February Fun

I wasn't terribly good about taking photos in February either. The following are all taking from my phone, so I apologize that they are not great quality, but they do allow for everyone to see some of the fun the kids had this month!

Nora and Beth went through a few days where they made at least 10 paintings a day. It was hard to keep up - cutting the paper off the easel, making sure paint cups were full and finding places for all their artwork to dry!

For some reason, this photo makes me happy. Beth often reminds me of Little Sal from Blueberries for Sal (and One Morning in Maine, but we don't read that one very often). Seeing her in (unbuttoned) overalls made me start dreaming of summer and fruit picking!

 

 I took the girls to a local toy shop to pick out a birthday gift for a friend. Of course, once they picked out the gift, they found the books and sat down to read.

 Nora has an hour long tumbling class at the local YMCA on Friday late afternoons. Beth and I wait for her in the lobby and play. I started bringing some of our magnatiles to keep Beth entertained and they have worked out really well.

 On occasion, Beth lets me use a few magnatiles. One day, I actually got 8 magnatiles, so I built this tower. Beth delighted in knocking it over almost as soon as I finished building it.

 Nora and I were playing chase in the front yard. She peeked back at me through the trees while I was taking a quick rest.

 Both girls have enjoyed pretending to be The Big Bad Wolf lately. They want a tower built so that they can huff and puff and blow the tower down!

Beth, "reading" on the way to a birthday party!

 There was a clown at our friends birthday party and she painted Nora's face so she would look like a puppy. It's the first time Nora ever wanted her face painted and it looked so cute!

 Beth did not want her face painted, but after playing for awhile she finally decided that maybe the clown wasn't so scary. She got some balloon butterfly wings, which she adored.

The girls got silly sunglasses in their loot bags at the party. Beth loves to wear them (and ham it up for the camera).

 I'm sure I've mentioned that my girls both love books before, but here they are again, reading. This time, I'm told they are on the train riding to work.

 Nora is really starting to get interested in experimenting ( it seems to come with the age - a lot of our friends who are a year older have really become wonderful scientists!). Here Nora is using a vase to make rainbow patterns on the floor (wall, and ceiling)!

 My little goofball! Beth loves taking bubble baths and this photo just makes me smile :-).

Playing together!

Over the last week or so, the kids have really started playing well together again. It was a bit of a tough stretch between Thanksgiving and early February. The constant fighting over every little thing, the tears, the screaming, the whining. It was making for really long days! Then, we had a rather extended cold (or 2). First was two weeks of exhaustion combined with a 4 day fever. We followed that with another cold that included a few days of fever and a few weeks of wet coughing. It has been a long month! We seem to be mostly recovered from everything. Beth still has a bit of a runny nose, but the majority of the coughing has stopped.

One day last week when I was up in the night with Beth, I was totally exhausted. I got the kids breakfast and then laid down on the couch for a few minutes. The kids finished their breakfast and then started playing. They played, without one fight, for the entire morning! I was able to wake up, make some tea, pick up the breakfast dishes, and start the laundry without having to break up a fight or answer fifty questions!

Here's a photo of the girls that I just love. Both girls love books, and Nora has really enjoyed 'reading' to Beth lately. But really, what I love most about this photo, is the little bit of their personality you can see. Nora is still wearing her pajama shirt underneath her playdress and Beth has her dress on backwards.

 One of the games the kids adore playing is hide and seek. Of course, neither of them are very good about keeping quiet in their hiding location (although Nora is getting a lot better). During one round, I entered the living room to Beth "hiding" behind the chair.

Butterfly Place visit Feb. 2012

We went with some friends to the Butterfly Place in Westford, MA this week. It opens on Valentines Day for the season, so all the plants were still small and there weren't too many butterflies. There were enough butterflies to have a nice trip though! One of the butterflies landed on Nora almost as soon as we entered the room and it really freaked her out, but she was totally fascinated at the same time.

More baking soda and vinegar fun!

Nora loves baking soda and vinegar experiments. She was very excited when I asked her if she wanted to blow up a balloon using the "fizz" from the reaction. We used a funnel to put some baking soda inside a balloon and then put some vinegar in a bottle. I stretched the balloon over the top of the bottle.

Here's Nora right before we started the reaction.

 Lifting up the balloon to dump the baking soda into the vinegar.

 Watching the balloon inflate with carbon dioxide.

 At one point, the balloon inflated enough to fall over to the side. It surprised Nora a bit, but she really enjoyed this experiment.

We have repeated this experiment a number of times. Both girls love watching the balloon inflate! We ended up inflating one balloon with the carbon dioxide and another with regular air. It was really interesting to compare them. I wish I had taken photos. We noticed that the "gas" filled balloon fell to the ground much quicker than the 'breath' filled balloon, which seemed to float down a little more. Then, the next morning when Nora picked up the 'gas' filled balloon, she noticed right away that it had shrunk significantly in size! The 'breath' filled one didn't seem to change overnight.

Valentine's Day

February 14 and we were outside in a mid-weight fleece jacket! After I dropped Nora off at school with her bag full of homemade Valentines cards, Beth and I went to her tumbling class. The second we got home, Beth asked if she could ride her bike. So, instead of going inside for a snack, I opened the garage door and we played outside until it was time to pick up Nora.

 Nora made Valentine's for us at school. She was so proud to give them to us!

 Here are the Valentine's Nora made for school. I cut out butterflies and Nora decorated them. They came out really cute. Some were simple (like the one I have a photo of) and some were elaborate with lots of rhinestones and glitter glue. Nora's preschool teachers told me how excited Nora was to hand out her cards to her classmates. They were also happy to see that Nora is given artistic freedom at home. Unfortunately, when Nora got home from school, she was upset because all the other girls in her class gave out princess valentines (Disney princess/fairy, with princess lollipops). We talked for a bit about how special her cards were because they were so different. By the end of the day, she was back to being proud of her cards.

 We actually made these cookies the day after Valentine's Day. Nora requested roll our chocolate cookies, so that's what we made. i let the kids decorate them with some icing and sprinkle sugar. we had some pretty silly looking cookies.

Project with daddy

Nora and Beth really enjoy doing projects with daddy. We picked up a few simple wooden kids from Lowe's for them to put together. They picked a pirate ship and a wooden planter box with a clear front window (so you can see the roots). The kids were very excited to build something and have daddy help them! I have a feeling there will be many more projects with daddy in the future!