Easter Activity #2

Yesterday we had a fun time decorating Easter eggs with the girls.

Easter Activity

I found some inexpensive wooden crosses at Michael's Craft Store the other day. We had a fun family activity painting them. I will try to take a picture of all 4 of our finished crosses the next time I have the camera out.

Pinecone Birdfeeders

The other day we made some pinecone birdfeeders for the many birds in our yard to enjoy. We had a fun time making them, although Jane probably got a stomach ache from eating so much peanut butter! :) All you need for this activity are pinecones, peanut butter, birdseed, string, and some knives.

Gingerbread House

My uncle sent us a gingerbread house kit. We had a fun time with it, but it didn't last long. It collapsed after about 30 minutes, so we just enjoyed eating it! :) This may have been the first gingerbread house I have ever tried to make. It doesn't get much easier than a gingerbread house kit! I am just glad I didn't try to make it all from scratch, I would have definitely been disappointed at not being able to get it stand up!

Thanksgiving Party

Last Tuesday, we had several children over for a Thanksgiving party. It was a fun day! I centered the activities around two different books... Albert's Thanksgiving and a book about Squanto (which I can't seem to find on Amazon). The first book is about a school getting ready for a big Thanksgiving feast and a bunch of chores that need to be done before the big event. I had the kids do all of the "chores" for the activites (set up the table, make turkeys, make pilgrim hats, collect leaves and decorate the table, and make pumpkin pizzas). Then while they were eating their pumpkin pizzas, I started the book about Squanto. We went outside to "do what Squanto did" ...plant corn with fish (goldfish) and hunt for animals (in a pile of hay).


Making Turkeys... The turkeys were made from tracing and cutting out shapes of the kids' hands and feet.
Making Pilgrim hats (the boys made the hats and the girls made the bonnets)

Making Pumpkin Pizzas...

Planting corn... Squanto taught the Pilgrims to put fish next to their corn so that the corn would grow well. The kids each got a few kernels of popcorn and a couple goldfish to plant.

Hunting... Squanto taught the Pilgrims to hunt. The kids "hunted" for animals (toys, stickers, and baggies of animal crackers) in the forest (a pile of hay).

Thanksgiving Tree... We closed our day with each of the kids taking a leaf off of our Thanksgiving tree, writing (and telling us about) what they were thankful for, then putting their leaves back on the Thanksgiving tree poster at the base of the tree. Then Jimmy said a prayer.

A Pilgrim...
A Pilgrim with a turkey...

Thanksgiving Tree begins...

If you remember from last year, we did a Thanksgiving Tree during the month leading up to Thanksgiving Day. Last year, I started with a bare tree then added leaves as we wrote something we were thankful for on them. Halfway through all that, I realized that leaves should be coming off of the tree not being put on! :) So this year, we are starting out with a full tree and as we take a leaf off and write something we are thankful for on it, we will move the leaf down to the base of the tree. We will see how it works!

If you are wondering why we are starting so early this year...it is because we will have fewer evenings around the dinner table since Jimmy has class late a couple nights each week. AND because my girls really wanted to do it when they saw the tree in our fall decoration box.

Fun with Play Dough

A couple of years ago I made some play dough for Jewel. We would pull it out every couple of months. It became increasingly messy...the girls hands would be caked with play dough! So, last week I broke down and bought real play-dough (it was probably just as cheap as making it with the rise in the cost of flour!). The girls have had so much fun playing with their new play dough everyday. In the picture Jewel is making a mermaid; Jane is just making a mess. :) Her specialty is usually making snakes!

Modes of Transportation

Jewel devised this plan to attach the wagon to the tricycle. Originally, she came up to Jimmy and said, "May I have a small piece of tape?" (knowing that we don't like her to waste tape). After inquiring what the tape was for, Jimmy suggested that she use a rope instead to attach the wagon to the tricycle.

After Jewel determined that it was too hard for her to pull the wagon, she asked Jane to trade places with her.

Making Jewelry

The girls have really enjoyed a book we got from the library on beads. After digging around a bit, I found my box of beads from my hippie-hemp-jewelry-making days. I knew that I kept those beads for some reason! :) Actually, 10 years ago when I bought those beads I spent quite a bit on them. So it kind of pained me to see my toddlers stringing dollar after dollar of beads on a necklace! But after reminding myself of where those beads had spent the last 10 years, I decided that at least they were now being used!

Pizza Pizza!

Today we had some friends over to make pizza...from scratch! I tell ya, it is one of the easiest activities I have ever planned...especially since I didn't have to make any food since that is what our guests were coming over to do! Other than tidying up the kitchen (and the rest of the house) and getting some ingredients ready, it required very little prep work. The kids (and moms) had a fun time kneading their dough and decorating their pizzas. I have to say, it was a little chaotic at times with 5 toddlers in the kitchen, but overall it was an enjoyable time!

Building Blocks

Our girls REALLY enjoy building with blocks. These are two of Jewel's creations. The first is a house and the second is a church. I failed to get any pictures of Jane's. Her building strategy is usually just to sort and build by colors.