Duplo Legos

 The V's are on a Duplo Lego kick!  It's their new favorite thing to play with each day.

I recently purchased a Duplo number train set to help with counting and number recognition, but instead it has started a craze for building towers and bunny houses with the V's.

They are so focused when they're building!  And we usually end up using every single brick!  So now I've got to get more sets, but it's shocking to me just how expensive Legos are nowadays!

I wish Pops could find my old Duplos from when I was a kid.  I'm sure they're in his basement somewhere!

Exploring local parks

Our normal park is Jacobus, but lately we've been exploring more of our local parks including:  Hawthorn Glen, Hart Park, Valley Park, Washington Park, and Highland Park.  We are really lucky that there are so many great parks within walking distance!  I like the variety but the girls still prefer Jacobus best.

Today's Harvest

One of B's favorite activities is picking flowers and vegetables from the garden.  So far this year, we've harvested:

4 Zucchinis
2 Yellow Squash
7 Cucumbers
Lots of Yellow Wax Beans
Lots and lots of Cherry Tomatoes & SunSugar Tomatoes
Some Snap Peas
Lettuce, Spinach, Arugula, other salad greens, and Swiss Chard
and every couple of days we get a handful of Strawberries (which are B's favorite)

Print awareness & counting to 10, 15, 20...

Number Awareness / Counting Activities:

* Hopscotch

* Connect-The-Dots

* Hide & Go Seek

* Counting Books

* Number Puzzles 

* Number Mazes

* Number Coloring Pages
* Counting "How many?" of different items

* Number Stickers
* Beginning Board Games

etc.

Veggies from the garden

Our garden is really starting to produce veggies for us.  I don't have to purchase many veggies on my weekly shopping trips anymore - now they're coming fresh picked from the garden!  So far, this summer, we've eaten yellow wax beans, swiss chard, tomatoes, toy choi (baby bok choi), strawberries, and zucchini all from our garden here.

Girls play well together

Our beans are growing!

The bean seeds that L and I planted last week have now sprouted.  We planted green string beans and yellow wax bush beans.

And the pea seeds that V planted are just beginning to sprout too.

Let's paint!

Here's a beautiful painting by S using tempera paints.  Kids are such natural artists!

I purchased some larger paper and the girls have been enjoying making larger works of art.

Outdoor play area is all set up for the season!

 Well, I've got our outdoor play area all set up for the summer season now.

There is an adult size table with umbrella and a kid size one too.  There is a sand table and a separate water table.  There is our play house and a little slide.  There is also a shaded seating area for when the sun is really hot.

Recently, I've purchased a couple more riding toys, a magnetic fishing set, a plastic bowling set, more bouncy balls, a couple of sand & water mills, and some more sand toys too.  There are plenty of things for the kids to do outside now and they've been loving their outside time each day.

I've also gotten around to planting and setting up all the pots in my container garden.  In addition to flowers, I'm also growing 15 containers of fruits, veggies, and herbs.

On Monday, L helped me plant bean seeds in one of the raised beds in the front yard.  He did a great job and enjoyed watering it with the hose after we finished.

Today, V helped me plant snap pea seeds in a large container out back.  She likes the helper role and did a really great job too.

L's Animal Stack

The kids all love stickers.  Here's a picture that L made using animal stickers.  I love that he always puts so much thought into his placement of the stickers.  He came up with the idea of having the animals standing up on each other shortly after we read The Musicians of Bremen.

Butterfly release - take two

Today we released the last 5 butterflies.  The girls were so sweet and gentle as they watched the butterflies leave the habitat.  A couple of butterflies had gotten their wings wet, so they hung around for a bit while their wings dried in the sun.  V sang them sweet little songs.  And S timidly placed plastic grapes (toy play food) near them as a kind of offering.  So cute!

Butterfly release - take one

We released the first 5 butterflies today!  Maybe it was just the weather, but it seemed like the butterflies that had emerged first were starting to get restless.  I didn't want to risk them damaging their wings so we moved up our release date to today.

We were hoping that they'd stick around for a bit and land on the kids' brightly colored shirts, but that didn't happen.  As soon as the butterflies found their way out of the butterfly habitat, they took off!  Each one flew up high, over the house and they were gone.  L was pretty disappointed.

We saved 5 butterflies to release tomorrow since S wasn't here today to see this.