PAT deserves a PAT on the BACK

Have I mentioned lately how much I love Parents As Teachers (PAT)?  

My parent educator is fantastic and is the constant voice of reason when I go on my paranoid first time parent ramblings.  Short of physically coming to my house with her car to drive me to events, she could not make it easier for me to get to an event.  If anyone is looking for a PAT educator in the Francis Howell district, I would be happy to pass her name along!

So, with the help of Kelly (and my the calendar on my iPhone which I can sync with my laptop), I finally got organized and put all of the dates into my calendar for the many PAT events coming up in Amelia's age range.  

Last week, we got to bring Jason with us to Family Jumping Gym Night.  Exciting for us?  Not particularly.  But, PAT knows exactly how to engage little ones and they did not disappoint!  Amelia did a host of activities during our visit to the gym, but it was the last 15 minutes or so that she enjoyed the most.  They brought out a huge parachute for the kids to wave.  Then, the parents took over the parachute and made a "dome" over the kids who got underneath.  Lastly, the kids rode on top of the parachute as the parents walked it around in a circle.  The new word of the evening, "parachute" was spoken in such sentences as "me ride on parachute" and "parachute fun!" and "Mia go under parachute" the whole way home.

This week, we attended "Art in the Park" on Wednesday morning.  The theme for the art activities was "Wild, Wild West Adventures". They did such a great job coming up with 6 different theme related activities for the kids to do (and even sent more theme based ideas home).

Amelia's favorite was creating this ride-on "neigh, neigh" from an empty wrapping paper tube, some construction paper, and some yarn hair.  She rode it to each station and insisted on riding it down to the playground after we completed all of the centers (well five of the six), the whole time yelling "neigh, neigh" of course.  She (more like "we") also made a vest and stamped on a bandana to complete the cowgirl ensemble.

Here's the picture she made at the first station.  She was still pretty interested at the point.  By the time we got to the station where the vests were made, Amelia was pretty much just saying, "me ride neigh, neigh to playground, mommy" and riding in circles around me.

After a long day on the range, we came back to the old homestead and she munched on the trail mix snack sack she had made.  Actually, she picked out the 3  M&M's that were in the mix, popped them in her mouth and then announced she was "all done". No clue where she gets that!

Some More S'mores

Not for this little one!

Amelia enjoyed creating her first S'more sandwich the other night after dinner, but she was less than impressed with the delicacy itself.  After giving it a taste (a teeny, tiny taste I might add), she decided that a plain (uncooked) marshmallow was more her taste.    She was pretty disgusted with the melting marshmallows oozing out everywhere. 

 

Why we decided to give her this immediately following bath time is beyond me!  We'll blame that stroke of genius on her father!

Feeling Ballsy

After the success of the Energy Balls last Friday morning, I decided to give some Toddler Meatballs a try in the afternoon.  These were a favorite of Amelia's long ago, but like most foods she likes that are actually nutritious, a gave them to her too much.  So much, that she started to reject them.  But, after a 9 month hiatus, she's back on the meatball bandwagon again!

In case you have a toddler that may be interested:

Toddler Meatballs:

1 lb. ground turkey or ground beef

1 cup bread crumbs

1/4 cup wheat germ

1 egg

1/3 cup finely grated carrots (I added these because I had some leftover from the energy balls, its not a part of the original recipe).

spices such as garlic, pepper, basil, thyme, and/or oregano

Mix meat with bread crumbs, wheat germ, egg, and spices you've chosen.  (Recipe may call for more/less bread crumbs.  Vary measurements as needed).  Roll into balls, bake at 375 F until golden brown or for about 25-30 minutes.  Do not allow these to burn.  Cover the pan with tin foil to help prevent burning if needed.  Use a small baking pan so you can shake and roll meatballs around to help meatballs to cook evenly.  I serve them with spaghetti sauce or ketchup.  These freeze well!

Energy Balls

Not sure why a toddler would need more energy, but these little treats are quite a delight!  I've made them many times since I introduced peanut butter to Amelia and they are always a hit with her!  However, the best part about these little guys is easy carrots in the belly.

Here's the recipe:

1/4 cup finely grated carrots

1/4 cup rolled oats or Granola

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup wheat germ

1/4 cup sunflower seeds (I left these out because I didn't have any)

1 T. honey

3 T. peanut butter

Mix and roll into balls.  Granola makes these balls more tasty and add a nice crunch.

Not for the Faint of Heart

Since Halloween is a mere 6 weeks away, we decided we better get on the ball and do some spooky decorating around the house. We brought all of our decorations out of storage last weekend and put them up, but due to the rainy weather we had much of these week, Amelia and I decided to add a few homemade ones too. Hopefully they won't frighten you too much!

We started out by making spooky hand print ghosts. I painted Amelia's hand white and pressed it on to black paper. When the "ghosts" dried, I drew some faces on with black marker.

Then, we decided it would be fun to trace some bats for our family room windows. Pretty scary, huh?

After that, we made a Halloween chain to decorate our mantel. Amelia helped pick out the next strip to make our pattern and got her first tries at stapling.

Famished from all the making and decorating, Amelia sat down for a scary monster snack. I know--its almost too frightening to look at isn't it?

Howell-A-Palooza

Our school district, Francis Howell, organized a district-wide event this week called "Howell-a-Palooza".  When I attempted to google it to get exact times and directions, google thought I meant "Lalapalooza".  It may have been the first time in history that google's suggestion is NOT what I intended to write.

Jason and I thought we'd try it out since they were supposed to have lots of Early Childhood activities, plus performances by the local high school bands, dance teams, cheerleaders, etc.  Amelia and I decided we would meet Jason at the halfway point since he would be coming from work.  Ultimately, due to the popularity of "Howell-A-Palooza", a ride that should have taken us about 20 minutes, took close to 40 minutes. 

Once we arrived and parked on the soccer field (?!?!--Isn't is boy's soccer season??), we followed the rest of the families walking toward the school.  We met Amelia's friend, Natalie, and her family in the parking lot.  Luckily, we encountered a woman passing out maps who said, "I'll give you one of these now because God knows you won't find them inside". 

The map was our savior.  I am sure without it we would still be roaming the hallways looking for the Early Childhood activities.

Once we found them, though, Amelia loved all of them!  She kept going from one station to the next.  She enjoyed playing in a pool of balls, making an American flag, throwing bean bags at a target, and playing in a huge tub of cornmeal.

  

She spent most of her time, however, playing in the "musical parade".  Everyone grabs an instrument and marches in a parade while playing their instrument.  This is something we do at home pretty often, so she jumped right in and didn't want to leave!

When we finally peeled her away from the parade, we took her outside to see the fire engine sitting in the parking lot. When it was her turn to sit in the cab, she told the

 fireman to "close the door".  She was denied, thankfully.  Although the picture doesn't quite show her enthusiasm, she loved sitting up there and pretending to drive.

By this point, we are all starving so we headed over to "taste of Howell", which we thought sounded like we'd be sampling the various cafeteria offerings from around the district.  In fact, it was a gathering of 40 restaurants in the area and after you paid $10 at the door, it was an all-

you-can-eat type set-up.  However, when we arrived they were out of food!  Apparently, the organizers didn't anticipate so many attendees.  

So, our family and Natalie's family opted out of the band performances that were starting on the football field and headed to Bandana's for dinner instead.  We were shocked as we were leaving that the traffic to get in was still backed up for miles!  

Jason, I, and Natalie's parents decided that next year we are

 getting a hotel out by the "venue" and tailgating beforehand.  Oh, the popularity of Howell-A-

Palooza!  

The Man Who Walked Between the Towers

I haven't noticed much going on today to remember 9/11.  I only ventured out briefly this morning to the grocery store, but I saw no flags up around my neighborhood.  I didn't see anyone wearing red, white, and blue.  And it hasn't been the top story today on CNN.com--my only connection to the outside world since I rarely watch TV for listen to the radio during the day. 

It could be that my isolated self  is just missing all of the 9/11 talk.

Either way, I was wondering what I could do with Amelia to remember the day.  There isn't much you can do with a two year old to memorialize a tragedy she cannot even begin to understand. I decided we would put a small, American flag out by our mailbox.  Then, I remembered the book I have (The Man Who Walked Between the Towers) about a man who tight rope walked between the World Trade Center towers back in 1974.  The tale is true and an interesting one and the book has great illustrations.  At the end of the story, it mentions that "now the towers are gone" and shows a picture of where the towers once stood.  On the next page, a ghost of the two towers remains and the author says, "But in memory, as if imprinted on the sky the towers are still there.  And part of that memory is the joyful morning, August 7, 1974, when Philippe Petit walked between them in the air".  Needless to say, this book was part of our day today.

Its hard to believe its been 7 years already.

Rainbow Brite!

We did a variation of this activity this week.  This may have been Amelia's favorite activity we've ever done.  She kept giggling and saying, "More colors, mommy".  

We started out with four colors.  I put a tiny drop of food coloring in each container.

Then, I gave Amelia a small measuring cup of water and showed her how to pour it into the container.  Before she started pouring, I asked her to guess which color the water would become.  

After we did the first four colors, she begged for more, so I tried to do some variations with the colors.  I was only moderately successful at this, but it was fun anyway.  Amelia guessed the color "black" for what was supposed to be purple and she was more right than I!  During the last go around, I made sure to give her different amounts of water to pour so we could talk about "most" and "least".

We couldn't resist the temptation to add all of the colors together at the end to make a horribly disgusting brown color.

It's the little things!

Who knew styrofoam and toothpicks could be so much fun?  

Apparently this woman!  Amelia loved this and has come back to it several times since I first showed it to her.

Guess I'll add styrofoam to her Christmas list :)

Saturday Night's Alright

Saturday was great!  Grandma came to pick Amelia up in the morning and then Jason and I headed out for the day.  We had lunch at Olive Garden (we were both craving the soup, salad, and breadsticks combo) and then went to see my friend Tracy's play (which was excellent!). While we were killing time in between plays, we decided to do some shopping at Target and ran into a very old friend of ours.  Jason and I met in high school because we both worked at Target.  The girl we ran into worked with us there, too.  She mentioned that the St. Blaise (Holy Trinity) picnic was this weekend (she also went to the same grade school as Jason) and talked it up so much, that we decided that after the second play, we would take Amelia out there for the evening.

We met up with Grandma and Amelia and made our way to Holy Trinity.  Dave met us in the parking lot and Amelia was super excited to him.  Unfortunately, Amelia was too short to ride on any rides alone, so Uncle Dave stepped right in and offered to take her on the dinosaur ride she had been eyeing.  For those of you who don't know, Dave is 6'6" and built like a football player.  He hopped into the dinosaur and Amelia squeezed in next to him.  With his knees up to his chin, he struggled to clip the seat belt around him and Amelia.  He decided he couldn't do it and was about to get out when the carnival ride operator came by and didn't seem to notice or care that the seat belt was not fastened.  Looking at the two of them in the dinosaur, it was clear that Amelia wasn't going anywhere, seat belt or no seat belt.  What a sight to see them in there together!  At one point, a passing teenage girl looked up, saw Dave and said, "OH MY GOSH! Is he going to fall out of there??"

Again, I assure you, neither Amelia nor Dave were going anywhere.

She also enjoyed a ride on the cars, which was only captured with Grandma's camera for some reason.

We grabbed some dinner and enjoyed the live music in the "beer garden".  After listening to a few songs, Amelia said, "Beauty and the Beast?" and pointed to the band.  I guess that was her attempt at requesting a song.

She played some games after dinner, including the Price Is Right inspired "Plinko" where Amelia's cute face (not her Plinko-playing ability) earned her a stuffed monkey.  She also grabbed some ducks at the "Duck Pond" and won some fun prizes there.  One of the prizes she scored was a parachuting soldier that we've been chucking off the second story balcony at our house!