Alphabet Days

We have started alphabet days with Whitney and two other children in the ward.  Last week one of the mom's did the introduction to the alphabet; this week I started with the letter 'A'.  Here are some of the fun activities we did to talk about that letter.

We colored a picture of things that start with the letter 'A' - like airplane, apple, and alligator.  The kids were suppose to practice writing the letter A into the right spots on the paper, but I think they all just wanted to color.  Oh well.

We talked about astronauts and traveling to the moon.  Then we let the kids play in moon sand.  I looked in three different stores for moon sand to no avail and was finally able to borrow some from a friend in the ward.  I am glad I was able to find some because the kids really enjoyed that part.

I buried some objects that started with the letter A into the moon sand for the kids to find.  They had to decide which object started with an A and they did a pretty good job doing that.  So I was really proud of them.  Now, Whitney knows what a big 'A' and a little 'a' look like.

We also talked about animals and let the kids pretend to be different kinds of animals.  They especially liked being kangaroos and jumping around.  I thought they would like to be more animals like snakes or birds, but they just wanted to always be kangaroos.  Oh well.  Maybe they are a little too young to want to pretend to be animals.

For snack we had frosted animal cookies - which were a big hit.  We also had crackers that had the letter 'A' on them.  And we let the kids make apple smiles.

You take an apple piece and cover one side in peanut butter and then put marshmallows on top for the teeth.  Technically, you are suppose to put two pieces together and make lips for one whole mouth, but the kids didn't want to do that.  They did have a blast when I handed them a butter knife though and everyone wanted to just attack their apples, so I will have to plan some kind of cutting thing for the next time I am in charge of the letter.

This little boy next to Rachel is only three weeks younger than her.  They did a good job playing nicely while we helped the older three with the letter 'A' activities.  I think it gets a little crazy with six small children in the apartment.  But it is also fun.

We have a spot on our wall for learning the alphabet.  I remember as a kid we would use the kitchen wall and put up the alphabet things we colored, so I wanted a spot like that for Whitney.  It is hard to tell, but the two pictures are of the coconut tree from Chicka Chicka Boom Boom last week and we glued cotton balls onto letter A.  I hope I have space for all the letters. 

Anyway, alphabet days was fun.  I am still learning what the kids really like doing and what they rather wouldn't.  But I think they had a good time.

Geocaching

I got to go geocaching for the first time on Friday.  We went as a family and it was fun.  Will has gone a couple of times with his eleven year old scouts and he always comes back all excited.  So I wanted to try it out also.  Thankfully, there are lots of sites here in Cheney that have caches to find.  We don't have a GPS, so we just used google maps to help us instead.

Along the way, there was a beautiful sunset.  My picture doesn't do it justice.  The sun was like a burning orange that just hovered above the mountains.  It was great to see.

About to step into our first spot.  We knew that the geocache was somewhere in all these trees, but there wasn't a clue to help find it.

Will and Rachel made the climb up the little hill looking for the cache.  I took Whitney up the little hill.  Unfortunately, we spent like twenty or thirty minutes looking for it and couldn't find it.  So we walked to the next spot.

There I found my first geocache ever.  It was in this cool special jar that was hiding under a little tree.  I never would have thought to look under there if we hadn't known about the cache. 

We brought little prizes to trade.  So we took out a little army man and we put in a little 1/8 tsp. measuring spoon.  I think that was a pretty fair trade.  Here Whitney holds our new little army man.  So everyone had a fun time.  We might try and go again soon because there are lots of sites for exploring.

Fun Outdoors and In

We went to Turnbull this last week.  It was kind of a random decision, but it was fun to get out of the house one evening.  And the weather was just perfect.  It is our third time going to Turnbull since moving to Cheney, but last time didn't really count because it was winter when we went with Will's parents and there were no animals to see.  Here are a couple of pictures of our explorations.

Just getting started on our walk.  Whitney spent lots of time on Will's shoulders; she was a little jealous that Rachel got to be in the coveted green stroller. 

There are some cool binoculars pretty close to the beginning of the trail that you can look into.  Whitney wasn't sure what to do with them at first, but then she liked looking through them.  You could really see the beautiful land from the binoculars.

Here is the view from the binoculars.  We went around 5:30 and it was simply gorgeous outside.  We could see lots of birds an hear lots of bugs.  And there weren't lots of people around, so we had the wildlife to ourselves.

The water level was pretty low this time of year, so here is the little stream.

I think Whitney's favorite part was throwing rocks into the water.  She grabbed handful after handful of little pebbles so she could throw them and see them splash.  We had to stop several times along our walk so she could throw in more rocks.

It is kind of hard to tell from this picture, but we saw a couple of deer on the driving tour of the wildlife refuge.  So we stopped the car and two of the deer just scampered off, but one stayed and looked at us for awhile.  That brown speck a little to the right of the middle of the picture is the deer.  It was neat to observe it for a while.

We also had fun indoors this week.  Cheney has a community center that twice a week during the fall/winter season has an indoor playground.  I heard about it and thought we could check it out.  Whitney loved all the toys and things to do.

 

Whitney waits her turn to go down the little slide. 

 

There also was a slightly bigger slide for the older kids.  Whitney kept taking balls and rolling them down the slide.

And there was a big tunnel house thing that was a hit with all the kids.  I think Whitney was a little nervous to go in at first, but she got over that quickly once she watched some other kids.

Rachel had fun too.  She stared at this floor rug/poster thing for awhile.  There were lots of colors, which is always a hit.

And just look at this happy baby.  She liked this toy; you push the button and the balls spin around and around.  It was a winner.
Anyway, we have been having fun.  The girls continue to amaze me and make me grateful to be a mom.

The happenings in Cheney

Well, we have had a couple of small outings this last week.  We went camping one night with the ward and we went to Fish Lake for Labor Day.  I didn't do a good job of taking very many pictures though.  Here is from camping.

We have a big seven man tent.  Whitney absolutely loves running through it and being inside it.  She also loves "helping" set it up by putting the poles together. 

Will brought his bubbles thing and was a real hit with the kids.  There were lots of kids to play with and Whitney found a little chair so she could sit up front and center with everyone.  Someone else in the ward brought a huge pot of potato cheddar soup that was delicious.  Even Rachel tried some of the broth and couldn't get enough.   
I didn't get any pictures, but we had a big fire going and people were sitting around it for most of the evening roasting hotdogs or making s'mores.  It was nice to be in a relaxed setting and just able to chill with some ward friends.

We are all bundled up and in our tent.  It was a chilly night.  I was glad that we brought extra blankets on top of our sleeping bags to help stay warm.

Will had Labor Day off from work; so we decided to go to Fish Lake to play and have a picnic lunch.
Will and Whitney head into the water.  They told me it wasn't too cold or anything, but it was a little rocky, so they kept on their sandals the whole time they played.

Whitney's favorite thing is really high jumps and then splashing back down into the water.  Will has strong arm muscles and did this for quite awhile.  I can only jump her so many times before my arms get all tired.  Whitney, of course, never gets tired from this game.

Rachel and I played contentedly on the grass.  She sat there looking all cute with her hat on to prevent too much sun and just kept grabbing the grass.  Thankfully, when she has her binky in her mouth, she doesn't try to eat the grass.  So I just kept putting it back in whenever she lost it.

There is a big playground next to the lake that Whitney wanted to explore before we went home.  Whitney has been really into climbing lately and isn't content on the stairs anymore; she has to use the ladders at any park we go to.  So I kept a close watch on her while she climbed.  It was a fun day.

That evening, Rachel discoverd the fun of peek-a-boo.  She would lift up her shirt to hide and then put it down quickly.  And she got a big grin on her face when she saw us all admiring her new skill.

And Whitney had to get in on the action too.  So we had quite the fun silly evening.

Anyway, we are doing well in Cheney.