Spring in February

Nothing like sunshine and fresh air to reset the system. Yesterday, we had record highs here in Iowa. It hit 68! We packed a feast of applesauce, baby carrots and pb&js and headed to a park near Grandpa Jim and Grandma Mel's house. We frequented the park during the time we lived there. It is a fantastic park. There are three different playgrounds-- a small one for 2-5 year olds and two that are bigger for 5-12 year olds. Ollie of course uses all three and doesn't care one bit that it is for "big" kids. I'm not allowed to called him baby or babycakes anymore. He is a big boy!

I made the mistake of telling Ollie that I packed a special treat. (Fruit snacks) So the first thing he wanted to do was sit at the table and eat. Well, he ate the fruit snacks and ran off! We spent

time playing on all three playgrounds until Ollie needed to use the bathroom and we wandered to the shelter house only to see that it is closed for the season! Oh yeah, it's February! I tried to get him to pee on a tree but no luck. I packed the kids up and we drove a few blocks to Grandpa Jim's house. Lucky for us, he just happened to be home for lunch. After the potty, Ollie spent some time "working" with his tool set while I feed and changed Dawson. We then headed back to the park for another 2 hours. Ollie played and played and played while Dawson watched and napped. Finally after 3 glorious hours, we packed the car and headed home.

What's red & crunchy & fun to throw?

Streamers! Streamers!

More Fun Activities

So as we were having our morning snack, I was feeling a bit bored. Our morning class at gymboree had been cancelled because schools are cancelled because well who knows?! We had snow and freezing rain on Friday night and Saturday. Yesterday it was 45 and the snow/ice that was on our roads not only melted but evaporated! The roads are completely dry. Anyway, enough rambling. I love our class and was so looking forward to it. So I began to think...hmmm...what to do? I really wanted to finger paint but I don't want to drive to get some. I decided to make some! I used vanilla pudding mix and water then added food coloring.

I think they turned out great. So I started Ollie off on the floor. As he was flinging the pudding mix everywhere, I decided he may get more out of it and I may have less clean up if i put him at the table, so I did. Here he did a great job painting. Unfortunately, he didn't like it on his hands. I guess I haven't been doing enough messy fun with him lately! He did, however enjoy using paint brushes.

learning activities

So I recently have been looking for fun learning games to play with Ollie. I bought a book at Gymboree that has lots of ideas. I took one of the ideas and hybrid it with something my sister mentioned and it was a hit.

What you need: Different sized balls, different sized containers made of different materials

Here's what you do: Place the containers out on the floor. You could put them in a circle, a line, a mismatch or whatever. Place the balls on the floor as well. Let your little one explore putting the balls in the different sized containers to see if some fit better in different places. Also, they may throw the balls to try to make a basket. If your little one doesn't catch on right away, you may want to demonstrate. One of the bowls I used was a stainless steel bowl. The cool thing about it was that when we threw the balls into it, it made a nice ringing sound. Ollie explored this for quite a while.