Forming letters

I don't know what it is about three for my kids but it seems like once they hit three they are always chomping at the bit so to speak to start working on their "preschool stuff."  It has been the same for Emma.  Everyday we sit down and do our preschool time together and we have been really working on letter identification and now some letter formation and sounds. I love that it doesn't take much to make learning interesting for kids.  Just some simple things from around the house made fun. The other day we played this game from Pinterest using "letter pancakes" and spatulas to flip the letters on her play griddle...she loved it. Then we tried a different version where each person gets a pile of butter (small yellow construction paper rectangles) someone else (Hunter) calls out "order up!" and then calls out a letter.  Then you have to see who gets the butter on the letter pancake first.  Again Emma loved it and asked to play over and over again.  By this time I had to move on to get other things done so I sat her down on the couch with the magna doodle and told her to flip through the letters and try to write some for me.  "Mommy come look! I did my letters!" she squealed from the couch.  When I walked over to see this I was so excited.  She is forming letters!!! I LOVE the stages of learning to write.  I love that she is interested and excited about learning this.  I love that she is getting it.  I love her little handwriting and that she sat so still and practiced so carefully.  Oh Miss E you are awesome my little preschooler.  Good Job sis!!

8 months and 9 months!!

I was doing so good with my monthly updates on Hudson and things just got crazy busy and now I am super behind on blog posts.  So some updates on Hudson for his eighth and ninth months....By eight months he is crawling and climbing all over everything.  He often tries to climb back to the toy area by the little passage way between the couches and gets stuck.  By nine months he was pulling up to stand on EVERYTHING and walking along the couches.  If we put him on the little Ariel car he has learned how to push off with his feet and move himself across the kitchen.  He is now pretty much eating everything that we will let him have.  Whenever any of us are eating something he comes hurrying over saying "mmmmm" and stands there fussing at you until you share with him.  

He loves to sit in the cart at the grocery store and look around at everything.  It is fun except the other day he stuck his hand out of the side of the cart and we were just close enough that he grabbed a package of rice cakes and held on for dear life taking out about ten other bags.  Yeah I really have to watch for that.

He is finally sleeping in his room with Hunter and gets to sleep in his big crib.  I am not going to lie it was hard for me and I still miss having him in with us but it was time and he does great.  He always has been such an awesome sleeper.

We don't bust the gate out very often but when we do he is not a fan.  He stands at it and squawks at everyone passing by just to make sure they know of his irritation.

He is very curious and is always getting into things and wanting to see how they work.  However he continues to be so mellow natured.  Happy, happy baby.

He can wave, clap his hands, say mama and dada, loves peek a boo and pretending to "chase" the other kids around the house.  His favorite toy is a little plastic squid and he likes to "stir" with a spoon the magnet letters from the fridge in a mixing bowl.  He loves Deke to toss him up high into the air or get "horsey rides" on his back.  He loves to rough house already.  He will go to anyone and is super laid back.  He is such a snuggler and is just happy.  He continues to amaze Deke and I how strong he is and now that he is very mobile he is keeping us on our toes!!  Hopefully I will get some cute video of him posted soon.

Waterslide

So the last week of summer we stayed busy and tried to squeeze a lot of fun things in all at once.  One such thing was a day of sliding at Aunt Lisa's house on the giant inflatable water slide that they had rented.  The kids were ecstatic to see how big it was and with not a ton of kids there, they got to slide down it over and over again for hours.

Emma would only go down if she was on Hunter's lap and then she loved it.

If there were awards Avery would definitely get the award for the person with the highest number of times down the slide.  She would go down and then race over to hurry up again.  By the time we left late that afternoon Ave was exhausted.  She came home and napped for two hours.

Hunter decided his favorite way to go down was face first.  It was quite entertaining for the rest of us.

My cousin Kassi took Hudson down the slide for me since I didn't wear my suit.  Hudson was NOT a fan.

When they weren't sliding they were hanging out just lounging around in the little pool.

Hudson was still a little grumpy with me over the whole thing even after he had dried off and was snuggling with me in a towel.

It was really fun for the kids and I am not going to lie really nice to come home and have all four of them lay down and sleep for awhile.  I even got to shut my eyes for a quick snooze.  Thanks Aunt Lisa, for the fun!!

No kidding.

I saw this the other day on my aunt's fridge and it made me smile.  This is so true:)

Going Private- within a day or two

We have decided to take the blog private.  We have thought about doing this for awhile now and feel like it is time.  If you would still like to read about what's going on at the Burch's please leave a comment with your email address so that we can email u an invite :):) Also all comments I am receiving with emails will stay unposted on the the blog so that emails are kept private.

Second and Fourth

 Second grade and Fourth grade.  Not gonna lie I didn't feel like either was a huge change and was grateful.  That is until I found out that they are trying something new this year and the fourth graders rotate classes.....for the ENTIRE day!!! WHAT??  Don't they start this in 6th grade??  I couldn't believe that they start out in their homeroom and are there for about thirty minutes and then they rotate for the rest of the day for all their subjects.  I just didn't realize he would be doing this so soon.  It was weird getting all his supplies ready.  Organizing a binder for different subject areas.  Loading his zipper pencil pouch in and getting the required 3 subject binders.  So weird.  Sometimes I feel like having the kids birthdays and then school starts right after has always been a lot of emotional transition for mom :) :)  This year the teacher that teaches Science is awesome.  He will be Hunter's first male teacher and he has a lizard and two fire belly toads in his classroom.  His classroom is awesome!! Hunter was in heaven.  I can't wait to see what is in store for him this year.  He is also the teacher in charge of the Oceanography club for fifth graders and this year has gotten a trip organized for the fourth graders going canyoneering at the Grand Canyon for a weekend trip for those interested.  You'd better believe that both Deke and Hunter were super excited about that one.  They will have a geologist going along with them which will be such a neat experience for the kids.  Hunter will probably be counting down the days on that one.  This is going to be a really great year for him I can tell.

 Avery's teacher seems nice but is harder for me to read.  Avery is very excited to be in school again.  She loves going to school.  She is especially excited for music class because it is her favorite special.  This year they will do an end of the year musical, she will also do "walk to math" and take a couple of field trips.  I am excited to get to spend an afternoon every other week in her classroom volunteering.  We got them all ready and headed outside to take a couple of pics on their first morning.  It was bright out and they both couldn't stop squinting in the AZ heat.   The younger two waved goodbye to them all the way until they were out of sight.  This first week Emma has been so sad without them.  She keeps telling me she is lonely.  As soon as they walk in the door Hudson goes crazy giggling and waving at them.

  More transition but I have a really good feeling.  This year is going to be busy but really full and a lot of fun.  So here we go again.....

Rainbow dash backpack

Both Ave and Em love My Little Pony.  Emma's favorite pony is Applejack and Avery's favorite is Rainbow Dash.  So you can imagine how excited she was when Aunt Marley gave her this Rainbow Dash backpack for her birthday present.  It is so cute.  It is bright blue with little wings and then it has a pouch that you can unzip and there is a hoodie inside that looks like the pony with a mane.

It is perfect for Avery.  She loves it and it is fun because she says that "no one else has a pony backpack like hers!!!"  The week before school her and Em paraded around the house taking turns wearing it.

So stinkin cute.....