March goes out like a lamb

Today is the last day of March.

The little neighbors and I had a slight discussion about March going in like a lion and out like a lamb. I think I made the point, even though they take everything literally:

"It goes into what?" I was asked.

I rephrased it a bit--comparing snowy and cold days with today's warm and sunny weather.

We made these lambs and I think they turned out cute.

This week's color is purple, so we had frozen purple cows. I just made milk shakes with grape juice.

Frozen purple cows are yummy!

We also played outside in the gorgeous lamb-like March morning.

Have a lovely day!

Orange ya happy?

Our theme color this week is orange!

We planted the pretty flowers above. No sprouting yet, but the little neighbors had a great time scooping and pouring dirt, planting the seeds, and WATERING.

We also mixed red and yellow paints in a baggie to make orange. The zip locks were taped shut so we were able to squish without getting messy. I was running low on yellow paint, so I kept adding water. Seemed to work.

Looks like tomato sauce.

On Tuesday, we squeezed oranges to make fresh orange juice. Now THAT was sticky!

Have a lovely day!

A beanstalk and a birthday

It's a beanstalk that goes high up into the clouds. And it has leaves on it.

We can see it in our imaginations, anyway.

We have a picture of Jack that goes on it, but I guess he was outside on a phone call when I took this photo. (J is for Jack. J is our theme this week).

Also, the kids were busy making birthday cookies for a very special mom.

The little neighbors mixed up the powdered sugar, meringue powder, and water. Then we added some coloring. The finished products were loaded with sprinkles.

Yet, no one had one smidge of a taste. Not even a teeny lick.

Funny joke!

We also hung strips of crepe paper near the front door so the birthday mom would have to walk through her special "curtain."

They had so much fun while thinking of the birthday girl. And to imagine her having to walk through that crepe paper!! Oh, the anticipation...and the giggles!!

Thinking of other people provides awareness and can be fun, too. I will be adding service-type projects to our themes in the near future. This is just as important as ABCs and 123s.

Have a lovely day.

Happy first day of spring!

Springtime is here! With it comes so many pretty projects.

We made coffee filter flowers today. First we added food coloring to some cups of water. Then we placed a folded/scrunched coffee filter in each one.

Pretty, huh?

The idea was for the color to travel up the coffee filter without having to dunk it, which it did. But the colors were so very pastel, they weren't very noticeable. 

So, I did some sneaky naptime magic and squirted a bit more food coloring on each one. You've just got to have that wow factor, you know?

I think they turned out very pretty.

What a rainy, blucky first day of spring. But hey, it's not snowing!

Have a lovely day!

H is for happy hippo

This project is from last week.

Our color of the week was blue, so we made BLUE happy hippos. I've seen this idea around the internet, but ours is a little different. 

We didn't endow our hippos with behinds. I thought that even a little booty would distract from the letter H shape. 

She still seems happy, though, with her modest hippo attributes.

I checked out Deceptively Delicious at the library. The author is Jerry Seinfeld's wife, Jessica. Since some of the little neighbors are protesting veggies, I thought sneaking the healthy stuff into foods might be the solution. 

This might be a great thing for our family, too. If I puree the offending foods and mix them into something common, no one has anything to reject. Perhaps I will be able to feel certain that my hubby and kids aren't missing anything vital.

I'm late to the party. I know. I know. This book has been out for a while. We'll see how it goes.

Hope you're having a lovely day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Today we matched numbers on a shamrock!

I got the idea here but changed it a bit. We didn't use stickers. I glued the numbers on the shamrock with a glue stick then printed and "laminated" their numerical mates. This goes home with the little ones for play later.

Here is how I fake laminated the mates:
I put one strip of packing tape, sticky side up, on the counter.
Then I stuck the numbers onto it.
Another strip of packing tape, sticky side down, made it like a sandwich.
Then the pieces were snipped, ready for matching with the numbers on the shamrock.

We also made rainbow bracelets with Fruit Loops.

I chose against necklaces, because I didn't want them to have something around their necks. You've got to be careful with these bracelets, too. Kids are quick. And tricky.

Tonight for supper we're having pastrami and Swiss sandwiches on rye bread. I bought the stuff for it on Saturday. I was told last night that pastrami is NOT corned beef. Of course it isn't.

But can't a mom get some credit for thinking ahead?

Hope you're having a lovely St. Patrick's Day!!

Fancy flowers

Continuing with our F theme, we made fancy flowers the other day.

Early in the week, we painted some paper and small paper plates. We had an "anything goes" paint session--paint brush painting, finger painting, arm painting--the willy-nilly approach!

Though I explained the intended outcome for the project, my flowery vision was lost in a free-for-all process of color. Perfectly fine.

The creations dried for a couple days before they were snipped into some fancy flowers and glued onto a construction paper background.

The artists were so proud to show off their finished pieces.

Fantastic!!

Have a lovely day.