Fashion Friday! Swimsuit edition.

While it has been colder than i expected it would be here in the desert, we definitely have some swimmable days! I made the mistake of buying Micah a mostly white swimsuit, and duh, it's see through. He's growing like a weed too, so it's becoming time for a new one! I break my no cartoon rule for swimsuits. :) I go back and forth on the rashguard thing. I definitely like them for the sun protection they provide, but they also create some hardcore farmer's tans. I'd prefer that to skin cancer though, so I like to find cute, matching rashguards.

  

This shark suit set from Gymboree is cute, and they usually run sales, so they are definitely in the running. I think Micah will like it because of the sharks!

I am a sucker for aqua blue! It's my favorite happy color! This whale set also from gymboree is cute, but i don't know if i'm digging the short sleeve rashguard!

I love Carter's clothes. They are soft and well made and they last! They also have sales and coupons. My fave! I love blue and orange, and this set doesn't look baby-ish, and keeps micah covered!

How cute are the ruffles on this sweet, heart, one piece from Old Navy! I just love it!

Have you heard of Crew Cuts from J. Crew?! Holy cuteness! I love stripes and polka dots that "go" together (not match, necessarily) and this halter one piece and long sleeve rashguard are perfect for that!! I am really in love with the rashguard though! I think long sleeves are great for Grayson because she has some skin discoloration that becomes much more noticeable when she gets some sun, and boy, does that girl tan in the sun! I plan on scouting out the j crew outlet store nearby and crossing my fingers!!

The California girl in me loves Roxy! These swimsuits are for sizes 2t and up. sad face. I big pink puffy heart the ruching on the sides! 

 We are celebrating my mom's birthday in Mexico this summer, and so i think pictures will look better if micah and grayson are in coordinating suits!

Sweet, sick Gigi bear.

Grayson is really sick. Again. It's so sad. :( she just lays on us all day and takes 3 hour naps. The dr thinks it might be mono, but we dobt know for sure yet. I want her to start feeling better soon!

Today I'm Thankful.

I'm thankful for modern medicine and doctors that know when to use it.

I'm thankful that Brian could hang out with Gray so that I could ale Micah to gymnastics and to the park.

I'm thankful that God intentionally designed our bodies to work the way that they do and for fevers that cook the bad germs out.

I'm thankful for my really awesome husband.

I'm thankful for Netflix.

I'm thankful.

Homeschool Preschool

When we decided to move back to California I was so excited to get to spend more time with Micah everyday. I had been preparing lots of other Pre-Kers for Kindergarten at Preschool for the Arts and knew that Micah and I would get to spend some quality time together doing what we call "homework." I figure that I should get him used to the term now. :)

I put together a lesson plan for the month of January that works for us. There are lots of supermoms out there that can get it together enough to have themed books, projects, and activities. This month I am not that mom! My main focus is boosting independence. Micah would still like me to feed him dinner every night if it were up to him! I am also focusing on letter and number identification, and handwriting skills. As a guide/goal I use the common core standards  that are set for Kindergarten. This is a Nationwide initiative to get all schools districts on the same page academically. For inspiration, Pinterest is my bff. There are some awesome ideas on there! I have about 3 activities each day for us to do. Our activities in include gymnastics class, trips to the park, play dough making, baking cookies, reading a story and then making a craft, counting, coloring, singing, dancing, and lots of fun! I use some worksheet type pages for a starting off point.

I started by finding a lesson plan sheet on pinterest. I like this one a lot. It's not the perfect one for me, but until I make my own it works well. I plan four weeks at a time. There are 8 lines available for weeks, so I use two for each week. The first one I use to fill in with our big activity for the day (park, gymnastics, bible-study, baking cookies, make slime or playdough, library, and laundry day! Laundry is the household task I struggle the most with, so I figure it can't hurt to schedule a day every week that everyone gets on board to help! I hope to change it to something fun when I get the laundry under control...) On the second line for the week I write in what book, project or worksheet we will use for the day.
 

Then I print all of the worksheets needed for the month. In my binder I keep the lesson plan and then use dividers to separate each week. On Sunday night I re-load Micah's binder with his homework for the week and in his binder there are dividers that separate each sheet by the day.

Some of the activities I have used are:

 
Matching letters using magnetic alphabet letters on a cookie sheet from Make Take Teach.


This collection of worksheets from Super Mom Moments is awesome (and free! holla!)

The best resource I have found though is 1+1+1=1
This is one of those supermoms that has it all together, and I thank her for sharing these awesome resources with us. She has awesome printable packs with themes like Angry Birds, Skylanders, Doc McStuffins, and so much more!
This letter tracing pack is available in her Teacher's notebook store and was a whopping $1.25. SOOOOO worth it. It also explains the process of learning to write, as well as the order to teach each letter.


I made a homework tub that has pencils, scissors, a highliter, crayons, glue sticks, and regular glue so that all of the needed supplies stay together.

So far, Micah seems to enjoy the one on one attention he gets during homework time and I can't wait to see his skills develop and his readiness for Kindergarten become even more apparent!

Fashion Friday! Girls Edition

Can I just share with you all how much I love clothes? How much, you may ask. The answer is a lot. a lot. a lot! Especially little girls clothes. Sweet Jeebus they make me happy! Today, I am going to pretend to be a fashion blogger. don't laugh, ok? 

I spend many an evening "window shopping" online and browsing in stores. I think the best part about little girls clothes is the whimsy that goes with them. They just say happiness all the time! I don't like when there are dumb words or cartoonish things all over everything either. basically, i like mini adult outfits, but a caricature of adult outfits. They take the best parts of adult outfits and blow them out of proportion to make them awesome! Here are some of my favorite outfits and places to browse. :)

Matilda Jane Clothing is both ridiculously cute and ridiculously expensive! Oh, how i adore it from afar though. The stripe dress on the right is such an unexpected color combination for a little girl, and the outfit on the left I wish came in my size!

Ruffle pants always look clownish to me, and I think only little girls can rock that look well. I full intend on taking advantage of that fact for Grayson as long as I can. With a cute bib top (like the one below) the clown ruffle pants are great! I'm also a sucker for ruffle bloomers. They are such a pain to wash because when you dry ruffles they get all wonky... so I have to remember to hang dry them. That rarely happens in my house. :)    

After I wipe the drool off my face, I like to check out places that are actually in my price range. Cotton on Kids just launched their online store in the US. I love them. How cute is this dress and romper?! They also have the best bibs ever. Like in existence. They are perfect! 

 I think I would be shunned if I didn't also mention my life-long love and devotion to babygap. For reals, can I get these in my size?! SO cute! I think my favorite style of girls clothing is fun girly pieces like dresses and skirts but in "boy colors" (I hate that term. I want to paint a sparkly pink chevron wall in the kids' room just to fight gender stereotypes. and because i like glitter.) and Gap does that well!

I am so thankful for these sweet little models that let me play dress up everyday! And let's not forget that the bow completes the outfit. Any outfit. 

Here's what we've been up to.

The flu.
Deciding on paint colors.
Playing.
Busy!

The usual.

Scene: the couch. Lindsay is flailing her legs about. Brian, from across the room, asks, "what are you doing?!?!" Lindsay responds, "grande battements, obviously."

Brian: I should just change my Facebook status to "stuck in lindsayland."

Probably, honey. Probably.

Welcome to the wood household, lades and gentlemen.

Teeth.

Teething is killing me.
The end.

Flu.

Wah. 3/4 of the woods were struck down by the stomach flu on Saturday. After way too many pukes and gallons of sprite we are finally starting to feel better. Hooray! Micah is the only one that seems to have escaped its' clutches (knock on wood!)

Micah age 4 years 8 months

Micah is a really funny kid. He keeps me on my toes every day! He loves Animals. Sharks and turtles are his faves. He says that baby turtles "patch" instead of hatch, so baby turtles are called "patchlings." I just love it. He loves his baby sister soooo much and will be the first one to come tell us when she wakes up. We heard them over the baby monitor today and grayson was fussing. Micah said to her, "grayson, it's ok. I'm your brother. I just want to give you a hug!" she is less than amused with all of the live he wants to give her and he can make her laugh like nobody else! He will finally eat more like a normal person and less like a snake now! Hallelujah! His favorite foods are peanut butter sandwiches and apples. He would drink all day long if possible. Unfortunately, that leads to accidents all day long! Haha. We're working on it.

Some other funny things he has said lately:

While playing under the covers on my bed and pretending it was a tent "ancient warriors! Welcome to my village!"

He calls clothes "dresses." I think this is because we tell him, "it's time to get dressed!" so, the other day he asked me, "will you get my dress?"

He hops like a "ninja frog."

He says "kenks." instead of thanks.

I love this kid!