A catch up post!

 

There was an invasion of relatives over here, so I'm posting a few weeks in one in order to catch up a little!  I opted out of the Dora and Transformer-themed "valentines" parties at various places around town and we did our only little thing with a friend and her two daughters.  We made some collages with the supplies shown at left.  The children there were aged four, three, two and one so it was an amazing array of skill and so neat to see what really interested each kid at their own level!  The two year old was happy to sit for more than an hour to just glue and glue and glue, while Silas was off and up to play with the four year old after only fifteen minutes.  Their pictures turned out really well, though and I was glad I didn't bring out the paint too.  Collages are much easier to clean up after!

We also decorated cupcakes.  I made a family recipe based on cake mix, but with more ingredients added. It's just not Valentine's Day unless you have Cherry Chip cupcakes.  Each child was given their own plate like this.  I figured they might stick on a candy or two and eat the rest, but no!  I was pleasantly surprised to see that they took their decorating jobs very seriously!

Some other stuff we did during quiet time around her included this great big wooden puzzle Silas received from his grandparents a few years ago.  He's finally big enough to be able to complete this almost independently, with just a few suggestions from me.

I also pulled out this dollar store version of Four In A Row, but didn't go so far as to explain the rules.  Mostly we just had fun inserting the coins and dropping them out the bottom.  Next time I may get into the rules and we'll play an actual game, if he'd like.

We played memory with 1/2 of our Shape Snap cards I bought from Usborne books. Silas is getting better and better at thinking before he grabs the same two cards over and over again.  Sometimes his memory surprises me!

I love this picture!  Silas was so proud of himself for completing Kumon's My First Book of Mazes.  He's been working on this book diligently whenever I put it in his "Game Time Drawers" for almost a year now.  He's now moved on to Kumon's My First Book of Mazes.  I meant to buy him the book of Easy Mazes, but somehow I came home with this one. Doesn't matter, he's doing just fine anyhow!

One of the reasons I'm behind in posting (and have hardly any pictures for the last week!) is because we've been invaded by relatives.  My cousin, her husband and their new baby were up visiting from California, so family has flocked into our town from all over the province in order to visit with them!  We had SO much fun together, but honestly, I'm relieved that things have gotten back to normal.  Now I just need to finish cleaning up my house!  The picture above was taken at my cousin's house.  Silas is playing the piano with his brother while a few little cousins dance around the room behind them.  A good time was had by all ages!  It's really neat to see how the generations get together and enjoy one another, even if we don't get to do it often.

I'm linking this post to the Weekly Wrap Up.