Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Project Life Weeks 33 and 34

I got a little behind with the rush before school started but I'm happy to be caught up. As usual, click on the photo to view the credits.

I loved these park pictures of Kylie so I printed them and put them in a smaller page protector and put them in front of this week.

Project Life Week 33 page 1

It’s been a busy week. Kylie had gymnastics camp from 9-3 Monday through Thursday. She had her last two swim lessons at Planet Swim. And I rushed around making sure we were ready for school.

This is a neighborhood runner. I see him moving past our house all the time. I’ve tried to speak with him several times but he just nods and continues down the road. A neighbor once told me that this gentleman was a great runner but then he had a stroke, which affected him mentally and physically. His run is more of a shuffle-walk now. But when he passes by, I can tell by his energy and by the look in his eyes that in his mind, he is flying. He is a daily source of inspiration for me. He never gives up. He keeps on running.

Kylie was a big help during Children’s Church as I taught the story about Jesus and blind Bartimaeus. Kylie loves the church playground tire swing.

Kylie’s Build-a-Bear Puppy was her favorite toy of the week. She carried her everywhere. The puppy showed up in several of this week’s photos. But my favorite was this shot of Kylie enjoying a Starbucks cake pop and milk. Puppy is laying on the floor looking like a dead dog. I’m an odd one because this photo really cracked me up this week.

Project Life Week 33 page 2


It's hard to see (in this picture of pictures) but that top left photo is of a beautiful rainbow we saw on our drive home from Starbucks. We are so blessed to be able to see the ocean every day.

Karen flew to Texas on Sunday to speak at a conference. She came home on Wednesday. Our tradition is that she brings Kylie home a present from her trips. For this trip, Kylie asked for stuffed animals with “big eyes”. And her Momma Karen delivered two toys that Kylie simply loved.

Kylie is getting good at eating with kid chopsticks. Today she enjoyed matching all the Pei Wei signs and logos throughout the restaurant.

On Friday, Kylie didn’t have a camp to attend. Karen and I got a babysitter and had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen. We went to the movies and saw the Streep movie “Hope Springs”. During the movie, the screen went black and an intercom voice told us to evacuate the building. This was the first time I had ever been evacuated from a theater. This made me a bit nervous given the recent theater shooting in Colorado during the latest “Batman” movie in which 12 were killed and 58 were wounded. We exited the theater in the rain and were told that a fire alarm had been triggered. It started raining really hard so Karen and I decided to stay at the theater and watch the “Bourne Legacy” movie. It was a nice afternoon together.

Kylie put on a great puppet show with the puppets she and the babysitter made together. I particularly like the trees Kylie and Momma made and attached to pipe cleaners. The puppet show was about a gorilla and an elephant playing hide and seek.

I caught a cold and slept all day Saturday. On Sunday I felt a little better so I knitted and watched “Emma” on tv while my two cats curled around me. Karen took Kylie to Build-a-Bear and Kylie brought home a stuffed cat which she named Chloe.

I also included in the Project Life notebook (not pictured here), the timetable flyer from her gymnastics camp, her Build-a-Bear birth certificate, and the checked-off Summer reading list from her school.

Project Life Week 34 page 1
With the pictures of Week 34, I have officially been using the Project Life system for one year. I started using the PL system on Kylie's first week of school in 2011. It wasn't until 2012 that I decided to be more vigilant in taking photos of the pages to share with you. But I can honestly say that I still love the Project Life way of scrapbbooking!

With Kylie's return to school, I knew in advance that I wanted to take notes on whatever she would share with me about her first days of kindergarten. With so much journaling, I kept the page pretty sparse of embellishments.

Monday:
Kylie got to visit her classroom between 10-11. She is in the same classroom as she had last year and has the same teachers Ms. Kirby and Ms. Elizabeth. Kylie walked showing us some things she likes to work with and the changes to the classroom. She played with a few of her friends on the playground.
The class schedule
8:40 – 10:30 work time
10:30 – 11:00 playground
11:00 – 11:30 line time: presentations, lessons, songs, calendar & discussions about special events.
11:30 – 12:30 kindergarten lunch and playground
12:30 – 3:00 kindergarten time.

Tuesday:
The teachers showed Kylie her kindergarten books. She has a red book that has word exercises (for example, there is a picture of an ant and next to it three spaces for her to write the word “ant”), a green book where Kylie can write her word-building words, and a dictionary where she can write the words she looks up. During work time, Kylie got to teach a younger student a matching game. And during kindergarten time, Kylie wrote on a journal page about going to the beach. She wrote, “I went to the beach. I saw some shells that dig into the ground (by their) self.”
During combined kindergarten time she went to art class and made a name tag.

Wednesday:
Kylie worked on word building (fan, can, etc) and wrote her words in her green book. She had PE with Mr. Kirk. He is going to teach them to juggle. Kylie practiced moving a ball back and forth between her hands. The class split into girls versus boys and Kylie was so tickled to name the girl team the “Tiger Girls”. They raced one another in frog hops, monkey walks, crab walks, and ninja dogs. Kylie had Spanish class with Ms. Ingrid. She sang the song “Como te llamas”. She played with Emma in the sandbox during playground time. Kylie wrote on a journal page about her summer. She wrote, “I was watching the Olympics. I go to swim lessons. I also go to gymnastics camp.”

Project Life Week 34 page 2
On Monday, before we went to school, I took Kylie to the beach and snapped a few pictures. I included them with the rest of the journaling about school.

Thursday:
Kylie continued to work on word building (jam, mat, etc). She liked the book “It’s Mine” that Ms Kirby read during Line Time. She had Music class with Ms. Jess. Each child got to make a sound and the other children would copy that sound. Kylie loved all the blowing and snorting sounds the kids made. She made her “joy, joy, joy” sound that her cousin Allie taught her. Kylie wrote on her journal page, “I played outside when it was raining. Josu saw me. He is funny and scary.” Kylie told me that right before it is time for the parents to pick up the kindergarteners that the teachers dim the lights and have the children lay down in the book sanctuary part of the classroom as they play soft music. The teachers call it meditation time. Ms. Kirby brought Kylie to the car today. She told me that Kylie has great stamina. She said many of the other K kids were really slowing down by the end of the day but that Kylie keeps going and going.

Friday:
Kylie worked with Emma and together they made a rainbow out of small colored pom pons. They also worked on a map of the US together. Kylie completed an addition worksheet. She had fun pouring dried macaroni in a pouring exercise. Kylie told me that Ms. Kirby read them a nonfiction book about ducks. “Mommy, nonfiction means ‘real”. She told all about ducks webbed feet and bills. Ms. Kirby brought Kylie to the car today. She told me that Kylie has great stamina. She said many of the other K kids were really slowing down by the end of the day but that Kylie keeps going and going.

That's it for another week. Thanks for looking! Click on the photos to view the credits. If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
The Mom Creative



Thursday, August 23, 2012

Books to read aloud

Hello Blog Readers,

I need your help in finding books to read aloud to Kylie.

We recently finished all the Junie B. Jones Books and Kylie loved them. We hit gold again with the Ivy and Bean Books.

Now I'm struggling with what to read next. I'm looking for a SERIES of books similar to Junie B and Ivy & Bean. I would love any suggestions in the comments.

We tried the Pet Fairies series but Kylie & I thought they were a bit repetitious so we've only read 6 or so. Kylie liked Ramona & Beezus but we got a bit bogged down in Ramona the Pest and lost interest. Same for the Ralph the Mouse collection. I'll try those books again when she is a bit older. We tried the Princess Posey collection as well as the Katie Kazoo series but weren't impressed enough to read any more.

We read the first five Magic Tree House books and Kylie enjoyed them but the suspenseful mysteries frightened my sensitive girl so we are waiting until she is older to read more of those. I also plan on reading the Diary of a Whimpy Kid collection as well as the Laura Ingalls Wilder books when she is older.

Based on a quick Amazon search, I ordered these books from the library.
Jenny Archer series by Elen Conford
Amelia Bedelia by Peggy Parish
Go Girl! by Chrissie Perry
The Beast in Ms. Rooney's Room by Patricia Reilly Giff
Camp Ghost Away by Judy Delton

Please let me know your suggestions. Thanks!

081912_001.jpg

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

First day of kindergarten

I thought I would share some photos of Kylie's first day of kindergarten. These were taken in our front yard.

082012_003.jpg

082012_002.jpg

I printed out a photo of Kylie from last year for her to hold. It shows a little bit of difference...
082012_001.jpg

But to get the full effect, here is this year's photo taken at school as Kylie showed us around her classroom.
082012_001.jpg

Compared to last year's photo.
082211_003.jpg

Like many mom's across the country, I am rejoicing at the start of the school year and marveling at how fast time flies.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Project Life Week 32

Welcome to another week of Project Life. As usual, click on the photo to view the credits.
Project Life Week 32 page 1.jpg

From the journaling cards:

We got AT&T Uverse cable for a month so that we could watch the Olympics. We watched during lunch and after dinner for the 17 days of the Games. Some of my favorite moments were watching:
Ryan Lochte-gold in the 400m individual medley,
Michael Phelps- gold in the 200m individual medley and 100m butterfly,
Allison Schmitt- gold in the 200m freestyle,
Watching the women’s gymnastics team win the team gold ,
Gymnast Gabby Douglas winning the gold for the individual all-around,
Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings- gold for beach volleyball,
I was inspired by the women’s marathon and triathlon and was proud of the USA in our 46 gold medals and 104 total medals.

Even though I take great care laundering and line-drying my workout clothes as soon as I finish exercising, the clothes only last about a year before they start getting stinky. My old clothes are too stinky to give away but it seems a shame to throw them in the trash. It feels like I should give them a Viking burial at sea because we’ve been through such battles together. I even had to toss my lucky white running cap. But the bright side is that this week I bought some new running shirts and shorts. It will be nice to not have the swamp odor surround me as I run ☺. I attached the receipt behind the Nike tag.

This is the story of how five-year old Kylie smuggled a baggie full of nuts into the car in the hopes of taking it to art camp. Halfway on the drive to the center, I heard Kylie rustling something under her shirt. She was trying to hide a baggie full of pecans and walnuts. She explained that she knew that nut trees grew from nuts and that she wanted to grow some more plants at the center. She threw in some crushed crackers and cereal as “fertilizer” into the baggie as well. She went on to explain how upset she was because some of the other students had pulled up some plants the previous day. She wanted to plant new ones to make up for the loss. What is amazing to me is that she had to climb to the upper cabinets to get a baggie and some of the other foodstuffs and that she left no trace behind. I explained that we couldn’t plant her nuts on someone else’s property. She was disappointed but she understood. My darling, industrious, nature-loving girl is a constant source of entertainment and joy.

Project Life Week 32 page 2.jpg

The past two weeks I've been especially grateful that I use the Project Life system because I can have lots of pictures of a single event--like Kylie's Art Camp weeks. I still love to scrapbook 12x12 pages but I get a bit bogged down when I have more than 3 photos to showcase. As you can see, here I've used 6 photos of Kylie showing off her artwork. This is more like a traditional photo album but the notes about her camp give it that extra detail and pop.

The journaling reads: Kylie had another week of art camp with Ms. Kate at the Cultural Center. The theme was Global Trotters and Kylie made a wind sock, a mask, a decoupage rice-bottle rainmaker, a fancy pair of binoculars with painted beads and feathers, an art scroll, a dragon puppet, the flag of Italy and Kylie’s version of the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The last thing I included (not pictured) was the cover of People magazine with Gabby Douglas and her gold medal. I put it in a letter-sized page protector.

That's it for another week. Thanks for looking! Click on the photos to view the credits. If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
The Mom Creative

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

Project Life Week 31

Project Life Week 31 page 1

Kylie had art camp this week at the Cultural Center at Ponte Vedra Beach. The theme was Magical Marsh Menagerie.

On Tuesday, I took a photo of my car dashboard as we left Sunshine Park.

It's hard to see but Kylie had the sweetest expression on her face in that 2nd small photo. She was spinning.

I was lucky enough to get some iPhone photos of Kylie learning to dive with her swim coach.

Project Life Week 31 page 2.jpg

Right after playing at the Sunshine Park fountain, we were lucky to catch the ice cream truck. It's hard to see in this photo of a photo but i caught some sweet light in Kylie's eyes as she started eating her ice cream.

We ordered books 1-8 of the Ivy and Bean book series. The set came with Ivy and Bean paper dolls and lots of re-usable sticker clothes and accessories. Kylie has played with these dolls quite a bit this week. I’ve loved to watch her change their clothes and act out scenes with them.

Journaling on the card with red string: knew Kylie was too quiet. I was working in the office and realized that I hadn’t heard Kylie. I popped up and Kylie yelled, “Surprise!” from the kitchen. She had made a pretend laser beam obstacle course in the kitchen. She had taped red yarn in all different directions throughout the kitchen. It was very creative!

Knitting card: I finished knitting Mom’s “Baby It’s Cold Outside” poncho. I still need to weave in the ends and wash/block it. I started knitting Dad’s “Henry” scarf. I’m using Rowan’s Classic Yarns Cashsoft 4 ply yarn in a pretty gray color named “Thunder”. I’ve been knitting on it while watching the Olympics. Both knitting projects are going to be Christmas presents.

///// By the way, I looked all over the place for a ball-of-yarn Photoshop brush and couldn't find one anywhere. If anyone knows of such a brush or a knitting journaling card, please let me know. /////

Kylie has been adamant about opening the heavy doors at our local library. She loves to show me how strong she is.

You might think it's funny to have a "Life is so, so good" banner next to me running but I didn't really know just how much I loved to run until I was injured and couldn't run at all. The green journaling card states:
With trainer Joy’s help, I had a great month of training. I feel like I’m finally moving past my plantar fasciitis injury that I incurred in May and that waylaid me during June. I am thrilled to be running again!! In July I exercised 27 days and had 4 days off. This month I had:
14 runs for a total of 53.64 miles
5 bike rides for 62.32 miles
7 swims for 9700 yards (5.5 miles)
3 strength training sessions and
2 yoga sessions.

Project Life Week 31 small insert front.jpg

Kylie's art camp class had an art show on Friday. I took a bunch of photos there and at our home to showcase some of her work. I put the photos in this smaller page protector. The theme was "Magical Marsh Menagerie". Kylie created a papier-mache bird made over a balloon and some pet bug rocks.

Project Life Week 31 small insert back.jpg

She also made some owls out of toilet paper rolls and a small bird next with small twigs and glitter glued to a paper plate.

Project Life Week 31 art insert front.jpg
Kylie painted this red owl.

Project Life Week 31 art insert back.jpg
Kylie painted this bug habitat. It has a mountain on the left with the sun overhead. She drew a blade of grass with ants marching up it. She painted the sunrise. She painted a ladder for some bugs that couldn't fly so that they too could touch the sky. And she painted a tree. Then she went back and made some fingerprint bugs. Such a sweet piece of artwork!

Thanks for looking! Click on the photos to view the credits. If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
The Mom Creative

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Project Life Week 29 and 30

I knew that the last four weeks of Kylie's Summer Break were going to challenging with regards to my scrapbooking because I have less free time. These aren't my most complex pages but I'm just pleased that (so far) I'm staying caught up.

As usual, click on the photo to view the credits.

Project Life Week 29 page 1.jpg

Karen's Grandmother celebrated her 100 birthday. I loved this happy photo of her and the one of Karen's mother giving a kiss.

Kylie fell off her bathroom stool on Tuesday morning. The stool turned over and Kylie landed on one of the legs. She got a large scrape-burn-bruise combination that took over a week to heal.

This week: Kylie’s Sight Word List: Sure, there, Were, Where, do, Two, Who, Also

Kylie was playing in our driveway during a rain shower. She loves to play in the rain. I was watching over her from the garage. She told me that these little burs were wish carriers. After she and I made our wishes, she pushed the larger leaves into the stream of water leading to our street’s drain. She waved good-bye to the leaves as they floated away. She came back to me and explained that “all drains lead to the ocean” and that when the burs reached the ocean our dreams would come true. How imaginative and precious you are, my darling girl.

Project Life Week 29 page 2.jpg

This second page has lots of pictures I shot of Kylie at the park. I also included a tag documenting that Kylie has been watching "Dinosaur Train" on Netflix and another tag showing that we've been reading Ivy and Bean books.

Project Life Week 30 page 1.jpg

Back in 2008, I created three scrapbook pages titled "This is how she plays". You can see them here, here and here. I still love that journaling prompt as a jumping off point. And I used it for this week's page one. You can see pictures of Kylie leading the parade of cars from her cardboard box float, she put on a circus show for us (complete with tickets), she made windchimes with yarn and tinkertoy parts and she's had lots of fun putting barrettes on dolls.

Project Life Week 30 page 2.jpg

Kylie had her five-year exam at Oceanside Pediatrics on Thursday after school. She was 42.5 inches tall and weighed 40 lbs. She’s in the 50th percentile for height and weight. Her blood pressure was 80/56. She had her first blood draw (hemoglobin 30.2) and her first urine sample (normal). Her right eye was 20/40 and her left eye was 20/30. When she is seven her eyesight needs to be 20/20 so we will be keeping an eye on her vision. She had three immunization shots: her final DTaP/DTP, Varicella and her combined MMR. The poor darling screamed for all three shots. Thank heavens she is through with immunizations until she is twelve. Kylie was comforted by her Nana Bear during the office visit. And was very pleased with the doughnut I got her afterwards.

We finally got Kylie past her recent night terrors. A friend from the blog recommended gently waking up Kylie 30 minutes after she goes to sleep. This sort of resets her sleep clock. This worked very well. A few times I interrupted Kylie as she was getting wound up for a full terror. The other thing we instituted was a guided meditation that I play out loud on my iPhone. It’s only a five-minute meditation and I sit on Kylie’s bed and do it with her after our usual good-night routine. After the five minutes, Kylie will usually tell me something she deems “important”, something she needs to say before she can shut down for sleep. But since I’m in the room with her, it keeps her from popping out of her room.

This was Kylie's last week of Ms. Robin's eight-week Summer Camp.

Kylie had a haircut on Saturday. I'm so jealous of how her stylist can braid her hair.

Kylie took a picture of the Olympic flag on the tv screen with her iTouch. And I took a photo of her with my iPhone. Amazing. Loved watching Opening Ceremony with her on Saturday afternoon.

Thanks for looking! If you want to see other Project Life Projects, see
The Mom Creative