Charlotte's 3 year checkup

Charlotte had her 3 year checkup today.  She was 37 inches tall (41%) and 28 pounds (21%).

We had to delay her shot (I'm so behind on getting her MMR done) because she is wheezing from the cold she had last week.  Something about us three girls always gets us some kind of secondary ailment from our common cold/allergy symptoms.  It's either our ears, our sinuses, or our respiratory system that needs further attention.  Oh well.

This is only Charlotte's second time to need breathing treatments.  But I guess this is probably the age that it started with Caroline, so we'll see if this becomes common.

I'm about to go buy a new round of air filters for our house (the super nice kind this time now that we have a newer AC unit) and maybe a stand alone purifier for the girls' room.

Charlotte's 3rd Birthday Party

We celebrated Charlotte's 3rd birthday, a week early, with a Snow White birthday party.

I had plans of doing another ballerina party, but then she asked for Snow White (her favorite of the princesses) the week of her party, and I changed my plans.  We made a special trip to the Disney store to find cake decorations and a birthday outfit.

Disney princess Squinkies are the latest toy fad in this household, so we added a Snow White set to our collection this week in honor of the birthday girl.  I printed the castle and cottage and laminated them to make a backdrop on the cake.  Caroline was very excited to place all the figures.

Kevin always turns on a slideshow of the birthday girl during the party.  Charlotte noticed the show and got herself a front row seat.

Look at the birthday girl with her Granny and Grandad.

Half of Charlotte's cousins came to the party and enjoyed her favorite meal of Mac 'n cheese and hot dogs.

Then, of course, it was time for presents.

She got a beautiful dress from Grandma and Grandpa that ended up being the outfit in her 3 year portraits the following week.

Grandma and Grandpa made Charlotte a puppet theatre that is painted like Chic-Fil-A on the reverse side.  All the girls had fun putting on puppet shows for the party guests.

We got Charlotte her very own bike.  Her favorite part was the bell.  She would ring it and say, "ring, ring."  As if the bell needed an additional soundtrack.

Whatever is true

If God is shaping Caroline to be a prayer warrior, then I think He is shaping Charlotte to carry the sword of truth.

She's really picked up on Caroline's memory verses we've worked on since Christmastime.  She has at least four in her collection right now (Luke 2:10-11, Ps 34:13, 1 John 3:18, and 1 Cor 13:4).  I'm pretty sure at 3 years old, Caroline only knew "Children, obey your parents in the Lord for this is right."

Charlotte also loves to carry around my little green Bible.  She just brought it downstairs where I was filling out some paperwork and proceeded to flip through it, track on the words with her finger, and quote off every verse she knew... flipping to new pages for each different verse.

Whatever is pure

Caroline and I had a discussion about Phillipians 4:8 a few weeks ago... "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things."

I can't remember how it came up, but I made up an illustration of pouring dirt in a glass of water.

Anyway, the girls just accidentally turned on the stereo while they were watching a kids show and Caroline called me up to fix it, stating that "it might not be pure."  It was on AM radio, or it probably wouldn't have been very pure, but I think it's so neat how she took our conversation to heart.

Week 21 In Review

We had kind of an off week during letter N since all three of us girls were sick with colds and secondary infections.  The girls colored some princess pictures one day, and we painted pictures on big sheets of paper taped to the garage on Friday.  I really just try to maintain our math pace on weeks like this.

The theme for letter N was Nest and instead of the letter N Bible verse, we started working on 1 Corinthians 13:4.

Charlotte's shelf has: nest color puzzles, egg/spoon race game, nest counting cards with plastic eggs, theme puzzle, dry erase coloring page, and squeaky eggs.

We did fit in our science lesson on cells.  I simplified what she had to learn, so we focused on the three main parts, nucleus, cytoplasm, and the cell membrane.  We made a jello model and added some of the other parts of the cell for interest.  You have to let the jello set up for an hour or so before you add your fruit.  Then instead of sinking, it floats on the top where you place it.

Sometimes, Caroline wants to jump right into her journal entry after breakfast, so we are still in nightgowns this day.  "It is boring in the house while I am sick." was her entry.  I thought about persuading her to write sometime more positive, but figured I might as well let her express how she feels.  The illustration was the three of us with sad faces, her crying, looking out a window.  She's really been missing playing with her friend, Kate.

Cabin fever was setting in, so we took advantage of a sunny morning to do some artwork outside.  Caroline did a picture for me and and picture for Kate, both with heart shaped balloons.  Charlotte chose to do a rainbow.  I helped her finish the arch on one side and then she proceeded to retrace over the top in all the colors, so it turned out kind of muddy.

We celebrated Super Bowl Sunday with homemade cookies and football strawberries.  Charlotte and Caroline were both kitchen helpers.

I had a big scrap of paper leftover from our art, so in an effort to entertain Charlotte over the weekend, we worked on identifying some letters.  Most of the traced letters are the ones I did.

Caroline's first bass guitar

Well, it's only a matter of time in a musician's household before the kids have their own instrument.  I figure, we did pretty well making it five years.

Kevin spent some of his Christmas money on Caroline's first bass guitar, along with some money she had from a gift we had to return.  We went for a neutral white, and added a girly pink strap.  Kevin says that window clings stick to the body, so we'll be on the lookout for some princess stick-ons soon.

It is a three-quarter size Ibanez.  It still looks huge to me compared to my sweet little girl.

Charlotte dragged out an electric piano and claimed that it was her bass.  She had fun tinkering on it while Kevin worked on switching the guitar from a right-handed version to a left-handed version.

I think daddy is enjoying having a new guitar in the house as much as the kids.

Week 20 In Review

Could letter M have had a yummier theme than M&Ms?

Bible Verse:  "My little children, let us not love in word and tongue, but in deed and truth." 1 John 3:8
Song: My God is so big

Charlotte's shelf has:  Upper/Lowercase M sorting, shape pegs, M&M sorting sheet, Mammal magnets (goes along with the science unit Caroline just ended on animals), Letter M dry erase page, Memory, and number M&M clip cards with mini-clothespins.

It's always a fun day when we get to work on graphing candy.  And it works out great that I now have do-a-dot markers in all the M&M colors (we just got a second color set with some Christmas money, so we have brown now).  Caroline worked on a bar graph while the preschoolers sorted theirs into circles and stamped the count.

It's still the last week of January, but we are already gearing up for Valentine's with stickers and cards.

Caroline worked on her journal entry for the day while Charlotte cut and tore pink paper and glued it in a heart shape.

One of the fun things about homeschool is going to school in your jammies, but I'm such a creature of habit that we usually just get dressed for the day.  So, I decided to make this Friday a PJ day.  Here are the girls at 3:00 pm having a post-nap cuddle with Daddy's tablet in Charlotte's bed.