Rainbows, Candy & Leprechauns

This top picture is one of the ones that Kirsi took, please check out her blog to see the collage that she made of Isabel & Taryn. They are moving back to their home state this weekend and we will miss them, but are very thankful we have gotten the opportunity to get to know them.

We had a blast at the Sweet Spot. We started out looking for ROYGBIV candies & bought those and she lined them up a couple times in order. She thought that was really neat. They we had some homemade vanilla & strawberry ice cream with sprinkles. Next it was a sampling of sherbert fudge, and finally we ended on buying a bag of cinnamon kettle corn for daddy.

Isabel was just loving all the choices and tended to be more drawn to the brightly colored wrapped manufactured candies than all the homemade candies & fudge (which is what I wanted). Although, she was drawn to the brightly colored sherbert fudge.

If I haven't mentioned, this week's preschool-at-home theme is Rainbow Colors. We are learning RoyGBiv. She does such a good job telling me what color starts with each letter. On Monday, we made the colored water xylophone. We skipped out on both violet & indigo & just did purple because that was how many jars I had to use. She thought this was really neat, making an instrument, learning to mix colors, and then using different kinds of spoons (metal, wood & plastic) to hear different sounds.

Tuesday night we made St. Patty's Day crafts that we were bringing to the playgroup the next day for other kids to do. I wanted to have examples for the kids & moms to see what to do and it was much easier on us to have Isabel do them ahead of time, then she could just play at the playgroup we were co-hosting. We made Fruit Loop rainbows (again, just purple because that's what is in the box) and pots of gold with corn pops.

Yesterday we co-hosted a St. Patty's playgroup with our friends Caitlin, Amelia & Gavin. Caitlin provided the house and LOTS of yummy food. I provided the 2 crafts above & a shamrock plantig activity. Isabel had a ton of fun and it was hard to leave at the end, even though we were the last ones to leave. We ended up having 33 people at this playgroup, which I believe is the largest playgroup our MOMS Club has ever had. Crazy.

Lots of Fun

Isabel did great at the Orchestra. I was very happy with how well she behaved. They also had ballet dancers performing to the music and Manchurian Acrobats. It was really neat. The title of the concert was "The Carnival of the Animals."


This weekend, we had out of town guests from Oconomowoc come stay with us. They came with us to the Little Dudes Open Gym at school and to the Orchestra.

Isabel and Sofia did a really good job playing together. They like to walk around holding hands.

The rainbow snack for Isabel & Sofia.

I didn't take pictures while we were int he big climbing structure, which is where we spent most of our time. This was in another room and we spent the first 10 minutes and last 15 minutes there. These little things were neat because you powered them with your arms.

Cupcake Party (Monday)

Kirsi took these pictures of Isabel at Max's Cupcake Party Playgroup. The Cupcake party seems the way to go for playgroups. The moms set out a couple different frosting choices and a few topping choices and the kids have both an activity & a snack. They had dress up clothes out and as you can see Isabel was dressed like a pirate, later than changed to a fairy and then later her & Mia were pretending they were fairy pirates. I like to think they were renegade fairies. This party was on Monday and I just got around to putting up the pictures now that Kirsi emailed me.

Wednesday, March 10th

We went to the RADZoo for a second time. This time it was with our MOMS Club. We went in the morning and then came back again right before dinner for their show and so that Isabel could pet and alligator and a snake. She absolutely loved that.

While at gymnastics class today I thought I would take a few pictures of her. We actually might not take gymnastics after this session. It is quite expensive and I thought I might like her to try Tae Kwon Do while it is offered for community ed. It is more affordable to do the TKD class through community ed, and they only offer that class on Wednesday afternoons (when she currently takes gymnastics). This will be the last session of CE TKD before summer and in the fall she won't be able to try that one since she will have afternoon preschool. So, then we can decide in the fall if she wants to do gymnastics or TKD through the TKD institute. So many decision for extra curricular activities for a little girl.
This week the theme is Music and she got a couple new instruments to add to her collection. We will also be going to the MN Orchestra this weekend.

Potato Stamping

Potato stamping is one of those things I always wanted to try but had not until now. Isabel had a good time with it. We also made a recycled snack box tonight too.

Dr. Suess Meals

On Friday we had Dr. Suess meals for breakfast and dinner. For breakfast we had green eggs & ham. The eggs looked greener in person. I used pureed cooked spinach to mix into the eggs to turn them green. For dinner we made a Cat in the Hat pizza. They were all delicious.

The Foot Book

In continuing with our Dr. Suess theme, we played Twister. She thought it was a hilarious game. I did get down there right with her, but she had a hard time reaching to spin & keeping her spot, so after a while we just took turns spinning & being on the mat.

It was a great day outside. Snow is starting to melt and the driveway is clear so that she can once again ride her bike. She was thrilled to get out there and ride her bike today.

Weekly Theme: Dr. Suess

Below are the Dr. Suess books we are concentrating our activities on this week in at-home preschool. Of course there are plenty of Dr. Suess books out there, but it was best to limit the ones we will read and have fun with. So, you can see a few things we have done this week and there is still some more to come.

Weekly Theme: Bears

Here you can see a few more things that we did last week in addition to our trip to Cabela's. We also sang some bear songs and got out a bunch of bear books to read.

Isabel's favorite at-home friends.

Pipsqueaks: Rochester, MN

Isabel had a good time here at Pipsqueaks too. It kinda sucks we have to drive so far, but at least admission was only $2, kinda helps offset the cost of gas. But when you have cabin fever, you become more willing to drive. I didn't get very good pictures of her because she was purposefully not looking at the camera; she didn't want her picture taken today.

Playing Around

Isabel is now very interested in this doll she got when she was just small herself. I think she got it for her first Christmas from grandma & grandpa S. Anyways, at that time we named it baby Henry because it seemed more like a little boy doll and Henry was her back-up boy name. But ever since the other day when she took it out and we compared it to brother Henry, she has been super interested in it. And says, "We now have two Henrys."

Isabel likes to crawl up on my lap when I am holding Henry and say "Awwww! Mommy and her two little children." Funny little girl.

Going on a Bear Hunt

So, this week's theme was bears (another collage of activities will come later) and I took the kids to Cabela's to go on a bear hunt. We were singing our own little bear hunt as we went around the mountain finding bears. We did find out that they have 4 different kids of bears: brown, black, polar & grizzley. This was definitly a lot more fun to come looks at the animals when trying to find one kind in particular. It made it more interesting and then she kept trying to find bears throughout the store.

House of Bounce: Rochester, MN

Today we went with 4 other preschool families and a MOMS Club family to the House of Bounce in Rochester since the kids had no preschool due to school conferences. So, with 5 preschool families being there that was 1/3 of her class. Originally it was just one preschool family that is also in MOMS Club with us, but then I emailed the other preschool families I knew to see if they were interested and they were all interested and we had one other from MOMS Club when I asked if anyone there was interested.

She had a good time, but we really need to go back with someone along to hold Henry or be able to leave Henry at home with someone. There was one slide that she really wanted to go on a lot but it was kind of scary to her (didn't stop her from wanting to still go on it) and she had to ask the other moms to slide down with her (since their kids were ok with it). And another one she really liked that was an obstacle coursen that lead to a slide, but the way to get up to the slide was with a rope and stairs with wider spacing that she could do, which she did do a couple times with the help of another mom. So, it will be nice to go back there with her and be able to do it with her. The other moms had a blast bouncing on everything. But overall she had a great time and there was about 13 different bounce houses there.

Tonight was conferences and it was short & sweet. She is doing very well and knows everything she needs to know, is playing well with the children, listens & cleans up & helps when asked. It also helps that she has learned how to write her name & draw people already. There were no suggestions on things we needed to work on with her. So, I guess we just keep on keeping on.

Police Station Tour

Today was a pretty day. We went with MOMS Club to tour the police station in a neighboring town. She really wasn't so sure what to think of the police officers. The tour was a little above their heads, not sure they have really given one to this young of a group. But it was interesting for the moms to see since I am sure most of us have not been inside a police station before (or maybe I am just speaking for myself.)

Then we met a friend of hers from preschool and another friend from MOMS Club at McD's for lunch. The girls are all the same age and had ECFE together and all take gymnastics and had a great time playing with each other.

Then it was a nap (she actually asked for one) and then gymnastics. And then finally after supper I took her to Hy-Vee with me. I heard from a friend that they had free childcare there (how come I never knew this? I would so have been shopping there all the time!)

Actually, this makes deciding where to grocery shop harder. I hardly ever grocery shop at Super Wal-Mart unless I have a ton of household stuff to get (but have been buying a lot of that from Alice.com these day) and used to not really shop at this store because they didn't "offer" any perks for us - but I guess they do.

Here are the benefits for us at each of the grocery stores:

O-Town
Cashwise - Penny Horse, free cookie in the bakery, free item with $25+, closest to our house
HyVee - pregnant & new mom parking up front, lots of samples all the time, nice big carts (fit carseat & lots of groceries nicely & have dual seats), upfront "car" carts

F-Town
Nelson's - close to things we frequent (ECFE & Library), Long Cheng is there, good prices on organic produce
Hy-Vee - free childcare, cents-off coupons for their gas station
Aldi's - cheap basic food

This Week's Theme: Dinosaurs

Ok, here is what we did this week:
* MN Children's Museum Visit (Dinosaur Exhibit, plus more!!!)
* Dinosaur Dinner (trees: broccoli & asparagus, ferms: spinach, volcano & lava: mashed potatoes & gravy, Dinosaur: chicken meatballs; on dinosaur plate w/ dino cup & dino placmat)
* Egg Carton Stegasaurus
* Paper Finger Puppets of T-Rex & Stegasaurus
* Dinosaur Songs
* Dinosaur Books
* Free play with plastic dinosaurs
* Dinosaur Memory Game
* Dinosaur coloring pages from the Imaginarium
* DVD: Ice Age, Dawn of the Dinosaurs

Next week the theme is Bears

Happy Valentine's Day

We took the kids to the Minnesota Children's Museum and were there for 3.5 hours. Isabel had a ton of fun and didn't want to leave. We got to all but one of the rooms. We still have not been able to do then entire museum in one trip, but this time we got in the room we had not been to before (the craft room). Once it gets warmer the rooftop garden will open and we will have one more to try to get in.

My mom made these for the kids for Valentine's Day and sent them to us. She crocheted 2 sets of heart barrettes for Isabel (red, lt. pink, & dk. pink)

Crafts Today

Here are some crafts we did today, a frosted snowman (from this website that grandma sent us) and glittery toes. Plus 2 other crafts you can find on the Green Blog.

Ice Fishing

Daddy took Isabel to Kids Ice Fishing Day at Cabela's today. He also took her to Lowe's for a Build & Grow Clinic (jewelry organizer) this morning and with him to get a haircut.

Another Week Gone By

Happy Valentine's Day

Winterfest 2010 @ RBNC

These are just pictures of some of the activities we did, there were many more.

This Week's Highlights

A couple nights ago Isabel was playing dress up and she was a pirate & she dressed daddy as Little Bo Peep (which was pretty funny, but I love him too much to put that picture on here.) She kept saying "Ahoy on Deck!" She loves to play dress up.

Our theme this week was birds. We read bird books, watched Peep on DVD, made a bagel bird feeder, made a bird mask/costume, boiled & colored hard boiled eggs, did a bird coloring page, made a partridge craft and an owl craft (still have this left to do.)

This was from this morning. I got her this new fun paint set that she is just loving. It's pretty neat and allows you to paint rainbow colors at one time.
This was at the end of the RADZoo presentation at her "gym" class on Thursday. It was actually a 45 minute presentation and they brought a bunch of animals for the kids to see and teach them about and at the end they were allowed to get in line to touch the tortoise and the alligator. She still had a 1/2 hour in her gym class before this presentation. We didn't know this was going to happen, so it was a fun surprise for her. Henry & I still had our Baby & Me class, so we missed out on it. I just went in at the end when they were touching the animals and got pictures (& got to touch them myself.)
Making snow ice cream is so much fun. This was the first time we made it this season. I think we might try snow candy next. Sounds like we will be getting snow the next 2 days, so we should have some good clean snow to do it with.

More Pictures from Playdate with Taryn

These are some more pictures that Kirsi took that I really liked. Actually, there are so many I like,but I just chose a few favorites to make a collage with.