Earlier in the week I had given Kaitlyn a new Dora Celebrates Earth Day book. So to start the day we read that a *few* times. :) Kaitlyn's first activity of the day was to fish the trash out of the pond. We talked about how animals can get stuck and hurt in litter in the water. She loved being "an animal rescuer" and getting the fish out of the pond so that they could swim home.
Then we got the globe out and talked about what was land and what was water and how God made all of it. We read the creation story from her toddler bible ... she loves to say the " ... and it was GOOD!" parts. For craft time, we colored with blue and green markers on to circles cut out of coffee filters and then squirted them with water and watched the colors bleed so that they looked like the earth. Then I printed out a picture of a trash can and Kaitlyn had fun gluing trash onto the can.
We made "earth-balls" for snack time - rice krispie treats that we colored blue and green and then smooshed together to make balls. I sprayed PAM on K's hands so the gooey mix wouldn't stick to her and she thought that was hilarious - having "slippery, wippery hands," as she called it! I don't think we waited long enough for the food coloring to set because we both got very BLUE tongues from our snack!Later in the day Kaitlyn got to use her net to perform another "animal rescue". This time the baby ducks were trapped by a pile of trash and couldn't get to their mommy. So Kaitlyn scooped up the trash that was in the way and brought the baby ducks to safety.
We were able to get out for a short walk to pick up trash on our street, all the while singing anew catchy Earth Day tune. I has also planned to take the popcans back to teach Kaitlyn more about recycling ... but I forgot. We'll save that for next year, Lord willing!
We sucked on orange slices, counted (and snacked on) orange gold fish crackers, drank orange kool-aid and nibbled on carrots. 
We also mixed red and yellow to make orange paint which we then dipped oranges in to paint a fruit print picture. 
And lastly, Kaitlyn's favorite, we painted a Rescue Pack picture with our homemade orange paint. Kaitlyn's got "naranja" down pat! Next week ... Pink... Kaitlyn's favorite color! :)
I found a neat activity to go along with it; a way to help Kaitlyn use all of her senses to experience rain: a rain-scented air freshener so she could SMELL rain, a flashlight and a tent so she could SEE lightning, a cookie sheet and spoon to make noise so she could HEAR thunder a squirt bottle so she could FEEL 'raindrops' and a cool glass of water so she could TASTE the rain. It was a fun rainy afternoon activity ... Kaitlyn is now an expert at squirting the squirt bottle! :)
Kaitlyn in the tent enjoying some cool "rain".
Then Kaitlyn sprinkled real sprinkles on it. We waited for it to dry and Sunday we finished assembling the cupcake countdown complete with 28 rings; one for her to cut off on each of the remaining days until her birthday. It doesn't always go as planned ... some days she cuts two or three off; others, she doesn't cut any. But now one week into it, the count is still correct ... 21 days until my toddler turns into a "preschooler!"
Jeff did some yard work in the afternoon and also got the bikes ready to ride. While he was working Kaitlyn and I took Jeff's bike for a spin (its the one with the seat on the back for K). We rode down to the lakes and had a blast finding pretty stones to toss into the water. I was trying show her how cool it was to skip a stone; I'm sure I used to know how to do it. But I couldn't figure it out for the life of me! 
Later in the day we snapped some shots of Kaitlyn with a big "#3" that my handy husband made. Believe or not she even wanted to walk barefoot in the grass for these pictures - that is definitely a first!
