Some outdoor, some indoor

Hello, my name is Theresa, and I am guest-writing a post for Jill. I know that I might not be blowing anyone out of the water with what I'm doing with my 3-year-old daughter, Gabrielle. But, I thought I would show you some of the activities that have kept us busy this summer.

Before I started showing you cute pictures of my daughter, I thought I would show you my adorable son, Benjamin (who just turned 4 months old). Sorry for the Jayhawk bib, Jill...this picture was just too cute to leave out of my post.

Some outdoor activities:

Backyard swimming pool

Splash park with friends

Watering the lawn turns into playtime.

Bubbles...even with our princess clothes on, wings, and a stocking hat. And yes, it was HOT outside!

Some indoor activities:

Lots of fun with Playdoh.

Lowe's has free "make and take" activities twice a month on Saturday mornings. So far, we've made a monster truck and a spaceship. Gabrielle even got an apron this last time so I can attach her badges that she gets each time she completes a project.

Bounce Zone

Making a Red Velvet Cake

Gabrielle LOVES to help out in the kitchen!

Our first attempt at finger painting.

Second page of finger painting...not bad!

Gabrielle wrote my name (mostly) by herself one morning. I helped her with some of the "curvy" parts of the letters, but she did all the straight parts of the letters by herself!!!

And then she wanted to write her name (and a few others while we were at it too). I'm one proud teacher for sure!

Breakin' the Law

Yes, that's right. We're riding our tricycles inside. You got a problem with that?

Balloon Fun

Picked up a 4-pack of these big punching balloons for Alex the wonderbabysitter to use to entertain the troops. Although Alex reported B gave her what-for about blowing them up so big, they enjoyed themselves.

Since then, the balloons have been "big pollens" for the bee family and various other things. This afternoon, we just had a little heading practice for my future soccer stars.

Uncle Kelly would be proud.

Turns out, heading balloons is not easy to catch pics of. Should have used the other camera.

All was lovely until...

Good thing it was a 4-pack.

More stuff we're loving

A few recommendations for things we've been loving...

Rainbow In My Room

This was the bribe I paid for the girls to try hard and finish swimming lessons. It just projects a rainbow onto the ceiling or wall, but for some reason (probably because we love Rainbows and everything girly, sparkle-y, or unicorn-y (and yes, that's a word in my world) around here.

It has been appearing in many a play scenario. Pretty cute.

Leapfrog's Math Circus DVD

Surprisingly, they enjoyed this more than I thought they would. We also like the Letter Factory DVD by Leapfrog.

Elephant and Piggie Books by Mo Willems

This is such a cute series. Simple and funny. We enjoy them so much that I purchased the Elephant (who also goes by Gerald) and Piggie stuffed animals and much acting out of the stories has commenced.

Painting

I know painting seems kind of messy. It definitely has to be supervised. Keep a box of wipes handy. But there's just nothing like it. It's very therapeutic.

You know what's also therapeutic? Barrettes.

I've not yet run across a kid who doesn't love painting.

Here is E's road:

I don't know what happened up there in the right hand corner. But it doesn't look good! ;-)

I recommend this paint. You can find it at Wal-Mart and Target, for cheaper than that link.

We put it on a sturdy paper plate that has a lip.

S likes to do her own thing, so first she colored, and then when everyone else was about done, she dove into the painting.

I rarely use smocks, but you could. I find that if I'm sitting right there with a baby wipe in my hand, the mess never gets too out of control. I just don't know that I will EVER stop buying baby wipes. Even though we are technically past that stage now.

Girly Playdate!

We had new friends over -- and by new, I mean we had never met them before. That's the Air Force life, folks! -- for a fun playdate yesterday.

We had lunch and played with ponies for a while (a given) before heading out to the backyard for some wading pool time. Afterwards we did a little art work, which I will feature tomorrow. And then we decided to dig out the play clothes and ham it up!

Fashion show (set to the tune of Candy Cane Jane by the Laurie Berkner Band) :

After one costume change:

Then we moved on to play dance class:

We stood in a circle and pointed our toes (tap, tap, tap)

We practiced our pirouettes, our spins, our bows and our curtsies.

We did them together and then took turns showing off our skills.

Then we put the music back on, and put the CD on random, so whatever came up, that's what we danced to. Taking turns:

And then some duets:

I wish I had some pictures of the dance class before the performances, but I was busy supervising.

They just loved this. We had a grand ole time.

Pet Store

Visiting the local pet store is one of our top 5 things to do now that we live in civilization again. It's air conditioned, there are all kinds of pets and it's free, people. Unless you MUST get a new chew toy for your spoiled dog while you're in there. We seriously go to the pet store every 2 weeks or so.

What's not to like? Super cute animals everywhere.

No mice were running on the wheels today, but we have been known to watch (and squeal) at mice on spinning wheels for a good 15 minutes at a time.
This gerbil was SO cute.

I miss having a cat. I really do. It kills me to visit the kitties here, but they are regularly rotated and supervised by very sweet ladies from a nearby no-kill shelter. This is Custard. I think he wants to live at my house.

Distraction! I need one...Look! It's Nemo. We don't watch that movie because it's full of scary chasing scenes, but everyone knows who Nemo is.

I don't know if all Petco pet stores have such a great pet selection, but this one certainly does...

As previously mentioned, sometimes we browse for Boomer.

A $20 Sydney sized green spider? Um... no.

Likewise, no thank you on 5 ft. of stuffing spread out over my living room carpet.

The only sad thing today was that they didn't have any chinchillas in stock. Those things are super cool.

After that, we tried out the fountains at the nearby shopping area. This was really fun. They have a tent set up for shade, and a lady with a cart of towels... brilliant! It is conveniently located across the street from Gymboree, Build a Bear, some other children's boutique and a huge Barnes and Noble with toys in the windows. Um hmmm.

Oh, and we had ice cream cones from Chick Fil A. It was a nice day. The end.