Today is National Sugar Cookie Day. In honor of it, we had some friends over to decorate, bake, and of course eat sugar cookies. First, the kids decorated cookies to be baked.
While those cookies were in the oven, they decorated previously baked cookies with edible markers, icing, and sprinkles.
The party was a great success. I think the kids would have eaten sugar cookies for lunch if they could have!
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.
Some of Aunt Caroline's friends came over on the 4th of July and played this fun game with Molly. Molly thought it was lots of fun, and didn't want to stop.
And it's not even for me! Chad got a new iPhone 4, so he handed down his iPhone 3G to Molly. We went to the Apple store so she could pick out her own case for it (purple with a flower). She's really enjoyed playing on the iPad, and now she has a device of her own. It's really more of an iPod touch, since there's no active cellular service on it. And don't worry, I'll get my own as soon as I can upgrade!
Edit: Here's a great list of iPod games for tots and preschoolers. Molly is tracing letters with i write words in the picture.
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.
On Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the pool celebrating Allison's 3rd birthday. Molly has been asking for weeks to go swimming with Allison, so it was nice of her to oblige and have her party at the pool!
The girls spent most of the party jumping at the side of the pool.
Run away! Don't let the water get you, nevermind that you are in a pool!
Sometimes peer pressure can be a wonderful thing. After one friend jumped into the pool, Molly decided to try. This was the one and only time she jumped in!
And this was the best shot of Molly with the birthday girl (who does not like pose for pictures!).
Pull out the musical table and you'll get this reaction! And Molly kept saying, "We're playing together!"
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.
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. The kids dipped bottles into bubble solution,
used their little lungs to blow into the bottle,
to make a foam snake appear out the bottom.
