Easter Fun!

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What a fun Easter we had, and finally some good weather to boot!  The holidays are always somewhat chaotic with the kids' ages, but this was probably the first holiday where I felt like we were able to fit it all in without completely wearing everyone out.  We managed to get the egg hunt, church, and lunch all in without  forgoing naps, which made for a MUCH more pleasant day.  We hope you all had a great Easter too!

SPRING/EASTER ACTIVITIES...

 Creeping Caterpillars

This was probably our last Spring activity, as we are ready to move into our beach theme.  Yesterday, the kids recycled an old egg container to make their caterpillars.  I cut them out and used a hold puncher to punch holes for the antlers and legs.  The kids painted them, and glued on the eyes.  I helped them insert the pipecleaner and bend it to make sure it stayed in place.


  Rice Krispie Bird Nests:


These are so fun!  Jack and I made these just before
naptime the other day.  First, we made up a batch of rice krispie treats (we dyed ours pink at Jack's request).  We sprayed several ramekins with cooking spray and molded the rice krispies into them, leaving a dent in the middle.  (You could use a cupcake pan too.)  Jack then wrote a letter to the Easter Bunny asking him to come "fill his nest" while he slept.  (This is great bribery to actually take a nap, if you have a kiddo who is in the process of giving up a nap.)  While the kids slept, the "Easter Bunny" came and adorned the nests with Easter grass, chocolate eggs, and peeps.  The kids were SOOO excited when they woke up.

 
Hatching Chicks:

 We made these precious hatching chicks after Jack made one at preschool and requested to make more.  They are really easy.  To make them, draw an egg shape onto a yellow piece of construction paper.  Have your preschooler cut it out.  Draw a zig-zag line across a paper plate and have your preschooler cut across the entire line.  Glue the yellow egg to the backside of the bottom half of the paper plate.  Glue on wiggle eyes and a beak.  Use a hole punch and a fastener to connect the plate together and form the "egg."

Easter Basket Cupcakes...

I have to give credit to my mama for this one...my birthday always falls around Easter, and I still remember her making these cupcakes for me to take as birthday treats in the fifth grade.  (Thanks Mom!)  Anyway, we made these again the other day for a fun snack.  Jack is excited to take them to school and share with his friends this week; it will make the perfect "pre-preschool-Easter-egg-hunting-snack."  To make these, simply use your favorite cupcake recipe to make the cupcakes.  Next, mix a couple of drops of green food coloring into a bowl of coconut until completely mixed.  Frost cupcakes with any type of icing and then sprinkle the green coconut on top.  Add a few jellybeans to the center of the cupcakes.  Finally, cut a piece of pipe cleaner in half and round it out to make a loop.  Insert the pipe cleaner into the sides of the cupcakes to make it look like a basket handle.  Enjoy!

Math and Literacy Ideas...

I simply cannot say enough wonderful things about the www.makinkglearningfun.com website.  It is my first "go-to" page for theme ideas.  Since it takes some time to go through the themes and identify which ideas will work for my kids, and some of you have mentioned you are wanting to do more of these things, here's what we're doing from the Easter ideas...
Math...
*Easter Egg Color By Number (Jack)
*Roll and Color Number Easter Eggs (Jack)
*Rabbit Shape Match Cards (Jack and Maren)
Literacy...
*Color Word Easter Basket (Jack and Maren)**I modified this for Jack to encourage sight word recognition by writing the color names on each of the colored eggs.  This way, he is matching the words of each color up and learning to recognize the sight words for each color.
*Happy Easter Color, Cut, and Glue (Jack)
 



Bunny Baskets...

 
 We spent a rainy afternoon making bunny baskets, and it was a lot of fun!  To start, we painted terracotta pots white.  (I did Maren's since we weren't using washable paint.)  Next we cut ears out of white and pink construction paper and glued them to the inside of the pot.  We then glued a pink pom-pom and wiggly eyes to the front of the bunny's face, and a white pom-pom to his back side for the tail.  I used a sharpie to draw the whiskers on, and the kids filled their baskets with Easter grass and jellybeans.  (This activity was a little challenging for Maren, so she enjoyed playing with the Easter grass and helping me spread the glue on things with a q-tip....she also really enjoyed nibbling on a few of the jellybeans.)

Jack's Favorite Spring/Easter Books...  

1. Fletcher and the Springtime Blossoms...Julia Rawlinson
2. Mouse's First Spring...Lauren Thompson
3. Wake Up, It's Spring!...Lisa Ernst
4. Katie Duck is a Caterpillar...Alyssa Capucilli
5. Hello Spring...Allison Inches
6. The Secret of the First One Up...Iris Arno
7. Pooh's Egg Hunt...Isabel Gaines
8. Last One In Is A Rotten Egg...Diane DeGroat
9. Here Comes T. Rex Cottontail...Lois Grambling
10. And the Spring Grass Grew All Around...Harriet Ziefert

Maren's Favorite Spring/Easter Books...

1. Lamb's Easter Surprise...Christing Taylor-Butler
2. Max Counts His Chickens...Rosemary Wells
3. Happy Easter, Biscuit!...Alyssa Capucilli
4. Dora's Easter Basket...Sarah Wilson
5. Duckling's First Spring...Salina Yoon
6. God Made Spring...Holley Gerta
7. Kevin Discovers Spring...Liesbet Slegers 

Sick Babies!

http://pictures.sprintpcs.com/share.do?invite=gEcr51zwk5Urb5f7zheh&shareName=MMS&messageState=RETRIEVED
My poor little ones have been so sick this last week.  I wish I could say this was the first time a stomach "bug" (or ladybug," as my niece calls it) has hit our house this winter.  Unfortunately the current bug we are passing around hit us two weeks ago too.  This time however, neither one of my little guys felt like drinking with it.  Poor Marsy ended up in the hospital twice last week for IV fluids.  We got one day of reprieve in between where both little guys were healthy before it hit Jack.  He still has it and we are praying it ends soon.  Click on the link above to see a picture of Marsy at the hospital.  (What a cute little patient, I wish I was that cute when I was sick.)

St. Patrick's Day Activities and Crafts:

Potato Painting

We made these shamrock paintings by slicing a potato in half and dipping into green paint.  After we had made a shamrock, we added green yarn for the stem. 


Shamrock Shakes and Leprechaun Cookies:

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a fun snack; shamrock shakes and leprechaun cookies.  I found the recipe for the shake on the Disney Family Fun webpage.  (I'd add a bit less banana next time.)  The cookies, are just sugar cookies with green icing and sprinkles.  (It just sounds better when we call them leprechaun cookies.)

Shamrock Shake:
1 C. lime sherbert
1/2 banana
1 C. milk

Blend together in a mixer and serve in a fun glass with a green straw.






"Get Your Green On" Necklaces:

This craft ensured that we wouldn't  be caught without any green on for St. Patrick's Day.  We dyed pasta green and strung it on green yarn (wrap the end in scotch tape for easier stringing) to make these green necklaces.

How to dye pasta:
In a large plastic storage bag (I use two put inside of each other) put about 1/4 C. rubbing alcohol and 5-6 drops of green food coloring.  Add 1 box or bag of your favorite type of pasta and shake until all pasta are coated.  Lay out to dry on a cookie sheet with paper towels topped with waxed paper.


Paper Plate Shamrocks:

We always have paper plates at our house, and we get pretty creative in coming up with ways to use them.  We cut four small curvy V's into a paper plate (www.makinglearningfun.com) .  The kids painted them with green paint and sprinkled some glitter on for a little extra sparkle.

Jack's Favorite St. Patrick's Day Books:

• Hooray for St. Patrick's Day by Joan Holub
• St. Patrick's Day by Carmen Bredesen
• The Story of St. Patrick's Day by Patricia Pingry
• Jeremy Bean's St. Patrick's Day by Alice Shertle
• Lucky O' Leprechaun by Jana Dillion
• Little Bear Marches in the St. Patrick's Day Parade by Janice.

Maren's Favorite St. Patrick's Day Books:

• St. Patrick's Day Countdown by Salina Yoon
• St. Patrick's Day by Carmen Bredesen

Jack's 4th Birthday!

As much as I hate to admit it, my little guy is now 4!  It sounds so big.  Though there are times I feel like I just had him, no matter how hard I try to avoid it, those Birthdays just keep coming.  Jack has actually been avoiding his Birthday too; he didn't want his "number" to change.  Apparently he was very fond of the number three and does not like the number four.  Ha!  I think we were able to get him more excited with all the birthday festivities though.  We celebrated on Friday by going to music class, having lunch with friends, and then heading to his favorite restaurant (Red Robin) for dinner.  On Saturday, he had a little birthday party at one of his favorite places with some close friends and family.  After playing with all his new presents, I think Jack has a better attitude about turning four.  I myself would still prefer for these birthdays to slow down, but I guess I'll surrender and start planning Maren's.

Maren's trip to the hospital

Yesterday Maren joined her Mommy and Jack in fulfilling a childhood inevitable; she had tubes placed in her ears.  It's funny that almost one year ago yesterday, we were in the hospital doing the same thing with Jack.  Just like her brother though, until it was time to actually head to the operating room, the trip to the hospital was actually a blast.  (Thank goodness for Children's hospitals; they even know how to make a waiting room "fun.")  She sailed through surgery and was back to herself by late afternoon.  Here are a few pictures from her trip.

Introducing Dr. J. Stout...

It was "community helper" day at preschool this week, and Jack utilized the help of his Nanas to put together his costume.  A big thank you to "Nana Marsh" for letting us borrow (and pressing) her lab coat.  (He thought it was pretty cool to take his "poke stick" (a.k.a. "shot") to school too.)  Likewise, it wouldn't have been a "real" doctor's costume without the medical kit Jack's Na Na Pam let us borrow.  (What a treat-as this was Craig's old medical kit from when he was little.)  However, just like on Halloween, as soon as it was actually time to put the costume on, the tears began to pour.  I'm not sure why Jack gets so excited at the thought of wearing a costume, and then panics when it's actually time to put it on, but such is our son.  Thankfully once he arrived at school and saw all his fellow classmates in their costumes, he cheered right up and didn't want to take it off when he had to.  Go figure!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DR. SEUSS! Crafts and Activities based around one of our favorite authors!

Happy Birthday to one of our favorite authors, Dr. Seuss! It is so exciting that Jack's Birthday (March 5) and Dr. Seuss' Birthday (March 2) fall in the same week. We're doing a few things to celebrate!

CAT'S HAT PIZZA

A big thank you to our good friend Jen for finding this idea in Parenting magazine, it was so fun to make!  We used a store bought pizza crust and formed it into the shape of the cat's hat.  We spread sauce and cheese all over the pizza and used pepperoni and black olives to create the stripes and brim of the hat.  (I was thinking it would be cool to do this sugar cookie dough too, and you could use white and red frosting for the stripes, or white frosting and strawberry jam???)

MAKING OOBLECK
We had so much fun making Oobleck the other day. I used to do this activity with my third graders to talk about the properties of solids and liquids. I found out; however, that it can be just as fun to do with preschoolers as well. After reading Bartholomew and the Oobleck, we made our own batch of Oobleck and the kids enjoyed playing with it. (It's a lot messier to do with preschoolers than nine-year-olds, but just as much, if not more, fun!)

How to Make Oobleck:
Mix together 2 C. of cornstarch with 1 C. of water. You can add a couple of drops of food coloring to make it the color you want. We chose green since it went with the story. You may need to add more water or cornstarch to reach the desired consistency. It should form a ball when you grab it and squeeze or let it sit for a bit, but turn back to liquid when you let it drip down your hand.

Jack's Favorite Dr. Seuss Books:
*And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street
*The Cat in the Hat (this one is probably my favorite of all his books)
*Great Day for Up
*Bartholomew and the Oobleck
*Did I Ever tell You how Lucky you Are?
*Dr. Seuss' Sleep Book
*The Butter Battle Book
*Green Eggs and Ham
*If I Ran the Zoo
*Happy Birthday, Baby
*Thudwick, the Big Hearted Moose
*Scrambled Eggs Super!
*On Beyond Zebra
*Yertle the Turtle
*Horton Hears a Who
*500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
*The Lorax
*The Sneetches
*Horton Hatches an Egg

Maren's Favorite Dr. Seuss Books:
*The Foot Book (this was the very first book I ever read to Jack as a baby)
*Hop on Pop
*Fox in Socks
*One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
*There's a Wocket in my Pocket
*Go Dog, Go!
*There's a Zamp in my Lamp

Valetine's Fun!

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It was a lot of fun to be home together this Valentine's Day. Craig has been gone a lot lately, so I think our little ones were very happy to stay in for the day and have some family time. Take a look at our fun day!

OUR APOLOGIES...JACK'S PARTY!

I want to send our apologies for disappearing the last month. I know a few of you have been discouraged not to have the Valentine's activities earlier. We've had a lot going on. Craig has been out of town a lot, I had surgery earlier this month (just on my mouth) and Maren will be having surgery later this month. We've had what seems to be about a million doctor's appointments, and I ended up flying out to Las Vegas for a couple of days to see Craig at his last show. With that said, I've spent a lot of time posting today, so I hope this catches us up a bit.

Jack had another wonderful class party the other day as his class celebrated Valentine's Day. I can't say enough wonderful things about his teachers and the precious little friends he has made at his school. They are all just adorable! I think the dynamics of the classroom always make their party so fun. (Maren had a blast playing around the classroom and pretending to be a big girl too!)

BATHTIME FUN!

I wonder when my kids will get too old to sit in the bathtub together? I figure our days are numbered and try to enjoy not only fact that I'm "killing two birds with one stone"; but more importantly, the fun memories created. Jack loves to watch me "style" Maren's hair when she's in the tub with him, and I think this look is our favorite on her. What do you think...could this work for prom someday?

February Crafts, Snacks, and Books

VALENTINE WIGGLY PEOPLE:

I actually saw these walking through the halls at Jack's school and remembered making something similar when I was in Elementary school. The nice thing is you only need some construction paper to make them, and you can use whatever you have around the house for decorations.


HEART CRAYONS:

What better way to use up all the bits and pieces of old crayons than by making them into new crayons? We do this pretty often,(Maren likes to break and eat crayons...so does Milo!) but this time we used a heart shaped cupcake pan instead of our usual cupcake pan. We thought this was lots of fun for Valentine's Day.


VALENTINE'S WREATH:

Even Maren loved this activity! We cut the circle out of the middle of a paper plate. I took a kitchen spounge and drew hearts on it with a permanent marker, then cut them out. The kids dipped the spounges into paint and stamped hearts around their wreaths. Finally we punched a hole in the top and used some curling ribbon to make a pretty bow.

RICE KRISPIE HEARTS:




We found this idea on the rice krispie website. We made the normal rice krispies treats recipe, and added a little red food coloring to our marshmallow mixture. After spreading the mixture in our pan, we used a heart cookie cutter to create the heart shaped treats. The wee ones then used pink frosting and lots of sprinkles to decorate their cookie.

CHOCOLATE PLAYDOUGH

*1 1/4 cups flour
*1/2 cup cocoa powder
*1/2 cup salt
*1/2 tablespoon cream of tartar
*1 1/2 tablespoons cooking oil
*1 cup boiling water

Mix the dry ingredients. Add the oil and boiling water. Stir quickly, mixing well. When cool, mix with your hands. Store in an airtight container.

HANDMADE VALENTINE CARDS:

I loved the cards on the website www.makinglearningfun.com. Jack used two of the card templates from this website to create really cute cards for his teachers. He was especially excited about the "pop up" bear card.

JACK'S FAVORITE VALENTINE BOOKS:
*The Legend of Lyla the Lovesick Ladybug by Joe Trioano (this is my new favorite too)
*A Scent-Sational Valentine by Mary ManKong
*Countdown to Valentine's Day by Jodi Huelin
*The Little Engine that Could:Valentines Day Surprise by Monique Stephens
*Little Bear's Valentine by Else Minarile
*Happy Valentine's Day by Robert Schull
*My Valentine's Story: Giving my Heart to God by Crystal Bowman
*Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink by Diane de Groat

MAREN'S FAVORITE VALENTINE BOOKS:
*Lilly and the Chocolate Heart by Kevin Henkes
*The Kissing Monster by Marion Bauer
*Dora Loves Boots by Alison Inches
*My Fuzzy Valentine by Naomi Kleinberg
*Valentine's for Everyone by Chris Gifford
*Dora's Valentine Adventure by Christine Ricci

New Years Eve At Home

Fearful of the other drivers on the road, it's kind of tradition that Craig and I stay home with the kids on New Year's Eve. This year we opted not to do our traditional fondue dinner, and decided to roast hot dogs in the fireplace. We started our party with a little appetizer in front of the football game. The kids happily played with some mardi gras beads I found at the grocery store, and Jack experimented with taking some pictures on the camera. For dinner, we roasted hot dogs in the fireplace and ate in front of the TV. The kids were so excited to get to eat while watching Diego. Finally, we made S'mores the kids danced around the kitchen. With all this fun, who would want to go out for New Years?