Purple Cat

This week we focused on Purple Cat! Jace already recognized cats, and ironically purple was actually one of his first words! This was the first week that he seemed confident with the color of the week. Whenever I asked him what color is this? He would say purple. Based on the previous weeks and the reality that the cards I made for this unit are of no interest to Jace, I didn't even bother pulling them out. I may try them next week, but maybe a break from them for a while will peak his interest next time he sees them. While we did a lot of activities with Purple and cats, we also spent a little time on letters this week. I never planned on teaching Jace his letters so soon, but it is actually HIS biggest interest right now. He loves to sing the alphabet (his version) and point to letters and say their name. So going off his cues, I have been helping him with his letters. He has a few alphabet books that he keeps pulling out this week and an alphabet puzzle that he attempts to do. He also plays with a handful of magnetic letters on the fridge (most he threw away without me realizing it!)  Those are really the only toys he will play with currently. I realized that without teaching him he knows about 20 letters just from pointing to the letters while we have sung the alphabet in the past, and from the ABC you-tube videos I put on for him.   I may do some ABC units in the future, but for now, we are just having fun with letters and if he learns them, cool. Really, it's just what he wants to do, and it happens to be educational. Win!

Our purple bin!

We read this book!

 We played with the colored blocks and practiced sorting colors and saying the letters on the blocks.

 He thinks it is funny to put the color on the wrong pile and say "noooooo…." 

 And then he puts it on the right one and squeals!!!

 Pointing to the letters he knows. 

 Coloring with purple crayons, markers, and using purple stickers.

 We made a purple cat out of a footprint, and also a purple ghost to hang up for some fall decor. :) 

Here is his cat breakfast. Kinda looks like a pig with whiskers. Not my best. :)

 I made purple water to freeze into ice cubes. The water was purple going in, and it froze blue. Fail.

 Practiced counting bears!

 Sorting colors again.

 Stringing purple beads. With my help! 

 We painted a pumpkin using purple paint…. and white too. :)

We made a purple cat mask! Well…. I did. haha. He decided to wear it like a necklace. Cool.

That was our week!

Schnepf Farms

Last Sunday afternoon, we went to Schnepf Farms with the Ross family and the Vernon family. I have never been, but kids get in free under the age of 2, so I wanted to check it out while Jace still got in for free. :) It was actually a lot of fun! 

We started by watching a dog show where the dogs would do different tricks. Jumping through hoops, catching frizbees, etc. Jace clapped pretty much the entire time! I think he people watched more than actually watched the dog show, but he LOVED it! He was laughing and clapping. 

We went to the pumpkin patch where I had to grab some pics! :)

There was a tall slide that Matt took Jace down! It went pretty slow, so Jace went down it by himself a few times after! He liked it! Such a big boy!

There was a place for kids to jump, and so Matt took Jace on it! He loves to jump right now and has finally figured out how to get both feet off the ground. He had a blast doing this.

There was a petting zoo where Jace was able to pet some goats, or "goaks" as he called them. This may have been his favorite part. He really enjoyed checking out the goats. 

We then went on a hay ride around the farm. 

In middle of the hay ride, they stopped to let us get out to feed some deer that they had. 

It was a fun little fall activity! I could definitely see us going back sometime in the future! 

End of September/Early October so far...

A week and a half ago, Matt and I spent our Saturday with Marcus and Kenna painting baby Dakota's room. I thought we would be done within 3 hours…. I forgot how long taping takes. It took half the day, but it turned out so well! Here are some pics! 

Before

 During

 After!

On September 30th, Matt and I celebrated 3 years of marriage! What a crazy 3 years it has been. I praise God for Matt and the joy that he is to me. He is such an encourager! Lord willing, we will have many more years of marriage to come! 

Matt found a Groupon for the Melting Pot, and so we went there the night before our anniversary because that was when we had a sitter!

 On our actual anniversary, we went to Frost for dessert! 

Last Friday, Matt had a potluck at his work. Some of this co-workers have been wanting to see Jace, so I brought him in. He started off being shy, but very quickly was running around, waving to people, dancing for people, and showing off. He thought it would be great to sit on top of Matt's desk and pull out all of the sticky notes. 

 Visiting dad!

 This is a picture of Jace sitting in Denny's office. Denny was gone for the part of the day we were there, so we took a picture of Jace sitting in his chair to send to him. 

 And this is a random pic, but I found this beanie at Once Upon a Child, and had to get it for him! $3.50! You know me and hats… now if only Jace would develop that same love for them that I have. I did manage to grab a picture of him in it, and I can't wait for it be colder this winter for him to actually need it! :) 

Green Frog

Our "Green Frog" week turned into weeks, as these last couple weeks have just been crazy in the Pagel house. But Jace can say and recognize frog, and did well with the color green, so we will wrap this section up and move on! I didn't do as much as I would have liked for this section, but that's okay. Here is what we did!

Our bin of "Green" items! 

Exploring the bin!

 Coloring with green crayons and a green marker, and also sticking green frog stickers to his paper!

 He painted with water on this special water "coloring" sheet thing. 

 He also painted with water on green construction paper. He actually loved this.

 We played with his green objects again. One of those objects was a green plastic frog. I pretended to make it bounce and would say "ribbit ribbit" and then make the frog kiss him. Later in the week I saw him pick up a plastic frog, make it hop while he said "ree ree ree" and then made the frog kiss him. It was so cute. 

 We practiced counting to 10 with counting bears.

 He sorted all the colors of bears into their matching cup. He did AMAZING at this. I was shocked. 

 Practicing counting his beads and stringing them with daddy.

 Using green dot markers to color his pages.

 This pretty much sums up how he did with the cards. 

 He played with a red, blue, and green plastic frogs!

 He ate a special snack in a green tray with his frogs by him. 

 We read this book--"Frog's Lunch". He loved this book and wanted me to read it to him again and again. 

That was our "Green Frog" week(s)! :)