Spring & Easter Play

Spring has sprung and what a rebirth of life has been brought with it.  I think I forget how much we need light and life until spring comes around again.  Luckily we had a mild winter, but we enjoyed the warm and signs of life and growth no less.  We got right to celebrating spring and Easter.  I always say this but I love giving the kiddies the opportunities to play and learn about their environment at the same time.  SO here’s how we did it… 

Bird Feeder (s)

Lyla, you love birds and notes them on our walks.  SO I knew we had to make a bird feeder this spring. The first one we made was peanut butter coated on a paper towel roll and then rolled in bird feed. We put it over the trampoline enclosure post hoping to attract the birds. We were so excited to watch the birds but for days and days it yielded no interest. One day you sat by the window and watched for almost a half hour. It was so funny because at one point we thought we saw a bird land and you quickly grabbed your bug catcher net and ran for the window. LOL. False alarm though. After a few weeks I decided it was a bust and went looking for a new option. This time I had you paint a milk jug. Then I cut out the middle and filled it with feed. We strung it on the fence, not too hopeful this time. A few days later we spotted out first visitor! We were both so excited!!! We still get so excited every time we have a little visitor which has been pretty frequent. Oh I just love doing stuff like this with you.

Water Can

You also painted a jug to be used as a watering can for our plants. Dad screwed some holes in the lid.

Spring Chickens

Lyla you’ve been into feathers since I introduced them awhile back. So of course we had to make a chicken! You did so well packing every possible feather you could into this little toilet paper roll. You’re getting so coordinated.

Decoupage Carrots

You loved ripping up the paper for this activity but was much less interested the gluing part. I finished them after because I didn’t want to waste the glue and when I was done you couldn’t have been more proud of your accomplishment

Decorated Flowers

You love when I get the little divider of gems and stickers and pom poms out. You always say “ewww” at the invitation. You’ve clearly gotten more creative and confident in your abilities because this time you took individual pom poms and glued them onto the gems.

This time we had a two-step process of first painting the flowers and then decorating. We glued popsicle sticks on the ends to make them complete. They were beautiful

Homemade Kite!

This activity was nothing but frustrating for me.  LOL.  I guess it’s good for me to see how you feel sometimes when you’re doing something beyond your abilities.  I could not follow the instructions to fold the paper the right way.  LOL  By the time I figured it out you were over it.  But quickly become more interested when we went outside to fly it.  You did all the decorating and helped me tape on the supports.  Of course the day we went to fly it it wasn’t windy.  The tutorial claimed it could still be flown just by running but we didn’t have the same luck!  Oh well, you and I had fun running back and forth across the backyard anyway. 

 

Catch Bugs!

Thanks to these $1 nets found at Michaels, we’ve had all sorts of fun!  We take the nets out and catch all sorts of things

Butterflies!

Lyla you’re big into butterflies.  I’m not sure why but you get so excited when every you see one in real life or on Mickey.  So of course we had to decorate butterflies.  I love watching your choose how to embellish each one.  You take each one very serious and do them all very different.  They all turned out spectacular.

 

 

 

My Very Own Plants

Lyla, you painted teracotta pots for you and Charlotte in the most beautiful spring colors.  You really got into it and covered the whole pot in beautiful colors.  After they dried you planted them with sunflower seeds (my thought; least likely to die).  I taught you about planting things and how to make them grow and prayed that they’d stay alive.  You’ve since diligently watered them nearly every day and at first asked to look at them every day.  It’s been so fun to watch their progress.  They’re currently growing beautifully. 

 

 

Garden Ornaments

We painted a bird and bunny lawn ornaments using the glitter paint we got for Easter.  unfortunately I didn’t get pics of the finished product before they blew away!

Farm Visit

Thanks to our friend Sami we got to visit the farm animals again this year!  They even had the horses out so we could pet them.  At first you were timid but then you opened right up and even brushed one!  You said “I brush it’s hair”.  Yes you did babe.  We also saw some pigs and a goat.  Char was sleeping so she missed out but we had fun one on one!

Sponge Flower

We used our old sponge as a stamp to make a flower!  You got a kick out of the way the paint looked when you diped the sponge into it.  I mostly let you go to town stamping wherever you wanted and then painted stem later.  This was early in spring and explained to you that pretty soon these would be growing in our front yard!

Hand Print Art

With your babysitter Emily, we discovered that you LOVE tracing your hand.  You think it’s hilarious when you move your hand and the outline is there on the paper.  You ask to do it so often.  SO we’ve been doing all sorts of art using your handprints.  We’ve made both grandma’s flowers for Mother’s Day and also made one for Reagan our bestie to wish her well after her surgery.  I love how proud you are of them.