Playdate and crafts

Cal is in a playgroup, which I have written about before, that is really just wonderful.  We are so blessed to have these friends-- I love all of the moms and Cal loves all of the kids.  It is so much fun to get together and everyone usually has a great time!

I offered to host a playdate today, and it happened to be BRAD'S birthday!  Brad is one of Cal's most favorite friends and we were excited to host today in honor of Brad! 

Being the geek that I am, I had to come up with some fun little activities for the kids to do (wait, I didn't have to...I wanted to...).  I did a post a while back about the ice activity and got some great feedback from people reading the blog that said they did that with their kids and loved it. Maybe y'all will find some inspiration again today...??

The weather today was absolutely PERFECT to be outside.  It was sunny, but not too hot... just a gorgeous day.  I had my mom come over to help me with Andy, since I knew I would be preoccupied with everything in the backyard, plus, I wanted some time with Cal.  Basically, I just opened up the backyard and had different things for the kids to do... they didn't do the activities all together, they just all kind of ran wherever they wanted to go!  (I was going back and forth taking pictures of everything-- these are out of order below.)

One activity we did was a color by water book:

I took the pages of one of those coloring books where you paint with water and the colors magically appear-- and ripped out the pages.  I hung them up by a rope between two trees in the yard.  Instead of painting with paintbrushes, the kids "painted" with spray bottles.  We took old cleaning bottles and cleaned them out (a lot!) and filled them with water.  The kids could spray the paper and watch it change colors.  I found a Mickey Mouse book and a Big Wheels book-- both were hits with the kids.

Brad spraying the pages

The kids seemed to really like this activity, and I had a bunch of extra pages that I could "restock" the line as they were complete.  Once the kids lost interest, they still loved playing with the spray bottles and were anxious to clean the various toys. 

Another "activity" I had planned involved shaving cream.  I took some tin dishes and filled them with shaving cream.  The kids got to pick which food coloring they wanted and then they took spoons and mixed it up!

 This can get messy and the food coloring can stain, so I told all the moms to not wear anything nice...

And I had out the kiddie pool and the hose to rinse off when messy-- the pool was the nastiest color ever during this!  I dumped the pool a few times and tried to refill it, but it never stayed clean for long!

If the kids weren't spraying, mixing, or splashing, they were playing in the yard or on the swingset!  I brought out all of Cal's big toys and the kids had a ball playing...

that would be cal

After all that playing, we had to have some cupcakes for Brad!  Sally brought out the cupcakes and the kids swarmed...

And then we attempted a group picture on the stairs...it was cah-razy, but fun trying!

 This was almost everyone-- we had one little guy not make it in the picture.  We had 11 total.

And after ALL of that, it was time to pack up and say bye to our sweet friends. 

I got a bunch of emails from the moms later saying their kiddos either fell asleep on the way home, fell asleep during lunch time, or that they were taking the best nap ever... sounds like a successful playdate!

We had a great time and can't wait for the next one!

ZOO!

What a fun day, Mr. Cal had yesterday!!!

Ever since my parents sent this back from Africa, Cal has been OBSESSED with giraffes!

He sees them and points to them and screams "AIR AFFE!" He also has developed a love of el-fants (elephants) and a bunch of other animals.  My parents showed Cal their pictures from Africa and Cal was just blown away.

Jackson, Cal's cousin, is off from school this week (he goes M-F, so this is really a treat for him to be off!), and my parents wanted to take the boys to the NC zoo.  So, yesterday morning, Grandma and Grandpa loaded up their car with 2 carseats and both boys and headed out to the zoo! Cal had THE best time.

I begged my parents to take lots of pictures and they did not disappoint!

i love love love this one

 How cute is my dad pushing the double stroller?  I am obsessed with my double bob, and mom said it worked great for their trip to the zoo!

Cal loves his Grandpa-- he calls him Poppa (and it makes my heart melt)

 Apparently, Cal had a car with him that he wouldn't put down.  He would run it on all of the animals and he paid more attention to the car than the gigantic creatures right next to him!

how sweet is Jackson feeding the monkey a chip??

And finally, the air affes!!!

THANK YOU, Mom and Dad for taking the boys to the zoo!  I know Cal had just the best time...he took a wonderful nap after he got home and is still talking about all of the animals!!!