Archive for June, 2010

Soccer practice

Posted in Molly, Sports, Video on June 14th, 2010 by c-had – 2 Comments

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Here's a sampling of one of Molly's soccer practices. 5 kids were there, but Molly and Elijah were the only two who played the whole time, which is why there are fewer kids in most of the shots.

A weekend roadtrip

Posted in Celebrations, Leah, Molly, Trip on June 14th, 2010 by jen – 3 Comments

We went to Highlands, NC to visit Grammy (Chad's paternal grandmother) for her 80th birthday. Molly was very excited to get to see Grammy's house, though she was confused when we arrived and she discovered we actually weren't staying in her house but rather in a rented house nearby (there are a lot of us, now).

Grammy's house

Leah was enamored with Will (and Stephen Colbert) throughout the trip. I'm not sure which one she's interested in here.

Leah and Will

We had a bunch of family over to the house Saturday to celebrate. At times, Leah was of course the center of attention.

Gather round Leah

There were so many people there, Caroline and I decided to make more room by squishing Molly.

Squish

Molly was responsible for the card on our gift to Grammy.

Nice card

And Grammy thought the bag I made for her was a great surprise.

Surprised

The house was pretty cool much of the time, which meant blankets were in frequent use. Unfortunately, though, we had a blanket thief occasionally stealing them.

Blanket thief

It was so nice out we decided to have dinner on the back porch one night. Yes, that's the dining room table and chairs.

Dinner outside

Monday, we went out to lunch at Wild Thyme to celebrate Grammy's birthday again on her actual birthday. They brought Grammy a big piece of caramel cake for her birthday, but she didn't want dessert. So, Molly ate almost the entire piece for her.

Monday dessert

Leah didn't get any cake, so she seemed a bit bored.

Yawn

Though she perked up when we pulled out a toy phone for her.

Phones are fun

The drive down and back both went really well. We only had to stop 5 times each way and managed to make the trip in 11.5 hours both times. To maximize efficiency, we packed a lunch and ate at a rest area in both directions. Here's Leah hanging out at the rest area.

Resting on the drive home

Molly preferred to run around during her brief break from the car.

Play area

Letter of the week – X

Posted in Kid crafts, Letter activities, Molly on June 13th, 2010 by jen – 1 Comment

Our X week was very short due to a long weekend trip. I tried to get Molly to show her X like Vanna White, and this is what we got!

X is for x-ray

Finding things to do during X week proved to be a challenge. (I chose not to use xylophone since it does not phonetically sound like x.) Here Molly is water coloring over a crayon tracing to create a wax resistant painting.

Wax resistant painting

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

Catching flies

Posted in Leah on June 4th, 2010 by jen – 3 Comments

Leah likes to keep her mouth open.

Happy little girl

Open mouth

Shopping with her mouth open (of course).

Shopping cart

Most people open their mouths to smile; Leah has to actually close hers somewhat.

Smiley Leah

A few other fun pictures of Leah: This was an attempt to get a shot of her first tooth, but her reaction was better than any picture of her tooth could have been.

Huh?

Leah makes this face while breathing hard through her nose. It makes me laugh every time she does it!

Funny faces

Oh, the places you’ll go

Posted in Sewing on June 3rd, 2010 by jen – 2 Comments

We celebrated three high school and one college graduation last month. I polled my sister-in-law, who just finished her college freshman year, to find out what was the best graduation gift. The answer? "The most helpful gift that I got was the monogrammed laundry bag. It was something I never even considered and I ended up using it all of the time." So, I went looking and found this laundry sack tutorial.

I made the college grad a travel set that included the laundry bag and fabric luggage tags.

Sadie's laundry bag

Sadie's luggage tags

The high school grads were all boys, so I made identical bags for them. Hopefully the bags will get used on some great weekend road trips.

Graduation boys' laundry bag

Improv soccer

Posted in Leah, Molly, Playdates on June 2nd, 2010 by jen – 1 Comment

Our normal Saturday soccer practice was cancelled due to a tournament going on. This was supposed to be Simon's first Saturday joining us, so we improvised and met them at the field nearby to have a bit of a soccer practice of our own. Zach had to keep moving the goal away from them, for reasons that will become apparent in the next picture.

Improv soccer

Once Zach set down the goal, the kids decided it was more fun to play in it than to play soccer. They did this over and over when the goal was out.

Goal fun

It wasn't just 3 year olds and dads out there. Moms and little sisters joined the fun as well.

Home base

Bubble time

Posted in Molly, Video on June 2nd, 2010 by c-had – 1 Comment

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Molly's continued to enjoy playing with bubbles. Here she is with Caroline and Will blowing, popping, clapping, stomping, and ducking bubbles.

Letter of the week – P

Posted in Food, Kid crafts, Letter activities, Molly on June 1st, 2010 by jen – 6 Comments

Molly pulled out her Crazy 8 cards and asked, "Can we play patterns?" It was the perfect impromptu game to start off our P week.

Bug patterns

We made a pink pig for our P craft.

A pink pig

After 2 attempts to get the dough right, we were finally able to make whole wheat soft pretzels. Molly helped me roll them, "paint" them with egg whites and sprinkled them with salt.

Painting pretzels

We made some bubble wrap prints,

Bubble wrap prints

and finally played with the pattern blocks she got for her birthday.

Pattern blocks

Molly had so much fun painting with our homemade puff paint. You can see a video of her painting here.

Our little Picaso

For our stART project, we made blueberry pancakes just like Curious George in Curious George Makes Pancakes.

Curious George Makes Pancakes

Blueberry pancakes

You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.

iPad kid

Posted in Molly, Video on June 1st, 2010 by c-had – 3 Comments

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Molly has really gotten into playing with my iPad. A few of her favorites are The Cat in the Hat, Word Magic, Draw, iWriteWords, Virtuoso Piano, and Pages. I'm amazed at how well a 3 year old can pick up a touch interface (as compared to, say, a keyboard/mouse interface). This video is of her typing away in Pages. The first time I showed it to her, she wanted to change the colors of the letters. So, I went through the menus and changed the colors. The next time, she did it all by herself (as you can see here).