The Jones Girls

Today the triplets had their first Easter party at Preschool.   I made cute butterfly snacks that were little goodie bags filled with Fruit Loops with a clothes clip in the middle to make the butterfly.  I also made cute boo boo bunnies made out of white wash cloths.    I boiled a dozen eggs because they were going to decorate and dye eggs today! 

Mrs. Darling had made everyone the most precious Easter baskets.   The kids got a glimpse of Easter bunny tracks that were on the playground!  They thought that was so cool!

I went to Savannah’s class and brought all of her classroom boo boo bunnies.  The kids were thrilled.   I spent some time with Savannah in her classroom today and she enjoyed having me there so much.  I really enjoyed myself too.  I helped her decorate her Easter Bunny art project.

There is a library right next to the YMCA.  The Whittier Libarary.   So I took the girls for their very first time to visit a public library.  I had to go over with them about being very quiet and using their “inside” voices.

They were amazed at all of the books in the kids section!    We went to the Easy reading area for Savannah.  She chose a really cute book about animals and I will have her read it to me.  She is becoming quite the little reader.

They also rent out DVD movies for $1.  We picked out Bambi II and we are going to watch it tonight.  Miranda didn’t want to let go of the DVD and she said it was hers.  She fell in love with the movie.

We will go to the library every Tuesday and Thursday to check out books and once a week we will check out a DVD.     I am going t look into the summer reading program for Savannah.

Today was the triplets very first Valentine’s party at their preschool.  Their teacher made really cute valentine’s baskets with a love bug and a picture of each student.  They were brilliantly constructed out of cereal boxes.  Really, really cute!   These were used for the Valentine’s exchange.

I brought heart shaped valentine’s cupcakes.    They had all sorts of yummy goodies today at their party.

TherThe triplets had to each bring their own Valentine’s for every student…that made 30 in all!!   They wanted Pet Shop Valentine’s.  The triplets gave out goodie bags with coloring books, crayons, candy a toys.

They had a blast!!  I took lots of pictures.  They wore cute pink tutu dresses with diamond sparkles.    They looked beautiful!

Today the triplet’s preschool is celebrating Grandparents Day and Special People Day.  

We invited our next door neighbor, Sid, and his daughter, Janice who is visiting him for a couple of months who lives in Toronto Canada as well as London.   

All of the preschoolers made special crowns for their visitors and also made cookies.    It was such a fun and sweet event.    One of the grandparents read a story to the children.    All of the children gave their special guests a tour of their preschool room and playground.   

Each special person got a keepsake portrait done with the preschooler.    It was just a precious day!!

I drove up to the preschool and we were all excited!!   The girls had their new first day of school outfits on and they all looked so adorable.   

We walked into Mrs. Darling’s classroom.  What a wonderful name for their teacher…Darling!!    She is truly darling and the girls and I really love her.    The girls ran right to the toys and began playing with the other girls.   There is only one boy in the class, Samuel, and he was out sick yesterday so the class was all girls yesterday.

The triplets will go Tuesday and Thursday mornings from 9am – 12pm.  While they girls were in preschool yesterday, I ran home and sorted through and organized their toys.  I donated 3 boxes of old toys that they have outgrown and we have more space for new toys.   Tomorrow I will do a deep house clean and that will be nice!

I stayed for a few minutes to observe and the triplets didn’t miss me at all.  I shuffled out and watched through the window.  They were playing nicely and enjoying themselves.     I was so happy that they were so happy!!

Each parent revolves bringing snacks for the classroom.   I have 3 times this months since I have three girls!!  I thought themed snacks for my girls would be fun for the classroom.   It will give the teacher an opportunity to play on the them with the snack them.    I will make cheese sandwiches in the shape of fish (using a cookie cutter) and also bring fishie crackers for Amanda’s snack day.   For Miranda’s snack day I will be doing apple shaped cheese sandwiches with slices of apples.  For Maryssa’s snack day I will bring in flower shaped sandwiches and also raisins so that they can decorate their flower sandwiches. 

Cliff and I went to pick up the girls after school.   At the end of the school day, the teacher puts their school work out for the parents to pick up.   There is a pretty wrapped box with their name and decorated stickers all over to identity each child’s school work.  It was so cute to see 3 of the wrapped boxes for my girls. 

The girls also get their own little cubbies to hold their little “quiet time” blanket and some extra clothes in case they need to change.   They get quiet time and a book is ready to them while they lay down and relax for 10 minutes.     Miranda and Amanda wouldn’t lay down and ran around the classroom.   The teacher asst. had to round them up and sit next to them to remind them that it was quiet time and they needed to lay down.    This is going to take a little adjustment for the girls.  They haven’t done naps or quiet time in a year.

I really like this preschool.  It is a private preschool at a Presbyterian Church and the girls will go to chapel every.  They will be educated in a Christian background.    Cliff and I are really happy about that.

Today the triplets and I wanted to get a preview of their preschool @ La Habra Hills Preschool.   They invited us to join their Christmas party today.   

I dressed the girls in Grandma’s (my mom) Christmas dresses and added cute velvet black pants.  It was another new and pretty look that the girls enjoyed from Grandma’s presents!!

I brought some homemade baked banana nut bread and Chocolate Chip Bars for the Preschool teachers to enjoy..

We spent the morning at the school getting acquainted with the preschool curriculum, the playground, the classroom, the teacher and the kids.    They had Christmas tree cutouts and the kids got to paint the trees on art easels and also cut out Christmas bows and color Christmas pages.  It was so much fun!

The triplets really enjoyed themselves and I think they are going to be very happy at this preschool.  They will go for a few hours a week.

Savannah made the late bird class – yay!! She goes from 10:10am-1:30pm. This works great for me because I have more time in the morning to get the girls ready for their day plus get a little house cleaning done.

We do lots of flash cards and practice writing her name and other words. She is learning to read site words now. She knows 2 word colors by sight now – RED and GREEN. We are working on upper case and lower case letters and she knows them all by sight and sound. I have flash cards with all of our names on them and she now knows them by sight. I then have her write each of our names down, including her last name too. She is doing very well at this.

She knows all of her numbers up to 30. 1-10 by sight and most of her teens but gets a couple confused and most of her 20’s up to 30.

I ordered some books from Scholastic from her school. They had a packet of 20 books that focus on sight words so I ordered them for Savvy. We do reading every night together. She loves to read together and so do the triplets.

She has a tendency to talk without raising her hand so we are all working on teaching her to learn to raise her hand and wait her turn to speak.

They get one snack at 10:30am and she loves her cheese and crackers and orange juice.

I LOVE her teacher, Miss Tarbell. She is a wonderful Christian and is very patient and kind.

Savannah’s Kindy curriculum is high academic and we get about 1-1.5 hours of homework a night. Reading writing, sorting, grouping, coloring, cutting, pasting, and flash cards every night.

Can you imagine what it is going to be like with the triplets go to Kindy? YIKES!!  I hope they get Miss Tarbell.

Homeschooling Preschool for the triplets is going well.  The tuition was over our heads since Cliff took a 50% pay cut at the beginning of the year. I have a tutor come in for an hour on Mon and Wed. I give her the assignments and she does them along with allowing them to take breaks and play. This gives me an hour to run errands or get caught up on housework. It is only 2 hours a week, but that is all I can afford and it is a good way to begin introducing the triplets to someone else teaching them. If our finances are better in January, I will put the triplets in preschool for 2 mornings a week for 3 hours each day. I am not too worried about preschool because they just turned 3 last month. I am going to make sure they will be in PreK next year 3 days a week for sure.

The triplets know most of their colors. Maryssa knew her ABC’s by sight and sound since she was 18 mos and the other 2 have known for about 6 months. They know most of all of the shapes and know most of the primary colors. They can count to 10.

I am going to start taking all of the girls to the library once a week. The triplets are just about finished tearing up and damaging books and they understand to respect books so I think we are ready for the library. I have a pretty extensive home library since Savannah was in preschool the last 2 years before Kindy. I was able to order her books through Scholastic at Preschool so I have built up quite a library of classics and popular kids books. Over 1/3 of them are damaged from the triplets ruining them in the past couple of years so I will be replacing them this year through Scholastic.

So we are plugging along here.