Easter Playgroup

Today's playgroup was lots of fun. All the kids had a blast playing in the playroom, drawing on the chalkboard, and bouncing on the trampoline.

Handley and Avery jumping on the trampoline.

The hostess had planned an Easter theme and had a super cute craft planned for the kids to do. Handley enjoyed painting and decorating her Easter Bunny!

Here she is at home, modeling her bunny ears and showing off her bunny!

We've had so much fun doing art projects together that we did another one this afternoon. It was a hard/soft Easter egg and a lesson on opposite textures. My friend Katie posted the link to a GREAT blog and resource for moms of toddlers and pre-schoolers. The blog is http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/ so check it out if you are looking for fun things to do with your child. Here's the direct link to the egg activity. http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2009/04/lesson-in-opposite-textures.html

Showing me the soft objects...

Gluing the hard buttons...she hates having glue on her hands.

Coloring the egg...

Showing off the final product!

And here is the completed Easter picture we were working on last week!

Cookie on a spoon

This is going to be several random thoughts all in one post.

First of all, I can't believe that in only a week I'll be holding Harper in my arms. I had my last doctor's appointment today and am going to be induced next Tuesday! I'm so excited, but it doesn't really feel real yet. I can't wait to have her here with us as part of our family. We've been talking to Handley a lot about what is going to happen next week. Here's a cute video of her telling me all about it. In the middle of the video you'll see her start yelling at Sydney. She says, "stop licking Sydney" because she licks a spot on her paw as a nervous energy type thing and Handley always hears me telling Sydney to stop licking.

Today during our playgroup (that ended up only being Handley and her friend Addyson) we did a trial Easter egg hunt and Handley had a blast! Our neighborhood has a big hunt on Saturday that we're really looking forward to and after seeing her totally "get" it today, I know she's going to love running after the eggs on Saturday.

And lastly, for the title of this post...I love cookie dough. :-) Who doesn't?!?!? I've been really good this pregnancy, haven't indulged in too many sweets (although I have a major sweet tooth) but for some reason the past few weeks I've really been wanting lots of sweet stuff. Yesterday when I was at the grocery store I walked past the cookie dough section and couldn't resist buying a whole tub of chocolate chip cookie dough. Tonight after dinner I introduced Handley to "cookie on a spoon." Needless to say, she LOVED it and kept asking for more. Don't think I'm a bad mom for giving this to her. It won't be a regular snack or anything, but every girl deserves a little treat every once and a while. :-)


You can hardly understand what she is saying because her mouth is so full of cookie dough!

Ducks, Picnic, and Ice Cream

Saturday was finally a nice warm day with no rain!!! We decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and head to a local playground/park. Handley loved seeing the ducks and was fascinated that she could get so close to them. Lots of people brought bread, crackers, pretzels, etc. to feed the ducks and it was obvious that the ducks were used to it. They weren't at all afraid of people and when we first went down to the water Handley was walking right up to them and wasn't afraid at all. She picked up a lot of pretzels off the ground and wanted to feed the ducks, but couldn't get the concept of throwing the pretzels. She kept holding them out and hoping the ducks would come take them from her hand...sort of like how Sydney does when Handley gives her a treat.



After playing on the playground and feeding the ducks we had a picnic. Handley loves playing picnic with her animals and baby dolls so she was excited to get to have a "real" picnic.

That night after dinner we ended our day with a trip to Bruster's for ice cream. Handley got a free kid's cone and she was so excited that she got her "own ice cream." She kept saying "own ice cream" all night long. I guess she's used to sharing. :-)

There was a person dressed up like a giant ice-cream cone and from afar, Handley was all about him. She kept waving and smiling. However, when he came up close to us she was clinging to me for dear life. I gave him a high-five and asked her too, but she started crying and was terrified. The giant ice-cream cone man backed away and I told her to say bye-bye. Through her tears and fear she was polite, waved and said bye-bye. :-) It was hilarious.

A Fun Friday

On Friday we had a busy, but fun day. The morning started with one of our playgroups. As usual, Handley had fun playing with her friends. It was also a mini-shower and they all gave us some sweet gifts for Harper. Handley enjoyed helping me open the gifts and even told me that the sun hat would be for Harper to wear at the beach!

After playgroup we went to meet Helen (a.k.a. Gigi) for lunch at Chick-fil-a. Handley was spending the night with Gigi and Papa and had been talking about it all week. She was excited to get to spend time with them and waved happily as I told her good-bye.

That afternoon Gigi planned a fun activity for Handley...dying Easter Eggs! We hadn't gotten a chance to do them at home yet, so this was an exciting time for Handley. Helen was very prepared and had the perfect set-up as you can see from the pictures below...an operating room drop-cloth and even something to protect Handley's clothes. Helen said Handley was really careful with the eggs and you can tell from the photos she was really concentrating.

She also gave her a mini lunchbox filled with Peeps!

The reason Handley spent the night with Gigi and Papa was because Robby and I were going to Trey and Stefanie's first wedding shower. It was a luau theme and lots of fun. They got a lot of great gifts and everyone had a good time.

Stefanie showing off the card Handley helped with!

Dancing at Storytime

Every week we go to story time at our local library. Handley loves Wednesday mornings at the library. She has fun checking out books, listening to the stories, singing and dancing! The children's librarian puts on classical music for the kids to dance to and for the past few weeks Handley and a few of her friends grab hands, form a circle, and dance together. I was able to catch it on video today. Here they are having fun dancing together!

First Art Project

For some time now I've been wanting to do some little arts and craft projects with Handley. I've got tons of cute ideas from teaching, but just hadn't taken the time to pull out the supplies and deal with the mess it might cause. However, I decided we'd work on an Easter project and started it yesterday. I told Handley she got to do some painting and she was beyond excited. She always sees me painting so she ran right to our craft room and climbed up into the chair. Last night when Robby got home she was so excited to show him what she'd done. Here are a few pictures of her in action. The final product will be an Easter card/picture for her grandparents and great-grand parents.

Cheering for herself after I told her she'd done such a beautiful job painting and glittering the Easter Eggs!

Check out this hair-do! She found a headband and put it on all by herself...looks great, doesn't it?!?! :-)

Stickers

Yesterday while I was putting away some laundry Handley got some of her stickers and started "sharing" them with her toys. One of them even ended up on Sydney and of course, Sydney was sweet enough to just lay there and leave it on her paw.