ON THE HUNT FOR LETTER A

 

 

Today I set up a little treasure hunt for Princess.  She is in preschool and learning her letters and numbers among other things. I thought it would be fun.  And so did she.  =)

 

 The boys helped me get the Aa's ready.  Yes, they are very silly.

 

 All ready to start the search!

 Here's one on the stairs!

 She's starting to get quite the collection.

 

 Every time she found one she had to say it's name & it's sound.

 

 

 They were upstairs too!

 In the boy's room........

 .........and on the toy shelves.

 She found all 23 cards!  And most of all she had a great time.  Yay!

 Next it was time for a worksheet to reinforce our learning.

 She got to use her new dot markers for the first time. 
 

 She said the letter and it's name as she worked.

 Ta-dah!

 Another fun worksheet.  She traced the A's and then cut out pictures that started with the letter A.

 All done!

And then it was time for Play-doh with her big sister. 

Happy Valentine's Day!

We usually don't make a huge deal out of Valentine's Day. We don't buy expensive gifts & we don't decorate. We do however like to give homemade Valentines to each other & get the kids a little sweet treat. This year we did something new. We had a Heart Hunt. I was sick all day so I had lots of help. Sweet Pea cut out 18 small hearts for me out of construction paper. Each child had 4 hearts except for Princess who had 2. I wrote their names on them. Dave hid them all over the house. They were told to find the hearts with their own names on them. When they accomplished this they were to bring them to me to turn them in for a prize. Boy were they excited!

Getting ready for their Heart Hunt

So silly!

Bugs looks all over the living room.

I'm not sure what that look was about. Lol!

Found one!

Success!

Sweet Pea helps Princess.

Little Sweetheart

Sweet Pea has to look a little harder for hers.

Elvis was the first to turn his hearts in. For his prize he received a homemade Valentine from Mama.......(more later in this post)

Bugsy received a monkey card from Mama.

There was a special just-for-him message inside.

Dave's Valentine from me. No, you cannot read the message. Lol!

Princess with her Valentine from Mama.

Boo Bear's Valentine from Mama.

Here they are with all their prizes/treats!

They received a homemade just-for-them Valentine from Mama, a Valentine from Nana (Each with $1 inside!) & a candy treat. They were very excited!

Sweet Pea didn't pose with her Valentine but it was a kitten. =0)

And of course a goofy pose! Lol!

Treasure Hunt!

It's time for our Back-to-School Treasure Hunt pictures! This year was a bit different as Sweet Pea was away & Daddy wasn't going to be there for our official first day. We had our treasure hunt on Sunday night so Daddy could be with us and then had our first day of school the next day. Then later on in the week we had our official first day for the whole family. Confused? So was I a bit. Lol! It all turned out okay even if it was a bit mixed up. The kids were super excited as always. Dave made their clues and I had the backpacks all packed up with their supplies &  a few fun surprises. We were set to go!

It is tradition that the youngest goes first. Bugs was the first to go. Here he is getting his first clue from Daddy.

He dived under the couch to find his next clue.

This was cute. He knew it was the sink but for some reason looked everywhere on it but the faucet. It took him a good minute or two before he noticed the clue. Lol!

Found it!The next clue sent him running outside.

Handing it for Daddy to read

He found his treasure!

Now for the best part! Opening it up!

He has lots of things to keep him entertained during school time.

Next is Elvis' turn!

First to the pantry!

And then to Daddy's shed.

This year he was able to read his own clues making it even more of an adventure.

A chilly treasure is found in the chest freezer. =0)

A very happy boy.

(P.S. He has outgrown Diego but likes his backpack b/c it is large. Plus he doesn't care too much what's on the pack as he's not into whatever is the latest fad. He just likes that it holds his stuff. I love that!)

Unpacking his new school things.

Looking through his new pencil box.

Boo's turn!

Her hunt began in the bathroom. Daddy is so silly! Lol!

Next to shed #2

There it is!

Elvis shows us all his new school things.

Yay!

Bugs is very happy with his Transformer ring.

This was a fun surprise for Boo.

A closer look at Elvis' treasures.

A Hunt for Shared Treasure

This year we added something new. A bin of treasures for all of them to share. I wanted to take out some of the things we had put away & forgotten about. Plus I wanted to add some new things I bought for this year. Doing the workboxes I hope to have more opportunities to use these.

Finding the clues for the shared treasure.

The excitement grows & off they run!

Yes!

Shared Treasure

Lots of new games thanks to yard sales! Also flashcards, bingo, movies, books & pool rings. Yay!

A closer look.

Up close look at the new-to-us games.

Boo poses with her little sister & her new treasures.

An up close look at Boo's treasures.

As you can see she is a big fan of Hannah Montana.

Elvis is also very happy with his new Transformer ring.

(I was thrilled to find them for 50 cents on clearance at the Party Store.)

These devotions I bought back at Christmas but have yet to be used. Frankly I think we forgot about them once they were shelved. But now they are back and ready to be read!

The kids insisted on doing their traditional walk to school. It kind of cracked me up since it was evening & we weren't starting school until the next morning. But it also touched my heart as I realized how much our kids enjoy our simple traditions.

Sky, the cat, followed them. Too cute!

Here they come marching home.

Our traditional annual picture on the front steps.

I didn't place any of their curriculum in their backpacks this year. There simply wasn't any room! I might take pics of it later in case anyone is curious.

The kids were very happy with all their new school treasures. I love having these fun traditions.