T is for TIME OUT and Touchdowns!

You're probably thinking T is for Time out because I have a 4 year old ornery little boy. But that is not what this means, although he has had his fair share of time outs in the past.
Today I decided that we will be taking a "Time Out" from the Letter of the Day blog posts. It does take me some time to put together these little posts... upload and edit photos, type it up, insert pictures, preview, edit, preview, edit, etc. and it has been taking some time away from other things.

With the summer flying by as fast as it has, I am needing to focus my efforts elsewhere. {For one, I am taking on this TpT Seller Challenge which is requiring a little more effort from me this week. I am supposed to be creating my "masterpiece" of a product by next Wednesday!! TpT stands for Teachers Pay Teachers, an awesome resource for teachers to buy and sell teacher-created products. I love it.}  AND I have about three Teacher Binders I need to update for the next school year. I did one earlier this week and it took me over 3 "rest times" to get it all wrapped up. Usually, I type up these posts while kids are resting/napping in the afternoon or late at night once they are in bed, like right now. But lately I have had other things taking up my evening time and I have found myself blogging after breakfast while kids were watching TV. Now I am NOT opposed to a little TV time but don't want it to overwhelm their entire morning. And, you know how it is....your kid sees you "busy" on the computer and that is when they all of a sudden need you for every. little. thing. So, in short, I will still be posting Noah's letter of the Day pics on Instagram/Facebook but I am taking a TIME OUT from blogging. I know my 3 or 4 loyal readers may be disappointed. ;) ha ha

BUT if we do anything super cool, letter related, I promise to share!!

So to wrap up this particular post, I wanted to share about our BUTTERFLIES! We had to release them today. When I say we had to, well, we just did. The directions say to set them free 3-4 days after they all are out. I guess 10 butterflies in that little habitat gets a little cramped. We had to release them because we already had 2 sets mating! It was quite an interesting scene!!

Here are some pics of the release!

At first, they wouldn't come out. Noah was trying to encourage them. "Come on, little guys." 

A few of them figured it out pretty quickly and they were too quick for me to get a picture!

Myla was thrilled to get to hold one of them. It flew on the grass and she carefully scooped it up. 

Love this picture of them.

And as for those 2 sets that were mating...here is a picture of one pair. Look carefully...there are two. 

So for our Letter pic, we had to go with Texas Tech and touchdowns. 

After we took our pictures and pointed out the Double T on his shirt and hat, he ran to the laundry room to point out the Texas Ranger "T" he has on his backpack. And then later we were at my mom's to swim and he pointed out another Ranger "T" on one of mom's shirts. So, he's definitely getting some exposure and letter recognition with all these crazy things we have been doing. Yea! Now will he recall them if I were to show him the alphabet right now...I'm not sure.

We have definitely had some fun and will continue to go through the remaining letters. {OMG...what am I going to do for U??} Again, if we do anything share-worthy, I will post about it but a time out is a good thing every once in awhile! SO...

T is for TIME to focus on other THINGS. :)

Until next time!!

Sand Cake and Soccer!

Yesterday was semi-S day. We didn't do a whole lot but we did start off pointing out all the Ss we could find. 

Completely on his own, he picked up a book and looked through the pages. 

"Look, mom! I found 2!"

We had workers here all day again so we didn't get to the actual letter activity I had planned. So we made SAND CAKE instead!

I can't take credit for this image, it's straight from Pinterest. Here is the link on how to make it. 

I did capture a few pics of us making it! Notice "us" is just me and Myla. Noah had no part in making it, he just wanted to eat it when it was done!

 We had to bake the cake part first, just classic yellow cake. 

My sweet helper. 

Later in the day, we assembled the rest of the sand cake! We needed the following ingredients....Notice the sand pail?!

 Such a poser. 

 We started by making the vanilla pudding as normal, then mixed in the softened cream cheese and folded in the cool whip.

Then I cut the cake into cubes. 

This was the fun part! Layering the cake cubes and pudding mixture. 

 There were 3 layers of each. Yum!

Myla like to smooth each layer for me. 

Then we put some graham crackers into a baggie and beat them to crumbs. This is when Noah came running in the kitchen..."Mommy, WHAT are you doing?!"

Then we sprinkled the graham cracker "sand" on the top!

We decorated the top with an "S" of course using blueberries. Last year's sand cake was decorated better but we were pressed for time. 

Called in Noah to check out the sand cake....

Love how he brought his baseball glove. 

 S is for Sand Cake!

I love that we use the little plastic shovel to scoop it out! 

Didn't get a picture but Myla was so thoughtful to serve some cake to our workers in the bathroom. They gobbled it up!

And after serving 7 people (my mom was over too), we still have lots left!!  It keeps pretty well in the fridge and tastes even better the next day!

YUM!

And we ended the evening with some Soccer!

Soccer blurs....but wow, what a game last night!!

For his daily letter pic, we had to bring in the soccer goal. 

Silly Soccer Dude

Sweet Soccer Stud

SOO cute

And lastly, Myla picked out a Soccer book to read to Noah. Of course, it kept his attention. She was so sweet about it because at first she said the book was way too easy and she had already read it a couple of times...but she read it anyway.

Sweet Snuggles..

Love these two.

No Letter of the Day activities today. The new tile in the bathroom should be finished later today and the kids are going to the in-laws for the evening. It's our 9 year anniversary!

Hard to believe it this was 9 years ago!

RRR we almost to the end of the alphabet?

Almost!! Yesterday was "R" day and yesterday was busy. We are getting our shower remodeled so we had workers here hammering away. The kids were picked up by Granny to go to the movies and play at her house. It was great that the kids weren't in the way of the workers because you know they would be. Because that's what kids do. At least my kids. So thankful for my mother in law for taking the kids! She had wanted to take them to the movies on Sunday but I had asked her to take them on Monday when we had the remodeling going on. I was able to get a few things done around the house since I was stranded. So it was a win-win for everyone!!

I did snap these picture before they left. 

Going to be so glad to have a new shower. R is for Remodeling!

This was our BEFORE pic. Gross, huh?

I will be sure to post the AFTER pics. ;)

While the kids were gone, I made a Fishing Rod so Noah could Reel in some letters. Saw the idea on Pinterest and thought he would love it.

I modified the Pinterest version just a bit. Instead of using one paper towel roll and one toilet paper roll, I used 3 paper towel rolls.  I put 2 paper towel rolls together and cut a whole in one. Then I used another cut paper towel roll for the handle. The yard is for the fishing line.

I taped one end of the yarn to the inside of the long paper towel tube. (I learn later that this wouldn't hold, I should have taped it better.)

Now it's put together. The Pinterest one was painted but I didn't have time for that.

I cut the hold a little too big so it needed tape to secure the handle.

I first tried tying the "fishing line" to the jumbo magnet but it was too heavy. Hopefully this small round one will be strong enough to attract my Dollar spot letters.

MEANWHILE...we had 5 butterflies come out!! The kids got to see one hatch before they left with Granny but were so surprised to see them flying around when they got home. 

Myla wrote in the last page of her Butterfly Journal.

My precious!

Then we threw in a little math...She asked how many more butterflies were left in their chrysalis. So I wrote out the subtraction sentence.

Then she went to go count.

And Solve!

Last night we had one more come out before the kids went to bed so now we have 6! Hoping to see the other 4 come out today. ;)


Last night, the Rangers played! Noah ran up to see Prince Fielder. But, really, R is for Rangers!

Then we were ready to go fishing! They really got into it. I had them sit on the coffee table dock and put our blue-green blanket down for the water, of course.

Myla is telling Noah here that he is IN THE WATER!

But, he didn't care. He wanted to sit down a little closer. I probably made the fishing line too long. Ha!

The kids took turns. When Noah pulled out a letter he would tell me what it was. When Myla pulled out a letter she told me the sound and then a word that started with that sound.

Such concentration.

Great hand-eye coordination activity too!

The magnet wasn't super strong but it still worked if the kids lifted it up really slowly.

And Noah found the letter of the day.....R!

Noah didn't stick with us after this but Myla wanted to find all the other letters. 

So fun!

Meanwhile, Noah was back watching the Rangers. He watches so intensely.

Then he used the pillow as "home base" as Daddy fielded him some balls.

Nice throw, buddy!

I had a super huge Rangers jersey from a game I went to last season. It was so big on him!

My little Ranger Rookie!

Just ignore the helmet...wrong team!

I was able to doctor up the helmet with my Beautiful Mess app I have been using for these Letter of the Day pics. The only thing is it wouldn't let me make the "T" any smaller. Ha ha!

That wraps up R day! It seemed to be a letter he already knew so yea!!

We have the workers here again today to finish the tile but we plan to do a few "S" activities. We are making Sand Cake today!! We have made it twice before and it's SO good. What is Sand Cake, you ask?

Stay tuned!