Cool Chicks!

We have now made 3 separate trips to the library to observe the hatching of the chicks that are currently residing there.  Each of the St. Charles County libraries started with an incubator of eggs last week and this week they all have chicks!

We first checked out the boring old eggs and not surprisingly, Amelia was unimpressed.  She was not at all interested in my detailed explanation about the chicks inside.  In fact, I think she may have mentioned something about wanting to dye them instead!

Yesterday, she and GG headed to one of the branches to look at the newly hatched chicks and Amelia was completely taken.  I talked to her from work during my lunch break and she couldn't stop telling me about how cute they were and that she thought it was funny that one was sleeping in the food bowl.  I asked her if she heard them "cheeping" and she said, "No, they were in a glass coffin like Snow White".

Leave it to my daughter to find yet another real-life parallel to a Disney princess movie!  I swear its never ending.  No fear, though, the chicks were not in a coffin, but instead in a covered aquarium-like container.

Today, we made our third trip to see the little creatures and couldn't believe how big they were already.  Amelia spent about 15 minutes standing on a stool watching the chicks.  She especially liked hearing them "cheep, cheep, cheep".  (No "coffins" at this particular branch, they had a wooden box with mesh sides, so she could hear all of their little noises).

Despite my best intentions, I too was so taken by the cute little chicks that I forgot to take some pictures.  Maybe we'll be able to catch them one more time before they "go home" (as the library put it) on Friday.

They're Back!

It was the 99 cent bag of fresh spinach that prompted the return of some fun eating tricks around our house.  Some of you long-time readers may remember THIS POST about sneaking veggies into fruit smoothies.  I got away from this a bit during the winter months because the assortment of fruit available wasn't that great.  But, with the cheap bagged spinach and more varieties of fruit showing up at the produce market, game on!

I usually add whatever I have on hand and always include yogurt and some sort of juice (apple, orange, grape, cranberry, etc.).  We always have a stash of frozen blueberries and still have blackberries left from our Fair Shares days.  I have also added pineapple, strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew, and bananas.  As for the veggies, aside from spinach (which works great!), I have also added cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots.  I would not suggest adding peas, as the taste of them doesn't get covered up very well--yuck!  I sometimes add a little sugar or vanilla extract if I'm feeling crazy.  It really is amazing how well the fruit covers up the veggie taste!

I have heard from many, many, many of you that you use this for your kids and it has worked like a charm.  I have also heard from a few of you who haven't been quite so lucky!  Fortunately for us, it works for Amelia every time!

And since the smoothies are back, I decided it would be as good a time as any to try out the muffin tin lunch again.  I think weekly is too often for us to partake in this little treat, but once every month or two is great to spice up lunchtime around here.

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Dear Daddy, 

I hope you have a great day!  Enjoy your flight to (and from) Chicago today and I can't wait to celebrate with you on Wednesday!  I am so excited to help you blow out ALL of your candles and show you what I made.  Mommy and I love you a very, very lots!

Your Baby Girl,

Amelia

Foolin' Around

I really like the thought of April Fool's Day, but rarely ever do anything to "celebrate" it.  I mean, sure, I save articles with cute food tricks all of the time, but when it comes down to it, I either forget or am too lazy to get it all together.

But, this year that all changed!  While we were eating breakfast, I said to Amelia that it is April Fool's Day and her response was, "we are supposed to trick someone!".  I had no idea that she and her father had already discussed this "holiday", so over our morning pancakes, we developed a plan to trick Daddy!  Luckily, just yesterday I received a new Family Fun magazine with some cute April Fool's ideas.

We went with the "fish sticks" dinner and "peas" and it actually worked out pretty good!  The "fish sticks" are actually vanilla wafer cookies covered in peanut butter and rolled in crushed corn flakes.  The "peas" are watermelon flavor Airhead taffy rolled into tiny balls.  The "ketchup" is supposed to be strawberry jam, but we only had raspberry and it looked a bit darker than it should have. The fish sticks looked pretty realistic.  The peas, though?  Not so much.

To accompany dinner, Amelia and I made a tricky drink too!  It looked like some sort of red punch, but was really strawberry Jell-O!  Here are the two of them trying to sip their drinks.

And if that wasn't enough, I was intrigued by the message in the commode idea.  All you have to do is write a message on some TP using a permanent marker and float it in the water.  Amelia could hardly wait until Jason had to use the potty and pretty much as soon as he walked in asked him if he needed to go.

Amelia didn't quite understand all of the trickery going on, but she really got a kick out of watching Jason be "surprised" at all of the jokes we played.  I've already started planning for next year, FAMILY FUN has so many cute ideas!

100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten

I don't know what it is about me and lists--I just can't get enough!  I came across this one and thought other moms may be interested as well!  It is a list of books that apparently every child should "read" before kindergarten.  Although, this is just one library's opinion and there are other similar lists posted all over the internet.  Some of the books I totally agree with and others I am not so sure.  Maybe I will make my own list when I am done with this one!

(The titles we've already read are in bold, I am hoping to read one each week until we finish the list!)

100 Books to Read Before Kindergarten

"More, More, More" Said the Baby

A Nap in a Lap

A Splendid Friend, Indeed

ABC, Like Me!

Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Alphabet City

Alphabet Rescue

Amazing Grace

An Extraordinary Egg

Angelina Ballerina

Bark, George

Barnyard Banter

Bear in a Square

Big Fat Hen

Book! Book! Book!

Bread and Jam for Frances

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do You See?

Caps for Sale

Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Chrysanthemum

Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type

Come Along Daisy

Come on, Rain!

Corduroy

Counting Kisses

Curious George

Daisy 1, 2, 3

Does a Cow Say Boo?

Duck on a Bike

Each Peach Pear Plum

Eating the Alphabet

Fancy Nancy

First the Egg

Five Little Monkeys Jumping on the Bed

Freight Train

Goodnight Moon

Gossie

Guess How Much I Love You

Hands Can

Happy Birthday Moon

Hear Are My Hands

Henry Hikes to Fitchburg

How Do Dinosaurs Say Goodnight?

How I Became a Pirate

I Ain't Gonna Paint No More!

I Kissed the Baby

I Went Walking

If You Give a Mouse a Cookie

In the Tall, Tall Grass

Is Your Mama a Llama?

It Looked Like Spilt Milk

Jamberry

Jazz Baby

Jump Frog, Jump

Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity

Little Red Hen

Little Toot

Llama, Llama Red Pajama

Love You Forever

Maisy Goes Swimming

Make Way For Ducklings

Mama Cat Has Three Kittens

Mama, Do You Love Me?

Max Cleans Up

Max's ABC

Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten

Mouse Mess

Mouse Paint

Mr. Grumpy's Outing

Muncha! Muncha! Muncha

My Friend Rabbit

My Very First Mother Goose

Nana Upstairs, Nana Downstairs

Old Black Fly

Olivia

One Beautiful Baby

Planting a Rainbow

Rosie's Walk

Silly Sally

Snowy Day

Spots, Feathers and Curly Tails

Ten Tiny Tickles

Ten, Nine, Eight

The Doorbell Rang

The Hat

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

The Little Engine that Could

The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear

The Napping House

The Story of Babar

The Tale of Peter Rabbit

The Three Bears

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

There was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly

There's a Nightmare in My Closet

Wemberly Worried

Where the Wild Things Are

Where's My Teddy

Where's Spot?

 

Girl Cheese

Me: Would you like some chicken nuggets for lunch today?

Amelia:  No.

Me:  How about peanut butter and jelly?

Amelia:  No.

Me:  Would you like grilled cheese?  That is what I am going to have today.

Amelia:  Yes!  I'm a girl and you're a girl so we will both have girl cheese!

Concentration

Who are these handsome people you ask?  They are game pieces for my newest naptime creation.  I took the idea from the amazing blog, CHASING CHEERIOS, and am eager to try these out with Amelia.  She has been really into Memory lately, so I am sure this will go over well.   

I bought the wooden disks at Michael's for under $3.  There were 22 in the pack, so I will definitely be getting some more as she grows to make the game more challenging.  So, watch out if I happen to have a 1.5 inch picture of you laying around!

I used Mod Podge to put the pictures on the wooden disk and then put a layer over the picture to keep it protected.  I am hoping they will last a long time!

 

Bippity Boppity Boo

Anyone who hangs out at our house long enough will most assuredly be turned into a dog, pumpkin, or perhaps even Cinderella herself.  Thankfully, GG finally made a magic wand with poor Amelia who was using any long, narrow object (ruler, pencil, mop, licorice stick) she could get her little hands on as a wand.  Apparently, we are not quite out of the princess phase just yet--in fact, it seems to be stronger than ever!

So, I've decided "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" and have given into Amelia's princess tendencies.  This magic wand snack was a huge hit and vanished, well, just like magic (despite the frozen peas adorning the star)!

Four Eyes

Silly....

Silly....

Silly Girl!

The Writing on the Wall

Seems like the only way I can get Amelia's hair looking decent these days is to throw her in front of the mirror with a dry erase marker and let her have at it!