I kept my two nieces last week along with Field so I planned several activities to keep us busy. During my planning, I used Pinterest along with a few other website favs. I had SO much fun planning out the morning and prepping all of the materials the morning of their visit. It reminded me so much of my teaching days and preparing for a fun day ahead. Watching children discover, create, and learn has always been a passion of mine so this was really exciting!
Prepped and ready
Not but 10 minutes later everyone was on to another activity. Caroline wanted my phone to play iPhone games and Ellie and Field were in the play kitchen.
Field is still in his PJ's at this point. :)
Our next activity was a definite HIT! It kept the attention of all 3 kiddos for over 30 minutes. That's a winner. We made discovery bottles. I have a HUGE craft tub from my teaching days so we used that to fill our discovery bottles (empty water bottles) with interesting things. Then I added water and hot glue gunned the cap to the bottle and the kids were able to shake them to see all of the fun things inside. Caroline (the 4 year old) carefully and thoughtfully filled her bottle with only the things that interested her or she thought were "beautiful." Ellie (the 2.5 year old) did a lot of observing and then wanting to be just like her big sis most of the time. And Field, well, he just put anything and everything he could find into his bottle. I found a few glue sticks and glitter sticks that he somehow managed to fit into his bottle. NOTE: If you do this activity with anyone under the age of 2, please watch them at all times. There were lots of little trinkets that could certainly end up in the mouth. I caught Field with a few things in his mouth and had to fish them out immediately.
During snack time, we made "Love You Mix." I got this idea from my sweet blog friend, Natalie at Johnny in a Dress. The kids LOVED this! Ellie and Field mostly ate, but Caroline was so great at putting the cheerios, marshmellows, and cheerios into the jar. Afterwards, we stirred the ingredients and each child got a baggie with their mixture for snack. So easy and fun!
Ellie and Field eating and Caroline working.
Lastly, we took a long wagon ride around the block for some fresh air. The garbage truck happened to be working his way around our street so we loved watching him pass by a few times. Field was very serious about looking for the truck and the girls are just lookin' pretty!
What a fun-filled day. You'd think Field took a great nap after all of that.
Nope...1 hour...sigh.
