April Fun

It is so much fun to share new things with Anna Claire and to expose her to things I enjoyed when I was a little girl.

One was playing with my niece Jenny. We loved being together and always had fun together. Now Anna Claire gets to play with her girls, Taylor and Carolyn. My sister Kathy invited us over for a fish fry last Sunday and Jenny had flower pots and paint for the girls so they could decorate them. She absolutely loved this.

painting flower pots with cousins

Saturday we made 2 trips to Mary's Gardens. Both trips were very exciting for Anna Claire because she got to ride around in their wagons there as loaded up veg, flowers, and a blueberry bush for us to plant in our garden. I also got her a pumpkin plant which should grow into a 25 pounder by Halloween.

The second trip to Mary's was for tomatoes. I wanted Larry to come with us to pick. There were SO many different varieties, that I thought he'd be excited to see. It did not disappoint. He enjoyed looking at the selection and the herbs. We planted 4 different varieties of tomato as of this trip.

riding the wagon at Mary's

Later in the day, we ventured to the strawberry farm. We went last year and Anna Claire really enjoyed it, but this year she could actually carry her own basket and really pick herself. She was keeping up with Larry! As predicted, she ate about as many as she picked. She keeps asking to go again. 

I loved finding honeysuckle with her yesterday, and just sitting in the grass, pulling the "string" out of each one and letting her taste the drops of nectar inside. I just read this afternoon that you can actually eat the flower itself. Supposed to be pretty tasty, just like the nectar.

We sit and pick clover flowers for the longest. Then I use some to make her a crown for her hair or a necklace. Anna Claire likes using them to make "art". She likes lining them all up first turned in the same direction, then she will practice making shapes. I watched her make an X, a square, and an oval yesterday.

Speaking of art, remember the Mr. Sketch markers? The scented ones? I always wanted some but never had any until I was an adult. Well, Anna Claire LOVES them. She is so careful with them too. She likes drawing and sniffing them, but also lining them up in a neat row. She has also learned that you can stack them end on end to make a marker tower. Then she will wave her constructed tower of 3 or 4 markers at you and say, "I will make you disappear with my magic spell!"

"smelly markers"

She also counts them. I just read a bogus Baby Center article that said children her age mindlessly "say" numbers in sequence but don't attach meaning to it or really understand what counting is until age 4 or 5. I say baloney. I watched my 2 3/4 year old count her 12 markers yesterday!

Finally, Anna Claire loves making a "hole." It all began with the little booklets that come with her ABC Music and Me CDs. We started doing the activities in the book at home. She LOVES them. One activity was to make a hole, by placing pillows on the floor in a circle. Then you get in the "hole" in the middle of the pillows. I did this with her months ago and she asks for us to make them all the time. When I came home from yoga today, she was sitting in the floor in a hole her Daddy had made.

in "the hole"