A Leap Day Celebration

I'm a big fan of celebrating little things and it gives me a focus for some activities and crafts. So naturally celebrating a day that only happens once every four years seemed like a good idea. And hey, it's Maddie's first Leap Day! Things have been a big frog-centric around here ever since we saw Princess and The Frog, so that was a good jumping off point (hehe!)

These pictures are terrible, as per usual but hey, you get pictures. First we made some frogs.


Then we had a dinner: Those pancakes are supposed to be shaped like frogs and lilypads; kiwi (aka more lilypads); and flies on a log (obviously celery, pb and raisins).

We did an awesome science experience which I found here, that I renamed "Catching Flies."

You drop raisins into a glass of sparkling water and the raisins give off lots of bubbles and then gradually pop to the surface before dropping back down. Maddie liked trying to touch them and fish them out. She made me repeat the experiment over and over again, and probably would have stared at it all night if we didn't have a Leap-lympics to get to.

Ok, the quality of the photos above was bad, but this is worse -- and it all has to do with my badly lit apartment and a little girl who is constantly on the go.
I set up a little obstacle course that included jumping off a little stool, over a ruler, into a circle that I had taped onto the floor and hopping from lily pad to lily pad.

Every time I tried to take a picture, Maddie would walk up to me and stand in front of me, like this.

And lastly, we did a clothespin drop, but used clothespins that I had glued little froggies to. It's an easy enough game: You just stand next to a bucket, hold the clothespin to your nose and try to drop it into the bucket. Maddie loves to kneel on a chair and drop stuff into buckets, too.

It sounds like a lot, but they were all little activities with very little prep time at all. And there was even time for some cuddling with Aunt Dode:


Happy Leap Day!

Making Playdough

This week has been a little on the long side. While I've been home for Winter Break (God love the Buffalo school systems. I mean two spring breaks? Genius!), we've been doing some of this:




Yup, potty training. Which means we've been staying indoors close to the potty all week.

My awesome Mother came over yesterday to give me a break and my husband has been doing his best to help during a rather busy week. But still there are only so many hours in the day that a girl can color. Right?

Then it dawned on me last night that I was just not planning enough or being creative enough. Sometimes I'm so ready for a vacation that I forget to actually plan out things to do and then I get stuck in a rut. Ugh.

So this morning we made playdough. I had seen this idea around the internets and Maddie loves to watch the video on YouTube. But I was a little leery of trying it as I sensed disaster looming -- disaster for my pans, disastrous lumps of unusable gunk, disastrous mess...

Then I found this site: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-Make-Playdough-Play-doh/step2/Mix-and-heat/?f=m

Super easy directions and, my favorite, step by step pictures. Voila!




Maddie stirs the ingredients. (I'm not a bad mom - that stove isn't on. But she is wearing "Santa's Little Helper jammies with Mardi Gras beads).




Surprisingly un-messy. Though I am still soaking that pot.




Maddie takes a break to drink hot cocoa with "horsemellows" (ironic, huh?) while watching the snow fall. I know, snow in Buffalo! It's shocking.



How much fun is this, Maddie?



Then you mush in the color. I mean YOU the adult because this is what happens:



Reasons to do craft projects at the beginning of a vacation. Hmmm, maybe I can paint my nails black and pass it off...

Then Maddie says,



You take the spoons and you flip it. It took me 10 minutes to work in the color into four different doughs.



It took her one minute to smush it into one ball. Well, at least we took a break from coloring.

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Easter Countdown

I must admit that Easter is one of my favorite times of year. Primarily because winter is my least favorite time of year. Seeing as how I never got around to so many of my Christmas and fall crafts last year, I thought I would kick lent off with a little Easter-spring craft goal list. Really this is my way of insuring that I don't fall into the Pinterest trap. As you may have noticed from past posts, I like to review my pins and try to make smaller checklists for myself. Here goes:

There are Cadbury Mini Eggs involved. Need I say more?

Hmmm, I'm sensing a theme.

A little science project that is perfect for the spring.

I'm kind of tempted to do this too...

This could be a little fun to-do with Maddie (or by myself while she shows no interest.)

Of course there are also the every year traditions like making onion-dyed eggs and trips to the conservatory in Niagara Falls to see the Easter flowers.

But really this is the true countdown: So let it be written. So let it be done.

Happy Ash Wednesday!

Hmmm, that doesn't sound right. I want to share a bit about our Mardi Gras even if it is a bit late.




Maddie, her grandma and I made Mardi Gras masks (just cardboard, construction paper and random craft supplies). I cut myself no less than twice. Nice!



Maddie's got her eye on you.



My mom, hard at work after two attempts at Fascht Nachts. (Turns out you should read directions when you only cook something once a year).



These things are delicious coated in cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar.


Maddie liked them so much she apparently took a bath in them.

And yes, Rob did eat his alligator Po-boy, though I did notice it was only a small one and he ate a big heap of my jambalaya.

Also, Wegmans has a pretty good king cake for those of you locals.

Laissez les bons temps roulez! Um, actually no... Time to repent.

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