Feb....

 

The past few weeks, we've had tons of fun (as usual!) We've been doing science projects.. snowmobiling.. 

 

We went outside and tried to see the stars with the telescope... unfortunately we couldn't see anything :(  

 

Playdough fun at preschool...

 

This is hilarious... Killian wanted to put on a puppet show for his stuffed animals. His blanket wanted to watch too. But he didn't have eyes.. so killian added some :) 

ALRIGHT, the most EXCITING thing that's happened... Killian started reading! YES. We've done letter sounds for 6 months. And he finally put it all together. He's read 5 books.. I'm SOO excited for him <3 <3 <3<3 

A nice weekend

We had a very nice weekend together! It started Saturday morning. I taught an art class, and Killian came with. He really enjoyed it; especially because one of his friends is in it. So he sat down next to her and played with play dough.

After art class, we came home to a graduation party!  My best friend threw me a graduation party. It was wonderful! Even more so, because all I had to do was show up. :)

Killian had tons of fun - especially when the cake came out:

 

Playing with my cousin

 My wonderful friend who threw me the party

 Frosting.. frosting.. oh I love frosting.

 My grandparents and I.

MM and soda. 

We relaxed the rest of Saturday away after such a busy first half!

Sunday we relaxed, cleaned and organized the house. After quiet time, we went to Heckrodt and played. We learned alot about owls there too- this was a funny coincidence, because K had just been talking about owls and all the things he knew about them. And we got there only to find a whole room devoted to owls!

Today, we were excited to start Preschool. Killian was so excited! He's slightly confused on this relationship to me- as I'm his mom and teacher- but I think a few weeks in will clear it all up for him. :)

I'm Back!!!- What janurary looked like

PHEW!!!!!!!!

With Student teaching, I was very very very horrible about updating this. I feel sad that I've missed out on so many cute Killian stories :( But now I'm going to get back in the swing of things!!

I've been busy starting my own preschool, and trying to get another blog up a running (projects4mama.blogspot.com) that has all my projects in it. It's TONS of fun- So hop over there and check it out! It also includes preschool curriculum that I'm creating/selling. Feb. curriculum is free- as soon as I figure out how to add a PDF :)

So here's what we've been up to:

*We've built a few forts with our EZ-Fort
*We've gone sledding- SO much fun.. though Killian fell out once or twice :)
*Killian got his dream rocketship toy! He's so happy with it!
*We switched rooms, and he has a rocket room now (pictures to come! :))
* We went snow shoeing thought Heckrodt-- Someone complained after about 2 min., but I made him hike all the way into the pond
* We went to Chuckee Cheese for the first time! He was overwhelmed, but loved it. He's asked to go again

We're very excited for friends to come and play with us next week- I can't wait to start teaching preschoolers :)  

Christmas 2011

We had a very WONDERFUL christmas this year. It started at 7 am when I picked up my little monkey from his dad's house. He came home to this:

 

He was VERY excited.. and went right for the presents

  

He then opened ALL the gifts from his cousins and aunt and uncles from Alaska.. Every time he opened one from his little baby cousin, he got SO excited. He really loves that little baby.

 

When he made the 6 gifts at Heckrodt, he decided to give one to me.. it was an ornament that he had stamped. So he hung it on the tree for me after I unwrapped it. (Side Note: I don't have a picture of this, but my mom had him paint a bird house for me for Xmas. I absolutely LOVE it. I can't wait to varnish it and hang it outside in the spring).

  

Once Killian opened his BIG present.. a huge wooden barn with animals.. He promptly told me" Ok mama, I have enough toys now. I will just play with these" And he refused to open anymore! So I let him play.. He did eventually open them all, but VERY slowly.

 He did open his batman costume.. then had to check himself out in the mirror :)

 After he played a while at our house (and ate TONS of candy and I dragged the costume off of him), we headed to my mom's house. 3 of my 4 sisters were there + my grandma + my Aunt + my dad + my sister's boyfriend. It was a BUSY and LOUD present opening ceremony... but it reminded me of when I was a kid :) Killian got the most presents.. here's he's opening a science kit

 He REALLY appreciates every gift :) I love that about him. He is loving a fishing ornament my dad gave him.

 When he opened the castle from my dad, he exclaimed: This is PERFECT! And of course, didn't want to play with anything else.

 But my mom rocked at her gifts too.. she made him a doctor kit including a badge with his picture that says : Dr. Winkel. Super adorable! He's been obsessed with doctoring me all week now.

 He discovered this Ottoman.. and went inside it. When my dad put the cover on, Killian started peeping and said it was his egg-shell. The he'd emerge still peeping. He cracks me up!

 My mom also got him an EZ-fort ... and they put together a fort. Killian wanted to add on to it. I can see this thing being LOTS of fun at our house :)

 OMGoodness... This is the last of the pictures... He still hadn't finished opening my gifts, so he finally finished at my moms house. This is an astronaut costume, which is a little small, but he demanded be put on him. Then he ran around screaming "astronaut doctor!" And doctored everyone as an astronaut.

 

After a little "quiet time", we had Xmas dinner at my moms, and then Killian and I loaded up the car and went to see Happy Feet 2 (again). He BEGGED me for popcorn, M & Ms and Icee (he even offered to pay for it himself!) Once we got home, he clunked out in no time at all! (But not before asking me if he could doctor me one more time!)

I hope everyone had a wonderful xmas.. and enjoy the new year!

Catch-up On December

I've been MIA for the last month..... Student teaching just keeps me too busy. AND it's Christmas month... SO... what have we been up to this past December??

Well.. K gets an advent calendar.. which means he got one present EVERY day of December (until Xmas)... So every day he opened up something new. He LOVED it.. although to be fair he also loves getting chocolate every day too.

Also.. I graduated Dec. 17!!!!!!! Although I'm still teaching until Jan. 20... so it doesn't feel like I'm done. But officially I am:

 K came to the ceremony... sat very well through the 2 hours.. and then told me: mom.. You just walked up, shook someone's hand and walked past them. Is that gaduation? :) We went out to lunch and he snagged a donut.. and didn't complain afterwards:) After a quick nap, we headed to Sheboygan that same night and attended my cousins' wedding. Killian danced with a little girl and enjoyed all the attention..

 This is me, Killian and Mary at the wedding.

We also went to some Holiday Parties and concerts... menasha Library had a holiday party which we went to.. and a concert by Tom Pease. Killian LOVES Tom.. and kept going "on stage" to dance with him. A young boy picked K up and hugged him during "8 hugs a day" song.

 The park and Rec where we live did a gingerbread house decorating night.. so of course we went :) They actually built houses from cardboard, and we used frosting to stick on graham crackers/candy. It worked really well (and it's still standing today). K could do it all by himself and loved it.

 He was happy that he got to eat some of the candy out of the bowl after wards.

 This is his first advent present... it's a puppet stage

 Some of our pictures for our xmas card are SUPER adorable

 Here he is putting on a "story time" in front of his puppet stage (I still have to figure out a way to hang it in his room)

 Putting on his puppet show... SUPER hilarious to watch him do it.

 We made gingerbread snowmen cookies.. he rolled out his own and cut them too

 We did some science projects this December... he was testing to see what writing materials bleed in water.. turns out only marker

 Decorating the snowmen

 We went to an event at Heckrodt Nature reserve were they made 6 presents.. and they gift wrapped them all. K loved it... then he decided who would get which present. Each of the presents were big hits.

 And he signed his name on each :)

 We went to a celebration of lights with my dad.. here he's by the reindeer

 We did some sponge painting with xmas sponges

 He did about 3 LARGE pieces of paper with them...

He also made xmas ornaments out of canning jar lids. They are SOO adorable (because they look homemade)

 We made a tree of love... with pictures of everyone that the we love :)

 He got to play with Gammie 2 days this past week because daycare wasn't opened. My uncles were there one day.. and he played Blues Clues board game with them.


We played with his 2 girlfriends also, and brought them xmas gifts. He hadn't seen them since Halloween, so he was very happy to get to play with them again.

The ONE day we had some snow, we quickly went outside and played in it :) He made a snowman and was pulled around in a sled.

Christmas was a GREAT day.. I'll post pictures today or tomorrow when I have them uploaded and ready to go... Hope everyone has an amazing new year :)

Thanksgiving.. and other November adventures

PHEW!  With student teaching, I've been so busy that I keep forgetting to post :( UGH. But anyways.. We had an excellent thanksgiving, which started with The TURKEY trot. Killian hates walking to just walk (he so DOESN'T get that from me!), so I had to bring the wagon. And we brought Stella to wear her out (1 hour of walking really did it too!) We played at home a little and then we went down to Milwaukee for Thanksgiving with the W side of the family. Killian had tons of fun playing with his first-cousin-once-removed, who is about 5 years older than he is. He wore a turkey shirt that I made him:

He promptly fell asleep on the car ride home and was out for the night!

The next day was spent putting up the xmas tree and decorations. He was a big help (not):

 Instead of helping, he took my fake snow and draped it over Stella.. then pounded her with a hammer!

 And instead of helping decorate, he put a wreath on his head (and made a huge mess with his toys).

And this was when he was supposed to be helping me with the tree: He stole things from around that house and pretended he was the grinch!

But he was awfully cute!!!

We made homemade peanut-butter cups on Saturday, had lunch with Gammie, and went to the YMCA for another family night. He played with shaving cream, swam, and ice skated:

Besides Thanksgiving, we've had other fun adventures the last 2 weeks of November:

 

We went to Heckrodt Nature Reserve for a Eagle/Pelican exhibit. We walked through the trails (he did NOT want to walk).  But he did like the natural park that they made there:

 He hiding in the hole like a fox.

 Here he's playing with a pelican's foot and wing

 He also likes looking around the room at all the dead and live animals. While we were there, we discovered a Discovery Den full of toys that he loves. So we're definitely going to be going much more often.

I made Killian a horse-themed box to store his horse toy (look for a post on Projects4mama in a week or so). and He LOVES it. PS you may notice that he's wearing his PJS that I made for halloween- they're his 2nd favorite PJS (also check out Projects4mama in a week or so).

He said good-bye to his neighborhood friend who moved this month. He was VERY sad because they'd become close.

 We spent a nice Saturday having lunch and painting pottery for 2 people we love. He was SO cute in the restaurant (above)

 And painting his cup (I secertely wish I could keep it, because it captures him at at 3.5). He wanted to play in the back of the pottery place in their play area when he was finished, so I told him that he could as long as he checked in with me every few min. Well, every 1.5 min he came by and said: mama, I checking in". It was very adorable :)

He worked very hard to earn his ant farm through doing his responsibilities around the house. He earned it, then waited patiently for his ants to arrive. Well, they did... and he's very thrilled with them. Me... not so much. They are biting ants and I'm terrified that they'll be knocked over and get all over the place.

Finally, we decorated our house for xmas:

 Instead of helping, he decided to decorate Stella with snow, and then hammer her... adorable but unhelpful

 Then he decided to wear his wreath on his head like a crown

 And then he became the Grinch. He snuck around the house like the grinch, stealing things and putting them on this red pillow which he called his bag.

 But he did put up ornaments.

He loved the ones that he's been given as gifts and remembers :) It was a great November and a very excited December so far...