let me see your tootsie roll...

The bait:

Lovely to see you again, bunny.  

Oh no, there goes bunny.  

Reach for it.  

Hello toes.  

Back to bunny.  

Sweet Victory.  

Almost.  

A little help from the mama.

lemonade without the lemons

At roughly 10:30 this morning, Abby announced it was time to make lemonade.

Why not?  

I had a few cut up limes and oranges lying around in the fridge that needed used up and that seemed to satisfy her need.   Although we were not using lemons, could we still make lemonade?

Let's find out.  

Pick a fruit.  Orange or lime.  

 Squeeeze.

Add sugar to taste.  The only rule was that Abby had to use the baby spoon to scoop the sugar.  I.E. You may not dump the entire bowl of sugar in at once.

 Pour back and forth between two cups.

 Squeeze some more.

Enjoying the fruit of her labor.  

Is it lemonade, Abby?

No.  I think we should add cinnamon.  Then it will be lemonade.

Let's give it a try.

I will spare you the pictures of adding cinnamon, hot chocolate mix, and sprinkles because well, it was gag worthy material.

Clean up time.

And that is how we make lemonade without the lemons.  

this moment

joining amanda from soulemama...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

the need to squeeze rainbow houses

so as mentioned yesterday, my girl and i both like to squeeeeze things.  sometimes its not really functional to squeeze an entire bottle of tempera paint (or toothpaste for that matter) in the name of creativity.  and the mess is usually bigger than i can handle or justify.

so the stars aligned this week and i found a new fave preschool blog who posted on "tall paintings" and abby discovered a great book, plus i've been wanted to do a squeeze glue activity from First Art with my old contact solution bottles that i have been saving for way too long... so we combined these ideas to create some art.  our version of the rainbow house in Oh Were They Ever Happy!

Per teacher tom's ingenuity, i hot glued some old containers to cardboard.  i must say i am very very happy the cardboard had little flaps to help catch the paint/glue.  

then i mixed a concoction of paint and glue (2 parts glue/ 1part paint) in the contact solution bottles and glue bottles.  my thought was that abby would get a big fine motor workout squeezing the bottles... and it would slow the process down a little bit.  well.  who wants to slow down paint/glue oozing out of containers?!?!  abby wanted the paint/glue to RUN down her house.  

i ended up cutting bigger openings in the glue bottles and taking some of the lids off.  notice the smile when the glue could pour out as opposed to the drizzle above?  

so we pretended we were making rainbow houses for our family to live in.  as abby poured each color on her house, she said quietly, "oh were they ever happy."  and then smiled to herself.

yes indeed!  

the need to squeeze

do you ever have the urge to squeeze a little bit more toothpaste than necessary?  how about lip gloss in a squeeze tube?  or glue?  or paint?  do you love watching tempera make giant pools and then soak through the paper to the wooden table?

well, it might just be a two year old/preschool thing... or a grown up with sensory needs thing.  yes, i am talking to myself.

it is deeply embedded in abby right now.  hence the evidence above and below.

tomorrow i think i may have a few ideas, inspired from here and my new best blogger friend teacher tom (although he is not yet aware of it), to support this need to squeeze in a slightly less wasteful manner... it may even tie into our favorite book of the week.  eek!

Oh, Were They Ever Happy!

Abby borrowed a book from the library of Gram.  Oh, Were They Ever Happy!   is a new favorite around our house.  It tells the tale of parents that leave for an afternoon outing before the babysitter arrives thinking she will be there any minute.  She never shows.  (SIDE NOTE: This is just the first time you will shutter if you have on your parental hat.  So it's best just to take that hat off and read it through the eyes of your little one.)  The children being oh so helpful decide to paint the house with every color of paint they can find in the basement.  And it is a lot of paint, resulting in oh so much fun.  So if you dare read this book, watch out -  you might find walls, coffee tables, exteriors in hues of rainbow delight.  Seriously though, who hasn't dreamt of a rainbow house?!?!

I knew it was just a matter of time before this little girl came up with plans for our "blah" exterior.  It happened today as I was carrying in Target purchases from the car.  After I finished lugging bags in, I had to pretend to be the parents coming home to a rainbow house and say, "Oh Were They Ever Happy!"  over. and over. and over.

some other culinary firsts...

Not only did I make pierogies last week, but birthday requests from a friend resulted in me attempting Thai Red Curry(recipe here - used a lot of review accommodations) and cannolis (recipe here - followed exactly).  Can you believe I've never had Curry before?  It is my new favorite meal.  So easy.  So delicious. So beautiful.

Without further ado, a few photos:

Photo courtesy of Rachel Stadelmeier - shouldn't that be a print in your kitchen or bakery?  Just lovely.    

And I cannot leave out my first real fish fry last Friday.  I will be back every Friday until Easter, thank you very much.

As you can see, Abby attacked it before I could even snap a picture.  

I've been wanting to learn how to make pierogies for a long time.  It all started in high school when I would  spend a lot of time at a friend's house.  Her mom and grandmother would get together in the tiny yet magical kitchen and lovingly craft each potato filled dumpling.  I remember devouring big plates of thosee dumplings.  I remember being curious about the process, but not enough to jump in and learn.   

Last weekend, I got my chance to learn from a daughter, mother and grandmother combo.  It was a special, sacred time for me.  Check out some beautiful photos of the afternoon here.

After Mama B sent me home with a ton of pierogies, Abby and I had a little pierogi party while Eleanor slept.  

I need to practice rolling the dough - that was tricky.  Gram and Nicole made it look super sleek and easy.  

I will never ever buy a bag of Mrs. T's again.  

 

this moment

joining amanda from soulemama...

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

the promise of spring

what to do with lots and lots of dyed pasta...

Because I am ridiculous, I had different pasta stations set up for Abby when she woke up from her nap.  I might have had more fun setting it up than she did playing with it.  She is always ready to steamroll when she wakes up so this was the perfect way to channel some of that energy.  

A little bit of sorting by color into any rainbow dish I could find

And then sorting by color on the rainbow silky 

Which turned into this:   HA!  

Scooping, filling, dumping... Scooping, filling, dumping... Scooping, filling, dumping is really important work for toddlers/preschoolers.  AND have you noticed how long it holds their attention???

Stringing necklaces onto pipe cleaners (way less frustrating for toddler hands than string)

HARD at work in her choker pasta necklace 

And last but not least, gluing those lovely noodles onto cardstock 

And today, we have an end product!  The process was pretty fun too.