Dance Time!

You know that time in the early evening, when you are so ready to settle down, but the wee ones are going slightly crazy- this happens often at our house when we are waiting for Brett to come home.  In an effort to keep this time positive and hopefully go a little faster (one of my pet peeves is waiting on people) we started having dance parties!  Our dance parties are typically after the dinner clean up and right before wind down time. This also helps burn some of that last little bit of energy before bedtime!  The wee ones love it, we dance and act silly.  Sometimes we have a little jealousy waiting to dance with mama...  Ultimately though it ends up being a time filled with laughs, singing, dancing, tickling and fun!  Here's a little bit I caught of Cooper dancing and singing (make sure your volume is on!) last night!

Relaxing Day at Nana and Grandad's

Nothing big going on right now, the wee ones and I are dog sitting for my parents.  We are taking advantage of the wonderful backyard and played outside the entire afternoon!  Thank goodness for the beautiful weather!

Playdates

Typically our weekly play dates are pretty low key, meeting up at one of our houses or a park and letting the kids play the afternoon away, while we, mamas, attempt to have conversations.  But as the tots are getting older and we are wanted to have more organized activities for them.  My friend Erinn is super on top of things and had a wonderful St. Patty's day play date organized for us.  She had a fruit rainbow that might have lasted 15 minutes, pepper 'shamrock' stamping, and pretzel making (a delicious lent activity).  We all had a great time!

Below, I can't resist sharing, Cooper playing peek a boo :-)

And then Cooper in the bin.... 

Baby and Tot Activities

If we aren't running around in the morning, I usually try to have some sort of activity for the boys.  The first one below is simple sensory play with torn up paper, for Cooper.  This surprisingly kept him busy for quite a while.  He started feeding the paper through the holes of the nesting/stacking cups, filling them, dumping, etc.  

Next up flower arranging!  Evan was sooo excited to try this.  Though, honestly, this one didn't keep his interest, despite the anticipation.  Still a great little, and totally free activity.  Cooper also decided to try his hand at it!

Yeah for painting!  This painting day we were stamping.  I saved the end of a celery bunch and let them use that to stamp flowers.  It's amazing the types of stamps you can make from the ends of veggies!

And next up, I was the most excited about, is a pom pom activity that builds the fine motor skills.  The use of the tongs is a pre-scissor skill.  So the idea of this activity for Evan was to use the tongs to pick up pom poms out of a jar and into the color coordinating cup!  For Cooper, I got a juice jar, with a narrow neck, and showed him how to put the pom poms into it and how to try to take them out of it!  They both worked on their activities and also swapped and found even more ways to have fun with the given materials, including some team work.  This one's is a keeper, I have it stashed away to bring out every couple of weeks.

Next up, a super simple activity.  Give them a colander and some pipe cleaners- show them how to stick the pipe cleaners in the holes- wa- la!  The simplest things are great learning tools!  I wish I could set up new ones every day, but that's not practical, so I aim to have a new one once a week.  Even then, that doesn't always happen, but it's all good.

Easter Fun!

Okay, I know it's now May, but here's a photo review of our Easter!  We had a throw together Easter Egg Hunt and Potluck with our local friends on Saturday, church and family time on Sunday- it was wonderful!

I didn't really have any spring decorations... so I made a couple fun, simple garlands, bought a bundle of my favorite flowers, and made a new spring yarn wreath!

And of course the food.... Oh the cake below is a carrot mango cake- delish!!!  I found the recipe in a Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. Highly recommend this for a spring time party!  My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

 

Some Easter fun for the kids included, Easter bunny ears, colorful rice in the sand table and of course and egg hunt!

Easter Sunday, church followed up with finding Easter baskets and more eggs!