The week was quite busy with lots of fun had! We started the week with our daycare Valentine's party and ended the week with a fun, sugary Valentine's Day. Here's a look at our week in pictures:
The ball pit made it's reappearance this week. I had put it away when Max broke out in hives (since we didn't know what was causing the hives), but to combat the winter blues I put it back out for a day for the kids to enjoy.To keep the 3 year old age group busy (and to keep them from throwing the ball pit balls at each other), I hid bugs (a bag of numerous bugs and snakes can be found at Dollar Tree) and had the kids search for them. They LOVED this and happily shouted "I found one!" I hid and re-hid them at least half a dozen times.
The kids colored Cupid's arrows. I had them do this last week too using Crayola oil pastels.
The kids painted love bugs (I helped them tape on the heart wings and heart face).
Elizabeth happily left her painted hand prints on the dishwasher.
Elizabeth asked daddy to help her build Lego's. Daddy was more than happy to obliged.
As soon as the Lego plane was built, Elizabeth started flying it around "a-vroom, a-vroom!"
Valentine's Party Day lunch: colored whole grain pasta, snap peas (a new favorite for snacks and lunch side), and a mini banana.
Passing out their Valentine's to each other. They also celebrated with the brownie cookie cake with red and pink frosting.
"It's a hat!" Elizabeth told me as she put her tortilla on her head.
Elizabeth's new favorite hobby: climbing things she shouldn't.
Max's pajama day at school.
A game of bags.
Elizabeth makes the game rather difficult for the other kids.
Tuesday's sensory activity: foaming bubbles. This was cool, colorful, and time consuming in the prep work only to have it mixed together and "melting" minutes later.While the kids napped, I cleaned out the water table and then added water, food coloring, and the sea creatures for their afternoon sensory activity.
Harrison put on a finger puppet show for the other kids (and yes, he did it shirtless too).
At 20 months old, Elizabeth is happily dressing herself, although not always correctly, trying out the potty chair and pull ups, and is a true tag along to her big brother's.The kid's sensory bottle: water, orange food coloring, oil, mini super heroes, glitter, and beads cut off from a beaded necklace. The kids enjoy tilting it every which way to watch everything flow. So far, the cap remains tightly (and glued) shut so no spills.
The kids painted their own canvas. I failed to get pictures of their finished products, but I thought they turned out wonderful.
Elizabeth hard at work painting--one of her favorite things to do.
The kids and I made goodies throughout the week for all of the people we love.
Chocolate covered marshmallows.
Chocolate covered banans.
Water beads were a hit on Thursday (see previous post Sensory Play: Water Beads).
Some last minute Valentine's crafts.
This 3 1/2 year old told me three weeks ago that "naps just really aren't for me anymore mom." I guess he meant it because now nap times include "dressing up" (as you can see here) and learning to play quietly in his bedroom so he doesn't wake up the other kids.
Max puts on quite the performance for his siblings!
These 3 minis got quite spoiled on Valentine's Day. The boys had their school parties Friday, tons of sugary treats, and pizza for dinner.All in all, it was a pretty good week.....we're just not so patiently waiting for spring to arrive for our next sets of activities!