Playdates

Spinning art

Posted in Kid crafts, Leah, Playdates on February 5th, 2011 by jen – 3 Comments

On Monday, we had friends over to make a thaumatrope. It's an optical illusion created with two spinning pictures.

Spinning art

Leah is coloring one side - a snowman.

Leah coloring

Rachel is coloring the other side - a hat, scarf and gloves.

Rachel coloring

And here is what happens when you spin the images - a snowman dressed with his hat, scarf and gloves!

The illusion

Holiday trains

Posted in Field trips, Leah, Molly, Playdates on December 17th, 2010 by jen – Be the first to comment

Our playgroup took the kids to Brookside Garden's train exhibit. The kids loved watching all the trains go by.

Holiday trains

These two sure do love each other! Molly kept talking about how "Keira was wearing boots just like me!"

Girls and their boots

Leah enjoyed watching the choo choo trains too.

Choo choo

The exhibit had an I Spy list. Simon was in his own little world working on it with one of the employees.

I Spy trains

We've had so much trouble getting pictures of Leah standing still that I just had to capture the rare moment!

Standing still

Gingerbread House party

Posted in Molly, Playdates on December 14th, 2010 by jen – 2 Comments

Molly was invited to a Gingerbread House party. The houses were prepped and ready for decorating.

Gingerbread House party

There was some Mommy help, but it was definitely directed by the 3 year olds!

Decorators at work

Molly had such a good time adding all the special details. She'd grab a handful of candy, add a few to her house, then ask if she could eat the rest!

Focused on building

Smiling with the Gingerbread family.

Smiling with the Gingerbread family

Bake. Decorate. Donate.

Posted in Food, Molly, Playdates on November 25th, 2010 by jen – 4 Comments

This week I hosted a Drop In & Decorate party for my MOMS Club. The idea is simple: decorate sugar cookies, then donate them to a local non-profit agency. The kids had a great time using squirt bottles to decorate the sugar cookies.

Drop In & Decorate

The kids also painted icing on the cookies.

Painting cookies

The moms joined in on the decorating fun too!

Moms joining in

More decorating fun

Decorating is serious business!

Concentrating

Throughout the day, over 40 kids and moms came to the house to decorate. Molly loved having so many friends to play with!

A full house

We had some creative designs created on the cookies.

Fun designs

Cookies = happiness

Everyone had such fun decorating that before I knew it we were out of cookies! In the end, over 200 cookies were decorated. The dining room was so colorful and smelled heavenly!

Colorful cookies

The cookies dried overnight and the next day we wrapped and boxed them for donation.

Wrapping cookies

I delivered 125 bags of sweet treats to the Grassroots Crisis Intervention Center.

A sweet treat

The party was a huge success! Several moms talked about hosting a party with their Girl Scouts and military wives groups. The great thing about these Drop In & Decorate parties is that you can have 5 people or 40 people. If you are interested too, all the information and resources to do so is on the Drop In & Decorate website.

Squirt bottle painting

Posted in Food, Kid crafts, Molly, Playdates on October 18th, 2010 by jen – 2 Comments

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!

Squirt bottle painting

The kids did a nice job of sharing to end up with a nice waterfall of colors. They all had such fun!

Waterfall of colors

We all enjoyed owl s'mores when the masterpieces were completed.

Owl S'mores

National Sugar Cookie Day

Posted in Molly, Playdates on July 9th, 2010 by jen – 1 Comment

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.

Making sugar cookies

While those cookies were in the oven, they decorated previously baked cookies with edible markers, icing, and sprinkles.

Icing the cookies

The party was a great success. I think the kids would have eaten sugar cookies for lunch if they could have!

Enjoying the cookies

Letter of the week – F

Posted in Field trips, Food, Kid crafts, Letter activities, Molly, Playdates on June 25th, 2010 by jen – 2 Comments

Flag Day was at the beginning of our week, so we made our letter F accordingly.

Flag Day F

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!

Fudge buttons

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.

Making a snake

We took a field trip to a local farmer's market. The favorites from the loot? Blueberries, raspberries, and honey whole-wheat bread.

Farmer's market

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.

Father's Day card

And finally, we read The Very Lonely Firefly.

The Very Lonely Firefly

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

Foam snakes playdate

Posted in Kid crafts, Molly, Playdates on June 24th, 2010 by jen – 2 Comments

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,

Foam snakes

used their little lungs to blow into the bottle,

Use your lungs

to make a foam snake appear out the bottom.

Making a snake

There's a snake on the ground!

Bubbles are fascinating

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

Apple Pie Day celebration

Posted in Celebrations, Kid crafts, Leah, Molly, Playdates on May 17th, 2010 by jen – 4 Comments

May 13th was National Apple Pie Day. So, what better way to celebrate than to have a playdate to honor the day. We began with a reading of Dr. Seuss's Ten Apples Up on Top.

We then made adorable yarn apples.



And topped off our celebrating by eating mini apple pies.



Leah was actually awake to play with the other younger siblings. This picture had to be captured very quickly since they didn't stay put very long!