I love my job :)

So happy surprise today- earlier this week, the kids' dad told me he was taking Friday off and only needed me to work a half day so he could get a few things done, today he called me and said I could take the whole day off! Sweeeet~ 4 day weekend!

Any who... I didn't blog yesterday because I got home ridiculously late (it was almost 8).  I do love my job but it's exhausting some days.  I leave around 6:40 every morning and get home anywhere between 6:30 and 7:30- long days.  Yesterday was a fun day though.  We played outside in the water and I made the kids water balloons and we had our little water-palooza.  Our water-palooza= 2 blow up pools + a sprinkler + throwing water balloons.  It's pretty fun, and some how always ends up with me pretending to be a giant and chasing them around.  They love it, so whatever works!  In the afternoon we usually try to do some kind of lesson so I thought we would combine snack and math, and we counted our cheerios and wrote numbers with them!  They had fun with it and then loved eating them even more!

Today we went outside to check on our little seedlings and one of them sprouted!!

These are the zinias!!  I'm excited and hope the other ones sprout as well.  I invented a new game called tree tag today where you run from tree to tree and count out each one you touch, who ever gets to 15 first wins.  The kids love all the outdoor games like this and red light green light, mother may I, and freeze tag.  This was just funny and I had to take a picture-

Apparently Grace thinks she's a human!  So in the spirit of the 4th of July I tried to explain to the kids the meaning of the holiday, it didn't work so well.... I even resorted to the simplest terms of saying it was America's birthday... nope. Apparently a no go because "only people have birthdays".... oh well, I tried.  Anyway, we made some 4th of July rockets!  Pretty fun, I played around with the picture on this one for fun-

and now I guess I get to enjoy my long weekend! I guess tomorrow I get to relax then have dinner with my brother and his girlfriend (whom I am excited to meet) and the on Saturday it's on to Houston for the holiday weekend!!

Miniature potted plants for the miniature humans :)

So as you could have guessed, today we planted some flowers! The kids' mom got them these little mini pots with all these different kinds of flower seeds.  We planted sunflowers, daisies, zinias, forget me nots, marigolds and cone flowers.  We planted most of the seeds in the little miniature pots they provided and then planted the rest in one of the flower beds out in their front yard.  The kids were really excited about these and kept checking to see if they had sprouted yet.... I tried to explain that it would be a few days (at least), but I don't think I got through.  Hopefully they do sprout and I don't kill them with my black thumb... I haven't even been able to keep my hanging plants alive... they look pretty wilted.  Anyway, here's some pictures of the planting process:

And yes they're still wearing their binoculars we made yesterday.  They were "spotting" animals out in the woods today like a lion, a monkey, an actual cardinal, and many other animals real and make believe. 

Sometimes I really do wish that I could see the world through their eyes, be that age again.  All the make believe, pretending, costumes, playing the day away.  I guess I am quite lucky that I at least get to experience some of these things through them again, and I get to see the wonder with which they see new things in their world and their innocence. 

Now I'm trying to think of some fun crafts we can do for the 4th of July, I already have a fun idea for some red, white and blue food that we can make together so I'll take some pictures and show you how it goes!

It's a jungle out there!

So we've been saving up toilet paper tubes to make binoculars and we finally made them today!  The kids had so much fun with them- we went on a safari and everything, looking out for animals and running from the scary boa constrictors!  

Their mom got some homework charts this weekend that we're using to track their progress on different things we work on like letters, numbers, reading, shapes, colors, math and apparently now spanish.  The kids told me today that they want to learn spanish, so I said sure, why not.  I think I could find some easy lesson plans for that somewhere.

I also want to try yoga with the kids.... I think they could use a calming influence in their lives.... lol.  And also because I tell the little boy "patience young grasshopper" which leads me to this:

we found a huge grasshopper outside and followed it around for a while, so we could learn how it moves to add grasshoppers to our game of move like the animals!

So I've been trying to eat healthier especially since I started reading my friend Katie's blog, she makes all this healthy stuff that looks so yummy.  Along those lines I decided to try a garden burger for lunch today; I've had black bean burgers before but never a garden burger and it was surprisingly good! And good for me!

So the adventure continues....

How I DIY

So mostly my weekends are spent doing all these fun arts and crafts projects I find online or I think up on a whim.  A couple weeks ago I saw a tank top at American Eagle that I really liked- racer back (my favorite) and it was tye-dyed, and $20.... I know that's not ridiculous but in my mind 20 bucks for a tank top is a little too much.  So it occurred to me that I could make my own! I took some $3 t shirts I found at Jo Ann Fabrics, turned them into tank tops, and then decorated them all with a little unique piz-azz!

So instead of paying $20 per tank top I spent $3 each, $10 on a tye dye kit (which I also tye-dyed a bunch of other shirts with) and some fabric paints I already had.  So each shirt cost less than $5 a piece! (Yay me!!)  To get the racer-back shape, all I did was lay over a tank top I already had, traced with a fabric chalk pencil, and cut it out.  Simple! And so much fun, I love doing this kind of stuff, especially the grey one with the flowers, it took me forever but I felt a sense of accomplishment that I was able to freehand the whole thing :)

So I was also working on a birthday present for the little girl I work with since her birthday is coming up in about 2 weeks.  I made her these:

I just thought the cupcakes were so cute, and very fitting since it's her birthday!

Any who, I love spending my Saturdays doing these kinds of things and would appreciate and feedback or comments.  I'd love to have enough time and energy to make enough stuff like this to do an ETSY site or something, but that's a lot of work and I still want it to be fun for me... I don't know, we'll just wait and see.

Day... well I'm not sure:

So this was something I meant to keep up with if not daily at least weekly... well the best laid plans.  Almost four months later I am settling into my job and most days I love what I do.  The kids I work with are loveable, energetic, and, at times, trying.  But nonetheless I love working with them every day and the enthusiastic "Miss Lindsay!!!" when I walk in the door, and the "I don't want you to leave.." every evening when it's time for me to go is truly rewarding.

So the little boy is getting ready for kindergarten.  He's been to his new school for a tour and seems very excited, but also shy.  I think he will do well though because he makes friends easily, loves to talk to anyone who will listen and he is truly a smart kid.  Unfortunately he seems to know that he's smart.. and sometimes this leads to the know it all syndrome.   This past week we have been having the daily debate about whether or not he needs to do his sight word flash-cards, practice writing his letters and numbers, or do any of his work books.  He insists that he doesn't need to practice any of this because he knows how to do it all and does it well.  Which is true, to an extent.  He does do very well with all these things and gets better every day with his words, and we have had the conversation that practice makes perfect but he is insistent that all of this is unnecessary.  Oh 5 year olds.... they certainly are trying at times.  Yes, he also knows everything and loves everything about animals- he screams and yells at me if I kill a fly... or a cockroach... or a spider... and remember they live out in the country so there are lots of these things...


The little girl is about to turn 3 and she is... well... 3.  everything is happiness and sunshine one moment and crying, screaming hysterically the next.  Every day it's princess, fairy or butterfly day in her world and she dresses up as such, oh to be that age again- not a single worry in the world, just whether or not you will get to play princess and go outside and flit around like a fairy.  I feel a big sense of accomplishment with her because I can actually see her learning the things I'm teaching her, unlike with her brother who knew most of these things before I started working with him.  She's ;earning her numbers and is doing really well, and we're starting to attack the letters but it's a little slower going.

I love that I get to use my innate sense of creativity with them- for mother's day we made their mom wreaths, father's day we made fishing poles, we've done paper mache, volcanoes, made our own soap, started scrapbooks, and so much more.  We've done science experiments and explore the outdoors every day.

Well that's all for today, I might post some of my arts and craft stuff I've been working on on my own recently later this weekend!