Slow Down, Gym Shoe!

Surfer Girls

Today was a fun day for Little Bear, Pufferfish and me! We live about twenty minutes away from Woodfield Mall, one of the largest malls in the USA. On the last Friday of every month, they have Club Kidfield, with activities for kids. Most of the local malls have this type of club, with little activities, but at Woodfield they go all out and hire professional entertainers! So today was a beach party , with a guy who played beach music on his guitar and let the kids dance, play with hula hoops and bubbles, do the limbo, etc.
I've been trying to do theme days with Little Bear, and every day we learn about something new, so I figured we'd make today "Hawaii Day" in accordance with the beach party at the mall!
I got some hella cool Hawaiian decorations at the Dollar Store (my very favorite place!) and this morning we decked the house out. We also made hula skirts! Check out these pics!






<------- She sells seashells by the seashore!





















<---------------Pufferfish chillin' by the beach!






















<------------------Little Bear all decked out in her new Hawaiian garb! (For instructions on how to make a hula skirt like this, see the end of this post!)










So right now Little Bear is having some "quiet sensory time". I'm in the middle of reading this book called "Raising Your Spirited Child," which I will definitely blog more about once I finish it. Anyway, one of the suggestions in this book is making sure the Spirited Child (which Little Bear definitely is!) get some relaxation time each day, outside of just watching TV. Since they have trouble relaxing on their own and are always on the go, the book suggests helping them to relax by giving them sensory activities to do, turning off the lights and the TV, and playing relaxing music. So today I filled a little tub with water, added bubbles and blue food coloring, and let Little Bear play with it along with some sponges and toy boats and stuff. Its been keeping her busy and happy for about an hour! And it gives me some quiet relaxation time, too! (Since Pufferfish is conveniently napping!)

Little Bear and Monkeyboy are going with their dad tonight, and me and Diana are probably going to take Pufferfish to get her One Year pictures. I'll post those later, if I can!
*******
Want to make a hula skirt like Little Bear made?
You'll need: A paper grocery bag
                  Scissors
                  Paints and paint brushes
                  Yarn
                  Glitter (optional)

      1. Cut off the bottom of the grocery bag.
      2. Let your little shorty paint the entire outside of the bag, adding glitter if you want.
      3. Once the paint dries, fold one edge of the bag over, all around the opening.
      4. Cut slots from the bottom edge to the folded part, making it look like grass.
      5  Tape a long piece of yarn under the fold.

Your child can now put on the grocery bag like a skirt, with the folded part around her waist. You can tie the yarn to make it fit like a real skirt!

HAVE FUN!!!

Rub-a-Dub Dub, Two Shorties In the Tub!

Poor little Pufferfish has been so sick lately! She went to the doctor yesterday, and it turns out she has a severe ear infection, plus her lungs were all blocked up. So now she's on albuterol (making her a real Pufferfish!) plus an antibiotic, plus pain kilers!
With that in mind, I didn't want to make any big plans for the day, so we just saw where the day took us. And it turned out to be an awesome day!
In the morning, we made bathtub paints, and both of the girls got nekked and fingerpainted in the bathtub! This is an easy activity you might want to keep in mind any time you have a dull day that you want to brighten up! I made the bath paints by filling paper cups with baby soap (such as Johnson' Head-to-Toe) and then adding a few drops of washable poster paint to each cup. (You can also use food coloring, but we didn't have any!) i then set the kids free in the tub with the paint and let them go crazy! Its the one place where spills are perfectly okay, painting your body is okay, painting with your feet is okay, and as long as you don't actually eat the paint, anything goes! (Remember to click on the pics to see them full-sized!)

 

You can also make prints of your bathtub art by laying sheets of paper over the painted surfaces of the tub. That way, you have a way to keep your art work... and the prints turn out pretty cool!
 

The best part is, since they're painting with soap, there's very little clean-up afterwards! Actually, when the kids were done painting, all I did was turn on the faucet and hand Little Bear a wash rag. While I got the baby dried off and dressed, and fed her breakfast, Little Bear scrubbed down the entire bathtub until it was sparkling clean! I think she loved that part as much as the painting itself... she was so happy, singing to herself about how clean she was getting the tub!

Also, Little Bear had been asking me if I would get her a doctor's kit so she could play animal doctor with her stuffed animals. I looked for a cheap doctor kit at the store, but couldn't find any under $25.00! So instead I spent $4.50 on a first aid travel kit that came with antiseptic wipes and all different types and sizes of bandaids, and I let Little Bear go crazy with it! She loved that! She doctored up some of her stuffed animals, but she also put bandaids all over herself, me, and Pufferfish. (And all day long, when people asked us what happened, Little Bear told them we got attacked by a dog, a shark, an alligator, and a blackbird!)

We spent the rest of the day in a leisurely way... We went to the mall and played in the play area for a while, came home and had lunch, and then took a walk to the park. Little Bear's and Monkeyboy's dad just came and picked them up for his weekend visit with them, and since Pufferfish didn't take a nap at all today I just layed her down a while ago and she fell right asleep... giving me some time to blog! Hurray!
I love days like this, don't you?

GOT A LITTLE TRAVELER IN YOUR LIFE? GIVE HIM A UNIQUE GIFT HE CAN BRING WITH HIM ANYWHERE... A TREASURE JAR FOR TRAVELING KIDS!