Weekly activities June 23-27

Make it Monday

Keeping with our letter of the week theme(A), I cut an apple in half and let it dry all day. Then she stamped with green paint.

Take a trip Tuesday

We went to Barnes and Noble for story time. She then played with the train table set up there. We then went to 3 different stores looking for beach items.

Wet and Wild Wednesday

SHe went to Nimmie's today and they got in the pool there.

Thinking Thursday

Library story time day. It was a black light puppet show!
Madison's shirt and Minnie's eyes and bow was glowing!

Fresh and Fun Friday

 I drew an acorn on paper and we painted some glue on.
Madison then sprinkled some potting soil on the top and bread crumbs on the bottom.

 

Zoo trip

We started out playing on the playground..

Riley's first time swinging

She was more interested in chewing her finger than swinging.

 

It was hot. Thank goodness the playground was shaded!

All playgrounds should be shaded!

Overall, Madison didn't really enjoy the zoo. She wasn't real interested in the animals. Our purpose in going was to see about booking her party there. Glad we went for a test visit first! We took her on her 1st Birthday and she was a bit young to enjoy it. Maybe she will like it better in a couple of years. 

On to Birthday Party Plan B!

Weekly activities- June 16-20

Make it Monday

 We didn't do anything this day. Alan's mom came and watched the girls a while and I ran some errands and did some shopping and then she took Madison to her house until bedtime.

Take a trip Tuesday

 I took them to a nearby playground. It was in the blazing heat at 12:30.
Madison kept saying it was too hot, so we didn't stay long.

Wet and Wild Wednesday

Fail. Didn't do it. 

Thinking Thursday

Library story time day
Almost exact picture from last week. She did play a little after reading.
Riley kept watching her and reaching and smiling.

Fresh and Fun Friday
Part  of our summer daily schedule is incorporating a letter a week into our day.
We started with the letter A late last week(and will roll it over into this week)
We did fingerprint Ants for a craft.

Weekly activities- June 9-13

Make Something Monday- I tried "fluffy stuff"(2 boxes corn starch and 1 bottle shave cream) but she had nothing to do with it. It felt really funny mixing it together and she was done! We added a little starch and a little cream at a time to try to mix better.

 So I took the rest of the shaving cream and food dye and we made bath paints. That, she loves!

Take a trip Tuesday- We met some friends at the local splash pad. Neither of the 2 year olds wanted much to do with it. It was taken over by much older kids that were running and splashing and all but pushing the girls out of the way. That night, Alan took her to our library for story/craft time and she got to play on the playground a few minutes.

Wet and Wild Wednesday-Since we did water on Tuesday, we didn't do it Wednesday. It also rained this day so we stayed inside.

Thinking Thursday- Library day! She wanted to read books instead of play.. I'm okay with that!

Fresh and Fun Friday-I woke up feeling sick again. Argh! We didn't do anything fresh or fun. We stayed home all day. This sinus bug is killing me.

Summer activity schedule and the first week in photos!

I posted before of needing a loose schedule to help keep the madness at bay around here. I found one online that I liked and it was broad enough for us to do different things on Madison's level. I will post weekly updates on our activities!

Monday- Make something! A recipe, a craft or build something!

Tuesday- Take a Trip! Movies, museum, park, outing

Wednesday- Wet and Wild! Swimming, Water park, splash pad

Thursday- Thinking. Library, experiments, worksheets

Friday- Fresh and Fun. Do an activity you've pinned on Pinterest.

So last week was a bit off because Monday was a holiday and we did our "Take a Trip" that day to Table Rock beach. 

Tuesday- we just hung out around the house. I painted her nails and we played in the playroom. We read books and played with Riley.

Wednesday- I filled up her pool and made her sidewalk chalk paint(1 cup corn starch, 1 cup water, food coloring).

 Thursday- we hit up story time at the library, did interactive play time afterward, she played on the playground there a bit and then we checked out some books. 

 Friday we made cloud dough(8 cups flour and 1 cup baby/vegetable oil) and played on the porch

If you have toddlers out of school, what are your plans? We bought a State Park pass that we have been using weekly at the park near our house. She enjoys the playground and throwing rocks into the water. Alan took her to walk the trail yesterday. We also plan on visiting a water park in a few weeks and hopefully taking some day trips to the mountains.

Summer is...

... eating breakfast on the porch while Madison plays in her sand/water table in her pjs.

Every now and then she will ask to "eat outside", grab her breakfast and head for the door. It's a nice change of pace and we try to do it once a week or so.

...working in the yard.

We yanked out all of those ginormous bushes that are covering half of the windows.

We replaced them with some smaller bushes that shouldn't get quite as big.

We are also in the process of pulling weeds. You can see here where we stopped. Thinking of putting a layer of newspaper under our mulch for weeds. thoughts? The purple tall flowers are our replacement bushes.

Here are the other replacement bushes. They have small white flowers on them. They were tiny when we got them about a month ago. All this rain has made them quadruple in size!

We also got some mulch delivered on Thursday. Can't wait to get this out and get the house looking presentable again. Sorry neighbors but it will likely be Saturday or Sunday before it gets put out.

...long to-do lists!

I got all of this list done yesterday except planning our trips that we have coming up. I'd say that was a good yet busy day! I now have another long to-do list. Nothing major though.

 

Sand box fun!

We got Madison a crab sandbox over the weekend and she really seems to like it a lot! We've played in it everyday since we got it. She likes climbing in and out of it and pouring sand out of it onto the grass.

She is obsessed with putting her shoes on and taking them off.

Sunday Social- May 19

1. What is your favorite kind of surprise?  

Any surprise is good!

2. Flowers or chocolate? 

Chocolate! But not the red heart box chocolate.. Give me some See's or a Skor or Heath bar and I'm good!

3. What is your favorite summertime activity? 

Being outside, working in the yard, sitting on the porch, grilling out

4. Do you have any vacations planned this summer? 

nope.

5. Favorite summer holiday? 

 July 4. We always have plans and maybe Madison will like fireworks this year.

6. What is your dream vacation?

Hawaii

Happy 1 year, Madison!

 
Wow, this year has flown by! I can't believe a year ago today, I was the most nervous I had ever been in my life! At 4:22 pm, after 8 hours of labor, our gorgeous little girl was born! She has grown so much and is so very smart.

She learned how to say "Uh Oh" early in the month. Sometimes she says it clear as day but most of the time she just says "Uh" or "Oh" when she drops or throws something. I also think she has learned to say "I get it". I am constantly saying that to her when she's reaching for something. She has been saying it a few days when she goes to get something. Maybe I'm crazy but I swear she is saying it! She also says "Hey" but it sounds more like "eeeeyyyyyyy" hehe It's cute :)

One night this month, she woke up from 11-1am and then up again from 4-7am. I thought she was teething because she had been acting funny for a few days. That brings us to this picture. This was at breakfast. Somebody woke up on the wrong side of the crib...

And this one was at lunch.. "I am not sleepy, I am not sleepy..."

Enjoying some pasta :)

Eating her first icee. She loved it! 

and a video of it..

She's become really good at copying us. Here's an example:

Her new favorite thing is the food pouches. I bought her some while at the beach and she loved it! I have now stocked up on them for car rides.

She barely wants us to feed her anymore. She likes playing with a spoon and 'dipping' it into her food bowl if we are feeding her something messy but we usually have to end up giving it to her because she refuses to eat from us most of the time.

She has started really loving to read. She will flip through a book the entire time we are in the car and jibber jabber. I love this video! Most of the time the book is upside down but it doesn't matter to her :) Listen out for her to say "Yellow". I know she isn't saying it but it sounds like it and I swear she said "Purple" right after me the other day.

This video was in our beach trip blog but it's so stinkin' cute I had to include it in this one too. This girl loves her some music!

Along those same lines is this one from the library story/music time

Alan coughed the other day and she just died laughing! So of course he did it over an over again and she thought it was just hysterical! Of course the next day she didn't laugh at all when he did it.

She's learned how to take the lid off of her Puff container and get a Puff out on her own.

Her and her Daddy had been doing this over the weekend.. Cute.

Naked baby!

Tall girl!

Blueberry mouth to match her blueberry eyes.

She fell last week and hit her head on the corner of the baseboard.. It was awful :( She cried real hard until I swooped her up and she pretty much stopped right then. She has her mama's pain tolerance for sure! She's a tough little gal!

Alan met us at the library for muic time and then we took her to lunch and to the zoo(blog post to come later). We stopped and got her a cupcake on the way home to eat after supper.

Listening to us sing "Happy Birthday"

"Is that mine?!"
(We gave her 1/4 of the icing and half the cake)

Yum!

This year has been nothing short of amazing. She is the best baby and we are so blessed to have her in our life. She is always so happy and full of love and smiles for everything! She has this little personality that bursts out! No words can describe how we feel for her. Our love for each other has also grown. To see the person that you thought you loved with all you have before you had a child, play and be silly with your daughter is a feeling you can't describe. Mama and Daddy love you so much! Thank you for blessing our lives this past year and the years to come.