Donuts

For Christmas we received a donut maker and some cute aprons. The aprons we use a lot of and they were dirty while we were doing this. (Much to my dismay.) The first time Nathan tried the donut maker the donuts were...(sorry, Nathan)...disgusting. Not that it was his fault. I just didn't like the recipe. So, try, try again. I tried a chocolate recipe that I found online with a chocolate glaze. Mmmmm. Much better. The girls and I enjoyed them.

Meredith! Yuck! Go wash your hands.

The Picnic

I feel incredibly blessed right now to live near my sister. So near, in fact, that we are in the same ward. It's fun. We went into the mountains, the day after our zoo trip with my sister and her husband.

It was a momentous occasion where Rebecca tried her first cheeto (spelling this escapes me. I ask google and all it can tell me is how to spell "cheetah". Well, duh! but what about cheeto?)

Cute face. She loved it! I'm sure she's wondering why it took us so long to give her one of those.

And here is the last picture we took while we were out there. (Note to self - PLEASE take more pictures next time!)

Easter Egg Coloring

So, I told Nathan that I really didn't want to color Easter Eggs because nobody eats the eggs after we're done. So, while I was taking my Sunday Afternoon nap (the only nap this pregnant woman gets all week) he made sugar cookies for the girls and I happened to have bought an egg shaped cookie cutter for Easter last year. We didn't use it last year, but we won't go there. Then we had 4 seperate bowls of different colored frosting. The girls loved it!

Then, we were able to immediately enjoy our efforts.

The 2yo really just wanted to eat the frosting.

This picture is from later in the week. Meredith has been actually needing a nap lately. Completely surprises me because at one point she dropped her nap and I let her because she stayed happy throughout the day and it was nice to have her go to sleep immediately instead of wandering. She even fell asleep with her favorite thing we got the girls for Easter.

*I just love pictures of my beautiful, sleeping girls. They just look so peaceful and beautiful.

Easter 2010

Saturday, between morning and afternoon conference, we had an Easter Egg hunt with some of our friends. Here they are before. (I knew I wouldn't be able to get them altogether looking at me with their baskets if they got their candy first.)

Here's a picture of the actual "hunt". Meredith in her cute braided pigtails. :)

Here's the girls Easter morning. You can sort of tell that I've been really focusing on teaching them. We got them the "Let's Get Ready for First Grade!" because we've loved the Kindergarten one so much. Of course, they took it around with them and plopped it down in some water they spilled which promptly ruined it, but we're still going to use it. They've also LOVED listening to Peter and the wolf. The candy jewelry was great at keeping Meredith quiet during conference. (Must keep note of that for October.)
She's thankful for Easter, or at least the candy. We try to explain Easter, but how much do the girls actually understand?
The whole day Meredith was saying, "Jesus is Resurrected." So cute!
It was wonderful to celebrate Easter and to have Conference. It was a fabulous weekend.

What We're Up To

Today is a wonderfully rainy day. (Rainy days are wonderful as long as you don't end up with a week of clouds. I am completely addicted to the sun!)

So, we are doing some of my favorite rainy day activities, like reading. And making homemade, hot chocolate pudding. Nathan doesn't like "hot" putting. He only likes the store bought stuff. So sad. So, we made it while he was gone.

I also went looking for a list of books I can read to the girls, but don't necessarily involve the pictures. The list is for books to read to children or for them to read at certain grades. I'm reading "Through the Looking Glass" to the girls, basically, Emily. (Actually, it's on the 7th/8th grade reading list, but Emily is sitting down and enjoying it with me. There is a picture every other page, and it's just enough to keep her interested in the book to look at the pictures and get to turn the pages. And hey, I'm interested in reading a lot of these books too.

http://www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/timeless.html

I'm excited because I've been collecting a lot of the books on the list, and some of them I'm going to start reading to Emily. She's also been working on reading all by herself. I have the book "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" and so far, I LOVE it. I think it is perfect. Meredith isn't quite ready to sit through one of the lessons, she will sit through all of two parts (and there are typically 8) of a lesson. She does ask for it to be "my turn." It makes Emily want to learn more. :) I'm not really eager to start Meredith anyway. I'm teaching the girls the sight words together though.

Musical Colors

Here is our version of "Musical Chairs" 3-year-old style. :) We LOVE this game. We tried it last night for FHE with letters (not all 26, more like, 8). Anyhow, this is a great way to learn letters, colors and numbers. BTW, did you know what the 7 things are that a child has to know BEFORE starting kindergarten.

Here are the 7 things kids will be tested on in their first Kindergarten assessment test:

1. Know the uppercase alphabet and name the letters out of sequence or mixed up, such as: B, D, X, K, J, M, O, etc.
2. Know the numbers to 0-10 and identify the numbers out of sequence or mixed up, such as: 2, 5, 9, 8, 1, 3, 4, etc.
3. Identify basic colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple.
4. Identify basic shapes: circle, diamond, rectangle, triangle, oval, and square.
5. Identify basic coins: penny, nickel, and dime.
6. Count objects to 10.
7. Show how far they can count toward 100.

Got a free, new book with that one. "Let's Get Ready for Kindergarten" We love that one. Here's the link to the publisher's blog.

Oh, and we took this little video on a Sunday afternoon, so that explains the music. :) (It was that or Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Needless to say, I really never listen to this CD. Not a fave of mine.)

From Musical Colors

Old Tucson Studios

Last week my family came to visit and we went to Old Tucson Studios. My girls LOVED it. They had a carousel, some antique car bumper cars, a train and a log ride. We also saw a few of the shows they put on, but the girls were scared of all the noise (fighting, gun fighting, etc.). It was so much fun that I bought a membership. Later, I told myself that if I could get to a certain point in my class that I would take the girls back to Old Tucson. We went today. I asked Emily "do you want to go on the choo-choo train and the log ride and the horses?" And both of the girls said, "Yah! Grandma!" "Oh," I said, :( "Grandma can't come this time." So, in spite of that bad news, the girls still had a fun time and I think we rode at least half the horses on the Carousel today. :) Meredith had her first driving lesson today and tried riding her horse with no hands. She was teasing me because she would go between clinging to me (my neck) and holding on to the horse and loving it. So, every time she would cling to my neck I told her to hold on to her horse. She started teasing me by holding on to her horse and then letting go, and going back and forth between the two. Emily was NOT happy when we left. I'm amazed at how good her memory is.

Alphabet Playgroup - Teddy Bear Picnic

I'm really trying to teach my girls the alphabet. So, I decided to use the playgroup to reinforce what I am teaching them. Today we learned about the letter "B". We had our friends bring their bears and we had a picnic. We had berries and bananas and brownies. Afterward, we colored the letter "B", played with bubbles and then just had fun. Someone beat me to the blogging of the group already and took lots of cute pictures. So, you'll just have to see how much fun we had over there.

PICTURES - for those of you that just scan for the pictures, click on the link. :)

Fun Activities for Kids (Coloring Pages, Learning, etc.)

So, there's so much fun stuff on the internet. I just thought I'd share some of the stuff I've found.

Tracing Letters Emily loves to have me help her trace the letters

Coloring Pages

Preschool Flashcards

Create your own handwriting worksheet (Emily loves to write her own name. Try this one out.)

File Folder Games (on to-do list)

File Folder Games (on to-do list)

If you've found some things like these, especially some fabulous Preschool stuff, I'd love to hear about it.

Puppet Shows

For Family Home Evening (that's right, I'm a little behind in postings) on Monday we did puppet shows. Here's some pictures from all of our fun.

Nathan's puppet version of Noah's Ark. Somehow he did end up shoving that whole duck into the ark.

Um...I'm not sure how the sesame street car ended up there. Nathan?

Emily's Turn

Of course, this is her real version of playing "puppets". You're supposed to just throw them over. And the flap gets in the way. Why not? It makes everyone laugh.

Daddy is on one side with the pig, and Emily decided to help him on the other side.

Feeding the Giraffes

I thought I was done, but I keep remembering things I forgot about and finding cute pictures and videos. Here's one cute video my Mom took while we were at the zoo. The giraffe licks Meredith's hand and then the little hand that actually feeds the giraffe something is Emily's. And then she jumped up and down after the giraffe ate out of her hand.

Fun Travel Activities

My reason for posting these here are two-fold. First, it's for me. Second, It's for you (my beloved reader. All 5 of you, LOL). Which my reasons for even blogging are the same. This is basically just my journal.

Anyhow...
We have several long trips coming up for Thanksgiving and Christmas where we get to go visit family and friends. And you're asking, "How do you do that with a 3-year-old and a 1-year-old?" And my answer is, "Ha. I don't know." That being said, here is what I'm going to do this time around.

Paper Doll Printables

Papercraft Trains

Dot Art

Dot Art

I also ran across some tips that someone did. Some of them I enjoyed and some of them, well, what do you think?

1. (And this one is questionable) Play-doh. And the tips said that even after the dough is gone the kids enjoy the container. (Um. Where does the dough go? And if you're going to say the carpet, is that even worth having a non-crying kid if you have to take it out? Maybe I should just cover everything in plastic!)

2. Blue Painters Tape. Just let the kids play with it. That is a much cleaner idea isn't it. Of course, Emily, I don't think is quite old enough to get the tape off all by herself, but maybe.

3. Pipe Cleaners - This one I honestly think is fabulous.

4&5. Books and Music - Now I ALWAYS have traveled with music and a book, but quite honestly I didn't even think of bringing a normal book for the girls until I had a friend wrap up a book for us (like a present that would entertain Emily with the unwrapping part too) for our move here. I did bring quiet books for the girls though.

6. Dress-up clothes

7. Crayons and a notebook

8. Catalogs

9. Deck of Cards (I would definitely take one that I'm willing to throw away, like the old beat up deck of Uno cards.)

10. Colorforms / reusable stickers.

11. Fingerplays - Click Here

My ideas, beyond what I've found on the internet.
1. Printing stuff from the friend. (The friend homepage is fabulous.)
2. (This idea from a friend.) Wrapping the toys separately. So when they get bored you toss them a wrapped toy, that'll get you another minute (and in our case 1 down 720 to go!)
3. The small boxes of fish crackers.
4. Go to the toy section in walmart and there are some $.88 toys. (Little cars, bracelets, animals) And who cares if they get lost.

If you've got a great travel idea, let me know. (12 hours of travel one way. That takes some REAL creativity.)

Haunted Houses

The girls and I invited a friend over to do haunted houses with us. Of course, I've been really bad lately about making sure the camera gets charged, so I don't have any pictures, but as soon as I get some from the friend that came over I'll post them.

Here is Meredith's Haunted House. I put a couple dabs of frosting on there and put one on for her and then gave her the other one. I pointed and tried to tell her where it was supposed to go, but it promptly went to her mouth along with the other one. I gave up. Graham crackers are much healthier than the candy :)

I actually finished the side on the right and Emily took some of the candy off from the left before I could take a picture.

Here is what Emily did. Her good side was on the left. I may have helped a little.

We had fun, and I definitely suggest it for a wonderful activity (after lunch).

Here is a link for the instructions on how to make your own Haunted House. Haunted House Instructions

Happy Halloween!

Halloween Haunted House

I was talking to someone just yesterday about a cute little project someone did for preschool with Gingerbread Houses. It sounded really cute. Then I came across this Halloween Haunted House and it sounded like the same idea, only for a haunted house. So, I don't know if we will do a Halloween Haunted House (Emily sure loved the gingerbread house kit that someone gave her last Christmas), but we'll definitely be doing as Christmas Gingerbread House the same way as this one (only with different candies and colored frosting). Maybe you'll like it too.

A Halloween Haunted House!
A fun Halloween project for the whole family!
You will need:
2 containers (16 ounce) chocolate fudge frosting (or homemade)
Decorations:
pretzel sticks graham crackers
black licorice & red twists candy corn
rice crackers M&Ms
Orange Sprinkles
Foil wrapped Halloween Candy
Colored icing for writing or decorating
2 empty 1 qt. milk cartons, rinsed and dried
1 large tray covered with foil.
Tape each milk carton closed at top. Tape milk cartons together to make a house. Wrap with foil. Attach firmly to the covered tray with tape. Frost cartons with chocolate frosting. Frost the tray also to use as the lawn.
Decorate with the assorted treats!
Some ideas-
*Sprinkle orange sugar on the roof of the house.
*Rice crackers make neat "attic" windows.
*graham crackers for windows and doors-highlight with icing.
*pretzel stick window panes
*M&M "pathway stones" leading to the door.
*Candy corn "icicles" under the roof
The Lawn can have Ghost, Mummy and pumpkin candies.

Fun with Play dough

I finally made the fruity play dough with the girls. It didn't turn out too well because I still had too much water. (Or maybe the tartar cream is too old, I don't know.) But, if you make it, use less water and add until it is just right. It smells great!

Emily, pouring in the kool-aid.

They are so funny. But they love being BIG helpers.

You can tell it didn't turn out right, but she still had fun.

It was MESSY. And then she tried to clean her hands by wiping them off on her pants. I missed it because I was cleaning up the kitchen.

Click here for fruity play dough recipe

Birthday Cards and Halloween coloring pages

I found some cute Halloween coloring pages and birthday cards in my email. So, I'm going to post them here to #1 help me remember, and #2 just in case you (whoever spends the time reading this blog) want to use it. We love coloring pages at our house.
Birthday Cards and Halloween Coloring Pages