How I spent Sunday afternoon.....

I made multiplcation and addition tables! The pictures are both of the multiplication ones, but the addition ones look exactly the same only with a plus in t he upper left hand corner. I'm sure you can get the idea. I've got them all cut out, and laminated, now I just need to cut them from the lamination. This will allow the children to do the drill with a dry erase marker, and use them over and over and over. I made the blocks pretty big for the beginning ones (thinking I can use the beginning addition ones in a few years when the littlest one starts and the squares will be big enough for a preschooler to write in), and smaller on the full ones. The cards that say 1234X1234, have a 1234X5678, and a 5678X5678 counterpart as well.


I also have to say that I spent part of the afternoon working on my "Daisy Friends", from www.makingfriends.com. I'm using them for my Daisy Kaper chart this year thanks to another awesome leader who shared the idea, which she got from another awesome leader on the web. They are turning out really cute, I have 4 out of 5 done. And, we might have a 6th girl joining, but I have enough friends printed that it'll be a matter of gluing to get hers done. This is a really cute idea.

I also spent part of the day preparing for dinner. We're having a special birthday dinner at my mom's house. Yesterday was her birthday and the girls are totally excited to make her "Fake Bake Ziti"; You can find the recipe here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_29012,00.html So, if they are cooking what was I preparing you ask yourself. Well, since we'll be at Grandma's, I know they don't want to spend TOO much time in the kitchen, so to save them some time I grated the cheese, and cubed the mozzarella for them. Oh, I also cut up apples for an easy apple cobbler, a recipe I got here:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1637,150181-243205,00.html

This is one of those days that I'm going to look back on when I lie in bed tonight and feel like I got SO much accomplished! (I also went to the grocery store this morning!) Of course, I have been up since 4:30am. Apparently that's the key! If we'd all just get up at 4:30 in the morning, we'd get so much more done! Oh, and I got a 5 hour stretch of sleep last night...yes I said 5 hours in one stretch! Gooo me. I can thank my gorgeous 8 month old boy for both of these phenomenon.