Thanksgiving Theme Bathtime Fun



Gumby loves her baths!  It was just last year bath time was a struggle, but we worked through it and now Gumby can't wait for a nightly bath.  I *tried* to keep her out of the tub tonight to get it ready, but I couldn't!  She just couldn't wait to hop into her Thanksgiving bath.

 

 

Everything was safe and set up for Lil' Dove (9 months) to join in as she is also in love with the water, but she slept through our Thanksgiving celebration (one day early in our home as we always head to my parents house for Thanksgiving Day) and she slept through bath with a really early bed time.  I was heartbroken that she went to bed so early tonight!

 

The weather was beautiful; we went to the park and apparently Lil' Dove outdid herself. 

Here are the girls enjoying the playground :)

 

 

Anyway, here is the bath! :) 

* Orange water

* Red and yellow bubbles

* Silk fall leaves

* Red/orange/yellow toys to chew, pour, play with

* A couple of pinecones

* New bath crayons

* Foam pumpkins

* Foam cut outs that could be put together to make turkeys.

 

 I showed Gumby how to build the turkey.

 

She had other ideas.

 Isn't the tub lovely the way she lined it up. 

 

Time to open the crayons.  She was still thinking about turkeys, but she had her own ideas.

She wanted to DRAW turkeys! 

 

I can never tell for sure where things will lead as Gumby is a very creative and independent thinker.  We do our best to follow her lead.  She loved her Thanksgiving Bath!

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!! 

 

Cornstarch Goo Bath

We made goo with cornstarch and water :) It is not like anything we had ever played with before and was fun.  It's hard and solid when you touch it, but it turns back to a liquid in your hands as soon as you do. Clean up was easy.  Just add lots of water and it goes right down the drain with no problem.

Our Election Day 2012

This day was made possible by those *wonderful* political phone calls & Gumby. Honestly, I had no intention of even going to the polls. Bad, I know. Politics, history, etc have no interest to me. Zilch. Nada. I would rather watch my pets shed fur.

Yesterday, yet another political call came across our answering machine. (See above, no way am I answering the phone). Gumby asked who it was and what they wanted. So, I told her it was a political campaign and they wanted us to vote for somebody for President of the United States.
Gumby's reply: "Can I do it?" 

Isn't her ambition and thirst for knowledge inspiring?

After explaining that one has to be 18 years old, I told her she could go with us; thereby setting a good example, educating, and all that.

I wanted to show her who the main two candidates were and introduce her to the idea of an election. I decided to go with coloring pages of Mitt Romney, Barack Obama, the United States map, the United States flag and a picture of Ohio.

Working on her coloring pages, already dressed and ready to go vote!

After Lil' Dove wakes from her nap, we usually roughhouse. Immediately after roughhousing, Gumby brought her stuff to "my house" so she could continue coloring in the company of her lil' sis. She asked for the flip book so she could see what the United States flag looked like.

The finished products. Deeda got Mitt Romeny in his family mailbox to take to work. Gumby apologized to me for messing up the flag (red line where it should be white).

We went to vote as a family.

But first, we stopped at the park to enjoy a beautiful day!

Lil' Dove is nine months old already! Blue eyes and two teeth... <3

Hat off mamma!

4 years 6 weeks ... <3 mamma's love bug

Me: "Smile big!" Her: "How's this?!"

"I'm gonna put these leaves on you!"

Here they come!

Gumby took a picture of me after she buried me.

Where did Gumby go?!

Playing :)

"Do you want to come to my garden? I'm planting a carrot!"

She then covered the carrot with leaves to keep it warm. Here she is digging it back up to pick it! "My first carrot!" she exclaimed.

Her idea - how fun!

There are no pictures of us at the polls -- that I can post here -- Boo :(

Dora the Explorer Themed Dinner

One of the shows that Gumby enjoys watching is Dora the Explorer.  I thought it would be fun to do a dinner theme/movie night for Halloween.  The girls have been trick or treating three times this year and have collected about five pounds of candy; it's also cold and rainy now.  So, after a forgettable start to the day, this was our Halloween :)

I got a lot of the ideas from eHow.com.

Gumby had a blast. 

She is building the "Map" burritos. 

She could not wait to dig in to the Blueberries atop Swiper's Blueberry Hill!  Poor Deeda's Map; "I'm making Deeda's Map sad!" she said.

 

 I decided to make rainbow colored buttered star noodles for Explorer Stars.
There are some laminated Explorer Stars along with other characters (Dora, Boots, Swiper, Map) that were used for pretend play also.

Wishing I would have turned the Walmart brand of salsa around for the pictures.  Grr!  haha!
A shot of the menu:

• Swiper's Blueberry Hill blueberries
• Boot's bananas
• Map burritos
• Buttered Explorer Stars

 Finished plates ...

 

Complementary picture ...

She really just wanted to dig in!

 

Gumby noticed Backpack was missing.  If we revisit the Dora themed dinner, maybe we could do a Backpack cake.  I saw a really cool one on my awesome friend's awesome blog. 

I wish I had pictures of Lil' Dove enjoying our fun dinner, but I was in "getting late for baby to eat, hurry up, panic mode" by then.  :)

After dinner, we had some Dora fruit snacks and popcorn for two Dora Halloween shows, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and a Spongebob Halloween show.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Halloween :)  How did you spend yours?

Gumby's First Canvas Painting

She'll be four in three days.  It's like she's a little girl now, officially.  That's another topic though.

For her fourth birthday, one of the gifts her Grammie & Grandpa got her was a stretched canvas painting kit.  It did not take long before she was ready to open it up and paint!

I could not even get ready fast enough.  She jumped right in opening up the paints and carefully pouring them onto the pallet all by herself.

Me: "You're making the tails and manes yellow."

Gumby: "That is how they were in the picture."

Me: "Do you want the picture?"

Gumby: "No, I'll be okay."

"Now, I'll paint the sky blue."

She wanted me to help.  I painted some bushes green and some of the sky blue.  Later we made strips on the dirt path together :)

"The pony will turn lighter as he grows up."

Isn't she proud :)

"I'd like to do this again sometime."

"Only with a white one so I can make whatever I want.  I want to make everyone with their animals and [Lil' Dove]."

Summer Sledding with Ice

Look at that face!! 

I saw this on one of my favorite blogs for ideas of awesome kid stuff: Play At Home Mom 

Here is the direct link to their Ice Block Sledding idea.

I didn't really set out to do this activity tonight.  We were playing ball outside and it was HOT, in the 90's.  Suddenly, I remembered reading about the ice block sledding and that I had a blue "ice skating rink" for toys/characters in the freezer that hadn't been used in a looong time. 

I pulled it out to give the sledding idea a try.  Did we have a fantastic time!

If you have a hill, you should do this. 

If that sled didn't melt, I think at 1am (the time that I am writing this) we would STILL be out there sledding.  She even caught her first lightening bug and took it down the hill :)

Once the sled was too small for her to fit on, it occured to her some friends (who would fit) may like to try it out:

 When everyone ... EVERYONE (all of her favorite critters) had a ride, it was a skating rink again!

The sled for next time will be bigger, pinker, and glittery-er: