Shaving Cream Slide

Today we had a fun playdate with some church friends. We decided to play with shaving cream on the slide as a sensory play activity that I found here on Pinterest.

At first, neither of them wanted to play with the shaving cream, but after a while Mason liked my idea of sliding toys down the slide. Soon enough, he was having so much fun going down that he didn't want to stop and kept saying, "more shaving cream!". Unfortunately, Nicole never did get interested in the activity, but she had a blast watching, playing with the water table, playing with baby Megan, and eating crackers!

After all the fun, we headed inside to play with Nicole's toys. Mainly the Chevron cars. Eventually, Nicole was so worn out that we put in the Baby Einstein Numbers DVD for them to watch.

Look at Nicole's tired eyes!

Mason was counting with the little train on the movie and Nicole was fascinated.

She's catching on to how to hold up fingers when counting....yes, she counted to 2 even though they were at 3.

Can I just say that playdates are the BEST THING EVER?!?! We love having friends over to join in our day! It's also a great way for Nicole to learn how to interact with other kiddos instead of just playing with mom and dad.

Dad and Nicole

Nick and Nicole have had some fun bonding moments this week:

Yesterday, they were looking at some bullets that Nick had purchased for an upcoming tactical shoot.

This afternoon, I wanted Nick to knock down an old wasp nest thing in the hose roll and after knocking it down (it was no longer the home to any flying creatures, I promise), we found frogs!!! I have learned something interesting about Nicole: if I want her to get her hands dirty (finger painting, shaving cream, dirt, etc...) she will not touch that activity, BUT if there is a bee (yes, she wanted to touch one on Monday), bug, or frog she is more than willing to investigate. Nicole was trying to catch a frog and Nick was helping:

Here the frog is on Nick's hand and Nicole is giving him a back rub.

Organization

First, a picture of Nicole using the crayons from my last post.

Lately, I have been on a super organizing streak! Target has been profiting well from all the storage containers that I have purchased there in the last two weeks! I have also created a toy rotation system for Nicole's toys.

My current project has been to find a way to organize all the awesome ideas that I find on Pinterest! I have decided to use buckets to make premade kits of some of the activities so I have all the items that I need in one place. Unfortunately, Target only had 3 with lids in stock, so this has been put on hold.

I also wanted to have the activities on cards so they are easy to use and easy for me to pull out when I need to use them. On the front of each card is the name of the activity, a simple coding system for a brief overview of what the activity entails so I can mix it up during the week (see the key below), the ingredients needed, a place to check once I've tried it, and then a place to mark if I want to do it again and to make a note if I need to make any modifications or wait until she is older to try again.

The back has any directions that I need, a diagram (if needed), any changes to make, or it's just left blank if the front already explains everything.

Here is the key for the cards, I will add to it as needed.

At our wedding, we received this really neat photo album that can close like a book so I can keep it on the shelf, or I can flip it and it will stand up so I can flip the card and put it direction side out and the plastic will protect the card during our messy activities.

I can also put the cards on my rolling coat rack that holds other supplies so I know which activities I have planned for the week.

Yes, I know I have over organization issues....

Fun with colors

Can I just start with this: I LOVE PINTEREST!!!!!

As many of you know, Nicole is a VERY busy little girl!  This has challenged me to be a very creative mom to come up with fun activities! So, now I spend her naptime browsing on Pinterest (there are some super creative blogs created by moms with young children) and prepping fun activities.

Here are our activites so far:

Bubbles in the water table

Colored Ice Cubes

This ended up being a two attempt activity and I'm not overly impressed with it. I found that it takes quite a bit of food coloring mixed with the water and it didn't look as cool as it did in the instructions. However, Nicole still enjoyed splahing in red water!

Take 1

Take 2 *It also showed up better in the clear container instead of the water table*

Rainbow Crayons

I bought Nicole one set of toddler crayons, which she promptly destroyed. So I decided to make some fun rainbow crayons for her. Most blogs that I saw suggested that I melt them in a muffin tin in the oven, but I didn't see how those could be easy for her to hold. I then remembered some awesome ice cube trays that Nick gave me for my birthday a few years ago. They are meant to be used to make ice cubes that fit into the opening of a waterbottle. Consequently, they are also the right size and shape to make toddler crayons. The only drawback is that it can't go in the oven.......however, it's my favorite season: SUMMER! I just stick the tray outside for a few hours/days and now I have crayons!



Please note: This is my hand, Nicole is sleeping and I didn't want to wait to post this blog!



Child's Play

Today we had a playdate at a super fun indoor playground in Temecula. I quickly fell in love with this place because it is geared towards children who are under 6 years old. What makes it even better: older children are not allowed to play in the play area! This means Nicole didn't run as much of a risk of being run over! I was surprised at how many kids there were playing in the play area, but that didn't slow Nicole down one bit! She took the time to try out EVERYTHING in the room! Here are pictures from our morning:

She loved playing in the kitchen! She would open and close all of the cabinets and drawers over and over and over!

There was a cute little area with "baby toys" and Nicole loved playing with those toys while she was "recharging".

This little track has a car, but Nicole thought it was better to try to slide/crawl down it.

Nicole with her friend from our playgroup.

So while I was busy chatting with some of the other moms from our playgroup, Nicole followed the big kids up this jungle gym.....without help. At this point she was taller than me! She had been pressing her face against the plastic, but I didn't get a good shot of that.

She has no fear....

Yet again, no fear...

This is one of Nicole's BFF's going down the super fun race track! Nicole had smiles like this, but the glare from the window made it so they didn't turn out (I guess now mom has an excuse to take her back there!).

Nicole at the end of the race track.