The Toy Box Years: Tot School

The Creators of the Toy Box Years

The creators of the Toy Box Years are my two beautiful daughters and wonderful, handsome soldier husband.

"Nani" (our oldest) is a 11 year old 6th grader who loves Taylor Swift, ballet, books, fashion designing and sewing. Ask her what she wants to be when she grows up and it changes daily to anything from "an artist" to "a teacher" to "a singer/dancer". Nani is also currently fighting a battle against brain cancer -- recently diagnosed in June 2016.

"Nudgie" (our youngest) is a very smiley, very happy, very giggly, very spirited 8 year old 3rd Grader who's favorite toys are anything that gives mommy an anxiety attack - ladders, stepstools, the climbing wall at the playground. Like her sister, she has a love of reading and coloring, loves gymnastics and still provides mommy lots of snuggle time!

"My Marine" is my high school sweetheart. We've been married over 20 years and met when we were 17. (You do the math....) His favorite toys are Blackhawk helicopters, the lawnmower, our steam cleaner, and microbrew beer bottles. My husband is also my hero in that he proudly serves his country as a Blackhawk crew chief (hence his favorite toy!). And need I say that there is nothing hotter than my man in uniform!

All About Me......

Once upon a time I had a career and worked in the corporate world. Once upon a time, I dreamed about leaving that all behind to follow my true calling -- being a wife and mommy.

The first part of my calling was fulfilled in 1995 when I married my Marine (now soldier) and my love. Little did I know that being a military wife would change me in so many ways and that because of that, I would have an extended family all over the world from Japan, to California, to North Carolina.

The second part of my calling took a little doing, but I finally achieved that dream in 2004 with the birth of our first child, followed 4 years later by her baby sister.

So now, when someone asks me what I do for a living - I simply smile and say proudly that I'm following my calling - I'm a mommy and a wife -- and I couldn't be HAPPIER -- I'm living in the Toy Box Years!!

(Nudgie is 29 months old) (To see what others are doing at Tot School, click on the "Tot School" above!) **************************************

This past week here was pretty crazy. We had some snow earlier this week which resulted in a couple snow days. And even though Nani was home from school, I tried to incorporate some learning activities for her while I worked with Nudgie.

Nani doing some worksheets and working on her learning her sight words

While Nani was doing her schoolwork, Nudgie got busy playing with her Cheerios book. We used "snowballs" (little white pompoms) to fill in the empty spots. Nudgie found that she like covering everything with the pompoms - especially the bear's eyes. After a page, she felt that she needed to accessorize and decided to wear her pink headband. NOW she was ready to learn!

We played with our caterpillar puzzle - which she loves and played with over and over!

We stacked our elephant blocks.

We color matched with the toilet paper roll color match game. I added some colored wooden crosses a little later and she dropped them into the matching colored roll.

I love this picture of my two girls doing their activites. Nani is reading out loud from one of her sight word books. Nudgie is playing with her colored dot art set.

For lunch on our snow day, I made little snowmen sandwiches with snowballs (bananas). The eyes were chocolate chips, nose and mouth were cut up gummy worms, hat was some graham crackers, arms were pretzels, and the buttons were mini Oreos.

And then a little nap after lunch time.

After nap time, Nudgie and I worked on some puzzles while Daddy and Nani played some Wii. (And the snow still came down!)

The next day - it finally stopped snowing - but Nani was still home. We did some art work on the easel that Nudgie got from Santa.

After a while, Nani went to her room to have some "quiet time" with her V-Tech Reader that she got from Bubbe and Grandpap for Christmas. (She LOVES it!!!) So Nudgie had some time to play on her own -- WITHOUT having to share toys!

Mommy's favorite picture -- she LOVES rocking in the rocking chair

Playing with her bunny dollhouse

Playing her snowman color match game under the watchful eye of Zoja

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Hope everyone has a great week!

5 comments:

Semalee January 16, 2011 at 7:52 AM: That lunch it TOOO much! :)
Basia - United Teaching January 17, 2011 at 3:22 AM: I like the roll colour matching activity. Thanks for sharing
Anonymous January 17, 2011 at 5:54 AM: Your snowman is super cute!
Christie - Childhood 101 January 17, 2011 at 5:54 AM: That caterpillar puzzle looks great. What a busy time you had.
maggy, red ted art January 19, 2011 at 6:56 AM: Wow! What a busy busy week! Of course I LOVE the snowman lunch plate. How fun. Like your snowman drawing too!

Thank you for linking up!

Maggy