Around Here

This post is full of random pictures I pulled off of my phone.  I always have intentions of posting things, but time just keeps on moving and before I know it a month has gone by and the posts have not been written.  I'm learning to accept that I won't be able to post everything, and sometimes I will just post a bunch of random pictures in one post for the sake of getting them posted!

 I love when my girls play together and set up things like Barbie cafes.

Reagan, Kate and I went to the Zeiterion last month to see Pinkalicious the Musical.  Reagan saw it with Papa and Grandma when Kate was just a baby, but Kate and I hadn't seen it.  I thought it was cute!  Kate was mesmerized; she barely moved through the whole show.  I bought tickets for us to go see Mary Poppins this summer; I hope we all enjoy that show too!

A local bakery provided pink cupcakes at the end of the show.  (I hate to be negative, but I'm going to gripe for a second.  At the end of the show, there was an announcement about there being a limited number of cupcakes.  I took this to mean that adults should refrain from grabbing one for themselves, and leave them for the children.  There was a mad rush to get to the cupcakes (weird, as if we are all starving and are battling for a crumb!), and when we reached the table, the cupcakes were almost gone.  Reagan and Kate each got a cupcake, but there were easily fifty people behind us and less than a dozen cupcakes left.  So, I'm sure some poor children left in tears without cupcakes.  In the parking lot, however, I saw many adults stuffing their faces with pink cupcakes.  Shame on them!  I'm not sure why the theater and bakery did not provide enough cupcakes, but irrespective of that, it is disgraceful to see adults literally taking cupcakes from children!

Later that week, we made our own pink cupcakes using a recipe from Happy Herbivore.  

On May 1, we attended the Fifth Grade Poetry Gallery to view the fantastic displays of theme based poetry created by all of the students.  Collin's theme was volcanoes.

Reagan asked me to take pictures of her Play Doh creations.

Maggie Simpson

Minion

Smiling Flower

For Cinco de Mayo, I made quesadillas and sombrero cookies.  I saw a recipe for churro cupcakes that I wanted to try, maybe next year.

How's that for a mish mash of events?!

Candy Canes, Reindeer, and Cookies!

In the days leading up to Christmas, we had time for a few last minute activities.

I made candy cane scented play dough for Kate using peppermint essential oil, food coloring, and glitter; we also made a batch for the Davidson boys across the street.

What looked like this when I gave it to Kate,

quickly turned into this!

 As long as she enjoys the play dough, it's fine with me.  Who cares if the colors get mixed together?!

 Kate and I made Rudolph Rolo pretzel treats.

Rolo pretzel treats never last long in our house!

Reagan, Collin, Kate, and a friend (Sydney) decorated sugar cookies and sugar cone Christmas trees.  It's all about the decorating, because no one really wants to eat cookies piled with frosting, sprinkles, and candies.  Even Collin, who seriously thought he would eat his sugar laden concoctions, never actually ate much.

Kate's Turkeys

Paper plate turkey

T is for turkey

Shape turkey

Handprint sun catcher glittery turkey

 Pumpkin pie play dough turkeys

 Handprint turkeys

Kate helped me make these pretzel rod turkey treats.

Phew!  I think we've made enough turkeys for Thanksgiving already!

Y is for Yellow

 I drew this Y on cardboard and Kate painted it yellow and added yellow masking tape.  Boo helped.

 A yellow scavenger hunt.

 Kate stuck yellow tissue paper onto a contact paper Y.

 Lemon scented play dough

 Kate made lemonade.  She really enjoys juicing the lemons.

Our final yellow activity was making yellow cake pops.

We have officially completed the entire alphabet!!!  That doesn't mean we are done learning or will stop doing alphabet activities.  Not at all!  This was just an introduction to the alphabet.  Kate enjoys learning and I love being her teacher!

Baking Soda Dough

 This is yet another Pinterest find.  I used one large underbed storage bin for both girls.  I gave them each two cups of baking soda, and then they added one little packet of Kool Aid for scent, a few drops of food coloring to match the color of their Kool Aid, and 1/4 cup of water.  Kool Aid reacts with baking soda, so we had a little bit of fizzing going on.

 They mixed it all up.

 The texture is crumbly and the scent is delightful.  They enjoyed playing with it just like this for a while.

 And then I gave them squeeze bottles full of vinegar.

 I had to refill those squeeze bottles a few times!

When all of the fizzing stopped, their red and blue sections had combined to make purple, and they added boats for an entirely different play experience.