A Few Pictures from Earth Day...

Below are a few pics from our Earth Day activities. =)

The hula hoop served as the pond for

our interactive story on the importance of not polluting our Earth.

Our litterbugs.

More litterbugs...

Dirt cake! YUM!

Everyone loved the dirt cake. John was OK with it...he would have preferred vanilla. =)

A New Set of Wheels

Last Friday Oma and Pop Pop surprised John with a new set of wheels: his very own big boy bike. He was thrilled! He eagerly climbed right on! He was a bit hesitant at first, and it took a bit for him to catch on that he couldn't push back on the pedals because that would engage the breaks. It didn't take very long, though, and he was riding it up and down my parent's driveway without any help. My little guy is growing up so fast.

Climbing on for the 1st time!

Check me out!

Daddy showing Johnny how to hold the handlebars properly.

A last-minute pep talk from Daddy and Pop Pop.

And he's off!

Our Little Lady - 24 weeks U/S

Yesterday Will and I went for our follow-up ultrasound. The doctor wanted to get some more measurements and check the location of the placenta, which had been low. Below is the one partial profile shot we got of our little princess at 24.5 weeks. Her body is angled away. Everything looked perfect and she is weighing in at 1 pound 2 ounces.

Cookies On a Rainy Day

Last weekend John's grandma surprised us with Crayola cookie dough, which is sold by Joe Corbi's. (Click here to order.) It basically looks like play dough and comes in 4 different colors: red, yellow, green, and blue. Yesterday was a rainy day so we decided it would be a good day to have some fun making sugar cookies. The colors are very vibrant, so it makes for fun cookies. The kids had a great time using cookie cutters to create their cookies and Angie and I had some fun with icing during nap time. It was a great choice for a rainy day!

Fun with Pattern Blocks

When I taught elementary school, my 4th graders loved pattern blocks. So much so, in fact, that I decided to get some for the preschool program. We had used them previously to sort by color, shape, etc. but this time we gave everyone a pile to create whatever they wanted. We showed the children how pattern blocks should fit together with no spaces between them. The only instruction given was that the pattern blocks should be put side by side and not stacked upward. Everyone did a great job! They created everything from "butterflies" to "dragons." =) This activity is great for fine motor skills and reasoning skills.

Earth Day 2010

Tomorrow is Earth Day 2010. If you need some ideas, we will be celebrating Earth Day with the following fun activities:

1) Earth Day songs- we selected a few, but more can be found here.

Earth Day song - Sung to "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star"

Earth Day, Earth Day,
Comes once a year.
But we should make our message clear.
Love and clean our Earth each day.
Make that plan a plan to stay.
Earth Day, Earth Day,
Comes once a year,
Love and care for our Earth so dear.

Recycling Song - Sung to "Row Row Row Your Boat"

Save, save, save the cans, throw them in the bin,
We can help to save the earth if we all pitch in.

Save, save, save the paper....
Save, save, save the bottles....
Save, save, save the plastics....

2) Craft Idea- Litter Bugs (instructions can be found here)

Our children were instructed to bring in a bag of washed trash for this craft activity. We have hot glue guns and google eyes ready to go!

3) Interactive Story- Pollution and Recycling (found here)

This is a fun, interactive story in which the children learn about water pollution and the importance of recycling. They will practice sorting the trash they brought in by plastics, papers, glass, etc.

4) Cooking Activity- Dirt Cake!

What do you get when you combine chocolate pudding, whipped cream/whipped topping, crushed oreos, and gummi worms? Dirt cake, of course. Some recipes call for more ingredients such as cream cheese, but I like to keep it simple. It'll just be more of a pudding/mousse consistency. A recipe can be found here.

I'll post pics tomorrow! Happy Earth Day, everyone!

Back to blogging...

So, it's been a long time. A long, long time. I promise to do better this time. <3