Challenge Day 18+

I haven't been updating b/c I've been taking pictures with my camera instead of my phone. Well, I don't really have a computer accessible all the time. I use my phone and tablet. I DO have a comp but I have to go to hubby's work area to use it and I don't like messing with his things. I've also been working out and we've been playing... A LOT! Some of the days aren't here because they've been repeat activities, and some days well, with three small kids... there was no set structure for those days. I'm trying not to be hard on myself. But, this challenge has DEFINITELY changed the way we interact with our children and it has been so wonderful! I'll post all the pics I have here and will tell you what I can remember about each of them! ENJOY!

On this particular morning, the kids asked to play with play dough ASAP. Which worked out well, because I needed a little time to set up their other invitation. I was VERY excited about the one I was working on!

Colored Ice and Water

OK. TELL ME a kid would not FLIP over this!? Well, the did. They LOVE this and request it OFTEN! We have several different shaped ice cube trays and they love the variety of color and shapes.

They were both very curious

tasting

touching

serious work

and melting :(

The kids played with the ice and water for like 2 hours. They kept asking for more ice and I gave them just about all we had. Bella thought they would taste like popsicles but was rather disappointed. She ate them anyways. LOL When they started to melt, we talked about temperatures and how the room temperature water and their warm hands was making the ice melt. They were fascinated but also, not excited that they could not magically re-freeze the ice.

They were covered in food coloring after this, so it was bath time. By now, Mia was awake and we threw her in the bath with Bell. We wanted Mia to get in on the fun so we threw some colored ice cubes in there with them. It didn't have the effect I had hoped for. HOWEVER... when I dropped a drop of food coloring in the water... WOW! Mia immediately tried to splash the drop and made the color spread. While Bella, freaked out that the color was coming towards her and jumped out of the tub crying, Mia happily finished her green bath by herself.

Checking out the new temperature change

changing the color of the water

green bath water

splash splash splash!

Our next invitation, which I believe was the following day, is what I call 'Color Bombs'. You add a FEW drops of food coloring to some oil and mix until the droplets are VERY small. You then pour the oil into the water and WAIT. In a few minutes, you begin to get EXPLOSIONS of color! We did this over and over and over!

mixing the colors

It starts out slow... but cool

EXPLOSION!

The next day we played with something I think they love AS much, if not MORE than the colored ice. WATER BEADS! If you do not know what they are, they are little tiny dehydrated beads that you soak in water and they get like 50x their original size and become all gummy/jelly like. TOTALLY AWESOME! I'm kind of obsessed with them myself!

HOW awesome are they!?

one by one

mass amounts

Mia didn't play with these for two reasons. 1- She eats EVERYTHING and I was particularly afraid of her ingesting several of these and 2- she was napping. When she woke up we set up her own sensory bin invitation. She loved the textures and color and sounds of it all.

ohhh! What's this?

EEEEK! It's LOUD!

On a different day we made home made (edible) finger paint! I'm glad I made the edible kind, b/c Mia was only interested in eating it as fast as she possibly could.

apparently it tasted good

REALLY good

Jeremiah really enjoyed this

Bell had fun too, despite her glare

Mia eventually bored of eating paint and whined to get down and go play. She found something better to eat.

I'll do another large post with Easter and the day after here, soon. I hope you enjoyed!

Challenge Day 17- Small motor skills

I haven't been writing recently, but we have definitely been playing! On day 17 we busted out the spray bottles and syringes and droppers. The kids love these bottles of colored water. They play forever. They enjoy making different color combinations and seeing what they can mix with what.

On this particular day, Mia decided to play along! She didn't do much but stand and yell and put things in her mouth, but she loves it too! Since this day was a few days ago, I don't remember very many details, so I will leave you with the picture. Enjoy my cute babies!

Challenge Day 16- Star Gazing

After several gorgeous spring afternoons outside, our Northern location caught up with us. The temps dropped and we are once again stuck inside :(

However, this won't stop us from playing! Today we were star gazing! I took a giant moving box and poked holes with a box cutter in the top. After cutting all the holes, I stuck the bulbs of Christmas lights in the holes. Okay, this was SERIOUSLY cool!

The kids were entranced and so was I. I only wish the box was big enough for me to lay in. This box seemed so hypnotic. Bella sat and stared and played for hours. I would say this was another success, thanks to an idea on Play At Home Mom's blog!

I cannot wait until the weather warms up and we can go back outside. We're all itching to play outside some more!

Challenge day 13-15 Spring has sprung!

The past few days we played outside. Again and again and again. We didn't do much else. It's just too beautiful to stay inside. The first day we played in our yard and had an invitation. The next two days, we played at the playground. I'll break down the days the best I can, even though there's not many details. So, this will be mostly pictures.

The first day (Day 13), was so gorgeous Daddy wanted to wash the car and we all played. I put some soapy water into jars and gave the kids food coloring to mix in it and giant straws. I explained (after Bell attempted to drink the soapy water), that we were going to play with bubbles! Jeremiah loved this one. He loved making different color bubbles. Bell, after tasting it, wanted nothing to do with it. Instead, she hoarded the food coloring and became a mixologist and drop by drop put it all into one jar. Ending up with a murky brown color. She was pleased with herself.

After this I took yet another idea from the PAHM blog. I took plastic bottles, cut off the bottom and rubber banded a piece of towel to the bottom. I then wet the towel and put some soap on it. When you blow into the bottle it makes like a bubble snake. SO. COOL! Bella was scared of it (LOL), but Jeremiah loved it. It was a little difficult for him to do (Bella wouldn't have been able to do it), but he liked it. He wanted me to do it for him. I blew into that dang bottle for so long, I gave myself the hiccups.

While Jeremiah was doing this, Bella got out some toys from the shed to play with. When Jey was done, I got a bubble gun thing and used some of the soapy water and made bubbles for the kids to chase. They loved this, until Jey got bubbles in his eye :( He was fine. He's a tough kid :) Mia woke up  in here some time and came out and wanted to snuggle and nurse. Oh no! Not nursing and baby snuggles! How horrid! Oh, ok baby, I GUESS I will just have to hold you until you're tired of being cuddled. Oh, DARN.

Daddy and Jey then went to play soccer in the yard and the girls and I went to sit and play. Mia was loving the warm sun and brisk wind. Bell was picking flowers and running around. She would alternate between playing with Amelia and I and playing soccer with the boys.

That was about it for this day. LOTS of fun and the kids slept in late! Win-Win!


The next day (Day 14), we went to the playground with some friends. I don't have any pictures of it, for two reasons. 1- It was too fun to take pictures! 2- There was an issue with some neighborhood kids acting TERRIBLY inappropriate and I had to talk to their mother, in fear of one little girl's well being. :( I've spoken to the proper authorities and hopefully the situation will be resolved and the little girl will not be subjected to any behavior like that ever again. Poor little girl.

Skip to the NEXT day (Day 15), we went to the park again! This time with a snack picnic and Daddy in tow! We had SO much fun. We all climbed and went down the slides. Even Mia! It was so nice to get out in the sun with my family. Ahhh, how I adore them! I'm so incredibly blessed for my beautiful family. Now time to get out there and PLAY!

Challenge Day 12- Ice and sun!

They look like gum drops!

I'm going to put the invitation from the day my Mom left and yesterday's all in one post. Because, well, I'm lazy.

The afternoon after my mom left, I was super excited for the invitation I had planned. I had taken a dome shaped ice cube tray and frozen colored water in it. I set up the ice cubes on their light table with some petri dishes, droppers, syringes, and hot water. I wanted them to explore the temperatures and how they affect each other. They LOVED it! I only wish I had more ice cubes for them to play with. Next time, I think I will freeze several batches over a few days, so they can play longer. I got right in there with them on this one. Bell of course, wanted to eat it. Luckily, it didn't taste like much, because I'm not fond of them ingesting food coloring. Either way this was a TOTAL success and we will be doing this again in the near future. Hopefully outside, when it warms up and the baby will get in on the action too.

fun fun

Then yesterday, I set up a bunch of different crafts. There was coloring with crayons, markers, and colored pencils. There was construction paper and scissors. There was glue with paper and colored rice, and there was also play dough.  This was also a big success. Mostly, they wanted to color with the markers, because, before now, I have not allowed markers in the house. I've been too afraid of the mess. But it was fine. Just like I should have known it was. Bell had marker all over herself, but she "looked so pretty". lol They've been seeming rather bored with the rice and play dough. I need to find some new ideas for them to stay engaged with the activities.

Later in the day we went outside to embrace the impending Spring weather. I had some strawberry plant seedlings I needed to plant while we were out there. We got out the soil, planters, water and seedlings. We took turn digging hole and planting the seedlings.  Bella, apparently, has no issue getting dirty with DIRT. She will dig and get as messy as any other kid. It seems to be only "controlled messes" she is not fond of. mmhmm. I'm beginning to catch on to your plot, little lady.

The weather was beautiful and Mia crawled around exploring her surroundings. She played with the gardening tools and ate some dirt. Typical baby things. I bet that dirt was DELICIOUS! (not so much). The kids also, had some "just add water" plants that they opened and added water to. Bell had Basil and Jeremiah had Bell Peppers. They added the water and fluffed the expanding soil. They just wanted to walk around with them, not leave them to bask in the sun. They weren't too happy when I tried explaining it would take a long while for the plants to actually grow. My children are more the instant gratification type.

Eventually the predicted meltdowns started and it was time to go inside for naps. The first outside play of the season must have wore them all out, because ALL THREE TOOK A NAP! No, you don't understand. This is a rare phenomenon that has happened like five times EVER in our house. It was so blissful. I laid on the couch and did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. It was fantastic!

More play today and another blog tomorrow :)

Challenge -Break for Mom

The "bottom" one is milk :(

I took a break from the "Challenge" the past few days due to my Mom's visit. This in NO way means we didn't play! We did a lot of running around and playing with 'Nani'. I'll just sum up the past few days all in one post.

Nani got here on Wednesday evening and we had dinner and played until bed time.

On Thursday, my Mom was willing to help me bring all 3 kids to the allergist. Mia was getting tested for a peanut and milk allergy. The milk instantly showed up as positive. Poor baby. The peanut did not show up, but due to a previous face-swelling indecent, the allergist wanted blood tests done.  We took Mia to the lab and after poking and proding my poor baby like cattle, and getting NO blood, they finally stopped and I refused to allow them to poke her another time. I said I would return once they had lancets and could finger prick her. WHY they did not have these on hand, I will never know.

After traumatizing my poor infant, we decided to get some lunch. It was scrumptious. The kids all downed their food like they hadn't eaten in days. Which is always good. Good appetites, to me, means one of two things. They've been playing hard, or they're growing through a growth spurt. 

<3

After lunch we went shopping and got some things to play with and some plants to plant our recently arrive strawberry plants in. I believe all 3 kids (and my mom) fell asleep on the way home. It WAS a rather long day.

On Friday, we had intended to take the kids to the local children's museum, but I needed to go to the grocery store. When I grocery shop, it's an all day affair. I had to go the next town over to stock up on meat (IE chicken and ground turkey), like I do every 6 weeks or so. And THEN I had to go to the grocery.

Mom came with and we ONLY took Jeremiah. He ate up all the one on one attention. Daddy stayed home and spent time with Bella, while the baby apparently took the best nap of her life. LOL She got 4-5 hours of UNINTERRUPTED napping. I don't know if she has EVER had the opportunity to do that. I know I've never been away from her that long and it wasn't fun. I missed her little face. I missed Bella too, of course. But, there is something about your nurslings eyes that make your heart break, when you cannot look into them. 

Later that evening, the kids busted out the play dough they found cleaning out the basement the other day. It was given to them long ago, but I never let them play with it, in fear of the mess. That's no longer an issue in this house!

Fun stuff!

My Mom just left and it was a sad goodbye. We'll see her again soon, though. We had a fun invitation today, but I'll save that for the next post. Time to get back to playing!

Challenge Day 11- Spring Cleaning

Nuts right!?

Today we were cleaning the house and basement to prepare for my Mother, who is coming into town tomorrow. I was in the basement most of the morning and the kids decided they wanted to be down there too. I swear, with all the toys they were finding, it was like Christmas all over again!

I went through and piled all the baby items (strollers, high chair, bouncy seat) in  one area. I also went through boxes and threw out all the crap I knew we would never use. Then came the tubs.... Oh, mountains and MOUNTAINS of tubs. Most full of clothing. I will shortly be sorting them into sizes and sending them to friends who have children that it will actually fit, setting aside things Mia will grow into.

After sorting through junk and doing tons of laundry, we came up stairs and ate some lunch. The kids had crafts of their choosing. They chose play dough and glue with colored rice and made some lovely art work. We're talking fridge worthy, here. Ok, maybe not... But they had fun.

purdy art

After they did their crafts, we made dinner. It was my first attempt at pesto. With no food processor, no less. It was fantastical. Everyone gobbled it down and made sure to say how much they liked it. Extra points for mom.

THAAAAAT'S RIGHT!

After dinner, well... time for dishes. I decided to see if Jeremiah could step up the the plate here. He THRIVES on structure and designated tasks. He's been successfully emptying the entire dishwasher, for months. He also helps load it when I hand him the dishes. I asked him if he wanted to try to DO the dishes. He EXCITEDLY answered yes. Ok, buddy... go for it! Boy did he! He rinsed and scrubbed and was excited to use the sprayer. He successfully loaded and started the sink full of dishes. WHAAAAT?! Is this possible? Can my 5 year old REALLY do the dishes? Is that sad that I'm RIDICULOUSLY excited about this? I have no intention of making him a slave (ok maybe in my mind, he will be a dish slave). But, the help every so often (especially if he asks to help), will be awesome. He's also a great vacuum-er. LOL $50 to rent him for the day ;)