Daddy's Taking Us to the Zoo!

Ok... today, actually. Daddy took us to the zoo today.

We spent last week doing afterschooling 'zoo' activities in preparation for the long-awaited and much-anticipated yearly trip to the zoo, new and improved with the second cousins from B.C. this year! So fun!!

Liony fruit snacks :)
(Papaya, peach, banana & raisins)

 I printed and laminated various photos of animal habitats so the girls could sort their animal crackers accordingly.
It was pretty fun, so I ended up making more and Laura used them with her fruit snacks and then again with stickers.

We also played with a set of animal flash cards we have had for a while, but used them to learn about the different animal groupings: mammals, birds, reptiles/ amphibians, insects, and fish. Laura was really into it, and I feel like finally all of the man-hours she's logged watching Diego may have paid off. ;)

We also tried a tape-resist art project to make zebra stripes, which turned out okay, but next time I wouldn't use masking tape.

My sister wanted to take Laura to the African Lion Safari this summer, but Josh wasn't comfortable with her going without one of us, so on Saturday we had a Laura-Mommy day (with her Aunties) and Rachel had a Dadurday (her first one!). Laura was not overly taken with the driving and animal-watching part of the Safari... she much preferred to just bounce around the car sans seatbelt. She did enjoy the other parts of the park - the splash pad, playground, train, and the elephant ride, though!


    And today, our trip to the zoo!

The new panda exhibit

Rachel spots the giraffe!

All the cousins checking out the white lions
(which I now realize you can't even see in the pic,
but I was just trying to take it as quickly as possible before anyone fell, etc)

And managed to pile them all on top the hippo statue!

Rachel: 13 - 15 Months

By the time Rachel turned 13 months:

• She got her 3rd tooth - though not middle front  - the one beside her right eye tooth, making her look like a little half vampire
• She had used about 20-25 different words (not all of them on a regular basis, though)
• She could string two and three word sentences together "No, don't touch!"
• She cut back to nursing about 3 times a day: morning, naptime, and before bed.
• She started feeding herself her own bedtime bottle after nursing 
• She started sleeping through the night more consistently (Hurrah!!!)
• She had started taking more steps on her own but not walking well
• She started pretending (mainly to eat play food)

By 14 months:

• a few more teeth (ouch my nipples)
• still nursing a few times a day, but usually only gives it a good effort the feeding before her morning nap
• walking well
• CLIMBING EVERYTHING: couch, bed, playroom chairs!
• I would say, "one..." and she would say "two... three!" when going down the slide, etc

By 15 months:

• sings "EEEE IIIII EEEEE" randomly, but also to 'Old MacDonald'
• 6 teeth total, finally all four top front.
• walks forward down stairs by herself (hanging on to the railing)
• still nursing 2-3 times a day - even comfort-fed a couple times (so exciting because she hasn't done that, like, ever.)
• still has two naps a day occasionally (10 - 11:30 and 3 - 4:30 give or take) but working her way down to one. Finally.
• Has probably around 35ish words in vocabulary (seems like she hasn't made a lot of advancements in her vocab since the first big burst, but I think it's because she was been working on gross motor skills instead)

Vacation! And Dinosaurs!

We have been at the in-laws for the better part of this week, and it has been glorious. Although vacations when you have small children are more work than your regular life, we had lots of helpers, and even got to sleep in once or twice! All around a good time; I love my in-laws.

We planned a trip to Prehistoric World to see all the life-sized dinos while we were visiting, so our afterschooling theme this week was 'dinosaurs'. We did a number of dinosaur-themed things to prep Laura at the beginning of the week before we left.

Kenzie brought over some puzzles and books, and we did crayon rubs with some of Josh's from when he was a kid.

I made the girls 'archaeologist' pudding (chocolate pudding made from cocoa powder, banana, & avocado, with dark chocolate 'rocks' and buried dinosaur gummies). They loved it. :)

I made some dino sensory boxes for them to play with... note to self: do not include kidney beans in sensory boxes with water... not only did we end up picking thousands of kidney beans out of the lawn, they smell awful when wet.

I also made the girls some vegan dino nest macaroons with grape 'eggs'.

 

Dino quiet book I started... but didn't finish... :/

And, our trip to Prehistoric World. Laura was really excited about all of it... until we got into the forested part and were eaten alive by mosquitoes. :/ Subsequently, we were a little sad we had to rush through the second half of the park, but it was still kinda neat. We would plan to go again when the mosquitoes had died down a bit. The owner said late August was a better time to come.

We spent lots of time this week just hanging with the family, which I love to do. We really don't get to see the siblings often enough, so I quite enjoy the time we do get together, playing games, swimming, boating, etc. We also attended a Jack & Jill bridal shower with the extended family for Josh's cousin who is getting married at the end of the summer. We spent some time with them at their cottage on the island, today, as well. Good times. Love all my in-laws. Did I mention that already? ;)

Josh and I managed to sneak away for dinner one night just ourselves, which was nice, and Laura got some Daddy (and uncle) time on her first official fishing trip while I stayed back with Rachel. :) All in all an awesome mini-vacation. Probably even worth the 13-hour round trip in the car. ;) Ended way too soon. <3

Fairy Tales

This  past week our afterschooling theme was 'Storybooks & Fairy Tales':

We have been working on a fairy garden in one end of our shade garden over the last couple weeks:

The fairies get the sunny end :)

Fairy house tucked under the lilies in a 'Lily Grove'

original fairy house

reno'ed fairy house, with fairy from Grandma
(I decided the fairies would like something with a little more sparkle.
And by fairies, I mean me.) ;)

Fairy chairs.
I'd like to get around to making a fairy door, too, for one of the trees,
and put the 'original' fairy house somewhere else.

Fairies made at our crafting playdate     

 
     So to tie in the fairy garden, we read some classic stories about fairies and elves like 'Thumbelina' and 'The Elves and the Shoemaker', and we had some new friends come over to make some fairies for our garden. :) We also tried this fairies in a jar activity, but it was kind of a bust, especially since I kept Laura up until it was dark out to try it and paid for that dearly over the next few days.

L playing with the new fairies. 

     We took a trip this week to Castle Village and the Enchanted Kingdom with my Mom, who had been wanting to take the girls there. I emailed them ahead of time to see what fairy tales/stories they had incorporated into the attractions so we could familiarize ourselves with them. :) We did a lot of reading this week! We've been hitting up the toddler story time at the library on Wednesday mornings, so it's a perfect time to take out any books we need for our weekly themes.

     One of the stories we read was 'The Gingerbread Man', which Laura really latched onto, so we also made and decorated some gingerbread men (hoping they would jump up and run away on us when we opened the oven.) :) It was really fun to see how she decorated them - the one on the far right has "a really long red beard". <3

I made Laura a gingerbread puppet so we could practice our storytelling with the puppet theatre

     This week I made a new mixed CD of classic nursery rhyme songs for the girls to listen to in the car as a quick way to familiarize them. Josh and I also made a project out of recording ten classic stories and scanning the books to put them together and making a 'storybook' DVD for the girls. We played it for them on the way to Storybook Park today.

 

They had a fun splash pad 

and some fun waterslides :)

Rachel reenacting Jack & Jill ;)

Happy Canada Day!

Our afterschooling adventures this past week revolved around Canada/ Canada Day:

Kenzie brought over a Canada puzzle and some Canada-themed books to share this week

Red and white snacks included fresh strawberries and homemade whipped cream

maple leaf cut out watermelon 

(how cute is this kid?!)

Canada Flag marshmallow pops

Rache got in on the marshmallow action

Loved it :)

We made flag popsicles
with the leftover strawberries and cream

Flag face! :) I guess they were good
because they ate the whole tray! We had to make more!

Canada Flag manicure for Kenz

Canada Flag pedicure for Laura
( I know, my painting tiny, intricate flag detail skills are overwhelming) ;)

We made handprint/ finger paint flags. Laura is efficiently painting both sides at once. ;)

 

We sang 'O Canada' a lot this week at the request of Laura. Her version goes: "O Canada, We stand on Canada." <3

We also attempted this fireworks straw art, but Laura was not in the mood for arts & crafts at the time, so it didn't go very well.

Canada Day 'fireworks cookies'

Canada Day chips & dip appetizer :)

 We had a busy weekend with the in-laws visiting. They were super helpful with building our new little deck and finishing up the girls' playset, and allowed us to get some one-on-one time with each of the girls (and with each other!). Saturday Rachel got to go to her little friend's first birthday party while Laura went

Rache tries corn on the cob for the first time :)

to a concert with Daddy and Grandma, and Sunday Josh and I got to take Laura to see Monsters University (so super cute, by the way!) while Rachel was napping. Laura and I made Canada Day 'firework cookies' (gluten-free!) on Sunday for dessert after our burger and corn BBQ dinner.

She loved it!

     The weather could have been a little warmer this weekend, but we still got out to pick strawberries this morning, as per our Canada Day tradition. :)
I think we will make jam this year. I also have a few other 'berry' activities planned for our afterschooling this week. (Natural tye dye, anyone?) :)
Laura was a rock star strawberry picker this year, I think only about a handful from our whole 2-quart basket were unusable. We had lots of fun with her. Rachel loved strawberry picking too - she was shovelling them in her mouth like she hadn't eaten in months. She got a little extra fibre, too, as she was not discriminating against the stems. ;)

We will be hitting up the fireworks this evening with a very tired couple of littles. Laura has been looking forward to them since May 2-4 fireworks.

Happy Canada Day, everyone!