enjoyed the festival.

there were alot of booths with some wonderful kids books. i wasn't allowed to buy any. apparently i have too many books, which i disagree with. you can never have too many books! there was a also a kid's stage with different kinds of entertainment.

one of our favorite books is how i became a pirate. it's a wonderful book that we read at least once every week. the illustrator is david shannon and he was at the festival. he read another book that he illustrated and then he and the audience "created" a toy. he took suggestions from the kids in the audience and made an...interesting picture. i couldn't get a good picture of it though.

preston, ely and malachi watching david shannon

david shannon

there was a huge wall that housed where eric carle was signing with the question "what book are you reading?" people wrote in marker what book they are currently reading. ely signed her name and then what book she is reading.

signing her name to the book wall

writing what book she's reading. she chose the bible

"bible" can you see it?