Our Fun Morning

Our cousin, Anne, called last night and asked us to meet her out at the horse farm. O was SO EXCITED. We met Bucky and patted his velvety nose, but the highlight of the trip was meeting a newborn (about a month old) foal. O couldn't wait to see the "niney" horse, and she was excited to see the baby drinking his "milkies ilkies."

Party Food

I finally got the pictures of the food from O's party from my mom, and I wanted to share a few things. These apple "cupcakes" were a big hit, and they were healthy, too! We'll definitely make these again next year! The idea came from here. (This picture was taken after a few of them were knocked off the cupcake tree, and we didn't get them back on quite right!)
Yummy Cheerio Treats (whole grain) with sprinkles.
Cheerio treats, vegetable tray (grape tomatoes, cucumbers, bell pepper), forgotten cookies with Andes mint chips, sugar cookies, and pimento cheese spread with whole grain Ritz crackers.
Apple "cupcakes" and whole grain goldfish. O's birthday cake was a delicious carrot cake made by her grandma, and we had homemade ice-cream sandwiches. The ice-cream sandwiches were delicious, but lots of work. Next year, I think we might just buy ice-cream sandwiches, unwrap them, and roll them in sprinkles. Yep...I'm already planning next year's party!

Edited to add: I realized after I'd posted this that I hadn't given my mom nearly enough credit! In addition to making O's birthday cake, she made the cookies for the ice cream sandwiches, the sugar cookies, the forgotten cookies, and the cheerio treats. O helped with everything, and I was busy cleaning, painting O's chalkboard, painting O's playhouse, and finishing the pinata. O's grandmother made the pimento cheese, and my friend, Emily, decorated O's cake and the apple cupcakes. We are so lucky to have such wonderful family and friends!

Buddha Board

O's grandmother gave her a Buddha Board for her birthday, and we LOVE it! Its a lot like an aqua doodle, but MUCH cooler! It looks a little like a laptop, which is fun for O. It comes with a paintbrush, and you simply paint and draw with water. O is learning to use a "light touch" because the lines are much darker and smoother if you use a light touch. She was VERY excited when she discovered that she could dip her fingers in the water and draw with them, too. I also really like drawing on the Buddha Board, and I've actually used it a lot more than O over the past few days. I highly recommend this product! Thanks, Grandmother!

O's 1st Pattern

O played on the screened porch while I fixed breakfast this morning, and when I went out there I saw these shoes that she lined up. This picture is actually upside down from the way we were looking at the shoes, and the last red one (the 1st red shoe in the picture) was not lined up. I told her that she'd made a pattern (we've never talked about patterns before!), and I asked which shoe came next. She said red, and put the shoe in its place. You can't ask for a better material for making patterns than crocs!

Homemade Christmas

I've been reading about people getting ready for Christmas on several blogs lately. At 1st I was surprised, but now I realize that I REALLY need to get started if I want to have everything made in time without a lot of stress. I wasn't planning on starting until October, but I realize now that is too late! Here's my list for O: baby doll cradle (Elliott will help with this one), baby doll quilt, baby doll diaper bag (my mom will help with those), playdoh (pumpkin pie scented, cinnamon scented, and gingerbread scented), memory game (using scrapbook paper decopaged onto wooden pieces), frog and lily pad game, a couple of books, felt play food, etc. I also plan on making (with O's help) gifts for her grandparents and aunts and uncles. I can't list them here since they all read this blog :) What are you planning on making for Christmas gifts this year?

Paper Plate Tambourine

The idea and instructions for this activity came from this blog. 1st O painted 2 identical paper plates. After they were dry, she put penne pasta on one plate, and I gave her the 2nd plate to put on top. After she put it on top, I stapled them together. Easy, quick, and fun!
Now she has another piece to add to her bowl of music!

Coloring with a Friend

O was VERY excited when we came upstairs this morning and saw that her cousin had left her baby doll here. The doll (whose name is Cindy Lou Who, but O calls her Madeline) played, colored, and ate with O this morning. They had a great time!

Phonics Pouch Swap

We received our package full of phonics swap goodies for our phonics pouches a few days ago! Our favorites are the tiny food (O and her cousin loved feeding the food to their tiny dolls!) and the paper ball. I also love the bag! Thanks, Jo and Olivia!
Here's the link to O's phonics bags, and these are the directions for introducing them to your child.

Tray Tuesday

We forgot about Muffin Tin Monday, so we planned to do it on Tuesday. My sister didn't like the looks of my muffin tins, so we decided to have Tray Tuesday! Its not quite as fun as Muffin Tin Monday, but it worked for us! O had stewed grape tomatoes with bell peppers served on brown rice, crab and pasta salad, tomatos, cucumbers, avocados, and banana peppers, and grilled chicken and yellow squash.
My niece had basically the same thing, but she also has dip-dip for her cucumbers and tomatoes and for her chicken. I added O's dip-dip later.

Making Chalkboard Paint & Slime

Since we have a new chalkboard, we thought it would be fun to make chalkboard paint. We used these instructions.

O practiced her pouring skills by 1st pouring 1/4 cup of cornstarch into a bowl. She then poured in 1/4 cup of water. She stirred a little, then I helped her mix it together well.
She chose to make her paint blue since its her favorite color. I thought the blue was really pretty when she was stirring in the food coloring.
My niece also joined us in this fun activity.
The kids had fun painting on the chalkboard, but the red paint was the only color that really showed up.
After painting for a while, we poured more cornstarch in a dish, added some water, and had LOTS of fun making slime. I think my sister and I may have had more fun than the kids :)
These were definitely activities that you want to do outside! We just used a garden hose to rinse everthing off, so the cleanup was fast and easy.

Here's their artwork. Beautiful, right?

A Few Birthday Party Activities

I had several different activities set up around the yard during O's birthday party.
O's birthday ring- I LOVE her birthday ring. It makes me happy to just look at it :)

O is decorating her hat and bag with fabric markers. The kids used the bags for their pinata prizes.
Playing in the sandbox was fun!
The kids loved the pool. They floated and fished with a magnetic rod and reel fishing set that I bought from Target (for 4 dollars!).

DIY Gigantic Outdoor Chalkboard

One of my goals for O's birthday party was to make a huge outdoor chalkboard. I barely made it...I was still painting it at around 12:00, and the party started at 3pm. It was fairly easy to make.
1st- buy 1 piece of treated plywood and cut it to the desired size
2nd- paint the plywood with primer. You may want to sand it first. I painted ours with 2 coats of primer, and it still had rough spots that I filled in outdoor wood filler. Then I had to wait for the wood filler to dry, sand it, then paint another coat of primer. After 3 coats of primer, I painted the board with chalk paint
3rd- I taped off a border with masking tape, and then painted it with 2 coats of chalkboard paint.
4th- After the chalkboard paint dried, I pulled off the masking tape and painted the border red. I painted 2 or 3 coats on the border.
The kids loved drawing on the chalkboard at O's party, and its also lots of fun erasing the chalk with water using paint brushes.

Baking for the Party

My mom came to stay with us for a few days before O's party to help us get ready. Thanks, Guh-guh! My mom and O are baking peanut butter cookies to use for the ice-cream sandwiches
Mixing up Cheerio treats with sprinkles
Making #2 sugar cookies
O was very proud of these cookies, and she definitely know the number 2 now! She kept asking for "more number 2 cookie, please."
Decorating the cookies.

Making a Pinata

We've been working all week to get ready for O's birthday party. One of our projects was making a pinata. It was easy and fun, and O thoroughly enjoyed herself. We'll definitely do this again!

1st we mixed 2 cups of flour with 3 cups of water
Then we dipped strips of torn newspapers into the mixture
We squeezed some of the excess water out
We then smoothed the pieces of newspaper out onto the balloon. After we covered the entire balloon, we let it dry. Then we put a second layer of paper mache on the balloon.
After the balloon was dry, we painted it green (O's choice). Then she and Guh-guh painted different colored polka dots on it. I added strings and a cup last night to make it into a hot air balloon. Its simple and not that pretty, but the kids LOVED it!

Homemade Sound Cylinders

I made these homemade sound cylinders using lotion containers that my mom, sister, and I have been saving for about a year (specifically for this purpose). Each container has a match, and I put lentils in 2, marbles in 2, and bells in 2. There are stickers on the bottoms of the containers, so that O can self check to see if she is correct. Here are directions for this work. We've done this work once, and it didn't go well. O was not at all interested in listening to the sound cylinders, and she only wanted to open the containers. We'll try it again once we start back with our Montessori school in a few weeks (or whenever the new shelf is built!).