I is for insects

This is leftover from the end of last week but because of a busy weekend and not feeling well I haven't had a chance to post it.  We did a few a activities about insects.

Growing insects.

Hannah dropped in 4 capsules that grow into insect sponges.
 She watched but it was a very slow process.

This was hours later.

Finally in the morning, they were all done.

Here is Hannah drying her insects and telling me there names.  The was an ant, a butterfly, a caterpillar,  and a  grasshopper.

Later on after nap time, Hannah and I painted insect rocks to keep outside.  Earlier I glued the paper cutout of the insect on the rock and sealed it.

Already.

Hannah painted them very quickly.

The paint was quite thick, so next time I would thin it down with some water so that it was more translucent.  Where the paint was applied quite thickly it was difficult to see the lines underneath.

Next, Hannah and I sponge painted with our insects.  The butterfly turned out really well.  The others not so much.

Two of our rocks, the dragonfly and butterfly.  I sealed them again and now they are outside ready for playing.

Lastly,  Hannah's picture.  She drew a picture of Auntie Jen and wrote all about it underneath.   

H is for Hats

Today, is my grandma's birthday, Hannah affectionately calls her GG, so yesterday we made her a birthday card.  I stuck on the letters to spell out "I love you GG" but I only had lower case letters. Hahahaha oh well.  Hannah then decorated her card with some foam stars and hearts.

She was in a pretty wacky mood.

I think she did a great job and I know GG will love it.

Then continuing along in our H activities, I gathered up every hat in the house I could find.  We played dress  up and Hannah decided who owned each hat.

I think Daddy's tuque is still a little big baby boy.

Too small

Just right (not quite).  This is one of Ethan's baby hats but it is really stretchy.

Afterwards, I hid all of the hats all around the room for Hannah and Ethan to find and bring back to the basket (or wear).

She went to sleep so well last night that I credit the running from this game (or maybe the trip to the river) either way I was thankful.

Hannah thought Ethan should wear a hat too,  Ethan wasn't  into that idea (it could have been Hannah forcefully trying to jam it on his head).

This is a sorting activity with those colored H's (I have no idea what they are actually for, so if you do let me know).  The idea is to take the H's out of the hard hat and place them in the appropriate colored dish.

She did so well, this is the first time she has completed a sorting activity.  Good Job Hannah.

Wacky all afternoon (that is a blue H tower in the dish).

Finally, Hannah drew her picture in her dictation drawing book.
She had quite an animated story this week about GG and her birthday.

Hammers and Hearts

Hannah woke up early today from her nap so we had a lot of fun (quietly) while Ethan slept on.  First, I brought out the bin of colored rice and hid some little letter H`s.  Hannah loves to bury and hide things and we did this over and over, as I tried to pretend that rice was not clattering all over the floor.  

 I made the colored rice a awhile back and it still holds up well.  The rule: If its lands on the floor it ends up in the garbage.

Where are they mamaÉ

After a little while, the H`s became cookies and the rice sprinkles.

Of course we had to sweep up afterwards.

Next, Hannah hammered golf tees into a Styrofoam H.

Yes, that is a real hammer.  My mom always says a women should have her own tools.  This is MY hammer.

Placing the Tees

Pulling them out again.

This was my find of the day.  Ethan and I went to a thrift shop and I found this Leap Frog fridge alphabet toy for nothing compared to the full price at Toys R Us.

I separated out the letters we have done, so Hannah can play with them.

When you push the magnetic letter into the holder it says its name and sound.

The is the ``heart`` balloon I tied to the ceiling fan (after seeing something similar on Peaceful Parenting).  I actually had a heart shaped balloon but I managed to pop it before I could hang it.  So I found my sharpie and added some hearts to a red balloon.

Hannah was hitting the balloon and twirling.

I love that Ethan is collapsed on the floor off to the side.

Up again. Nice jab.

This is Hannah`s third narration picture.  I wish the colors photographed better.  

The calm before the storm.

I'm not going to lie.  The last 2 days have been hard.  Andrew is away and I have had bad headaches.  In an effort to run off the abundance of energy and to dissipate the noise they make, we have spent a lot of time outside.  Thankfully, the weather has been great.  Never-the-less, I have been struggling.  Its moments like these that I keep two thoughts very close by.  First, that my strength is not enough and only God alone can hold me up.  Secondly, I am unable to comprehend families who have spouses that work away or overnight.  Here is a little of what we did yesterday.

We played.

Ethan added to our chalk drawings (and the he wrote on my chair, the mat, the house.  Don't have a clue what I was doing).

Looks like an a, my budding genius.

Hannah played in the pool.

We made lots of food out of sand.  (Hannah especially likes to make ice cream, cookies, and pancakes).

Ethan helped too.

This boy would sleep in this car if I let him.

We painted with water at Hannah's request.

Ethan "helped".

Only a 2 year old paints like this.

Mommy played paparazzi.

It ended when Ethan got rough. (Joking, he is spraying her with water).

Then I remembered it was Friday.  Here is Hannah's second drawing.

Lines and a brush.