Catapult Science Class at Shattuck

She loves to take these STEM classes at SSM. This class was a catapult class and she had 4 friends there with her. She was in a group with 2 friends from school and her 2 friends from swim were in the group next to her.

Microscope Mania STEM class at SSM

 This is the first STEM class this year that Isabel has been able to take at Shattuck. She just loves science and taking these classes there. Wish we could afford to send her there but tuition is the same as a private college. 😔

Parents can come back 15 minutes early for this 3 hr class to see what they learned. Her brother can't wait until he is old enough to go too.

They offer one every month during the school year and then hopefully they will bring back their day camp in the summer.

 She can't make January because of a cheer competition but is considering skipping a travel swim meet to discuss the Feb one. Hopefully she can make the April one. And May she is for sure signed up for. It is working with their big catapult.

Her friend Bennett spent the night at our house and went to the class together. She goes to a different school but they are on swim team together and are the same age and grade. Bennett is her BFF.

Gymnastics

 Isabel takes gymnastics again this year. We started in the summer. She says she likes taking gymnastics, but doesn't like how sweaty it makes her. She gets to take class with her friend Lili, whose mom is the one who took these pictures.

 What a sweetheart!

 Doing a straddle jump over the blocks.

Sleepover with Maizee

Isabel had a sleepover at our house with her friend Maizee a couple weeks ago and these are some of the things they did while they were here. They planted tomato seeds, made rainbow popsicle stick puzzles and had a fashion dance show.

Not sure how they had the energy to do any of these things in the morning since they stayed up way too late. I actually made Isabel go sleep in the guest bedroom because they would just not stop giggling and talking. And when two (almost, but not quite) 5 year olds are still up at 11pm, something has to be done.

Isabel & Her Friend Aleah

Last night Isabel went to her friend Aleah's 5th birthday party and had a ton of fun. They got to swim in their hot tub (it was set to a much lower temp so it was a swimming temp), jump in a bounce house they rented (since the one they bought didn't arrive in time), play on her playet, have cake & ice cream & watch her open presents. I was very impressed that Isabel was genuinely interested in watching her open presents from everyone & wasn't concerned that she wasn't getting anything. She was very excited to give Aleah the presents he got her and for her to see the card she made her.

Isabel & Aleah are also in a Little Tykes Sports (Ball Skills) class together on Monday nights. They are two of three girls in the class (which is too bad, maybe other of the LTS classes have more girls in it). Isabel had a great time and is looking forward to the next session.

Slideshow of Playgroup Birthday Party

The Past Few Days

Well, these are some pictures that my friend Carrie took of the kids when she was babysitting Isabel for us. She said Isabel was really good, which is so nice to hear.

Well, Sunday evening the furnace here went out completly. Luckily we have space heaters and an electric mattress pad. The repairman for the furnace came at 11am on Monday, so I took Isabel to the Y in the morning and worked out and came back for our 10-12 time frame. I had the slow cooker going already with supper in it, then I baked cupcakes for playgroup in the afternoon and make Mac&Cheese on the stovetop to help warm up the house while I was doing stuff I needed to do anyways. I also made it laundry day to keep the dryer going & giving off heat. And I had a space heater & candles going in the living room so my little girl wouldn't get cold. I just let her sit on the couch with a blanket over her lap watching her shows while we waited for them to get there and fix it. Luckily it was fixed and by noon we had heat again and I didn't have to cancel playgroup and put on our snowpants. :)

So, that afternoon was playgroup at our place. There was 4 other families there plus us. It was a good size playgroup and the kids made a good size mess, but the moms helped me clean it up, which was greatly appreciated.

Today, we went to the Y for my yoga class, then grocery shopping and then our friend Elizabeth, Sophia, & Thomas came over for lunch and to hang with us for a while. After Isabel's nap we went to the library and picked up some new books. We have been going to the library weekly. Sometimes we pick out duds and return them right away and sometimes we just get sick of reading one so much, and then some books we keep the 3 weeks we can, and there is even one that is due this week that I just renewed because we like it so much. One of the books I picked up today that I really like is First the Egg. Another one I think is cute is Flamingos on the Roof. It has cute poems and neat paintings. I have enjoyed reading Isabel a few of them already.

Tomorrow we are going to playgroup at our friends Jamie, Will & Jack (see Brigger Boys on sidebar).

Gingerbread Houses

We had our friends Carrie, Leah & Ryan over today to build gingerbread houses. It was sure messy and the kids ingested a lot of sugar. We had fun though. We used a pattern I found online that used graham crackers and I also made royal icing (the "glue") and we used lots of different candies. I wasn't so sure the kids would eat the lunch I made after all the candy, but they did. You can see our finished product. Isabel handed me M&M's & skittles to use, plus she dumped a bunch of "snow" (coconut) on the house. The icing made it all nice & hard. Now we'll put it out & watch her pick all the candy off to eat.

They had some time to play as well and played with her Little Leaps and also watched a little Peep. When they were watching Peep, Leah & Isabel were snuggled up next to each other. It was very adorable.

We went to the last storytime of the year this morning. She got a little homemade stuffed bear from the library. Apparently some woman makes them every year for the little ones. Storytime will start again at the end of January.