Math for 1-2 graders

Emily loves math! Probably more then anything else at school  and we are working on it with her all the time, even during her summer break. There are a lot of different work books you can get, different printable pages etc. But we have our 3 favorites and I will talk a little bit about them.

Math Bingo

Grocery shopping with kids - few ways to have fun

Sometimes it can be very challenging. It's like testing the limits of your patience and sanity. But there are few ways of making it a fun family play time. I will write about some of the ways we tried.
 Grocery store scavenger hunt.
                                                     

Jeremy is 8 months old

Yesterday Jeremy turned 8 months old. It feels like time went way too fast. I perfectly remember the day he was born and the day we got to take him home from the NICU.
Today he is a perfect little boy, growing healthy and strong.
He is exclusively breastfeed baby and I am proud of both of us for making it that far.
Right now he is 15 lb 6 oz , he gained 10 lb 6 oz since birth. Getting some baby rolls :)
He can sit all by himself. Loves loves loves to jump! Standing perfectly straight if you holding him.
Nights are still long for us, he is awake every 2.5-3 hours at night to eat.
He is my first baby who doesn't like baby pureed food.... But he loves small pieces of chicken, mashed potatoes, bread, cucumber, watermelon, peaches, apricots, honeydew.

Georgian cheese bread

This is a lazy version for Georgian traditional cheese bread. Not a very healthy, but delicious and not too bad occasionally.

Thin waffles with toppings

This is my kids favorite breakfast. It takes a while to make but so worth it.

First you will need a waffle maker, and not the one for Belgium waffles. I have Rival waffle maker  for about 5 years now and never had any problems with it. But if you search on Amazon you can find more of the same type.

Homemade pizza on the stove

We made this pizza yesterday and it was delicious!  Few people asked for the recipe so I will post it here in English and Russian.

Ingredients
 2 eggs / 2 яйца
4 table spoons of mayo  / 4 столовые ложки майонеза
4 table spoons of sour cream / 4 столовые ложки сметаны
9 table spoons of flour / 9 ст ложек муки
cheese / сыр
sausage, hot dogs, salami (any topping you want) / сосиски, колбаса, ветчина или любая другая начинка
tomato / помидор
                               

Shutterfly photo book

This order was my first experience with Shutterfly and I am pretty happy.

We have a lot of pictures, some of them are still just sitting on my computer or portable drive, some are printed and in an old fashion photo albums. I guess it was time to try something different and now I am addicted to it!
It was very easy to make your photo book there. All you have to do is upload pictures. Then you can arrange them your self or pick the easy way - let Shuttefly do it. You can see the result immediately and can change anything you want. You can pick your own theme, layout, picture size etc. There are few different sizes for photo book, hard and soft cover. And as a huge plus - they always have some kind of promotion going on. For example now, all photo books are at 50% off and today you can get additional 20% off of your total order. If you visit sites like Ebates you also will get some cash back. I use it for almost every online order for different stores, pretty good and easy savings.
I picked 8x8 hard cover photo book and after all coupons and promotions, with shipping and taxes I only paid $7.32 total. You can get a free shipping on orders of $39.
Quality is really nice, a lot of different templates to customize your book, fast shipping.

Mother's rooms

I did not breastfeed my first two for two long and this topic wasn't interesting to me, but this time it is. Jeremy is EBF (exclusively breastfeed baby). 99% of everything he gets is my milk. He is almost 8 months (will be on the 25) but we don't do solid food as a full meal and won't be until he is at least one years old. But because of this, he needs me 24/7. I can't leave him at home, not like I really want to.  It is really nice of some stores to make a Mother's room. There are rocking chairs in it, sofa, changing tables. The one in Babiesrus even offered a bottle warmer. I don't mind to feed in public, I have my cover, but Jeremy doesn't like it. So most of the time I have to go back to the car to feed him. This rooms are life savers! Most of the Malls have this room, Ikea does, Babiesrus and Buy Buy Baby.
This one is in Babiesrus last week.

                                 

Pick your own blueberry

This is like our family tradition already, every year we go to Washington farm to pick our own berries. In April we got strawberries and in June-July it was blueberry season.
This farm is great! Very clean, big and not crowded. For blueberries we came at the end of the season, so we had to look for berries, but it still took about 30 minutes to get 1 gallon bucket.

Explore Gwinnett - Rabbit Hill Park

Amenities of this park include - 109 acres, 8 youth soccer fields, 2.5 mile paved trail, multi-purpose field, grill, restrooms, sand volleyball court, playground, pavilion, dog park, river channel. basketball court and seven baseball/softball fields.
It is a great park which has been recently upgraded and renovated.
Rabbit Hill has three different fenced dog areas. One for small dogs ( under 20 lb), one for large dogs (21 lb and more) and one dog run for dogs of any size.
Excellent walking trails. Kids can ride their bikes there.
Very nice location of the playground with a scenic view of the lake and a river channel for kids to play in. It could use a little more shaded area around the playground for parents to sit. Same with the river channel, there are 2 benches and both on the sun. There are few picnic tables nearby but you can't really see your kids from there.
Overall is it a very pleasant park, very clean and well kept. Nice unique water play area and a lot of parking.

Exploring Gwinnett - Tribble Mill Park

This park is located near Archer High School. It is a huge and extremely scenic park, more then 700 acre land and it was privately owned until late 1990's when Gwinnett County purchased it. There are two lakes - Ozora and Chandler Lake and there is a large meadow called Ozora Meadow that can accommodate up to 3500 people for large events.  The eastern side of Ozora Lake has a 3.4 mile paved loop trail. There are also a few dirt trails that connect to the mail loop, about 12 miles of non-paved trails. Ozora Meadow located right next to the lake, the center point of the park and includes a playground for kids, picnic pavilion, public restrooms. Playground is very big and nice. Separate area for smaller kids. Two slides was closed for repair on the big kids section. There are lots of geese and ducks walking around the playground and the lake.
There is a boat dock where you can launch non-motorized boat and do some fishing or just swim around.

Overall park is very peaceful, very private and quiet.

Bacon wrapped breadsticks

                                

Cheesy Cheddar crackers

This is one of my kids favorites. Crackers are extremely easy to make and with very simple ingredients.

Disney's Port Orleans Riverside

I will start writing some of the reviews for recently visited places.
Disney's Port Orleans Resort - Riverside

We stayed at this hotel at the end of May 2015 for 6 days. We were a family of 6, my mom went with us. So 3 adults and 3 kids, one of them is infant.
Hotel is pretty large, so think of it when you book it. From some buildings it can be 10 minutes walk to the main building. Grounds looks gorgeous and even if you do have to walk, there is always something to look at.

About us

We are a family of 5, living in Atlanta's suburbs.
Me - I am Maria. I was born in Moscow, Russia and lived there most of my life. I came in the US as an Au-pair, like a nanny program for international students. English is not my mail language, but I hope I still will be able to blog in it.
My husband is american. He was born in Atlanta area and never left it.
Emily - she is our oldest, currently 7 years old and starting 2nd grade. She is a very sweet, loving and tender. She loves her baby brother and willing to share everything with him.
Ashley - She is 4 years old. Very kind and generous.
Jeremy - he is our baby. He was born at 34 weeks and 1 day and spent 2 weeks in the NICU. Right now he is 7 months old. My precious little boy, such a mamma's baby :) He is fully breastfed baby.