365 Days of Fun - Days #7 and #8

Brenda's Activities - Cotton Ball Ghosts and Indoor Picnic

Yesterday, Brenda and I made Cotton Ball Ghosts to hang on our wall. I cut out the outline and the face and Brenda glued the cotton balls and the face on. In the middle of this, I had to leave Brenda to glue cotton balls on her own, because Dominick needed fed. She came over to me with the entire bag of cotton balls balancing on the cutout and said, "Mommy, I'm finished!" I'm glad she was so enthusiastic about this. 

Today we had a picnic in our living room. This has to be my favorite activity to date, because it was easy, fun, and I got to really talk to my daughter and spend time with her in a way that you just need a picnic for. I asked her what her favorite story was and she surprised me. I was expecting her to say that it was "The Little Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly", because for the past two months she has wanted me to read this book to her every night. She likes the last page and always says in a very serious voice, "She died, of course!" Instead, she chose "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", so I read that while we were eating.

Dominick's Activities - Mirror Fun and Tickle Spider

Dominick's activities were once again simple. For mirror fun we made faces at each other using a mirror. Tickle spider is a game I play with Brenda a lot. I use my hand to be the spider and I tickle her. With Dominick I walked my hand up and down him acting like a spider and tickling his tummy, feet and neck. I was hoping for another giggle out of him, but no such luck. He has only laughed one time to date and that was for his daddy.

Activity grades:

10. Cotton Ball Ghosts - A

     Brenda loved this. It was the most focused I've seen her in a while. It's an activity that is very simple for her to do.

11. Mirror Fun - A

     I got some fun expressions from Dominick with the mirror. That alone is worth doing this activity again.

12. Indoor Picnic - A+

    This is the first activity that Brenda has asked for several times again already. We may have to make this a weekly event. 

13. Tickle Spider - A

    Tickle spider will always be a favorite of our family for all ages. :)

365 Days of Fun - Day #6

Activity - Caterpillar Toes!

We used the leaf rubbings from yesterday and added toe prints on top of the leaves. Then, I drew in the caterpillars' faces and feet. We probably could have done this yesterday right after we did the rubbings, because this activity really only took a couple minutes. Brenda liked it. Dominick didn't care.

Green Toes!

Before I added the faces.

Activity grade:

9. Caterpillar Toes - A+++

     I LOVE this activity! It was quick, super cute and the kids liked it. There are many activities that involve handprints and feet prints, but you don't always get just the sweet little toes.

The rest of our day:

     We have a new tradition in our house on Tuesdays. We call it Turn-it-Off Tuesday. This is our third week doing this and so far the most fun for me. We have a screen free family day and try to use minimal lighting. No TV, computer, i-pad, phone, or video games until after the kids are in bed, so that we can focus all our time on our kids and things that need done around the house. 

      Brenda and I did our normal school activities. Two activities that we enjoyed were making a handprint sheep and making red circles with playdoh that ended with just playing with playdoh. The sheep incorporated cutting, gluing, and drawing. My favorite part was when I told brenda to draw a circle for the sun and she drew the circle and the sun beams. This is something I have never taught her to do. It amazes me how kids figure things like that out without being told.

Dominick enjoyed tummy time during the day and just being as cute as ever. Have I mentioned lately how much I adore my children?