Monday

Yesterday was really windy here, so I was having a tough time convincing the boys to go outside, even though it was sunny. They usually love being outside, so after about an hour of trying unsuccessfully to push them out into the backyard I finally gave in to their pleas of "it's sooooo freezin' out here!" (it was like 70 degrees!) and let them stay indoors to play with the art supplies that Grandma and Grandpa had given Sutton for his birthday.

First we played with the vehicle lacing cards. Neither of the boys really understands the concept of lacing around the path yet, but they both loved putting the laces through random holes and pulling them through. Definitely a good motor skills activity, and they'll eventually get the hang of doing it the correct way. Sutton kept saying "I doing it! School bus!"

Then we played with the new double-sided markers (so cool!) and the vehicle and dinosaur stamp sets. The boys both love "doing stampers," and they especially liked the designs of the vehicle stamps, but since they are mounted only on flat foam they are a little difficult for them to handle correctly. They had much more success using the dinosaur stamps since they're mounted on wood blocks and have something more substantial to hold on to. The stamps were a definite hit - they played with them for almost an hour!

Sutton made a jungle safari picture with his new foam animal stickers

Sawyer and I dyed some pasta for necklaces. I've never done this before, and was worried that the food coloring would rub off the pasta, but it didn't - yay! Mix a couple of drops of liquid food coloring in a cup with a tablespoon or two of rubbing alcohol, add the pasta, stir well and then lay in a single layer on a paper plate for about 1/2 an hour to dry.

I had no idea how interested in this activity Sawyer would be! He threaded the beads and made a necklace, but he was much more interested in scooping up all the colored pasta with every spoon and small cup he could find. Eventually I put out a tray and just let him go to town doing whatever he wanted to with it (aside from eating it or getting it all over the floor!). He played with the pasta for over an hour too - it was definitely a good day for staying focused on our activites!



Eventually all my nicely sorted pasta was one big colorful rainbow pile on a cookie sheet filled with cups, spoons and a miniature tractor.

He thought it was soooo funny that he could hang his necklace from his ears! "Take a picture of me, Mom. It's so cutie."

Our very first ripe strawberry is ready to be picked!

The first tiny tentative taste. He was incredibly excited to be eating a strawberry from the garden since he's been checking on it several times a day to see if it was ready yet, but he still wasn't sure it was going to taste okay since it came from the garden and not the store.

Yup, it's good! Time to shove the rest of it in!

Sawyer dressed me up - pink headband, six dandelions in my hair and two pasta necklaces. I make this look good lol

Here you can see just how windy it was outside. This is the bubble maker that Stella got Sutton for his birthday, and it is AWESOME! Our yard was literally swirling with hundreds upon hundreds of bubbles dancing in the wind. Yes, I still love bubbles as much as my kids do :)