it's friday

We started out our day with pancakes. Jimmy had dulce de leche on his pancakes (his favorite from Argentina Mission days). I had mini chocolate chips in mine. And I made the limited Mickey Mouse edition for Hannah and Abe (I thought Grandpa Price would especially like to have some of those pancakes - Mickey Mouse style). Then our little friend Alana came to spend the day with us. She is 2 and a funny/cute girlie. I think my favorite moment was when we were driving by the mall and she saw Red Robin. She was so super excited and even knew what it was called.

I took all the kids for a quick trip to Target. Mostly the kids just fought over who was going to hold what. Luckily we survived with a 4, 3, 2 year olds, + pregnant mama.

Abe had his 2nd speech appointment at the elementary school today. They are working on 3 word noun/verb/noun sentences such as "boy eating food" instead of how he would say it "eat food". The therapist seems to do a great job with him and he isn't silly for her like he is for me. Hannah, Alana, and I went on a walk around the school grounds while we waited for him. Hannah thought it was about the best to ride her scooter around.

Then we came home and the kids had a great quiet/nap time. Abe, Alana, and I all took short naps and Hannah had a nice quiet time. My friend Cheri had sent a bunch of fun activities and snacks for our long day with Alana. She is so creative. She sent some instructions for a pom-pom game that I thought I'd share. Even Hannah at age 4 liked it (though you might have to alter it if you have more than 3 kids because it could get too pushy).

Dump the pom poms out on the floor and sit on a comfy chair on the other side of the room. Have the kids start out next to you and ask them to bring you a specific color of pom-poms. They will go over and pick out a few and bring them back to you. You can say, "I see more blue ones!" and have them go back till all the blue ones are collected. Then ask them to bring you all of another color, etc. Enjoy sitting while they go back and forth as long as you can make this game go on! On the 2nd round, I had each pick different colors so they weren't battling over the same ones. They thought it was great to have me whisper in their ears the color for them.

Then the kids used the sticks to put elmers glue on paper for them to put the pom poms on. Alana mostly painted with glue. Abe did specific dots with mostly blue pom poms, and Hannah created a sunflower person with her pom poms. So there is an idea for an hour activity with toddlers - all thanks to my friend Cheri. The kids had fun playing outside and enjoying nice cold popsicles (orange as you can tell from Hannah's smile). Overall, it was a fun day for happy kiddos.