Ice picking

 One hot, boredom-induced day, I finally tried this idea from Pinterest.  We froze lots of little toys in cake pans overnight, and pulled them out for the kids to hack them out.  I thought it'd keep them busy for at least 30 mins; nope, I got maybe 15 mins out of this one.  Next time, I'm going to use a rubbermaid tub.  Let's see them break that apart quickly!  Oh well, they enjoyed it.

 We froze their first 2 initials in the ice as well for a little letter recognition.

Elephant cans

 In an effort to do something fun with my 3 little ones, plus help encourage them to work in the yard, we made these elephant watering cans from Family Fun Magazine.  They had lots of fun watering the plants outside, but alas, it only lasted 2 days before they were left, discarded and forgotten in the backyard.  Ay-yi-yi, what's a mom to do?

Cousin Day

 In May, we had some cousins come visit for a few hours while my Sister-in-law attended a graduation.  We did art projects to pass the time.  We painted with pine cones...

 Wrigley's eyes are like plump little blueberries in her face!  Love them!!

 We did thumb-print hyacinths...

and the Very hungry caterpillars with the bottom of balloons.

X is for Xylophone

 During the week Brighton studied the letter x at preschool, I made this simple water xylophone.  The kids thought it was fun to tap on the glasses with a knife and try to play songs.  {Like those cloudy glasses?  Yuck!  Stupid, crappy cheap dishwasher!}

Meet Mr and Mr and Mrs Heart

I had plans for so many cute crafts I've pinned on Pinterest, but this is the only one we got to before the holiday passed.  Why must these little ones grow up so fast!??

Art day

 Handprint turkeys

Puff paint art

 We had a fun art project day with homemade puff paint.  I stole the idea and recipe from mymixofsix, which I just LOVE.  It was fun for us all to watch how the paint puffed up in the microwave.  Waverly and I painted rainbows.  Brighton had a friend over that participated with us too.

Popcorn popping

Since I've started working in the afternoon, there is little time for Mommy Preschool, or activities with the little ones.  I've deeply missed our time together learning, so, occasionally I will try to squeeze in an activity or two I had planned earlier in the year.  This day we made Japanese Cherry blossom trees with watered-down brown paint, straws, and crumpled pink tissue paper.  We used the straws to blow the paint across the paper, making branches and limbs.  The twins needed a little bit of help with this step.  After it was dry, they glued on the crumpled up "blossoms".  I thought they'd like this activity more than they did.  Perhaps they don't miss our craft time as much as I do.

And the finished product!  Ta da! 

Quiet game

I saw this idea for a matching game on toddler boredom busters a year or more ago, and finally got around to making it.  It was virtually free, since I nabbed the paint samples from Lowes, and I had clothes pins lying around (ok, I did have to go buy some more from the dollar store because I packed mine, but I did have them, and it could have been free).  I took it to church and it kept Brighton busy for a time.  If your toddler isn't a ping pong ball, it would probably work for longer.  It was pretty, nonetheless.  It got me wanting to paint a room or two. 

H is for hats and hyacinth

Continuing on in working through the letters of Brighton's name, we studied the letter H this week.  We had cousins visiting, so we included them too.  We talked about hats and what each is used for.

Then we made some of our own hats.  Flower crowns for the girls... 

...and bowler hats for the boys.  Don't you just love the deer-in-the-headlights look on Brighton's face??!

The next day we made handprint hyacinth pictures. 

Another activity we did, which I didn't get photos of, was to "heart attack" the girls' rooms.  We made their beds and tidied their rooms and put cut out hearts all over their walls.  It was fun for them to find them at bedtime.  Don't we all need a small surprise from time to time?

The last thing we did was a Hawaiian dinner.  We were supposed to learn to hula as well, but it didn't happen.  I've never tried Hawaiian recipes before, but I found one I LOVE!  And it's SO easy.  If you like kahlua pork, you'll love it.  I'll share it with you so you can fall in love with it too.

Oven roasted kahlua pork

3 pound pork roast

2 c water

1 tsp liquid smoke

1/4 c kosher salt

Combine water and liquid smoke.  Place roast in crock pot (or roasting pan if you want to cook it in the oven) and pour water/smoke over it.  Sprinkle with salt and cover.  Cook for 6 hours on low (3 hours at 400 degrees in the oven).  Shred with a fork and serve over rice.  So good!!

G is for gold

In finishing up our G week, we did our pot of gold activity today for Mommy Preschool.  I took 2 paper plates and a black pipe cleaner and we made pots.  They are supposed to be painted, but that was too scary with 2 2 year olds, so we just colored them with black crayon.  Here's the instructions for it. 

Then I hid some "gold" in another room (the foil from gold chocolate coins, leftover from St. Patty's day), and Rolos.  The kids took their "pots" and looked for gold to fill it with.  We did the activity 3 times before they lost interest. 

G is for green grass and golf

We studied G this week, which made me happy, since "green day" fell this week.  We didn't make it through all the intended activities, as Brighton was happier outside helping his dad build a swing set than inside learning letters with Mom.  We did manage to do 2 activities though.  The first day we talked about grass, and made a grass guy, planting grass seed for his hair, when it comes up.  Waverly made a girl.  Keaton dumped them both out when he woke up from his nap before defacing Brighton's guy.

The next day I set up an outside golf course for him.  He putted 3 holes and wasn't a pro, so he got frusterated with it and gave up.  Too bad, cause I thought it was fun!  Savannah came home just in time and played with me instead.  Here's just a few of our "holes".

We used plastic baseballs and bats.

I had a fun activity planned for "garden" and "gold", but didn't get to them.  Maybe I'll squish them in next week before we move on to "h".

No nut stealing!

OK, please excuse my lack of class in this post, but listening to Brighton's comments while playing with dry beans made us laugh to tears.  It's PG-13, so pass by if you are sensitive to tackiness.

My friend Janessa inspired me to give the kids some dry beans and bowls and scoops.  They played with it for the better part of an hour.  That is a huge amount of time devoted to one activity in our house.  Thank you for the idea, Janessa!  I gave them kidney beans and garbanzo beans to play with.  Brighton decided to separate his by type, putting the garbanzos in a cup.  When he came back from going potty, Keaton had dumped them back into the bowl.  He freaked out yelling, "Keaton stole my nuts!"

Later, Waverly had to leave to potty, so Brighton assured her, "don't worry--nobody's going to take your nuts.  We'll all just play with our own nuts."  Nothing's worse than having someone steal your nuts!

She's hiding her nuts under the bowl.

You have to admit they look like little leprechaun-sized nuts.  Maybe an old leprechaun.

I is for igloo

Now that we're settled again, we've resumed our Mommy Preschool.  I decided to abandon the sequential ABC's and instead to work my way through Brighton's name.  This week we're on I.  This day we made marshmallow igloos.  Waverly helped.  And ate marshmallows. 

I can't show you the finished product, as we ran out of mini marshmallows.  I wonder how long it will last before it gets eaten?

(Answer: until Irelynd got home from school!)

R is for rocket and robot

We resumed our Mommy Preschool again since moving and getting settled.  We are working our way through Brighton's name.  Today we studied the letter R.  We made a cardboard rocket and recycled robot.

Brighton loved the rocket and blasted off with it until bedtime.  The robot, however, took a lot longer to construct, and he didn't hardly touch it.  Hmmm, guess I won't be doing that cute robot party I've filed away for future use...