Snow Sculptures

Not many pictures of these amazing sculptures but the state fair grounds was home to the St Paul winter carvinal snow sculptures this year.  They also had a snow maze that the kids thought was pretty cool....but of course it was more like a skating rink through the maze.  We were not there very long, it was just me and the kids but we walked around....looked at them all and took a couple of pictures.  Isaac was pretty impressed by some.  His favorites were the dragon and castle ones.

piano teacher and student (this was my favorite)

Youc an't tell from the picture but this was a puzzle with puzzle pieces. Isaac Loved this one too, because he loves doing puzzles

An angel with wings

Chore Charts are working

This winter I have decided to teach Isaac about chores...simple tasks, that he is old enough to do.  I wanted to teach him to take care of his toys, house and himself.  To take pride in where he lives, and that it is not just Mommy's job.  Well...it is working.  We are now to the point where he asks to do his chores.  I might add there is also no reward other than moving his badge to the done side, and the pride that he did it!  And , I will say he is proud!  Baby of course follows his lead and is always a great help.
I made her a chore chart too, because I knew if I didn't make it with Isaac's it might not ever happen. It is a good thing I did because she enjoys moving her pieces just as much as Isaac does.

Isaac saw this pan in the sink and asked to wash it.

After he picked up his toys...I said why don't oyu try to vaccuum. He said," I don't have a badge that says that." He tried anyways.

Isaac needed to wipe up a spill on the window ledge.  First he decided to play a little splish, splash , splosh with his cars.  I am not against cleaning whiling playing.

all the cars had to go through the puddles first

Just awesome!  he wiped it up when he was done.

Imagination

All winter long Isaac has been HUGE into imagination play.  He makes up the strangest, cutiest, and busiest things to pretend to play.  I can not even try to remember all of them.  But today....well today is worth writing about.  No pictures of course because then, well....all play stops.  So I just ask you to use your imagination for the pictures.
Today there were two main games that kept re-surfacing.
The first:
Swimming lessons: Isaac pretended to come to swim class, where his teacher Mary(played by me) would give him instructions and help him learn to swim.  Before he could start class he had to register. Mary asked him for his first and last name and the spelling of his first name.  Yes, Isaac can spell his name!!!  Then Mary asks him for his street name, city and mother's phone number.  Yes, Isaac knows his mommy's cell phone number!!
Now, comes the fun part he pretends to swim, back float, put his face in the water, blow bubbles, jump in the swimming pool,(ball pit) put on his life jacket, play games and kick in the water.  When class is over he would walk over to a wall and say,"Daddy, I did a really great job today."

Let me put a few things into perspective.  Mary was the name of the last swim teacher he had.  The registration part I just wanted to see how much stuff he had remembered from when we were working on this and the ending was because this is what he did after every swim class I persume since Seth normally took him.

The Second:
Isaac called this second game bunny video game.  I was to act as if I had a remote controller to play a video game and I had to actually act like i was hitting buttons.  Addy and him were then the bunnies and they would run crazy, jump, fall down in the ball pit.  Then I had to tell them what to do.  For example...Time to dig for carrots, time to nap,time for school, time to go to bed.....They had actions and were running all over the basement to act all of these and many many more out.  Keep in mind if I didn't continue acting like I was controlling them the bunnies would yell at me.  Lastly, when the bunnies were tired they removed my batteries so I could not control them anymore.

At the end of this game both Addy and Isaac were red in the face, sweating and ready to collapse.  They did lap after lap in the basement, crawling over things, under things, through things, hopping like crazy because that is what bunnies do.  It was so cute and so funny to watch them.  I wish I had it all on tape but decided I better feed them supper so I could quick write it down before I forgot too many details.

Oh, and these two games went on FOREVER!  They played these soooooo much!!

Remember use your imaginations, picture their little faces and the excitment level of children on Christmas and you will have a good idea of how much fun these two had playing with their imaginations today!!

Painting with puffy paint

The other day the kids and I did an activity with homemade puffy paint.  Kinda a science experient mixed with art.  You first paint with the mixture of flour, food coloring and salt.  Then you microwave your masterpiece and see how it puffs up.  I must say I was a little disappointed by the results.  The pictures I saw of this looked much more puffy...That is the beauty of doing things like this with the ages I have to work with.  It doesn't take much to please and WOW them.  They were impressed and intrigued for a while by this.  They both made a few pictures and then both wanted their names made.  You will see in the pictures below the scene of how it went to get them to hold their name signs up at the same time.  What chaos for such a simple thought.  They could not do it!!!
However, they both enjoyed the activity.  I am glad we did it.

Isaac just LOVED it!

some of the paintings

Here is where the funny part starts.  Never thought it would be so hard to get a picture with each holding their name sign.

And give up!

Science fun!

Winter means a lot of time spent in the house...due to sickness, cold, etc. Yuck!  This only means that we have to start getting creative with children's activities.  So this weekend we did a couple of small but very entertaining science experiments with the kids.  Mostly, with Isaac and Addy just watched and tried to spill everything.  ha ha!!  The pictures speak for themselves...Isaac had a lot of fun and asked to do it again today.

The first experiment, put baking soda and glitter at the bottom of a vase, add vinegar and see what happens.

Isaac adding the blue glitter

we added vinegar

It fizzes, explodes all over

so....we did it again with new colors and new glitter

Then of course, Seth being Seth needed a bigger reaction and added lots of vinegar. Very excited.

Isaac kept saying,"this is AMAZING!  Let's do more..,Let's do more." over and over again!

 Second experiment (Sorry Louise) was trying to blow up a balloon using baking soda and vinegar

Isaac was surprised

more impressed by the fizzing going on in the bottle

Addy tried to pop it immediately.

This was an interesting one because it was the last one for the day.  The kids LOVE balloons and once they got ahold of them, all they wanted to do was blow them up and chase each other with them.  I was a little disappointed because I had more to do...but didn't want to diminish their exctiment and learning they already did....the teacher in me said,"okay."  I will put the rest of the experiments back in the file for another super cold...winter day!!!

Ice Castle Fun

Before it got so bitter cold this weekend we went to the ice castle on friday evening.  I don't think we have ever had such perfect timing for an event in our life with the kids.  We got there when it was still light out and we were able to see a lot of detail of how the made the castle, and then we also saw the lights when it turned dark.  Not to mention there was NO line when we just walked in....when we walked out there was a HUGE line!  Plus....it was relatively warm for a January evening in MN.  Overall...the kids had a blast.  There were puddles for jumping which was the highlight in Isaac's eyes due to melting and well baby just does whatever he does so they both had a great time.  As for the adults we were amazed by the details, but disappointed in the lighting.  Not very impressive at all.  We were all super super glad we saw it in the daylight!!

Here are the pics, we had Papa along on this adventure!!  Added to the fun!

on the way in

puddle

He held onto Addy a lot because it was so slippery...he said "baby be careful."

detail of the ice castle

so cool!!

me and the kids on one of the melting benches

family pic

papa and the kids

me and my dad!!!

the lights

see not very impressive up close!

Just Because...

Isaac has been asking me for quite some time if we could bake angry bird cupcakes.  I keep putting it off because I don't know how to do it.  Well today was the day...just because and I should have known that they didn't need to look like the angry birds to be called angry bird cupcakes.  After the mixing, baking and decorating (only using the colors of angry birds and not actually making them look like angry birds) we enjoyed our cupcakes in a picnic setting on Isaac's blue blanket.  It was a lovely morning with my two bakers and most precious part is Isaac said,"thank you mommy for baking these, they are really good, and I love angry birds."  Baby then proceeded to say her,"thank you" as well.

starting the decorating process

making one of the pigs

she grabbed a cupcake, added sprinkles and dug right in

green lips

The finished cupcakes

picnic time on the blue blanket

all smiles

they were happy and smiling so I just kept snapping

love how addy looks to him all the time to see what she should be doing.