The top one is from today. I took her to see "I Like Me" at Stages Theatre. This is the 7th or 8th show I have taken her to there. I really like their theatre for a children's theatre. The first charater was her favorite and she called her the "sparkly, pink girl" because "pink is my favorite color and I like sparkles." And she also liked Henry, who is the shorter character in the other picture. She liked him because her brother is going to be named Henry. Ironically, the taller character is Big Mike/ Michael and Michael is going to be his middle name.
This picture is from Saturday when Isabel's grandma & grandpa M. came down to babysit her. Since they don't get to see her very often, there is a tendency to let her do a lot more (or at least tolerate her convincing them to do even more) than mom might do. She did A LOT of painting projects with grandma and yes, she did paint the wall. I walked in on her fingerpainting the wall while grandma was washing her hands. And yes, it was cleaned up. It was actually the first time she tried to paint (or color or anything) on the wall. She had a good time with them and was excited for a week when we told her they were coming and would ask every day if they were coming that day.
I think I got this idea out of Parents magazine. It's so simple, I should have known about it a long time ago. She loves popsicles & yogurt is so good for you, so this is perfect! All you do it stick a popsicle stick in yogurt container (I like to use the smaller multi-pack kinds since she might not eat it all if it was a larger one) and pop it in the freezer. Then push from the bottom to get out the yogurt pop. Yoplait won't work because of the shape of the container & ridge. You also might have to run some warm water over the container to slip it out. She loves these and will eat all of it, whereas if I just gave her a container a yogurt she has a tendency to eat about half.
We spent the entire morning at our friends Cheri's house for the breakfast potluck playgroup she was hosting for MOMS Club. Isabel had a great time and it was hard to get her to leave. There was lots of yummy food and we had a really great turnout (I think there was 14-15 moms with kids there, so well over 25 people total.) And the potential new member I invited to the playgroup decided to join.
I checked a book out of the library about math games you can do with preschoolers and it had a lot of fun ideas in it. The top one is what we called the snack game. You could certainly use non-snack items, but I thought it would be quite the motivation to finish the game completly if you get to eat all the goodies in it afterwards (& a couple were candies.)
Our second game here is a craft for her to do as well. We used an animal magazine of hers, some large craft sticks, glue, tape and a pair of scissors. she picked out the pictures she wanted to make puzzles of, then cut them out. She did a really good job of cutting straight; I was impressed; so all I needed to do was trim it down to size.
Ok, our day with heading to the Crofut Winery in Jordan, MN in the morning for their Grape Stomp. We had dressed & planned to do some stomping, but once we got there and Isabel started touching some mushed grapes she wanted nothing to do with it.
But we did stay there for a while and did everything we could.
Today we went tot he 2nd day of the Faribault Airfest. What a beautiful weekend for it! Almost every year it rains the weekend they have this airfest, so we have never gone. I am glad we went. It was a good time, even if it was hot.
We made some all-natural homemade clay this morning. You can read all about it on the Green Blog.
We spent time here tonight and saw the hot air balloon launch. They had about 12-13 balloons total that launched. Tomorrow we will go back for all the kids activities and see the airshows and parachute jumpers.
Well, here is part three of our hot air balloon project. We needed to punch holes in the balloon part and the basket part and attach them to each other using yarn. Turned out pretty good. Now we are all in the mood for the hot air balloon launch this evening at the Airfest.
This is a 3 day project. It took 24 hours to have our layers of paper mache dry on the balloon. Then last night (after we returned from ECFE) we painted the balloon. All three of us painted it, as it was quite a bit to paint with such a big balloon. Isabel enjoyed mixing the colors to see what new colors it would make. Daddy wanted her to keep it neat at first, but realized his desires were fruitless and she was going to do what she wanted. Can't stifle her creativity!
Today was picture day for Isabel at school and for dolly at home. I only bought the class picture, so no one should expect a picture from this. I don't like that I can't choose my picture or even see it in advance, plus it was kinda expensive. When I know I can go to Wal-Mart and get a ton of pictures for $7.99 and get to choose the pose, it's hard to be convinced to spend 3-4x as much on pictures. As it was it cost $6 just for the class picture, but I couldn't turn down have a class picture from preschool with all her little friends. Since this was just the school class picture I told her she could pick out any dress she wanted to wear and this is the one she chose. It's been her favorite dress in the last month.
I need to give credit to my friend Cheri for the idea to make a hot air balloon. They just finished making there and it happens in several parts. Anyways, I thought it was a great idea because we plan to go to the Airfest in Faribault this weekend, where she can see an airplane airshow and also hot air balloon launches. So, I thought this tied in perfectly and would get her really excited. We'll need to see how long it takes to dry. She really gooped on the paste.
We did this tour last year (it was more comprehensive last year and they spent more time explaining stuff and actually let the kids help make some dough & poke holes using a tool in the dough). Check out the collage from last year, she looks so much more grown-up now. It was still fun and I don't think she remembers anything from last year. Last year she was timid and this year she got right in there in the front of everything and was asking questions and participating more. And I notice last year she still had the paci....we were a month away from taking that away for good. I can't believe what a difference a year makes, but it sure does.
Here is today's breakfast creation. She was very excited to have her initals made into pancakes. Not a lot going on here today. We went to church today and she has been bumped back into the nursery (or for her we are calling it the playroom) do to them reconfiguring the ages of classes. She had fun in the playroom and didn't care she wasn't in church school. I talked with our minister a bit as we were eating (there was lunch there today) and he said once we move into the building (next month) we will see our congregation size grow a lot in the first 6-12 months (maybe even double w/in a year, guess a big fancy bldg with all sorts of bells & whistles will do that) they will be restructuring the classes again & again. In the new church (it's almost finished being built) they will have lots more classrooms and we've just gown too big for the current place they are renting that the 3 year olds got squeezed out of the classrooms & back into the nursery (not that that room is really big enough to handle more kids). Oh well.
Tonight, all three of us went to the U of M South Outreach Center Open House in Waseca. This is the 3rd (my 4th or 5th) one of their annual open houses that Isabel has been to. We missed the one when we moved to WI. We were there for three hours and still didn't get to do everything. By the end we were all pretty tired, not just this preggo. Isabel had a great time and we all left stuffed with food. It's unbelieveable how much food they give away at various points. I missed out on the wine tasting once again, but daddy got to try them.
Yesterday Isabel got to see her friends Gavin, Molly, Amelia & Gavin and play with them at Gainey Park. When she went to bed that night before she asked me if she could go to school since our playdate had changed for the next morning. She really wanted some friends to play with, so I found some available friends that morning and she was pleased. Plus, she got to hang out with her friends Casey & Dani at kidcare at the gym.
This afternoon we did some crafts before she became completly exhausted and took a nap (actually, she is still down & it's been just over 2 hours now).
Well, as it turns out, neither of us got up to an alarm. Lucy came in meowing 20 minutes before my alarm and I just couldn't force myself to fall asleep again (although, I am sure daddy could) and I went up to get Isabel up just after her alarm (radio) should have gone off and it didn't. But she pleasantly got up and got ready right away this morning. She was nervous yesterday about going and kept telling us how much she would miss us and I tried to help calm any fears. And this morning she was excited and was just fine when I left her. She realized it was the same room she was taking ECFE classes in since she was a baby and I told her about storytime, craft time, playground time & snack time (she was really excited about snack time). There were a few other kids (I had never seen before at ECFE or the preschool day camps) who were balling A LOT and Isabel was confused why they were so sad, so it reaffirmed it was such a smart choice to do the ECFE classes there and camps. She said goodbye quickly to me and ran to go play with her friend Casey at the Legos. She knows 4 kids in the class and has played with Casey a lot, so that makes it even more fun. Almost time to go pick her up!
This afternoon we changed our plans and went to Morehouse Park to feed the ducks & geese instead. Isabel had a good time with that, as well did mommy & daddy. Those geese are sure mean to the ducks. It seemed like everyone else had the same idea. Poor waterfowl are going to be gluttons today and then tomorrow there will be nothing.
Well, like I posted about earlier, we did join our friends for a couple hours at their campsite. We just had to buy a daily vehicle permit, which was $5 (glad to see the prices on daily & yearly passes came down from a couple years ago). We had roasted marshmallows & smores and they introduced us to smores made with Reese's peanut butter cups. Yum! The kida had some fun playing in a tent. Kids just love playing in tents, which is why we had our up a couple times this summer just so Isabel & her friends (or us) could play in it. We were thinking we might set it up again soon for a few days and have a campfire in our firepit and "camp" at home. Although, I am not really in any condition to be sleeping on the ground, so we will probably just hang out there until it's bedtime or carry her in if she falls asleep. We'll see.
Well, yesterday Isabel got her haircut for a second time. We had a playdate with her friends Amelia & Gavin and their mom Caitlin is a hair sylist. At her job she concentrates on color, so she doesn't cut hair often, so I think a head full of preschooler snarly curls was a challenge. But she did a good job and we are thankful to her for being so nice and cutting it for her. She really needed her hair cut before preschool started next week. It is much easier to comb again since there isn't quite as much hair to get snarls in. She cut off about 2 inches. She & I have hair that is about the same length, but she seems to think she has hair like daddy now because her hais "is short". She likes it and got a lot of compliments yesterday. I think she looks so cute with a chin length bob.
We invited over a handful of friends to a Brunch & Books playgroup where we had a potluck brunch (it's always fun to share foods) and exchanged used books that we had doubles of or maybe didn't care for or bought at a used bookstore or thrift store. Each kid brought 5 books and we let them pick through the books on their own. Isabel thought that was pretty cool because normally she has mom standing over her looking at what she is picking out & saying yes or no. And then of course the kids got to plays lots. So, it was a fun way to recycle books, socialize, & eat the "most important meal of the day".
