Cheerios

Look: I've been wanting to fill our water table with rice or Cheerios for a while now.  I finally bought a super box of Cheerios and did it with the warmer weather this week.  The kids have spent hours this week pouring the cheerios into different containers using cups, spoons and shovels.  It seemed to be endless fun.

Learn: Cheerios was the way to go! As you can see from the second picture our dog, Millie, spent the hours circling the water table like a shark looking for a lonely swimmer.  If I had picked rice I know she would have still eaten it and who knows if that is safe.  Also I wondered if this could be an indoor activity.  The answer is no!  With the ages my kids are there was lots of spillage and this would have been a mess (although I am sure Millie would have been on hand to clean it up!)

Love: I loved, loved, loved doing this.  I think in a day or two there will be no more cheerios and we'll have to start again another time, but I will certainly do this over and over!

Shoe Store

Look: Cleaning the floor of my closet was on my to do list.  Somehow with all the hecticness of the holidays, my closet was a mess.  With it clean the kids oh'd and ah'd over the space.  Then as we were playing one day in my room, Chelsea asked Gavin to "Come into the shoe store" and blammo a game was born.  I think she got the idea from when we went to the please touch museum and they had one too.  They played for a while pulling out shoes, trying them on and Mommy putting them back.

Learn: Everyone knows that kids love the wrapping paper more than the gift sometimes.  But I just didn't stretch my mind to think of how this applies to other things.  In this case I thought they'd like hiding in the closet or reading book in the corner or making it a little cave, but nope a little cleaning up and they see a shoe store.

Love: I love the way their little minds work.  On this day they really played nicely in the shoe store too!

Oatmeal in the helping tower

Look:  C's changing table has been busted for months.  We do diaper changes on the floor and have been using it for storage.  I've had the idea that it could turn into a "helping tower" with a little help from my handy husband.  So this weekend (after seeing a friend post their own helping tower pics) Chris turned our changing table into a helping tower.  Now we pull it up to the counter and the kids can both help cook without teetering on a chair.  It's very sturdy...thanks to Chris.  On this day we made oatmeal for breakfast.  The kids stirred their packets with silk and then put in the fun stuff...cinnamon, brown sugar, raisins and chocolate chips.

Learn:  This tower is starting to change the meals I am planning, I want to include the kids whenever I can now!

Love: I love the chocolate covered mouths, they are happy, full mouths too!

Please Touch Museum

Look:The please touch museum has been around for years.  But just about a year or two ago they moved the location and made an all new museum for kids.  We hadn't been to the new one yet.  My friend Monica called to invite us and I couldn't have said yes fast enough.  We truly had a fantastic time.  The entire museum was amazing, each detail thought out very well.  I have about 100 pictures from that day, but here is just a sampling.

Learn: The most I can say is that we need to get our own membership too!  What fun!

Love:  I will remember a lot of the neat things Chelsea and Gavin did at the museum forever. 

NYE

 

Look: We had a terrific New Year's Eve.  Some awesome friends of ours threw a great party.  They did a special early countdown for the kids so that Moms and Dads could have the kids in bed by the real new year's.  They even tailored the food to Chelsea's allergies.  The kids really liked the hats and noise makers.  And what kid doesn't love playing with someone else's toys?

Learn: We don't go to a lot of parties with Chelsea because there will likely be a problem.  This time it was so nice to actually relax and enjoy the party.  Chris and I enjoyed it as much as Gavin and Chelsea did.

Love: I love our friends.  Anne and Al were very accomodating and it was completely terrific.  What a great way to start 2010!