Playing, Experiments, Cooking and More!

I have been feeling like we are watching way too much tv at our house lately-mostly due to being sick for a few months....so after finding lots of fun things to do on Pinterest and other fun websites, we decided to try some of them out.

Moon Sand-I saw this on Pre-school play and had to try it. You just mix flour and baby oil and it comes out super soft and really cool feeling. Ellie really liked to play in it. We made quite the mess in our place, but the next time it was warm enough to go outside and play with it. I enjoyed playing as much as she did:)-March 14, 2012

Fruit Loop Necklaces-March 23, 2012

Playing with Daddy-I just love both of there faces. They have so much fun together! March 25, 2012 I don't remember where I saw this, but I wanted to try it. I was actually pretty surprised at how excited Ellie got over this one. All you do it put a little vinegar in a bottle. Then fill a balloon up with baking soda and put it over the top. Turn the balloon so it empties out the soda and it will start to blow up the balloon-March 27, 2012

I don't remember where I got this idea either, but Ellie spent some time putting all the pipe cleaners in the colander. At first I got out our little colander that has slightly slanted holes. She couldn't quite make them go in and just wanted me to help(do it) for her. I switched out the colander and she did great.-March 27, 2012

Making pizza's-Ellie really enjoys helping me cook. I thought this would be a fun thing for her to actually be able to help with. She had fun decorating the pizzas....and only a couple of them were mashed all up by the end:)-March 27, 2012 Mini volcano's-This one came from Preschool Alphabet-I thought this was awesome and so easy. You probably have everything in your cupboard already. It's just baking soda and vinegar. I colored the vinegar and then Patrick and Ellie used little medicine droppers to make little volcano's. Perfect activity while I made dinner. March 30, 2012

I found some fun bubble accessories at the dollar store. Ellie loves to help with everything that we do and she was actually able to get bubbles to come out with some of the gadgets.

March 30, 2012

Although it is super messy and sometimes takes a little work, it has been fun to watch Ellie experience the new things. And it has helped to drag us away from Mickey Mouse Clubhouse:)

Ahhhh! I'm Going to be a Big Sister!

Yep, that's right, another little baby is joining our family. We're due Sept 1, 2012 and can't wait to meet this little one!

Bee Sting

We have been playing outside a lot lately and have been really loving the nice weather. I was outside BBQing dinner and Ellie was just playing. All of the sudden she was pointing at a bee and saying bug. Neither of us had shoes on, so I called for Patrick to come and take care of it. I told Ellie to go inside because I didn't want her seeing him squishing it or picking it up and think she could do the same(trying to avoid a future bee sting). All of the sudden we heard her screaming inside and Patrick ran in to see what was wrong. She just kept saying bee got me over and over and pointing to her arm. We found a little stinger and I of course....had a mini heart attack. Thinking of the worst that she may be allergic to it. Patrick got the stinger out and I called my mom and she had me put baking soda and water mixture on it to draw out the poison. Ellie did so good with it. She cried a little, but was mostly just really distraught about being stung by a bee. She was so still on the chair with her arm up while the mixture dried and we had to call each set of grandparents to tell them all about what happened. It was so sad, but luckily she wasn't allergic. Her arm did swell up a bit, like a mosquito bite that it scratched too much, but she was fine. For a couple weeks after she would always say that bees will get her, or bugs. I just kept saying they won't and that they are outside. The worst was when there was a fly in our house while we were eating and it landed on her highchair. She freaked out and wouldn't stop screaming. She doesn't seem quite as afraid anymore, but is still extremely cautious. She will sometimes still point to her arm and say that the bee got her. Here she is being so patient. March 25, 2012

Happy St Patrick's Day

We love St Patrick's Day around her and I feel like it snuck up a little bit this year. We have been pretty busy and it seems like I had so many things I wanted to do that didn't get around to. Next year I will have to be more on the ball. We did have a green breakfast...for dinner:) Ellie thought it was pretty interesting. We changed it up a bit and had breakfast burritos....so yummy!Ellie and I made a trip to Old Grist Mill to pick up there yummy sugar cookies earlier in the day and she was super excited to finally get to eat it.Testing it out...Huge hit!!!

Valentines Day

This year I decided it would be fun to have a little bag for Ellie each day in February leading up to Valentines. It was fun to be able to have her come down and get a little gift. Here are some of the days.Window stickers-these came off and on over and over throughout the month:)Coloring book and crayon roll(I finally got around to making this and love how it turned out)We made cookies one day. Ellie had a great time doing this. She enjoyed decorating them, and especially enjoyed eating them. She was showing us just how messy her hands were.

I found this little butterfly that you wind up and it goes forward and flaps its wings. Huge hit.We made Valentines cards for Grandparents and Daddy. Got this idea from a friend last year:) thanks Alycia! I did a few other things that I didn't get pictures of:( We also had some great packages come in the mail. Thanks Grandma's and Aunt Krista! Ellie LOVES getting things in the mail. She gets super excited. Once we were even leaving to go someone and there was a box on the doorstep. We had to come back in and make sure to open it up to see what was inside. She's a funny girl. Daddy also brought Ellie home a flower for Valentines day. She was so excited and loved smelling it. Patrick brought me the pretties flowers also. He is such a great husband. I made some yummy strawberries filled with cheesecake!

21 Months

On March 7, 2012 Ellie was 21 months! She is growing like crazy and I'm pretty sure she has gotten a bit taller now. Some of her pants are turning in to floods and it's crazy. Here are some things Ellie is doing now.

• She takes one nap from 1:30-4:00ish. It changes each day but is usually 2-3 hours. Going from 2 to 1 nap threw me off for awhile. I loved being able to have the time in the morning to shower and get ready, but I have to say that one nap is awesome. She sleeps longer than before and I find that we are able to go and do more during the morning. It did take Ellie a little while to get used to doing only one nap. She would get really tired around 11am, but when I tried to do one nap earlier, she wouldn't sleep as long and the day was a lot more whiny!
• Ellie has really started climbing more and more. The other day while I was getting her lunch breakfast ready, I turned around and she had climbed almost completely into her high chair. I am sure she could do more before, but she never really tried to. Now she climbs onto chairs and will pull them over to different places. And...she will eat much better if I let her climb into her high chair by herself:) February 18, 2012
• The weather has really warmed up and Ellie loves to be outside(What kid doesn't?) She just loves to explore and see what everything is. We have horses close to our house and she really likes to go over and see them. It is nice to be able to spend the time outside with the weather. She also loves to play with chalk. Patrick took a soccer ball outside with her the other day and showed her how to kick it. She will run up and kick it now and is pretty good. She thinks it is a lot more fun to run and fall over it and then she laughs and says she fell down. We have a sandbox and she ends up there almost every day. March 14, 2012
• Ellie really loves singing with us. We noticed a couple weeks ago that she will really sing a lot of the song if we pause and let her. Her favorites are I love to see the Temple, Jesus wants me for a Sunbeam and Popcorn Popping. If we stop on a certain word, she will usually say the next word.
• She loves action songs or sayings. Her favorite right now is Ring around the Rosie. It is funny because she will actually say the whole thing if you just start her out with ring around the rosie. She will even fall down at the end now and LOVES it!
• Stickers have always been a favorite, but recently they are so much fun. Grandma Brown bought Ellie a Tinkerbell sticker book and she will sit for a long time and put the stickers on the pages. She can actually get the stickers off by herself now too. She is also getting much better and not sticking them onto everything. Only sticker books and her clothes. She also always seems to like the bug stickers.
• We tried to teach somersaults awhile back and she just can't seem to get quite all the way over, but she will spend a few minutes sitting like this. March 14, 2012
• Ellie has done so good with coloring and always only doing it on paper(or in the tub with her tub crayons) last week she decided to color all over our couch!!! I was shocked....and kind of worried about getting it out, but it all came out and after a time out, she hasn't done it since....Lets see how long that lasts. It was funny because at the end of time out I asked her if we color on the couch and she said very enthusiastically, YES! So I said no, we only color on paper and then I asked where we color, and she said the couch:( Hopefully she was just saying what she had done, and not what we SHOULD do...
• She is talking like crazy. The other day when she woke up from her nap, I asked what she would like to eat for a snack. She sat and thought for a minute and then looked up at me and whispered....Eat Cookies:) We had bought girl scout cookies the day before and they were a huge hit.March 7, 2012
• She has really started saying prayers more and more. She still won't say the whole thing by herself, but she starts and ends it and then will repeat what we say. It is really cute.
• Lastly, she still loves dancing. Patrick taught her to shake her bum and it is seriously the cutest thing ever.

Love having her around and she really keeps us on our toes and laughing all the time. So glad she is part of our family!