Friday, March 12, 2010
Fridays are usually our lazy days at home. The last couple of weeks though we've had things to do on Friday so we haven't had our usual lazy home day. Today however it was much needed and completely enjoyed. The girls and I had not had such a stellar evening yesterday. The kind where you are left feeling that you have just lost the right to refer to yourself as a kind parenting parent. And our crummy evening carried through the night too. Emma was up bunches during the night, and up for the day starting at 4:45am, which is way too early for this mama. She had taken her diaper off last night, wet her crib and therefor her special blanket was in the wash. We think that not having special blanket is part of the reason why she had such a crummy night sleep last night. David brought her into our bed this morning with the hope that she would snuggle with us and fall back to sleep. Unfortunately, that did not happen. And it was then that I knew it would take everything I had to keep her from falling asleep at 10:00am (I was only kinda successful. She had briefly fallen asleep on the couch but woke up when I arrived with the popcorn). So today, a very mellow day was in order, and I am happy to report we achieved our goal and easily got back to our usual way of doing things.
Friday, February 12, 2010
This morning I asked Grace what we should do today and she said: "stay home". Since it was so cold out, and she seemed so definite in not wanting to go anywhere, it sounded like a fine plan to me!
Last night while we were at the mall we stopped into the Disney Store. There was a Sleeping Beauty dress there that Grace had been dreaming of for a few months now. Every time we were near a Disney Store she would askt to go in and look around. She always headed to this dress and never once asked to bring it home. I had decided a few months ago to set some money aside and finally had enough to buy it last night. As soon as we arrived she went right to the dress. I asked her if she would like to bring it home with us. The smile on her face said it all!
Monday, January 4, 2010
Play-dough. What would we do without it? Growing up one of the best things was when my mother would make each of us a new batch of play-dough. We even got to choose our own colors! The homemade stuff is way better than the store bought stuff. It's super easy to make (recipe at the end of this post) and way easier for little hands to manipulate. That reminds me, I think I better add some cream of tarter to next weeks shopping list. It would be fun to have more than the one color (red) we currently have! 
In addition to the garlic press, we get out the bin of people/figurines/ponies. They love to stick them in the play-dough. And the wooden pizza cutter comes in handy too! We have these wonderful stampers that we got at the teacher supply store that they love, but the garlic press. The garlic press is the holy grail of play-dough toys!
The picture below was too good to pass up posting. They had just noticed some birds outside on our deck and were surprised to see the huge bluejay that appeared today. The look on Em's face is priceless!
Our Play-dough Recipe:
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 cup water
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
3 tablespoons cream of tartar
Food coloring of your choice
Mix all ingredients together in a pot and cook over medium heat while stirring constantly until it forms a ball. I recommend using a wooden spoon. The dough ball will form faster than you think!
Turn the dough ball out onto the counter and knead it for a minute or two. Be sure to let it cool before you give it to the children to play with.
Depending on how bright you want the color to be will depend on what type of coloring technique you use. For pastel colors, add liquid food coloring before cooking. For bright colors, use powdered tempera paint or frosting paste kneaded into dough after cooking. For scented play-dough, knead in a small package of Kool-Aid after cooking.
Store in a ziploc bag or air tight container and it will bring hours of fun for many months to come. Don't forget to get out the garlic press. Trust me on this one, it's totally worth it!