Sam Preschool 2014-2015

Sam started preschool this year. He was in the 3 and 4 year old class and went Tuesdays and Thursdays. He went to the Beehive Preschool, which is actually at my school!

Sam loved it and was able to spend the morning at preschool and the afternoon at "wrap around." This made drop off and pick up easy. Since he was at my school, I could peek in on him sometimes too, and see him at lunch.  It was great to be able to talk to his teachers, meet his friends, and see him interact with them.

Sam loved his teachers: Miss Mankey, Miss Nichols, Mrs. Cashen, and Mrs. Brown.

His favorite part about preschool was story time. On Tuesdays they would visit with Mrs. Cloud down in the cafeteria, who read them special stories that went along with a theme. Sam looked forward to story time each week.

Sam got to "share" at preschool too. For his favorite toys, he brought Batman and Superman. For something green, he brought his Hulk mask. He helped make and share his book about himself (a few pictures below). We forgot about stuffed animal day...oops... Sam shared a stuffed animal from my classroom.

Overall, Sam had a fun time at preschool. He made lots of friends. The first part of the year, he was quiet and liked watching the activities, but didn't always join in. By the end of the year he was participating all the time!

He practiced and learned a lot too! He already knew his letters, but now he knows almost all the sounds too.  He can count to 40 with no help, and can count to 100 and further if someone helps him with the '10s'.  He can sound out some words and has started trying to spell them.  He asks TONS of questions and loves learning new things!

Enjoy the pictures from Sam's year in Preschool!

A Long Overdue Update: Sam at 4 1/2, Luke at 1 1/2

Wow, I hope I will be able to update this blog more often now that summer is here.  But before I forget, I'm going to jump right ahead to what the boys are doing now. :)

At 4 1/2, Sam loves super heroes, sports with balls (baseball, basketball, soccer), playing wii, riding his scooter, listening and singing to music, gymnastics, and playing with his brother.  

His favorite super heroes are Batman and Superman, but he really loves all of them.  He still loves dressing up in costumes and running around.  Most of his favorite clothes include a super hero.

Sam loves playing video games.  His favorite games are the Lego Super Hero games.  He also likes playing Mario Kart.

Sam's favorite songs include Uptown Funk, Dear Future Husband, Power Rangers theme songs, Barenaked Ladies Kids Songs, and any song with a catchy beat.  Sam likes to listen to songs over and over again until he learns the words and can sing along.

He is a bundle of energy and loves to run around and do flips and spins.  He loves gymnastics class, where he can gallop, skip, balance, do somersaults and other cool moves.

At 1 1/2, Luke loves super heroes, Curious George, books, balls, cars, his brother, shoes, and animals.

He has started saying more words... he can say Mama, his own version of Dada, Sammy, snake, Gruffalo, George, ball, Batman, Spiderman, Robin, Joker, Uh-Oh, Nana, Papa, hat, bear, and a few others.  He can also make lots of animal sounds. He can communicate a lot without his words too.  We didn't teach him signs, except "more", so he does that sign.  He points a lot, and shakes his head yes or no.  

He loves reading books.  His favorite is Room on a Broom, Curious George, Paddington, and others.  He will sit and look through them on his own and loves to read with us too. :)

His favorite show is Curious George, but he also likes most shows that Sam likes (Special Agent Oso, Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, Paw Patrol, Batman...).

Luke loves to play!  He likes to throw balls, drive cars, run around outside, draw with crayons (and markers!), play with playdough, and play toys.  His favorite toys are his Toy Story guys, the imaginext Super Heroes, and cars.

Luke is a good eater.  He loves hot dogs, sausage, toast, pancakes, frozen peas, most fruit, and anything that someone else is eating.

Love these boys so much!

Best of 2014 (Happy New Year!)

Happy New Year!

The Top 10 of 2014 (in no particular order)

Luke turned one!

Sam turned four!

 I became an aunt x 7 when baby Evan was born

We sold our house in Fowlerville (closing soon)

We found and bought a new house in Grand Ledge (closing soon)

Sam started preschool

I got a new job teaching Kindergarten in Bath

Sam played teeball

We ran our first 5k as a family (The Super Run). Me and Sam also ran the Color Run 5k.

Luke grew so much this year!  He learned to crawl, walk and run... and his hair became curly!  (The curls showed up in April)

Take a trip down memory lane:

best of 2013

best of 2012

best of 2011

Some of my favorite pictures of 2014:

Christmas 2014

(I'm debating changing the name of this blog to "Better Late Than Never". Ha. I am finally getting around to sharing Christmas pictures.  Sorry that some of these are out of order and random, this is my attempt to blog about the entire month of December in one post.)

Christmas season started with a visit to Santa.  Luke had his one year check up appointment, so I took the day off work.  We were in Howell for the appointment, so then just went a little further to Twelve Oaks mall to see Santa and the "Frozen" themed ice village.

Sam loved seeing Santa and the Frozen things (I thought it was a little over-rated, and will head to Peacock Road Tree Farm again next year).  Luke was terrified of Santa.

Sam asked for a Batman Robot for himself and thought Luke might like a train.

We celebrated Rachel and Brad's December birthdays at my parents with some Christmas themed activities for the boys.  

Chippy the elf came to stay at our house for the season.  Sam loved it and was excited to see where he landed each day.

Sam had a Christmas party at preschool.  I was able to take a half day and go to the party with him.

The boys had lots of cookies through the season (and Sam loved the candy canes).

We celebrated Christmas with my family on Christmas Eve.  Then we went to church, Sam stood up front during the "pageant" and dressed up like a cow (after first trying many other options).

Christmas morning was spent at home.  Sam was thrilled he got his Batman Robot from Santa.

Luke will put anything in his mouth, even candy canes wrapped in plastic still.

Luke was known as the ornament stealer this season.  He loved pulling the ornaments off the tree and would run away laughing.  The bottom portion of our tree became empty quickly.

We had fun playing outside.  It was a fairly mild December, not much snow at all.

More fun eating cookies.  I'm surprised there were any left for Santa.

More fun on Christmas morning...

We celebrated with Brad's family on the afternoon of Christmas.  Brad was sick a few days before Christmas, and on Christmas day..but managed to leave the house to go to his parents for a few hours.

It seems someone in our house is always sick on a holiday. Ugh.

Afterward, we headed to the church to celebrated with my extended family at the Church potluck.

Merry Christmas!  I hope everyone had a fun holiday!