A Sensory Playdate

Today was soooooo much fun! It has been way too long since I've been over to visit my nieces. They are growing so big and beautiful and I'm missing out on all their new developments. Casey and I decided that we are so jealous that Lisa gets to see these three interacting every day. (Although, I'm not sure either one of us would be up for the task of full-day baby duty PLUS some toddlers... Lisa, you rock!)

So anyway, I had the idea that it would be so much fun to create a sensory-inspired playdate for the girls. I explained my plans to Casey and Wes and they graciously opened their big (clean!) kitchen floor for the morning. (Thank you guys!) I'm not normally one to appreciate big messes. I like things neat and tidy and I generally feel the urge to wipe up and pick up messes as soon as they happen. But babies love to explore and I figured if we just planned on a big mess with baths to follow, it could be a lot of fun. We all had a blast and it was a crazy-huge photo op. (Seriously, prepare for another photo overload.) The girls are at such a fun age and I just love to see them play together.

First, let me share a brief segment of how stinkin' GORGEOUS my nieces are!
I thought the head bows and clips would make the pictures even cuter. Simple white onesie... babies in their element of exploration... and bright accessories. :)

I also want to appologize in advance to Stella. I don't have nearly as many pictures of her because... well... she stayed too clean! Haha! Stella apparently doesn't enjoy getting her hands and clothes dirty as much as the other two so she mostly watched with just a few disgusted touches here and there.

Before we even got started, Sophie crawled around the kitchen floor and discovered Casey and Wes's stash of water bottles. I guess the twins have already concluded that this is the coolest toy in the house so Casey and Wes were not surprised. We pulled it out to the middle of the floor and all three attacked the package. :)

Sophie's saying "Wait Stella! No! Mya's going to get us each a bottle. You don't have to eat the plastic."

Stella: "I'm sorry. I simply can't wait. I must chew through and get my own."

This is so much fun!!! Sophie's so glad we decided to spend the morning with the Rethmans...

So here are our sensory bowls. We've got hard/rough, spongy/wet, super soft, tiny balls, and slippery noodles. (Wow... that sounded way more vulgar than I meant it to. Hehe.)

Bowl #1: uncooked, colorful, spiral noodles.

Casey's trying to spark their interest with the sound they make when you swirl them around. Notice Stella's not touching at all yet.

Sophie's plan for every bowl was to immediately dump them out. Mostly she wanted to play with the bowl. The hard pasta was a little challenging to keep out of their mouths so we didn't do this one for long.

Mya is scoping out the remaining pasta in the bowl and then she swatted it over too.

This was so funny... It was our first bowl and I think she was confused as to why we were allowing this chaos. She kept glancing up at mom and dad every time the bowl spilled. Look at her expression and pose. You can see her right hand is up like "hold the phone... you mean we're allowed to do this? Who are you people and what have you done with my parents?"

Bowl #2: cotton balls. Sophie's like "Okay, look girls, this is how it's done. I'm just going to dump them in my lap and you can both watch while I suck on this bowl. Got it?" Mya's like "Wait.. why?"

"So weird how you can just pull it apart and yet it's so soft and fuzzy." Mya responded to each bowl exactly how I had hoped. She studied everything very closely and was so curious and interested.

"Okay I've got a cotton ball like you want me to... but more importantly, I've got the bowl!"

Lovin' the bowl.

Don't worry. She only did this for a second and wait till you see the expression on her face after...

Sweet and dainty Stella is bravely sticking her hand into bowl #3: the wet sponges.

Soph is confused by the water dripping all over her legs.

I love this one. Soph is reaching for another. Stella is like "no thanks, I'm good!" Look, she's even reaching her hands behind her back.

And then there's the patient, little student, Mya... loving every second of this playdate. She even tried to scrub the floors with it!

"Hmm. Green or blue? Is this some kind of new vegetable?"

Bowl #4: Peas! Of course, Mya was first to dig her hands in. :)

Grabbing peas by the fistful to shove in her mouth. And again, notice Stella in the background beside mom.

Mmm! Lunch is served.

Are you getting sick of my made-up diaglogues yet? :) Mya is watching Sophie stick these little green things in her mouth like "What the heck? I thought food came in mushy form! These are clearly toys, silly! Are they good?"

"Well, let me see... mmm! Yep!"

Mya: "Well shoot! Then let me at 'em!" And Stella's like "I'm appalled at this behavior. I can't even look at you two."

Watching, but not touching.

"Free the peas!...

... so I can have the bowl!" :)

We didn't even bother cleaning up the peas before bringing out bowl #5: cooked, slippery linguine. Whoa! Stella picks the messiest bowl of all jump in and play with. Sophie's still focused on the peas.

Haha! Love the face. :) It's so cute how disgusted she was by this.

This might be my favorite one of the day. The ariel view.

"Mom! You've gotta' try these peas!"

"Yeah! This is so much fun!"

"This playdate is not coming to an end soon is it? Seriously, we'll all lay down and nap in the noodles if we can just stay the rest of the day!"

Mya loves that her daddy is jumping in on the fun.

Hmm... I'm not sure about this face. But I do like the little noodle that's trying pull off as part of her bangs.

This was probably Mya's favorite part and I LOVED seeing her enthusiasm. She was so focused and intent on touching every piece. It was a glorious mess by the time we finally stopped her.

There just aren't words for this one. :)

Or this one...

Soph: "But wait! There's the cool bowl to play with too!"

Mya: "Nope. Still not as cool as these noodles. You can have your bowl."

Okay, at this point we quickly wiped them off with washcloths and plunked them in high chairs while we cleaned up and got lunches ready. My last sensory idea was going to be yogurt, but it was also getting late and the twins needed to eat and get baths before nap. So Sophie did the yogurt all on her own while I cleaned up the pasta and peas. And of course her first mission was to dump it out and lick the bowl.

"Hmm... is that apple yogurt?"

Despite this face, she does love yogurt. I think she was making a sour face after all those peas.

But she still finished it all.

And licked the bowl clean.

And then the carton...

Love this one: Soph licking her fingers clean, Milo licking her chair clean.

Afterward, all three girls got baths and we finished cleaning up and went home for a nap. What a great morning. We were only there for a total of two hours but it seems like we packed a lot of fun into a short time. Thanks for letting us make a mess of your house guys! We loved visiting you!