Today was the first day of preschool for Flynn! We’re doing a co-op preschool with 3 other families in another ward. The best part will be that I only get to teach one week a month. Today we had Nash and Timmy over for preschool; Carrie was at a birthday party, but she’ll be here on Wednesday. We had a great time today!
I have to admit I have a lot to learn about this age. Having a background in education does NOT put me at any sort of advantage with preschoolers. Here I am thinking of all these great things to do and having to limit the activities so there’s not too much. I figured 20 minutes for the bigger activities and 10 for the smaller. Probably should’ve cut the times in half. I need to take a child development class or something so I can do a better job at this.
We are focusing on animals this month, so everything we did today had animals in it– from the stories and the activities to the crafts and the worksheets. I’m finding some good websites for worksheets and coloring pages:
tlsbooks.com
www.first-school.ws
grandparents.com
thecoloringspot.com
And I’ll add to this list as I continue to find stuff.
I had the boys make a TP tube into their favorite animal. Nash’s was a cheetah, Timmy’s was batman (or a bat) and Flynn’s was a giraffe. Flynn was having a breakdown when I tried to take the picture, so we don’t get him with the other boys.
It was interesting to see what the different boys already know or don’t know and to see how they interact together. Nash definitely has the short attention span, Timmy wants to get things done right but quickly, and Flynn’s very precision oriented. I’m curious what will happen when we throw a girl into the mix. Girls are supposed to be ahead in this stuff, so I wonder how these three boys will do. Will they work to keep up, or be okay with where they are?
4 tbsp unsalted butter at room temperature + more for greasing pan (unless using silicone)
2 c light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 c applesauce
1 ½ c sweet potato puree (homemade or 1-15 oz can)
3 c flour
¼ c ground flax seed
1 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
4 oz cream cheese, softened
cinnamon sugar, optional
1. Preheat oven to 350°F. In the meantime, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer.
2. Add eggs, vanilla, applesauce and sweet potato to butter-sugar combo and mix well on low speed.
3. Combine all dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add to the wet ingredients while continuing to mix on low speed.
4. Fill each well of a greased, 1-ounce mini muffin tray half way. Add a ¼ tsp dollop of cream cheese on top of batter. Finish filling each well to the rim. Sprinkle each muffin with cinnamon sugar.
5. Bake for 18-20 minutes. Muffins are done when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (except for some cream cheese filling)! Sprinkle some more cinnamon sugar on top. Allow muffins to cool in tray for about 5 minutes. Finish cooling on a baking rack.
We’ve got cabin fever here. Too many days of nothing but rainy weather and we’re stuck staying inside. Those are Flynn’s toes all wrapped up in the ribbon from a balloon from the grocery store. Made us both giggle.
Normally rainy days make me feel like baking. But this stinking Gluten Free diet is prohibiting that. I tried to make some rolls last week with GF flour, but it totally didn’t rise and we ended up with some hockey pucks.
We had to go out today for Penny’s one year doctor appointment. She’s growing and doing wonderfully… only she has a double ear infection so we couldn’t actually do her appointment. We’ll come back in 2 weeks and hopefully she’ll be better and we can get all the juicy details (and the shots).
It’s so wet outside that we have a pond along the walk to the front door and into the backyard. It doesn’t help that the neighbor’s flowerbeds next to the fence are raised, so we get all the run off. We really need to do something about the water, but it’s too wet now. I’m thinking a trench drain, which will require a lot of digging.
With three days of straight rain, we had to get out of the house today. So today was a day of errands and new things.
First we made some returns and got some emergency supplies at K-mart ($15 sleeping bags!). Then we went to Trader Joe’s, our favorite stop for peanut butter. Our Trader Joe’s is in a new location, right next to the pet store. Since I had some time to fill before an appointment we decided to go look. How could we pass up such an easy visit?
Penny loved watching all the little animals in their cages. Flynn was particularly interested in the reptiles. Hmmm….
Then I got to go pick out a new mattress. Ours is the same one we’ve had since we were married over 9 years ago, and has been making my back hurt for over 5 years. It was time to make a change. As soon as it stops raining it will be delivered. Woo hoo!
Our last stop was for Scouts. We made neckerchief slides as the last activity for our craftsman badge. They were little tiny pinewood derby cars, and Flynn thought it was great. Now I’m going to have to go find him a real scout shirt that uses a neckerchief so he can wear the one we made.
So, after many failed attempts at having the DeVore’s over for dinner and playing, we finally pulled it off tonight! They’re just a popular bunch, so we had to schedule it a month in advance.
We had a tri-tip roast, but the best part was the cheesecake fondue for dessert. It was amazing! We’re getting lots of uses out of Christianna’s fondue pot. Not enough that I wish we had one, but to use it for three meals in one week is pretty good.
Then we played some Wii games. Flynn tried to show Henry how to play Lego Batman, but Henry wasn’t into it so much. It wasn’t until we pulled out the Wii Fit Plus that we got everyone involved. There are some really fun new games on the Plus version that we enjoyed. The best ones were probably the Flying Chicken one and the Mushroom Bum Bump. Flynn and Henry were hilarious. I’ll get a video up so you can all enjoy it.
After Stake Conference today I decided to try Pandora.com to see what kind of Sabbath day Christian music might be available for us to play. I am pleasantly surprised to find that Pandora now has many even LDS artists that I like to listen to and that brings a very peaceful spirit to our home on Sunday. I also found this Widget I could embed so that if you would like to hear what we are listening to today you can.
There was a devastating earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday this week. Clint’s sister Lauri works for USaid so she is busy helping out. It’s neat to know that what she does is really helping people in need. We’re not sure if she’ll get deployed out there since she was scheduled to go to Sudan next month or so. We got this email from her yesterday.
See if you can spot me I’m sitting next to the “pivotal person right now” who’s last name is Regan [...]. I work with him to collect our “lives saved” numbers. So when you hear how many lives the search and rescue teams have saved it is because I coordinated with him to calculate them then put the numbers in reports to the white house, the state department, CNN, Washington Post etc…That is just an example of all the “stuff” I’ve been doing in that room non-stop since Tuesday night.
Too tired to say much more about it, gotta go back in, in a few hours…
Thank goodness for the weekends! I don’t know why, but I feel like we’re still not settled completely from our Boston trip. We did some good organizing and cleaning today, and got our living room pretty much straightened out for the coming week. Clint and Flynn had a good time taking the couch apart (Flynn’s job) and vacuuming it out (Clint’s job).
Flynn got a hold of my camera and took various shots of our house (luckily, after it was cleaned). Most of them were just light fixtures and toes, but this one turned out pretty good. I need him to be as excited about using his camera instead of mine.
Flynn got to attend the first of the wave of 4th birthday parties today. It was Scott’s birthday party at Lunch Bunch today. Kim planned it all out so we each host Lunch Bunch on a week coinciding with our boy’s birthday. That way we’ve got the party logistics all set and all we have to do is the party.
By the time Flynn’s birthday is here he’ll be so ready for it!
We started off today’s celebrations finding Flynn sleeping in the middle of our bed. Made it hard for him to surprise dad with his birthday breakfast treat. I had to wake the boy to get him to sing and help Clint blow out his candle. I made a special gluten-free treat for the birthday breakfast treat tradition. It’s called pavlova and it’s basically a meringue baked crisp on the outside and soft and marshmallowy on the inside. Serve it with whipped cream and tart fruits and it’s delicious.
Flynn was very excited to give Clint the gift he got for him, Boom Blox. We bought it a week ago, and he keeps bringing it up as the secret that we can’t tell dad about. He usually would talk about it while we’re driving and remind me that we can only tell each other. He claims that Penny has tried to tell dad what it is. It’s a good thing she can’t talk yet or else the surprise would have been ruined. After Clint left for work, Flynn called to ask if he could play it while he was gone.
While Clint was at work we tried to get some stuff done, including laundry and dishes. Then we had scouts where we worked on the Craftsman badge. Flynn sure enjoys going to scouts. I’m thinking that when he’s old enough, we’ll have to put him in the Tiger Scouts program (1st grade) even though the Church doesn’t start scouts for the boys until they’re 8 and in Wolfs. It’s been more difficult going to scouts since we’ve been back because Penny is so mobile now. All she wants to do is to go up to the top of the stairs at Kymmer’s house. So, I try to help out with our scout activity.
Clint actually found a way to come home from work somewhat early today. So we got to have a fun dinner of cheese fondue. We had chicken, bread and broccoli to dip in it, and it was pretty good. This was the first time I’d ever done fondue, but I know Clint’s family used to do it when he was growing up. My recipe tasted good, but was kind of lumpy. Next time I’ll do it differently.
We were so full from the fondue and it was so late that we didn’t end up doing dessert, which was going to be a cheesecake fondue. (I thought I might as well do all the fondue I could while I was borrowing a fondue pot.) We’ll have to postpone more of the celebration for this weekend….
With our newly acquired toy bins Flynn and I did a massive toy organization job today. He was a really good helper as we sorted the toys into different categories. We labeled the bins and put everything, well, almost everything, in a nicely organized location. It sure felt good to have a home for all the toys. (Until later when I realized we still have another box of toys in the garage that we packed up when we went to Boston. Grrr.)
Here’s the “after” shot. Flynn seems to really love having the toy bins under her bed.
I’ve been going bonkers trying to figure out what to do for Clint’s birthday tomorrow that is Gluten Free. Why we decided to do this trial diet in January? I don’t know. I’ve been searching the internet for some good recipes, but most of them require obscure flours and the like. So, I’m going to try something new for his breakfast treat and hope it works out. I got the idea to do fondue for his birthday dinner and borrowed Christianna’s fondue pot, so we’ll do that, and then a cheesecake fondue for dessert. Let’s not think about the calories, okay?
Well, I’d better get cooking on the breakfast treat!
We have a plethora of toys. I don’t know how it happened that we don’t have enough storage space for them now, but it’s been driving me crazy for days. I used some super big PVC pipes to elevate Flynn’s bed enough that we could slide the bins underneath, and we put the 4 bins we already have underneath, but we need more. So, today we took a trip down to Ikea to get some more to store the kid’s toys in.
The best part about Ikea today was the beds. These two kiddos had to try out every kid bed they had on display there. It was funny that Flynn wanted to test them out… but then Penny was all anxious to get a chance to also. Which ever bed Flynn was in, Penny had to crawl into also. The other shoppers really got to see how well the toddler beds would work having a kid in them. It was great.
Clint thinks Ikea is some kind of awful vortex with weird furniture and funky decor. He’s probably right, but we had a fun time without him. I have to admit, it is a vortex, though. We were there for like 3 hours and I didn’t even realize it. The kids fell asleep on the way home and Flynn stayed that way for the night!
Carrie was at a birthday party, but she’ll be here on Wednesday. We had a great time today!
There was a devastating earthquake in Haiti on Tuesday this week. Clint’s sister Lauri works for 
I’m sitting next to the “pivotal person right now” who’s last name is Regan [...]. I work with him to collect our “lives saved” numbers. So when you hear how many lives the search and rescue teams have saved it is because I coordinated with him to calculate them then put the numbers in reports to the white house, the state department, CNN, Washington Post etc…That is just an example of all the “stuff” I’ve been doing in that room non-stop since Tuesday night.
