Week 9: I is for I need a vacation!

I just realized the other night that my husband and I haven't had a date night since Sept. 12th!! What is wrong with us!! We do this all the time, we push back date nights because other things come up or we don't want to inconvenience our babysitter, but then weeks go by...then months. At this time we find ourselves completely exhausted and in need of a break and in desperate need of re-connection! 

Isn't that the truth!!

 I feel like life becomes such a blur and we get caught up in our routine that we completely forget about ourselves (Speaking for my husband and I). Well forgetting isn't the only problem, we also tend to make excuses about what to do on these "Date Nights". We usually just go out to eat, But we've been doing really well on cutting back since we are trying to eat healthier. Also the last 2 we had, we went to concerts! This was huge for us because this is what we spent our entire dating life doing. Every weekend! Although those are amazingly fun, they're pricey too and we've become homebodies over the years. So what's left??!! Movies...don't even get me started!! My husband LOVES movies...I like the popcorn and nachos. Honestly I'd rather sit on my couch and watch a movie instead of the theater, but that's not why I throw that idea out completely! The seats at the newer theaters we go to have recliners! Oh fun, so comfortable, so much like home right! Right!! And what does my husband do at home during movies....he FALLS ASLEEP! Who wants to pay $14-$20 bucks to watch a movie alone, next to someone who is snoring!! haha! But I digress... We don't have too many other options. Until I came across THIS on pinterest! 50 Fun Date Night Ideas for at home!! What!! This is like a bucket list of date ideas!! This is amazing!! And I plan to use this starting this Friday or Saturday!! I may share this on the blog, we'll see how successful it becomes! haha. The reason I love it, is because it's being intentional about the time we're spending together. Which is exactly what a date night should be!! Also this requires No babysitter, No reservation, No getting fancy (Unless you do the one date night where you get fancy) and Not alot of money!! PERFECT!

I is for Ice Cream, Igloos, Iguanas and Insects!

One really fun thing I started doing this week is making a youtube playlist for each week. We try not to do tv through our school day, but during lunch or while I make dinner the kids really want to watch or listen to something. They usually ask for Pandora, especially the kids christmas music station. I enjoy it, but I start to get tired of the constant music on...usually around the 3rd time of hearing jingle bells! So I made this weeks youtube playlist with videos like, "How to make Ice Cream" (I found a tour of the Ben and Jerry's Factory!), "What is an insect?" and "How to build and igloo". Along with some random clips from Sesame Street talking about the letter I and other various letter I songs! The kids LOVED the tour video and the igloo video. It's awesome to be able to "visit" places virtually when we can't physically go on a field trip there! If you want links to the video just comment or message me. 

 The Learning Journey Match It!

These were fun, but doing the whole alphabet at once was a bit overwhelming for her. I seperated the pictures and letters, placed the letters in a pile. She would pick a letter and I told her what the letter was and the sound. If she didn't guess the picture, I would say "S is for snake!" She got about 75% of the way through the cards before she said, "I'm tired of doing this!"

 They are adorable when they like eachother long enough to agree on something to play together! We've been taking alot of brain breaks after math...division is hard and sometimes even mom needs a break from it!

 Ice Cream Shape Cones! She loved this activity. She loves gluing and glitter so this was a perfect activity! Until she tipped both cups of sequins all over the floor. 

 Name recognition! I wrote her name on a huge piece of paper and had her trace it with the Cuisenaire Rods (Learning Resources Cuisenaire Rods)

 Colors in Spanish! Eisley did a great job matching and saying the colors. We are still working on rolling our R's. This printable can be found HERE.

 Practicing writing her numbers!

 Pouring "Nectar". We talked alot about insects this week. Bees were not Eisley's favorite but she loved pouring the nectar!

 Cutting practice with paint samples! Seriously, you can do so many different things with paint samples!! Go get some!!

We have been trying to include music class into our weeks since Cody does Piano with dad. Eisley made these drums and was into them for all of 10 seconds. But we've been listening to songs and using our rhythm sticks to clap along and they've really enjoyed that! You can find some nice ones here: (Natural Wood Claves)

We bought ours at Ted Brown Music and it was a little cheaper. If you want links to the videos we used just message or comment...my comment section is lonely!