Light as a Feather

On Tuesday we had another huge snowstorm and it was a day before the "first day of spring"!  But, we decided to stay inside and "think spring" ourselves.

First, we emptied the rice sensory bin and filled it with feathers.

Tickle Tickle

For a little while I also got the pasta bag out from our toddler busy bag play date.  Braden enjoyed dumping it from cup to cup and Sage enjoyed eating a few pieces.

Afterwards we created a little robin & her nest full of eggs - hopefully spring will be here soon! 

Braden colored the nest

Admiring his work

Week 7 "Birds"

Birds

March 18th - March 24th

Crafts/Activities:

Owl plate

Goose plate

Egg & Bird craft

Robin footprint

Birds nest  - adapt a bit so he can put a nest together (tissue paper?)

Sensory/Discovery:

This week create a bin full of feathers.  Can also incorporate a few plastic eggs, small bird stuffed animal.

Set up the sensory bin with feathers

5 Little Ducks book & paper figures

Homemade bird feeder

Angry birds game

Sensory bin & 5 Little Ducks

Snacks:

Owl sandwich

Hardboiled eggs

Birdhouse sandwich

Nest treats

Alphabet:

"F" - Feathers  "B" - Bird

Books:

St. Patrick's Day

On Saturday Braden and I worked on a few more St. Patrick's day activities.  In the morning we painted a green clover.  I was originally going to go with hand prints, but decided to just let him paint with the brush instead.  Then I drew in the clover.  

In the afternoon we took a little family walk in the woods.  Braden enjoyed some wagon off-roading!  

We had to wait until after nap to have fun with some green Jello - sensory play, because the Jello was not ready when we got home from the walk.  

Wolfe's Neck Farm

It was not really a St. Patrick's day activity, but on Friday Braden and I went to our last music class at Little Music Maker.  Then we headed to Freeport to join some friends at Wolfe's Neck Farm.  

Some of the moms had decided to plan the play date, because twin baby goats had been born earlier in the week.  When we arrived we heard and saw that another set of twins had been born the day before.  The older set were hidden under a trough and their mother was making it difficult to see them.  But, the new babes were out and about.  

Braden did not really enjoy the animals.  He basically stood frozen in one spot at the entrance to the barn.  He just did not enjoy the sheep and their constant baaing.  

Eventually we walked around the outside of the barn and saw some cows (from a distance) and he found a toy tractor to play with.  He did NOT want to leave that tractor.  I tried to get him to go play on the grass with his friends and try to snap a photo of the group and he did not want anything to do with that.  He wanted to walk back to the "tractor".  

In the end it was a very short visit, because it was so cold.  We found a slightly warmer place to eat some lunch and then we headed home for a nap.  

Other Activities

As I mentioned before it took me a while to recover from sickness, and then find the motivation to start planning weekly activities again.  It was also because Braden had a lot of other activities going on and we had busy weekends away with birthdays and a memorial service.  

There was a week and a half where we didn't do any themes (we missed Dr. Seuss' birthday - I had some cute ideas, which I will have to save for next year).  Here are a few of the events/activities that have been going to keep us nice and busy!

Braden and I started a mommy & toddler yoga class with some of our friends.  We did a trial 4 weeks and a new 6 week session begins on Monday.

On Tuesdays we try to walk the mall to get a little bit of exercise.  Once it is warmer we will start walking outside.

An impromptu play-date where we made some crepes and the moms visited.

We missed our Valentine's Day play-date, because many moms & babies were sick.  So, we did a re-do.  One of the mom's (Jasmin) has an amazing blog and she wrote a post about the play-date: http://ouvrezvosyeuxjdr.blogspot.com/2013/03/belated-valentines-day-play-date.html

We also had two birthday weekends away.  

This week we tried a few new story times (Kennebunk & Gorham).  I think we will try the Saco one this week and decide which we like the best.  

We also participated in a toddler nutrition class.  The first class focused on green smoothies and "sneaking" vegetables in.  Braden took two sips of the trial one in class and said "all done".  So, we will have to try a few to see if we can make it taste a little better for him.  The second class is in two weeks.  

Oh and I almost forgot last Friday we had our Toddler Busy Bag play date.  It was something that I had organized for the end of February, but we had a snow storm and it was cancelled.  I had set up a spreadsheet with different toddler oriented activities that could be made and stored in ziploc bags.  Then each mom chose one to make and made one for all participants.  Then we came together to swap & the kiddos could play.  It worked out really nicely.  Again, Jasmin wrote an amazing blog post all about it:  http://ouvrezvosyeuxjdr.blogspot.com/2013/03/toddler-busy-bag-exchange-and-making-of.html  

Now, things have kind of settled down a bit and I have planned a few activities for this week around St. Patrick's Day.  So, hopefully Braden and I are back on track with our themes!  

Lucky Charm

By midweek we were ready to start a few little St. Patrick's day activities.  On Wednesday Braden and I emptied out his numbers sensory tube (because it didn't work too well).  We refilled it with some green shower gel, a little bit of water and gold glitter to make a different sensory tube.  Braden was only interested in it for a little bit and then he went back to the water table.  

Thursdays pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow ended up taking all day.  Someone was not into painting today!  Once mommy decided to participate (yellow) he decided he wanted to paint again and we were able to get the rest of the handprints finished! 

So excited to paint.

"all done paint"

Taking a break

Finished product!