buffet, bowling, and santa

Last Saturday was a great day!  We had heard there was a bowling alley in a town about 45 minutes from here.  We passed by it coming home from the airport a month ago and from the outside it looked nice.  Kind of unexpected.  So, we planned a bowling excursion last Saturday.

So, we waited for Jorge to get off work so we could head out.  While we were waiting, we snapped some pictures.  Here, the girls and I take a candid picture together.  And, below that, you can see my two "models".

On the way over to go bowling, we decided to stop at a restaurant that we had driven by many times.  From the outside, it looked really nice.  And, after going in, I was pleasantly surprised.  Very nice layout and they even had cloth table clothes.  Fancy, right?  A change from the plastic tables and chairs at all the other places we go.

It was a meat buffet.  They weren't kidding.  You start with a salad bar and get want you want.  Once you are done with that, you turn over this card on your table indicating that you are ready for the meat.  They just kept bring different kinds of meat.  We stopped them, but I counted 8 different sorts.  A turkey sausage, some sort of pork, chirizo, wings, ribs, ribeye, filet, and some other kind of sausage. Oh, and chicken wrapped in bacon.  Talk about a meat coma.  I didn't sample many of those.  I should have went with an empty stomach.  I thought they charged a very reasonable rate.  It was 140 pesos a person (and since the girls were little, they didn't charge for them.  Just their drinks).  Right now, that equals around $11.50 a person.

Once we were full, we headed over to the bowling alley.  VERY NICE!  VERY UNEXPECTED!  They could have plucked it up from some place in the States and set it down here. 

The girls loved it.  And, it was such a change of pace to do something fun when Jorge was with us.  We only bowled one game.  With the girls taking a bit of time, that was just under an hour for us.  And, it was very reasonably priced, too.  It was 30 pesos a game per person and 15 pesos for each shoe rental.  So, under $3 a game and less than $1.50 for the shoes.

Part of why it felt like it was plucked from the States is because everything was in English.  Take a look at the floor in front of Bella.

Bella did almost all her bowling on her own.  It took a bit of time.  Some of the turns, I wasn't sure if the ball was going to make it the whole way down.  What was nice is that they had automatic bumper guards that came up during the girls' turns.  You can see it is a clear plastic piece on both sides.  Just look at those yellow tick marks down the lane.  That is the bumper guard.

Somehow, her ball did make it down the lane every time.  And, she did fairly well at knocking down quite a few pins.

Emily was posing for me right after we got our lane assigned to us.  She was ready to bowl!

 Here I am in all my glory!  Not to brag, but I did end up winning!

Bella, striking a pose for me with the bowling balls.

Here is a shot of the score keeping screen.  Everything was digital.  I used my camera phone so the picture isn't the best.  You might be able to see they even show you how fast you are rolling the ball.  And, when we checked in, the girl asked for all of our names.  Jorge told her "Emmy" and she misunderstood him and thought he said "Amy".  So, that is why you will see that name.

Emily wanted help for all of her turns.  I think she thought having daddy help her was extra fun.

Jorge asked the girls if they would give him a hug if he knocked all the pins down.  So, you can see, he got them all down.

It was fun!  We are planning to go back again soon!  After we left there, we stopped by Soriana. It is pretty much like a Walmart.  We had perfect time because just about 40 minutes before we got there, Santa got there!  The girls were able to get their picture taken with Santa.  This is the first time ever for them to do this. They thought it was pretty cool.  Even though, Emily did tell us that it wasn't really Santa.  It was just a guy in a costume.

We headed back home and stopped by my mother-in-law's house.  Her sister was there with her 3 month old little girl.  So, my day was complete with some baby snuggling!  I'm glad there is a little one around so I can have time with a baby, but then be able to give her back! :)  Isn't she so sweet!?  I wanted to take her  home with us.

It was a great day!  It will be repeated!  Living in this small town, sometimes it just gets too boring!  It was nice to find something to do with the girls.

there is a lot to learn!

When I started our Pre-K year last year, I was a bit intimidated by the idea of homeschooling.  Having to be the one to teach these girls everything!  It seemed a bit overwhelming.  And, we got through it.  The girls showed much improvement throughout the year.  And, we all made it out on the other side alive! :)

And, so begins our Kindergarten year.  Talk about overwhelming.  I'm not sure if this is going to be the same feeling I get year after year.  But, I am a bit nervous about this year.  Now, looking back, having the girls memorize the alphabet and number, shapes, colors, and whatever else we covered seems easy.

I have our set curriculum that I bought through Timberdoodle, again, this year.  I cut out some of their suggestions to keep it basic (and cut the cost...you can spend LOTS of money).  In other areas, I am looking online and in books we already have for ideas.  Art, for example, is something that I have a few books with all sorts of ideas.  And, just take a look at Pinterest.  Tons of ideas there.

I can handle the art projects.  The part I am nervous about is teaching them how to read!  WHAT!?  I have to do that?!  I hope it goes better than I am expecting.



Click on picture to go to link.

And, there are just so many things you just don't think about.  Or, at least, I don't think about them.  What about odd and even numbers, all the sight words, vowels, days of the week, etc.  The list just goes on and on.  Oh, and telling time!  Doing this whole homeschooling thing, I have definitely learned to appreciate teachers more.  Not that I didn't appreciate them in the first place.  And I only have two students!  A whole classroom full of them!  No thanks!

So, we have added some fun posters on the wall to emphasize what we are learning.  The book I showed above, The Reading Lesson, we just finished one lesson (each "lesson" is between 19 and 21 pages).  So far, it seem OK.  And, I am just going to work on repetition and review a lot.  Also, we have lots of phonics books that came with the curriculum.

I bought all these flash cards of sight words.  I'm just introducing a new one each day and reviewing the previous ones everyday.  We enjoy making up sentences with the sight words.  We started a sight word caterpillar on the wall.  We can only add words that we know.  That is a huge incentive for the girls.  They love adding to it.  Hopefully it will help them retain the words they learn.  (fingers crossed)  Something else I have been doing is when I read a book to them, I have the girls read the words we have learned.  Just another way for them to remember the words.  Some extra reading is going to be done this year.

I have been working on the numbers/math a lot.  As I mentioned before, I kind of slacked on the numbers.  There are a few that they get confused about.  But, now, I am introducing the spelling of the numbers.  Here, we are doing an easy math lesson.  We broke out the dominos and added up the two sides.  Emily picked up on it so quickly.  Bella, it took her a few times to get into the groove.

I do really like all the books that came with the package I bought.  It seems just the right amount of work.  And, the books are just well thought out.  I guess that is the point, right? :)

I did hesitate when buying all the books/workbooks.  There was a Beginning Geography workbook that I wasn't really sure about.  But, I went ahead and bought one for each of the girls.  I am really glad I did.  We have only done about 5 pages so far, but it introduces such basic information that, once again, I wouldn't have thought about teaching.  Remember, I didn't go to college to teach! :)  Here, the girls are doing a page in their Beginning Geography book.

The girls have always been OK with doing school, for the most part.  They have their days.  But, that is to be expected.  This year, I am going to be better about doing fun things, like art projects, with them.  A few times a week we finish our school day with something fun.  Last week we did the stamps and paper lanterns.  The girls loved the lanterns.

This week, the only project we have done so far is making paper plate snowmen.  That went over really well.  Right now they are hanging on the wall here in our classroom.  I think what we will do tomorrow is this snowman project.  We will keep it festive for the holidays for the next few weeks.

Now to get all my worksheets printed out for tonight's school session.

we started kindergarten!

***Updated -- I added pictures of us using the stamps!***

I got the packages of our school books and workbooks in the mail last week.  And, I got busy planning our year and was able to get us started on our Kindergarten year this week.  So, we are official Kindergartners.  Exciting, yeah?  Of course!

I'm a little intimidated because this year I am teaching these girls how to read.  Please, let it be not as horrible as I am thinking!  Time will tell, right?

The girls were excited to get started with school again.  We had taken a 6 week break.  I think we all needed that break.

I have started having an incentive a few times a week for them.  Art projects are the incentive. Easy, right!?  They know if they are listening and following directions during school, they get to do the fun art project that I have planned.

Today, I had to do the first part of the project before our actual school work.  We have to let our project dry before we can use them.  I got this idea from the crafty Julie!  She is always coming up with fun things to do.  Check out hers here.

We made stamps!  Fun!  I loved it just as much as the girls.

Some foam paper, scissors, hole punch, glue, and wooden blocks equals a fun time and lots of stamps for really cheap!

Bella showing me her favorite stamp.  She saw me make one and wanted to do the same.

Emily deep in her thoughts.  She didn't end up using any of the pieces she cut.  I cut out everything for them in advance so the project was more fun for them.  You can see on the yellow tray in the first picture there are piles of different shaped pieces.  That worked out perfectly.  The blocks are small enough that it isn't very easy for them to cut out their own.

Bella in her zone.

Here are all the stamps that Bella made.

I joined in the fun, too.  Here are all of mine.

And, here are all of the ones Emily made.  Notice that most of hers look like faces.  I think that was her intention.

 
They are drying right now. We will be testing them out here in a little bit!

Here we are using all our made stamps (and some that we already had from the store).

Emily started spelling out words she knew.  Very good and educational on her part!  Smart girl!

And, so you can see how some of our stamps turned out, here are the ones I made.  The project worked really well!  I highly recommend you doing this.

Go buy your supplies now! :)

we're ready!

We are now only two days away from our trip to the States!  To say that we are excited is an understatement.  We have our calendar for school that we have been marking off the days everyday.  Each morning, the girls run out of their room and ask to mark off the day before.

I am very experienced with travelling with these two girls by myself.  The first trip we took to the States, let's just say, it was not pleasant!  Emily was only 8.5 months and Bella was 23 months.  Talk about being overwhelmed.  And, our return trip home was very memorable.  But, not a memory I ever want to relive.

The girls are 4 and 5 now and much easier to travel with.  That doesn't mean that they still don't have their moments...when they are tired, being lazy, or just ready to have the travel part over with.

We leave out of Guadalajara and have a connecting flight in Dallas (Houston in past years).  Because making our way through immigration and customs isn't always speedy, and having little ones that don't understand the concept of urgency, I always leave us plenty of time between flights.  There have been times that we have had almost 5 hours between flights.  So, we always take the "blankies" so a nap can happen during that time.  Or, if we get cold on the plane (or sleepy).

It never fails the girls don't want to carry the blankets the entire time.  And, you might guess, I have enough to carry without having to carry their blankets.

I came up with an idea to make a blanket holder with a strap.  They might exist out there in the world somewhere, but I figured I would make the one from my thoughts.  This way, the girls can wear the blankets like a bag.  Their hands will always be free.  And, in turn, I won't be asked to carry the blankets.  A win-win situation.

I had some fleece that I used.  I figured that it would be soft enough to be comfortable as a strap.  It worked out really well.  They aren't the prettiest things because I just threw them together quickly.  But, they will definitely do the job.  The girls are already excited about using them.  They have had their blankets rolled up and in the carrier since I made them yesterday.

These pictures show you how simple the design is.  There is definitely no rocket science involved. 

You can see the girls are proud to model them.  Emily didn't even unroll her blanket last night.  If you know Emily and her love for her blanket, you will know how big a deal that is!

Hopefully, our trip goes smoothly!

pumpkins! orange, halloween pumpkins!

Yesterday, Jorge and I took a solo trip to Aguascalientes.  It was our 6th anniversary.  We went out to eat, watched a movie, and did some shopping!  It was a really good day.  And, the girls and I are leaving in less than 2 weeks, so this was a trip for him so he could have some retail therapy since I get to bask in it for 4 weeks. 

On our way back home, we stopped at Walmart.  I had to make sure I had enough food and treats for our dog, Colbie.  Hopefully, Jorge will take good care of him and give him his daily treats.

While at Walmart, I spotted pumpkins!  Orange pumpkins!  They were little, but pumpkins none the less!  They had tons of big light green and pale orange ones.  The shapes were beautiful.  I had never seen any pumpkins here before.  Some other expats here in Mexico have commented on finding them in other cities.  But, never me!  Times change! With us only being here a handful more days, there wasn't really a need to get the big ones.  So, we settled on buying two of the little ones.  One for each girl. Plus, we always go to an orchard down the street from my mom's house and buy big pumpkins and carve them in the States.

I had planned on them just being decorative.  Not carving them or anything.  But, I should have known that the girls would want to carve them.  I also assumed there wouldn't be many seeds inside.  I love roasting the seeds.  They are so good!

Tonight, the girls drew some faces on them and we cut them out.  I was surprised to find that they had tons of seeds!  The girls did most of the work and scooped them out and cleaned off the goopy pumpkin.

Even though it isn't dark yet, the girls couldn't wait to light them.

All the seeds are drying on the counter.  Soon, they will be fresh out of the oven!  It is really cool that we were able to do this at home.  And, daddy can help eat the seeds!

Round two in a few weeks!  I love fall!