Weekly Wrap-Up! {The one about Madeline with Lapbook}

Whew, to say we are exhausted is an understatement for this week!

First off, our baby girl, CeCe turns 1 tomorrow, so we had her birthday party this weekend! It was such a sweet little party for such a sweet little girl. I still cannot believe how FAST this first year has flown by!! I now understand when people say having multiple children causes the years to pass exponentially---it is true!

 This is a little bit of the banner I made for her birthday. I even have the "proof" that she has been here for 12 months, but I still cannot believe it, ha, ha!!

Here is our sweet little Ce Ce with her proud parents at the party!

OK, so we also had a productive week of homeschool. Our girls LOVE the Madeline Books, so we decided to really focus on that and make a lapbook as well. 

 "And the smallest one was Madeline."

 The girls had fun learning about France. Geography, landmarks, language and food (of course). We built an Eiffel tower out of pretzels and cheese and also made some crepes (sorry, no pics). Next time, we will have to make fondue again---yummy!

 Elle did an amazing job on this Rhyme Time book. She put the whole thing together herself and wrote out words that rhymed with words from the Madeline book!

 If for nothing else, Em LOVED the fact that Madeline starts with the letter M!! It inspired her to keep writing M's over.and.over.and.over again--hey, it worked:) She was so proud of her work!

 I actually found a little Madeline doll and book on Ebay for an insanely cheap price. It is so cute--it even has a "scar" on her belly! The girls love talking about this. I have a really ugly keloided scar where I had to have a tumor removed 6 years ago. The girls always ask me about it and this was fun to see a doll have a "scar like Mommy!"

 In the original Madeline story, she has to have her appendix taken out and stays in the hospital. The girls from her school (orphanage) come to visit her and bring her flowers. 

The girls had an amazing time making tissue paper flower and arranging them in vases. We also decided to decorate CeCe's birthday party with the flowers Elle and Em made-they were so proud!!

Em had so much fun arranging the pipe cleaners. She slid buttons on them and made all kinds of abstract floral arrangements--too creative and cute!

Elle continues to improve in her spelling and language arts. This is a WONDERFUL book we found for 29 cents!! It each spiral flips through the alphabet (a-z) so you can form 4-letter words. There are photos at the bottom that suggest words to spell. Elle loves doing this book!

 I just couldn't resist posting this pic--the girls LOVE reading together;-)

 I have tried to be creative in getting Elle to write more. She really does a great job, but find it tedious if I give her a workbook to continue to write it if it involves tracing. My girl does not want to trace, just write, lol. So, I got her a little notebook. She loves to go around the house and write down things she sees. She will write words, phrases, pictures, lots of things. Here she has written from 1-50 on her own--I did not help her at all. She even self-corrected her 9 on the top line and started over (she's a perfectionist like her Mom:)

 And, speaking of flowers. My younger brother is getting married this year! He is so sweet! He came over to officially ask the girls to be his flower girls in the wedding. He brought them roses and a card---they are so excited!!!!!

It reads "Will you be my flower girl?" He is so romantic--he will make a great husband!

 Of course, we spent some time at the library!

 And, our local Children's Science Museum.

This table was perfect practice for our upcoming week--full of lessons on Manners!

Have a wonderful week!!

Blessings,

Aria:)