Speech practice

Megan and Matthew help each other practice their speech. It's something we do with Megan on a regular basis so I guess they figure that they can help things progress. Here's an actual conversation from the car this morning:

Matthew: Mom, we're practicing speech!

Matthew: Say "m-m-m recycle truck."
Megan: Recycle truck.

Matthew: Say, "t-t-t house."
Megas: House.

It was pretty hilarious. And just shows what imitators these little people are.

This week in preschool

This week in preschool, we studied the letter "r" and talked about rocks and stones. We role played the story of David and Goliath. We read a couple versions of Stone Soup. We also did rock tumbling painting, where we put rocks in paint and then shook them in a box to create neat patterns.

David and Goliath

Fierce Goliath

Brave David

Fierce Goliath

Brave David

I think the rock painting looks pretty cool.

This isn't from preschool, but shows how much Megan and Matthew love each other. And they really get along well most of the time :)

Sarah selfie

I often find random pictures on my camera, usually taken by Sarah, although her younger siblings have started doing it as well. Here's one for your viewing enjoyment.

Sarah is almost done with her first quarter of 4th grade! She is enjoying it overall and really LOVES choir. She reads a lot. I bring a bunch of books home for her from the library and it seems like all I do is turn around and she's read them all! She is looking forward to a relaxing Fall Break.

Monet

A few weeks ago in preschool, we studied about Monet. Here are some watercolors we did.

Preschool this week

This week, we studied the letter "q" and talked about quail and other birds. We read about Moses and the Exodus from Egypt. We painted with q-tips and with feathers. We also took a field trip to the pond to feed the ducks.

They really liked painting with q-tips!

Figuring out what kind of beak works best for birds. They both thought a clothes pin worked better than a knife.

They liked eating worms.

Field trip! Daddy was home for the day and able to join us on our excursion.

Megan and Matthew were excited a turtle came over to visit. Megan wanted to bring him home.

Megan 4 year stats

Megan had her 4 year doctor check up yesterday. She's doing well overall. Here are her stats:

weight: 33.8 lbs (41%)
height: 40.75 inches (74%)
BMI: 14.3 (17%)

In case you're wondering, she doesn't like getting shots. Not one bit!

Matthew also got a shot so we got his weight as well. He weighs in at a whooping 27.3 lbs.

This week in preschool

Last week was a bit different in preschool as we took a break from our regular curriculum to study Bach and Monet. It was a fun week.

This week, we were back to the normal curriculum. What letter did we study? In Matthew's words, "One! With a circle." This is also known as "i" (we do lowercase letters). We read about Moses' life starting with his birth and going through the exodus from Egypt. We studied insects. The kids enjoyed making lady bug snacks (sunbutter and jam on bread with raisins for the spots). A fun project was making caterpillars that turned into butterflies.

Megan and Matthew were excited to discover the cocoons one morning.

Megan with her butterfly.

Matthew with his butterfly.

Legos!

Matthew decided he wanted to get more Legos. He saved his money and did some extra work to earn a digger. Here he is with his chart and his digger. He is proud of himself!

He also likes creating things. Here's a plane he made out of his Lego sets.

He likes playing with Megan's Legos, too, and is glad she shares with him.

He's already figured out another Lego set he wants to buy and has started saving his money!

Swimming in the lake

The kids really wanted to go swim in our new lake so we took them a couple of nights (Tuesday and Wednesday). They enjoyed playing around. On Tuesday, we figure it was about 2 1/2 feet deep and looked to be about 18 inches down from Monday's level. Wednesday it was about 2 feet deep.

Tuesday's trip.

Yes, they got a little dirty.

They had so much fun, they wanted a repeat the next evening.

Just a little rain....

We got a little rain this morning. A little, as in over half our annual rainfall. According to news reports, Chandler received 5.63 inches this morning. Our average annual rainfall is around 9 inches. Now I know 5 inches isn't a lot of rain for some places but for a desert to get that much all at once results in much flooding. Here are a few pictures from this morning.

Our yard. Notice the standing water on the patio.

Our greenbelt aka neighborhood lake. U took this on his way to work.

Same greenbelt from a slightly different view a couple hours later. Even the sidewalk is covered! There's probably 4-5 feet of water.

And a few pictures from tonight--this is the parking lot at our library/high school.

People taking advantage of the local "lake."

Canoes!

There are actually lots of pictures on Facebook of friends canoeing, tubing and playing in the water. These are just some people we happened to see tonight when we were driving into the neighborhood. Pretty crazy!

Sarah chose to go to school this morning because it was the first day of choir. If it hadn't been for that, we might have kept her home as we got a few emails from the school telling us that we didn't need to bring our kids in and that it was a movie and activities day. But at that point, we had already dropped her off. She had a fun time--they watched some of 'Finding Nemo" and played a lot of board games. The ducks discovered their playground lake which was fun for the kids to watch. By the end of the day, there were only 7 kids in her class. She says next time, she'd rather stay home :)

So it's been a crazy day!

Last night was a bit crazy, too. Matthew came in around 12:50 needing to go potty so I took him and then went back to bed. Around 2:20, the thunder and lightning woke me up. I went downstairs to unplug some electronics. When I went back to bed, Megan was in my bed. I had her go back to her room and went and laid down with her. Sarah came into Megan and Matthew's room as well. There was lightning all around us and some of the thunder was so loud it shook the house. I ended up sleeping in their room until morning. And then Matthew had a bloody nose off and on all day. Interesting, interesting.

Megan's 4th birthday

Megan had a fabulous fourth birthday!  She loved getting her butterfly balloon in the morning as well as all the decorations around the house.

We had preschool (we studied Bach and Monet last week). Then she had a dentist appointment. Just what everyone wants on their birthday, right? Well, apparently it is an exciting thing for a 4 year old. Maybe it has something to do with the special "Happy Birthday" certificate she got. At any rate, Matthew has requested that we go to the dentist for his birthday, too. After the dentist, we had lunch at McDonalds.

Up in the play structure.

That evening, we had a little party for Megan. We had a yummy dinner of noodles, green beans and fruit.

Megan, excited to unwrap the presents.

With all her gifts.

Playing with her new bubble machine.

We were glad Megan's birth mom and her husband and oldest son could be with us.

Yummy cupcakes!

Grandma and Grandpa M came by briefly. It was nice to see them as well.

Since her birthday, Megan has enjoyed her gifts. Here she is with her baby in her new matching outfit, wearing Lego crocs.

Building with Goldie Blox.

Reading her new book.

Playing with her Legos.

And more Legos. 

(Her one request for her birthday was to get Tangled Legos so she was super excited to get this set.)

Happy birthday Megan! We're sure glad you are part of our family!