Atley's Journal

Atley ate two servings of whole wheat toast and two servings of mangoes for breakfast. For lunch she ate two servings of ground beef with marinara sauce on two servings of whole wheat noodles, ate cauliflower, and two servings of fruit salad.   This first picture is actually left over from yesterday morning. I was just impressed that Atley found some dress-up clothes she can fit into!! There are not too many of those!! As you all know for years our Program was designed for Infants and Toddlers and Atley passed that size when she was still a Toddler!! She has never been super interested in dress-up play anyhow, so I haven't been too concerned about it. She didn't keep this on very long, but I got a picture!! I especially like the shoulders. :) Next picture: If you zoom in on this picture you'd probably guess the kids were watching TV or whatever. But y'all (learned that word in Louisiana) know there is not a TV anywhere upstairs in our home. Ha. There are 2 pictures on t...

Greetings! Just a heads-up for everyone. I'm getting my second covid shot today!! CHEERS!! So Lauralea will cover for me in the middle of nap time. Consequently there will be no Blogs today. Blogs will resume tomorrow, March 31. Thank you.

Atley ate bran cereal and raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate chicken, whole wheat pita bread, no avocado, no cucumbers, and ate pears.   First picture: We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and the kids were busy. Atley has her babies - sea creatures - laid out across the back of the couch. What you don't see in this picture - Nora has her babies - dolls - on the couch. Laid out and covered up. :) Next picture; The kids were moaning because we don't have pictures to color in this art exchange. I've put this in the Blogs before, but I'll mention it again. Offering them art supplies and opportunities for free-draw encourages creativity more than just pictures to color. Although they can obviously be creative in how they color as well. Atley was using some of the stamps I got for easter art.  Last picture; The kids played with the Easter eggs again this morning. In this picture Atley is busy hiding eggs while Nora and Avi are around the corner in the ...

Atley ate two servings of cream of wheat cereal and ate dried plums for breakfast. For lunch she ate turkey burger, bite of whole wheat tortillas, two bites of sweet potatoes, and ate cherries.   Science with Lauralea today. The theme was "absorption." We did three different experiments and in the first experiment we had 6 different materials and the kids guessed which material would absorb the best. Svea won this round and she was SO proud of herself!! She was the only one who guessed "cotton balls." We had paper towel, toilet paper, two different types of cotton materials, sponge, and cotton balls.  This second experiment involved guessing how much water this diaper could hold. (Svea donated a diaper for this experiment! Thank you Svea! My bad for not asking permission from Parents first!! So now I'm asking forgiveness!) Lauralea used a measuring cup and they all guessed 3/4 cup of water. We knew it would be a LOT more because we used the material out of a dia...

Atley ate three servings of waffles and ate fruit salad for breakfast.  For lunch she ate bites of whole 30 chili with meat, peppers, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and tomato sauce. She ate half of her whole wheat dinner roll and most of her tropical fruit.    I've mentioned several times in the Blogs we've been working on Spanish words for various colors. The three oldest girls have really been enjoying that and working hard to remember. However, I decided we needed to get the proper pronunciation before we got too far along. We've used Alexa a little bit, but using my computer is much quicker and efficient. You can just poke the button over and over and listen to the proper way to say it. (And we've been butchering a few of them, which is one me.) The girls were doing the Spanish word for "Purple" and the pronunciation hit their funny bones and they were laughing and laughing. It was really really cute and funny!! This first picture is left over from yesterday a...

Atley ate two servings of cinnamon/raisin English muffin and three servings of grapes for breakfast.  For lunch she ate three servings of pork roast, ate whole wheat toast, beets, and applesauce.   I called the IRS on the land line, had it on speaker phone, and of course I was on hold. It was loud and music was playing. Nora said, "That's a nice song." Hahahaha. Actually it was kind of peaceful, soothing, and relaxing - totally out of character for the IRS - but still funny. Cal later added, as it continued to play, "Gary, that's your song." Ha.  This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon. One of my neighbors has about 4 of these dogs, but she walks this one by itself because it's a pup and she training it. Why am I posting this on Atley's page!? Why not? Ha. Actually it was really cute because Atley said, "I wish I had a dog like that." Uhhh...I think you do. This is probably how Lexi looked as a puppy. Although this dog will...

Atley ate half of corn chex cereal and half of peaches for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, two servings of toasted whole wheat sandwich thins, ate tomato, avocado, and mandarin oranges.  This first picture is left over from Friday afternoon, but it made me laugh and I had to keep it for today's Blog. Atley crawled inside here and is laying on a pile of noodles and surrounded by several more. She said, "I'm the noodle girl." Haha. Next picture; Atley and Callahan were the first two kids here and Atley always plays so nice with Cal. Very Sweet and thank you Atley. Earlier, Atley had asked Alexa to play "Ring of Fire" and Cal went and got some jingle bells and was singing "Jingle Bells." Haha. A nice combination! Next picture; Atley was covering Svea and Nora with blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, and the pink cozy corner rug. Svea is wearing the mask. Last picture: Atley has been doing this a lot lately and it reminds me of many years ag...

Atley ate oatmeal and two servings of dried cranberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate tilapia, whole wheat elbow noodles, one green bean, and ate applesauce.   Atley was the only one here this morning for a long time and we were looking at pictures. One picture: Lauralea and I in a boat. She was quizzing me about the picture; "Is that Bitterroot River?" No. That's the Missouri River. "Who was in the boat?" Several people. Then she wanted to know who owned the boat. Not us. Then I couldn't understand the next question, but eventually figured out she wanted to know "if we borrowed the boat." She finally said, "When you give something to someone and they give it back." Wow, that was a great description of the word Atley. First picture is from yesterday afternoon when Avi and Atley were taking turns pushing and riding in the strollers. Haha. I'm surprised those cheaply made strollers didn't collapse!! Ha. They were saying, "P...

Atley ate two servings of blueberry bagel and ate peaches for breakfast. For lunch she ate hamburger & sausage pizza with meat, peppers, pineapple, olives, and tomato sauce. She ate whole wheat pizza crust on the side and pineapple on the side.   This first picture is left over from yesterday afternoon when the kids were enjoying the spring-like weather. Avi and Atley were getting kind of rowdy on the airplane and I like how Avi's butt is off the seat and I also like the big grin on Atley's face.  Next two pictures: Avi made an envelope and Atley was putting some little beads in it left over from yesterday. They had it taped up pretty good and I added some extra tape. In the second picture the girls were doing some dot painting on pictures that I printed.  Last picture: Atley and Avi playing Avi's Farm Matching Game. I think there are 10 possible matches. Anyhow Atley got on a roll - some of it was lucky and some of it was a super job of remembering - and she got 9 ma...

Atley ate whole wheat toast and two servings of grapes for breakfast. For lunch she ate three servings of pork roast, ate whole wheat tortillas, carrots, and two servings of fruit salad. (Just a strawberry/mango mix.) I noticed Atley was kind of pouting after seeing and listening to Avi and Svea when they arrived with St Patty tattoos. Atley said, "I wish I could be cool like you guys!!" :) Today was a fun day with "Science with Lauralea." The theme today was "rainbows." So many different ways to make rainbows. I'll just give you a brief explanation of the pictures I took and you'll get an idea what we did. Picture: 1. We used a flashlight and water in a glass to create a rainbow on the wall in a dark room. The light from my camera temporarily messed it up, but I like Nora and Svea's eyes. Haha. We also made a rainbow using a flashlight and old CD disc. Picture 2. Black construction paper submerged in warm water, nail polish drop into the water...

Atley had a big breakfast at Paul's Pancake Parlor this morning with Momma!! And it sounds like she had lots to eat!! Ha. For lunch she ate chicken, brown rice, broccoli, and two servings of mandarin oranges.  First picture is left over from yesterday afternoon. Atley asked if she could use the "roller magnetic thing" It really is a pretty cool little tool for picking up pieces of metal leftover from my work project; putting metal siding on the garage. She has been finding quite a few pieces with the shorter grass before it starts to grow. Good work and thank you Atley!  Next picture: Atley is behind Svea in this picture and Nora is on top of Avi, but they were all having a blast here. This was actually a pretty cool maneuver Svea was pulling off!! The four girls were all wrestling and Svea was pretending like she was gonna "drop-kick" Nora and Avi. She did this over and over and over. Laughing and loving it. She'd flip herself at the last moment and land on...

Atley ate cheerios and banana for breakfast.  For lunch she ate ground beef, whole wheat pita bread, avocado, tomato, and fruit cocktail. Atley was telling a story at breakfast and it went something like this. "One time when I was a baby I ate Lexi's food!" Oh yum. "Mom had to squeeze my cheeks really really hard!!" Haha.  First picture: Atley is obviously the center of this picture, but Callahan had been watching her closely and intently. And you can see him peeking around Atley. She was gently blowing her breath on the mirror and making it steam up a bit and drawing in it. Every kid learns this trick somewhere. Ha! Second picture: Atley and Callahan were the first ones here and I guess Atley was doing some morning stretches and exercises. Cal joined her and it was pretty cute to watch him trying to mimic her. :)  Next picture: Avi and Atley started rolling up like a burrito in the Olaf blanket. Atley was getting ready to "unroll" when I told her I wa...

Atley ate two servings of brown rice and two servings of raisins for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of salmon, ate whole wheat dinner roll, two servings of cauliflower, and ate fruit cocktail.    This first picture is from outside yesterday and all six kids were under the umbrella. (Svea was holding up the side on the right and Avi was on her way out.) Everyone is having so much fun outside getting fresh air. It's awesome. Second picture: Nora sucking her thumb having some alone time; at a high rate of speed. Haha. Atley drew this next picture first thing today. When I asked her about her picture she pointed out "a man, a tree, and a bucket for getting maple syrup." I asked her how she knew about maple syrup coming from the tree. She said, "Oh that guy outside yesterday (she was pointing to the yard) told me about it and then he left." Hahaha. Wow, I totally missed that!! I guess I should have my eyes checked!! What kind of a tree...

Atley ate whole wheat English muffin and mandarin oranges for breakfast.  For lunch she ate two servings of ground beef, two servings of whole wheat elbow noodles, ate peas, and applesauce. I'm not exactly sure what brought about the conversation about our "heart," but Atley informed everyone "I know when your heart breaks." Oh really, when is that? "When you're NOT in love." Then after a few moments she added; "When you die." :) Today was Science with Lauralea and the kids were super excited as always. The theme was "our tongue" and "taste buds." Lots of tasting today! As you can see in the first picture we had a partially completed (ha) diagram of the tongue and we briefly told the kids where their taste buds are located. So we started by having them plug their nose and experimented with them deciding if they could taste better with their nose plugged or unplugged. Then we moved on to lots of tasting. "Is it sw...

Atley had three servings of French toast and ate strawberries for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of Hearty Paleo Stew with meat, broccoli, cauliflower, sweet potatoes, green beans, carrots, and tomatoes. She ate two servings of saltines and ate tropical fruit.   I love asking the kids questions and hearing how they perceive things around them! So I asked the 3 oldest girls what their parents do at their job.  Mommy: "Mom helps people when they are hurt." Hey, you work at a Hospital so that makes total sense. Daddy: "Fill in papers and then throw them away." (LOL) "And he does phone calls." During Story Time we read the book, "Madeline." Do they grasp what this book means at the end? I doubt it, but I had to ask. The story ends with all the little girls crying and I asked about that. Atley was the only one with an answer and it was SO typical of concrete thinking. One line in the book says this; "They went home and broke their ...

Hi Everyone! Just letting everyone know there will not be a Blog today. I am leaving shortly to go get my first Covid Vaccine!! Yes Cheers and thanks to everyone who has been so concerned and helpful to make this happen. Lauralea will cover for me while I'm gone. Blogs will resume tomorrow on the 10th.

Atley ate kix cereal and two servings of fruit cocktail for breakfast. For lunch she ate ground turkey, three servings of toasted whole wheat sandwich thin, ate tomatoes, avocados, and cherries.   Well I couldn't get any pictures downloaded to Atley's Blog. I'm having issues with the picture/computer "thing-a-ma-jiggy!!" I'm also resorting back to pre-technology terminology!! So there's a new word for any of you youngsters!! Haha. Sorry, Lauralea always tells me I think I'm more funny than I really am. Obviously her noted insights aren't slowing me down at all. Ha. I'll get this figured out, but for today the Blog will probably be shorter.  We did a toy, book, and puzzle exchange this weekend and the kids were loving it like always. I had a picture of Atley, Avi, and Nora playing at the Doll House. However, it was not what you might call a traditional way of playing there. I asked what they were playing and they called it "deliveries....

Atley ate oatmeal and baked cinnamon apples for breakfast.  For lunch she ate a large serving of hamburger stew with meat, tomatoes, green beans, and carrots. She ate a bite of whole wheat dinner roll and ate fruit cocktail.   The kids had been asking to watch the Robot Vacuum again so we cleaned up yesterday and they watched and played for probably 10 minutes. Everyone except for Callahan got down and dinked around pretending to let it "get them." Cal sat there mesmerized the entire time. He loves vacuums in general, but the Robot Vacuum is pretty special. :) Today was "Science with Lauralea" and the general theme was to "Make Stuff Disappear." Ha. We did 5 different experiments so I'll just touch on them briefly. First picture here is making a penny disappear. The penny is laying on the table with the glass on top of it. We filled the glass with water and put a lid on it. Goodbye penny. :) Second experiment we made a bottle disappear in a glass using...