Sunday, funday

Today was a good day, Liliana and I played in the morning. Then we went to Church and grocery shopping. We came home made dinner and had my parents over. After dinner we watched Dancas do Carnival (Portuguese theater). After my parents left Marco, Liliana and I played ball. Liliana laughed so hard. Daddy also put lily's hair in a ponytail lol! After we worked on a Valentines day craft, but I think the paint is going to disappear for a few days, because Liliana was putting it on her face! Its amazing that such simple activities can make a regular day extraordinary!
My 1st Ponytail

Playing Ball
Painting
Oh noo!

Family Fun Day!

Today the family and I enjoyed a game of bowling. We gathered empty water bottles and filled the bottles half full of water. Then we got our self's a ball and started bowling! Liliana was great at picking up the pins, but had a harder time knocking them down. We had a great time just playing though!



Then it was off to a game of cards, but liliana wanted to play alone!

Circles, Circles!

On Friday night Liliana and I created an ice cream cone!Its a great addition to our circle theme!
Ready,Set Glue

Writing our name on the back

The finished Product(we forgot the cherry)

To complete this activity you will need:
Glue
Scissors(depending on age level)
1 8x12 piece of blue construction paper
1 brown triangle, from construction paper
3-5 3" circles in various colors
1 1" red circle
markers or crayons

There are various ways of completing this activity. One way is to draw the matching shapes onto the construction paper so your child can match the shapes, or simply let them place the shapes onto the construction paper. Depending upon the child's age they can cut out their own circles. Have child place the cherry on top of their ice cream. You can also let your child decorate their ice cream with fudge and sprinkles. As your completing the activity talk about the shapes. If your child is an older preschooler you can also play I spy things that are circles game, and discuss how shapes are all around them!

Update on the new adventure

So I have been gathering information and items for our new homeschooling adventure. Thus far I have paints, crayons, and paper. Today I brought home a ton of Cd's from work and copied them for us to have a copy at home. I also have a wall calendar with several activities that I purchased at the teacher supply store. I want to purchase a white board, felt, play-doh, markers, and art supplies!Ok So I couldn't wait to get started. Here is my outline for the circle theme:
Thursday:Today we made a snow man. adapted http://jennwa.blogspot.com/
Friday: Felt Circle Match and Ice Cream cone
Saturday: Cereal Circle
Sunday: Stop Light
Monday:Tangrams
Tuesday:Shape sort using cereal and Caterpillar
Wednesday:Snow man mobile adapted from: http://jennwa.blogspot.com/
Today we started with the snowman. For this activity you need:


1 sheet of dark construction paper
cotton swabs
paint
white crayon
Instructions: 1. Draw of have the child draw the outline of the snowman on the piece of construction paper with the white crayon. Have child use Cotton swab to fill in the outline with white paint Let dry. Then allow the child to paint a face, scarf, hat, and arms for the snowman, still using the cotton swabs. As we completed the activity I talked to Liliana about each dab being a circle. As she is so young I decided to keep my instruction and interactions simple using only key words such as circle. I also only presented Liliana with one color at a time.
*IDEA: Use muffin tin for placing paint in (aluminum ones work GREAT)!

a great weekend and a new adventure

We had a great weekend. On Saturday we just cleaned the house and Liliana got to paint some in the morning. Sunday we went to church and then out to breakfast. Marco had to go to work so I packed up the diaper bag and Liliana and I headed to visit Debbie and the kids. While at Debbie's Liliana got to walk around the dairy and explore. She saw a goat, a horse, cows and a donkey. She had a ton of fun, she was a little scared of the goat since it wouldn't stop following her. After Debbie's we headed to Melanie's for a quick visit, where Liliana picked up some beautiful necklaces(thanks Guys). From their we came home and went to avo's and watched dancas with him and tried to keep him entertained. (Liliana is very good at this, she danced and sang along with the CD. Today we ran some errands in the Am, went to my parents house for lunch and then had Paula and Sophie over for a play date. The girls had a great time, they played ball, bubbles, had a tea party, and colored!
I like to read :)

Mommy sorted my toys into tubs

Thanks Melanie and Kevin

Coloring
Tea Party
Going for a walk

Bubbles



Now on to my new adventure, I have been following some homeschooling blogs and have decided that it is a perfect time to start some academia with liliana. It will be very laid back but I want her to become familiar with letters, numbers and shapes. I will be using some Greg and Steve songs, like the number rock, the alphabet song and colors. We will read a book nightly and have a special craft and game that will focus on the theme of the week. I am probably planning to much, but I will adjust depending on Liliana's interests. As an educator I am so excited to teach my daughter, as a parent I can't wait because she never stops amazing me. I am going to use this week to prepare and we will be starting next week. I am so excited!

A trip to the park!

So as I have been mentioning we have been having beautiful weather lately. So I decided to take Liliana to the park yesterday afternoon. We had a great time. The best part for me was swinging with her in my lap and watching her smile. It is amazing to see how much she has truly grown. Liliana had a good time getting to the slide and then sliding down, but I think her favorite part was climbing back up the slide, silly girl!
I am also excited that one of the blogs I follow the lady did circle time with her daughter from the time she was one so I am going to leave her a comment to see what type of activities she did so we can start a circle time routine as well! I love having different activities for Liliana.

A good Day

We had such a good today, the weather has been GREAT the last couple of days, So I wanted to get out of the house. The plans were to go to the park and then to the mall to exchange a Christmas present for a SMALLER size, but we ended up just taking her to the mall and letting her play at the play area. After we went and had dinner at the Olive Garden and then went and visited my dad. It was good just to get out of the house for a while as a family and have fun!
It is truly the little things in life that can brighten your day. I have had a few moments where I am just so grateful to have these opportunities. On Sunday Liliana and I went to church and she was so good and I went home feeling full of God's grace. Then on Monday Liliana and I had the opprtunity to go for a walk and we played outside for a while and I was once again greatful to see her smile! I truly have a beautiful daughter both inside and out!
Do you think she is going to be left handed? She can use both equally well!

MY turn lol!
Reading the Menu
No talking on the cell phone while driving! She wanted the phone after I had finished talking on the phone with Melanie!
Her favorite toy!
Today we bought Liliana her potty.
Avo got a set of get well ballons and Liliana had so much fun!

Having fun with Melanie and Kevin

Last night Melanie and Kevin came over from Merced to hang out with us! Everyone had a great time, espically Liliana. Lily is always the star of the show! Thanks again for coming over! We should get together more often :)
Liliana eating her Salad!

At the dinner table!

Too cute!

Opening Melanie's Christmas Gift

Taking down the Christmas Decorations

So on Friday January 9th we decided to take down our Christmas decorations. Here are a few pictures of Liliana helping me:
Taking apart the gingerbread Tree

Down Came the house

Putting away the decorations
Putting away the tree

20 months old

Can you believe it, Liliana is 20 months old! She is the light of my life, completly adorable! Here is somethings that she has learned in the last month:
She can say the following words:
Book(english)
Soap(Portuguese)
outside(English)
She has learned so much! I am so excited to see her grow, but want to keep her my litle girl forever! We love her very much!

New Years Day

Watching TV with Andre

Hanging out with Padrinho

At the Table

After Dinner

Sitting with Andre

We went to my mom and dad's for New Years day. It was fun to have the whole family together, we watched movies and had dinner!

New Blog

I decided to start a new blog specifcally for my love of food. Here is the link check it out and let me know what u think
http://dinnertimeat.blogspot.com/

Going out with a bang!

Thanks to Melanie and Kevin for inviting us over for new years we had a great time! We chatted, meet new people, and played Wii and dealt with very cranky kids lol! It was midnight before we knew it thanks again! Liliana stayed up and rang the new year with all of us, it was a little harder to put her to sleep then usually but she is taking her nap now and should be on schedule for tonight :) Here are a few pictures from the evening.
Opening a gift from Melanie and Kevin, thanks!

It's a tea set:)

I couldn't capture the expression, but she loved this chair.

Marco, with baby fever lol!

Liliana playing with the twins!

Liliana and Melanie
Playing the Wii

Liliana was the Lead singer

Playing with David

Playing with Kevin's parents


Our first Picture together in 2009

Our First Family Picture of 2009
Welcoming in 09 with Kevin

Welcoming 009 with Melanie