Week In Review: January 27 - January 31

Oh, what a week it's been. We started the week off with no power, no heat, and a random, horrible hives outbreak for the oldest mini. The middle of the week brought about calls to the allergist and spending several hours working on tax prep. We ended our week with a couple of busy days full of activities and lots of messes to clean up. Needless to say, I am beat!

Here's what our week looked like:

The new ball pit provided LOTS of entertainment at the beginning of the week.

Tuesday and Wednesday were Boys Days.

"Open...num num num num. Eat giraffe" Elizabeth said to the giraffe pool as she pretended to feed it the ball pit balls.

Harrison and Elizabeth helped me make heart shaped pancakes.

Our homemade Valentine's decorations. 

Elizabeth has gone with the boys to the older children's story times plenty of times, but Grandma Sheaffer picked lil' Miss E up Wednesday morning and took her to her very first toddler story time. When the boys and I asked her where she went and what she did, she replied "oh to berry. To berry" (translation: she went to the library).

Elizabeth is always soooo happy to see Max when he got home from school. 

Sea life sensory activity. I purchased 2 tubes of small sea creatures (they were smaller than I would have liked, so I kept a close eye on a couple of the younger kids with them) from Toys R Us, filled small Sterilite containers with water, dyed the water blue, and let the kiddos splash around with the creatures. The kids loved this activity. Only downside is they got soaking wet.

Kitty Sophia had to check it out before I let the kids play.

The kids loved having the whales "jump" into the water. Elizabeth liked trying to drink the water.

Of course, Harrison got the wettest of all of the kids.....not sure how that happened....

The kid's pictures: Valentine's stamps and chalk drawing. They worked extra hard on these gems.

Elizabeth dreaming big, on the top of the slide, wearing her brother's gloves. Love this girlie!

Noodle necklaces. Earlier in the week I dyed pasta and let it dry. Then I had the kids string them onto yarn. At first, this was a nearly impossible task for a few of the 2 1/2 and 3 year olds. However, after a few practice rounds and taping the end of the yarn to make it a little firmer and thinner, most of them got it down. This was a great hand eye coordination activity and tester to see what the kids need to work on. While it was difficult for the kids at first, they were soooo proud of themselves when they finished their necklaces!

Taping the end of the yarn really helped the kids with putting the yarn through the noodles.

This week, the kids have been hard at work making Valentine's for each other. 

Can anyone see Elizabeth under her umbrella??? She was pretending it was raining in the living room.

Typical bath time: Doc drinking the bath water perched on the side of the tub. He does this almost every night while they're in the tub.

Ended the week with a sibling wrestling match started by Elizabeth.

Next week, the kids will be doing lots of Valentine crafts, some new energy wasting exercises, a movie day, play dough, and a few new hand eye coordination activities. Thankfully, this next week doesn't require as much pre-planning as last week--that's always a plus!