Imagination Exploration Week

Last week, we decided to take a little adventure with our imaginations. The result was one of my favorite weeks of all time! I've always tried to encourage imagination with my girls, but I usually leave the adventures to them. This time, however, I decided to join in on the fun. Long story short, we had a BLAST together! Here is a little of what we did last week: 

Monday: Puppet Shows

On Monday we pulled out our puppets and practiced a little play that we could do for Daddy when he got home from work. The girls were confused about what to do at first, but once I got down with them and started acting out scenes, they really got into it!

Tuesday: Pirate Treasure Hunt

On Tuesday I put together a little treasure hunt for the girls, complete with a treasure map and some crazy hats. When they got up from their naps, daddy helped them to run, skip, jump, leap frog, stomp, creep, and crawl to the buried treasure...

Which happened to be a bowl full of cookies and marshmallows! Yippee!!!

Wednesday: Tea Party

This was the most fun I've had in FOREVER! With two little girls at home, we have lots of tea parties, but none like this. Daddy joined us as Mr. Butterfly, I was Mrs. Rabbit, Brooklyn was Princess Blueberry, and Lily was Princess Pinky! We sat and talked (with accents) about everything under the sun whilst enjoying cookies and Kool-Aid. The girls were so creative and were just eating up the attention from me and Kevin. When we were finished, the girls kept telling me how much they love Mrs. Rabbit and they hope she comes back to play again. It made me feel really good :)


Thursday: Story Telling with Pictures

On Thursday I had the girls draw pictures and then make up a story to go along with it. There was no end to their imaginations (especially Brooklyn's) as they told me about adventures at the zoo, Pegasus princesses who were being chased by bad guys, and poor little ear people that looked like mushrooms so everyone kept trying to eat them!

Friday: Mom's Day

 

For my "day off" I decided to put together some picture frames. I paid $3 for each and they came unpainted and were made of pine. I painted them black, mod-podged on some fun paper, cut some plexiglass to put inside, and printed some pictures from my computer. It only cost me $10 for the pair and I LOVE the way they turned out!

I also used the time to finish off my kitchen command center. First I painted two old frames I had. One has my engagement announcement in it and is being used as the top piece of my calendar. The other is being used as a chore chart for my family. I made the little menu board earlier at a church craft group. The little green frames with pictures of my family eating in them use to be little white coasters. I painted them, put black and white pictures of each of us eating something yummy in them, and then strung them together with twine. I think the whole thing turned out great!

Art Week

Last week we decided to celebrate art in all its forms (or at least as many forms as we could cover in four days!) I only had the budget to work with what I had in my own home, but if you have a little extra cash to spare and want to try this out yourself, I would suggest getting your children out to museums, art shows, concerts, and dance recitals. But alas, here is a little of what we managed to do:

Monday: Dancing 

On Monday I set up the Wii and me and the girls played Just Dance for an hour! It was exhausting, hilarious, and tons of fun!

Tuesday: Music

On Tuesday I busted out the ukulele and maracas and me and the girls went to town playing and singing songs. I love the picture of Lily on the left shakin' it like nobody's business! So funny!

Wednesday: Painting

 On Wednesday I brought out the paints and let the girls brush and stamp to their little hearts' content.

Most of the paint ended up on Lily's hands and face but she had a blast putting it there! Brooklyn was much more meticulous then her younger sister and made sure to carefully wipe up every misplaced smudge. Its so funny how very different they are. :)

Thursday: Sculpting

On Thursday we practiced our sculpting skills. Brooklyn started recreating Stonehenge while Lily stacked the clay blocks. Eventually I had to sculpt her a little kitty to get her to understand the concept, and before I knew it, both girls had little clay kitties and had turned "sculpting time" into make believe time.

Friday: Mom's Day

On Friday I decided to finish off our upstairs bathroom. When me moved in, it was not only filthy, but it had a very "special" hunting shower curtain that the previous renters left behind as well as a remarkably yellow tub/toilet/sink combo.

Anyway, when I first moved in my only goals were to get rid of the nasty curtain and find a way to hide the mustard color. I tried a lot of different contrasting and complementary colors but nothing looked right. So finally I decided to celebrate the yellow with more bright colors. I found the shower curtain, rug, hand towel, and towels at Target and purchased them (with the help of my awesome mother-in-law). Then I found some old frames hiding in our storage, painted them, and then created some art in Photoshop to round the whole thing out. The entire bathroom makeover cost me a total of $20 dollars out of pocket and I think it turned out pretty cute!

Magnificent Mommies Week!

In preparation for Mother's Day, me and the girls spent all last week learning about different kinds of moms! Here is a little of what we did:

Monday: Mammal Mommies

On Monday we learned about Mammal Mommies. This involved sitting at the computer, learning about mammals, watching a LIVE birth, and coloring pictures of mammal moms. The girls LOVED it and were surprisingly more mature than I was when we watched the baby be born :)

Tuesday: Marsupial Mommies

On Tuesday we learned about marsupial moms, made a Kangaroo mom and baby (complete with toilet paper roll pouches), and had pouch races! The pouch races were hilarious! I just tied a bandana around both the girls' waists, let them pick a stuffed animal to stuff inside, and then we did hopping races and running races whilst trying to keep our "babies" safe in their pouches!


Wednesday: Mommies that lay eggs

On Wednesday we did the Naked Egg Experiment and learned all about how eggs work and what kinds of animals lay eggs. The girls were fascinated by the eggs and REALLY enjoyed busting them open!

Thursday: Bird Mommies

On Thursday we learned about bird moms and then we made a bird house to put outside our dining room window. The bird house turned out pretty crooked with all the extra "help" we got from the girls, but they LOVED it and are very proud of all their hard work.

Friday: Mom's Day

On Friday I began a whole weekend of being spoiled for Mother's Day! I was fed many fantastic meals, got to spend the night with one of my girl friends while Kevin took Brooklyn camping, received many fantastic gifts, and had an incredible time hanging out with my wonderful husband and cute little girlies! Can't wait for more fun to come!

The "H" Date

I know its been awhile, but Kevin and I finally Had a little extra time on our Hands, so we got a babysitter and went out on our "H" date! To start things off, we went to a second Hand store and bought some silly Hats. Then we went Home and embellished them with feathers and flowers so they would be perfect for the Horse race! That's right! Our friends threw a Kentucky Derby party and we were actually able to attend. There were a lot of Homemade goodies to eat at the party and we enjoyed a lot of Humorous conversation as well. Neither of our Horses won, but since we didn't actually bet money on them, we left the party feeling very Happy! What Has your dating life been like as of late? Any ideas for our upcoming "I" date? If so, please share!

Fun with Friends Week

This week came as a bit of a surprise for me. I had planned a different theme, but after several invites from several AMAZING families to come and play, I decided to let go of the "plan" and find joy in the company of good friends! And because we had so many invitations, I had to switch my "mom day" to Monday so I would actually have time to get things done. Another consequence of all the excitement is a SERIOUS lack of pictures. In fact, I didn't even manage to take any until the week was at an end. But anyway, here is what we did last week:


MONDAY: Mom's Day

Lots and lots of cleaning for me, and lots and lots of TV for my girls!

TUESDAY: Lunch with Rachel

On Tuesday, me and the girls took my good friend Rachel out for her birthday. We went to Pei Wei's and had a blast trying out new food and catching up with each other. The girls especially enjoyed the fortune cookies!

WEDNESDAY: Play date at the Booth's

On Wednesday I brought the girls over to my friend Tiffany's house. Tiffany has two girls about the same age as mine. We let them all loose to play and enjoyed a few wonderful hours of adult conversations while the kiddos let their imaginations run wild!

THURSDAY: Book of Mormon Book club

Last September I set up a Book of Mormon Book club with several of my friends (like a Bible study group). We meet every Thursday at our church to discuss what we studied during the week while our kids run around the nursery room and play. But on this particular occasion, we were lucky enough to go to Nicole's house (one of our awesome members) to have a brunch during our discussion. We all had a WONDERFUL time together and the kids had a blast too. After all, who can resist a room full of "new" toys!

FRIDAY: Sushi and the Motion Explosion

On Friday I went to my friend Stephanie's house, where we had a fantastic sushi lunch while our kids ate macaroni and cheese. We also enjoyed hours of adult conversation while our children played happily in the next room. As the day wore on we were having so much fun we decided to make brownies and then go to the Woodridge Motion Explosion. The kids got to ride a train, drive a bus, hang out in the back of a police car, pet a team of sled dogs, and slide down a giant bouncy slide. It was the perfect ending to an incredible week filled with friends and fun! Can't wait to see what next week will bring!

How Stuff Works Week!

So, I'm trying something new to help me spend MORE time playing with my kids and less time thinking about how I should. Basically I decided to pick a weekly theme and come up with an activity about the theme to do with my kids each day, Monday through Thursday. Then on Friday they can watch TV and trash the playroom as long as they want while I get to have my project day to do crafts and things I usually never get around to. Anyway, here is how our first week went! 

HOW STUFF WORKS WEEK

MONDAY: Electricity

For our electricity day, we tried to make a "Squishy Circuit" which is a neat little play dough project I found on THIS website. We never did figure out how to get our LED lights to light up, but we had a BLAST with the play dough!

TUESDAY: Newton's Laws of Motion

My daughters are 2 and 4, so we kept it simple. I rolled a ball to show them that it would keep going unless something stopped it, like bumps in the sidewalk, the wind blowing against it, them picking it up, or good old gravity.

For the second law, we dropped 2 balls of different sizes at the same time to show that they would fall at the same speed despite their different masses.

For the third law, we blew up balloons and let them go to show that when the air pushed out one way, the balloon would fly the other way. They REALLY liked this one. And after each experiment I let them play with the balls and balloons for as long as they wanted. They were entertained for hours!

WEDNESDAY: Heat

For our heat experiment day, I froze a bunch of toys in ice (the night before) and had the girls get them out by using the heat from friction as well as from hot water. Then we made chocolate covered strawberries to show how heat from the microwave, the stove, and our bodies can melt chocolate. BEST. EXPERIMENT. EVER!

THURSDAY: Light

On Thursday I bought the girls flashlights to help us learn about light. We spent the ENTIRE day playing in our closets, in boxes, and under the bed doing shadow puppet shows and having light saber wars. It was a very fun day!

FRIDAY: Mom's Day

On Friday, I plugged the girls into the TV, pulled out a few toys, and let them do their thing whilst I cleaned the house and packed my bags to drive my husband out to Champaign-Urbana so he could run a Marathon! It took the whole day to prepare and I'm glad I had that uninterrupted time to get things done!

A Potty Training Story...

So last week, Kevin and I decided it was finally time to start potty training our daughter who just turned two in February. Her older sister was potty trained by 18 months (no thanks to us, she ASKED to be potty trained) so we thought 2 was a reasonable age for our second daughter.

For my older daughter I used the 1-week-naked-booty-boot-camp method where you let your kid go commando for a week whilst simultaneously flooding them with their favorite liquids and putting them on the toilet every 20 minutes. It only took one poop accident and 3 days of pee accidents for everything to click and she was diaper free after that. Unfortunately, I knew my two year old would be different. She is VERY stubborn and hates doing ANYTHING that is not her idea. So, forcing her onto the potty every 20 minutes seemed like a bad idea to me.

Instead, I used a 3 day system where you give a TON of positive reinforcement whilst reminding your child to tell you if they have to go potty throughout the day. In theory, I LOVED the idea and thought if anything could work, this would be it. But I may have underestimated how stubborn my two year old could really be...

Days 1-2: She is interested in this new game we are playing, gets to the potty on time twice, makes it through 2 three hour naps and a full night sleep without wetting the bed!


Day 3: Something snaps... She doesn't want me reminding her to tell me if she has to pee. She starts yelling "NO POTTY!" at me when I remind her, she has a nasty poop accident and decides she never wants that to happen again, she starts begging for her diaper, she cries her eyes out anytime we say potty!


Days 4-5: We bump up the positive reinforcement. A jelly bean every time she sits on the potty, an M&M whenever she pees, a Reese's peanut butter egg whenever she poops. She likes the new rewards and stops fighting us as much and actually makes it to the potty 3 times.


Day 6:  She LOVES candy! She starts sitting on the potty every 15 minutes to get another jelly bean. She cries wolf so many times I don't know if I should keep putting her on the potty. I don't want accidents all over my house so I eliminate the jelly bean and only reward her for pooping and peeing.


Day 7:  She sits on the potty and promptly asks for a jelly bean. I tell her she will get one as soon as she goes pee pee. She explodes. She starts screaming and crying, throws herself off the potty, picks up the potty seat, chucks it across the room, and starts yelling something at me in a language I do not understand. She pees on the floor 6 times before my husband even wakes up! I freak out, yell "FINE!" put a diaper back on her, then sit on the hallway floor next to a puddle of pee and cry until my husband wakes up...


Day 8-Current time: Now that it is no longer something I want ANYTHING to do with, she is asking to be put on the potty when she has to pee. She is making it about half the time. She still poops in her diaper but then comes and tells me that she is "NASTY" and poo poo should go to the potty. I feel like I should give it another try but worry that my brain might explode in the process...

Moral of the story:

No child is the same, no method is fail proof, no amount of patience will make it OK when your sofa gets peed on for the third time, and NO ONE likes potty training! So if you are feeling bad that your child just isn't getting it, or that you don't want to start potty training even though your child seems ready, just remember that you are not alone. There are literally millions of moms out there who are suffering through this nasty part of life right along side you.

So, I wish you all good luck in your potty training endeavors, and if you have a ridiculously stubborn child like mine who you magically managed to potty train, please share your success tips and stories in the comment section below!!! I really NEED to hear them right now :)