After the iguana video marathon, Sophie started off making a mobile of her favorite reptiles but then decided it was good enough to save as a Christmas tree ornament.  I can’t wait to see how it looks on our tree this year!

Sophie proudly displaying her ornament:

A dragon:

A snake:

A T-Rex

And of course, an iguana:

All taped to yarn and fastened to an elastic band:

• Name kinds of space: outer space, space for rent, space heater, personal space, etc
• The answer is cheese pizza.  What is the question?:
  What is my favortie dinner?
  What could be used as a tire if it were overcooked?
  What can be round of square?

There are also building activities, which my kids love!  We had some friend over the other day and did one of the bridge building activities.  The kids were divided into two teams.  Each team received the following items to build a bridge:

• 2 chairs
• 1-12in piece of masking tape
• 5 straws
• 2 index cards
• 15 paper clips
• 1-3ft length of string

After building each bridge the teams could test the bridge out by seeing how many beans it could hold.  There was lots of discussion and lots of building and remodeling of bridges.  I think it’s safe to say everyone was pleased with their handiwork!

We’ve been doing ’school’ off and on all summer but started the school year officially this week.  Every other Wednesday afternoon Parker goes to a friend’s house to play.  I think I am going to take that time to do art with the girls.  We did our first project this past Wednesday.  I saw this idea on another blog I like to read.

Behold, our stained glass window:

Sarah likes to try to find the missing number.  I lay out two rows of cards from 1-10 exactly the same.  She hides her eyes and then I take one away and move all the cards together to fill the empty space.  She then has to figure out what number is missing.  We also do this game with only one row which she and Sophie like to play together.

Sophie has really caught on to odd/even numbers.  I found this printable game online (can’t for the life of me remember where)!  I printed it out on cardstock and we use a die and playing pieces we had laying around.  One player is even and the other plays the odd numbers.

Parker likes to play a game called Corners.  It’s really helped him with his math facts, you have to match like colored numbers together so they equal a multiple of 5.

And what math game would be complete without a snake belt?

Exhibit 1:

This is a two-tailed hippopotamus that bit Sarah.  Note the tears coming from the eyes and the unhappy expression.

Exhibit 2:

Sophie eaten by a hippopotamus.  While Sophie doesn’t look thrilled to be inside the hippo, she isn’t crying …

Exhibit 4:

Mommy eaten by a hippo, notice a trend?

Exhibit 4:

This picture started as a large circle with a blob inside it.  As Sarah was drawing it, she was narrating a little story in a shrill, high-pitched voice as only little girls can do.  And I quote: “This is a baby in a jar.  Now I’m pouring the baby into the toaster.  Oh!  It’s sooooo dark in here!!!  Wah! Wah!”

Sarah REALLY got into it!

It took me FOUR washes to get the smell out of those pants!!!

One of the prize catches!

Changing into a frog!