7/31/2014

Mia ate whole wheat english muffin and ate blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, crackers, two servings of sweet potatoes, and two servings of cherries.

Mia spotted my daughter's pink Mini iPad laying on a chair and asked, "What is that?"  I told her it was Christina's Mini iPad and she said, "Lauralea has a BIG iPad!"  :)

Riley and Mia were playing in the big box and I thought it was cute how they were laying.  (Shortly after I took this picture they were accusing each other of infringement! - "You have your head on my pillow!" - "No! You have your head on my pillow!")  The ends of the box that you cannot see in the picture is where they each have a substantial amount of toys stashed.

Cooper and Mia were roaring (literally and figuratively) up and down the sidewalk while pushing the dump trucks!  Their feet were a blur and they were "roaring!"  All I could think of was skinned knees, but not this morning!!  Whew!  Mia was the first to take off with the truck and she yelled, "Come on Coop!"  And away they went!  :)  Then later Mia was saying, "On three!  One, two, three - go!"  A great way of applying their newly learned number skills.

Mia was also being Nora's "puppy" again.  A game that Mia loves by the way!  Sometimes she loves it too much and is trying to lick everything!  :)  She told Nora, "I want a bone!"  And then she was licking the concrete after Nora tossed her a "bone."  She didn't seem to care either when I expressed my displeasure and explained that there are lots of germs and a lot of dirt on the sidewalk!!  :)

7/30/2014

Mia ate a biscuit and two servings of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate baked beans, half of her dinner roll, ate peas, and two servings of pineapple.  

Nora made a random announcement at meal time: "My Dad always takes a shower!"  Mia said, "My Dad takes a shower too!"  So I'm waiting to see if Riley is going to share any sort of insight about her family!  She said, "Well, my Dad is at work!" LOL - Love these Kids!

Yesterday afternoon I was thinking about today's meals and I said, "Biscuit and ..."  Mia finished the sentence for me; "Peaches!"  She was right, so I thought I'd try the lunch menu.  (I have a 4 week menu, so it's been that long since Mia had "biscuit and peaches.")  Good job Mia!  So I said, "Baked beans, dinner roll, peas, and ....."  Cooper yelled, "Chicken!"  LOL  Good try Coop!"

We do not have Art Time as often in the nice weather because of spending as much time outside as we can.  So it's been awhile since we have done any Dot Painting and the Kids spent lots of time working on it this morning.  After that they played with the wooden building blocks on the patio.  (I hadn't redone Mia's hair yet and you can see it hanging in her face.)

7/29/2014

Mia ate two servings of waffle and a bite of hash browns for breakfast.  For lunch she ate beef & cheese quesadilla, carrots, and oranges.

The kids were at the window watching some birds when Mia and Matt arrived.  They parked on Rainbow Drive and we watched them unload and head down the sidewalk.  Cooper started saying, "Matt Matt.."  Then Cooper joined Mia at the window to wave bye when he was leaving.  Mia waved and said, "Bye Dad!"  Cooper waved and said, "Bye!"  Mia told him, "Say Matt; bye Matt!"  :)

This is basically what a Toddler argument sounds like;  Mia said, "Yes I can!" Nora responded; "Yes you can't!!"  Mia, "Yes I can!"  Nora, "Yes you can't!!"  :)

I took this picture of Grace, a neighbor girl, talking to the kids.  She's really a sweet kid and she remembers the names of the four Day Care children and greets each one individually.  (I decided to show you this picture even though Mia is mostly hidden from view on the far side -  you can see her ponytail!)  Grace read Cooper's shirt (Born to Dribble), giggled, and said she liked it.  This is a side note; Grace is carrying a small device (the name of which I'd never heard before!) and she was telling me everything it did, which included texting.  "Texting is my favorite thing to do!!"  How old are you?!?   "Eight!"  LOL    She did stumble over my next question though; "So who do you text?"  :)

Cooper is pulling Mia in the wagon in this picture and they were taking turns pulling.  I like how Mia has her hands behind her head and she's just totally relaxing!

Mia fell on the sidewalk and it opened a scab from a previous fall and there was some blood.
However, she was being very brave and not crying or actually saying anything.  She, and everyone
else, were closely watching me clean her knee and put on a bandaid.  When I was done Mia
spoke and Nora exclaimed, "You can TALK!"  (Like she'd been mute for a week!)  LOL!

7/28/2014

Mia ate most of her cheerios and ate banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a couple bites of cheese sandwich, drank most of her tomato soup, and ate apple pieces.

All the kids were gathered around Lauralea watching her apply some makeup.  She gave them  something to hold for each hand.  Mia looks very intent as she applies her makeup.  :)

We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and the kids were busy all morning.  Mia looked at the books first thing and then went to the dolls and food toys.  They had their "babies" and were pretending to sleep and snore.  Riley and Mia kept saying, "Not morning time; don't wake up!!" Maybe they've heard that before!  :)

Outside they played on the bikes and in the wagons.  The three girls were riding their bikes down the sidewalk and Cooper was flying by them pushing the dump trucks as fast as he could travel.  But we survived with no freshly skinned knees this morning!

Also outside they were each visiting their Grandma's house.  Nora has a Grandma visiting this week and the Cline family went to the farm this past weekend so they went with that theme for their dramatic play.  :)

7/25/2014

Mia ate oatmeal and dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate half of ground beef, half of elbow noodles topped with shredded cheese, ate peas, and a large serving of applesauce. 

Kenzie was here with us this morning before they left for the Farm at noon.  She likes to help the kids with their bibs and she was trying to get Mia to hold her hair up while Kenzie tightened her bib.  It wasn't going real smooth and Kenzie said (with frustration), "Come on Mia - Hold your hair!!"  Mia apparently assumed Kenzie was a boss because she asked Kenzie, "Can I put my raisins in my bowl Kenzie?"  LOL

Julie, Lauraleas' sister spent a second night with us, and Mia asked Lauralea this morning, "Where Julie at?"  Lauralea told her that Julie was in the back room sleeping.  Mia asked, "Julie's belly hurting?"  LOL  No, she's just tired!

I've been teaching the kids to hold the storm door open for their friends when we are going outside.  It shuts pretty quickly when they just push through it and keep on going.  It's very impressive how quickly the three "older" girls have learned to remember to hold it open.  Good job!

We did some box decorating at art time with some different styles of duct tape I got.  That tape is pretty sticky and several pieces ended in a big wad.  But they were all still having fun with it.

We finished off the morning doing some sand play.  Kenzie was squatting down when I took this picture so that worked good!  Nora was also squatting (on the left) - probably because Kenzie had squatted down.  :)

Here's a picture of another box they decorated.

7/24/2014

Mia ate two servings of whole wheat english muffin and ate blueberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate turkey sandwich, green beans, and two servings of strawberries.

The kids were all working on puzzles this morning and Mia does a good job with them.  She will stay on task and complete several before she starts to get bored with them.

They all played with the blocks again!  They built "motorcycles, sidewalks, houses, and lots of towers."  In this picture Riley and Mia had built a blockade to try to keep Cooper out of the igloo.  So he was just dangling the stuffed animals from the top of the igloo entrance - threatening to invade with his animal kingdom!  :)

The kids played with the boxes outside and Mia was doing what Riley did - calling the box their "garage!"

We moved a Grandfather Clock into the living room and it's rather large and also chimes, etc.  The kids were all impressed and Riley said, "That clock make a noise!"  Cooper was like, "Ooohhhh!"  Then Mia and Riley were building a tall yellow legos tower and Riley said, "That our clock!!"  :)

7/22/2014

Mia ate cinnamon roll and dried plums for breakfast.  Nora was the first one to sit down at the breakfast table and she said, "Mia is sooo tired!"  Why do you say that? "She's playing sooo hard!"  When Mia sat down Nora asked her, "Are you tired?"  :)  For lunch Mia had bites of scrambled eggs, hash browns, and cheese combo, ate waffles, and bites of cantaloupe.

A woman from the Food Program came and checked on us making sure my paperwork was in order, looked at our menus, checked the temperature of the freezer and refrigerator, etc..  The kids were looking at her computer and Mia asked, "Do you have any movies on there?"  LOL   (Gary doesn't let us look at movies; maybe she will!?!)  When she left Nora said, "I like that woman; she's not a boy!" (I don't interpret this stuff, I just report it!)   :)

The kids had so much fun painting on the cardboard boxes outside.  When we first went out it started to lightly sprinkle and Riley informed me, "It's ok to paint in the rain Gary!"  :)   I took this picture so you could see everyone waiting patiently at their boxes for me to start putting some paint on for them.  Sorry everyone - I just need to take a quick picture!  :)

Here's Mia painting with a brush shortly after we got started.  Riley soon asked if she could use her hands to paint and everyone was in favor of that!  Mia painted half of this box (about three sides) before she started to get a little bored.  (And that's when she started to paint her legs!)  :)