Watermelon Fun

Thursday, July 14, 2011:

   Today I hosted my first playdate for the Littleton Playdate Exchange.  It was called Watermelon Fun with Lana and we all had a great time.  I have been unpacking all of my teaching materials and I wanted to put them to good use and share them with others.  Last month I was at the grocery store and saw all the Watermelons and I thought, what a fun theme for a playdate.  I pulled out all the stops.  I checked out a Watermelon book from the library, led a watermelon craft, made watermelon lemonade, served sliced and cut watermelon, and we all built our own mini watermelon pizzas.  These are just mini pizza's with black olives, but it's the look I was going for.

Fun watermelon craft.  I put this one on the front door so my guests would know they were in the right place.

Craft, mini watermelon pizzas, watermelon lemonade, and Lana's watermelon on the right.

 

 

 

Lana playing with all the toys in the basement.

Friends playing in the Playhut.

All our new friends enjoying the back patio and the sand and water table.

 

Watermelon lemonade, yum!

Mini watermelon pizza, so good.

   The house was definitely full and busy.  5 mom's signed up to come and three had 2 children, 2 had 1, and of course there was me and Lana.  First I had everyone play in the living room until everyone had arrived.  Then we read our watermelon book and I told everyone about the craft they could make and the toys in the basement and the sand and water table outside.  I was surprised that everyone ran downstairs.  The sand and water table was a huge hit and the kids enjoyed playing in the basement and going outside as they pleased.  I only got 5 out of the 9 kids to paint a watermelon, but everyone was having fun.

   I felt bad that some kids hadn't eaten breakfast, and I wasn't planning on serving lunch till 11:30, so we had some crackers at 11 and then headed upstairs to make our mini pizzas.   I was surprised that all the kids loved black olives like Lana.  While kids were taking turns making their mini pizzas everyone else was eating watermelon, black olives, and enjoying some watermelon lemonade.  The pizzas didn't take long and they sure tasted great.  That was my lunch, so you know I ate 4....hey I'm eating for 2 here.  :)  All in all, we had a great time, and it showed me what to expect with a large group and what these kids are really interested in.  I am looking forward to hosting my playdate about Ducks in two weeks.  Maybe we'll have more craft goers, or everyone may just get their wings wet outdoors.  Can't wait to see.

   Sarah 

New Bed

Sunday, July 10, 2011:

    Sunday was a day of firsts for Lana.  She saw me painting my toenails pink and asked me to paint her toenails.  Yay!  I never thought she would ever let me paint her toenails since she rarely lets me trim them.  They turned out soo cute.  When I look at her feet now she looks so grown up and I think, who is this child?

Matching pink toenails.

The cutest chubby little feet.

   After Lana's nap Daddy got to work on converting her crib to a toddler bed.  We need to get some practice in her small toddler bed before she has to move to her big girl twin bed when her little sister takes over her crib.  Lana enjoyed helping her Dad, but at first she was upset that he was taking apart her crib. But as soon as she saw what he was putting on in place of the crib rail she got all excited.  She is a pro at getting in and out of her bed all by herself and wants to close the door so she can take a nap.  That afternoon she practiced sleeping in her bed.  I love when she lays down, closes her eyes and say "ahh shoo, ahhh shoo"  lol!

Daddy hard at work.

Lana helping.

Trying out her new bed for the first time.

Getting out.

I did it!

Bowls make great hats, don't you know?

Monday, July 11, 2011:

    Here are some cute pictures I got of Lana today.  She really enjoys eating nectarines.  They are soft enough for her to bite, but she does get juice everywhere.  After breakfast she got some time in on her laptop.  I love that she's holding her Hannah doll like a baby, how sweet.

 Big bite.

Mmmm, nectarine!

Going back for more.

Hard at work.

   Later that evening Lana was busy playing with her magnetic letters.  I usually have some arranged randomly on the fridge and most in the bag.  Lana put the letters together and said "Happy Birthday Lana!"

   Then Lana added more letters to the fridge from the bag.  When I stepped back I realized what she was doing.  She was sorting her letters by color.  For some letters she would say it's name and then put it up.  What is great is I never asked her to sort her letters by colors or showed her.  She was figuring it out all by herself.  I just love seeing her learn and grow everyday.

   Sarah

Colorado Railroad Museum

Friday, July 8, 2011:

   Lana and I had another fun day through the Littleton Playdate Exchange.  We met 2 Mom's at the Colorado Railroad Museum in Golden at 10.  Golden is a beautiful mountain town, home to the Colorado School of Mines, and Coors Brewery.  It was so nice driving through the historic downtown.  We'll have to go back and walk around sometime.  Lana had a great time at the Railroad Museum, she loves trains!  She got to play with the toy train set while we waited for the other Mom's.  Once inside Lana loved running around and getting on all the different train cars with Kaitlyn and Jacob.  Small world, their Dad went to Southwest Texas State University and grew up in Seguin.  (That's where my 1st roommate was from.  Just south of San Marcos, before you go to San Antonio)  Check out all the fun Lana had at the Colorado Railroad Museum.

Lana on the steam engine.

What are these cars?

Look, I'm driving!

Riding with Kaitlyn and Jacob.

A small standard oil engine.

That looks like the Amoco symbol.  (I know it was Standard 1st)

Checking out all the levers.

Driving a red engine.

Open air car.

The beautiful surroundings.

   Sarah

IL: Tim and Shannon's Wedding

Sunday July 3, 2011:

   What a beautiful wedding Tim and Shannon had at the Baltic Mill at Belvidere Park.  It was a beautiful day, and it was so nice being outdoors.  Lana loves this park and it was great letting her run around before everything got started.

Walking to the Baltic Mill.  I love how they are all holding hands, too cute!

Cuties!  Juliana, Lana, Zoe, and Maya.

Lana chasing the Canadian geese.

Lana is being so silly, so happy to be with Grandma.

Aunt Jill, Juliana, and Uncle Roger.

We got 2 out of 3 looking.

Aunt Paula, Grandma Hart, and Uncle Bill.

Here comes the bride.  Just beautiful.

The wedding party.

  Sooo, Lana had a hard time sitting still through the ceremony.  We tried looking at books but that didn't last long, she decided to throw those in the grass.  She did stay quiet playing with the water bottles and eating ice.  In our last attempt to keep her sitting, we let her play with the camera.

The ice bucket with water bottles was a hit!

Eating ice, yum!

When Lana gets the camera, she takes close ups of herself.

Me and Dad.

Leaving the wedding, Baltic Mill in the background.

We made it across the bridge Dad.

   After the wedding we took the girls to the park before heading over to the Hoffman House for the reception.  We had a table right next to Tim and Shannon.  We enjoyed some very tasty food and got to eat plenty of Grandma Hart Cake.  I finally got to try some of Tim's cake.  It looked amazing, and was super rich.  Great job!  There was a puzzle table for the kids, but Lana enjoyed running around the hall and dancing. She was a hoot, but hard to keep up with.  I am 5 months pregnant and wearing heals no less.

Bride and Groom table.

Wedding cake, grooms cake, and gluten free cake.

Cute cake topper.  How personalized.

Tim's cake, he made every part of it out of chocolate.  Amazing!

Cutting the cake.

Lana eating Great Grandma Hart cake, yum!

Games and puzzle table for the kids.

Lana dancing with Maya and another little boy.

Wearing Mom's shoes.

Bye Mom, here I come Grandma.

Dancing with Juliana in the lights.

Soo tall, thanks Uncle Roger.

Silly Juliana and Lana with their Grandma.

Everyone is looking and smiling!  It's amazing!

   We all had a great time on our quick trip to IL.  Lana loved playing with Juliana all weekend and it really wore her out.  We left the reception at 6:30 p.m. mountain time and made it home in 14 hours at 10:30 a.m.  Lana slept through the night and even then some in the morning.  It was a great trip but I was really worn out for the next two days.  Looking forward to having company come visit us again soon.

    Sarah