Aloha!

For the last month I have been working on planning our annual Fire Department Appreciation dinner for 2009. I decided to add a twist to it this year and make it have a Luau theme. The event was held last Friday night and it was a huge success. I was thrilled with how many of the attendees decided to dress "hawaiian-ish" (Thanks to my great sister-in-law for loaning me such cute hawaiian garb!). I had a great group of guys to help me plan the event and Jeff helped a ton like always. Thanks, Honey for helping me setup and cleanup all of these events but most of all, thanks for supporting my work with the fire department and for putting up with all of the times when I have to stop in the middle of whatever our family is doing - and go on a call. I got recognized for having completed my eight year of the FD this year .. where did that time go?

On your mark ...

... get set ... go!

I took Kaitlyn to her first track meet last Thursday afternoon. Jeff's Dad's girlfriend's son was racing at Allendale so we thought we'd go out and catch one of his races. I have loved to run for as long as I can remember and I hope to somehow pass that passion on to Kaitlyn. I thought watching a track meet might be a good start. The forecast called for a nice sunny day, but we ended up sitting in some light rain for most of the time. Kaitlyn didn't mind. She loved listening to the starter shout, "ready ... set .. " and hearing the gun go off. And since then, I can't even count the times she has asked me to race her. In fact, she wanted me to race her down the hill before we were even out of the stadium upon leaving the meet. So perhaps racing/running is in her blood.... or perhaps its just something fun that all toddlers do .. regardless, I'll never turn down the chance to race you little princess ... and I'll always let you beat me! :)

S'mores, anyone?

I got this silly s'more maker from a garage sale last year and for some reason Kaitlyn thought of it last Wednesday night and decided that we should roast marshmallows ... so we did! The machine is supposed to toast the marshmallows but it doesn't really work. But Kaitlyn has fun putting them on the pretend stick and "roasting" them on the fire. And I'm very content with this safe, indoor alternative to roasting real marshmallows ... at least until summer time!

Earth Day 2009

Last Wednesday we celebrated Earth Day. I'm amazed at how much Kaitlyn remembered from Earth Day last year. Whenever we are at the park and she sees trash, she says, "Mommy, we need to pick that up to take care of the earth." Last year on Earth Day, we went to the park and picked up trash and learned a neat little song to sing while we did it. This year the weather wasn't as cooperative, but we did have fun.

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!

Orange Day!

Last Tuesday we celebrated "Orange" day with a variety of orange themed activites. 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! :)

Feeling the Rain . . .

Since rain seems to be the most predominant weather of late, Kaitlyn and I are still doing some mini-lessons on that topic. The most recent focused on a book called nothing other than "Rain" which is a delightful story about how various animals can use their senses to tell that the rain is coming. 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".

The Countdown...

Last week Saturday Kaitlyn and I had fun making a project to help her count down the days until her third birthday. We made our own puffy paint out of shaving cream, glue and paint and used it to paint the top of our cupcake pattern. 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!"

Sunny Saturday

I am still loving my Peanut's new "sun-kissed" look after spending so much of last week Thursday, Friday and Saturday outside. I probably should have gotten the sunblock out but she ususally doesn't burn. Her cheeks were pretty pink by Saturday afternoon. I do have it handy for this weeks upcoming warm temps. I don't think I'll press my luck two weeks in a row! I managed to get a bit of a tan too - hooray!

I ran to a garage sale on Saturday afternoon and found the steal of the century - a huge Diego plush doll for a mere $2. Kaitlyn was in love. He is now called "Big Brother Diego" and her previous favorite Diego doll has been renamed to "Little Brother Diego". She had so much fun playing with him inside and out. 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!

"Spotter Hand"

Kaitlyn hates dirty hands and she hates making messes - especially when she is eating. So about a year ago we invented a term called the "spotter hand" that we continue to use almost everyday. When Kaitlyn is taking a bite of something messy, she will put her other hand out underneath the object/spoon/fork as if to catch anything that drips. Its so adorable. Sometimes if I am feeding her a bite of something, I will inadvertently put out my hand to be the "spotter". She ususally pushes my hand away and says, "I'll be the spotter hand, Mommy". And then she puts her hand out. Just something silly ... but something that we will never forget in the years ahead!

The "Other" Mommy

Recently I have earned a new title from Kailtyn ... I am now Diego's "Other Mommy". Whenever we play babies, she claims the title of Diego's Mommy and I get to be the other dolls' Mommy (either Dora, or RescuePack or whomever else she wants to play with that day). She'll tell Diego that she has to go do some chores and then she'll sweetly ask him, "Is it okay if the 'Other Mommy' babysits you while I do my chores?" It is so cute how she treats him just like a real little baby. So polite and so sweet. For some reason, Diego doesn't like me. He always starts to cry when Kaitlyn leaves the room (Kaitlyn makes a crying sound for him) and then she always come back to rescue him from me - the "Other Mommy". Priceless...

Enjoying the outdoors...

Some fun pictures from our "play and picnic" day at the park last week. Even Diego got to come along!

We came home from the park, ate flavor ices and then played in the house for a while. Once Jeff got home, we ate dinner at McDonalds on their picnic tables and then came home and played outside some more!

Hey Batter, Batter ... Kaitlyn hitting the ball off our make-shift tee!

Playing "icecream cone" relay with Mommy.

Yellow Day!

Last week Friday was "Amarillo Day" at our house. It was a gorgeous sunny day. I started off the day letting Kaitlyn choose what she wanted to eat for breakfast -hoping that she would pick butter toast or scrambled eggs - something yellow. Instead - she picked pizza! So thats what we ate. Later in the day we made and drank lemonade and did a Lemonade tracing worksheet. We also did a sunshine alphabet activity where we matched some upper and lowercase letters. We sang You are my Sunshine and I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee. Just before lunch we packed a picnic and then we headed to the park for a day of play in the wondeful "yellow" sunshine! We played a game on the swings where Kaitlyn had to spot something "amarillo" at the park beforeI would give her an underdog. She thought it was so fun! We even brought along a yellow balloon so we could play a "keep the sun in the air game" which was mighty fun until I attempted to kick the balloon and popped it - oops!

Doing Dishes ...

I used to think that Fall was my favorite season. And every year come August, I do decide that Fall is my favorite. But for now, after a long winter, I think that Spring is my favorite! It is so wonderful to get the outdoor toys out; Kaitlyn is just loving it and so am I. We had so much fun having a tea party, making soup and washing dishes in her water table last week. I am already looking forward to many more sunny Spring/Summer days!

Washing the Van....

Last summer, one of Kaitlyn's favorite things to do was to help me was the car. It is for that reason that I wasn't surprised that she wanted to wash the van on the first nice day of this Spring. The van was filthy from a trip down my parent's dirt road the night before so I was eager to satisfy her request. Unfortunately, her favorite sponge somehow disappeared over the winter but she settled on a new green one and the scrubbing began. She did a great job; lucky for me, her favorite part to wash is the wheels. (I hate that part - so we make a good team). She even helped me dry the van off and then spray the dirt out of the driveway. The sunny weather was such a blessing!

Garage Sale Time!

Yippee! Hooray! Woo hoo! My favorite time of the year has begun ... garage sale season! Kaitlyn and I headed to some sales last Thursday after gymnastics. She is becoming quite the little shopper herself - always helping me look for bargains. With a drink, snack and Diego, she was content in the stroller for about 40 minutes of shopping - which I was so thankful for. Afterwards we drove across the street to the park and played and picnic-ed; it was a splendid day. We came home and played with the new toys in the sunshine.

Kaitlyn playing with her "new" toys!

Spring Cleaning ...

... has begun. I actually found an easy way to clean my blinds this year - thanks to a tip from our friend Brad the professional window cleaner (http://www.bradswindowcleaning.com/) . Now if only we didn't have an infestation of little black flying bugs that decided to stick to my clean blinds..... argh!

Rainstorms, Thunder & Lightning

Last week Kaitlyn and I spent some time talking about rainstorms, thunder and lightning. We found a really neat website with great sound effects where she could click and make it thunder and lightening on the screen. We also learned a fun storm safety rhyme, "When thunder roars, go indoors." We setup houses in the living room and then pretended to go play outside. Then we took turns pretending to be the storm and "roaring" and then the other person would run inside their little house. We also did some math and literacy lessons too. First, we did a measurement activity where we measured the size of some "puddles" with some rain-boot footprints. Then we did a literacy activity where I put a bunch of raindrop shaped blue picture cards that started with "/R/" into a bowl of cotton balls (cloud) and Kaitlyn pulled them out and stressed the "/R/" sound. And actually the intent was to have her pull the cards out of the bowl but right away she decided that she wanted the cloud to rain on her ... silly girl!And then we did a science experiment to where we learned about absorption. We filled a bowl with water and then estimated how many cotton balls it would take to soak up all the water - "Lots" was Kaitlyn's guess. She is slightly limited in her estimation skills since she doesn't know any number higher than 20! :) After we soaked up all the water we took each cotton ball and squeezed all the water back out of the "cloud" to make it "rain".

After I figured out what a "plastic dish scrubber" was (Thanks, Grandma Jo) we did a craft where we painted blue "rain" (paint) on paper with a dish scrubber and then glued a thunder cloud on the paper. And finally to end the lesson, we geared up and went out and played in the rain. There was no thunder roaring, thank goodness) Kaitlyn wanted Diego and Pink Bear to come out too so we found them a waterproof bag and they came along. We found a few puddles to splash in and then Kaitlyn wanted to play bubbles so that is what we did. We had a riot because the bubbles all stuck to the wet ground so it was almost more fun to be the "bubble popper" than the "bubble blower".

Afterwards, we went inside and had hot chocolate - well I did anyway; Kaitlyn just ate the marshmallows. Who says you can't have fun on a rainy day!