Made by Mama

Someone has a new sweater...I think he likes it!

Conversations with a Chipmunk

C:  Mama! Dat cumulus cloud is MOVING! 

Mama:   Sorry, what did you say?!?

C:  Dat cumulus cloud is MOVING.  And it is fluffy.  I want to pet it, but it is hiiiiiiigh up in the air.

Mr. Personality

We tried on the Chipmunk's kilt this morning to make sure that we were ready for the Highland Games this weekend...he was so excited about it that he had to wear it all day long!




He's ready for the competition!



....and this is how Mr. Personality chose to dress to go for our walk this evening.  Is it any wonder the neighbors love him?

Acorn collecting

The weather here has been just beautiful this week, so we've been taking walks every evening.  Little pockets come home stuffed with treasures and last night it was all about the acorns. I left them out on his shelves in a bowl and this morning I walked in the room from another part of the house to find my little Chipmunk had gathered his bowl, tweezers, and a pitcher and was happily working away!

Fine motor skill practice - picking up acorns with tweezers and putting them in the pitcher.  The fun part is always dumping them back in the bowl.






Counting.  How many will fit in those little boxes?




And of course, we had to find out what was in them!  We used a wooden mallet and a table knife to practice our skills and open a few acorns for investigating.

Friends, Trains, and a sunny day!

There's nothing better than a trip to the train museum with good friends!




The train can start now!




We drove every bus and explored every train car and ended the morning with a wonderful picnic on the lawn.

My personal shopper

The Chipmunk LOVES to be in charge of our purchases...and in charge of hauling them around.




I think he did really well - he picked out a fig tree for the yard, some kale for eating this fall, and some really beautiful mums for the front porch.




And he hauled that big wagon around like a pro!

Apple Picking

We took a field trip up to Ellijay Friday with some of our favorite friends. We decided it was time to celebrate fall and everyone feeling better.

It's apple picking time!




Baby D is ready to go, too!




That's a lot of apple trees!  Where do we start?








I like these!




Taking a break for some butterfly watching




I like the Winesaps better than the Golden Delicious...what about you, S?




The scenery was incredible!




And there were fried pies for lunch :)





It was a wonderful, exhausting day and a perfect way to start the fall!!

Sick Day Slime

We've been a little under the weather this week and have been spending a lot of time inside. It's always a little challenging to stay in the the house all day. Today, we made SLIME!




"I can hold it high up in the air AND SQUISH IT!!!"



He always notices sounds and was really excited to hear it crackle and pop as he squeezed the little air bubbles out of it.



To make slime:

Dissolve 1 tsp borax into 1 cup of water.
Mix 1/2 cup water with 1/2 cup school glue (we used clear Elmer's)
Add a few drops of food coloring if you like (I think we'll put glitter in next time, too!)
Mix it up!  Pull the slime out and throw out whatever water is left.
Knead it for a few minutes and start playing!

Fall

It's starting to cool down a little around here (or at least rain a lot) so we've been talking a little about the seasons and trying to figure out what Fall means to a two year old living in a place where it's not getting cold!

We hit up the local box store for a few supplies and made a fall sensory bin.

We found some beautiful fall silk leaves, little pine cones and pumpkins, the dried moss, and gourds (real ones) this morning.  I added the little snakes so we could talk about how animals start getting ready for winter.  The rest is just dried pasta and river rocks for filler.

He scooped and buried things in the bin for a while and we made a pumpkin patch and then, of course, it ended like it always does!

Monday Morning Science

The Chipmunk loves his Winnie the Pooh books, especially anything from the Thinking Spot Series.  His favorite this week is "Does it Float?".  It's Tuesday evening now and I think we've read it at least 10 times in the past two days.  Any time he gets so interested in something, we try to expand on it somewhere else, so we did a science experiment.

What will float in the water?



We gathered a pile of things from around the house and then divided them into two piles, based on whether they floated or sank.




 He was so proud of himself for figuring it all out!  (and for making puddles in the living room)

Lazy Saturday afternoon

We spent Saturday afternoon at the Chipmunk's favorite place...the Southeastern Railway Museum.


I didn't take too many pictures, but found a few that I liked.

 

This is an old mail car.  It's one of my favorites.



We always follow up our weekend adventures at the train museum with dinner at Taco Mac

Cheese dip, anyone?




Dad!  I'm busy!!