Chore Chart

I finally had time to come up with a chore list for Isabella. Her chore list includes:

1) Cleaning her princess table

2) Emptying out the bathroom trash

3) Cleaning the bathroom mirrors

4) Water and food for the pets

5) Help with the bathrooms

6) Help put away laundry

7) Putting things away

8) Emptying out the dishwasher

9) Putting clothes in her hampter

Most days, she is receptive to the idea of being mama's helper. Other days, she says, "I am busy" or "You do it!". She is earning stickers for each chore she accomplishes or when she is being helpful. So far the stickers have been enough. My next step will be to give her quarters when she has a lot of stickers on her chore chart. She alreadyemptied out the bathroom trash pretty much unsupervised! We were so proud!

You can make your own Kids' Chore Chart at:

www.goalforit.com

Preschool

We have been talking about it for months and it is finally here! Jelly Belly's first day of preschool. What a big girl! Here we go!!

First pic taken...It really helped to go to the open house on Friday! She walked right in and started playing!

Ginny and Bella....MINE!!

Bella and her new teacher:

Deciding which preschool Jelly Belly would attend was a tough one to make. We visited and toured a few. We decided to go with Angele's Preschool Program. It was the only preschool that let us visit for an entire morning so Isabella had a chance to participate while I sat back. I love the fact that is only three times a week, three hours a day. The day we visited, they transferred cocoons to the buttefly tent and she absolutelty loved it. She still talks about it. Angele's preschool is an in-home preschool very close to our house. We will love this since she has to be there at 8:30 a.m. She is attending with her good friend Ginny and a few other kids she knows from the Rancho Santa Fe Mommy-Coop that we belong to. I am sure this will ease the transition to being away from home or grandma's house. There were no tears today! When I picked her up she was happy to see me and right away took out her first project from her backpack. She also took me outside to show me the finger painting she had done. She came home with a Clifford book she checked out from Angele's library. Her face was full of chocolate from her fudsicle. She said she helped clean up, played with play-do and a jump rope and that it was a lot of fun. I feel very comfortable with her new teacher and I am looking forward to her new world of learning without mommy. Let's hope for the same on Wednesday!

Art Project

Here's is a fun and super easy art project! I had a bag full of those foamy things that are used for packaging, I don't even know what to call them....She loved touching and playing with them since she had never seen them before. Great for texture...then she painted them. We used finger paints and acrylics.

We waited for them to dry a bit before gluing them on a piece of foam paper.

The finished project!! It is now hanging on her playroom's wall!

The letter F

F is for Feather! Isabella is getting really good at recognizing sounds. The feathers kept her entertained and we had a lot of fun playing with them afterwards.

Today, I let her pick which letter she wanted to do. Turned out to be a great choice. Earlier we had visited "As You Wish", Pottery Painting Place and painted a frog.

F is for feather, frog, five, four, fingers, fox, funny, fork......

For detailed instructions on how to make this project, check out one of my favorite sites:

Our trip

We are back in Arizona and adjusting to the heat! Jelly belly had a lot of fun in Costa Rica. I am so glad she is becoming an international traveler at such a young age. She surprised us when she compared Costa Rica to the Bahamas, it was a great geography lesson for all of us. Jelly Belly got to spend time with "Tita" (my mother-in-law), Tia Diana and her cousins. She also felt the warmth of extended family, picked up a few Spanish words, visited the beach and a volcano we could not see. We survived our flights, our layovers, car trips and everything else. Giving her new toys was a huge success, she now loves Polly Pockets. They kept her very busy when there was nothing to do at the airport and long car rides. Highly recommend them! There was a lot of C-A-N-D-Y, fruit snacks, gum and movies, and she even tried soda for the first time! Flexibility is the key to a great vacation! I can only wish that someday she will eat Costa Rican food because it is delicious and very similar to what I grew up eating in Nicaragua.

One of our very first pics that was taken on a very long drive to the beach:

Here is the beach we visited and the beautiful sunset we saw:

Here she is with Santi, they got along instantly and so well considering the language barrier.... "I love candy" is something they will both remember!

Here she is holding a crab, not scared at all:

Spent lots of time with daddy:

Hung with the cousins, Andrew and Adrian:

Visited Tito...which raised some tough questions we will soon address:

Where is the volcano?? It's supposed to be behind them...

We couldn't see the lagoon...

Here she is feeding a squirrel:

MOO MOO, she saw cows everywhere including outside of Tita's house:

She was ready to come home and see her Grandmee & Grandpee and of course the puppies. She missed her toys, her room, her crib, but she overall she did great. Now it's time for routine! We are still unpacking. We have reviewed our rules and we are getting ready for her first day of school on Monday. Trying to get her up and ready by 8:30 a.m. will be quite the challenge.