The Tommerdahls: S and C in February

Here are a few things Summer and Colton have been up to this past month...

Playing Out in the Snow and Hot Chocolate

Both kids were ECSTATIC to have their first hot chocolate...

and it is now requested each time they come in from the cold!

Seeing Grandparents

We went to Grandpa's work for his birthday - the kids were so excited to see him!

Grandpa!

The kids quickly made friends with Mr. Tom in the cafeteria and he gave them a chef hat to take home!

The kids loved seeing where brownies were tested, looking at the book of all the types of cereals, testing chocolate chip cookies, and all the fun that comes with visiting General Mills :)

**I don't have a picture but they also LOVE, talk about, and look forward to seeing Grandma Kirkwood when she comes on Thursdays for "Grandma Day"!

Grandma and Grandpa T came for a visit and we went to the zoo together

Grandpa and Colton peeking at the sea life

Arts and Crafts

Our kitchen island is literally covered right now with all sorts of drawings, clay pieces, cards/notes, and various other art projects. The kids have been busy!

Play dough and clay

Paper Mache masks

Paper Mache Masks

Painting

Completed Masks

"Scribble Art" - Scribble a Design and color in the spaces

Turned out great!

Reading

Lots and Lots and Lots of reading! Summer reads to Colton now! Summer and I have read through our first two Chapter books together and love that special Mommy-Summer time. Colton loves Lightning McQueen, Thomas, and any transportation or space theme books :)

Getting Energy Out Indoors

A few lunches at McDonalds SPECIFICALLY for the purpose of getting the wiggles out at the play place! It has been SO cold!

Here are two videos of Colton. The first is a video of him running up and down the hallway. He literally does this almost every night waiting for bathtime or after bathtime...often naked (lol!) and often trailing balloons. He just has such an excess of energy!!! I have to include it because it is such a funny memory for me - I laugh out loud when I watch him! Here is him putting the laundry in the laundry chute, but often there is no purpose to his running...just him literally running up and down the hallway!

This trampoline is such a lifesaver! There are days I literally assign him a number of jumps he needs to complete before he can continue with whatever activity we are doing...just to get his energy out positively instead of negatively!

Games and Puzzles

Playing a kids version of Monopoly :)

Forts and Playing "House"

Pillow Fort

Getting together with friends

We have loved getting together with our small group from church (we all have kids 4 and under). We have quite a few putluck style dinners, birthday parties, etc. We also had a fun super bowl party and the kids all wore their football/jersey gear (even thought we don't own gear from any of the teams that played!)

Swimming Lessons

The kids had a "makeup" lesson after we missed a lesson due to sickness. They were put in the same class for a makeup session and they thought that was SO fun!

Family Fun

We went to the zoo as a family...including doll "Clarabelle"

Colton loved taking pictures on Summer's camera

Lunch at the birdshow

Dates with Mommy

Summer and I went to see "Broadway", a musical production done by the high school I used to teach at. This was our second annual date to Broadway, and we both looked forward to it and loved it!!!! I loved her little hand in mind as we watched the show and watching her excitement! I can't wait for next year!

Colton and I went on a date to see a high school basketball game at the high school I used to teach. He was so, so, so cute as we talked all about everything happening in the game. Each time our team scored he would turn and give me the biggest celebratory hug (that was my favorite part!!).

Sickness

The kids all caught a nasty cough/fever bug

While I didn't love being cooped up in the house for almost a week and the lack of sleep, I definitely enjoyed the extra cuddles!

Watching Daniel Tiger

School

Summer, among other things, has been learning how to use the laptop this month (and LOVING it!).

Here she is practicing typing and learning the "space bar", "backspace" and "enter" buttons

She typed all sorts of things including our families names, different animals, etc and loved being a "big kid".

She is getting better at working the mouse, but it is still tricky for her! Here she is practicing her addition on this interactive site .

She wrote down the problems in her notebook, and then checked her answers using the site. I gave her manipulatives to use to help her count out the answer but she just used her fingers.

Colton and I have been focusing a lot (among other things) on working on writing his name.


He was having trouble getting the grip on his pencil right so we went back to using just his finger doing salt tray practice.

Here is a video...I love this method of teaching writing...

We then transitioned into using the finger to "finger paint" his name...he loved it and did awesome!

Finally, we transitioned to holding a paintbrush. I put dots on his name where he should start his motion, and he really did a great job tracing.

He also loved gluing "smarties" onto his name...so much, so, in face, that we ended up adding his middle name so he could keep going!

Verse of the Week

Learning about the Bible and praying together continue to be of utmost importance in our daily routine. I read each kid their Bible story before quiet time (I love that one-on-one time to read and discuss). We have also started reading through the Easter story from my big Bible during breakfast. We have currently read the story from the first three Gospels and will start on John tomorrow. What a great way to prepare for Easter. We also continue to memorize our BSF verse each week. Here is a collection of February's videos.

Numbers 6:24-26