COOL

By now, you know I do the whole preschool thing. In fact, there are a handful of you who have access to my schtuff. I love it. Even though building all 42 wks worth of my curriculum material was BEYOND exhausting (not to mention consumed my soul time), it was so so worth it. We have learned. We have experimented. And most importantly, we have had fun. Last week, we talked about color. The older two already knew their basic colors ages ago, so I took it a step further with them and we talked primary, secondary, tertiary, complimentary, and analogous colors. The younger two are still working on red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple - so we stuck there. The absolute hands-down BEST activity ever was ice cube painting. They had so much fun making art with colorful ice. And it was super easy; few drops of food coloring in each compartment of the ice cube tray before (carefully) filling with water, covering the tray with aluminum foil, popping a stick in each compartment, and placing in the freezer overnight. The only down side was that they had to work somewhat quickly before the ice melted too much. Once the ice cubes were sitting in pools of colored water, I just put the aluminum foil back over the tray and placed it in the freezer for another day. Pretty sure I am going to frame and hang some of their work in the toy room. So. Awesome.

365: WEEK 25

In one week, I will have completed 1/2 of my 365 Project. Can I just say - I never thought I would make it this far. It has taken dedication and creativity. There have been difficult days. There have been days I have resented this goal. There have been days when I have wanted to throw my camera far distances at full force. But I am grateful that I have stuck with it. My commitment has shown me that I can achieve goals that I perceive to be near impossible.
We are at a point right now where all we are trying to accomplish is surviving the summer. IT. IS. HOT. You walk outside and it feels as if you have walked into an oven. Lots of trips to the library. Lots of trips to the swimming pool. And lots of indoor activities. My favorite image of the week: June 24th - Mr. Difficult. My husband would tell you that our oldest is the most difficult child. But for me, it is the second. We butt heads. Always. He was the easiest baby on the planet, but has morphed into the hardest little kid in the world. Tests my patience daily. After a MAJOR tantrum yesterday, I asked to take his picture. And what did I get? His mischievous little smirk.
And while it looks like potty training hasn't been a walk in the park, that picture is very misleading. Bubs was throwing a fit because I put him on the toilet as opposed to his little training potty. And because I took his picture... He has done quite well with potty training the last three days.

365: WEEK 24

I feel like I have been going nonstop for the last couple of weeks. I hardly have any down time because I have decided to take on the world. Now that I have finished gathering and creating material for my summer semester of preschool, I feel like I can appreciate the little moments more often. And we are falling into a nice routine with the mr. getting home from work two hours early on a regular basis. At first, it was chaos. Dad was home and we had no clue what to do with ourselves. Now we have swim days and library days and play days. All with Daddy. It's wonderful to have this extra time as a family. My favorite image of the week: June 11th - Measuring Dinosaurs. These two do not get along. Actually, that is an understatement. They drive each other nuts all day long. The only time they are friends is at bed time, when parents are the common enemy. So to see them playing so well together the other day was such a tender mercy.
Little side note. June 14th - 50th Anniversary Vow Renewal. Favor for my grandma. I didn't know the couple, but I enjoyed capturing the moment. And this great man did a marvelous job with the little ceremony.

365: WEEK 23

I let another week get away from me before posting. Oops. I have been busy busy busy with photography and preschool. Editing a wedding (while taking on more clients) takes up a majority of my free time, so there is not much time left for blogging. Add to that the time I've spent working like crazy on building a summer semester of preschool and you get zero time. On top of everything, Joel took a summer school class AND the mr. started a new job. So life has been unusually crazy for us lately. My favorite image of the week: June 5th - Starting To Roll. The littlest little recently became somewhat mobile. He's not quite to the point of rolling around the house, but he can surely roll as needed to get to his toys. He is a such a content little guy.

365: WEEK 22

This week has been long and hard, which is why I am just getting around to posting. Oh well. My favorite image of the week: May 28th - Tummy Time. This boy is so incredibly sweet; he is such a happy baby. His smile just melts my heart. And his snuggles. His snuggles are the most amazing thing ever.

BTW, we celebrated seven years on Monday. Incredible. To celebrate, the mr. is dating me tomorrow night.