Oh Baby!

She's here!!! Born on Friday, March 9th at 7:14pm. All the interesting (if you're into that) details to come!

Rowing :: Another Celebrated Dancing Bear

"[A] heavy-footed brown bear whose heart is soft as butter," Boris is unhappily employed at the animal hospital. When he sees an ornate poster announcing that his friend Max, "the celebrated dancing bear," is about to tour St. Petersburg, his discontent overwhelms him and he can't control his tears, even as he bravely struggles to congratulate Boris. But Boris, too, is soft-hearted, and he sets about teaching Max to dance." - Reed Business Information


Another Celebrated Dancing Bear was such a sweet book to row. Both the boys enjoyed reading it each day and we had fun with the activities. I had more planned and of course a cooking/treat idea but the end of this pregnancy is causing a lot of those "extra" and "fun" activities to fall away.

Centers ::

We "rowed" this book during the beginning of February so a lot of my center activities were based on Valentine's Day. I found the idea for chocolate scented playdough from counting coconuts. It was a big hit! I found the measuring hearts on pinterest. They weren't used so much for measuring but there was a lot of color sorting done. I also made a red sensory bin (idea from counting coconuts, again) that got a lot of rotation. The boys seem to enjoy the sensory bins and since I don't have them down every week or even a whole week they are excited when it is down.

Seatwork ::

I love the stuff snake wrapped around his head and that he's wearing his
pilgrim badge we made awhile back. He's so awesome!

I found a lot of printables to go-along with this book at homeschool share. We talked about Russia's culture and things Russia is famous for; the ballet, the onion-dome buildings, the stacking dolls. We colored a flag and found Russia on our maps. I wanted to make bear claws for a snack or have a teddy bear tea party but both of those wonderful ideas never made it.

All About Reading and ABC Animals ::

We worked on Lesson 3 in All About Reading Level Pre-1 and did the Letter C from Carisa's ABC Animals. I'm really enjoying using these two programs and have noticed an improvement in both #3 and #4's letter recognition, sounds, reading, and awareness.

Links ::

Counting Coconuts - center play dough and sensory bin

1+1+1=1 - ABC Animals

Homeschool Share - printables (when I got the link it looks like they have changed their site layout. I haven't explored the new setup so I'm not sure if the printables I used are still there.)

Linking Up ::

Rowing :: Well, rowing but not blogging about it

We've been faithfully rowing. We did two weeks of Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening, after vacation we rowed two weeks of Papa Piccolo, then we did a week of Another Celebrated Dancing Bear, and now we've started our row of Madeline. But I've got a real block about blogging about our rows. Sigh. I don't know when I'll get my mojo back. Seems I only want to blog about knitting and waiting for baby.

Might have something to do with my regular blogging hours are taken now by Mr. Wiedz taking over my computer for work.

But we've had some really great school going for Mr. #3. We've been using You Can Read and ABC Animals (both from Carisa) and All About Reading Level Pre-1. And I can see an improvement already!

Mr. Wiedz sees an improvement too...

We're back with our friend Go, Dog. Go! and enjoying every sounded out syllable and sight word that gives him such a sense of accomplishment!

Yay for reading!!!!

History is Alive :: Chinese Lanterns

We went back east in our history study and talked more about the mongols and the khans. We made another set of Chinese lanterns for this part of our study. We added them to our classroom celing. I love these lanterns and how colorful it makes our room look.

:: Yarn Along ::

Joining Ginny again this week.

On the needles :: I got finished last week with a couple of baby projects but never got the gumption around to posting. So I posted about those yesterday...I'm quite smitten if you'd like to check them out.

I'm still working on #3's sweater. I started a sleeve. The nice thing is how quickly a sleeve goes for a little boy sweater. The down-side, how boring the knitting is. Dull. I started a washcloth I had inteded to make for baby but my JoAnn's Fabric only had 100% cotton which just isn't the soft-baby-wash-cloth-feel I was going for. I've found the idea in a pattern I photocopied awhile back and the author used cotton chenille so I'm on the lookout but not sure I want to spend any money...I'm kind of over the idea already. I want to pull out Mr. Wiedz's sweater but it is so complicated that when the evening comes all I really want to do is anything but pay attention to the pattern...sigh, that thing is never going to be done. What I really want to be knitting is a Milo vest. I have decided on a color too that will be fine for a boy or a girl. Problem is I don't have the yarn, don't have the money to go buy the yarn and don't have the pattern, nor the money to buy it either. Sigh.

On the nightstand :: I finished the whole Sisters of the Quilt Triology and it was SO good. I loved every bit of each book. I did pick up another book at the church library the other day, Candle in the Darkness, it's a Civil War historical fiction so I should enjoy it. Haven't started it yet.

Now the boy outfit is really done...

I posted a couple weeks ago about my baby girl and baby boy coming home outfits.

I always had intended to finish the boy outfit with a matching hat and booties, just like the girl's outfit had.

So I did.

Don'tcha think it completes the outfit nicely...

Ravelry notes for the hat and the booties.

I'm not a couponer...but...

I've never been a couponer. But I've looked at the coupon blogs. I've watched Extreme Couponing on TLC. I've tried coupons. I've cut out coupons and gone to multiple stores and tried to figure out the deals. It just has never worked out for me. Until yesterday.

A few months ago I read Kelleigh's (I used to go to MOPS with her and still stalk her blog) post about toothpaste and wished I had known about that, we use the exact toothpaste she was talking about. Then Saturday night I glanced through the email from Rite Aid and there it was, the same deal. Buy a tube of toothpaste for $3.50 and get a $3.50 UpReward. So after church I asked Mr. Wiedz to stop by there (we needed some pain medicine for #1 anyway - more on that later). Look what I got.

Four tubes of toothpaste and a bootle of Junior Advil for $4.99 (the cost of the Advil). So really, 4 tubes of toothpaste for FREE!

I have to admit, couponing is quite a bit of fun!