Garden Party

This year Abby is going to have a garden party for her birthday.  We borrowed the idea from my sister and my cousin, Robin, with some magazine-inspired added touches.  The night before, we prepared:

I have been saving Abby's garden-themed artwork for the past month, so we hung them up on ribbons in the archways.

This one includes some artwork by Isaac with the inscription: "Hape Brf day Abby."

The table ready for kids' garden dinner.  

Can you tell Abby was VERY excited?

Last-minute party favors that I was not planning on but had to buy when I saw them at the dollar store.  Girls got butterflies, boys got bees.

Themes make me so happy.

We made bird's nests out of shredded wheat and gave each little Peeps chick a cozy garden home.

And we used the fake flowers from Abby's bedroom (also garden themed) for our decorations.

Abby and Isaac even set out the clothes they planned to wear.

The Day of the Party:

We gathered our friends...

Painted some flower pots...

Opened some presents...

And made some dirt pudding (with gummy worms to keep the garden fresh, of course)...

Abby pointing out that the wind blew out her candle while we sang happy birthday.

Each dirt pudding had a marshmallow flower on top (thanks Jennifer!).

Mmmmmmm

Then we added some real dirt to our flower pots...

Picked a favorite flower or two...

Added a little more dirt on top...

And gave them a little water.

Aw, sweet.  First love?  Probably not, but still a sweet picture!

Finished pots (and 2 cuties).

Thank you friends!

And now we have a happy doorstep.

Summer Home School

Every time I talk to my cousin Robin about her homeschooling experience, I get inspired.  Not that I actually want to follow through with the discipline of homeschooling my children...but the thought of creatively teaching my kids without being controlled by state tests and principals looking over my shoulder is very appealing.  Plus, it would be great for Isaac to have even more of a background before starting Kindergarten (he'll still be four years old on the first day of school...his birthday is day two!)  So, I think I'm going to try a mini-version of home school.  I guess it could be considered "home summer school."

(Disclaimer, you must keep in mind that I am a HUGE dreamer and we are months from summer...whether or not I actually DO any of this is still to be determined).

Here's how I envision this working for us:  The kids pick a new theme every week.  Then, during the week, we do as many of the following as we can incorporating the topic (let's pretend our topic for this week is "hamsters" because Isaac is really into hamsters right now):

• Check out books at the library (on hamsters)
• Print out coloring pages (or cut out of magazines) to make a thematic poster (about hamsters)
• Keep a journal about what we learn (about hamsters)
• Go on a "field trip" to see one in person (pet store: to see the hamsters)
• Watch a video (pre-screened YouTube video on hamsters maybe?)
• Pretend we are one ("yay, we're hamsters!")
• Print out the word and practice letters and letter sounds (H-A-M-S-T-E-R)
• Use pictures of the topic to do counting and math skills (what's 2 hamsters plus 1 hamster?)

squeak!

Any other ideas?