Head Shaving Party!!

This is the Shurtleff Family saying “Take that cancer!”

First up….Heath who had been waiting to cut his hair until this moment.

Of course we had to have fun with it!

Second….Tommy.
He was the most sad about doing this because he loves his shaggy hair.

We were laughing hysterically at his old man ‘do!

Third….Adam!
He was a little unsure about it but I didn’t give him a choice.  He needed a haircut either way so we buzzed him!

Cute little guy!

Fourth….Dad.
He’s getting more and more sick with each treatment (which are now weekly, so he doesn’t get much of a break before having to go back in).

Having fun.  You gotta laugh right? :)

And last but not least…..Nat!
I didn’t know if he’d do it, especially because he just flew out this morning for a business trip with a bunch of other Real Estate people.  Bald.
I got to do the honors here.

Not too bad huh?

All the guys pre-razor.

Post-razor.

Oh. boy.
Nat definitely wins the most-hair-per-square-inch award and also the darkest-hair award.

We had a fun night filled with lots of laughs.  Afterward we had dessert and played a game while Dad hung out like this….

It was a good night.

Combined Tot School

- Adam is 40 months and Abby is 14 months -

I didn’t do a theme with Adam this week and really only did focused play a couple of days.  Daddy was out of town and Mommy was in survival mode.  Wish me luck this week as he is leaving again!  But then he’s done traveling….for now! :)

Abby spent the week doing puzzles

Playing with her Melissa & Doug shape peg thingy

Putting Adam’s little clips into a baggie

Coloring

Working next to Brother.  She wants to be doing everything that he’s doing!

And be everywhere that he is!!
This week Adam worked on a number puzzle (above) and his Melissa & Doug bear family dress-up puzzle.

He tried out our new Tangoes Jr. set that I got for free using my Huggies Rewards points.  It’s magnetic and everything fits inside the case so it’ll be the perfect airplane toy for our trip to San Diego next month!

He completed 2 more coloring pages in his Handwriting Without Tears workbook.

And drew on his own.

He requested to play with the pony beads and numbered egg carton.  He put the corresponding number of beads into each space.

Then he used measuring spoons to transfer beads from one spoon to the other and then into an ice cube tray.

We also watched a Little Pim Spanish DVD that we have from Netflix (they LOVE this series so I’m thinking about buying the DVDs) and also Baby Signing Time.  Abby is picking up on new signs really quickly now!  She now signs ‘leaf’ and ‘stop’ and Adam is loving re-learning all the signs he once knew as a toddler.  Lest you think they don’t watch anything else…there is always some Team Umizoomi, Jake and the Neverland Pirates, or Dora throughout the day as well. :)

The next 2 weeks we’ll be doing Spring and Easter things and Adam can hardly wait to dive into the plastic eggs that I bought to play with (and that he saw before I could hide them).

Check out 1+1+1=1 for other Tot School ideas!

A Papa Forever

I said our family prayer tonight.  It was just me and Adam because Nat is out of town on business.  I prayed that my Dad’s chemo treatment tomorrow would go well and that he wouldn’t feel sick for too long.  I prayed that he would be healed.  This is nothing new, we pray for Papa most nights.  But when I finished praying, Adam asked questions.  And it broke my heart.

He asked why Papa was sick and what a ‘treatment’ was.  He asked why he had to go to the doctor.  I answered his questions and proceeded on with the our bedtime routine.  I randomly chose to sing “Families Can Be Together Forever” and while I sang, I cried.  I cried because I realized that whatever happens to Adam’s Papa, he will be his Papa forever because he made the choice to marry his Nana in the temple and because I made the choice to marry his Daddy in that same temple.  We will forever be together and I am so grateful for that!  Because of my choice and the choice of my parents, and my grandparents, and some of my great-grandparents, we will be a family forever.

I have faith and a spiritual confirmation that my Dad will be fine.  But someday, Adam will lose his Papa and although that day will horrible, it won’t be the end of the wonderful and powerful relationship between a Papa and a grandson.  I can’t put into words how much I love my Heavenly Father for giving that to me.

Tot School–“We’re Going on a Bear Hunt”

- Adam is 40 months old -

We finally actually did something for Tot School this week!  I started doing a Circle Time in the morning when I was ready to start Tot School and it really helped to focus my attention (not theirs…I’m the one lacking focus lately!) on purposefully playing and learning with Adam and Abby.  See this post all about it!

We are winding down our ‘study’ of books from the Before Five in a Row manual.  I only have one more left!  I’m fighting the urge to begin a Letter of the Week theme with Adam.  It’s just so much work!  But Adam really loves when I have things planned for him to do.  Which I’m worrying has turned him into a little robot who can’t think of anything to do on his own.  Any suggestions?  I want him to be able to play with anything and everything but he’s always asking me what to do and it’s driving me crazy!  I want to foster creativity and freedom but it’s not going too well.  Is there such a thing as a child who just likes and needs direction?  I suppose I really shouldn’t complain about that huh? :)

This week we read “We’re Going on a Bear Hunt” by Michael Rosen.  It’s the classic story about a Dad and his kids going on a bear hunt and coming across all kinds of things that they can’t go over and can’t go under, so they have to go through it.  Adam really loved this book and now we reenact the story all the time on our own!

We watched a funny video on YouTube of the author reciting the book.  Here is the link.  On the page where they are wading through the river, they are each carrying their shoes, except for the baby who is riding on Dad’s shoulder.  I asked Adam why he thought they took of their shoes and then why the baby still had her shoes on.  It’s fun to watch him think about things!  Activities and ideas came from the Before Five in a Row manual and Homeschool Share.

Coloring/Patterns
He would only color one of the 3 strips.

Painting with “Mud”
We had chocolate pudding for our Monday night treat and the next day the kids painted with it!  Here Adam is “squelching and squerching” in the “mud”

“Yummy!”

I made a felt board and felt pieces to place as we went through the story.  Adam loved using this so I think I’ll be making more felt story pieces in the future.

Story Sequencing
Adam did pretty well remember the order of the story.
(see Abby’s feet on the right side….she is making school time VERY difficult!)

“Hooing and Wooing”
Adam’s favorite part of the story, the snowstorm that goes “hooo wooo”!

Counting Bears

Other things we did during the week:

Handwriting Without Tears
He did two pages where he worked on coloring and his crayon grip.

24-piece number puzzle.
He got frustrated and gave up right after this picture.

Kumon: Let’s Color! Workbook

I don’t know what got into him but he colored a lot this week!

After he colored the first page, I encouraged him to color small things in the picture instead of all over it.
Then he colored each of these ducks.  After the first one, he asked how to turn the duck back to white.  I explained that once he colored it, it was that color forever.  Then we had a nice talk about how we only color on paper because if he colored on the floor or the wall, they would be colored forever too and Mom and Dad would not be happy about that! :)  After that, with every duck he colored he said, “Ohp, now this duck is _____ forever!”

Adam’s First Drawing!
I encouraged him to draw a person and suggested he start with a circle for a head.  He then knew right where to put eyes, a nose, and a mouth.  Body parts….not so much!  He made me label them….including the pee-pee.  Such a boy! :)

He used several kinds of stickers this week, these ones are 7-Eleven labels (Daddy works for corporate 7-Eleven).  First he counted them and then asked me to write names on them and he stuck them in a coloring book.  This is the order he had me write them:  Adam, Abby, Mommy, Daddy, Nana, Papa, Grandma Great, Grandpa Great.  I guess that is is line-up of favorite people!

He had a lot of fun with our Garanimals memory game from Wal-mart. 

Playing Starfall.com and a matching game on my iPad.
He does either of these at least once a day.  It’s a good place to stick him when I’m trying to get Abby down for a nap!  I try to get him to have equal screen time between Angry Birds and educational games!

That was our week!  Busy, but good.