Last week, I hosted a squirt bottle painting playdate. Squirt bottles + colored water + paper = happy kids! They sprayed so quickly that the water didn't really soak into the poster board, but they didn't care!
The kids did a nice job of sharing to end up with a nice waterfall of colors. They all had such fun!
We all enjoyed owl s'mores when the masterpieces were completed.
We've been getting deliveries from South Mountain Veggies and South Mountain Creamery for several weeks. Every Thursday morning it's like Christmas on our porch to see what "the farmer" brings!
Some weeks I've had to be more creative in my cooking in order to use what comes in our share. I made pizza from scratch one night. Homemade tomato sauce, homemade whole wheat crust, fresh tomatoes, fresh basil, fresh red onions, fresh garlic, and some mozzarella. Yum.
I've also cooked some new things like eggplant and fennel, and one of the best things is that Chad has come around to tomatoes now that they are über fresh.
While trying to explain to Molly why we were having a party at Grams' house, she asked if it was a birthday party. I told her that it was America's birthday, and she then asked, "But who's America?"
Before heading over, we posed for a picture. Molly made sure that Leah was smiling.
Leah's doing a wonderful job modeling her new pillowcase dress. She's already learning to look just a little taller by standing on her tip-toes!
Some of Aunt Caroline's friends came to the party and played flashlight dance with Molly. Molly thought it was lots of fun, and didn't want to stop. This picture doesn't do it justice, though, so if you haven't already, make sure you check out the video.
I made red, white and blue chocolate dipped strawberries for the celebration. Molly liked them so much she even ate the stem! Guess we're doing a good job of convincing her that leafy vegetables are good.
We made it to the end! Molly and I posed together with our last letter, Z for zebra.
Using a recipe for pinwheel cookies, we made zebra cookies.
With the help of the self-timer, I was able to capture our mommy-daughter game of Zingo. It's Bingo with a zing!
We ended the week making zucchini chocolate chip muffins. Molly liked tap-tapping the eggs.
You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.
Our week began by making a W for watermelon. While preparing this week, I remembered that a college friend had made these letters with her daughter months before I started with Molly. At the time I thought it was a great idea, but since it was the day before Leah was due, my pregnant brain obviously forgot about it. So now, 9 months later, thanks Christen for sharing!
When I saw these watermelon cookies, I knew we had to make them this week! Molly loved cutting and adding the special "seeds" to these cookies.
Molly did a little watermelon math and sorted, counted, then graphed the different shaped watermelons.
She also did this Wonder Pets puzzle all on her own!
The end of the week was spent in the water. First, Molly started swim lessons. Here she is ready and excited to go to her first lesson. Sorry, no pictures from the lesson as I couldn't manage swimming and taking pictures simultaneously.
She then spent an afternoon at the pool celebrating a friend's 3rd birthday.
You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.
Flag Day was at the beginning of our week, so we made our letter F accordingly.
Molly had a great time rolling, and pressing her thumb into our chocolate peanut butter fudge buttons. She had to be reminded to be gentle when pressing, or her she'd press her thumb right through!
I hosted a playdate to create wacky foam snakes by blowing air through a simple, homemade bubble-making device. I found the idea in my Family Fun magazine.
We took a field trip to a local farmer's market. The favorites from the loot? Blueberries, raspberries, and honey whole-wheat bread.
We made several Father's Day cards during the week, and even went to a friend's house to make a special card for Daddy.
And finally, we read The Very Lonely Firefly.
You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.
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.
We made a pink pig for our P craft.
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.
We made some bubble wrap prints,
and finally played with the pattern blocks she got for her birthday.
Molly had so much fun painting with our homemade puff paint. You can see a video of her painting here.
For our stART project, we made blueberry pancakes just like Curious George in Curious George Makes Pancakes.
You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.
I chose to concentrate on the letter C this week because of all the clover activities I could do around St. Patrick's Day, and we didn't even do any of them!
We started our week by reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar,
and then creating our C for Caterpillar. Apparently Molly thought the caterpillar needed whiskers like Daddy! (I saw this idea at Explorations in Learning.)
Leah has started exploring a lot of Molly's toys and especially likes the "McComputer" (as Molly likes to call it!).
For our stART project, we read Spot Bakes a Cake.
We extended the story by baking cupcakes. I think we need a little more pouring practice! (I saw this idea at April Flowers.)
We decorated our cupcakes for St. Patrick's Day. Molly worked hard on "tap tapping" the sprinkles on top.
The rest of our week consisted of a lot of celebrations! First, St. Patrick's Day...
Then we celebrated the arrival of spring at the playground. I think Leah is a big fan of swinging, just like her sister. What do you think?!
And lastly a special trip to the zoo for Samson the baby elephant's 2nd birthday.
You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.
We had a lot of fun learning about 'G' this week! Molly loves music, so we made a 'G' for guitar. I saw the idea on Always Something to Learn.
Molly has been very interested in games lately. We've played Uno Moo more times than I can count! It's great for her matching skills. She kept asking for something else to play, so if you have suggestions for your favorite toddler board game, let me know!
We celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday with a reading of Green Eggs and Ham.
We then used Molly's great-great-grandmother's recipe to make green egg-shaped sugar cookies. They were yummy! Real green eggs would not have flown with this toddler!
I hosted playgroup this week and involved them in this week's stART project. We read Go Away, Big Green Monster!
The story build's a monster face by talking about the all the different features of the big green monster, so as I read the story the kids glued on each of the parts. The book's pages provide great stencils for creating this craft. I found the idea at Teaching Two.
Molly was excited to show off her big green monster.
I organized a gymnastics playdate in honor of ‘G’ week. Molly and her friends had a great time.
And we couldn't go through 'G' week without playing Daddy's guitar! We have started singing songs before bedtime from The Christian Children's Songbook.
You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.
There were so many 'D' things that I wanted to do this week but we ran out of time, so here is what we did get to.
Molly helped me make dinner while Daddy was out of town - pepperoni and pineapple pizza.
The beginning of our letter 'D' began with a little feather painting.
We added a few feathers, an eye, and a beak and I thought we were done. Molly then said, "Mommy, he needs feet!" and she was so right. Here's our cute little duck. (Found at No Time for Flashcards)
I created a doodle rubbing for Molly to try.
Here's the finished art. Molly's coloring is a bit sporadic, so I helped a bit to uncover the doodles.
I introduced Do-A-Dot art this week. She loved it! I think she colored 8 pages. She kept asking for more.
I made Molly some Dora dominos. (I saw them as part of this Dora Tot Pack.) She had fun matching the characters. Daddy even played it with us for our first "Family Game Night" on Friday night.
On Saturday morning, Molly had an extra special treat at Dunkin Donuts. While waiting in line, she spotted the strawberry iced donuts and immediately wanted a pink one!
She loved pointing out all the letters, especially all the D's!
We also made a popsicle stick dragaonfly, but Molly was too busy flying it around for me to get a good picture of it! You can check out what other moms are doing with their tots at 1+1+1=1.
