Hot Wheels Car Wash

Well, my two year old has been fascinated with the water in the sink when washing his hands after potty time.  He's been so interested, I tried to let him have some "water" fun when I filled the sink up about one third of the way and let him play with one of his action heroes in there.  That didn't last too long since after I peeked in after about two minutes he was getting his socks wet!  So- to help contain his interest in the water/ splashing play- we set up a Hot Wheels Car Wash.  We had two containers; one soapy, one plain water, a towel and all the Hot Wheels OUTSIDE. It was definitely fun.  I did let it go on about 5 minutes too long, however, as towards the end we had Hot Wheels getting thrown in the grass- which means they had to go through the car wash again. My four year old was super into it because she is very neat and loves to clean! Lucky Me!

And since there is this strong desire in me to make everything a theme for the day- we went to a carwash later in the afternoon for our minivan. I guess a more hands on approach would to be actually wash your car yourself- but this was great for our day!

Ben is 4 months Old

Benjamin Marc is one cute baby! He is four months old and at his check up today he was 17 pounds and 12 ounces! He has a really sweet demeanor.  He easily gives smiles and makes great eye contact.  He really likes to hold on to your fingers and he is always looking for his big brother and sister!

Preschool Post Office

One of my favorite things to do with the kids (Corinne-4, Caleb-2) is to pretend play about things we already do. I use simple supplies usually that we have at home and set it up the night before so they can start playing in the morning right after breakfast.  It's fun to hear them get excited about something new that they see when they walk down the stairs!

For this activity, I knew we were going to need to run by the post-office during the afternoon.  So that morning I had post office supplies on hand; envelopes from the Dollar Store, old return address labels, stickers and more stickers, pens, paper and markers.  I also covered a cereal box with paper, cut a slot and labeled it.

They got right to work with "letters" to friends and family. To be honest, my 2 year old was only interested for about 10 minutes and hasn't done much letter writing since.  But what fun my 4 year old has had making notes, coloring pages for people and folding them into teeny tiny pieces to stick into the envelopes.  Then, it's about another 20 minutes to decorate the envelope.  The actual trip to the post office was not nearly as much fun as our post office at home!

We've kept our mail box up for a week now and continue to make letters.  It's been a good pretend play activity, a way to think about others, writing practice, learning about addressing an envelope and a practice in creativity!

Preschool Lunches

There are a few lunches that I've put together for Corinne and Caleb that have been a hit so far for school.  The silicone muffin cups really make packing easy- they conform to the container and make it really easy to put small items together. You can find 6 for $1.99 at Walmart (in the cake decorating section)!

Quesadillas, carrots, corn casserole, to go apple sauce

Cheese stick, pineapple, red pepper, raisins, almond butter and jelly sandwich with hand cut out.  The hand cut out is inspired by the The Kissing Hand by Audrey Penn.

More Preschool lunches to come!

Precious Feet

Are these sweet or what?  A friend of mine gave me three painted frames for Benjamin's birth.  One of the frames had the poem below in it. The plan was to have Ben's hand print in one frame, Ben's foot print in one frame and the poem in another.  But with two other kids in the house, when I got out the stamp supplies, everyone got excited.  So instead we did a foot print for everyone. And they look really precious together.  I'll keep the poem in mind for future gifts... it's just perfect.