Painting Fun

{Our little artists at work...}

{Love their techniques...}



{I'm seeing so much potential here.  :-) }

This week we spent our tot time having some painting fun.  I have to admit I've never been brave enough to try this at my house with the kids.  We've done a few hand prints and such but I've never turned them loose with a paint brush before.  My friend had this set up so well at her house though.  I left without a single drop of paint on me.  :-)

{The Setup}

My friend had set up a muffin tin of 6 paint colors to choose from for us.  The kids each got a q-tip to paint with (I never would have thought of that).  And then she taped some butcher paper to her fence for them to create on.  They really enjoyed it!  You can tell from the pictures they took it quite seriously.  :-)



{The Clean Up}

Another awesome idea - my friend put soap and water in the kids water table to let them clean up with before heading back inside.  The kids loved the bubbles and had almost as much fun cleaning up as they did painting.  They even starting cleaning up all of the paint supplies for us - an added bonus.  :-)

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Linking up to Tot Time and Wordless Wednesday. 

My Babies Turned 2!

I can't believe my babies turned two!!  It just doesn't seem like it has been that long ago that we were holding them in the hospital.  We were so amazed at how little they were - both under 4 pounds.  Time has flown since then.  And it has been an amazing two years!!

We celebrated their birthday with a party of course.  :-)  We had a Woody and Jessie (from Toy Story) party and the kids all dressed up as cowboys and cowgirls. 

We started them out outside to get a group cowboy/cowgirl picture by the hay bail.  They really seemed to enjoy themselves outside.   (I was able to take these pictures outside but it was too  hard to take pictures during most of the party - so I'm thankful for my family and friends who captured the rest of the party memories for me!!)  

Then we came inside and played pin the tail on Bullseye with silly string. I think the adults had as much fun as the kids with this.  :-)  We then ate "ham"burgers and "slinky" dogs, had alien cupcakes, and opened presents - so much fun!!  And I almost forgot we got to pretend we were "The Claw" and grab a gift from the Claw Box at the end.  The kids had a blast!!!  And I still can't believe they are already 2.

A Touch of Sun - An I Heart Faces Challenge

This week's I Heart Faces Challenge theme is "A Touch of Sun".  With the weather being so nice this past week we have been able to go outside a little more which has been wonderul!!  We have really enjoyed getting out in the evenings for some family time.  This night Daddy put her on top of the mailbox so I could snap a quick picture.   :-)

You can check out other entries on the I Heart Faces website as well.

Loving Our New Swings

Grandma and Grandpa bought us swings when we moved.  And the kids are loving them!!!  Thank you so much Grandma and Grandpa!!  :-)



I have so many hopes and dreams for them.  :-)




I hope they will...




LIVE




Every Moment...




LAUGH




Every Day...




LOVE




Beyond Words...

 
 

Can you tell they are having fun?  I think this may be a new favorite thing to do.  They definitely didn't want to stop when it was time to go inside.  I had to tell them we could go back tomorrow.  :-)

Our Day at the Beach



{S is for Sand}

My friend created a wonderful "tot time" for us this week.  We spent the day at the beach.  And the kids loved it!!  Of course we started with our "S is for Sand" photo shoot. 

{Shells at the Beach}

The first thing she created for us was a sensory table - she put sea shells throughout their sand table.  This was a big hit!  All of the kids seemed to enjoy digging for them and just playing with the sand in general. 




{Playing with Beach Balls}

Of course every day at the beach needs beach balls.  The kids didn't play with them that much though.  I think they were too busy with the sand and water tables.  (We did play with the beach balls big time when we got home though.)



{Beach Umbrellas}

She had a really cute craft set up for us.  She had umbrellas and sea shells set up for us to put in a hand made sand sculpture.  My two enjoyed the umbrellas and the sand but weren't as interested in the craft itself.  Her two made some awesome sand sculptures though.  It's amazing how much difference 4 months makes.  We will definitely be trying this again soon.  ;-)



{Beach Ice Cubes}

Then she brought out some ice cubes she made with sand and shells in them.  I thought this was such a neat idea - the kids all seemed most interested in the fact that they were "cold" though. 

{Sweet Kiss at the Beach}

And who could resist a cute kiss at the beach.  I thought this was so sweet!!!   Little Miss has been so loving to every one lately.  :-)

{Beach Day Out Takes}

 We had such a great time!  And I definitely got a little picture happy. ;-)  Thank you to our friends for such a great day!

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Linking up to Tot Time and Wordless Wednesday. 

 

Our version of "Back to School" - An I Heart Faces Challenge

This week's I Heart Faces Challenge theme is "Back to School".  The kids aren't really old enough to go to school yet but we have started our own version of "Tot Time" - basically where I'm trying to teach them something new while we play.   My friend and I who are doing this together start each session with a photo shoot so that we can make personalized alphabet flash cards for them.  This week's theme was "B is for Bear".  But it also makes the perfect "Apple for the Teacher" picture too.  :-)

You can check out other entries on the I Heart Faces website as well.

Fun Family Time

Because we've had such a beautiful week, we've been able to enjoy going outside more in our evenings.  It's been great!!  And since I had made the kids fire trucks during the week I decided I wanted to get a few more pictures with them before they were destroyed.  Here are some of our outtakes.  :-)



Little man wasn't sure he wanted to take a picture in the truck at first but he quickly warmed up to it and gave us a great smile!



But my sugars wanted nothing to do with the truck so Daddy had to get her smiling for us. 



They played chase.  She just knew he was going to get her.  :-)



Then he let her sit on the mailbox.



That was fun for only a few minutes and then she was ready to get down.



Then she, little man, and Daddy all started looking for flowers to pick.

That was the trick!!  I put the truck next to some flowers.



Success!!!  We all had such a great time!  :-)

 

F is for Fire Truck

{F is for Fire Truck}

We had such a great time at tot time with the kids this week.  This week's theme was safety.  We started with our "F is for Fire Truck" photo shoot. We took a nice walk to a fire hydrant down the road from us to take our pictures.  I had made each kid their own cardboard fire truck to play with (which I have to admit I had so much fun doing).  :-)   



{F is for Flowers?}

 

{Stop, Drop, and Roll}

 {Our walk}

The kids loved our walk.  We could tell they loved the freedom to run and play as we went.  They were having such a good time playing outside that they were only mildly interested in the fire trucks but it was well worth the trip.  (Honestly I didn't get any good pictures of my little girl with the fire trucks so we tried again later with Daddy.  Hehe...and the only way I could get her near the truck this time was by putting it beside some flowers for her to pick.)    :-)



{Stop, Drop and Roll Games}

 After our walk and photo shoot, we read our book and talked about how to "Stop, Drop and Roll".  The kids loved this!  And it was so cute to watch them all stop, drop, and roll on the floor.  

Once we were done with this, we played with our red "Stop" signs (like in the first puppy picture) and matching green "Go" signs.  We did this rhyme while holding up our "stop" and "go" signs:
        '
              "Where is Red Light?  Where is Red Light?   Here I am.  Here I am.
                When you see me, When you see me.  Stop, Stop, Stop.  Stop, Stop, Stop."

              "Where is Green Light?  Where is Green Light?  Here I am.  Here I am.
                When you see me, When you see me.  Go, Go, Go.  Go, Go, Go."

Then we played a "Stop and Go" game where we would have the kids "Go, go, go, go.....STOP".  The kids loved this and were so interactive with it all.  It was so much fun!

{How to safely cross the road.}

I had also made a road so that we could learn to stop and look both ways before crossing the street.  This was probably our least successful part of our day.  The kids immediately tore up the road and that was that.  :-)




{Our Fire Trucks}





We have continued playing our "Stop and Go" games, "Stop, Drop and Roll" and playing with our fire trucks ever since.  It was so exciting watching the kids learn something new.  I can't wait to play again next week!

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Linking up to Tot Time, Wordless Wednesday and You Capture's "Back to School" Challenge.