Happy 5th Birthday!

Elijah turned 5 yesterday!

Cinnamon rolls for breakfast

 It was a preschool day, so we had cupcakes at the end.

Then naptime/room time, followed by decorating his Revolutionary War cake. He had a very definite vision of what he wanted and where each item was to be placed. Since counting bears accompany all play, gummy bears stood in for the American and British soldiers. General George Washington is the 3rd blue bear from the left--and the piece Elijah chose to eat, of course!

Elijah's special request was that Grandpa come before it got dark, so they could play Revolutionary War outside.

Birthday dinner! Elijah wanted plum sauce and vermicelli for his birthday dinner; I added beef, egg rolls, mint, and other toppings for those of us who like a wider variety of food items. (Josiah calls the decorations "declarations," which he thinks is funny because it is like "Declaration of Independence.")

Plum Sauce + Vermicelli + limes + carrots = a great dinner!

 Then he opened presents.

Pop guns from grandparents! (Josiah got an extra early birthday present)

Powder horn from Aunt Elizabeth

First big Lego set: Castle!

 And then time for cake!

Josiah, of course, had a piece with British soldiers on it

Birding!

As part of our birding unit, my college roommate came and led my fourth graders on a birding field trip. My fourth graders loved it--and could have kept going for a couple more hours, I think.

Serious birder: bird guide, binoculars, hat, and milk

Black Capped Night Heron

Snow Goose with Coots

Blue Bird

Egyptian Geese

My other birder

 As we walked home, my students found a baby bird (pigeon?), who probably fell from his nest. I was mean and didn't let them take it home, not knowing how to care for it and doubting that bringing it home would help. After discovering that the park number was only for reservations, my compromise was to go back to the park after naptime and bring the bird some food (Elijah also built  nest around it). It was, sadly, dead when we checked on it the next evening.

On our shelves (January)...

Cross-posting from my Pre-K blog; here are our Montessori-inspired work trays that the boys and other preschoolers were using in January:

Writing letters in salt; although, honestly, the kids like using this as a sensory box as is--but to make it more fun, you could add some winter animals instead

Dot letters

"Ice block" building (i.e. sugar cubes) and winter animals (you can often get these at Michaels & use a 40% coupon)

Pouring tray with water and ice (ice has been a popular addition! Fun to see how much it needs to melt before it slides down the vase)

Cutting snowflakes; I folded coffee filters and clipped them to hold the folds together while cutting 

Art tray: stickers, snowflake stamps, and markers (I'm hoping to make this more interesting as the month moves on, but we'll see)

Number picture puzzle; printable from here

Sensory bin: various white fabrics, white duplos, and cotton balls with animals from the winter toob

Patterns; printable from here

Playdough

Cornstarch+water

January Snapshots

January saw playtime with cousins:

Plus playtimes with second cousins, including meeting the newest second cousin just adopted from Eastern Europe.

And a visit from grandparents.



More Revolutionary War play, of course:

Wounded soldier--note the elevated arm

Washing their clothes by hand

Heritage Park in Cerritos--set up like Boston at the start of the Revolutionary War; we'd been before, but not since the obsession with the Revolutionary War started

We released our butterflies:

Goldfinches found our feeder

Preschool work trays (most my preschool photos have other kids, but these are the few that don't):

With my daycare license complete, we started our new routine. Elijah's enjoying his new preschool class and Josiah seems to enjoy being the only littler kid and just plays and plays by himself. On Wednesdays, they swap and Josiah plays with cousins or my dad while Elijah stays home, who has explicitly told me he likes being the only non-4th grader.

Lots of coloring--and playdough, too, which is suprisingly unphotographed:

Elijah has been very carefully coloring in his Revolutionary War coloring books

Lots of stories; Richard Scarry is a favorite for Josiah, Elijah continues to enjoy his Revolutionary War books (our library rule is that he can get as many new Revolutionary War/Civil War books as he returns to help moderate amounts):




We pulled out his two wheel bike for the first time:



Big strides were made in climbing:

The bunk beds have helped with climbing practice

Elijah has been diligently working on solving the ball maze he got for Christmas; some nights we can hear the ball rolling and rolling and rolling as he practices over and over again.


The weather was unseasonably warm, so one night we roasted hot dogs in the fire pit and then made s'mores.


And many, many hours were spent playing Legos:




The boys play so, so nicely together; it's fun to watch them develop their friendship.