Merry Christmas from the Lightners

 

Christmas Tree Math

We have been doing lots of review of phonics and math skills this week as we get ready for Christmas vacation.  The girls have enjoyed less text book time and more hands on learning.  On Wednesday and Thursday, I made paper Christmas trees and used buttons to decorate them.  I gave Grace addition sentences.  She used the buttons on the tree to figure out the answers.  Hannah got number cards and had to add that number of buttons to her tree.  Both of them had a lot of fun doing this learning, but we mixed it up a little when I gave them M&Ms instead of buttons!  Now the real fun began!  As they got problems right, they were able to eat their M&Ms!!!  Math truly IS fun!

         

                          

Crazy Sock Night

It was crazy sock night at AWANA on Wednesday.  The girls wore my socks ALL DAY in preparation for the event in the evening.  Grace LOVED having socks that didn’t match and Hannah loved doing what Grace was doing.  It was hard fitting their feet into their shoes with these huge, puffy socks, but we managed and it was fun to see them SO excited! 

                          

“Show me your crazy socks, girls!”

                                                                         

Run as fast as you can….

The girls had a GREAT time at a Gingerbread Man Birthday party last weekend!  Cadence is turning 3 on Christmas so we went to her party as they celebrated early.  Here are the pictures of the HUGE, GIGANTIC, ENORMOUS gingerbread men that the girls got to decorate with CANDY!  YUMMY!  We had to get pictures before they could eat them… it is really hard eating a friend! 

                                              

 

                            

Christmas Wreaths

One of our tasks on the Advent Calendar this week was to make Christmas wreaths!  The girls did a great job – they had to use a paper plate, glue, and some shapes that I cut out of paper.  They LOVED gluing and made a HUGE mess, but we had a great time.  Hannah added more berries and Grace added more leaves…

Josiah had fun too!

    

        

                                                      

Can you tell from Hannah’s hair that it was a CRAZY day?

                                                        

Boys and girls are different

We heard this phrase over and over and over and over again while I was pregnant with Josiah and then again when he was just a few months old.  We brushed it off because, well, we have Hannah and she can be very much like a boy at times -- rowdy, feisty, inquisitive, loud, boisterous, rough. 

Well, we are starting to see one of the major differences between our girls and our boy... VERBAL SKILLS.  Josiah is all rough and physical and mechanical while the girls are VERY VERBAL!  We talk to Siah all the time and read to him, but mostly he likes to grunt and make noises.  Here is a little taste of what he can do.  Not to the level of the girls, but he is DEFINITELY making improvements.  We love him and love studying the difference in all of the kids... how did such different kids come from the same mommy and daddy?

Magnify verses...by HANNAH!

Here she is...our very own HANNAH JOY!!!!

Advent Calendar… Day Two

We started our Advent Calendar yesterday.  Grace and Hannah came up with a deal: Hannah can open each door and take out the paper, if Grace can read each one.  That sounded good to each one, so that is what they have been doing.  Hannah loves to open each door and grab the paper that is inside – to her it is a new present each today.  Grace loves to read the assignment for each day – she LOVES the power that it holds!  :) 

Here is what our calendar looks like:

Yesterday we had to get ready for the MAGNIFY! Christmas Event that Grace and I attended in the evening.  Hannah was sad that she couldn’t go, but she may be able to next year.  BTW… Hannah knows just about ALL of the verses that Grace recited last night.  I will try to remember to take a video of her today so I can post that… HYSTERICAL.. WHAT A WOMAN!

Today we made  Popcorn Garland for our tree as the activity.  It was nice to have Danny home to pop the popcorn (he is an expert thanks to my mom!) and take the pictures of the event!  He made a bowl to string and a bowl to eat.. yup, we were planning on lots of eating during this activity!  You can’t help but string one and then eat one. 

This is serious business… can’t you tell?

The REAL work begins!

    

     

Hanging up our Handiwork

      

       Me and my Hannah.. she is SO precious!

      

Admiring our work

MAGNIFY!!

Grace and I went to MAGNIFY last night (our Christmas Party for the women at church-- about 175 were there!)... here is a picture and the video.  We had a great time and she did a fantastic job saying her 10 verses from Luke 2 (she skipped one, though).  What a great little girl.. hard to believe that she is only 4!!

Borrowing shoes?

We didn’t have anything pressing on Saturday, we weren’t about to go shopping, but we wanted to get out of the house!  So… we piled the kids in the van and went BOWLING!  Yes, we borrowed bowling shoes, got balls for the girls and even the ramp and went to town.  Hannah was a little surprised by borrowing shoes and then giving them back, but she liked the whole thing!  She had never been bowling before and she did great!

 

I’m number one!!

                                                       

The ugly shoes – do they make them ugly so you will want to return them?

Waiting and watching…

                        

 

Lovin’ it! She caught on really quickly and DIDN’T WANT HELP!

                                            

I want to play, too!

                                                                 

                                                    

Final scores…yup, Grace got a STRIKE!!!! YAHOO!!

With the kids..

With Grace – the other kids would cooperate any longer….