More Dinosaur Stuff

We made some "dinosaur fossils" inspired by a pin from Love, Play, Learn.  It was a great bribery tool for me when trying to get the girls to pick up the living room.  On Saturday mornings we create what I call "Saturday Morning Disaster".  We ignored it until after nap when I gave them snack then said we would do a project as soon as the living room was tidy.  That got them working!!

We made a simple salt dough and grabbed the tray of dino toys to press into the dough.  This was the PERFECT activity.  Not very messy but very tactile.  Everyone had fun- the 4 year old, the 2 year old, and the 34 year old.

Measuring and mixing...

They took turns mixing until it got too tough...

Kneading the dough...

Then I baked them in a 200 degree oven for about 2 hours.  Then turned off the oven and left them there/ forgot about them.  The next morning the thick ones were still a little moist on the bottom so I flipped them and put them back in for about an hour then put them on top of the oven to cool.

While the girls ate morning snack I prepped the dig.  We watched a few videos of paleontologists working in the field and while Ada and I thought it was super cool when they found big bones it wasn't exactly relatable since they were mostly using jackhammers and drills and dynamite to expose the fossils.  We used sand toys and paint brushes.  Oh well.  The girls LOVED this activity.

Again this idea came from a pin from Love, Play, Learn on dinosaur fossil excavation.  She uses edible ingredients in the bin and I used similar things.  What I did differently was to make layers instead of stripes in the bin so we could talk about the layes of the Earth a little.  Ada faned interest in this aspect I think mostly she was just humoring me so I would stop and she could get to work digging.  I made 2 bins to avoid conflict...

In the bottom I put most of the fossils they made then some oats (these have been used and reused many times in sensory bins for Emma) and a bag of semolina flour I found in my cupbord that was woefully out of date, then some crushed chocolate cookies that were also past due.  This would be a fun thing to do to clear out old stuff in your baking cupboard.  You could really throw about anything dry in there and it would be fun- ours smelled like chocolate but I was thinking it would be neat to do a bin sometime with flour and spices (for another sensory experience) and do and archeology dig with pyramids, etc. from one of those Safari tubes...

Then some chocolate cake mix (this was a great addition because we pretended the clumps were rocks and when we found one as we were digging/ playing we would crush it between our fingers and it was awesome).  On top of the mix went more fossils.

Next comes flour (she used whole wheat, I used white because it's cheaper and I don't think the girls will hold it against me although the whole wheat would certainly be more Earthen looking).  Then a little more cake mix and crushed Oreos.  **A quick side note of disclosure: I love Oreos.  Love them.  They are my junkiest food love and while they were nice to have in this project, also completely unnecessary.  I didn't need to get them and this would have been a fine and fun project- the girls wouldn't have missed them.  But I love them and this was all the justification I needed to buy them and proceed in eating massive amounts of Oreos later in the day.

The layers from the side of the bin looked like this.

Next came the fun.  I don't have tons of pictures of the whole thing because I was playing with them and very messy, but you can see by the last pics how fun it was.  Also, they were actively playing with this for 45 minutes.  We ended up adding our dinosaur figures into the mix and burying them and finding them.  Then we spent some time burying our hands and digging them out.  It felt really cool.  And they both asked to play with it later in the day- I did save the bins and we will likely do it again tomorrow.  Glad I made them in bins with covers:)

As expected, Ada took it very seriously and worked diligently on each piece.

This one is fuzzy, but I love it anyway :)

Dinosaurs....for no particular reason

The little shelf in the little living room has changed finally from all the Valentine's Day stuff.  We have a dinosaur floor puzzle, a tray with toy dinosaurs, a tray with foam sheets and numbers written on them and a bowl of foam dinosaur stickers, a tray with a dinosaur map from an old National Geographic and some paper for Ada to practice writing her letters.  Book bucket has our collection of dinosaur related books- the biggest hit is the National Geographic Kids dinosaur reference book (plus I can answer the questions without looking things up on my computer which is extra nice- helps show books as learning tools not just entertainment which actually appeals to Ada).

The puzzle is a popular one.  This is a 32 piecer that they both can work on pretty well together which I like.  Not too much competition.

Working hard.....

Inspecting their work...

Proud sisters...

There has been lots of play with the dino figures.   I've been trying to rotate some toys in and out of rotation- I'm not very good about it and don't have a system but when I know we have a bunch of something of a particular theme I've made a bin and tucked it in a closet so they haven't played with the dinos in a while which was certainly part of the fun.

Without me saying/ showing/ presenting the number activity, Ada did 1-4 on her own.  When I noticed this I decided to jump in and help so Emma didn't just start stickering everything since we had a limited number of stickers (only exactly enough for 1-9).  We worked together and the girls did a nice job practicing their counting.  Then Ada lined them up and we practiced counting a few times.

More dinosaur stuff tomorrow.....

Maybe we should ask Barack Barama

Last night on the way to bed Ada had a moment of curiosity.

Ada: "Mama, what do lizards eat?"

Me: "I'm not totally sure Ada.  I think some eat insects and some eat fruit and veggies.  It might depend on the lizard we'll have to look it up tomorrow."

Ada:  "Maybe we should ask Barack Barama.  He's still the president right?"

Me:  "Yes sweetie he is."

I think I love the innocence of her thinking she can just call up the president and ask him a question.  I love that she thinks that because he's the president he must have all the answers.  I also love that because she's four she still pronounces some words in the most adorable way ever (i.e. Obama = Barama).  Mostly I love that as she was finishing up in the bathroom and making her way to bed she just really wanted to know about lizards.

I just love her little angelic pose here.  And the look on Emma's face working hard at pronunciation isn't half bad either!

And in case you were curious... the baby is indeed growing, and growing, and growing.  Ada took this picture of me a couple days ago.  Feeling good- I love the second trimester!!

Trying to juggle

Well, it's official I got into graduate school!  I started taking a class at a time in the fall to see if it would fit into my life before really committing and I'm going to go for it.  I would be lying if I said I'm not struggling at times to keep it all together but I'm working on it and it's starting to feel more manageable.  I'm excited and relieved that I got in and am very excited to have something to call my own.  Something I am doing for me- and something I can show the girls is worth working for.  I want them to see that women have as many options as men and they just need to work for what they desire in life.  Maybe I'm reaching and I just wanted to go to school, but hey we all justify right?

Who knows how things will be once baby comes along but for now I am very lucky that when I have something I need to work on the girls are typically content to just hang out and play together.  Emma is getting much more verbal so she can really play with Ada and it's extremely fun and satisfying to watch.  Here are a few random shots of them in action.

Building a super wicked awesome tower castle.  They kept this up for a few days and played with it every morning first thing.  Very cool.

Putting all the children (or as Ada says cilgren- must get on tape!) in the daycare to sleep.

Putting babies to bed is a recurrent theme around here.  This time Ada and Emma were the mamas and decided to all snuggle together with their babies.

The lines on the carpet are "balance beams".  Sometimes we make them straight or curved and this time we made them criss cross.  Ada's building another castle and Emma is walking the beam.

Also, I don't have any pictures of me recently but rest assured I'm getting huge!

Happy Valentine's Day

In an effort to get my act in gear I switched out the stuff that has been on the shelves since before Ada's birthday and put some Valentine's Day stuff out.  It's mostly just what we had out last year I just added numbers in the heart cups for Ada to say aloud when she puts the marshmallows in and wrote out the names of the colors in the color sorting for her to sound out and to practice writing too.  

 I cut 6 small squares of cardstock and did my best at freehanding a size-sorting heart work with numbers written on the back to check their work- well Emma can't do that yet.  Emma likes to hold the little one and say "so cute" in the most adorable way and cock her head to the side which makes me roar.  Ada likes to tell the story of the Grinch and say that the Grinch's heart starts so tiny then it grows and grows.  I love it.

Then of course I pulled out a selection of books about love and put them in the bin.  I've added a few more since this photo was taken.  We've been enjoying them.

We did some painting with heart cookie cutters although the girls quickly decided to put those down and use brushes and their hands.

And last but not least... a few pictures of the two best sisters in the world (yes, I'm totally biased)!

Sleepy and sick snuggling on the couch.

Daffodils

Not much time for writing today but wanted to share some photos of the girls.  We were shopping and TJ's had those $1.50 daffodils so we got some and decided to get some that were closed so we could keep checking every day and see how long it takes to get them to open up.  They each got a vase and a pair of scissors and voila....