Stinker Bug

Just wanted to share some recent pictures of this stinker. He's a stinker because he doesn't like to sleep long stretches at night. I have to keep reminding myself that he just turned 7 weeks and that I can't expect him to be as good of a sleeper as his brother was. At least he's adorable! I love his blue eyes and how smiley he is now!

Happy Sunday

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Favorite Apps for Toddlers

Brennan plays on the iPad more than I should admit. The usage has increased since Baby Bryce was born because he likes to play on it in the nursery while I am nursing. Thankfully he plays almost all educational apps, so I know he's learning something and not simply rotting his brain. I wanted to share some of our favorite apps (his and mine).

My favorite is definitely Letter School.
I rarely pay for apps, but this one is worth it! It works on writing your uppercase and lowercase letters as well as numbers 1-10. Each letter/number has three components: tap, trace, and write. The graphics are super colorful and engaging. Brennan can play this one completely independently.

One of my other top favorites is Zoo Train.
This is another one that is worth purchasing. It has four "games" you can play. One has you drag letters to spell words, another you must drag pieces of track to build a railroad, a third plays music, and the last one contains several puzzles. After completing a few rounds of each game, you get to choose a sticker which is probably Brennan's favorite part. He fell in love with this game this summer and still plays it often. He's able to play it completely independently. You can watch a video about the app here.

Another good, educational app is Marble Math Jr. Brennan needs some help with this one sometimes, but it still works great to entertain him while I'm nursing because I can just talk him through what to do. The nice thing about his app is that if you click on the direction at the top of the page, it reads it aloud. There are three levels and lately Brennan has only wanted to play level three which requires a lot more help from Mommy (it involves multiples, multiplication, telling time, money, etc). The first level has some directions he can completely follow on his own and he's learning a lot from this app. He's able to recognize some fractions now, which blows my mind. It's also good for fine motor skills because you have to drag the marble through a maze to collect the answers and prizes.

We also like Preschool and Kindergarten Learning Games. There are nine games in this one and Brennan loves them all. The only one he can't do independently is the spelling game. He quickly caught on how to count up all the fruits in the addition game. In the subtraction game, you click on the fruits with a 'x' and then count the left overs and get your answer, so it's not too hard either.

Those are definitely my top four favorite apps. Here are a few others we use a lot too.

Hello Chalk - This app is like a chalkboard and allows the user to write or draw with chalk or Sharpies. I upgraded to the paid version to get more colors because Brennan liked it so much and uses it to practice writing his letters.

ABC House - I find this app a little strange, but Brennan seems to like it. There are several different pictures of ordinary objects for each letter of the alphabet. When you click on them, you either get to watch a video about that object or interact with the object in some way using by dragging your finger.

Little Writer - This is the tracing letters/numbers app we had before we found Letter School. It's nowhere near as neat, but Brennan still chooses to play it sometimes.

iLearn with Boing - There are several different versions of this app. We currently have Savannah and Ocean. Savannah has math games and Ocean only has one free game that they consider a vocabulary review. Brennan has been playing the Ocean one recently. It features an octopus that is looking for certain objects hidden in the ocean. You find the four objects he asks for and he juggles them. Then you're given four new objects to find.

For God So Loved the World...

We took a break from our Raising Rock Stars Preschool last week since Brennan was sick. We were back at it this week, but I did a horrible job taking pictures until today. This week's letter was "F" and our verse was John 3:16. The verse was long for Brennan, but he did like the song that went along with it. I can't wait until he's old enough to be in our church's Cherub Choir. I think he'll love singing those songs! His word for the week was "for" which he already knew.

Here's the "F" board this week.

He used a dot marker to fill in the circles around this heart and we glued a cross and the scripture onto it.

I cut apart his verse into six strips, numbered them, mixed them up, and had him lay them out in numerical order.

I had the idea that since it was the letter "F" this week that I could let him smack the words I called out with a fly swatter. Only problem? We don't own a fly swatter (because fly starts with f), so he used a silicon basting brush and smacked each "F" word I called out. He wanted to do this over and over again. This last time we did it, I didn't call out the word, but gave him a clue about the word and had him find it.

The John 3:16 song-

Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse!

We had a great time celebrating Brennan's third birthday yesterday with some of his friends. He had a stomach bug on Tuesday, but thankfully it was short-lived and the party was able to happen. This year Brennan picked the theme: Mickey Mouse. He decided on that theme while we were in Disney in December and didn't ever change his mind. I'm not sure how people threw parties before Pinterest! I found lots of great ideas there and used this blog for most of my inspiration. I would've liked to have done even more decorating with signs and banners, but with a sick toddler and a baby who doesn't sleep much at night, I am happy with what I was able to pull off.

Here was Brennan's invite! It swings down to reveal all the party info!

The party took place in our basement and I had several different "game" stations set up where the kiddos could play.

Party hats with Mickey ears-

Toilet Paper Bowling - AKA Pete's Pins-

Cornhole - AKA Toodle's Toss-

A Cake Walk - AKA Pluto's Prize Walk-

Here Brennan is practicing before his party.

 Chip and Dale's Coloring-

The food and drinks were upstairs.

I love how the juice boxes turned out!

I was also really happy with how the food table looked. 

Even the peach cups had Mickey ears on them!

 

Mickey cupcakes made with one large Oreo and two mini Oreos!

Kyle even got in on the decorating action and made this 3 for me!

The party was from 11-1 and it was so much fun. The kids had a great time playing in the basement and we enjoyed a lunch of Hotdog Hotdog Hot-diggity Dogs! (I fixed 30 hotdogs in the crockpot - another Pinterest ideas and it worked great!)

 

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I wish I had videoed trying to get two and three year olds to do a cake walk; it was hilarious. Brennan and Morgan understood what to do, but everyone else was either just roaming around or not participating at all. It was probably my favorite part of the party and Brennan just wanted to do it over and over again.

We are so blessed to have such good friends who love our son as much as we do! Thankful for a fun and memorable day!