*Five. One. Four.

I'm writing Friday's blog on Sunday because I just got back from a wonderful weekend in St. Augustine with my sister. Oh, and last night we saw Wicked in Jacksonville. Amazing! But this blog isn't about my love of musicals, so let's revert back to Friday.

Friday was Field Trip Day! But before we left, I had Bubs and Z work on their name activity. Bubs was almost able to do it without her name card! She only mixed up the last A and H in her name.

Around 10, we gathered up the homemade cupcakes (for a quick picture) and headed off to the fire station!

We got to the first fire station and the bay doors were closed, which means they were out on a call or training, so we had to go to the next one. We showed up and I knocked on the door to ask if visitors were welcome and with a HUGE smile, the Lieutenant said, "Absolutely!"

And let me tell you, the kids were certainly welcomed. They walked in and practically ran the place! It was only the Lieutenant and one firefighter at the station and they were so happy to have the kids in the building. The kids were shown EVERYTHING.

The very first thing they got to do was go in the fire truck. They were buckled in, tried every piece of clothing on, pushed buttons (the truck was off) and the firefighter was blowing up rubber gloves as balloons. The kids were in heaven! Sensory overload!

Wow. It was intense. They nearly got to touch everything. And that was only outside! Then they got to go inside and get a tour of the place! From their rec. room to their kitchen to their bedrooms to the office.

You'll never guess what they got to do next! The Lieutenant asked me quietly if they'd be OK using the hose. The actual hose that's connected to the fire truck. I couldn't believe it! I said yes and the firefighter asked the kids if they wanted to pretend to be real firefighters putting out a fire.

"We can use the hose?!"

Babe made the connection immediately. They ran outside and the truck was started so they'd have pressure to the hose. They put out a cone in the parking lot for the kids to try to knock down with the water. It was great! I was still in shock that permission was granted for this to be done!

Can you believe it!? It was fantastic. Everyone had a great time and I think the fire staff had more fun than the kids! We took one last picture of everyone before we thanked them a million times and headed back home.

But of course the kids wanted to go back into the truck, so the guys let them!!!

Obviously, everyone had a great time. We made it home in time for lunch, and I let the rest of the day be chill-day. However, Babe got a piece of mail from her aunt, a teacher at the Florida School for the Deaf and Blind. The letter was written in Braille! Since Babe is the same age as one of the oldest blind pre-schoolers at the school, they will become pen pals. So to end the day, Babe wrote a letter to her new pen pal.

We also sent him a fork. My sister is going to try to get a video of him guessing what it is. Then this preschooler will write a letter back to Annabel with a blind-related game (probably something to do with Braille), and then we will send him back something to try to guess. Fun, huh? My sister and I both think it's a great opportunity for both kids!

What do you think?

Five. One. Two.

Today was another great day, one with lots of realizations to make everything better for everyone. Today I realized that I will have to provide Z with a tub to work with, since presenting him with ten tubs to choose is slightly overwhelming. So I started him off with the nuts and bolts tub and he worked with that for a very long time. But before he did so, both Z and Bubs put their name together.

Look at Bubs doing it like a pro! Very impressive!

So while Bubs and Z did their tub work, Babe worked a bit more on subtraction and the difference between minus and plus. Today seemed a bit more frustrating for her but I made sure she was taking her time and staying focused, and by the end, she had it down pat. I'd ask her, "What is 4+1?" And she'd answer 5. Then I'd ask her, "What's 3-1?" And she'd say 4. I asked her again what 3-1 is, but I'd emphasize the word minus. She then answered, "Oh! Minus! 2!" We did a few of those, then a worksheet, and Math was done.

For Reading Comprehension, I brought out "Feast for 10" again and had her recall from yesterday all the food the family bought. She was able to! She remembered everything. We reviewed what happened at the beginning of the book, the middle, and the end, and she even remembered that ten people ate but only nine chairs were needed.

"Remember?! Cuz the baby was on the mommy's lap!"

Ha. So cute. Because she remembered everything from yesterday, we jumped right to the Calvert-assigned worksheet where she colored the food mentioned in the book and then, separately, drew food that her parents buy at the grocery store.

"Like canollis. Dad loves buying cannolis!"

Ah. So Italian.

After Reading Comp., I had her tell me everything she knew about firefighters.

"I know that when you see a fire, you stop, drop, and roll!"

Oh man. So funny. I reminded her that you only stop, drop, and roll when the fire is on the clothes you are wearing. She then proceeded to tell me everything the firefighter wears, including their "breathing thing." Pretty cool. She remembered a lot of stuff!

I then told her that on Friday, we are going to a fire station! Her eyes lit up and she immediately asked if we were bringing anything for them.

"Can we make them cookies?!"

She had no idea I already had plans for a friend to make cookies, but since she was so excited about making them, we are going to try to make dalmatian cake pops tomorrow. She is doubly excited, especially since we get to use the new cake pop machine she got for Christmas. So we will try that, and if worse comes to worst, we will resort to ready-to-bake cookies.

I had Bubs and Z come back to the table so they could color their firefighter printout featuring the letter F. I had Bubs practice drawing her Fs, Z practice saying the F sound, and Babe telling me words that started with F. Then I had Bubs pick out the letter F flashcard out of three, and had Babe find the uppercase and lowercase F out of a pile I put in front of her. Overall, the printout was a big hit, and as always, Babe made hers her own - adding fire, and water from the hose, and a sidewalk.

By the time they were all done coloring, it was nearly lunch time, and today they were making their own lunch - mini pizzas! They all had a great time with this, pouring on as much cheese as they wanted, adding spinach leaves, and chunks of turkey.

And here are the pizzas ready to be cooked!

Yum! Sorry for the lack of an after shot, but they were delicious and everyone ate theirs!

After lunch, I pulled out a keyboard and set it on the table for Babe to practice locating letters A-E on it. Due to Internet problems, we weren't able to do the online lesson, but I still had her learn the location of each letter. I had her practice typing them over and over, and then we moved to the iPad where I showed her the letters on this keyboard were in the exact same spots as on the other keyboard. I opened up at notepad app and had her practice there, too. Then she typed her name. Then practiced A-E again.

After her Checkpoint, I handed her "Snow" by Manya Stojic for her to read for her reading log. Such a cute book! The illustrations were so adorable. And at the end of the story she was able to recall how each animal reacted to the snow. Amazing.

And with that, the lessons was done. Add in a little PBS Kids and outside play in the chilly weather, and the day came to a close! Another busy and fulfilling day!