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.

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.

Fun, fun, fun

Today was a very busy day with several activites to do!

Last week I found a link to this website on Pinterest and after spending some time looking at it, I decided to create an account. After your account is created, they will send you one email a day (on the days that you choose) with an age ap...propriate developmental fun activity for you to do with your child. Best of all, it's FREE and uses every day objects!!! Today's activity was scooping. We were supposed to scoop cheerios from one bowl to the other, but I thought scooping ball pit balls with a bucket sounded way more fun!

The website is found here: Productive Parenting

 

Later that morning, we had a play date with some of Nicole's friends. She loved having other kids her age to talk to during lunch!

 What's better than some good conversation over chicken nuggets, mac 'n' cheese, goldfish, and graham crackers?!?

 They also had fun playing in the water.

Nicole is forever flirting with other babies (especially boys). Today she decided kissing and hugging this little guy sounded like fun. Thankfully his mom also found the humor in her actions!

At home, Nicole found my deoderant that hadn't been put away from camping. She was showing me how mom and dad put deoderant on.

 I guess she thought I smelled bad because she was lifting up my shirt to help me put some on.

After dinner, Nicole and I headed out to Tyler Mall to spend some time with Grandma Joan (who I think was going through some serious Nicole withdraws since it had been almost two weeks since she last saw Nicole) and Aunt Hannah (who flew down last minute to visit a sick friend **our friend could really use some extra prayers during this tough time as she battles cancer**). Grandma Joan and Nicole bought tickets to ride on the train. Nicole surprised me with how well she did considering it was after 8pm (she normally is in bed by 8).

She was a little surprised when the train started moving.

But after a minute or two she was so fascinated with everything around her, that she started to have fun. After a few times around the track, she started to laugh and wave every time she passed Hannah and me, but I didn't get any good pictures of that because I was busy laughing and waving back to her.

 

Well, this is a glance into the busy day that we had today. I am so blessed that I am able to enjoy the little moments with Nicole as she grows!

Playdate

Yesterday we went to a friend's house for a playdate. Nicole had soooo much fun playing with their two little boys (one is almost 3 and the other is two days older than Nicole). When we got there, Reed and Aaden were already playing in a little bounce house in the living room (how cool is that?!). Nicole couldn't wait to join in on the fun!

They were racing cars down the slide.

Nicole also found their powerwheels toy and had a blast driving that around.

We were sure sad when it was time to go for the day! Nicole didn't want to leave all the fun and the good food (what kid doesn't love a lunch of chicken nuggets, fries, and mac 'n' cheese?). Thankfully they live right around the corner, so plenty of playdates can take place!

Oh, yeah, Christine and I had a great time chatting while the kiddos ran around the house playing with all of the different toys!