Movie Day- Sort Of

I've been wanting to show the kids who Mary Poppins is for a while.  I was certain that they would be whisked off into a land of magical fun and would immediately fall in love with the movie.  WRONG.  While there are wonderfully bright and interesting parts throughout, the down time in the movie was just too hard for the kids to sit through.  They lasted maybe 40 minutes.  I had accomplished my goal, though.  They will now understand who I am talking about when I refer to her awesome bag, the phrase, "Spit spot.." and her umbrella.

We all know that the best part about watching a movie is popcorn!

Movie day is a great way for me to get tax slips printed up without interruption.  Someone (Zuko) decided that he wanted to sit in my chair and plowed his way onto it. 

Meanwhile, this saga continues.  Zuko wants to be friends with Smudge, who is clearly not interested.  It's so funny to watch baby Zu follow Smudge around, lifting a paw to touch him as he walks by.  Smudge has his own fan club.  He does tolerate Zuko,  maybe because he is a male.   He has no tolerance for poor Petra, the only girl kitty.  She knows to keep her distance from him.  

Hooray that our Seahawks are heading to the Superbowl!  What a headache of a game, though!

♥♥♥Happy Monday!♥♥♥

Look, A Germ!

For this awesome project, you will need some water colors, a straw and some googly eyes.  This is one of my favorites!  I got out an empty clear jar and told the kids to look very closely because I had some germs inside of it. 

"Well, what do they look like?"  I got out this lovely hand washing sign that the Health department gave me to hang in the bathroom.  Thanks, but no thanks.  It was great for yesterday because in the pictures, the germs have legs and eyes and look like little dust balls.  They got the idea!

"Ok guys, hold out your hands, please,"  I asked them.

I took one germ out of the jar and placed it into her hand.  LOOK AT HER FACE!   She was clearly concerned after we learned that germs can make us feel sick.  She was really straining her eyes to try to see the germ.  

We then practiced sneezing into our elbows to prevent the germs that we have already breathed in from getting onto someone else.  They both held their hands out still because they were frightened by the germ.  (Laughing out loud to myself.)

We then practiced washing the germ away.  Phew!  The germ was gone!

We created some germs on paper for art.  I love this project.  Just dab a wet blob of water colors onto their papers and let them blow it around with a straw until the puddle is gone.

We used different colors for fun!

Our germs were looking germy.

The best part?  Adding eyes.

Even better than the best part?  Naming them.  Click on the photos to see what the kids named their germs.

They really are cute little fellas.

Love them!

Look how plump Chippy is!  She graced us with a visit yesterday.

Insert baby Zuko-- up the tree Chippy went.  Boy is Zuko fast!  I'm a bit worried for Chippy.

♥♥♥Happy Friday!♥♥♥

Dress Up

I had two little ones yesterday and thought it would be a good day to play dress up.  At Henle House, dress up is not an activity that is always available.  It's an organized activity that I use when we need a distraction.  The kids have had different schedules this week, leaving me with several days where I only have 2 kids.  You would think that things get easier around here when that happens, but I feel it has the opposite effect.  The kids look more to me for entertainment.  It's harder to engage them in a group time because there are less participants to discuss things with.  Dress up was just what we needed!

The rule that I have is that the kids have to actually try to put the items on all by themselves.  Only when they truly need my help, will I jump in.  This is a great way to teach them how to dress themselves.  I also try to choose some upbeat creative music to get their imaginations going.  Music changes everything.  We listened to the 'Union' album by Yes.  Oldy, but a goodie.  Lots of creative juices were flowing.

This time it was more fun because I brought out a mirror for them to see themselves.  I don't know why I hadn't done that before.

They spent a LOT of time in front of it, laughing.

Fish hat!

I baked some cookies.  The kids didn't need my help.

With every costume change, they did want me to take a picture.

We then decided to bring in an outside tent to play in.  I had to completely evacuate about 10 spiders from it first.  Gross.

By the end of our dress up play time, I had two chocolate chip cookie faced smiling children.  Mission accomplished.

♥♥♥Happy Thursday!♥♥♥

Missing Summer

I am missing summer lately.  We created a flower with nine petals on it to review counting to nine.

This really didn't take long, maybe ten minutes.  Especially since I only had two girls.

Pretty!

Throwback to summer 2013... I can just FEEL the sunshine!  I miss these days.  No coats, lots of sunshine, renewed energy.  The smell of freshly mowed grass moss.  

I genuinely miss getting my hands in the dirt.  I love when Smudge comes inside smelling like garden. 

I miss just resting in the sunshine.  The kids know that the sun is my favorite star.  

I miss taking my walk after work.  It's too dark to do it this time of year.  Summer will return, I'm so thankful for that! 

♥♥♥Happy Wednesday!♥♥♥

Ii is for Igloo

 Back to business with the letter Ii.

I cut up some blue squares.

The kids glued them onto the igloo.  

Ii is for igloo!

♥♥♥Happy Tuesday!♥♥♥

♫Feed The Birds♫

Now that winter is here, we can't forget our feathery friends!  It's hard for the kids to believe me when we talk about how birds fly South for the winter because there are so many birds around our place.  Maybe WE are South?  Anyway, we got out the t.p. rolls, some peanut butter, some bird seed and some pipe cleaners.

The kids painted their t.p. tubes with globs of peanut butter.  It was HARD not to taste!! Does anyone else love peanut butter as much as I do?  Lately I've been dipping apples into it.

This one is ready for seeds.  (Look at the blond guy licking his lips.  Mmmm peanut butter..)  Before the kids began, I punched two holes in the tube and they added a pipe cleaner handle.  This will make for easy hanging.

I began to sing ♫ "Feed the birds...tuppence a bag.."♫  (Blank stares at crazy Nicole...)  Wait a minute-- these kids have NO IDEA who Mary Poppins is!  Tragic!  We will watch it soon.  It's necessary.  I love Mary Poppins.  She takes care of business.  Spit spot.

The kids covered the peanut butter tube in bird seed.  

I hung mine up on the chain that usually holds the hammock chair.  

The kids tried to reach it.

This one was trying to flag the birds down. 

They waited, loudly.  Oh well, maybe the birds will eventually show up.

I tucked these into sandwich bags for easy transport.  

Chippy, our squirrel, found ours and was unable to reach it. I moved it for him and it is now missing in action!

♥♥♥Happy Monday!♥♥♥