stART ~ The Very Best Daddy of All

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

We had a great time celebrating Father’s Day this week.  I got The Very Best Daddy of All , by Marion Dane Bauer for Emily to give to Daddy for his second Father’s Day.  This is a sweet story that tells how different animal daddies are special to their children.

After reading this book we made Daddy a special Father’s Day Card since we think he is the Very Best Daddy of All!!  I saw the idea for this card on Thrifty Fun and knew it would be the perfect card for Emily to make this year.

To make the card I folded a piece of green construction paper in half and then cut out a heart shape.  From the scraps I cut out 2 shapes for the collar and one for the pocket.  I also cut a tie shape out of a piece of white paper.

Emily colored in the tie however she wanted.  While I was getting the stuff together Emily finished coloring the tie so I didn’t get a chance to get any pictures.

She added a special message under her tie for Daddy.  She did this all by herself before it was glued on.  I was so excited that the letters were the right direction when you flipped the tie up!  I had planned on gluing the whole tie down, but I actually like this idea much better :0)

Inside I wrote the Message to Daddy and Emily helped write “To Daddy and Love”

Somehow her name ended up on the top instead of under the Love, but Daddy still understood who it was from!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Juliette’s Piggy Tales!

Our Summer Fun List ~ 2011

 

I came across the Summer Bucket List on Little Wonders’ Days and knew I had to join in on the fun and since today is officially the first day of Summer I knew I better get started!

I love the idea of having a list of  all the different activities that we want to do or try this summer. 

• Make S'mores
• Play Hopscotch
• Visit the Beach
• Sidewalk Chalk Paint
• Homemade Bubbles
• Outdoor Oobleck
• Make Homemade Ice Cream
• Dutch Wonderland
• Sesame Place
• Visit a New Playground
• Go for a Walk
• Water Balloons
• Play Miniature Golf
• Go Blue Berry Picking
• The Aquarium
• Go to a Long Island Duck’s Baseball Game
• Play in the Bounce House
• Visit the Hands on House
• Make Homemade Lemonade
• Go to the Pool
• Catch Fireflies
• Make Chocolate Covered Frozen Bananas
• Spray Bottle Painting Outside
• Visit the Please Touch Museum
• Play our Board Game Outside
• Have a Picnic
• Build a Sand Castle
• Go for a Bike Ride
• East from our Garden
• Making Smoothies
• Ice Painting
• Splatter Painting

I am sure there will be lots more to add, but right now I am really excited for all of the summer fun to come!

Field Trip Fun ~ The Queens Zoo

 

We had so much fun spending the day at the Queens Zoo with Grandpa, Uncle Jonathan, Aunt Jayme and Cousin Brianna.  This is a smaller zoo and petting zoo in Flushing Meadows Park.  Best of all with our Zoo membership we can come anytime for free! 

The Queens Zoo is much smaller than the Bronx Zoo, but is really perfect for younger children.  The animals are easy to see and it is set up in a nice loop, so as you walk around you don’t really miss anything.

The first animals we got to see were two crocodiles!!  These were not here when we came in the fall so we were all really excited.

Grandpa brought lots of quarters so that we could get food to feed the ducks! Juliette walks at the perfect speed for Grandpa.

  The girls loved looking for and feeding the ducks .

We also saw turtles……and a crane!

Checking out the Puma Exhibit

  We really had a great view! Finding out how the Bald Eagle became endangered. Learning the steps we can take to help them…They loved climbing to the top of the wall to find out more.  

In the eagles nest

This time we also got to see the Sea Lion Feeding  ……and a great view of the Bald Eagle

At the petting zoo the girls loved feeding the animals. Emily feeding the sheep.

Juliette was scared to feed the goat at first, but then we found this little baby one.

Once she tried it she didn’t want to stop!!

We played a great guessing game too…      …we guessed all of the poo.

Grandpa took the girls for a ride on the Carousel

After we went to get Italian Ices at the best Italian Ice place ever.

The Lemon Ice King of Corona

The girls had a great day at the zoo and enjoyed their ices too!

stART ~ Fidgety Fish

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week.  Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the  stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects.  All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we read Fidgety Fish, by Ruth Galloway.  Emily LOVES this book and asks for it all of the time.  It is a cute story about a little fish, Tiddler that just can’t stop moving.  His mother tells him to go out into the sea and use up all of his energy, but to stay away from the big fish.  Tiddler swims all around and sees all the different things in the ocean, jellyfish, starfish, and a great big “cave” to explore.  He swims right in and finds himself trapped in the belly of the big fish.  Just wait and see how he gets out!!

To go along with this book Emily drew a ocean scene on a piece of water color paper with oil pastels and then painted over the whole picture with blue liquid watercolor paint.

Emily’s Ocean Picture

I didn’t get any pictures of her working on this project since I was so busy watching her and talking about her picture, I totally forgot to take a picture of her working.  I can’t believe how much her confidence in drawing has improved.  She drew everything in this picture all by herself.  It is one of my favorite pieces of her art yet!

Emily’s Moving Up Day!!

Emily had her Nursery School moving up day yesterday!  They sang songs and did some finger plays for us.  Showed us that they know their colors and then got their certificates.

After the moving up Program the kids had a little party.  Emily had one of everything!!  Her favorite part was making her own ice cream sundae!

  4 year old program her she comes!!!

Water Play

Emily and Juliette have been enjoying the beautiful warm weather and loved playing outside in their bathing suits with our Step2 Fun Flow Play Sink (thank you Dad for finding this for us) although the faucet does not work anymore the girls loved washing their dishes and filling up the cups, bowls and teapot.

  Emily liked transferring water from one pot to the next.

My parents gave Emily this  Battat Kitchen Playsetset for Christmas a few years ago and we never opened them since the kitchen set we have came with everything already.  I had the same set when I was younger and loved it.  Now we can use these for outside creating and imaginative play.  My favorite part of this set is the working hand mixer that is next to Emily’s hand (yellow and red)  it is fun to watch it mix up the water.  I love that we have a stash of toys that were never opened or played with that I can use as special surprises throughout the year!

Juliette loved playing with the cups in the sink.  She would fill up the cups and then pour them out. 

I am looking forward to all of the creative outdoor play and fun that the girls will have with these toys during the summer!

Muffin Tin Monday ~ Birthday Party Leftovers!!

This week for Muffin Tin Monday Emily and Juliette had leftover’s from their cousin Brianna’s 1st Birthday Party.

For lunch they had:

Daddy’s Homemade Coleslaw, Fruit Salad, Turkey and Cheese Rollups (I enjoyed  leftover hero) and a Chocolate Chip Cookie.

Emily with her Muffin Tin Lunch

Juliette with her Muffin Tin Lunch

They both loved the fruit and this time Juliette actually saved her cookie for last!!

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

  I have been wanting to try making homemade sidewalk chalk paint for a long time.  I finally got over the fear of it not coming off of the cement and made a batch.  Now all I can say is “why did it take me so long to try this?”  The girls (and myself) absolutely loved painting with this paint.  The colors were so vibrant and they covered the concrete so much easier than regular chalk.

Emily and Juliette each got their own tray of sidewalk chalk paint

Juliette mixed hers together pretty quickly.  I loved that she used two brushes at a time to paint with!

Emily was determined to paint the whole patio using all of once color at a time!

We will definitely be trying this again and just so you know it did leave behind a little bit of color after I hosed the patio down, but after a few days you couldn’t even see it anymore. 

Here is the recipe we used:

Sidewalk Chalk Paint

Mix together equal parts Corn Starch and water then add food coloring to get to the desired shade of each color.

When I made it for each color I used 2 Tbsp of cornstarch and 2 Tbsp water with about 4 drops of food coloring.  The next time we do this I will need to make more, they could have painted for much longer if we didn’t run out of he paint.  I will probably double is for each color.