February Fun

At school, Maddie has been learning about simple machines. They used pulleys and ramps and explored in Science. The next week, they invented their own machine. Here is Maddie's invention. Her description is below:


It is called "The Shaking Dog." If you can't read it, it says "He shakes if you say something funny if you push the button." Pretty cool invention, Maddie!

Valentine's Day rolled around and Maddie was excited to have another candy-based holiday. She opened a gift from mommy and daddy ...and wore a beautiful shirt sent from Zsa Zsa. They both just love sparkly things.
On Friday, Maddie and I hopped on a plane to Houston to help Nana celebrate becoming an American citizen. Maddie and her bug were strapped in good and tight.

Maddie, Amy and I went shopping for all American food. We had one cart for drinks and one for food.

Saturday was gray and rainy. Sunday, however, was PERFECT! 65 and sunny. It was a perfect day for a party. Maddie was a great help with Alec. She would sit with him in her lap and look after him while the adults got some things ready. They looked so cute, so I just had to take some pics.






Maddie was FINALLY able to decorate with the flags we brought. Please also note the matching American tiaras - they light up!

The bar was stocked ...

The table was set (the empty spot is for the corn dogs, chicken nuggets and french fries ... mmmm!)and the American centerpiece was ready. PARTY TIME!!!Uncle (B)Ryan came to add excitement to the party.

We had lots of friends over to help celebrate mum and play with the cute grand kids.

In order to really make sure my mom was an American today, we served her her first corn dog. Yes, people ... her FIRST CORN DOG! (sorry for posting pics of you eating Mum - these are just too funny, though!)
and well ... she did not really love the corn dog.
Katie had some American trivia for us to answer which was lots of fun!

Nana and her babies.

Uncle (B)Ryan decorated Alec with an American flag bandana. Could he look more Brooklyn?!

The girls and his royal majesty.

We had a wonderful trip to Nana's and it was so much fun to see everyone. It was especially fun to see the cousies together again!


Maddie is very curious about how things are spelled these days. I will say "sit down so we can put your shoes on" and she will ask how to spell "sit down." It goes like this all day. I decided we should start up some of her own words. One way of teaching kids is to teach them the words they "need" to know to be better readers. Another way to choose words is to pick words that are important to them because then they will be more invested in learning them. I thought this would be more fun and more age/developmentally appropriate for Maddie. Each day, she chooses 3 words - any 3 words, and I write them down on cards for her.

Day 1 Words: yo-yo, cheese, people

Day 2 Words: roll, how, newt (I asked her where she had learned about a newt and she said it was in her A-Z animals book - and she is totally right - it was just a surprising word!)

Here she is reading her words. She is getting faster at them but I am also glad that she is looking at the first letter sound to help herself figure out the word. She will be reading soon, people! Yeah Maddie!