Playing with my friends...Library

After we ate cucumbers and hot cocoa.......we walked to the library. It was really alot of fun. For most of the time, we were the only ones in the children's section. No whispering or tippy toeing. Good thing as Ms. Monkey loved taking books off of the shelves and piling them on our seats!



This library furniture is so cute! There are cubbies behind and under the child sized seating that keeps things "neat." The enormous tinker toy decorations are adorable.



Couldn't resist a picture of the three of us.



Just a nice picture.




Ms. Kitten is reading. She read me this entire book. I don't know who was more thrilled!



We checked out books and then walked home. Luckily, I forgot a bag!!! Ms. Monkey insisted on carrying her own books.....they kept slipping from her hands! It was a funny sight seeing this little thing loaded down with books but insisting on carrying them.



And Ms. Kitten? She was too busy trying to walk and read at the same time to notice anything else going on around her!




All in all a good afternoon. Now that we have finished everything we wanted to do on our list....well, we are going to have to create a new list of fun things!

Playing with my Friends...Presents

Ilove playing with my friends...whether they are young or old! These two, Miss Kitten and Miss Monkey, happen to be my most favoriteist friends of all. We haven't gotten together for quite a while and I missed our playtime. One afternoon I picked them up from school,for an afternoon of fun. We began at my house for a snack. It was cold (uhmmm , that's relative here. It IS south Texas) and I had hot cocoa. I really didn't want to give them cookies or more sweets, but what else can you eat with cocoa? Ms. Monkey took her cookie and instead of dunking it, dropped it in the cocoa! She thought it was hysterical! One spoon later, she decided she didn't want cookies. Not want cookies!!! Are You KIDDING me?



Cucumbers? YES! YES! This is what they want with their cocoa. CUCUMBERS! This little thing, cookies vs. cucumbers assures that we are totaly unrelated! Then to boot, they dunked their cucumbers into the cocoa! Nummy!



I had so much fun making them a present. I was at Joanns and they had fleece blankets...a monkey and a kitten! How could I resist???






Ms. Kitten was particulary thrilled. You see, Minkee loves fleece blankets. The day I made the kitten blanket she decided to uhm.. investigate (read, scratch at it). Well, the back is a lovely solid pink.....so.....When Ms. Kitten discovered that Minkee "signed" her cat blanket, she was thrilled!!!

Playing with my Friends....Again

I am so lucky. My little friends here have a mom and dad that are completely willing to live with my wierdness! I was gone for 5 weeks, came back, called them and asked if the girls could come out and play with me! LOL! This time we went to the coolest fountains. You have to understand. We live on the gulf. Water abounds......but so does sand. Sandy toes, car seats and the new leather seats in my car.....well, they don't mix. I love these little girls....but not THAT much!! LOL!! This little fountain area fits the bill perfectly. The water is about 6" deep, the fountains go on and off....water play...no sand in sight! (It's a shame. I won't post pictures of them playing in the fountain because there are too many crazies out there....)

Here they are just enjoying themselves.

After the fountains we went to McDonalds for lunch. It was nearly 100 degrees out that day so an indoor playground was perfect. More fun ensued!

Ice Cream! Yummmm....

I learned from our last outing just how to get Ms. Monkey in the car, in the car seat and not go nuts!! I carried her, no shoes on her feet, out to the car and gave her no choice. I put her in the car seat this time! Worked like a charm! It's funny the things you forget when you don't have little ones around for a while! LOL!

Playing with my friends...baking cookies

It started out innocent enough...Cookies, frosting and sprinkles. Fun huh! As you can see, Monkey managed to get one cookie frosted before the tasting and finger licking began.




Now Ms. Kitten got wayyyy further along in the process before she began the finger licking. She is older and although the finger licking is fun, she had more fun with the sprinkles......






Cookie number two........already been licked once....notice her face....











Messy fingers......










Another cookie, more finger licking fun! (reallly she didn't eat frosting as much as lick her fingers)







Look at that face!!!!!



Now Ms. Kitten began to really, really get into the whole process.....




Sprinkles and sprinkles.....



...and sprinkles......



...and sprinkles!!!!!!!!




The cute part was that they helped clean up without being asked. Ms. Kitten rinsed all the dishes for me to put in the dishwasher. Look at the bottom left, you can see Monkey's arm reaching up. She found a sponge and was "cleaning" the sprinkles off of the table.


When I took them home, both girls were asleep before I was a mile down the road. I honestly could have slept myself! This day made me understand the concept of a grandparent. Things I would have never let my kids get away with.....using 3 bottles of sprinkles on 24 cookies.... didn't bother me in the least. But, it also made me realize that sheeeesh! I am soooo glad I had my kids when I did. I don't think I have the ooomph to keep up with them!

Playing with my Friends #2

It has been a long time since I've had little children in my house. This day was a huge reminder that I did the right thing in having my children young. I forgot how much energy it takes to keep up with a two year old for a day!

I picked the girls up. I don't know if they knew that I was coming, but when they saw me, the look on their faces was precious. It was a combination of "What is SHE doing here," and "Oh Lookee who's here." Most times preschoolers get confused when they see teachers outside of school. We are "in the wrong place." We grabbed their things and headed off!

We began the day with breakfast. We did, after all, need to make lists of what we were planning to do during the day. I forgot about restaurants and little ones. The not being tall enough to reach the table and need to kneel on the seats, the allure of the jellies, syrups, sugars, salt and pepper....the whole potty issue.... Naturally we needed to potty as a group. No problem, I potty little ones all the time. HA! I forgot (a reoccurring theme of the day) how alluring potty rooms are! Monkey pottied first while Kitten did the "hurry up" dance. Cover the seat. lift the child, get her hands off the disgusting potty, wash hands. Repeat. BUT Miss Monkey was not reading my mind after we washed hands. She very proudly raced over and threw her paper towel in the toilet, put one hand on the seat, and the other stretched up and over to re-flush. AH! "Please put your towel in the wastebasket." Rewash hands. I turned my head to grab a towel for myself and YIKES!! she was already tossing the towel in the potty and flushing again! Re-re-wash hands. Hold her hand. Dry her hands. GET OUT of the public restroom! The whole time Miss Kitten is calmly watching us. Her face looked like, "Can we PLEASE leave this bathroom already! LOL!! Tummies full, hands relatively germ free, we headed off to the grocery store.

The grocery store was simple. Everyone was contained! Zip we were home.

Because I haven't had children in the house in so long, we are not childproofed. I frantically sped through the house the day before finding all the contraband! Oh boy, my sewing room is like a mine field for little kids! Pins,(many on the floor), needles,rotary cutters, scissors....ooeeee! Get things up high! Medicine...YIKES! I no longer get child proof caps. Under the cabinet in the kitchen. OMGoodness! My purse alone is a scary object in the hands of a child let alone an entire un-childproofed house! MRS H.(that's me) BE ON ALERT!

I did put my design wall to good use. We used it as an enormous flannel board and arranged flannel board story pieces all over it. This proved to be a fabulous activity and they did it again and again.

We played inside.






We played outside.



At one point while they played, I began to pull weeds. Ms. Kitten decided to help. Hey, cheap labor!!


Ms. Monkey managed to rearrange my house the way only a two year old can. It took us 15 mins. to find the remotes, I found pillows all over the house, coasters decorated all the rooms any furiture light enough to carry was moved. It was so amusing to try to figure out where she put things.

We also baked cookies. Tomorrow.....