End of the Month Report: August

Before I can properly recap August, I have to ask where did August go? It seemed like I was just posting the July recap and now here it is time to do a new one!

Jake: Our lil man finished out his t-ball season and was awarded his first trophy. After a few weeks off from summer activities, he went back for his second and final year of preschool. However, the big news continues to be his love for the alphabet. Not only is he very close to being able to read, but he can write all his upper case letters. After seeing how much the kids had learned about letter sounds from Letter Factory, I purchased the next installment called Talking Word Factory and we have sporadically been working on Hooked on Phonics throughout the summer. He can "read" over 20 words now. But imagine my utter surprise when he shows me this on the DoodlePro:

Needless to say, I was pretty impressed.

Jadyn: She is quite the fickle young lady. I call her a contradiction. Joe says it is typical "female" behavior and yes feel free to strangle him for that one. Jadyn continues to refuse to wear dresses except for her super casual summer ones that I have tricked her into by calling them swim cover-ups. However, despite this dress aversion she is suddenly completely infatuated with all things princess related and wants to be a fairy or butterfly for Halloween. Somehow I don't see her putting up with wings and a tutu. LOL!

Jadyn has also surprised me this summer. As a result of watching Letter Factory repeatedly, she can now rattle off all her letter sounds. Here is proof (please note you will need to pause my playlist AND if you subscribe via email, please visit my blog site to view the video):



We kind of tripped over each other at the end there around U, V, W but I decided not to try and re-record the moment since I thought it was cute she sang some of the letters.

Jadyn has also proved to have quite the imagination, granted some of it comes from the adventures of Dora and Diego. The other day she found two baby chicks from a craft we did at a playdate awhile back. She proceeds to introduce me to mommy and daddy chick and explain how they are lost and we need to help them find their home. Then today she started scrapping at the carpet singing, "dig, dig, dig". Then she would scoop up the imaginary dirt and tell me it was too heavy for her to carry. At the river on Monday, she would yell for Daddy to rescue her and hurry because she was in trouble. Today she was running through the house claiming a bear was going to get her. Big brother jumped in and rescued her from that. It really is amazing. Hare are some pics I took of the kids at dinner the other night. I took the picture of Jadyn because I had tried a new hair style on her and thought she looked so grown up. Then Jake insisted I take his picture too. I realized that in the pictures from back to school, you can clearly see they are both still recovering from the colds they had the week before. They look much healthier here:

The family/the events: August was even busier than July! We had the weekend with the two weddings, the weekend where we went to both a minor league baseball game and then the river, not to mention t-ball and school starting. While we had a wonderful summer, we are looking forward to things slowing down as we settle into our fall routine and anticipate somewhat cooler weather ahead. Of course the fall means the county fair and the pumpkin patch so I am sure to have plenty to report in the coming months as well. And who knows what the kids will be doing next. I cannot wait to find out myself.