Playdate with Taryn

This is just one of the pictures that Kirsi took of Isabel that you can find on her blog. Please check out the rest of the pictures on her blog of the kids and the rest of the pictures on her blog. She is a talented photographer.

Anyways, Kirsi & her daughter Taryn came over for a playdate. The girls decorated aprons, then they wore them as they made strawberry rice krispies. We them make "kiss" krispie treats, which you see the girls holding in this picture and then we put the rest into a pan. After they cooled the girls had some bars and fresh strawberries and apple juice and then the "kiss" was to give to their daddies (if they made it that long). Actually, Isabel did manage to save hers to show her daddy tonight, but I am sure it will be gone tomorrow.

They had a lot of fun playing with a variety of toys, crafting, & puppets. We hope to have them over again for another playdate soon.

Plane Ride

They both slept about half the plane ride back to MSP. They both did fantastic on the plane and on each ride we were complimented by other passengers on how well our children behaved. That is such a good thing to hear. Made me such a proud mama.

Naples City Beach

This was probably out favorite beach for playing because there was so much sand. The other two beaches we went to on this trip (we went to Bonita Beach today as well but didn't take any pictures there) were full of shells and good for shell hunting and we got some good ones.

One of the things Isabel & I did here was run along the shore racing to some poles & back (RT was probably about 400 yards and we did this twice) with the water splashing up onto us.
She saw on a Curious George show that he made sand angels when he thought the sand looked like snow, so she really wanted to make some today. You better believe it was bath night tonight,

Imaginarium & Manatee Park

If you look at my pictures on Facebook, then you will notice that this bottom collage is not on there. I don't put all my pictures on FB, so you will find more on the blogs.

We had a nice time. It was a very packed day at the Imaginarium, Manatee Park, out for gelato & a playland at Miromar Outlets, and then dinner at Pincher's Crab Shack.

Florida 2010

Isabel & I went swimming at the condo pool this morning. Today may be the only hot & sunny day. So, today was pool & beach day. Not sure exactly what we will do tomorrow. We will figure that out this evening,

Grandma picked up some sand toys to use while we are here, then they will get passed onto grandma's friend who is staying in a condo too who has her grandkids visiting next week.

We went to Lover's Bay State Park and used the beach there. She picked A LOT of shells. The beach is covered in them. Seriously, it is like a carpet of shells. Anyways, before we left we told her to pick out 5 for herself and a bunch of small ones to bring to preschool to give to all her friends.

The kids were both great on the plane, so good in fact, the we were complimented by people sitting behind us on how good they were. Hopefully that will be the same case on the return flight.

Spiders!

Preschool was cancelled yesterday since there was a 2-hour delay, so I needed to come up with some stuff for Isabel to do. She asked for some maze worksheets and I ended up printing out a cut & color spider activity too and then it just snow-balled from there until I had a whole spider theme that we did that morning & into lunch. I also forgot to put up there that she watched a "Itsy-Bitsy Spider" video as well. I think I did pretty good for some impromptu planning.

Finishing Her Name B-E-L

We finished her name on Sunday. Things got too busy the rest of the week.

This really was a good activity to practice writing the letters and learning their shapes. And she had fun with every step. I even let her pick out what color paper each one was & which beans (or mixture) to use on each one.
She wants to hang her name somewhere, I just haven't figured out where yet.

Homemade Gummi Candies

We made these gummi candies this evening. We followed the instructions from this blog, Skip to my Lou. They were super simple to make. They held their shape well and are tasty. The Jell-O flavored we used is Blackberry Fusion. We used candy molds & ice cube molds to shape our candies. Isabel really enjoys them and thought it was fantastic that we could make our own gummi candies.

Having Fun

Isabel rode in the sled & ate snow along our snow shoe hike. She was goofy and seemed to have a lot of fun.

Daddy got to pull her in the sled since mommy was carrying baby brother. She did try out snowshoes with daddy. She asked to get some, but we were smarter than most parents. We walked by several parents with kids there that were carrying the snowshoes that their kid(s) were no longer were wearing.

This morning I took her to the Little Dudes Open Gym at her school. Her friends Gavin & Aleyah came. She actully played quite a bit with mom since I was without a baby in my arms.

This was from yesterday. The first picture is right before we left to go to gymnastics open gym. She kept wearing her leotard & leggings all day and when she was at open gym or when she went to our workout room with me she discarded her sweater and skirt. She was pretty excited to come workout with mom and tried her best at the stepper, weights, and exercise bands.

My Space Cadet

Today she got to be an astronaut. I used a helmet, her winter clothes, some clear packing tape & garbage bags/ To make the flag we used an extension handle & a plastic clothing store bag. Her flag is still planted in the snow outside.

She made an alien spaceship of her own design to hang from the last arm of the chandelier. So, we hung that, the rocketship & the three stars. Tomorrow we will finish the moon & get some "space" books.

The Letter S

She knew exactly what she wanted to do when I told her we would make another letter. "I wanna make an orange S!" The circle in the bottom loop was a drop of glue & she thought it needed to be covered with orange lentils. This project has been good for her to practice writing the shapes of letters. "I" she wrote in her own, but "A" & "S" she traced over dashes. The she applies glue over the same thing shr used a crayon to write, so, double the practice.

Rocket to the Moon

Isabel finally took notice of some cups we have had for a few years that have stars & a moon & a rocketship & spaceships on it. The other day she proclaimed she wanted to be an astronaut when she grows up (although every few days she has a new career choice), but she also asked to make a rocket. Then said let's make a moon too. And then while we were making the rocketship she asked if we could make some stars with some excess posterboard. So, today we made the rocketship & stars and started the moon. I have a couple more things planned this week for this theme.

Today is Brought to You by the Letters A & I

This week we are working on writing the shapes of the lettes in her name. She chose A & I as the letters she wanted to do today.

Minnesota Children's Museum

We took the kids to the MN Children's Museum and had fun. Isabel had a ton of fun and didn't want to leave. Good thing we bought a membership. We bought the membership that allows us to bring one guest for free each time. This time we brought Uncle Tony with us. Isabel just told me yesterday that he was a lot of fun & wanted to play with him again.

Our membership also gives up reciprocity free admission at other children's museums on the list, like the ones in Milwaukee & Sheboygan.

This was our 3rd time ever to this museum and before we never made it to more than a couple exhibits. This time we made it too all - except the creativity room, which closed before we could get to it & the garden rooftop which is closed for obvious reasons this time of year.

Isabel says her favorite exhibit was the dinosaurs, which is the 6-moth rotating exhibit, but I really think her favorite was the town exhibit. It was hard to pull her away from that one.

Wednesday, January 6th

We did a couple of art projects today. The ideas came from the Frugal Family Fun Blog. That is my new favorite website!

They were perfect crafts for her. Easy enough and using items we already had. I let her decide what she wanted to use as all the accessories on the snowman. BTW - the "snow/glitter" on the snowman is salt. That's fabulous!

Also, the snowflake is made by putting down masking tape first, then painting over all of it and after the paint dries, pulling off the tape to reveal the snowflake design.


Here is a picture of Isabel & Amelia at gymnastics. Her friend Izzy is in the class too. This is a new class for her. I switched gymnastics clubs because I was not happy with the instruction being given (or lack thereof) and so now she takes classes at the same place we go to open gym at. There is other classes going on at the same time, one of them is high school girls and Isabel liked hanging out a bit afterwards to watch them. She thought they were amazing.

New Years / Christmas

We had a belated Christmas celebration with mommy's side of the family. It was a nice time.

Isabel had a chance to play a lot with her cousins Jayden & Blake. She had a good time and wore herself out playing with them.

This is a bedhead picture I took of us. Actually, she asked me to take a picture of the two of us and I did, then showed her and she said "We look cute! Send this picture to daddy!" Often I take pictures with my phone and send them to daddy in a message.