Fargo Fun!

I feel so blessed to have been able to take Ember to visit the Brucks in Fargo this month! It was perfect timing since we hadn't met Little Sorraya yet and Ember still flies free. We arrived on a Monday and returned on Friday! It was such a great time of catching up with my sister, Chris, and Ryken and finally getting to meet their super sweet little girl! Ember and Ryken didn't get along as well as last time (Ryken was really excited and Ember was scared) but they are toddlers - what can you expect!! :) Here is an overview of our trip.

MONDAY

Ember waiting nicely to get on the plane

First picture of ALL of us together

Yeah! We are here!! And Sorraya and Ember bonded immediately

I wasted no time getting some pictures with this little cutie while Aunt Ally scored some points with Ember by reading a book to her

Cousins Reading Together. This book, "No David" became a favorite of Ember's to read or have read to her. Ryken loved it too so they often read it together.

Silly gooses during bath time :) 

TUESDAY

Started the morning off with a little play time in the cardboard cars

Then we headed off to Yunker Farms for a fun morning!

Say "Cheese"

There was a Children's Museum with various activities and things to play with.

There was a park outside that we walked to and played at for a while since the weather was gorgeous!

(Sorraya chose this time as a good time for a nap)

Then, onto the finale of the morning with a train ride that went through a tunnel and around the track twice driven by Conductor Betsy :)

And before we left Yunker Farms, we had a little picnic lunch in the lush green grass!

Then nap time for the big kids and one on one time with this cutie who is always smiling and just the happiest little thing!

Fun with Aunt Ally

Ally and I had both not seen "Frozen" and wanted to so we rented it and watched it with the kiddos after their nap. We loved it and had one of the songs stuck in our head pretty much the rest of the week!

Playing in the dirt time!!

After dinner, we took a walk around the neighborhood and caught these two holding hands on camera!

WEDNESDAY

More fun in the morning in PJ's

Sam's Club visit

Ally's friend, Megan, so kindly (and bravely) agreed to take pictures of the 3 little ones. Here is Ember and Sorraya waiting for her to arrive.

After pictures, the big kids played on the porch! 

We did another bath night

My silly goose making her new favorite face : D

THURSDAY

We woke up to rain today! Sorraya didn't seem to mind!

We Face Timed with Grandma and Grandpa Flin today. The kids were pretty excited! And the grandparents as well.

It cleared up a little in the afternoon so we played some more on the porch and Ryken showed Ember how to use chalk for her first time.

FRIDAY

Last day :(

We headed to a park to play for one last morning together

When we were leaving the park and walking to the car through an Elderly Care Home, a sweet old man was walking with his adult daughter. He just thought our kids were the cutest and gave them each a few dollars to get a "treat." So generous and kind! We stopped by the store and got to ride in the car shopping cart while picking out our treat!

Here are the kids with their dollars and the treat we got them!

YUM YUM! (And we found out later that it was ironically National Donut Day today)

And then just like that.... it was time to hug goodbye and  leave! :(

Sad to leave the Brucks. But we had a GREAT time and I am thanking God for technology such as Face Time and blogs! THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING BRUCKS! WE LOVE YOU GUYS!

Brown Bear

After much research and thinking it through I finally decided what I want to to for Tot School with Ember. I am going to use the BFIAR books. Ember loves books so much and I love how many ideas are already out there for this curriculum. However, the official BFIAR books and curriculum are geared more for 2-4 year olds so I am finding other fun books and creating some activities to go along with them for the time being. We are starting with Brown Bear Brown Bear and are actually going to make it 9 different sections and focus on a color and an animal for each section. 

So, here is what we did for our first section: Brown & Bears

(My motto is to keep it fairly simple so that I will not be overwhelmed and stop doing it and so that it is enjoyable for Ember as well. I also do not plan on trying to cram things in but do activities 2-3 times each week. That is why I am calling things "sections" and not "weeks")

We started each day with reading "Brown Bear Brown Bear" (this is the basis of BFIAR - reading a book at least 5 times in a row)

We explored the color Brown with household objects

We watched some videos on YouTube about bears

We colored a picture of a bear with a brown crayon

We sorted gummy bears into an empty egg carton

We did a Bear Tracking activity where we tied one end of a string to a bear and hid it. Then we followed the string to find the bear.

We watched a movie with a brown bear in it: "Bear in the Big Blue House"

We glued pinto beans onto a bear template

We found and read a few other books from the library about bears such as "Corduroy," and "Paddington"

We had a bear head shaped snack

It was a very good first week of Tot School. I think that Ember and I truly both enjoyed it and she definitely knew what a "bear" was by the end of the week. I am not so sure about the color brown...but in time... all in time! :)  Looking forward to Red & Birds!