Kicking the K Balloon

My kids love balloons.  I think they are great for getting all that energy out without the risk to people or things inside the house.  Hannah loves to kick and throw them around.  Ethan likes to chase them around and squeeze until they should pop (hasn't happened yet).  This is a kick activity that I saw on Playing House. 

All you need is a balloon and masking tape.  (Even a marker would work).

Using the masking tape make a letter K on the balloon.

'

Make sure everyone gets to help.

Hannah and Ethan then colored the masking tape to decorate the balloon.

Not a great picture, but Hannah colored in the K very well.

Then kick the K on the balloon. (That is kick the balloon like crazy).

Have fun and try not to get hurt.

I could help it this is my favorite picture of the evening.

Jump Rope Fun

The kids napped late this afternoon which usually means they go to bed late if I don't help them get all their energy out before hand.  Since Andrew worked late tonight and it was up to me to put the kids to bed by myself, I wanted it to go as smoothly as possible.  So I came up with this energy burning activity.  The kids are too young to actually jump rope the traditional way.  This was a fun way alternative way to run, jump, and duck under the jump rope.

All you need are some streamers, a jump rope and some tape.  

Cut some streamer pieces and tape them to the jump rope.
I tied one end to the door know and  held the other end.
Hannah and Ethan patiently waited.

They squealed as they ran through the streamers over and over.

On your marks, get set....

This is a picture of Hannah jumping over, not stomping on the streamers.

Trying to reattach a fallen streamer.

Ethan trying to remove a streamer.

Hannah decided in the end to use  a fallen streamer as a belt.


This was fun and I am sure it did get rid of some energy.  However, they did not go to bed well.  Oh well!!

Linked:
No Time For Flash Cards
Living Life Intentionally 
ABC and 123
Our Country Road

I is for igloos and more insects.

Hannah, Ethan, and I attempted to make an igloo out of our box blocks.  When I first showed Hannah the igloo in her letter box she immediately turned it upside and pretended it was a cup.    While we do live in Canada (chuckle) there are no life size igloos for me to show Hannah.  I thought maybe this activity would show Hannah that you go inside an igloo.  We had fun but the igloo only stood briefly.

Ethan was a bit of a slacker.

This is the picture of our finished igloo.  Where are the children?  Well, the arm not holding the camera is holding them back so I can snap the picture before they attempt to destroy it.

Hannah in our second igloo.

Afterwards, we took advantage of the weather (a break in the rain) and whet searching for insects.  I planted plastic insects all over the place and  gave each child a magnifying glass.  Hannah also got a pair of plastic tweezers to "pick up" the specimens with and place in her bug box.

Her first find.

He loved the magnifying glass and the bugs.

Covered so they can't get out.

Using the tweezers was a bit of a challenge.

Any more mama?

There's one!

I see it too!

I'll get him next time.

Linked to: The Imagination Tree

H-is for Hearts

We finished up our H activities with hearts.  We did two activities and we enjoyed them both.  First, we made heart brownies for Daddy this morning to tell him how much we love him.  After the brownies came out of the oven and cooled Hannah cut them into heart shapes and Daddy was the first to sample them  They were yummy.  Strangely, Hannah did not enjoy them.  She loves chocolate and chocolate cake.  But not these.

Nice pose Hannah

She liked poking the brownies out if the cookie cutters.

Her finished present.

Not so sure.

Even stranger, when we told her it was like chocolate cake later, she gobbled it up.  What can I say she's 2.

Our other heart activity was a maze. Andrew and I wound string all over the living room and kitchen.  For example from the banister  to the fireplace would be one section.  At the beginning of the section was a heart, Hannah needed to pull the heart along the string to the end of the section (think ziplining, and the transferring of carabiners), and then switch to the next heart. Hopefully if your a little confused by my description the pictures will make sense.

At the very end of the string maze was this surprise.

Here you can see the string back and forth across the living room.

Here is an exchange point.  Hannah followed the heart along the string to this point(and others like it), then would continue on her way by leaving the old heart and taking the new one (the one you can see).

Around the kitchen table and under.

Hannah pushing it along.

She got to this point where she was suppose to crawl under the table but instead she  pushed  the heart further under the table and then walked around to get the next heart.

Hannah switching hearts.

She found her surprise

More hearts and her snack.

We left up the maze up until Ethan was awake and he had fun with it too.  Stay tune tomorrow for the Letter H wrap up.

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.