Monochromatist

Now that Maddie has gotten a little older, I've been trying to let her get bored a little bit more. Less structure, more opportunities to get creative.  And sometimes the most interesting things happen.

Tonight, when bored, Maddie headed to the watercolors. My little artist is quite the minimalist.

 She proceeded to paint page after page in a single color. After each one was finished, she would announce, "Yea! We got to the next level!"

 But my favorite part is the way that she is such a little lady when painting. Such a class act.

Yup, that's my girl! As a side note, she later had me bind these pages into a book and then proceeded to cut out princesses from a coloring book to affix to each page. Maybe she's more of an illustrator. Hard to tell really.

Fall at the Farm

Every year, we go to a place in Somerset, New York called the Cobblestone House for their heritage field days. We've been going since I was a little girl when my grandmother used to work the pie stand and my grandpa used to work the Lion's Club chicken barbecue (Sooo much better than Chiavetta's!)

There really isn't anything quite like running down a hill. Fifty thousand times.

It's rather low key -- the afore mentioned chicken dinner, hay rides through the fields, a petting farm, some craft stands and some veggie stands. But oh, do we love it!

This year, there was an amazing large amount of animals to pet, including (surprisingly) a turkey -- very friendly, approximately 20 ponies, goats, bunnies, kitties and more. 

But my absolute favorite was this beautiful (ok, his buckteeth were even crooked) Alpaca.  He just stood there and mooed mournfully. Finally his owner said to me, "He's missing his brother. He's in Olcott." 

I've always loved it. And now that we have Maddie I must say I love it even more.

It always makes me think of the simplicity of days gone bay and desperately want to be a part of that country dwelling. Sadly, it also marks the end of summer for us. And the end of our days at Kopeka.

The First Day of School

Yet more changes swept into our life last week with Maddie heading off to preschool for the first time.

Her first day was a little exciting and a little sad for Mama. Not so sad for Maddie. She had a few anxious moments -- particularly while the kid next to her fell apart in a mega-tantrum. But when I picked her up from school, she pronounced that she loved school!


In just one day,  my little one started doing things she had never done before. She marched around the apartment. She told her dad and I to stand in line and to get a partner to do this project. She had free play. And she taught real school, explaining tasks and steps to her "students." Of course, she later told me that she was just the substitute because the teacher had cancer for a few days. "Why, Charlie Brown, Why?"That show did a number on my kid.

Maddie's Project

I recently read a New York Times article on Melissa and Doug and their story of the company that makes toys that promote an imaginative spark. As I read the article, I wondered if we are too materialistic in our house. Do we rely on the easy toy to entertain?
And then yesterday, Maddie said, "I want to make a car." I back-seated this conversation* and tried to see if she could own her craft project.

(*back-seating a conversation: you know, when you hold your breath and see what they'll say next and try not to steer. Comments like "wow" and "and then what" are key to the back-seater. Man, I should TM this team.)

I was shocked to see that she could establish her own plan to build a car. And here it is.
How-to-Build a Car by Maddie




First, you need a big box.
Then you stick on paper using tape.




Next you color the inside. (We used bingo dabbers which worked out amazingly!)




Paint two sides blue for the windows.




You might need to get under the hood.




Cut out four big, black circles and four little, white circles. Glue the white circles on the black circles and you have some tires. Stick two on each side with tape.




Cut out a cardboard circle and color it.




This will be your steering wheel. You can stick it on with yarn. (I interpreted this as make two holes in the wheel and the box and thread it on as you would a button.




Cut out a hole for your feet. (I suggested yarn suspenders to help her carry it around.)




And that's a car. (Wow, my house is a mess. But look at that cute kid!)




Look out! Here she comes!

Snow!

We got a white Christmas after all! And the day after we got even more of the white stuff.








Not great snowball-packing weather but it sure was fun!

A First

Maddie's always been a scribbler. And a color blocker. You know, coloring in one whole piece of paper with one, maybe two markers. Then the other day, she suddenly decided to draw all the Strawberry Shortcake characters.




This is Strawberry Shortcake.

It seems Maddie has gone from Rothko to Munch in one very quick jump. I can't decide if I'm proud or freaked out.

But I have this on my fridge. Hope I don't get the urge for a late night snack.


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A Birthday Party Fit For A Princess

We threw Maddie a princess-themed birthday party on Saturday complete with all the (pink) trimmings. Maddie took it all in stride.

I really like throwing parties and I just love that moment when a child sees something truly special, just for them. So maybe I enjoy theme parties a little bit more than the average person. And admittedly there's usually one moment in the week before the party that I think, "Hmmm, maybe I should just have a cake and forget all this?" But then I start decorating and it all just makes the moment so right.

This year, Maddie had requested a princess party, but I knew that it had to be a little more than just the princess aisle at Party City. And we weren't throwing your usual kids party -- just family with Maddie being the only kid present at this event. So I tried to make things as kid-friendly for Maddie while still including all of our adult guests.

 
There was a coloring station. And a castle cake (made by Grandma. Thank you, Mom!) and balloon chandelier. And crown jewels for the princess. I covered the coffee and dining room tables with huge princess coloring pages that Maddie had once begged for and then never used (and then asked for the day after the party).





Lots of balloons!



Maddie loves her new purse that she can color all over with special markers.

And of course what would a kid's party be without games? Because we don't really have kids at our parties, I try to do games that are fun for the adults -- like this one which involved finding photos of Maddie which were peppered throughout the apartment (and especially on our bookcase which displayed Maddie's baby books and photos). And I also had a game or two that was more suited just for Maddie -- like finding the glass slipper (which turned out to be in her play kitchen oven.)

My favorite party thing was the guest book. I've done something like this every year for Maddie's party. Last year at her Tinkerbell party, I asked guests for "Happy Thoughts." The year before, I wrote out Maddie's first and middle names and asked guests to write an adjective for Maddie starting with each letter. I save these for her scrapbook. This year I asked guest to write a birthday wish. We got some really awesome princessy wishes.

As for Maddie's birthday wish? I think she wants to be a princess.


Or a doctor. Or a Doctor Princess. Or a Princess Doctor.

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Guess Who's 3!

That's right, this girl! Yesterday was Maddie's birthday and we had a great day. Both Rob and I had off so we could spend time with our little girl. I knew I wanted to make the day special for her because it was the first time that she really knew what a birthday was (afterall she's had one a week for three weeks now!) and was counting down to it.

What exactly makes a day special to Maddie, well that was easy!

We all know Maddie is a shopaholic... and maybe so is her mom. I was at Party City when I started picking up little Disney Princess favors that were only a dollar or so. That's when I remembered this idea to give one present an hour. Between the little gifts and the ones that Rob and I had already gotten her we were all set.

Maddie's first present of the day was a simple pink felt wallet that I made that was filled with 20 $1 bills -- because we all know that my Maddie would like nothing more than to go "Shopping Target" or "Shopping Wegmans" and buy princess books.

And this would be the anatomy of a perfect day for Maddie. She got to open a birthday present with breakfast. Then we headed out to "Shopping Barnes and Noble" where she bought a Princess book. Then we went to "Shopping Target" where she bought a Princess phone (and proceeded to text in the car! Gasp!) Then we went to the mall so she could drive with Stuart Little and get a cookie. We took a few gifts with us to open along the way. By noon, she had crashed.

We spent the afternoon playing with her real gift... which will be posted in a future post (because my computer is driving me crazy tonight!)

After dinner at the "Olibe Garden", we went to see Maddie's Great Grandma and had some cake. Hmmm, can she picked what kind? I don't think she actually ate any cake, just picked off the "yummy M's".

I'm pretty sure she enjoyed herself. However she has pretty much tried to use "It's my birthday" to get out of everything today. I kind of don't have the heart to say it's not, because she's just so darn cute.

Happy Memorial Day!

I saw this Firecracker Science Experiment last night on Pinterest, so when Maddie asked me to do a "speriment" I was already this morning.  It is super cool and super easy. Plus, come on, how cute is this kid? (And how much better is my husband's camera -- even without the Instagram -- than mine. I mean, seriously, it was gloomy when he took this picture and how darn cute.)

Quilts, quilts, quilts!

Yesterday, Maddie and I had a quiltastic day. We went to the Amherst Museum Quilt Guild's biennial show to see Maddie's Grandma and her work.



Not every almost-three-year-old can see her quilt on display! This is my Mom and Maddie in front of the quilt Mom made for when Maddie gets a big kid bed. Pretty cool, huh?

In honor of the quilt show, we did a little quilt-making of our own. This project allowed Maddie to play with scissors and glue, two of her favorite things.




Maddie cut up strips of paper (before deciding it was easier to delegate the cutting part to Mommy). Then she put glue on the back (and front and table).

I thought the big fun part would be gluing on cotton balls to look like batting, but turns out Maddie doesn't like getting glue on her fingers.



Here she is showing off her quilt. Wonder if it'll get Best in Show!

Today I think we'll put on the backing and get to the actual quilting part. We shall see!


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