Posts Tagged ‘playing’

How to Make a Mud Pie

Sunday, May 6th, 2012

It is still warm here during the day, but at night time it has started to cool off some.  So, we have been spending lots of time in the evenings outside playing, reading and enjoying the coolness!  This week I introduced Mikayla to mud pies.  I can’t believe I hadn’t done this yet, it is such a favorite childhood memory of mine.  Sitting in the corner of our yard making mud pies with my sister and "selling" them over the fence!  In case you have forgotten how or have never made a mud pie before, here are some step by step directions.

Step 1 – Gather your supplies.  You will need dirt, water, a pail or bowl to mix in and a pan to use as your pie pan.

Step 2 – Gather some dirt (or sand) and mix in some water.

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Step 3 – Pour into pie pan (or other container you deem as your pie pan).

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Step 4 – Add "berries" or extras to your pie if you want (i.e. rocks, leaves, stems, grass, pretty much anything you can find outside).

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Mikayla kept calling this her cherry mud pie!

Step 5 – Enjoy and repeat!

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She had a lot of fun, although I must say she wasn’t a fan of actually touching the mud with her fingers.  If she got mud on them, she wanted to immediately wipe it off.  We are working on that though!f  If you have kids and you haven’t made a mud pie with them yet, I suggest you go out and do it today!  So much fun and great for the imagination!

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Posted in Parenting |

18 Months Old

Sunday, November 7th, 2010

Have 18 months really passed since Mikayla was born? 

Mikayla 006She wasn’t very happy here, just moments after her arrival!

November 003Much happier here.  Side note – she is sporting a hat made by the one and only Brittany.  You can purchase one too for $10!

It is crazy how time flies!  Dr. F said Mikayla looked great at her check up on Tuesday.  At 18 months she was 32 inches long, weighed in at 22 lbs and her head was a whopping 47 cm.  She has grown 3.5 inches since her one year appointment…the nurse was super impressed with this growth.  I mean I knew she had grown, but wow!  She is still below average in weight and head circumference, but is above the red average line in height.  She is also talking more, not sentences yet, but she is putting "I" in front of a lot of statements.  For example "I poo poo", "I eat", etc.  She is also signing more and communicating with us when she has gone to the bathroom.  She doesn’t usually tell us beforehand that she needs to go, but almost always tells us after the fact.  I believe we are on our way to potty training this little baby!  She still only eats one good meal a day, but apparently that isn’t stopping her from growing!

She took her two shots like a champ at her 18 month checkup!  As a reward we went to the park for a little fun, including Ben attempting to fly his homemade kite!

November 028 Sensory tub update.

November 029 Mikayla loves her tub!  I am already making plans for a winter themed tub.  Any suggestions?

November 032 Daddy’s kite!

November 036 Her concentration face!

November 038Making mommy a snack! 

November 042 Sliding with daddy is so much fun!

November 054 A somewhat successful self portrait.

November 056 Mikayla, what did you do when you were 18 months old?  Oh I just hung around!

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Halloween Themed Play Date

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Mikayla had one of her best buds over today for a play date!  We began the day by getting all decked out in our Halloween/pumpkin gear.

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Then we played some dress up and enjoyed the bubbles for awhile.Lylah Playdate 007

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When Lylah got here Mikayla was so excited, she ran up to the car.  The girls played outside for a bit and then headed inside for some homemade play dough action.  Lylah lasted a total of five seconds, but Mikayla played for quite awhile while the mommies prepped our lunch.  Unfortunately, I did not snap any pictures of Mikayla and the play dough, but will try to get some later.

For lunch we had Pumpkin sandwiches (ham and cheese sandwich cut into the shape of a pumpkin with cheese for the eyes and mouth), Frankenstein fingers (cheese stick with peppers for the fingernails), Skeleton Bones (Gerber Veggie sticks), Brains (broccoli), and Eyeballs (grapes).  For desserts we had Ghosts (frozen bananas on a stick covered with whipped cream and raisins or frosting for the eyes and mouth).  The girls ate it all up.

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Ghosts on a stick

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Frankenstein fingers and brains!

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Pumpkin Sandwiches

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They loved the ghosts!

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We ended our date with craft time.  Lara put together fun Jack-O-Lanterns for the girls to make.  They did awesome making them, but while we were trying to snap some pictures they promptly tore apart the craft!

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We had a great day, thanks Lara and Lylah for coming to play!

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Field Trip #6

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

For our sixth field trip we ventured back out with Lara and Lylah to Indianapolis, Indiana.  We did a lot of things the two days we were there, but the highlight was going to the Children’s Museum.  The girls were real troopers the whole trip and didn’t really “breakdown” until we got stuck in traffic for two hours on the way home.  On the way up they refused to take naps.  It was almost comical because they were studying each other and trying to figure out how two babies got in the backseat.  We went straight to the museum and enjoyed lots of fun exhibits.  We even traveled Egypt and back in thirty minutes!  Here are some photo highlights from the trips.  However, the photos don’t even begin to grasp how cute the girls were playing with each other.  They are roughly three months apart, but they play so well together.

blackerries and Indy 018 Toddle Play Place at Museum

blackerries and Indy 023 blackerries and Indy 025 Turns out my daughter loves to play in dress up clothes.  She got really mad when I took this animal costume off of her.  Sidenote – we weren’t sure what kind of animal this was supposed to be, any guesses?

blackerries and Indy 027She was loving this scarecrow.  There were also flowers with holes to place the stems in.  She liked this game a lot. 

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blackerries and Indy 033Cutest couch potatoes ever! 

blackerries and Indy 034There was a whole mirror maze exhibit.  My daughter is so vain and loves to look at herself in the mirror, so this was another big hit! 

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blackerries and Indy 044First carousel ride.  Really difficult to get a good picture! 

blackerries and Indy 045 Everytime we went around the carousel a lady had a monkey puppet and Mikayla was mesmerized.  She is a big fan of puppets as well.

blackerries and Indy 046 Mikayla made it safely to Egypt, even if she is a little wet from her water.

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Again, this child loves to play dress up!

blackerries and Indy 051Cutest Egyptian babies ever! 

blackerries and Indy 054 We even made some new friends…

blackerries and Indy 055 …did a little baking…

blackerries and Indy 058 …rode a sphinx…

blackerries and Indy 061…and petted a crocodile, all in our trip to Egypt! 

blackerries and Indy 062 Cruising along on some motorcycles.

blackerries and Indy 064 Disco Diva!

blackerries and Indy 067 Barbie fun

blackerries and Indy 068  blackerries and Indy 070Barbie is busy, can we take a message please?”

blackerries and Indy 071 Loving on the doggie

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Two sleepy babies after a long day of playing at the Children’s Museum!

We also went on a bonus field trip this week.  I will try and post about it soon, but now must get back to cleaning and packing for our big trip!

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Spring Break Visitation

Saturday, April 17th, 2010

I love being a teacher for many reasons, but one of my favorites is all the fun breaks we get, like spring break.  Our spring break was a week ago, but I am just now finding the time to blog about it.  We spent our week visiting some friends and places we rarely get to see. 

First Visit:  My mom, sister and nephews came to town to visit.  We had planned on visiting Hopscotch’s Playplace but it was closed.  They have the most random hours and this is the second time they have come to town intending to play here and it been closed.  We ended up at Imagination Station, which I think Tyson enjoyed more.  There wasn’t much for MLK to do, but I think she still had a good time watching her cousins play.

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Second Visit:  We visited our dear friends Mark and Nicole and their new little boy, Jack.  These are friends from college who moved from BG several years ago.  We spent time playing games, introducing kiddos, taking a nice stroll around a park and eating ice cream!  Here are some shots from the visit.

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Third Visit:  Throughout the week I visited with some neighborhood kids.  When the weather is warm the kids in our neighborhood flock to our cul-de-sac to play.  Spring Break was no different.  One afternoon Mikayla and I went out front and sat on a blanket to play.  Within ten minutes our blanket was filled with neighborhood kids wanting to play with Mikayla and her toys.  I passed out leftover hard boiled eggs and we sat around eating and playing.  It was a lot of fun.  I didn’t manage to snap pictures of the kids, but here are a few of Mikayla during our impromptu play date hanging with the big kids.  As you can tell, she thought she was pretty cool!

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Fourth Visit:  MLK and I headed to Smiths Grove to visit with my team teacher.  Not only are we team teachers, but we are friends.  We want desperately for our daughters to be friends too.  We got together, played, chatted and had a little photo shoot in a neighbors yard.  It was a relaxing way to spend one of the last days of my spring break.  She has some great pictures from the day on her blog.  You can read about it here. 

Fifth Visit:  On Sunday we packed up our gear and headed to Mammoth Cave.  You can read about our trip on Ben’s blog here.  It was a great day to be outside and the perfect end to my Spring Break.  I think MLK enjoyed being on the trail and I know Shiloh enjoyed herself!  Here are some fun memories from the day.

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I had a great Spring Break visiting all these fun people and places, but most of all I enjoyed spending time with my family.  I can’t wait for Summer break and all the fun we are going to have!

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I feel like I am in the Twilight Zone

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

For those of you that know my husband well, you know that he wears black and khaki a lot.  By a lot I would ay 80-90% of the time, seriously not joking here.  Well, the other day he emerged from the room with a red shirt and jeans on.  I almost didn’t recognize him.  He looks good in red, but I just wasn’t used to this color combination.  He even likes to dress our daughter in black and khaki when given the chance.  Look at my little Twinkies, aren’t they cute?

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Speaking of my cuties, sometimes they just like to sit and play together.  Here they are having a staring contest (please note the red shirt on Ben and not black).

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Goofy grins.2010-02-26 Olympics, February random 103

 

Cute smiles. 2010-02-26 Olympics, February random 104

Acting silly with daddy, doesn’t get much cuter than this! 2010-02-26 Olympics, February random 105

 

"Look Mom, I can scrunch Daddy’s face!" 2010-02-26 Olympics, February random 107

 

Mikayla exploring the fact that they both have mouths.2010-02-26 Olympics, February random 108

 

"What’s in there daddy?" 2010-02-26 Olympics, February random 110

 

Sweet kisses from daddy. 2010-02-26 Olympics, February random 111

 

I am pretty sure she is held in the air and upside down more than any other baby in the world! 2010-02-26 Olympics, February random 114

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Here is a quick shot of me and Mikayla after her play time with daddy.

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