Mother's Day at Dairy Queen

Took a field trip to DQ to celebrate Mother's Day with the fam.  Needless to say, Claire and Audrey like chocolate ice cream cones... 

Loving these Girls...

Last week we were down and out with some sort of nasty bug. I am incredibly thankful that everyone is feeling back to normal. We are enjoying BEAUTIFUL weather and spending time outside. A big accomplishment around here has been Claire's independence at playgrounds. She has gotten so much more stable on her feet and loves doing the equipment all by herself. I frequently hear, "I do it myself, Mommy." I am so proud of her.



Audrey has really started talking now. Her favorite word is most definitely "no." She says it all. the. time. Rivaling that is the word "up." She is a snuggler and loves to be held with her favorite possession...her blanket. We love her and can't believe how quickly she is growing up.

Spring has Sprung

Hooray for warmer weather! Sadly...when I say warmer I only mean slightly above freezing but I will take it! On Tuesday I was so inspired by the sunshine that I chose to take the girls to the Como Zoo. I realized pretty quickly that I was slightly over zealous and perhaps an outdoor zoo was not the best idea on a 37 degree day. :) Nonetheless, the girls had a blast.

Yesterday, we had a play date with some friends. Claire and Audrey love getting together with these girls...even though their faces do not reflect their true excitement...

Turkey Hand Feathers

I should really think of better names for the activities that I do. Names that sound exciting would be much better. I am not the most creative person in the world so these names work.

Today we completed our art project from yesterday. I made Audrey's project first. I did this for two reasons. First, Audrey is not able to use a glue stick yet. Second, I want Claire to be able to practice following directions from a model. Most of our projects allow her to do whatever she would like but sometimes it is good for her to see a finished project and follow directions from that. She did great! While Claire worked on the turkey Audrey painted with water on construction paper. She loved it! My friend gave me that idea and it was awesome and paint wasn't everywhere when we were done.

Jello

Today I decided it was again time for another cooking project. My original plan was for us to make pudding together. However I saw a box of jello in my cupboard and thought that would be something fun and different. (I also remembered that I had some oh-so-adorable individual jello molds.) Claire really enjoys cooking and baking with me but Audrey makes it a little more difficult. Today Audrey slept a little longer than usual and we were able to finish the whole project without any distractions. :)

Clearly something I did not think about was that Jello is not something that is ready immediately for tasting. Claire loved making it until she realized she couldn't eat it right away. The last picture is how our project ended. Perhaps pudding would have been better. :)

Circle Painting

To emphasize what we learned about circles yesterday, we will be finger painting circle shapes. We are in the midst of potty training and I needed an easy art project. Finger paint is so popular in this house and it doesn't require much prep from me. Love it!

Frog Sorting

Today's little activity is sorting frogs. Sorting fosters good problem solving skills and it also encourages kids to recognize similarities and differences. These frogs were something I bought for my kindergarten classroom years ago. I LOVE them. They are the only toy in our house that is literally played with everyday. They are also the reason Claire learned her colors. You can find these frogs at Lakeshore Learning. Today we are sorting the frogs by colors. I wrote the color words on index cards and Claire was in charge of sorting the bucket. She typically would not want to sort the whole bucket, but because I had her do it standing on a chair at the counter she loved it! Sometimes just a change in scenery allows a simple activity to be exciting. :) If you don't have something to sort like frogs, you could have your child sort crayons and markers into basic colors or even small toys. This was a pretty simple activity for Claire but what I like about things like about it is that it gives her the feeling of success. Sorting objects will get more challenging and this simple sort activity gives her confidence she will need for more difficult tasks.

Turkey Hands

This is a craft that I am pretty sure all kindergarten teachers use in their classroom. I LOVE hand print art for kids and if you google hand print crafts you will find ideas for every month. I decided to try it with both of my girls and it worked really well! Audrey even had fun! I had our wipes ready after each color or finger was painted. I also didn't do the whole hand at once. I did each color separately and waited for the paper to dry. So adorable. My friend displays her hand print art in frames each month. Such a cute decoration!