Today we loaded the kids up after Noah was off to school and I was back from the gym and headed to the Amelia Park Children’s Museum. ( FYI they need more signs telling you exactly where it is!). This is their new location and they have a lot more exhibits they are trying to get sponsored…but overall it was a great fun few hours!!

Declan was the oldest kid in the place by far, but that didn’t really matter since he was VERY happy to play in the kid powered area.. air guns with soft balls, a ball vacuum and a huge  sphere that dumped them all on ya after it gets full..what more can an almost 7 year old want?

The guns:

Ziah..on the floor is one of the vacums!

Taejan made some friends.. he loved it that the place was filled with kids HIS size..lol

Declan, Ziah and Eric getting a load of soft balls dumped on them.. it was great!

Taejan loved the space shuttle in that area:

It’s so nice and open, very easy to see all the kids and what they are doing!

I wish we had one of these closer to us, but even with this being an hour away I think we will be buying a membership in the spring..the kids ( and Eric) just loved it!

The other day we decided to head down to Yankee Candle’s Flagship store. We try togo every year and I like to go before it gets crowded with holiday shopper’s! Noah was at school so as soon as the kids were ready we took off!

The kids dipped candles to use for Christmas gifts:

The kids saw, but would not talk to Santa of course. It was a fun and productive day!

Then Saturday Noah was off with his Youth Group on an Extreme Adventure. So we piled in the van again and headed to the Holyoke Children’s Museum. We had a blast!

(note to parents.. make certain newly potty trained kids go potty BEFORE they play in the water..LOL..hence Taejan change of clothing soon):

Taejan says “I drummer man”

Now he’s the climber man!

I haven’t posted pictures of what we’ve been up too in a few so while I have 5 minutes I thought I would!

Let’s see.. well the kids “Fun Boxes” as they call them have become a huge hit around here. They can only have them after breakfast once they are dressed and only for about 30 minutes so they aren’t getting tired of them at all.. I also change them over about every 4  days and the kids have begun swapping things sometimes..LOL

This is them Monday getting their fresh “new” boxes!Yeah Declan didn’t get dressed yet but that’s ok..this time!

And playing the various games that are in their boxes:

Declan and Ziah have taken to doing History at night now.. this works well as some nights Taejan is already in bed. We are loving Story of the World vol 1 with History Odyessy! Even when Taejan is awake it’s easy to get him to help and or listen to the stories with us!

There has been lots of Fun School too.. Between cooking:

and even making fog they’ve had a blast!

Eric has started really working with Taejan and Ziah while I am doing seat work with Declan… so they are getting a lot of FUN preschool/Kindergarten time now! Eric has learned to make anything a learning experience.. even Connect 4 with a 3 year old.. whala it’s patterning!

and of course since it is almost Halloween they’ve been making lots of pumpkins..includin painting potato’s to look like pumpkins!

and making lunch bag pumpkins:

Declan got to help Noah with his Biology homework the other night:

and he’s done some good seatwork for himself too!

of course there is always lots of good ole fun too.. for Taejan fun is often a task.. he cleaned my sink the other day…

but sometimes fun for him is just playing with his new excavator(Thanks to Gramma):

And fun for all ( well not Noah..he was in school) is just enjoying the first snowfall of the year!

Oh and fun the other day was going Trick or Treating at the local mall!

Today we deemed the day FUN SCHOOL day… so we, of course, had lots of fun!!

Declan and I put up the new World map to go along with our Geography and Social Studies study.

Then I introduced the kids to their new caddy’s.. to say they loved them would be an understatement!( I added a Geo board to Declan’s last night)

Then Declan and I did the 3 R’s

then we broke out  our new favorite rainy day game..Cranium Hullabaloo DVD Animal Adventure game!

A little craft time.. the kids made Stuffed monster friends.. they were given to us by Robin ( came from Oriental Trading). Taejan’s only had one piece of fleece so it was not round..but he didn’t care!

Ziah and Taejan opted to not use the faces, where Taejan decided to use it ALL!

We hurried up outside before it started to rain:

We came in as the rain started and it was time for Corey to come over and play while his brother was at Karate so we pulled out our new favorite game again!

then while the boys played Ziah got Daddy to do her nails..isn’t this priceless?

Hope everyone is having a fine Monday! Thus far we certainly are…it’s library day so Eric took all 3 wee ones there, to the Post office, the park and walmart.. and mommy got some much needed stuff done!

Since Noah is now back in public school I’ve been shifting the Academy around to reflect the fact we have all wee ones learning here now..fist step was creating these little caddy’s for the kids:

There is one for each with a variety of items depending on their age and likes. These are for them to use pretty much whenever they want and especailly to keep them happy while they may be done with their current lesson but I may be working with another kiddo. I plan to rotate out the items in here as needed and I also have a small envelope on the side where the kids can store the reward coupons they have received until they are ready to redeem them!

Here’s Taejan’s(3 years old): He has tractor dominoes, sticks for building, craft sticks, playdough, a small 6 compartment tray, a bagged craft and a pack of tattoo’s.

Ziah’s ( almost 5): she has 2 learning games,sequencing cards,crafts sticks, a bag of buttons,playdough,a small 6 compartment tray, a bagged craft and a pack of tattoo’s.

Declan’s(6.5): He has 2 learning games, a wood model to build and paint, craft sticks, tanagram’s, Modeling clay, a pad of his favorite dot game,a small 6 compartment tray, a bagged craft and a pack of tattoo’s.

Besides getting things rearranged ( yet again) we’ve been happily busy with life, We decorated pumpkins at Owen and Lila’s, and the kids got to see the lambs and hang out with the tractors, no good pictures as i didn’t bring my camera but I have one from my cell phone:

We also had Book Club.. the kids read “The Littles” and they had to build a bridge.. this is from Think!

Declan and Corey did an amazing job working together.. they got well $1.74 I believe on their bridge!

Ziah and Bella worked together and I believe they got $.94!

We had Apple day and of course Karate, dance, acrobatics,Nutcracker, dance pictures, normal pictures and life in general..oh and I am getting up VERY early and loving the gym..just wait a few weeks and I should be really looking and feeling better!!