The Art Shelf...

seems to be in a constant state of disarray! We must do better!



I'm hoping this post will motivate me to get a little more organized :)

Making Easter Bunny Smores

After seeing this post, I decided that O and I would make these Easter Bunny Smores as a welcome gift for my sister and niece who are visiting us during their Spring Break. O loves candy (but doesn't get much of it), so she was THRILLED! First, we put in the m & m's (we typically avoid artificial dyes, but we make exceptions, especially for holidays). O reminded me so much of myself (and my mom and sister) when she picked up a broken m & m and said "Oh, I should eat this one since it's broken!" She also really enjoyed putting the peeps into the jar, and she made sure to lick her fingers after each one. I hope Mem and M don't mind a few O germs :) We poured 1 and a 1/4 cups of m & m's into the bottom of the jar, and then put 8 peeps on top of the m & m's.








 
Hammering the graham crackers was also lots of fun! The recipe calls for a sleeve of crushed graham crackers. After they were crushed, we put them in a baggie with a 1/3 cup of brown sugar.



Here is our finished jar of Easter Bunny Smores! O was SO proud and excited to present the jar to my sister and niece when they arrrived at our house on Tuesday afternoon.




The girls and I cooked the smores this morning, and they were yummy! Luckily, both girls fit in the Kitchen Helper, which makes cooking MUCH easier! They took turns pouring the m & m's into the bowl (I switched the mixture to a mason jar since it was bigger and looked nicer. However, I still couldn't fit the baggie of graham crackers and brown sugar into the jar).



They enjoyed pulling the bunny peeps into small pieces, but I had to watch them closely because they wanted to eat any peeps that were stuck to their fingers, and they ALL stuck to their fingers!



We added a 1/2 cup (1 stick) of melted butter and a tsp of vanilla to the mixture and stirred.



I pressed the mixture into a greased 9 inch baking dish and baked it at 350 for about 15 minutes. It came out crumbly, but delicious!!!

Her Obsession Continues...

O LOVES Obama! Her infatuation with him is hilarious :) It started when we watched the inaugeration. She knew it was a big deal since we NEVER turn the tv on during the day. Ever since then, she gets SO excited when she sees Obama on the news. She says "there's Obama. there's Obama!" Sometimes she waves at him and then sadly asks "why Obama not wave at me?" She obviously hasn't had too much experience with tv :) When we hear Elliott come home from work, she sometimes says "it might be Obama!" A few days ago, she continued to pretend he was Obama after he came in and called him "Obama" all night. It was hilarious! She insisted that Guh-guh help her spell Obama's name using the plush letters on Friday (while Ell and I were packing for our trip).

Shoes, Shoes, Shoes

Recently O has started purposely wearing her shoes on the wrong feet. She's says "it feels funny!" Ell was a little hesitant to let her walk around the hotel with her shoes on the wrong feet because he was afraid we'd look like neglectful parents :)

She also loves to wear "mismatched shoes." She thinks this is hilarious!

A Mini Vacation

We decided to take a mini vacation (using credit card points for 3 free hotel nights!) for my birthday weekend. The highlight of the trip was the indoor pool at the hotel! Every morning, O woke up saying "I'm ready to go to the pool!" It rained all day on Sunday, and we were glad since it gave us a good excuse to hang out at the hotel all day to swim and sleep. We took a 3 hour family nap, which was wonderful :) Elliott and I were glad for O to get more experience swimming since the lake will soon be warm enough for swimming.




On Monday we went to an art museum which had a children's section. I was glad to finally take O to an art museum, and we all really enjoyed ourselves. O and Ell are playing with the Kapla blocks. O enjoyed herself, but Ell REALLY enjoyed himself. I think he may get a set of Kapla blocks for his birthday!



Ell's masterpiece (with a little help from O and me).



My favorite part of the museum was this magnetic sculpture wall. O was very engaged in this activity. I'd love to somehow replicate this at our house :)

Salad Spinner Art

Hooray! We finally made salad spinner art! This activity has been on my to-do list since last summer, but I didn't have a salad spinner. Last week when we were at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house, we borrowed my sister's salad spinner for the activity.



O enjoyed the activity, but my almost 5 year old niece LOVED this activity! I think she would have continued making art for hours and hours if we hadn't had to stop for lunch.


 
We used food coloring since my sister plans to use her salad spinner for salad eventually. We learned that the food coloring spreads better if you use only one color at a time and quickly put the top on and spin it. Otherwise, the food coloring soaks into the paper too much and won't spread as you spin the salad spinner.

More on Teaching Spanish...

Thanks to everyone for your responses to my teaching Spanish post! Boca Beth sent us free materials to try and then review on the blog (we'll start with these materials on Tuesday). I am really excited about this since O and I have both enjoyed a Boca Beth song on youtube. I am also intrigued by the Little Pim series, and O and I have watched the videos on youtube. I am interested in Flip Flop Spanish and Teach Them Spanish. If anyone has used either of these books, I would love to hear what you think!

99 Cents Shipping at Let's Explore!

Just in case you don't know already, Let's Explore has 99 cents shipping until Monday. I am a sucker for shipping deals (and free shipping, of course), and I thought some of you might be, too :) I REALLY don't need to buy anything, but I may get a few art supplies for O for her birthday since I have trouble resisting a good shipping deal. I think these window crayons would be great for her since the majority of our house is made up of large glass doors. Also, O is getting an art tote for her birthday (that I bought from Let's Explore last summer along with the crayon rocks and bird rubbing plates. I tend to buy waayyyyyyyyyyy ahead of time!), so the crayons will go nicely with the tote. I'm also thinking of getting these crayons and this sticker scene. So...now I'm going to spend a little while trying to talk myself out of buying anything, but then I'll probably place my order tomorrow :) I'll justify it since it's my birthday, and it makes me happy to buy fun things for my little sweetie.

Playgroup Fun

O went to her 1st playgroup ever today (Tuesday), and she LOVED it! O and I are visiting Guh-guh and Grandpa (we try to come here every 2 weeks or so), and my sister and niece really wanted us to go to playgroup with them, so Guh-guh, O, and I met them at M's school and headed over to the church where the playgroup is held. O was a little nervous when I 1st told her about it, and she asked "will you stay with me in the classroom?" After I explained that I wouldn't leave, she was excited.

We all ate lunch and then the kids played and played. O seemed a little taken aback by all of the kids at first. (She's never been around that many children at one time). Then she jumped right in and had a great time playing (I was relieved that it seems that she hasn't inherited my shyness :), and she's been talking about playgroup ever since. She's ready to go back!

I feel guilty that we live in such an isolated area and that she doesn't get to interact with other kids very often. We used to go to storytime at the library weekly, but our children's librarian moved, and they didn't replace her. Now we don't have any scheduled outings :( However, I think we may be coming to Guh-guh and Grandpa's more often (maybe even every week!), so that we can go to playgroup with Mem and M! Thanks, Mem and M for inviting us!!!

Stergonostic Bag

To do this activity you need a bag with matching geometric pairs. I have a bin of wooden items that I ordered from Casey's Wood Supply, and they seemed perfect for this activity. The child wears a blindfold and uses her sense of touch to find matching objects.


 
I introduced the stergonostic bag to O on Sunday afternoon. She seemed to enjoy it and did fairly well. On Monday, she had more difficulty and didn't want to wear the blindfold.





 
The Tinies often join in on our Montessori fun!