Emily has talked about getting a bike for a long time. Christmas was too early and with her birthday not until October, we felt we had to come up with another option besides gift or freebie. When Amazon had a gold box deal last week for a balance bike, we jumped on it and quickly developed…
Experiences
Three Minute Volcano
Yesterday while I was making a late morning snack to sustain us through errand running, Emily was on the verge of a meltdown and Nathan was yelling. One of my coping tactics to tantrums is to become rather silly and my “I love you’s” evolved into “lava yous” which brought up volcanos. Emily didn’t know…
DIY Sprinkler Fun
We really enjoyed all of the water playing we did in Utah from swimming to sprinklers to spray bottles and buckets. I especially loved the kid exhaustion that followed with guaranteed naps or bedtime. We don’t have great access to a pool here (driving to and from and swimming with two completely dependent children is…
Riverfest
Right after we got home last week Andrew mentioned that Riverfest was coming up. We’ve never been before, or even talked about going, but there was a 5K and a kids run we thought would be fun. Upon further investigation we realized we missed our chance register for the run but Emily still could so…
Palm Sunday Walk
This time of year I really miss my time in Israel. One of the incredible experiences I had there was participating in the Palm Sunday walk and I decided I wanted to recreate the experience for Emily on a smaller scale. Yesterday we made our own palm leaves during Nathan’s nap. Emily got the hang of…
Fire Station Tour
I set up a tour of the fire station a few weeks ago and yesterday was the day! We got all ready and met some of our friends to walk over. The fire fighters were incredible with our large group of 2-4 year olds. They showed their one-month old firetruck that has been to three…
The Family that Grips Together, Sticks Together
Friday afternoon Andrew came home and told us about the adjusted game plan for the grant he is working on. It included making lots of soft robots so he could become more of an expert and know how to help teachers avoid common pitfalls so that their students can be successful and build their confidence….
Last Day of School
Today I officially finished teaching middle school (at least until next fall…we’ll see what happens). I absolutely loved working this last year as an adjunct teacher at the best online school. This semester was particularly fun because another teacher (Andrew’s cousin) and I each taught different sections of the same class and we had some…
A Little School Time
Last spring I decided I wanted to start doing some form of preschool with Emily in the fall. She is naturally curious and loves learning and I wanted to add a bit of structure to our day. I started brainstorming with a friend of mine and we have decided to do a weekly lesson plan…
First Look at Electronics
Andrew has been teaching at a gifted students summer camp for the last two weeks here at Purdue. As part of one of his classes he had them do a short electronics unit. They didn’t use all the supplies so Andrew brought an electronic bracelet kit home for Emily to look at. He handed her…