When Jared and Lydia were little I always had fun learning activities planned and we did them numerous times throughout whatever holiday season we were enjoying. I still plan activities and we still do them but it seems they all end up being done on the day of the holiday. I know Jared being in school is part of it, since I see him less; and preschool is also part of it, Lydia and I do quite a few things together in those 3 hours twice a week but I am not sure why I can't get it together to do them more regularly? Especially since Lydia and I have plenty of time at home together. Again I feel Jared being in school is a big part of it as when he gets home I just want him to have unstructured play time. And maybe my feelings have changed a bit about raising kids and I feel Lydia should go more at her own pace or maybe Jared just liked doing them more? Maybe I just didn't give him as much of an option, it was just "lets do a learning time activity!"where as I ask Lydia more if she wants to do one with me and she does not always want to. I may never know. In any case, we had a lot of fun yesterday. These learning activities are still one of my favorite ways to connect or spend time with Jared and Lydia. I guess I also take our kids out to meet up with friends or go places more now too. We have more time to do stuff outside of home as well since no one is taking naps and Charlottesville has so many great things to do! It's funny how different our life is now compared to when we were in Colorado. After re-reading this is appears I at least know some reasons why I do them less...
Back to our day.
Leprechauns came and made mischief and left a fun surprise for Jared and Lydia even though Jared set a trap to catch one in our basement. It was a lot of fun. The rugs and toy boxes from Jared and Lydia's rooms were switched and books turned upside down. Furniture was all moved around and pictures turned upside down. Our main floor got quite the make over. A trail of gold coins was left for them to follow to their own pile of "gold" (Rolos) and Jared and Lydia loved it all. We enjoyed Lucky Charms and Fruit Loops for breakfast with a green smoothie and made sure to wear green.
That Halloween decoration goes so well.
He was pretty ticked at the note the Leprechaun left him. He also thought they had pretty bad handwriting. "He couldn't even make a C!" -J Next year he plans on using mouse traps.... I tried to discourage this, warning him that if he really ticked off a leprechaun he may not get anything from it or if he caught one before he left a surprise he may not be able to leave anything. Also what if he really caught a mouse? I would not have been surprised if we were still living in our Colorado townhouse and that happened.
After school we played outside for awhile and then came in for St Patricks Day activities. Sight word reading and number identifying shamrock style, a little Rainbow math, Do a Dot dice games, a fun rainbow snack and a science experiment. It was a great afternoon. The kind I dreamed about having when I pictured myself raising children. Fun snacks and learning activities together while I made dinner in the kitchen. Good, simple engaged fun. Does this happen every day? Nope. But I sure love it when it does.
Fruit loops on a pipe cleaner with marshmallow clouds.
Baking soda treasure hunt. I placed some gold (pennies) and shamrock charms in this pan and covered them with baking soda. I dyed some vinegar green and then had Jared and Lydia spray it to uncover the treasure. At the end I dumped all the remaining vinegar into the pan and it left a fun mixture to pay with.
We had our traditional St Patricks Day drink of Sprite with Lime sherbet and I made Irish Soda bread which was fine but will not be a regular menu item. Such a nice day!
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