The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Next book we did for Tot School was "The Very Hungry Caterpillar!" This one was alot of fun too! Here is a brief overview of what we were up to this week(s)!

Read the book every day

We colored a picture of the hungry caterpillar

We made a chain link caterpillar to play with

We made a little clothespin caterpillar (I guess I didn't have any red pom pom balls)

I did multiple sequencing type activities with this book where Ember was involved in helping to tell the story. With this clothes pin caterpillar she picked out the object the book was talking about and I made the caterpillar eat it. She loved this!

We had a caterpillar shaped snack!

We worked on patterns and matching up colors correctly with this pattern sheet. Actually getting the patterns was pretty difficult for Ember both times we worked on it, but she could put the correct color ball on the correct caterpillar circle

(Ally... this next one might give you some more laughs! ;)

We made a sock puppet caterpillar and taped pictures of the things the caterpillar ate in the book onto paper plates with holes on them and had the caterpillar eat through them as we read through the story.

We did a sensory bin of leaves and caterpillars (gummy worms)

And we fed the caterpillar the things he ate in the same order as the book. She got really good at finding the correct item.

Fun week yet again! Ember now knows what pears and plums are. And when asked what a caterpillar turns into, she can say "butterfly". So, progress and learning are happening and we are having a great time doing it! 

Pumpkin Patch Train!

Dustin got an email from the Grand Canyon Railway (since we went to the Grand Canyon on the train for my birthday a few years back) advertising their Pumpkin Patch Train! They take you on a train ride out to a pumpkin patch in the middle of no where and let you pick out a pumpkin to take home. Plus there was a hay bale maze and haunted train car at the train depot to do before or after. We were sold! And we were so glad we did this! Ember really loves pumpkins and trains right now so it was a wonderful morning for her! 

Got our tickets!

Hay bale maze

On the train with Daddy

We arrived at the secret pumpkin patch

Finding our perfect pumpkins

Love them!

Back to the train...

She loves her "big pumpkin" that is "heavy"

Such a FUN time that it just might have to become a tradition!! :)

Fall festival and Inner Basin Hike

Flagstaff is always a beautiful city.... but I think that during fall it is at it's peak of beauty! And the weather is crisp and there are so many family activities hosted and around to do. Today we went to a local church's free fall festival activity. It was fun! Especially for being FREE!

First we did some crafts such as stamping a goodie bag, coloring a magnet, playing with bubbles and pumpkin spice smelling playdough, and coloring on pumpkins with markers.

Then we did the pumpkin walk which was a little trail around the church premises that was lined with pumpkins, scarecrows, leaves, wagons, etc. It was really cute! 

Here is Ember riding a horse in a little barn we found along the way.

Sitting with daddy with the "Big Pumpkin"

There was even some hay bales set up to read on with some fall themed books scattered around on them. And you know how much Ember loves books....

And at the very top of the walk was a picture spot with straw bales, pumpkins, and some little chairs and a volunteer to take your family picture!

Later that afternoon, God had a lesson to teach me on who is really in control! 

We have been trying to go on this Inner Basin hike with our friends for a few weekends now and the timing has just been conflicting with Ember's nap schedule. So, we told our friends we would come as quickly as we could after she woke up and hopefully meet them on their way down and hike the rest of the trail with them. Well, as soon as Ember woke up... we headed out but we didn't quite know the best way to get there and drove for almost 2 hours on a dirt road which huge ruts when it should have only taken 45 minutes. Ember was cranky because she didn't expect such a long drive and I was super frustrated too because it was already 4:30 by now and the sun is down at 6:30. About 5 minutes from the trail head we saw all our friends driving back down the road as they were all done hiking. 

We decided to hike it anyway... and man oh man... I am sure glad we did! 

God blessed our hiking at this time in various ways!

1) The crowds disappeared! In the first 15-20 minutes... it was pretty much a steady line of people hiking back down and it was stop and go and having to stand to the side to let people pass... etc. After that... we had the whole trail to ourselves! Ember got to walk some and Maci didn't have to be on her leash

2) We hiked during sunset and there is probably not much prettier than the sun setting on the Aspen trees in peak leaf changing season

3) We enjoyed silence! Taking in beautiful views when there is alot of background noise is still pretty but when you have time with your thoughts - it is even better! 

4) We were still able to do the whole 4 mile hike and made it back to our car seconds before it was pitch dark outside!!

I am doing a Women's Bible study and we are going through a book called "Wonderstruck" and I can confidently say that God had this whole afternoon planned perfectly and I was left WONDER STRUCK with God and His creation!

Here are some pictures which I promise do not do the beauty justice!

5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Since we finished Brown Bear Brown Bear and our Rainbow unit review... we are getting back into our pre-BFIAR books (we have 4-5 before getting into the actual BFIAR books) The first one we chose is "5 Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed." I feel like I didn't get super creative with this one but simply used alot of online resources. It was rather nice and Ember seemed to enjoy it! Here is what we did!

We colored a picture of monkeys on the bed

We watched a You Tube video of the nursery rhyme

We pointed out "Monkey Parts" on ourselves and the monkey

We painted a monkey mask brown

We arranged monkey's in size order from small to large (little to big). She surprised me with how well she did at this!

We acted out the book using props! Ember loved doing this!

We worked on our counting by using a little printable booklet - with monkeys of course!

We ate a monkey face sandwich for lunch! 

(Now... every time we have peanut butter, banana, etc... she says monkey! It is a little creepy... I know. Haha! There is a reason I played sports over art)

It really was a fun week! And by the end Ember could retell the story on her own (obviously missing some parts/words) but she would always get "no monkeys jumping bed!" So cute!