Things to Do - Dance Parties & Vampire Weekend

F has been really into music lately. My friend recorded some kids' CDs for her (thanks Deb!) and as of late she likes to just sit in her bed and listen to Ziggy Marley's Family Time. It has been pretty fun to see her develop her own tastes and interests. In the car F now knows the lyrics to my music better than I do, unfortunately this can lead to tricky situations. For example, I had to stop playing this song (which I find hysterical, though I see how reasonable minds could disagree on this) after F called it funny and asked "why do people make fun of pregnant women?" Sort of hard to explain "smugness" to a preschooler or, even worse, the phrase "so you went ho'ing and now you're glowing cause you're pregnant." I never thought of myself as a music banner, but times have changed. So for now we're sticking with Vampire Weekend's Contra and Vampire Weekend (yes, I know liking them is hipster-cliche, but they're just SO GOOD), perfect for dance parties. Throw in a little Best of the Laurie Berkner Band and Rocknoceros' Pink!- we're all set.


(Note to self - wash daughter's face before photographing her)

Things to Make - Wax Paper Hearts

Last weekend, F, was home sick with a fever. After the tylenol kicked in, I thought we'd try making wax paper hearts (project idea from the Artful Parent) while T napped and P playdated at a friend's house. I couldn't quite gauge how much F liked this project, she seemed a little bored by it. But then a few days later, when she felt better and P returned, she asked, "can we please make window hearts again? P you're going to love this project, it's so BEAUTIFUL." And they both really seemed to love putting the hearts in the window and watching them glow (the ironed paper produces a lovely stained glass effect).

Here's the scoop:

You'll need: Crayon shavings (I used a cheap cheese grater, but you can also use a pencil sharpner), wax paper, an iron, and scissors.

1. I asked the girls to make patterns and designs with the crayon shavings on the wax paper. I tried to prolong this part as long as possible by saying things like "wow, that's beautiful! What were you think of when designing it?"

2. We then placed a new piece of wax paper on top of the decorated sheet.

3. Iron the wax paper on low. I placed a kitchen towel between the iron and the paper to make sure that the paper didn't melt onto the iron.

4. We then traced hearts onto the melted paper using our heart stencils. After cutting the hearts out, we taped them to the window. Originally I planned on making a heart mobile, similar to the Artful Parent and Martha Stewart, but my motivation was not high enough.

What about everyone else? Any creative Valentine's Day ideas?

Things to Make - Project Ideas for Sick/Snow/Rain Days

In case anyone needs some inspiration for the sick/snow/rain days of February, here are some ideas of projects to do with kids:

For Toddlers (and Big Kids too)

1. Goo - is it a liquid? is it a solid? Always a surefire hit in our house, plus really easy to make (you only need two ingredients).

2. Homemade playdough - Obvious but fun, nonetheless. This recipe is super easy and uses ingredients you already have around the house.

3. Water painting - If you don't want to deal with too much mess, you can't go wrong with water, paintbrushes, and construction paper.

4. Never underestimate the recycling bin - toilet paper rolls and old boxes (you can stack them on top of each other) can occupy toddlers for long periods of time.

For Kids 3 and Up - Craft Projects

1. Craft table ideas- you can't go wrong with just putting scissors, different types of paper, glue sticks, markers, and stencils on a table and seeing what happens. Kids like to create. For more of a specific, focused craft construction paper ice cream cones are pretty easy.

2. Teepees and pueblo villages - A great opportunity to have fun while learning about native americans. Make some paper dolls to go in the new homes.

3. Shrinky Dinks - Timeless.

4. Cook something together - we like making oatmeal blondies, sorghum cookies, and popsicles. What's your favorite kid-friendly recipe?

5. Make some marbleized paper with household ingredients - using either oil or shaving cream. Or use watercolors/food coloring with salt and glue to create lovely designs.

For everyone:

1. Dance parties

2. Homemade forts out of couch cushions

3. Try a board game or card game (War and Crazy 8s)- my kids love Candyland, Feed The Kitty, and Briarpatch Madeline In Paris.

4. And if TV is in the plans, make it a "special occasion" with popcorn and dimmed lighting.

Things to Do - Make a Grateful List (January 2011)

Every month I make a "grateful list", sort of a summary/"best of" for the month, which (for me) serves a a great way to remember key moments and general things that make me happy. For past lists, click here.

And on the topic of gratefulness, this passage from Rick Bass really resonated with me:
"We ski into and through the blue light. I hold my breath, hoping that the girls will remember the strange sight - though, perhaps better still, the conscious part of them might forget it, might take if for granted, assuming such wonder to be a daily occurrence in the landscape up here. That would be all right: would be more than all right. Nonchalance and wonder, right next to each other. On the way home, Mary Katherine stops and picks up a handful of that strange micro-flaked snow and tosses it up at the moon . . . . Yes, I think. Take it for granted, please." - The Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!

Reading & Arts
1. Downton Abbey (usually I'm not a fan of BBC productions, but this is SO GOOD)
2. Bob books - F loves these, every night she wants to try reading a new one (Bob Books, Set 1: Beginning Readers and Bob Books Set 2-Advancing Beginners).
3. The Armageddon Mama article in Brainchild
4. A Widow's Story - Joyce Carol Oates' New Yorker article about the death of her husband (not available online)
5. Second City's A Girls' Guide to Washington Politics at the Woolly Mammoth Theatre
6. Loretta Lynn (we can't stop listening to her since we watched Coal Miner's Daughter) esp. The Pill Song (so progressive, so funny, so awesome).
7. Peggy Orenstein's princess article
Food
8. Pomegranate seeds
9. Mulled wine at Twisted Vines
10. Aveda tea (I seriously think I'm addicted)
11. My homemade sweet potato "chips"
Stuff
12. My new Tom's shoes in Gilded Herringbone (I know it's cliche, but I just love them)
13. Rosewood fortifying oil in the diffuser
Moments
14. Starting off the year with a 2 hour yoga class and meditation at Journey Yoga
15. Our afternoon as a family at MD Science Center
16. The Wizards game at the Verizon center
17. P making "rides" for all her dolls (and flying them around the room)
18. F's "essay" on ways to stay healthy (one day she randomly decided to make a list of ways to stay healthy and she tried to write it all herself, despite the fact that she can't really spell yet, so it took a lot of work)
19. T with his blanket always over his head, walking into walls and laughing
20. My birthday mom happy hour (thanks to everyone who came)
21. A night at the Ritz and dinner at Michel for my birthday (thank you Jesse & Amie for watching the kids)
22. T wearing a viking hat at At Play Cafe
23. F's princess drawing (using stencils)
24. F and her "diary" (all her "secrets" go in there, despite the fact that she can't spell yet. She makes P cover her eyes whenever she walks past)
25. P finally writing her own name (for both the girls I've had such a struggle getting them to practice writing their names, so this is a big accomplishment for us)

I thought I'd also include some of the highlights from the girls' lists (every night before they go to bed, I ask them to look back on the day and think of what they're grateful for).

From F (5 years old) - backrubs, coloring pictures, making valentines, my friend Ella, nature, ham [note - we never eat ham, i have no idea where this came from], bike riding, reading books, rides in the sled, and my family.

From P (4 years old) - Dr. Barbie, my family, my ladybug nightlight [Cloud b Twilight Constellation Night Light, Lady Bug], and my strawberry shortcake doll.

Things to Read - Kids' Books II

Winter = lots of snow days and sick days = lots of book reading. It has been a few months since I wrote just a general post on the books we've been reading (click here to see the last post), so scroll down to see the books that we can't get enough of:

For Toddlers:

A friend bought this for T when he was a baby and he still loves it. It's a book, it's a puppet, it's a song . . . For T it's the best of everything.

For Kids Ages 2.5-6:

We love Knuffle Bunny so much that I figured we'd try more of Mo Willems' books. Though very different from Knuffle Bunny, this short, simple, gorgeously illustrated story of a dog/frog friendship is a favorite of all three kids. Plus, the ambiguous ending (what happens to the frog?) leaves openings for parents to talk about death with their kids (if you choose to do so).


The perfect going-to-bed book. Gorgeously illustrated, full of simple statements documenting different types of quiet - Hide-and-seek quiet, Lollipop quiet, Top of the roller coaster quiet, and, of course, Sound asleep quiet.


Another beautifully illustrated, simple, short book (I find that now that F is learning to read, she really likes these simple books as they help her practice sounding out words). The plot centers on the friendship of a little boy and a penguin. It's so beautiful that we bought the sequel Up and Down, which is also quite good.

For slightly older kids (ages 4-8):

First of all, the book and the movie have little in common. Rather, the book tells the story of an imaginary place (the town of Chewandswallow) where meals fall from the sky. Everyone is happy until unforseen weather catastrophes force the townspeople to abandon their land. I'm convinced the whole thing is really a metephor for global warming. But even if you're not an environmentalist, you'll love the well-told story and beautiful illustrations.


A close friend bought this book for the girls when they were little because it was her favorite story as a child. The plot centers on the exclusion of non-star-bellied sneetches by sneetches with "stars on thars." It's a great story, but the girls didn't seem to quite understand the moral until this year. Now we've been reading it a lot and F likes to talk about the how ridiculous people (or sneetches) can be.


I remember reading this book as a kindergartner and loving the "funny poems." So I bought it for the girls and they can't get enough of it, every night we keep hearing "read one more. PLEASE!"


F's been reading a lot of Bob books lately. They really are perfect for beginning readers, as they give them just the right amount of confidence to keep trying new books and reading more. We've moved onto this set - Bob Books Set 2-Advancing Beginners and hopefully we'll keep moving forward to more difficult sets in the series.