Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom would have been 64 years young yesterday.  Hard to believe she's be gone for 6.5 years.  But so much has happened since I lost her and I know she's smiling down upon me.  I took the kids to the library, since she loved to encourage learning.  And then we spent some time at the park, because she would have loved to go with us.  I also made ice cream for us and then we went on a family walk.  I was going to write last night, but was physically and emotionally exhausted after finishing tutoring at 8:30.  I still still think about my mom every day.  I wonder if it will ever get easier, but I suspect it won't.  My kids are a constant reminder of what I don't get to share with my mom.  But at least I know she's watching over us and she'd be thrilled with the attention we give our kids and the healthy track I'm trying to set us up for.

I bought an ice cream maker for under $10 on Tuesday.  I've tried it 3 times and it's gotten a little better each time, but I think we'll stick with going to Dairy Queen for a special treat and I'll make popsicles for better frozen at home treats.  I'll probably still try to make ice cream now and then, but it's not standing up to what I was hoping for, even with actual sugar in it.

I worked on the first unit for Carolyn's preschool tonight as well.  Since we've already kind of been doing plants and we're doing a garden this summer, it seems like the perfect place to start.  So we'll look at flowers and plants.  I found some handwriting worksheets that go along nicely, which she'll love.  Some art projects which we'll all do together.  Picked out some books to pick up from the library.    And some math activities to work on counting and sorting.  I'm excited to start this with her, I think she's going to love it.  I only came up with 5 days worth of activities.  So I think I may need to rethink the whole "1 month per subject" idea.  Rather just pick topics, then see how many days worth I can spread it out.  I do think that animals for June and the olympics for July might actually take up a whole month.  I'm excited to turn our activities in daily life into preschool lessons for Carolyn.  I also found today some progressional evaluation pages.  This will help me to see what I should be pushing her towards each step of the way.  Looking forward to help her learn as we go along.

I discovered today that James know 4 shapes already - he identified square, triangle, circle, and star drawn on the driveway today.  And he likes to mimic the counting I do with Carolyn.  We've been counting the flowers each morning as new ones bloom so he'll point and say a number.  So amazing to see him developing so fast before my eyes.  I can't believe he's not even 2 at times!  But then when he climbs into my lap and asks and signs "more", I'm reminded how little he is.  I'm treasuring getting to sing "my baby boy" to him each night before bed.  I love how snuggly both kids are.

Looking forward to spring break as a family next week!