Sophie's first tray was a red and blue sort, which I already knew was beyond her comprehension level, but it's never too soon to pre-expose, right? I put some red and blue, wooden beads in a bowl for her and cut squares of red and blue paper to lay on the inside of a 2-part, patriotic tray. What you see here was assisted by yours truly. Sophie - with her orderly self - wanted to place ALL beads in one compartment.
Will practiced his pouring skills by pouring red, white and blue pony beads between two measuring cups. Be careful not to spill!
Changing it up with new, wooden, bead shapes for Sophie. I kept telling her the color she was holding and pointing to the appropriate colored paper and repeating that color name. She still doesn't get it, but it kept her entertained.
Will is a master of fine-motor-activities-using-tiny-objects-that-require-a-lot-of-patience... and I love that. He's done this activity before, but this time we made it patriotic.
Then Sophie poked red and blue colored popsicle sticks through the lid of a plastic container. Bad mommy: these sticks stained her always-soggy-from-slobber hands blue!
Next up: Will made an ABC pattern using the pony beads on a pipe cleaner.
Check that out! His jammies are even unintentionally patriotic.
And then we turned his creation into a bracelet! Yes, my son is confident enough in his manhood to wear a bracelet. But it only lasted for the morning. After that, he passed it on to Sophie who gladly adorned her little wrist with it for the rest of the day.
Next, it was time for Sophie to lay down for her morning nap and Will and I got to work making an American flag. Here was the set up:
He had a flag on display for visual aid, a lined "canvas" (construction paper) with each line labeled with the appropriate color, 13 red and white stripes - in short and long lengths, a chunk of blue and some glue.Ahh. The focused-monkey-face.
This was good pattern practice too!
The last piece is in place. Now... what is missing here?
Oh, yes! The stars! He dipped a q-tip in white paint and dotted on the stars.
The finished product. Happy Birthday, America!
And here was a final craft we did while Sophie napped. I saw it on an older blog post from last summer and thought it looked fun. I picked up a cheapy, plastic potato masher from the dollar store and had Will stamp it into red, white and blue paint and then onto a piece of paper to look like... FIREWORKS!! :) 
The potato masher I bought had these straight plastic ridges/lines sticking off the bottom that I hadn't noticed when I bought it, so that turned out to be the dominating print on the paper. But I think it turned out really cute!
And when Sophie woke up, she was excited to see the new red, white and blue beads I used to change up her shaker toy. :) It's the simple things that make them smile.
The afternoon/evening of the 4th didn't go off as well as I had hoped/wished for. Craig and I were split up with one child each at our family functions - I guess it's too much to ask to attend just one party for the day - but I will say this: both kids had very full, fun days. We did end up at my parent's house in the evening and capped off the night with some fireworks with friends.
Casey brought Pop Rocks candy for Will and Cora to try. What fun!!
The whole family gathered in the living room to watch grandpa's memorial picture video. July 4th was his birthday. That video is a tear-jerker!
First time catching fireflies! He's never awake when it's dark out in the summer! :)
I didn't get any fireworks pictures with our friends, but Will seemed more interested in the glow sticks that Angie passed out than he was in the "firebooms". :) He told everyone he was "lassoing" (sp?) everything with his glow sticks. LOLHappy 4th, everyone!
No comments:
Post a Comment