Disclaimer: The project only required an hourly check, so any fights, meltdowns or timeouts that happened in between the hour are not recorded, so the results are a little skewed. Still, we did have a pretty good day even with those non-recorded meltdowns!
So, here it is....a day in the life.
7:15 Abby wakes up in a particularly good mood. She wants to eat breakfast immediately. It might have something to do with the Fruit Loops we bought yesterday in honor of Jackson’s birthday week.
7:30 Jackson wakes up, following suit with the excitement about breakfast. Jackson eats cereal like he is Cookie Monster, very enthusiastically and very messy!
9:00 The kids are building forts in the living room and are surprisingly not fighting over the pillows, blankets, stuffed animals or who gets which side. All is good.
10:00 Jackson, the budding artist, works on art project #13 for the day, while Abby pouts, cries and screams about getting dressed. It’s what she does every morning, so nobody in the house is surprised or phased by her behavior. We eventually coax her into an outfit.
11:00 We have successfully left the house and have arrived at the Peggy Notebart Nature Museum. We spend way too much time in the waterworks room getting soaking wet. Abby proceeds to spend way too much time under the dryer, but it doesn’t matter since everyone is happy!
12:00 We were disappointed that the upstairs treehouse was closed for construction, but happy enough to play on the slide/tunnel/ship/treehouse area downstairs. We pretend to eat snakes, be pirates, fend off evil beavers and take naps in the cave. We are happy, but hungry…time to head home!
1:00 Lunch. If you plan well enough, any meal can go without issue at our house. You will need: the purple spoon, the mermaid plate, maga’s cup and two booster seats on the opposite side of the table. You might also want to consider not putting any fruits or vegetables on Abby’s plate if you don’t want to get a dirty look. Luckily for us, we were well prepared for lunch and all went well.
2:00 While at the Nature Museum (see above) we read about making your own crayons. Fun! Thought we’d try it out for ourselves. The project involves finding all of your own broken crayons, combining them in your sprayed muffin tins and watching them melt together in the oven for 7-8 minutes at 275 degrees. The kids loved it. If this project were about the parents’ moods, I would say that the cleaning of the muffin pan tarnished the overall project a little. But it’s not about us, it’s about the kids, and they loved the project! Still, next time I think I'd use muffin pan liners.
3:00 Baking cookies. Enough said.
4:00 Per a supermom’s suggestion, (Thanks Amy!) we introduced Uno to the kids this afternoon. We adjusted the rules a little, played open faced and the kids loved it. It snowballed into the kids pulling out every game we own to play! We played Chutes & Ladders (the regular version), Chutes & Ladders (the Superhero version), Memory and Gone Fishing. Everyone had the chance to win so everyone was happy!
5:00 Dress up! We pulled out the Halloween costumes to play dress up. Abby managed to get into the kitty costume that is a size 6 months and the monkey costume that is a size 12 months. Maybe we should donate those? There were several costume changes, including Spiderman, a Dragon, a Spider and Wonder Woman. The only downside was when we made them take them off for dinner. Who likes a messy superhero?
12:00 We were disappointed that the upstairs treehouse was closed for construction, but happy enough to play on the slide/tunnel/ship/treehouse area downstairs. We pretend to eat snakes, be pirates, fend off evil beavers and take naps in the cave. We are happy, but hungry…time to head home!
1:00 Lunch. If you plan well enough, any meal can go without issue at our house. You will need: the purple spoon, the mermaid plate, maga’s cup and two booster seats on the opposite side of the table. You might also want to consider not putting any fruits or vegetables on Abby’s plate if you don’t want to get a dirty look. Luckily for us, we were well prepared for lunch and all went well.
2:00 While at the Nature Museum (see above) we read about making your own crayons. Fun! Thought we’d try it out for ourselves. The project involves finding all of your own broken crayons, combining them in your sprayed muffin tins and watching them melt together in the oven for 7-8 minutes at 275 degrees. The kids loved it. If this project were about the parents’ moods, I would say that the cleaning of the muffin pan tarnished the overall project a little. But it’s not about us, it’s about the kids, and they loved the project! Still, next time I think I'd use muffin pan liners.
3:00 Baking cookies. Enough said.4:00 Per a supermom’s suggestion, (Thanks Amy!) we introduced Uno to the kids this afternoon. We adjusted the rules a little, played open faced and the kids loved it. It snowballed into the kids pulling out every game we own to play! We played Chutes & Ladders (the regular version), Chutes & Ladders (the Superhero version), Memory and Gone Fishing. Everyone had the chance to win so everyone was happy!
5:00 Dress up! We pulled out the Halloween costumes to play dress up. Abby managed to get into the kitty costume that is a size 6 months and the monkey costume that is a size 12 months. Maybe we should donate those? There were several costume changes, including Spiderman, a Dragon, a Spider and Wonder Woman. The only downside was when we made them take them off for dinner. Who likes a messy superhero?
6:00 Dinner time. Jackson and Abby eat amazingly well and are awarded with fresh baked cookies (see above).
7:00 Time for bed! Everyone has gotten into their jammies, brushed their teeth and chosen their 2 books to read and their side of the couch. Jackson will fall asleep in 2.2 minutes and Abby will negotiate with us about things she might need in her bed (books, flowers, diapers, more books, wipes, purses, pretend cupcakes, stuffed animals-no not that pink bear- and many blankets). She will whine and cry and ask for another backrub and won't fall asleep until after Matt is already snoring on the couch. This is what we do every night, so nobody is surprised or phased by her behavior. This doesn't mean that we don't desperately wish she would just GO TO SLEEP!
7:00 Time for bed! Everyone has gotten into their jammies, brushed their teeth and chosen their 2 books to read and their side of the couch. Jackson will fall asleep in 2.2 minutes and Abby will negotiate with us about things she might need in her bed (books, flowers, diapers, more books, wipes, purses, pretend cupcakes, stuffed animals-no not that pink bear- and many blankets). She will whine and cry and ask for another backrub and won't fall asleep until after Matt is already snoring on the couch. This is what we do every night, so nobody is surprised or phased by her behavior. This doesn't mean that we don't desperately wish she would just GO TO SLEEP! 
Wow. That is a great day!
ReplyDeleteI loved our project day too! Great photos. You have inspired me to blog about it :) Did Jackson have his birthday? Please wish him a happy one from Maeve too!!!
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