Showing Growth

Every year I take pics of O in my wedding dress.  It's fun to look back on the pictures from when she was a baby, and when she is an adult (or maybe a teenager) I'll make a book of the pictures to show her growth through the years.  She always has fun with this photo shoot, but she was a little pouty this year...the dress wasn't flared around her exactly like she wanted, and she thought it wasn't beautiful enough.



E was thrilled to be a part of this photo shoot, too!  I love these girls!!!



Here are pics from previous years...2009, 2008, and 2007.

Acorn Stew

O enjoys using her outdoor mortar and pestle (bought a couple of years ago from a yard sale) to grind acorns to make acorn stew!  Yummy! 
When she moved the mortar and pestle, there was a baby snake sleeping under it.  I briefly contemplated trying to catch it, but O was not at all interested and the snake slithered away quickly. 


Does anyone know what kind of snake this is?  I know very little about snakes, but I tried to get a close look at his eyes and head shape to see if he was poisonous, and I don't think he was.  However, I could be wrong...he moved quickly, and I was a little nervous :)

O's Charity Read-a-thon

O is experiencing a surge of interest in reading books lately, so I proposed the idea of a charity read-a-thon to her.  She will have sponsors pay her a specific amount of money for each book she reads. 

When we first started discussing the read-a-thon, she said "I think I'd like to keep the money."  I told her that was not an option, and we discussed St. Jude's Hospital and how nice it would be to help the children there.  Since O is very interested in all things medical, helping the children at St. Jude's is very appealing to her.  She also knows a little about St. Jude's and sees pictures of some of the children there often since her Guhguh and Grandpa support St. Jude's and have pictures of the children on their refrigerator. 

O will read books to for this read-a-thon until Christmas.  We will then collect the money and send a check to St. Jude's.  She is more and more excited about this everyday, and she was thrilled to tell her grandmother about it on the phone yesterday.  She's already talking about her next read-a-thon, and she's looking forward to researching other charities to support. 

O has been reading Bob books, Hooked on Phonics books, and books printed from Hubbard's Cupboard.  We only write books on her list that she has read completely independently.

 

Demolition!

We demolished our Haunted Cookie House on Tuesday, and O loved it!  She said it's more fun to demolish the house than to decorate it.  Although, she may have changed her mind after she hammered her finger!

E's Birthday Tablecloth

Here's an idea that I've wanted to share for a while.  My mom and I made white tablecloths for each of my girls for their first birthday parties.  Everyone at their parties signs, writes messages, and draws pictures on the tablecloths using fabric markers.  I trace around their hands each year and write their names and the year on the palms of their traced hands.   O's tablecloth has enough room for one more year of signatures and messages, and E's is just getting started.  This is a fun keepsake for the girls that I hope they will treasure for years to come.

Putting Clothes Pins in a Container

Here's another of E's favorite activities!  To make this activity, I cut a square opening in a 2 liter bottle and lined the edges with duct tape.  E puts the clothes pins in the top, and she takes them out of the bottle via the square opening.  Since her current interest is putting small objects into any and every container, this is the perfect activity for her.  The clothes pins catch on the rim of the bottle if she puts them in with the open end down, and it's fun to watch her think this through and figure out what to do.  Watching her focus on a task is so much fun!






After she finished working with the 2 liter container, she took her imbucare box from the shelf.  She enjoys putting her small animals in it, and on this day she put O's yogurt drink container in it (she carried the yogurt cotainer around ALL day).  She had fun putting the clothes pins in the yogurt container, too.



Then we put her small animals in a Coke box and closed the lid.  She kept opening the box and waving at the animals.  It was incredibly cute.  She is the friendliest baby, and she waves at everyone (and everything!) she sees.  I adore her.

Sticky!

E has had fun learning the concept of "sticky" this week!  I taped a large piece of contact paper with the sticky side out on our sliding glass door.  She loves to touch it, pat it, and pull it down (next time I'll used duct tape, so it won't come off so easily). 

We put various objects and toys on it to see if they would stick.  The kapla blocks stuck for hours, and clothes pins stuck for a few minutes.  Larger objects didn't stick at all :)  This is an activity that we will do often as I plan to show her how to put construction paper and tissue paper on the contact paper to make a collage next week.

Happy Halloween!

O was Laura Ingalls, I was Ma, and E was our cat.  What a fun Halloween!

Foam Haunted House

I bought this foam haunted house kit from Michael's last year after Halloween, and we were excited about putting it together.  I hope I never buy one of these again! (I have a hard time resisting really good deals, so I just need to stay away from after Halloween sales!)  It was NOT fun to put together.  It fell apart constantly as I built it.  However, O and my niece had a great time decorating it after I built it, so I guess it was worth it.

Making Caramel Apples

O and I had a great time making caramel apples for her Halloween party at school.  To make the caramel apples, we bought 2 14oz bags of caramels.  We removed the wrappers and put them in the crockpot along with a fourth cup of water.  We turned it on high and in about an hour and a half, the caramel was melted. 

O and I stuck the popsickle sticks into the apples.  I dipped the apples in the caramel, and O rolled them in sprinkles.  We put them on buttered (and flattened) cereal bags (instead of waxed paper) to cool. 



I put them in glass containers covered with saran wrap overnight, and when I checked them Thursday morning I noticed that I could see a lot of apple and not a lot of caramel.  I was in a hurry to go to work, so I didn't think much of it until a few hours later when it suddenly occurred to me that I should have refrigerated the apples overnight.  I called my mom, and she confirmed that the caramel had slid off of all of the apples.  Oops!  We'll be taking grapes and sliced apples for O's party!

Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

My niece, O and I had fun cleaning out the seeds out of a pumpkin and then carving it. 


While I made the pumpkin milkshakes, Elliott roasted the pumpkin seeds.  He roasted half with cinnamon and sugar and the other half with garlic.  The girls and Elliott loved the cinnamon and sugar seeds, but I thought the garlic seeds were delicious!

A Candy Corn Math Work

I gave O this set of Halloween foam stickers that have the numbers 1 to 10 written on them.  To complete the work, she was supposed to put the numbers in order and then put the correct number of candy corn under each number.  She enjoyed putting the numbers in order, but she was not interested in putting the correct number of candy corn under the numbers. 


Fast forward a couple of weeks, and I found this activity hidden in the top of the computer armoire...Elliott put it up there when he was cleaning the kitchen one night.  So, today I asked O if she was interested in this activity.  She wasn't that interested, but she really wanted to eat the candy corn.  I told her that she had to do the work before she ate the candy because we wouldn't have enough candy corn for the work if she ate it first.  So, she did it.   As she was working, she commented that the candy corn looked like the red rods.  She then commented in a surprised tone that 8 was the same length as 7.  I asked if she was sure, and she checked her work and realized that she had only put 7 pieces of candy corn under the 8.  She laughed and corrected herself.


As she worked, she excitedly chose the pieces of candy that she wanted to eat.  She was excited when she finished the work and had 2 pieces of candy left, and she immediately ate a piece.  I reminded her that she should have had the exact amount that she needed.  She checked her work and quickly realized that she had only put 7 pieces of candy corn under # 9.  She added a piece to make 8, but didn't have enough to make 9.  I was surprised by how upset she was that her work was not correct.  I told her it was ok, and reminded her to check her work before eating the candy next time.  Then we each ate several pieces of candy corn...I admit it...I have a candy corn addiction :)

Fun with Foam Pumpkins

Foam pumpkins are on sale at Michael's, and we bought several for various projects (we actually had more projects than pumpkins, so THANKS to Auntie EB for giving us another pumpkin!).  E LOVES to carry them around the house, and she always seems amazed that she can actually pick them up and carry them. 

I punched holes in the pumpkin, so she could put eyes, ears, noses, and mouths in it.  She liked pulling the pieces out, and they were much easier to remove than the Mr. Potato Head pieces.  However, she can't put them in by herself, but she doesn't mind.




The pumpkin will replace Mr. Potato Head on our shelves for a while.   Another great thing about the pumpkin is that all the pieces will fit nicely inside of him (once I find the time to cut the top off).

Pumpkin Pie Milkshake

After trying a pumpkin pie milkshake while on O's field trip, I knew we'd have to try to make them at home!  They are easy and delicious to make.  You need canned pumpkin, vanilla ice cream, pumpkin pie spice, heavy cream, and milk. 


We used my mom's bullet blender to make the milkshakes.  I put in about 3 or 4 scoops of ice cream, 1/4 cup of milk, 1/4 tsp of pumpkin pie spice, and 2 heaping tablespoons of canned pumpkin and blended it until it was smooth.   We topped the milkshakes with fresh whipped cream (we briefly blended heavy cream in the blender).



The milkshakes were delicious, and the girls LOVED them!!! Pumpkin pie milkshakes are a new fall tradition at our house!

A Fairy Dress by Sarah's Silks...A Review AND a Giveaway!!!

Sarah from Sarah's Silks sent us a beautiful silk fairy dress for O to try.  O LOVES it!  It is beautiful, and O loves to wear it to fly around the yard.  Playsilks are our all time favorite "toys," and we love the silk dress-up clothes, too. 


The fairy dress is made of soft heavy weight silk with georgette rainbow wings attached. It is easy for O to put on and take off, and the wings have handles to make flying a little easier. 



Sarah's Silks is offering a silk dress-up costume to one lucky reader.  The winner will choose between a pink or purple fairy dress, a gold knight costume, or a wizard cape.  




I'm going to make entering the giveaway slightly more challenging than usual.  This time you have to go to the Sarah's Silks website and look around the site.  Come back here and leave a comment telling me what your favorite Sarah's Silk item is...that's simple enough, right? 

Also, if you go to the Sarah's Silks facebook page and "like" it, come back and let me know in order to have a second chance at the giveaway.  This review is open to everyone (not just US residents!!!).  O will choose a winner on Friday night (October 29).  Please make sure to leave your email address in order to make contacting you simple if you are the winner.  Thanks!