Sunny & Rainy Days

I just wanted to blog about some of our fun small moments and happenings from the past couple of weeks.

We have been helping plant some of the garden and one evening we helped plant some tomatoes and peppers. The girls loved digging in the dirt and looking for worms while Nate and I did the planting.

Nate and Paige went on a little drive with Pops in his car. They said it was a bumpy and beautiful ride.

 We have walked over to the lake quite often in the past few weeks. There are 2 sets of baby ducks that we love to find and see how they have grown.

 Last Sunday evening we went and walked at Clark Lake and found 2 geocaches. 

 Then Monday we took our annual trip to visit Tahoma National Cemetery for Memorial Day. When we went this time we realized that in years past we usually go on Sunday evening so this time it was pretty busy. It also was raining but still an enjoyable little trip. Baylor fell asleep in the car in the few minutes it took us to get there. Both girls loved having their own umbrellas to carry around. 

 We love that we know someone at the cemetery to visit and drop some pennies off on his gravestone.

 After Monday's rainy day, then we had some gorgeous sunny days. Tuesday evening we went over to Anna and Scott's house for the evening. Scott and Margaret both made some dutch oven main dishes and then I made a dutch oven peach cobbler. The girls loved playing with cousins and being outside. Baylor spent the majority of the time on a swing.We loved visiting with family and doing something different. We ended the evening with some marshmallow roasting. It was such a fun evening!

 Some cute Baylor moments from the past few weeks- She created her own mask with some help from Paige (it didn't last that long). There is a phone in the back room that no one really knows the phone number to so the only person that calls it is telemarketers and Baylor LOVES to answer it. Whenever she hears it ring, she gets so excited and runs back there and has a conversation with whoever calls. It is the cutest thing to listen to her conversations though I doubt the person on the other side can understand her. I usually ask her who she was talking to and her most common answers are Uncle Scott or Aunt Anna. The last picture she set up her little kitty that Paige made her on the couch with her blanket. If you look closely at the picture you can see that she made sure that the tag of her blanket is right by the kitty's face. Baylor loves the tag on her blanket and will play with it, rub her nose and face on it, and you have to give her the tag when she is falling asleep. It is the funniest thing seeing her obsession with the tag but it was cute that she wanted to be sure that her kitty got to enjoy the tag too.

 Baylor loves to be traced outside with chalk even with the sun in her eyes. :) And Paige made a life size picture of Baylor.

 Anna gave the girls these huge lollipops and they sure enjoyed them one evening.

 Another gorgeous day this week, the girls played in the lake for the first time this year. We found a spot where we could keep distance from other people and the girls loved it especially Baylor. We even saw the baby ducks and they swam right by the girls.

 Baylor loved sitting in the water and had no fear. I kept having to tell her to come closer to the shore because she kept inching farther and farther out and wanted to go where Paige was. 

 Another little thing that the girls enjoyed was that we all got on the garage roof. The girls were riding their bikes and we saw something on the roof that a bird was pecking at so we all went on the roof to investigate. Little moments like these are always fun!

 Once Nate got home from work on Friday we took a little trip to Federation Forest State Park. I had never been there and it is something that Nate has been wanting to do for awhile and it was the perfect afternoon. We packed a picnic and enjoyed that before doing a short hike down to the river.

 The girls loved this bridge on the hike. You could see through it to the creek below. They enjoyed putting leaves and pine cones through the holes and watched them float down the small waterfalls in the water. 

 The river and the scenery were breathtaking. We spent most of our time wondering through the rocks and Paige filled Nate's pockets with ones to take home. Baylor loved putting her feet and hands in the water. Paige and I built a little rock tower and we had little competitions of who could hit a certain rock or log with some rocks. 

 The cutest little pig nose on the cutest little girl!

 How did I get so lucky!?!

 Paige hasn't had activity days with the stay at home order and has been missing it. So Nona took on the role of doing activity days with her once a week. This past week they did their first activity and it was all about stars. I wasn't a part of it but Paige said she learned to cut out stars with just one snip, she learned to fold the flag the right way and some facts about it, they made stars out of starbursts by microwaving them so they were soft and then rolled them thin and cut them out with a star cookie cutter, she learned the song "I am like a star" and also the poem "Star Light, Star Bright". So Friday evening once the sun went down and the stars started to come out, Paige and I laid on the garage roof and star gazed. We pointed out different stars as they appeared and at the end we saw the Big Dipper. Paige was done once she saw a bag flying above us. :)

Saturday the rain came back and Baylor wanted to jump in puddles. She got her boots on and took her umbrella out. It didn't last very long but it was a bright spot on a dreary day.

I love moments like these with my family and am always looking forward to more!

Arts & Crafts Week

 This week our theme was Arts & Crafts which Paige loved!

Monday was a holiday so we didn't have any school but Paige asked that we still do an art project (of course!). I dropped colored water onto their paper and they used straws to blow on the liquid to create "firework" splotches on their paper. We needed a much bigger straw for Baylor so hers didn't work that well but she tried with all her might.

Then Paige wanted to do another craft and this is one that she did at school last year. You mix bubble solution with food coloring and paint. I let Paige blow the bubbles and then you dip the paper in the bubbles and it creates bubbles art. 

 The top right picture is a common occurrence these days. She is 2 1/2 and tantrums are a daily with either not being able to do something herself and or not getting her way. After she calmed down, she was quite happy to just pop the bubbles.

 Tuesday started with Paige doing her art dot to dot. Baylor has gotten pretty good at knowing her colors the past few weeks and it was cute watching Paige test Baylor with the crayons. Paige was so proud of herself after this and said that she taught Baylor brown and black. She is a great teacher for her sister and is an amazing big sister.

 For art, they did some abstract water color painting. They each crumpled up a white piece of paper and painted it in different spots and then open it and re-crumple it and paint some more.

 I love how Paige's turned out and Baylor actually liked this one and she painted for longer than 2 minutes.

 Paige had a class meeting to learn about the new math concept they are practicing this week- subtracting 3 digit numbers. So Baylor kept busy with dress up, "shopping", and cutting up her food.

 Paige's writing was a journal entry which says, "My favorite thing to use to do arts and crafts are tape and paper because you can make stuff with it!"

 Then for P.E. the girls did their weekly exercise off of Paige's computer. So many cute and silly photos- I felt like I was paparazzi for the 2 cutest girls, photographing their every move!

 Wednesday we started off with a science project since I knew it could take a good portion of the day. We were seeing if we could mix 2 colors on craft sticks. You put one end of the craft stick in the dye and then once it gets to the middle you flip the stick over and put it in a different color. Then the colors are suppose to meet in the middle and mix.

 The color starting to move up the stick!

 We flipped the sticks after lunch and by the end of the day now of them had really mixed or met in the middle which was kind of disappointing but it made the sticks look really cool.

 The next day we decided to try it out with the smaller craft sticks and it worked great and was a lot faster process than with the big ones.

 Paige did her math assignment on her computer from her teacher. I have also learned quite a bit during this time and how to do math a completely different way than I was taught. :)

Baylor wanted to "help" her sister with her math but soon was just a tease.

She doesn't stay entertained with the same thing for very long but she found some things to do while Paige did her schoolwork.

 Then Paige did some school work that I printed for her to do.

 Next was art and they did salt painting. They used liquid glue to created their designs and then poured salt over it and dumped the excess off and then we had to wait for it to dry.

 Then they used water colors to paint the salt.

 For writing, Paige typed on her computer about what her favorite craft to do is. She wrote, "My favorite craft to do that I've done is a yarn and paper bracelet because it look like you've bought it but you've actually made it!!! I also did an art project yesterday and you crinkle your paper in a ball and paint it with water colors and do it again and again until it is full!!! I love doing art because it's fun!!!!!"

While Paige did her writing and also her ELA for her class assignment, Baylor colored for a little bit and wanted me to take a picture of her drawing.

Then we did another science experiment to end our school day. I put milk in the bottom of a small glass pan and then the girls put some drops of food coloring in. Then Paige put a couple of drops of dish soap and they got to watch the colors spread and react with the soap.

 Then they both dipped some paper in the mixture to create some art.

 Thursday Paige started off with this arts & crafts pattern worksheet that I created.

 For art the girls created Picasso self portraits out of paper.

 The picture in the middle is where I got the idea and of course Paige couldn't go full Picasso and made hers look pretty normal and cute. She is quite the perfectionist! And Baylor's is a true Picasso and made us all laugh when we saw her finished product. 😂

 Paige had another class meeting to learn about regrouping when subtracting 3 digit numbers and also it was her normal class meeting so her teacher reads to her class and her P.E. teacher also came and did some exercises with them. So while she did that and worked on her math assignment, Baylor had fun with some flour and sugar. It was Paige's idea and she set it up for Baylor right before her meeting. She had some small cups with flour and sugar and lots of different utensils to mix and stir and play in. Baylor loved it and it kept her busy for quite awhile and it was worth it even though it was quite the mess to sweep up.

 For writing, Paige did a journal entry which says, "My favorite person to do arts and crafts with is Addison because she is the same age as me and we both love crafts!"

The last thing for the day was that I helped Paige do her music assignment on her computer while Baylor took a nap.

Friday's math that I created for her was an arts & crafts word problems worksheet.

 Then for art they painted ice with water colors. Baylor didn't find this very entertaining and only last a few minutes but Paige thought it was pretty cool.

 Then Paige had a bonus meeting with her teacher on her computer. It was for the kids that have been doing both their math and ELA assignments every day and so they got to have a special book read to them and did a drawing with their teacher. Baylor wanted to color with crayons and so I got it all out for her and was doing something else and when I came back she was so proud of what she did with the crayons. :)

 Then Paige did her opinion writing which was "what do you prefer to do arts and crafts with? Markers or Colored Pencils." She wrote, "I like markers because you can see them better. Also because they are thicker than colors pencils."

 For her ELA assignment she had to write her own story and draw her mysterious creature. Her's turned out so cute that I had to get a picture of it. Her story reads, "Once upon a time there was a girl named Jennifer and she was eating her breakfast with her mom, Mrs. Marlins, and then she saw little pink and green antennas. She said, "Umm I might go into my room and eat." Mrs. Marlins said, "Why?" Jennifer said "Look." Mrs. Marlins screamed! She went outside and saw that it was a little monster looking creature. I came to their house and said, "Hi Jennifer! Oh what is that?" Jennifer said "It is what I found." The next day the little monster was in the garden. I said, "Get out of there!" But it was too late. Mrs. Marlins saw him and came out and said, "Take that creature to the forest across the street." Then Keira came (last night I told her all about the little creature and she wanted to name him Kettle.) I did what Mrs. Marlins said. I took Kettle to the forest and Keira and Jennifer came along. We were sad to let him go. The next morning, I saw Kettle outside. I said, "Kettle stop scaring Jennifer!" But he didn't. Keira tried telling him and he stopped but he still ate the vegetables. Keira said, "Kettle stop eating Mrs. Marlins' garden." Kettle stopped and instead ate bugs!!! Mrs. Marlins game me, Jennifer, Keira, and especially Kettle a yummy corn on the cob!!"

 Then the girls did a second art project for the day in the evening. They colored with washable markers on a piece of a Ziploc bag and then they painted a white piece of paper with water to saturate it. Then they put the colored side down on the wet paper and moved it around. You could see the colors bleed onto the paper.

 Their finished project!

 Since we didn't have any school on Monday and didn't have cooking, we did a little food activity today that I saw online that I knew the girls would love. It was bread painting. You take milk and mix in food coloring and then paint on white bread.

Baylor painted for a little bit but then was happy to eat the bread. :)

 And Paige was very artistic with it and look her time and loved doing it.

What a fun and colorful week!

Next weeks theme: Beach Week.