Mexico in September

Mexico again! Another great trip! Ember is loving it more and more every time. She kept saying "no home!" Haha! It was quite warm for September which made it nice to get one last blast of warmth before Flagstaff turns cold. And I am glad we did because when we got home it was definitely fall. The crisp was in the air and fall/winter clothes came out! 

Ember ready for the beach!

Playing with Mima

Selfie!!

During this trip, Ember got to watch more TV than normal while eating and just relaxing after wearing herself out playing. She really liked "Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.

Ember was still a little afraid of being in the actual ocean. She loved the tide pools but the sometimes powerful waves still worry her. Here is dad helping her stand in it!

Mima, Pappy, and Bella

Sitting with Pappy

We got to watch the moon set over the ocean several nights which was really cool!

Playing!

We built quite a few sandcastles this trip (complete with moats and rock fortresses). It was fun... especially for mommy and daddy :)

Last time we were in Mexico one of the vendors dropped a clip of anklets and bracelets in the sand in front of our house. We have looked for her last time and this time but have not seen her again so we picked one out for Ember with dolphins on it!

Hanging in the hammock!

We had some AMAZING food but this meal was one of the favorites of the trip - shrimp and chicken sausage kabobs!

Last night family photos at sunset!

Gorgeous and relaxing as always! 

Rainbow Unit

As the GRAND FINALE of our Brown Bear colors/animals unit.... I decided to put it all together and talk about rainbows. We used 4 different books about rainbows and had a few activities for each one. Lots of fun!

Book 1

We made a RAINBOW Freight Train craft

And we worked on sorting our toys onto the correct colored papers

Book 2

We made a sticky wall rainbow using contact paper (great idea from Aunt Ally)

We made a rainbow by sorting pom pom balls onto a template (this was pretty hard for Ember)

And we made a necklace using straw pieces and string

Book 3

We made a Rainbow Fish with sequins

We used Goldfish crackers to graph with (Ember surprised me on this one with how well she did and how patient she was to eat the fish)

We made ice chalk! (really cool idea but next time I will use a recipe without food coloring because it stained our hands almost instantly!)

And I found this movie at the library too

Book 4

We made a sun and rainbow craft and talked about how plants grow.

(When asked what helps plants grow.... Ember says "rain" and "sun")

We played in a rainbow colored rice sensory bin

Before

After

I wanted to buy white flowers and put them in food coloring water (also a great idea from Aunt Ally) but we never got around to it :( Next time!

We ironically also got this book in the mail from the Dolly Parton program during this unit

We got a few other books focusing on all the colors at the library

And we watched a few movies about rainbows

Ember definitely knows her basic colors and uses them to describe things all the time! It is so FUN to see that she is getting things and applying her knowledge to real life. I am still loving this planned quality time with my sweet toddler!

Flagstaff Arboretum

Aleecia invited Ember and I to join them for a morning at the Flagstaff Arboretum. We had never been and didn't have anything going on so we accepted!

(As a side note from the Arboretum's website - "At 7,150 feet in elevation, The Arboretum at Flagstaff is a unique destination, specializing in plants native to the high elevation habitat of northern Arizona." )

We started off by just walking around and exploring things!

We ate lunch at a cute little picnic table and then got some picture of the kiddos with the gorgeous view of the San Francisco Peaks behind them!

Then, we went to the Flying Raptor bird show where we saw wild birds and they flew right over out heads!

Luke volunteered and was chosen to play the "game show"

Our "selfies" with the owl!

It was alot of fun! Ember and I were both very glad that we accepted the invite! And we left right as the monsoon rolled in and it started pouring!