-
About Me
My name is Tami and I live in central Illinois with my husband, Larry and three children, Caleb (5), Camden (3) and Emma Grace (13 months). I hope you'll enjoy reading about my life as a wife/mother and about our family's adventures.
Zoo Scavenger Hunt
For the last day of the summer session of preschool, the boys had a field trip. Since it was also Emma’s birthday, my husband took the day off of work and we all went together. The field trip was to the Miller Park Zoo to go on a scavenger hunt. The boys had been studying different countries this summer, so we were finding animals from different countries. Every team was given a different list of animals to find.
The animals we had to locate were:
- Panamanian Golden Frog (Panama)
- Pallas Cat (Central Asia - Iran to Mongolia)
- New Guinea Singing Dog (New Guinea)
- Burrowing Owl (Canada through South America)
The kids had a great time trying to locate each of the animals on our list. It was a beautiful day and we had perfect weather for our adventure.
Tags: preschool, field trip, Miller Park Zoo, scavenger hunt
Weekend Edition - Art Festival
This weekend was the Sugar Creek Arts Festival in our town that we love to attend every year. We always see some interesting art, watch the entertainment and have some good food. This year there were 170 artists booths to check out in the sweltering heat.
I bought a really cute hand painted dress for Emma for next summer that can also be worn as a top the next year. I also bought this great necklace from an artist, Weener Ware. She makes jewelry made out of recycled bottle caps.
This is similar to what I bought, except mine is a dragonfly. The artist puts mini-pictures in the bottle cap, accents with gems and glitter and pours on liquid resin.
Last week, the boys came home from preschool with t-shirts they made this summer. They had a class picture taken with all of the kids in their shirts. They were so excited to show their daddy when he came home for lunch. Whenever they have a surprise, they always make daddy close his eyes and make a huge production of showing off whatever it is they have made.
Tags: Sugar Creek Arts Festival, Weener Ware, bottle cap jewelry, preschool
Alpaca’s and Gardening
This week Caleb and Camden had their first field trip for the summer session of preschool. They went to the Alpaca Farm outside of town. This was one of the best field trips we have gone on. It is right up there with the Ropp Dairy Farm.
The alpaca’s really liked the children and we were even able to pet one named Josephina.
The week before our field trip, one of the alpaca’s had a baby. She was 17 pounds when she was born and is gaining about 1 pound a day. She was so cute.
On Tuesday, we went out to my dad’s so that the boys could help plant the garden. This is something they help with every year. They even have their own gardening tools that we bring along. They planted tomatoes, cucumbers and green peppers. They each have a special tomato plant that they are in charge of. When we go out to visit, they will get to water it and help pick the tomatoes when they are ripe. They are so excited about helping again this year.
Tags: field trip, Alpaca farm, gardening, preschool
End of School Program and Field Trip
This past Monday was Caleb’s end of year program for preschool. Even though he is 5, he will be going back to preschool for one more year, instead of entering kindergarten, in the 5 pre-k class. He is pretty excited, especially since a friend from this past year will be in class with him. We will have two kids in preschool this next year, Camden will be in the 3’s class in the fall.
The end of year program/graduation is such a big production at our school. Caleb is such a ham on stage and had a great time singing the songs with his friends.
Caleb singing with his friends
Also this week was the final field trip. It is always out of town and most of the parents go along. We went to Monticello Railway Museum this year. We got to tour the museum, which was a train that you walked through and the volunteers explained what the different cars were used for. The boys especially liked the postal car. There is an arm that would swing out of the car and pick up mail from towns that the train did not stop at.
Caleb and Ben on the train
Then we got to take a train ride into town, have lunch at the park and a train ride back to the museum. The kids and parents had a great time on our last field trip of the school year.
Caleb riding the train
Caleb at the park
Caleb had such a great experience this year and learned so much. I can hardly wait to see how much he progresses this next year in anticipation of starting kindergarten.
Tags: Monticello Railway Museum, preschool, field trip
Preschool Project - All About Caleb
In Caleb’s preschool class a different
child is highlighted every two weeks so that the teachers and other children in the class get to know the child better.
The “All About Me” bag was sent home with Caleb last Wednesday. It included instructions and a sheet of construction paper to decorate.
I did the majority of the work and Caleb helped by putting on the stickers and telling me some of his favorite things that I wrote on the project.
The completed project will be on the class bulletin board for two weeks. He also took in two small toys to talk to his class about.
Tags: 
education, 
children, 
family
Our Morning on the Dairy Farm
Caleb had his first class field trip today. They went to the local cheese farm. The kids got to feed the calves, milk a cow, play in the haybales, take a hayrack ride in the cornfields and watch cheese being made. One of the favorites for the kids was Tom the turkey. He roams around the farm and is gentle enough that they were able to pet him. We also were able to go into the store to buy cheese and sample a fresh cheese curd.
One of the highlights from the class that went on Monday is they were able to name the new calf, who is 3 days old. They named her Promise.
Tags: education, 
dairy farm, 
cheese, 
Ropp Jersey Cheese
Fun at the Pumpkin Patch
Caleb’s preschool class went to the pumpkin patch for a field trip this week. They had story time, craft time and had a great time in the pumpkin patch.
Tags: preschool, children, pumpkin patch
First Day of School
Heading off to school.
Painting.
Tags: children, preschool, photos
Preschool Open House
Tonight was Caleb’s preschool open house. We got to meet his teachers (who we already know from church), see his classroom and get a packet of information. He was so excited to go, that 30 minutes before we left he had his jacket and shoes on. He kept asking if it was time to go yet.
Every month, his class will have a color day, where they wear that color that day (his class color is yellow), show and tell, birthday parties, field trips and overnights. He is going to love preschool and an added bonus is that his best friend, Fiona, is in his class.
They even have Scholastic Firefly book club that the kids can order from monthly. I loved Scholastic books when I was in elementary school. With our kids love of reading, this will be a great way to add to our book collection.
Tags: preschool, Scholastic Books
The Adventure Begins… School Supplies
Our oldest is getting ready to begin his long school career. It just seems like yesterday that we were bringing him home from the hospital and now he is getting ready to enter preschool this fall. So, in anticipation of this, we headed to Target to get school supplies and a new backpack. He was so excited about the backpack, that he wore it the rest of the day, pretending to go off to school. We even had to put some “school supplies” in the backpack to make it more realistic. Our son has quite the vivid imagination.
And so it begins…
Tags: school supplies, backpack, preschool, children
-
Miscellaneous
-
Subscribe
