I saw an idea on Pinterest that I thought Lil would really like.  I’ve seen a few different variation of this same idea, I like Allison’s best.

It really couldn’t be more simple.  With some blue painter’s tape I taped some clear contact paper to Lily’s little bench with the sticky side up.  I have her a bunch of different things to stick to it and she went crazy.  We talked about how it was sticky, well I talk to her, she ignored me and stuck things to the contact paper.

She really liked it and I think it’s going to become a part of our play routine.

We haven’t had much snow here this winter and I’m surprised to say that I’m a bit sad, but I’m sad for Lil so it’s not so surprising. She had so much fun playing in the snow in Montana and she keeps asking me when we’re going to get to do it again that I just feel bad that we haven’t had a day or two more then we have had. So the last time she asked I told her that we’d drive up to the mountains and find her some snow. Waldo told her the same thing later that day or the next day so we figured we’d better really do this.

Waldo’s brother gave us an idea of a good place to go that was about 45 minutes away. We got as ready as we were going to get and we were off. The drive was closer to 90 minutes, but we got to Idaho City and just past the tiny town they have a whole hill and play area for sledding. I guess the people of Idaho City take their sledding pretty seriously, all 450 of them. There were port-a-potties and dogs, lots of dogs. A few people had set up camp fires and had chairs set up around them. We thought that was pretty weird, but I guess they probably thought we were the weird ones. In our canvas shoes and jeans, Waldo and I anyway. Lily had jeans and rain boots on. We figured out really quickly that we are city people, small cities, but cities non the less. We are not made for hanging out in the snow.

After finding a parking place and getting Lil’s jacket and all of our gloves on we surveyed the sledding area and decided on a area out past the majority of people because there was a very gradual hill there and we thought Lil would have more fun there. There was a reason that all of the seasoned sledders weren’t playing over there and we figured it out quickly. On our way to our chosen spot we wondered off of the trampled path for a bit and ended up in snow up to our knees. Once we worked our way the edge of the wonder-hill’s area it became so hard to walk, because just about every step your feet would break though the snow and you’d end up to your ankles if we were lucky, our knees if we were and then have to try to take another step. Even thought I know that snow had many different characteristics on any given day I always assume that it’s light and fluffy. Not this snow, it was too frozen, hard, it had sharp edges and wouldn’t stick together for anything. Lil really wanted to make a snow cat, but this snow would have none of that. When we finally got to wonder-hill Waldo loaded Lil on the sled and took her up the little incline and let her go.

She loved it.

They went up and down a dozen or so times and I took pictures.

After a bit Waldo was tired of pulling his legs our of the snow and Lil was tried of being cold so we started the trek back to the car.

At this point Waldo realizes his jacket is still hanging out on a tree and I’m closer (but not by much) so I turn around and go back for it. This was so miserable. Every time my foot would break thought the snow I felt little razors on my leg and my shoe was full of ice, it just wasn’t fun. After I got back to him and gave him his jacket I took a look at my leg and it was bleeding a little bit from the sharp edges of the snow. Let me repeat myself, the sharp edges of the SNOW. I would have taken a picture, but I didn’t shave so I wouldn’t have shown it to anyone anyway.

After trudging past the majority of sledders I offered Lil a little bit of free play in the snow before we left. She didn’t want to do that, but while she was thinking about it Waldo and I decided to give sledding another try at a spot where the snow looked shallower. It was a lie, it was just as deep, but we could get there from the parking lot a lot easier. So we let Lil have some more sledding time.

She didn’t even really mind falling off the sled.  She just got back on that horse sled and told Daddy to “do it again, but this time don’t fall me off.”

This was easily the best part of the day and made the whole thing worth our while. Lily had so much fun sledding and can’t wait to do it again.

Just to prove what city folk we truly are, none of us had extra socks when we got back to the car. The diaper bag, thankfully had extra pants and underwear for Lil, but somehow even that held no socks. We had to drive to the tiny local grocery store (if you can really call it that) and buy socks. Of course they had no kiddo socks so I had to buy her women’s socks and we called them tights. She didn’t fall for it and hated them, but they warmed her feet so she left them on. When we got home she told me to take them back to the store and when I told her we couldn’t and I would just use them she told me to take a picture of them. So I did.

I am trying hard to stick with my one goal for this year of taking a family picture on the first of each month.  Woot, two months in a row.  Today is extra special because it’s Waldo’s birthday.  Happy birthday Honey!  We were on our way out the door for his birthday dinner and I had his Mom take this picture.

I was watching a clip from youtube working on my computer while Lil was playing with her Potato Heads in the floor.  The speech that Lil gave me is one that happens in various forms pretty often and I think is adorable.

“Mama this potato head needs the bow.”

“Ok, I think it will look great on him, go ahead and put it on him.”

“I can’t. It’s hard for Lily Beans so I can’t.  It’s not hard for Mamas though so I need you to do it because it’s hard for Lily Beans”

“Well if it’s hard for Lily Beans I’ll do it.”

I think the bow tie was the perfect touch for that potato head.

The last time we went to the zoo in December the snow leopard put on a show for us. I guess it makes sense that in the warmer part of the year he just lays around, but now that it’s cold he’s all get up and go. He is a SNOW Leopard, which I would take to mean that he lives in a cold part of the world. It was fun to watch him be so frisky.

The dark haired little girl in the videos is just some random stranger, but a very cute one.

Waldo was looking at my WordPress dashboard for some reason the other day and brought it to my attention that I was at something like 395 posts.  I was honestly surprised considering how sporadically I post, but I made a mental note to make some comment when I posted number 400.  Well I goofed that up and totally didn’t even remember to check before I hit publish.  So today’s post is number 401, Hizaa!

Now on to what I really wanted to share today:  Lily and the poofballs.

I am trying to come up with great fun home preschool stuff for Lily and me to do. As a once upon a time preschool teacher this should be easy for me, but it isn’t. First off it was a lifetime ago that I taught preschool and secondly the preschools had their own curriculum and I just had to read, prep and do. None of it was my idea so I don’t remember any of it.

I have been stalking Pinterest for ideas and have a lot of them already. So expect to see a few more posts with Pinterest links in them.

I know I saw many different pins with this same idea, but I can’t find a single one. Anyway the point is the kiddo manipulates the poofballs with tongs.

It’s good for color recognition, hand-eye coordination, counting (although Lil’s not into numbers right now and it’s driving me mad, but you know how kids are, tomorrow will be all about numbers) and dexterity. And of course fun.

I gave her three colors of balls, three little containers and the new bamboo tongs we bought the other day and she went to town. First I had her put all of one color in each container, then she sort of ran with it. I tried to get her to count the balls with me, but that was a no go.

After putting them in their separate containers for a while she started using the tongs take them from one container to another, which is also a good learning thing.

This went on for probably 15 minutes so I felt it was a pretty successful home ed sesion. After she got bored with the tongs she grabbed the poofballs and went to throw them at the cats.

I woke up the next morning and found a poofball or three under me in bed. I swear they are multiplying. There might be a follow up post about Tribbles happening soon.

We are still completely obsessed with the zoo and go as often as possible. Since we go so often I don’t take many pictures anymore, but I can’t help myself and take a few.

We pretty much had to wrestle Lily into her new jacket. I don’t understand why she didn’t want to wear it because she looks so cute in it and it’s her favorite color and once she was in it she liked it.

I love that she feeds the goats by herself now and looks forward to it.  It’s very gross and I can’t stand it, but she likes it.

In all of the times that we’ve been to this zoo we have never seen the red panda before.  I thought it was very exciting, I think I was the only one.

This is a Bald Cypress tree. It isn’t from our region, but the zoo has like 2 of them for conservation.  The little things sticking up at the base of the tree are it’s roots or something.  Waldo said it looked like chipmunks bowing down to their god.  Because of his comment I had to take a picture.

The zoo has this cute jeep in the Africa area and Lily loves it.  She likes to “drive” Waldo (who is usually in the car with her).

We got a close up visit with the big male lion this time.  We’ve been up close with the lioness before, but the male usually hangs out in middle of the yard.  This was a real treat.

I got the idea to do streamer painting from the book First Art.  You take some streamer (ours were leftover from Lily’s birthday), roll it up and tape the end together.

Dip the non-taped end in water and go to town.

I was honestly surprised at how much ink came out of the streamers. You just need a little bit of water or they get very soggy, very fast. I found that these fell apart pretty quickly, but the author claims you can snip the soggy end off and keep going. I just don’t see it working though.
You know, I didn’t read the instructions very well and just improvised. I bet she meant for me to take a length a few inches long and roll it the long way rather then the short way I did. Hmmm, I might have to try it one of these days. I got the book from the library and don’t have it any longer to check if I’m right or not. Anyway, Lily liked this and thought it was fun, but lost interest in it quicker then she does regular brush or finger painting.

Lil is obsessed with taking pictures lately.  It comes naturally since she’s had a camera in her face from Day 1.   I have started letting her use my phone to take pictures and she loves it.  The pictures aren’t usually in focus, but I like seeing how she views the world.

We went to the park the other evening.  Lily was feeling very spunky.

I was standing at the bottom of the slide not paying much attention to Lil’s position on the slide, I was just getting ready to take pictures. I got this picture:

Then the next thing I knew this was happening:

She didn’t get hurt, just a little scared and decided spunky was overrated, she went back to clingy and loving.

These were all taken with my phone and the lighting wasn’t great. Sorry.