XYZ

I told myself I wasn't going to do this, but it has been so long since we even did anything for the letter of the week, I am just going to combine XYZ.  I didn't want to do it because when I searched for things for those letters so many of them were combined and I wanted them separated for my three separate weeks.  Turns out I didn't really do a whole lot for the letters, so oh well.  These activities (or lack of) happened back in the middle of July, so forgive me if I can't remember much.  That may also be because we didn't do much.  I really enjoyed doing the letter of the week with Aria and I am even considering doing it again at some point with a little different focus, but I just burnt out and got distracted by a busy summer.

Bible: I don't remember doing anything in particular for X or Y, but Zaccheus starts with Z!  That is a story (and song) Aria knows very well!

Activities: During X week, I bought Aria a xylophone.  She absolutely loves it.  Not only did she play all X week long, but still plays it almost every day.  Definitely a great investment.  The other day I heard her playing it in rhythm with Twinkle, Twinkle!

During Y week we made bracelets and necklaces out of yarn.  Aria didn't really want to learn how to braid or tie yarn together like I was doing.  Instead she just wanted to tie one piece into a bracelet...and another and another and another. 

We were in St. Louis during Z week and we went to the zoo and saw zebras.  It just doesn't get much cooler than that! 

People We Know: Zoe

Foods We Ate: I only remember yellow squash and zebra pudding (recipe found in Aria's Wild Animal Baby magazine). 

 I didn't take my time enough on the stripes, but it is just chocolate pudding, cool whip, repeat.  I put chocolate chips on top.  It was delicious!

Pictures to color: xylophone, x-ray, yak, yo-yo, zebra

Books:  I deleted my list of X books, but I remember something about a fox.
     It's Z!
     My "xyz" sound box
     An XYZ adventure in Alphabet Town  
     Yellow foods  
     The yippy, yappy Yorkie in a green doggy sweater 
     Yoshi's yard : the sound of Y   
     Zebra  
     Zoomer
     ZooZical

Songs: Zaccheus, Your Personal Penguin, Yes We Have No Bananas, You Never Let Go

The Letter W

Bible: I thought about reading stories about wise people, but it just didn't happen.  Ugh!  Where has my motivation and creativity gone.

Activities: We played in the water!  One day, Aria was doing a favorite activity of hers, playing with water in her sink which consists of pretty harmless cup filling and dumping.  Then it gets quiet.  I yell from the kitchen to see what she is doing.  "I'm just putting on some lotion."

It is a bit hard to see the gobs of lotion all over her face and hands, but trust me it is there.  I just laughed.  What else was there to do?  And, water doesn't wash off lotion.  Besides playing with water in the sink, we played at the beach, too.

We also went to Wal-Mart.  Does that count?  And, she is quite fond of her whistle.  I meant to go for a wagon ride, but it was too darn hot.

People We Know: Whitney, Winnie the Pooh

Foods We Ate: waffles, watermelon, water, wheat bread

Pictures to Color: wagon, window, whale, walrus, worm

Books: My 'w' Sound Box, Walruses, It's a Baby Gray Wolf, I Am A Whale, Watch Out Little Wombat

Songs: Winnie the Pooh, Who Built the Ark?, Who Did Swallow Jonah

The Letter V

Bible:  These dwindling letters of the alphabet are not very prevalent in the Bible without some creativity...which I'm short on in these summer months.  It doesn't mean we don't read the Bible, it just means I've been reading the "baby Jesus" story and Goliath a lot. 

Activities: Cue bad mom moment number 7021...

I definitely knew the reaction of diet pop and mentos.  It just didn't occur to me to have my daughter stand back a bit.  She loves to help so much, that I just wanted her to be able to be a part of it.  Needless to say, pop in the eyes was not the part she was looking for.  Now, whenever you say something about volcanoes, she says, "I don't like the pop!"

We also did a baking soda and vinegar volcano, which she liked better; less violence and pretty colors for the 'lava.'

People We Know: Vicki

Foods We Ate: vegetables, vanilla (dumped in a batch of cookies), Velveeta

Pictures to Color: van, vegetables, vacuum, volcano

Books: All About Vegetables, If I Were A Veterinarian, My 'v' Sound Box, Odd Velvet, Violet the Pilot, How Volcanoes Blow Their Tops (we just looked at the pictures because the words are way over Aria's head). 

Songs: I don't remember any!

The Letter U

Our letter U was almost so non-existent that I didn't even post about it.  But, I am determined to have a record of all I have done(or not) with these letters of the week, so here is the short list.

Bible Stories---Nope. No U's that I know of.

Activities: Didn't do anything special.  I thought about making an upside down cake or going on an "under" adventure where we tried to go under many things, but we just didn't get around to it.  In all fairness, we did have something going on every day during U week, so it wasn't like we were sitting around twittling our thumbs.  And, my long ago hope was that Aria would magically decide to start wearing undies during U week, but it isn't time for that, either.

People We Know: No one here, either.

Foods: I was going to buy an ugli fruit, but they didn't have any.

Pictures to Color: Thanks to a print out not made by me, she did have this for the week.  The pictures were umbrella, urchin, uniform, and upside down.

Books: Up, Up, Down; Umpire's Adventure in Alphabet Town, My "u" Book

Songs: Didn't pursue one of these, either.

That's it.  Sorry, U, you've been the worst one yet.

The Letter T

Bible: I didn't think I could read 1 and 2 Timothy and capture Aria's attention.  A friend suggested doubting Thomas, but he isn't in Aria's Bible surprisingly, so we read about...Twins!  Aria is really into stories about babies, so the story of Jacob and Esau worked!

Activities: We set up the tent in our basement with tunnels.  We played her trumpet.  I wanted to get one of those plastic things that you put between two pop bottles to make a tornado, but I couldn't find one.  We also played with her train set and the train set at the bank.  The coolest part about the bank is the train that runs around the top of the entryway by push of a button!

People We Know: Teran, Tammy, Tate, Tessa, Tigger, Telly

Food: tater tots, tilapia, tortellini, toast, tacos, tomato, tortilla, turkey

Pictures to Color: tent, train, tiger, tree


Books: Thomas the Train books, Tilly the Tiger magazine, The Ugly Truckling, My 't' Sound Box, Two Town, Old Turtle
---Just have to do a plug here about Old Turtle by Douglas Wood.  In the beginning, all the parts of the earth were arguing about what God is.  Each object declared God was like them (ie deep like the sea, bright like the sun, gentle like a breeze, etc).  Finally, old turtle tells them to stop and says that God is.  She then goes on to point out that God is indeed all of the things they all claim.  Very cool story.  A little long and slightly above Aria's head, but very cool indeed!

Songs: Trot Old Joe---one of Aria's favorites from Music Together; Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

The Letter S

It's so nice to have a letter that is the beginning of so many things!  S is for summer and swinging, swimming and slides!  Yipee!

Bible: We read about Samson, Samuel, King Saul, and the snake.  Samson was totally new to Aria and it was fun to introduce a new character.  If nothing else, these letters of the week make us find new things in the Bible.  Aria new the story of Samuel's birth, but we read more about his life and his connection to David.

Activities: As I indicated above, I didn't have to plan much of anything to have fun with the letter S.  Aria would spend all day every day swinging if she could.  She also enjoys slides, her swimming pool, and the sprinkler (sort of). 

As much as she enjoys watching our big sprinkler, I couldn't get her to run through it.  Only when I turned this smaller one on very low did she finally start to play.  I've yet to take a picture of the soccer goals in our yard thanks to a cool idea from our friend Eadie.  So far, Aria picks up the ball, puts it directly in front of the goal, then kicks it through.  We'll work on no hands later.  Can't forget the fun scooter from Grandma and Papa, either!  We made snickerdoodle cookies together, which was more fun than regular cookies have been because you get to roll the dough ball in cinnamon/sugar.  Aria especially liked that part.  We made a visit to a splash pad with Grandma.  We also got to have our friend Sophia and her family come over during S week! 

People We Know: Sophia, Grandma Shirley, Sheena, Sue, Spencer, Stacey, Steve, Pastor Seth, Shari, Snuffy, Skip, Sammy, and Sally

Food: strawberries, snack bar, strawberry ice cream, (pizza) sauce, sausage, salsa, Snickers, smoothies (with a straw), snickerdoodles, sunflower seeds, sandwich, shrimp scampi, snow pea pods, spaghetti pie, Special K Blueberry cereal, steak, syrup, spinach

Pictures to Color: star, socks, strawberry, squirrel

Books: Suryia and Roscoe, Squirrels, Squirrel's Adventure in Alphabet Town, It's a Baby Australian Fur Seal

Songs: Frosty the Snowman...a strange request in the middle of summer, but then again she is 2.  I had to look up the words but now I know it by heart!  I'm sure there are a ton more, but that is the only one I remember singing that sort of starts with S.

The Letter R

Rrrrr you sure you can keep up with this letter of the week stuff when it is summer and activities are outside?  That was the question I asked myself last Friday when I realized I hadn't even thought about an activity for R week.  Oh well.

Bible:  We read about Rachel and Rebekah in the Bible last week.  Aria is excited about stories with babies in them lately, so she was especially fond of when it talked about those women's babies.  We also read about Ruth.

Activities: We had a lunch date at Red Robin with our friend Robin and she brought this awesome bag full of R objects!  Aria was in Robin's MOPS room this past year and now that it is over, she doesn't get to hang out with her, so it was fun to connect!  And, Robin had so many cool things with her to play with like a radio, rooster, red crayon, ruler, rug, rabbit, rose, remote, and more!  We also did a lot of reading (but we do that anyway).  Oh, and we ran around outside! 

People We Know: Robin, Ryan P, Ryan H, Rebecca, Roo

Food: Ritz crackers, raspberries, radish, Reeses, raisins, rotini, roast beef, rice krispies, rice, raisin bran, ranch--quite possibly her favorite food

Pictures to Color: rocket, rainbow, ring, robot

Books: Ruthy the Rabbit, Rosie the River Otter, Ricky the Raccoon, Rudy the Robin, Robins: Songbirds of Spring, Rudy the Rhinoceros, Raccoon's Adventure in Alphabet Town, Rabbits

Songs: Ring Around the Rosy---the long time favorite!

The Letter Q

I actually wasn't intimidated by Q.  I knew there wouldnt' be much, but there was enough to have a little fun!

Bible:  I don't know of anything in the Bible that starts with Q.  I'm sure there is something, but I didn't find it.

Activities: We made a quilt!  No sewing involved, just some construction paper, crayons, stickers, and tape.  It was fun!

We also practiced being quick, asking questions, and put several quarters in her piggy bank.  It seems like I did something else with the quarters, but I don't remember it now.

People We Know: I actually know a couple Quinns, but Aria doesn't.

Food: We ate quesadillas.  I thought about trying Quinoa or making a Quiche.  I knew Aria wouldn't like the quiche because she doesn't like scrambled eggs.  I just didn't buy the quinoa because I've been buying too many letter of the week foods and then wasting half the package once that letter is over.

Pictures to Color: quarter, queen, quilt, question mark

Books: Quarterback's Adventure in Alphabet Town, My 'q' Sound Box, Quiet!  Aria loved the Quiet book!  It was about a daddy lion trying to quiet down the jungle for baby lion's nap.  Super cute and she followed along very closely every time we read.  Even knew what was coming next at the end!

Songs: I don't know any Q songs off the top of my head, either!

The Letter P

What we lacked in the letter O week, I think we made up for with P.  Aside from our last name beginning with P, we found a lot of our favorite things to eat and do start with P, too.  We had a blast last week with some awesome summer weather!

Bible: We read various stories about Peter and Paul.  One of the things I like about this newer Bible we are using is that it goes past Jesus' death.  A lot of the other toddler Bibles I've seen just stop with the resurrection.  Hello---there's an entire New Testament after that.  This Bible goes clear through Revelation with stories, so we were able to find several having to do with Peter and Paul.  I also discovered we don't read much from the New Testament.  All of Aria's favorites are in the Old Testament.  I need to work on broadening her Bible story horizon.  Or, I can just celebrate how many stories she does know! 

Activities:  This is where I got really excited!  We started the week off with some painting...

She had to bring a purse just like Mommy when we went shopping...

We bought some new flower pots and planted flowers...

And we got out the pool for the first time of the year...

Not to mention, we had a picnic on Sunday for Mother's Day at the park and a picnic outside at her new garage sale kid table another night, went to the park again, had a party at our house to say goodbye to some dear friends and celebrated Papa's Birthday!  We didn't even get out the Play-Doh, but I did let her stay in her pajamas a bit more than usual!

People We Know: Well, us!  Our last name starts with P and so does one set of grandparents and her one and only aunt!  We also know Pam, Peggy, and Paul, Pluto, Piglet, and Prairie Dawn

Food: This is the jackpot!  We love P foods!  A new tortilla pizza that I invented on the spot for lunch one day, tortilla, pizza sauce, pepperoni, cheese, microwave about 30 seconds.  Excellent!  Pepperoni pizza, peanuts, pretzels, peanut butter, purple popsicles (strawberry yogurt, blueberries, blackberries, spinach, flax seed, blend it, freeze it, voila), pancakes, peaches, pears, peas, pasta, pepper, pepperoni (by itself), pizza

Pictures to Color: pig, pineapple (Aria doesn't like it or we would have eaten it, too), paintbrush, pencil

Books: I went overboard on the P books at the library and we didn't even read all that I checked out.  And, since I love penguins, we already had plenty to read.  Here is what we did read, Polly the Polar Bear, If You Give a Pig a Party, If You Give a Pig a Pancake, Colorful Peacocks, Giant Pandas, A Pair of Polar Bears, Pam's Trip to the Park, Pumpkin Pie, Where is Home, Little Pip?

Songs: Pop Goes the Weasel or, as we like to sing in our house, Pop Goes the Toaster

All around the Pegump house,
The tummies are so hungry.
We can hardly wait to hear the sound,
Pop goes the toaster.

The Letter O

O week was not much of an O week because we chose to spend all of our time with our awesome friends who were in town staying with us!  We did manage a few things, but it was minimal.  I considered just not doing a letter for the week, but I'm kind of OCD sometimes and if we keep at our one letter a week pace, we will be on our vacation this summer during Z week and go to the zoo.  How cool is that!

Bible Stories: In Aria's Sunday School class on Sunday during O week, they talked about obeying and she brought home a big poster with a verse and a saying about obedience.  I followed that lead and pointed out how our favorite characters obeyed or disobeyed God.  The word obey is something Aria understands and it was cool to point out obedience in different stories.  The ones we read the most were Noah and Jonah.

Activities: Here is what I wanted to do.  I thought it would be fun to create an opposites circuit.  I would have had hot and cold, big and small, soft and hard, etc.  I think she would have really liked it and I will probably do it sometime. 

We don't know anyone whose name starts with O.

Food: Oreos, oatmeal, oatmeal bread, olives, onions, (Aria doesn't like oranges)

Pictures to Color: octopus, ostrich, otter, olive

Books: Oink (very fun!), An Octopus Followed Me Home (read this one a ton!), Owls Adventure in Alphabet Town, Five Oceans, The Shy Ostrich, Otters, Quiet Owls, My 'o' Sound Box, Ovals

Songs: Didn't even think about songs...we had friends to play with!

P Preview

Nothing better than homemade Purple Popsicles by the Pool during P week!

The Letter N

N was hard for some reason.  I'm not really sure why.  Here goes...

Bible Stories: We read about Noah and Naomi.  They have been studying Naomi in Sunday School, so that was one she recognized a little bit, but it is a hard story to put on a level she understands.  On the other hand, Noah's Ark is a story she knows very well and enjoys!  We have a wooden ark that is a shape sorter with all the animals that she loves and we have several Noah's Ark books.  She was happy to read the story every morning!  I tried to expand beyond the base of the story and talk about God keeping his promises, but I'm not sure how much she caught on.

Activities: We painted our (toe)nails like a rainbow because of the rainbow in the story of Noah's Ark.

Aria absolutely loves to have her toenails and fingernails painted.  She does a great job sitting still and not touching them, too.  Usually it is the bribe of how I get her to hold still to get them cut.  And, I usually have to paint mine, too.  I'm not generally into have well manicured nails or pedicures, but I do have a lot of fun painting toenails with my daughter!

I also gave Aria a numbers puzzle this week.  I bought it when a favorite store of mine went out of business last fall.  I was saving the puzzle for some random opportunity to spoil my child and I thought N week was the time.  She can count to 13, but doesn't really recognize too many numbers, so I also thought it was time to start learning them more.  When we got the puzzle out, though, she knew more than I thought.  That is almost always the case.


People We Know: Grandma Nancy, Norah, Naomi, Nala


Food: Nutri-Grain bars, Nutty Bars, Nilla Wafers, nachos, chicken noodle soup, nectarines, nuts


Pictures to Color: net, nose, nuts, nurse


Books: Fancy Nancy and the Fabulous Fashion Boutique, Nightingale's Adventure in Alphabet Town, My 'n' Soundbox, Numbers on the Street, Nose


Songs: I didn't try very hard, but I didn't come up with any N songs, unless you count "Who Built the Ark?  Noah, Noah" 

The Letter M

Half way through the alphabet-crazy!  When it is 'M' week you are supposed to eat mac 'n cheese every day, right?  According to Aria it doesn't even have to be 'M' week to make that request.

Bible Stories: We read a lot about Moses during M week.  Aria really enjoyed the story of him as a baby in a basket in the river, so we read that part a lot.

Activities: We made mini-muffins!  Aria loves to help make anything, so she put the liners in the muffin pan, poured all the ingredients in the bowl and stirred!  I had to spoon it into the muffin cups if we wanted any of it to land in the paper.  However, somewhere along the way something didn't work because the muffins liners stuck like glue to the muffins.  I have no idea why, but I think I'll just spray the pan next time instead. 

We also watched a movie for our family night!  We do watch "movies" sometimes, but this was the first time we sat down to watch an entire movie as a family.  We watched Winnie the Pooh.  It is one hour and three minutes long and Aria actually sat still and watched about 40 minutes of it.  Then she had to play while watching the rest.  I was impressed!  We may actually try the theater sometime this summer if the right movie comes along!

People We Know: Mommy, Maggie, Matt, Matthias, Madhana, Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse

Food: Meatloaf, mini-muffins, M&Ms, Mike and Ikes (thanks to our friend Connie!), mac 'n cheese, mango, milk, meat, mashed potatoes, mushrooms, marshmallows, maple syrup, mozzarella

Pictures to Color: monkey, mouse, moon, mittens

Books: Milo the Mouse, If You Give a Moose a Muffin, If You Take a Mouse to the Movies, If You Take a Mouse to School, My 'm' Soundbox, Mice, It's A Baby Moose, Phases of the Moon, Monkeys

Songs: Me, You, We; Mickey Mouse March

 

The Letter L

I'm a little behind in my posting, but we are still having fun with our letters of the week!  Here is what we did for L.

Bible Stories:  I didn't find any characters that start with L that fit Aria's level of understanding.  We did read Daniel and the Lions den, which is a staple in our reading list.  I decided to focus on the story of Ruth and Naomi because that is what she learned about in Sunday School last week.


Activities: We made a ladybug puppet! 




























I got the idea from this website, only I bought red paper plates to use instead of painting some.  I made the base for her and she glued on the spots and eyes.  She also put in the antennae.  It was a lot of fun!  She really enjoyed a book we read about ladybugs, so it was a fun connection! 

We also got to have our friend Levi come over for a sleepover while his mommy and daddy went on a trip.  We had tons and tons of fun!

People We Know: Levi, Lycan, Luke, Lindsay, Lindsay (yes there are two and they are both pregnant...crazy!)

Food: lasagna, linguine, lollipop, lettuce, lunch :)  I wanted to make something lemon, but she doesn't like citrus.

Pictures to Color: ladybug, lion, lemon/lime, leaves

Books: We read non-fiction books about lemurs and leaves, and a fun one called Ladybug, Ladybug, What Are You Doing?.  We also read our book called Let's Leap and Jump.  We also read My 'L' Sound Box.  Aria got new magazine in the mail, too, that had a big picture of a lion on it, which was a fun coincidence. 

Songs: Jesus Loves Me, Lukey's Boat, Lead Me

Oh and we laughed... a lot! She even developed a fake laugh.  Pretty cute!

The Letter K

Almost at the end of 'L' week, I'm having a hard time remembering all that went with 'K' week.  I'll give it my best...

Bible: We read stories of Jesus appearing to his disciples and then ascending into the clouds to finish up the Resurrection Eggs.  Not much to do with 'K' week, but I did talk about how Jesus is our King.  I think we read a story about King David, too.

Activities: We gave Aria a purple kite with a kitty on it and got to fly it briefly on Easter Sunday.  It didn't work too well at our house because of all the wind blocks from houses and trees.  We wanted to go to a park to fly the kite another day, but the weather never cooperated.  Believe me it wasn't because of a lack of wind...we would not have returned with the kite in those gale force winds!  I also bought some Kool-Aid for the first time and thought Aria would be really excited about making it since she always loves making, "lemonade."  But, she absolutely did not want to make it.  I couldn't figure out why, either.  So, we didn't make the Kool-Aid. 

People We Know: Kiah, Karis, Kanga

Food: kabobs (new recipe...very awesome!), Key Lime pie (Aria wasn't a fan), Kix, Special K, Kisses, Kit Kat, kettle korn, kale, kiwi, ketchup, Rice Krispies

Pictures to Color: king, kitty, kite, koala, kangaroo

Books: We read non-fiction books about kangaroos, koalas, and My k Sound Box. 

Songs: I didn't find one song that Aria already knew or that I thought she'd enjoy that starts with 'K'. :(

Oh and we did practice kicking both in the air and at swimming lessons!

The Letter J

Some weeks are so scarce for ideas and then there are weeks like 'J' in which I can't find the time for all the 'J' things I think of!  Plus, we were leading up to Easter and doing fun things for that.  It doesn't really matter what we do, we have a ton of fun and Aria is always learning!

Bible:  Well, we were opening Resurrection Eggs every morning and reading the Easter story a lot, which does fit with 'J' since it is about Jesus.  We also read a couple of Aria's favorites, Jonah and Jericho.  Jericho is really only a fun when you act it out with marching, trumpeting, loud cheering, and knocking things over...

Activities: A couple of our activities also fit in the food category.  We checked out a fiction book about jellybeans, so we read that book several times while eating jellybeans.  Aria was really excited about the jellybeans until she found a flavor she didn't particularly care for, then she no longer liked any of them.  So, we made a 'J' by gluing jellybeans to a piece of card stock.  It was way more fun than tracing one and cutting it out!

The other food activity was Jello Jigglers!  I chose grape based on the color, not the flavor, in hopes of Aria being excited to try something new to eat.  Well, she was very excited about making them and even claimed they were like fruit snacks, one of her favorites, but in the end she said, "no like Jello Jigglers."  At least it was fun to make them!

People We Know: Jesus, Julie, Justin, Papa John, Papa John (yes there are 2), Grandma Jackie (her namesake), Jena, Jaime, Jeremiah, Jenny, Jenny, Joey, Jon, James, Josie, Jen, Josiah, Jordyn, Jared....and Mommy knows even more!

Food: jellybeans, Jello Jigglers, jambalaya, jelly, peanut butter and jelly pancakes

Pictures to Color: jump rope, Jesus, jack-in-the-box, jellyfish  

Books: We did go to the library this week and found some great ones!  The Jellybeans and the Big Book Bonanza by Numeroff, Let's Leap and Jump, My J Sound Box by Moncure, and two non-fiction books about jellyfish and jaguars.  The jellybean book was fun to read and eat jellybeans and the leap and jump book was fun to leap and jump with!

Songs: Jesus Loves Me, Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho, Who Did Swallow Jonah

The Letter I

When it is 'I' week that means you eat ice cream every day, right?  I wish!  And Aria wishes, too.  We only ate it twice, somehow!

Bible: We read about Isaac in the Bible.  I didn't spend a lot of time on Isaac because we were doing Resurrection Eggs for Easter and reading a lot of Easter Bible parts (and I still need to post about the eggs!)  But, we read the story and Aria followed along really well.  I am amazed at how intently she listens (when she wants to).

Activity: Aria loves "I Spy" books.  She especially likes the ones that have the character, Seymour, in them.  She likes searching for all the random objects.  So, I created three "I Spy" around our house games.  I took pictures of random objects around our house and then put them on a Word doc and printed it off.  We had an I Spy Upstairs, I Spy Downstairs, and I Spy Outside.  Aria enjoyed finding each object and crossing it off our list.  I liked seeing the wheels turning inside her head as she recognized the pictures and thought about where the things were.  Definitely a fun activity, easy to create, and countless possibilities.

People We Know: Inwards Family, Izzy (from Wild Animal Babies)  --Don't worry our J list will more than make up for not knowing any 'I' first name people.

Food: ice cream, Italian food night, Italian bread

Pictures to color: Iowa (the state), Iowa flag, iguana, igloo, ink, ice, ice cream, insects

Books: We didn't make it to the library this week.  I'm sure there are some great 'I' books, but I just get there.  We did read one we own, "I Love You Through and Through."

Songs: I've been wanting to add songs to our week specific to the letter, but Aria is so particular about what songs she wants to sing/listen to.  This week, she was open to hearing a new one and I sang, "I've Been Workin on the Railroad."  We also sang "Itsy Bitsy Spider."

The Letter H

Well, it was another crazy week around our house and my Letter of the Week fanfare is fading.  This time it was a combination of nice weather, a lot of other activities going on, and getting to go to some cool basketball games.  I did manage to get one specific craft in for H and we have kept our bare minimum activities.  Here goes...

Bible: We read about Hannah in the Bible.  I talked about our conversation here.  I thought about trying to explain Heaven a little bit.  I got as far as God lives in Heaven.  I didn't know how to put it in 2-year-old terms from there.

Activity: We painted Aria's hands!  We've made hand prints for the grandparents at both Christmases and Aria really enjoyed it.  She also enjoys tracing her hands, so it was fun to have a reason to paint her hands. 

She also hammered on her little wooden peg/hammer toy!

People We Know: Heather H, Hadley, the Holliday family, Hello Kitty, Herky and the Hawkeyes
(She actually requested praying for her 'H' friends before we even had their pictures on her closet this week!  I love that she knows our routine!)

Food: hamballs (which she called gumballs and didn't like), hamburgers, hot dogs, hashbrowns, honeydew melon, honey

Pictures to Color: hat, hammer, hippo, hand (I told you we didn't do much)

Books: We had books about hamsters, hippos, horses, helicopters, and the Hh book.  We did look at them all this week.  Our friend, Jeremiah, once brought a remote-controlled helicopter to our house, so that book was quite popular!

The Letter G

'G' is for gorgeous weather and going to play outside instead of doing 'G' activities!

We did still celebrate 'G' week around here, but it was limited.  I mean almost non-existent.  We have spent so much time outside where things are getting 'G'reener from the warm weather.  I'm sure there were some cool things we could have done for 'G' but they just plain didn't happen.  Here is what we did do...

Bible: We read about God creating the world, Gideon, and Goliath the giant.  Aria really loves the David and Goliath story and Goliath is still hanging on our wall.  She now tells part of the story to me as we read it pretty much every morning!

People We Know: Grace, grandparents, great-grandma, Grover, Goofy

Food: goolash, graham crackers, garlic bread, granola, gummy bears, green beans, green grapes

'G' pictures to color: guitar, goat, girl, gorilla, giraffe  (no time to sit inside and color)

Books: We checked out a book about gorillas, one about giraffes, and one called, "Goose on the Loose."  Aria was not interested in them at all.  We looked briefly at the pictures of the giraffes, but she just wasn't having those books this week.  We did still read books, but they didn't start with 'G.'

Oh...and we watched a lot of basketball games!  :)

The Letter F

There were a lot of little things that were Fun in 'F' week.  I realized that Aria has a relatively short attention span, so I don't have to plan big activities that take all morning.  We highlight things and spend 15 or 20 minutes on activities and that is enough for her to enjoy it, learn something, and then move on.

Big Concept: Aria doesn't know anyone whose name starts with 'F' and I didn't know of any Bible characters or stories with the letter 'F' either.  So, we focused on Family.  We made a collage of the people in Aria's family.  I stuck to immediate family because ours gets pretty large when I start including our aunts, uncles, and cousins and their families.  The picture on her closet this week had our family of three, a picture of the three of us with Papa and Grandma Blow, a picture of her with Papa and Grandma Pegump, and a picture of her with Aunt Teran.  We talked about how God made each of us and made us a family.  We prayed for our family and are so thankful everyone is so close and can be such a big part of Aria's life.

Food: We kicked off 'F' week with fajitas and fudgesicles.  I should have thought about chocolate fudgesicle and new dress, but it washed out! 

We also ate french fries, fish, french toast, farfalle, fishies, frosting on graham crackers, fruit snacks, and fruit.

'F' Pictures: We colored pictures of fish, frogs, feet, flags, fireworks, footballs, and flowers.

Activities: Aria got to pick out a flower at Hy Vee this week.  They were having a sale where all single stem flowers were $1.  I thought she would be excited about the big Gerbera daisies that were dyed bright colors, but she was set on a pink rose.  Sorry future boys after her heart, she likes the expensive ones!  We also bought some feathers to glue on to a big picture of Big Bird.  We talked a lot about what animals have feathers.  At first she kept saying that she had feathers and Augie had feathers.  But, I finally broke through and helped her understand that only birds have feathers and we talked about all the different kinds of birds.  It was a lot of fun!  Check out the video!


Books: We checked out all non-fiction 'F' books from the library this week.  We had books about ferrets, fish, frogs, and fire trucks.  We also had the Ff book, which was wayyyy better than the Ee book.  The things it talked about actually started with F.  When Aria first looked at the ferret book she said, "rabbit mouse."  I thought she was exactly right in her description of a ferret. 

There were things I didn't get to like making a frog puppet, watching things float in the bathtub, tracing her feet, and painting fingernails (which I did today), but maybe we can try those ideas next time!