Weekends & School

The last two weeks (and definitely the weekends) have disappeared in a blink of an eye!

Two weekends ago, we spent Friday night and the majority of Saturday with Justin's parents at Smoke On The Water out at Lake Shawnee.

Friday night, Grandma got in some Jocie-loving time ...

... and Justin's dad cooked up some HUGE tasty steaks and potatoes to chow down on that evening. We even got to see two of Justin's aunts.

That Saturday, we also got plenty of sunshine, outdoorsy time. The day really did give us incredible weather and it was nice to get one-on-one with my loves.

 

It was obvious that Jocelyn approved of basking in the sun.

Then, this past weekend, we got to see Justin's other set of parents.

-- I need to see my parents soon. It's been far too long! --

We always seem to talk so much, about anything and everything, that the hours whiz on by. We spent the morning talking and playing with Jocelyn, they treated us to some super delicious Mexican food (Justin's margarita was the biggest I've ever seen haha) and then we went over to Justin's brother's house to celebrate our nieces birthday.

She sure is the prettiest young woman around. I think she's so beautiful both inside and out.

We all got to hang out and chat, watch Emily try to blow out trick candles, open birthday presents and eat some much needed cupcakes and ice cream.

Emily really had to get after it, but she got them all.

Ethan is proof that we all loved the treats. :)

And in other news, this past Monday, I was so totally thrilled that I got some much needed stuff laminated and organized to keep Jocie's preschool going.

I'm not kidding, it was a total steal. I think I laminated 14 yards of material for only $7!

We finally broke down and bought our own laminator, but to get big projects done in less time, it was worth the trip into town and the small fee to knock it out.

Some of our laminated projects included matching games, A-Z flash cards, A-Z memory verse cards, number cards (all of which worked out perfect to punch a hole through and attach to a binder ring), cards for shapes and colors, letter tokens and so on.

I also found a way to print and laminate the pieces that go along with Handwriting Without Tears. Once I cut them out, I plan to add pegs to the fronts and magnets or Velcro to the backs so that Jocelyn can form letters independently. Or at least I hope. Since she can't hold things between two fingers, this should help. She's gotten very good at grabbing large knob-type things, so here's to being hopeful! :)

I also finished Jocie's daily workbook. At this point she does NOT like to even listen, but together, hand-over-hand, we complete the workbook and talk about the subjects for the day.

There were so many more things that I was able to complete, one of which being things to keep myself organized and to track what we do each day. Its surprising how time consuming everything can be, but its all for a good reason.

I'm hoping through repetition and creativity, that Jocelyn is able to learn and then demonstrate to me that she's "getting it."

Tomorrow's hump day.
That means we got another wonderful weekend coming up! :)