Thursday, September 29, 2011

Fall Mornings With Lily

I LOVE fall. It is my favorite season of all. I love the cool, crisp air and the smell of dry leaves. I love the orange, red, and yellow colors that pop up everywhere. While we have not been having cold weather (or even cool weather most afternoons), we do have some mornings where the air is fresh and has a chill to it. Lily and I love going out and taking walks or heading to the library or the park during this time. Here are some of the fun things Lily & I have been doing so far on our fall mornings together:



Lily loves this statue. She's glad it is finally cool enough to sit here again.

Those geese just never want to come over and talk to her! I don't know why!




She's not falling, she's "rolling" down a hill..... a very controlled "roll" ;0)






My little monkey. :0)


I am sure more fall adventures await us.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Rice Tree Craft

I saw this craft on a crafting website and thought it was so cute that we just had to do it! It is a tactile art project where you use items that the kids can feel after they are done with the picture.
The night before Craft Day, I made colored rice:

It was really easy. You put 1 teaspoon of water into a baggie, add in 6 - 8 drops of food coloring, pour in 1/2 cup white rice, and then seal the bag and move the rice around until it is completely colored. Then I poured it out onto wax paper & let it dry for about 1/2 hour. So easy!
We also needed construction paper (for the sky and sun), cotton balls (for the clouds), pipe cleaners (for the trees), and lots of glue.


First I showed them how to set up their pipe cleaners to look like a bare tree:


After they glued those on, they added glue to where they wanted the green grass. Then, when they were done with the grass, they put glue where they wanted the leaves. Then they mixed the red, orange, and yellow rice to make a fall tree.


They did a really good job getting all of that rice on there. Next they glued on their sun and pulled cotton balls apart to make wispy clouds. I think their pictures turned out really good!






After they were done, they went outside to play in the beautiful fall weather. They even decided to have a picnic with their snack:



I can't wait for more fall fun!!

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Monkey See, Monkey Do

I like to take pictures. LOTS of pictures. Luckily the kids have gotten used to the fact that their lives are continuously documented on film. Most of the time they enjoy having their picture taken. Zach has even gotten into taking pictures. He has a camera on his DSi and likes to take pictures and then edit them in funny ways by adding things or words to them. So, when he said he wanted to take a picture of Riley in his scout uniform, I didn't really think anything of it.
Until I heard, "OK, take this bow and act like you are shooting it."

He was giving Riley props and having him pose! It was cracking me up! So, of course I took a picture of him taking a picture. :0)
Here he is checking his pictures out:




I thought he was done, so I walked out of the room. But a little while later, I heard, "Riley, hold out that shark head and have it bite Lily. Now Lily stick your finger in the shark head and make a face like your screaming."




For the record, I have never had any of them do that.

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Happy Birthday Baby Lamb

Lily's favorite toy is a stuffed lamb she calls Baby Lamb. (Formerly known as Sheepy.) She has had Baby Lamb since she was born. That poor lamb is drug all over the place, slept with, thrown around, hugged tightly, and thoroughly loved.
Yesterday was Baby Lamb's Birthday. I know this because Lily told me it was. I just happened to have baked some blueberry muffins and Ares happened to be over playing, so we had an impromptu party.

We put a candle in a muffin and sang Happy Birthday to Baby Lamb.


Then Lily blew out the candle.


It is so funny that she wanted to do this, because I remember Zach wanting to do the same thing for his favorite toy, Dog-Dog. (My kids are super imaginative about naming their toys.) ;0) Zach wanted to have parties for Dog-Dog all of the time....I think it had more to do with getting cookies, cupcakes, or muffins and blowing out a candle than it had to do with Dog-Dog though.

After we were done, Ares decided that he wasn't going to miss out on Birthday fun. (They usually share a birthday party anyway...why not share their toys' birthday too??) He decided that it was going to be the Joker's Birthday.




So we got another candle, and sang Happy Birthday to the Joker. Ares did it in one of his many voices he uses for toys. He just cracks me up!

Batman even made a surprise appearance:


Ares helped Joker by blowing out his candle:



I love these fun little moments. =)

Monday, September 19, 2011

Ballerina Lily

Lily started her dance classes back up again this month. She is doing tap and ballet and she loves it! Two of her friends from last year are in her class again this year. It is nice that Lily already knew two of the girls (and that I already knew two of the moms!)




This year she will have two recitals. The first one will be in December at the YMCA Breakfast with Santa. The second one will be in May. She will get to wear a costume for the second one. She is pretty excited about that. =) She will also get to be in two dances for each recital because she takes both tap and ballet.

Here is a short (and fuzzy....sorry!) video of Lily at the ballet bar at dance class. She is on the middle, on the side farthest from the mirror.



Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Riley + Scouts = LOVE

Riley had his very first Scout meeting last night. He loved it! He especially loves that Jeff is his scout leader. When Jeff came home from work, Riley said, "Hi, Scout Leader Daddy!" Then proceeded to call him that several more times. :0) I think he is going to have a pretty good year!

Friday, September 9, 2011

Botanica

Yesterday, my sister Mary & I went to Botanica with Lily & Johnny. I had never been there, but I had heard good things about the new Children's Garden there. Thursdays also happen to be $3.00 admission days, so that was a bonus!
We started out wandering around the gardens.









We saw so many pretty flowers and plants!

Then we found the butterfly garden!








There were so many pretty butterflies! They were flying all over the place. Some would even let you get them on your fingers!



The kids wanted to touch them, but weren't too sure once they were really up close.




Lily finally got brave enough to hold one!



Then she decided to kiss it!


We left the butterfly garden, to search for the Children's Garden. Along the way, we found more pretty flowers and plants.



When we saw this, we knew we were in the right direction:


There were rainbows everywhere!


There was a really cute section that showed the life cycle of a butterfly. It had statues, dress up clothes, and paper & pencils to draw with.






Then it was time for the musical maze.


We found this cool guy the kids could climb through.....


...he was attached to this huge tree house!


I really liked these trees that looked like people.




After we tore the kids away from that section of the Children's Garden, we headed over to a cute little house where the kids could pump water and water plants.


They also got to play in the house and "fix us lunch". ;0)

It was time to go, so we headed back through the gardens to get out.


We had so much fun! We will definitely be going back soon!