Tot School: Fall

G is 19 months old
This Weeks Theme: Leftover Week!
(We didn't really have a set theme, just some left over fall projects & printables.)

I didn't manage many pictures this week. The week started out with a lot of activities outside the house (a visit to Excel by 5, and a playgroup meet up at a local bounce house place). I didn't get any pictures during this fun, because we discovered our small digital camera was damaged after it jumped out of my purse, and I feel so awkward bringing my DSLR to the types of places we went. Typically, when I discover something has happened to one of my cameras, or pictures accidentally get deleted, I get mopey & take a camera sabbatical. Hence not a lot of pictures this week.

Tot School Activities

Coloring is still a huge hit around these parts. I actually started leaving out some coloring pages & crayons in her little desk trays. Throughout the day she would periodically go color and then move on to other things. I think she appreciated a bit of the independence.

Pushing pom poms through different size openings on a recycled restaurant cup.

Using the Lakeshore Color Discovery Boxes to sort objects into the correct colored boxes.

As she was sorting, if she was heading into the wrong direction I would say "Noooo...is that red?" She would giggle and put the toy were it belonged.

I've now caught her saying that to herself as she does her puzzle or plays with her shape sorting toy. If she picked the wrong slot she'll say "Noooo" and then go to the right place.

Gluing tissue paper leaves.

In true up cycling form, we then used her artwork to decorate an empty bread crumb tube to mail some pre-Thanksgiving, Christmas cookies.

(Mom, if you're reading this, you can look for this in a mailbox near you soon.)

How She's Growing

We are definitely jumping head first into pretend play around here.

Dress up has been something she's enjoyed for awhile.

Now, much to my delight, she's really started taking an interest in her dolls.

We even bought some toy baby bottles, after her Minnie Mouse took a mouthful of sippycup juice the other day.

This shot cracks me up, cause I'm pretty sure every mom has had a late-night feeding, or two, like this.

Favorite Books

G is really into animals & their sounds. G didn't really give us much of a chance to read many books other than Say What? and Baby Says Moo. 

Mom's Favorite Shot

Look at how curly this girl's hair can get!!!

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Tot School: Green & Leaves

G is 19 Months Old
This weeks theme: Leaves, Fall & Green
(because it's just now starting to feel like fall here - and even then most the leaves are still green.)

It is getting more & more difficult to take pictures during tot school activities. As G is getting used to the routine of tot school, she likes me to be more involved. Coloring with her, doing the projects with her. Which is great, I love it. But if I stop for 2 seconds to take a picture things will start ending up on the ground. She's quick. But here is what I WAS able to capture this week.

Activities at Home

She received a new toy from one of her Grandma's. She loves this thing.

She's gotten pretty good at it too.

I don't usually let her take out her bucket of tot school 'toys' and just go buck wild. One day she insisted and this is the mess than ensued.

We put leaves on the tree, using this printable from 2 Teaching Mommies Leaves Unit.

We tried leaf rubbing, with some leaves we gathered earlier in the week during a walk.

But it just turned into a coloring session...

In fact, most things just turned into a coloring session. Hey, the girl knows what she likes!

The leaf & scarecrow sheets are ones we received during a previous visit to Excel by 5.

New Words

Me - Probably because her favorite book this week has been Incredible Me. (I love the book too!)

My personal favorite - 'Goooo Giants!'

Mommie's Favorite Photo

There's nothing spectacular about this shot, just my little girl's first time Trick or Treating...and she LOVED it. So much so, the next morning I had to explain we can only go door to door to get candy one night a year.

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Homesick or How I Tried to Cure my Autumn Withdrawl

I have been very homesick this week, as well as desperately feeling like I was completely missing out on Fall. It's my favorite season, and I was missing all the fun.
So today I woke up with a fire under my butt and decided to enjoy Fall...er...Mississippi style.

First let me say...apples down here stink. When you've grown up in NY and can yank an apple off the tree to eat while you continue to pick apples to bake & cook with...you are an apple snob. The macintosh I found at the comissary were squishy & soft and not at all juicy. Sad. I didn't want to suffer through one more bite.

I decided to use them for applesauce instead.
Naturally the best thing to do when you don't like something...is to cut it up in tiny pieces & boil it.

Originally I had taken pictures as I went, with big grand plans to share my recipe in this post. I was especially excited because I was trying the applesauce with brown sugar, instead of white sugar this time around. I was drooling at the thought of some homemade applesauce. But I got distracted by a certain toddler...and it burned. It tastes okay, G loved it at least....doesn't look very good...lets just call it carmelized applesauce and leave it at that.

Okay...next activity...Apple Stamping!
Except...we don't have any paint. But that's okay...I've made finger paint before. We'll just do that.

Except I made it a bit too runny. But it was okay, we were going for the experience...not to make masterpieces.

Though, G didn't completely understand the concept of dip apple in paint, press apple on paper.

She got the dip part right, but apples are for eating....aren't they?

I finally gave up and we just moved onto finger painting.
I'm going to blame both lousy attempts on Mississippi apples.

I wonder where Mississippi apples really come from, and which state is actually to blame. I saw a sticker on my lemon, that was from Chile. Maybe these are South American apples too? Perhaps I should have measured my ingredients in metric form for better luck?