The week was busy with lots of kids, school activities, conferences, and of course the blizzard (that never really happened but the kids loved it anyway). Our week looked something like this:
How many kids does it take to play with one toy? Four.....at least they were doing a good job sharing, taking turns, and helping each other out. The older kids were explaining to the younger ones how much each coin was worth.
The kids have been enjoying puppets lately, so I had them make sock puppets (the socks were $3 for a pack of 3 pairs at Wal-Mart). I had the kids color their sock with washable markers, that way the socks can be washed and the kids can color on them again and again.
I think this is a sign of what's coming in the future...... he reminds me of a teenage boy in this picture.
Monkey see, monkey do. Harrison grabbed a chair from the table and pulled it into his room so he could reach "the top of the Lego poster so I can see all of the figurines." Right behind Harrison was Elizabeth with a much smaller kids table chair. She too pulled it up to the poster and pointed out all of the "Lego guys." Just. Like. Harrison.
We had two gorgeous days this week. The kids were able to go outside to run around, but by the end of the afternoon, the backyard was completely flooded. At the moment, it seems to be a frozen grossly muddy ice rink. Sadly, this will make our backyard completely unplayable until the ground completely thaws and it's not so muddy.
3 little boys (and 1 little girl) were completely taken by the tree service cutting down tree limbs.
Foam stickers courtesy of Dollar Tree
More butterfly shape coloring.
The end of winter means I rotate toys frequently (like, almost every day). The kids were excited to see the Wheelies again after a week and a half without a race tracks.
The potty training kids have been working on pulling their pants up and down themselves, learning buttons, and putting their underwear and pants on themselves. Elizabeth (who is not officially one of the potty training kids, but likes to think she is) has suddenly mastered getting her pants on and off and putting her shoes on. The only thing left that she needs help with is her shirts.....clearly she needs more practice.
Shapes painting
Wednesday night we had Max's conferences at school. His teacher could hardly wait to give us his spring pictures and show us a self portrait he drew: both included his eye patch. We will definitely be keeping this pic for the memory book! Conferences were fantastic and he's all set for first grade. I can't believe how big my accident prone boy is getting!
The minis woke up Thursday morning to Target dollar section goodies: new toys, water bottles, stickers, and color books.
Vegetable painting (see post for details)
"Snow painting" (see post for details)
Coloring the coloring book pages (Harrison decided he wanted to share with the daycare kids).
During the hail portion of the blizzard, I stuck a bowl outside, brought it in once it filled bottom, and let the kids explore hail for the first time (see Iowa Weather post for details). The kids loved it and had numerous questions about the hail. The best part about it: I failed to explain to the kids that the hail would melt. After exploring the hail a bit, they set the bowl down and got involved in something else. A while later, one of the kids went over to bowl and shrieked to everything "the hail is gone!" This lead to all of the kids accusing each other of "stealing the hail" which lead to an in depth discussion about what happens to hail....I even had to pull up wikipedia to help me explain all about hail.
A big thanks to Target's dollar section for my kid's hour and a half long bath.
Sponge painting.
Every day when Max gets home from school, Elizabeth wants a cuddle (that turns into wrestling at some point). These two melt my heart.
After a busy week and a sneak preview of spring (this is what I'm calling our two days of 50 degree weather), we're combating our winter restlessness and heading to Honey Creek Resort for a weekend getaway. Next week, we've got lots of sensory activities planned and a few new games for the kids to try out.
