I don't have any revelations or deep insights today. I should be at the gym. In fact I was but had my adorable flats on and forgot the running shoes at home. So I stopped at the grocery store to get Emily's milk and then put a beautiful baby girl to bed. And then I sat down and didn't get up. Bummer...next time, right?! I'll get up tomorrow morning at 4:45 to go to that great abs class at the Campus (yeah, right). So, in an attempt to salvage the rest of my night and find some productivity....here's what we've been up to the past month!
Routine, routine, routine! After a fierce winter, the kids have learned to do a WONDERFUL job of INDEPENDENTLY putting on their shoes, coat, hat, and mittens. In that order. Mittens first cause A LOT of meltdowns. Then we sit in front of the door on the rug and wait for everyone to be ready. No wrestling, no blow bubbles at each other from our mouths, no velcroing our shoes to the rug. Just sitting and waiting...ahhhh... :D
Sorting! Carlee and Sam practiced sorting all month with puff balls. They are still all over the house...surprise! The clothes pins were little birdies catching the "bugs".
Tada!
During this time, we dumped out the rest of our table salt that's just for making play-doh and Max wrote his sight words in the salt.
Then we made volcanoes! We took Valentines Day cookie cutters and filled them with baking soda. We syringed in vinegar and food coloring! Fizzling, red, heart and cupid shaped volcanoes!
Thomas joined us for the fun! We added sprinkles for added fun! Carlee really loved this activity...I promise. She's always impressed with my ideas :D (Insert Carlee's thoughts, "MOM and DAD...look what Miss Kristie makes me do!!")
And then we introduced fingerpainting to Emily. Total hit. This child is a natural Picasso.
To the zoo! For the one day in February that it was above negative 50 degrees we bundled up and visited the zoo. It was FABULOUS! Look...SUNISHINE! (and cute kids)
Just playing the drums...
Watching the sea lions waddle on the cement created endless entertainment and giggles.
The luge. This is sheer ice...down the ramp. Yes...we all learned a new Olympic sport that day.
More sea lions!
Photo op! Emily may still be up on that ramp...
Fingerpainting some more!! She can't get enough!
Joining the blueman group....EMILY KOLSRUD!
We visited the science center..Emily was obsessed with the man eating shark and giant polar bear. More thrill, more adventure, more risks she signed through baby sign language. Forget the statues and get me in the cage underwater to swim with these things...ALIVE!
Yes, that's Emily tackling Max...successfully...you can just see his legs...she was getting a bit animalistic in there..inspired by the polar bear
Max loved the lightbox and investigating the bugs. Look at that quiet girl in the background quietly observing her mother teaching her about a science exhibit. (That's not Emily).
Mario Kart time! Max loves Mario and on a particularly deceptively sunny yet FRIGID day we got on the tape and made our own track on the carpet.
Still juicing!
And taking those obnoxious photos to post on FB!
Max used his legos to make them into question marks on the Mario game. Each lego was a mushroom, star, turtle shell, etc....
Celery experiment!
Mom and dad, this empty glass jar is SO much cooler than the heart shaped volcanoes!!
We investigated with food coloring to study the veins of celery. We learned how plants absorb water from the ground, it travels through their veins, to the very tips of their leaves. Max can now sleep at night knowing this (look at that delight!)
Max LOVED breaking apart the celery and finding the colored veins inside.
Carlee too!
We've been working on Sam's and Carlee's names, letter identification, and spelling. We put post its on the window all mixed up and they had to put their letters of their names in the right order!
Emily helped.
Sam had the home team advantage! Only 3 letters in his name! So proud!!
