Critterfest

On Sunday we took Addison to the Science Spectrum for their annual, Critterfest. This is a great event for the kids in Lubbock to look and touch animals. Since we do not have a zoo here in town or anything close to it, it is a very big deal! Addison was able see her friend the camel that was at the library at the beginning of the summer. They had a gator show and a tiger show, but we only saw the gator show because the tiger show was out of control with people. She was able to see different reptiles and touched 2 snakes (she described them as "slimy") She petted some giant rabbits and a hamster, they had many different dogs, petting zoo animals, and her best event was the horse back riding. It was only like a 2 minute ride, but she LOVED it! She kept saying YEE-HAW! We had a great Sunday afternoon and we think that Addison had a great time!

There are more pics of the event on Facebook!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

The Sandbox

We have finally added sand to the bottom of Addison's swing set to make her own little sand box.  We have been taking her little sand tote to the park with us, and she would love to dig in my garden, so I think it was definitely time to get her own sand to play in.

Much Love,
The Reynolds

PS. Please ignore Addison's saggy drawers!! We are in the middle of sizes right now and we often have pants falling off or baby buttcrack! LOL.

SHARK!!

I had to share the drawing that Addison did on her own one day while was getting lunch ready for us. She called me over and told me that she had drawn a shark and that I needed to do the eyes and the mouth. Therefore, the only part that is mommy-drawn on this are the eyes and the teeth (which doesn't like an adult drew it more a toddler drawn face), everything else is her. You can see the head, the scales/fins, and the tale. I was so very impressed with my little artist!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Choo Choo Soul

For reading/listening to 25 books in the library summer reading program, Addison received a bag of goodies that were train themed. Her favorite prize was a conductor's hat. Last week while watching the disney channel, a small clip in between regular shows in Choo Choo Soul. It is a little music video and it is train themed. Addison saw that it was on and ran and got her hat and was ready to dance with her friends on the tv. She was having such a fun time, my little dancing girl. Sorry for the crazy hair under that hat. We are having a little bit of "in between" curly hair at the moment!

Much Love,
The Reynolds....CHOO CHOO!!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a pretty low key Father's Day! We gave daddy his gifts a couple days before because we were very excited about it. Daddy got a Addison painted popcorn bowl! She absolutely loved painting this bowl! We will doing more fun activities in coming years! Daddy also got a new Wii game to play and enjoy. On Father's day we went and fed the ducks at the park, did some morning play time under our tree in the front yard, watched a movie while Addy was taking a nap, and Thomas did some Wii playing. Oh yea...Addison and Daddy did some snuggling in the her itty bitty bed.
Happy Father's Day Thomas! I love you so much!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Crafts

I have been trying to do a craft or activity with Addison every afternoon while I am home with her for the summer.  I don't know who all reads this, but for those of you have kids it might be fun to share some ideas that we all have! I know that I love looking/gathering new ideas for Addison, so I thought I would share some of the things that we are doing. Here is what we did this week:

This is a great this kit that you can get at Michaels. It gives enough to make 4 of each animal, so it is great to pull out at various times in the summer.  She LOVED these!

We made this caterpillar out of scrape book paper by linking the paper.  I wasn't sure that Addison would get the linking, but she caught on right away and did it all by herself.

The butterflies are made out of 2 coffee filters each and pipe cleaners.  Color the pipe cleaners with marker and then get an eye dropper for the kids to squeeze water on the filters.  This will make the colors run together. Let it dry and then attach the coffee filters together with the pipe cleaner to make antenaes.

The crayola fingerpainting kit is great! It does not get paint everywhere, instead it is a gel.  It is fun to watch the paint color come up on the paper and it is a great sensory activity.

Another painting activity, but with real paint.  You can buy these wooden shapes for 50-90 cents at any craft store.  We bought a butterfly and a turtle.  Daddy took the turtle to work.

We made Carlos a 2 weeks ago, but I wanted to share him.  It is just made with construction paper and a glue stick.  Addison glued all of the pieces on her own and loved getting sticking with the glue. Addison drew the face, I guess he was sad that day!

 This is not a recent picture, but it shows what Addison and I did on Thursday.  We straped our handy dandy matching aprons on and we made mini blueberry muffins.  She loves to help with baking.  I have a cookie scoop that looks like a mini ice cream scoop, so it makes it really easy for her to help scoop up the batter and put it in the pan.  She really enjoys licking the spoon at the end!

I am having so much fun with my girl and I hope to share what we do next week with you!!

Much Love,

The Reynolds

Paging Dr. Addison

Addison found out yesterday that her buddy Brooklyn hurt her head the other day and had to go to the doctor. After hearing this she continuously walked around talking about Brooklyn's owie, having her own owie, and going to the doctor. She decided that she needed to be a doctor so I went and gathered up materials to aid her pretend play. She came up with the laundry basket as the table on her own. I got a hair band, a pipe cleaner, and foam circle to become her stethoscope. The rest was out of her first aid kit. She has really enjoyed playing Dr. I have even been Dr. Mommy to Addison. Thomas and I just love her imagination and we are willing to do anything to keep it thriving and growing! Here is some pictures of Dr. Addison in action with her patient, Sophie!

Dr. Addison getting ready to look over Sophie

Sophie is getting her temperature checked. Fever or no fever?

 This is Dr. Addison's shot tool.  Hmm...I would be afraid Sophie!

Dr. Addison is giving Sophie medicine to make her feel better.

Take a deep breathe in and out.

This is how you say "Ahhh"

Lastly, a bandage for Sophie's head.  A band-aid makes everything feel better!

Yay! Dr. Addison you saved Sophie! You made her feel so much better! By the way, did you see Dr. Addison's very stylish doctor's basket! Too cute! Trendy Doctor!

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Jump'N Jungle

Yesterday, I took Addison to the Reading Express at the library. They had a barrel train ride and a jumping house. There were quite a few people in line for both activities, but Addison really wanted to do the train. When we got up to the front of the line Addison clinged to me and told me that she did not want to get on. The lady let us stand at the front of the line and watch one more time and see if she would feel more confident about riding, but she unfortunately could not do it. So I decided to take her to wait in line for the jumping house. When we got to go in there, the boys that occupied the house with Addison were WILD. Normal jumping house actions for boys, but Addison was gripping for life and not feeling okay about jumping. We got out and she kept asking me to do both activities over and over again. I felt like I needed to make it up to her and give her the confidence to participate in something, so I decided today to take her to Jump'n Jungle. They have a smaller version of it inside the mall, where there are kids only 9 and under that can play and it is very monitored. I went right when it opened so we could have some alone time before a lot of kids showed up. She was not so sure at first because mommy could not play with her on the bouncer, I had to just stand next to the bouncer and motivate her to do the activities on her own. Once she saw 2 little girls her age starting to play she felt comfortable and she loved it. She especially loved the bouncing houses with the slides, she really flew!!
Here are some pictures of her fun morning. She was super hungry when we got home and quickly after she was super tired!


Another free photo slideshow by Smilebox

Much Love,
The Reynolds

Girls Just Want to Have Fun

This weekend the Horsleys' came to stay with us so that they could attend a wedding Saturday night.  This was a great excuse to catch up and spend time with friends, but more importantly let the girls run a muck in our house! They had such a wonderful time playing together. They pulled out every toy possible I think to check it out.  Babies, lots and lots of pottying, pokerface and tutus, water table, swings, big girl bed, and Bahama Mamas were some of the tops for the girls.  We only had 3 little sharing issues, that were very quickly resolved. Thanks Horsleys for coming and spending the weekend with us! We had a blast and especially Addison.

Much Love,
The Reynolds

June Jubilee

Addison and I have begun the summer events that are available at the library. The "opening" activity is the petting zoo in the front of the library. They have a very very friendly camel, goats, sheep, and small cows. The kids get 2 helpings of food to feed to the animals and they can go crazy behind a gate attempting to pet the animals for as long as the event lasted. This year Addison was much more cautious then she was last year. I wanted to add some photos from last year and this year to compare! WOW has she grown!

Addison

Age: 1 year

June Jubilee 2009

Addison

Age: 2

June Jubilee 2010

We also have begun doing the weekly story telling in the morning on Thursdays! We read 4 books about trains, watched a 5 minute "Maisy" DVD about trains, watched "The 3 Billy Goats Gruff" puppet show and then we made a foam train magnet. This was such a great time for me to share with Addison and she just enjoyed it for the great activities planned for it! This week we are going to have a story and then jugglers. HOW FUN!

More to come on our events!

Much Love,
The Reynolds