Abby, Zoë and Enzo

I looked up the cooking instructions for making oatmeal today.  We found some cheap oats at the store yesterday.

Numa panela, misture 1 xícara (chá) de leite, 3 colheres (sopa) de Aveia em Flocos Quacker e 1 colher (sopa) de açúcar.  Leve ao fogo alto, mexendo sempre, por cerca de 5 minutos ou até o mingau engrossar. Retire do fogo e sirva quente.

In a pan, mix 1 cup (tea) of milk, 3 tablespoons (soup) of Oats in flakes and 1 scoop (soup) of sugar. Take the high fire, always stirring, for about 5 minutes or until the swelling porridge. Remove from fire and serve hot.

Thanks google, you saved another breakfast.

Here are a couple of pictures that Papa Norm did while waiting for us to wake up this morning.  He actually was just finishing up Abby and Zoë's when we came down.  When he started doing Enzo's, the girls were right there giving him advice on colors.  Abby and Zoë named Enzo's picture, "The Enzo Bus"

I taped down some opened up plastic bags onto the floor in the play area and then gave Abby and Zoë each a sheet of finger painting paper.  I had them de-robe and put on art shirts. (they had smocks over this, but being on the floor, the smocks just got in the way)  Next I set them up with all different kinds of paint brushes and squirt whichever color of paint they asked for, wherever they wanted it.  Things started out with careful brush strokes and thoughtful faces.  Then once they figured out that I didn't mind if they used their hands, they really went to town.  It's been quite a while since we've painted, so they were just really in to squishing and messing it all around and feeling the paint and watching the colors mix.  They didn't mind that both of their papers ended up looking like 'mud puddles'.

Abby and Zoë wanted to learn a little about the post office and how mail works.  So, I gave them each two index cards and they drew Portsmouth scenery pictures on the blank side.  Then on the lined side they practiced addressing their post cards and writing on them.  Then we went to the post office and one of the ladies showed Abby and Zoë the sizing chart, their index post cards would be too small to send in the mail.  I had a card to send, and showed them the stamp.  The woman that helped told us a good time that we could come back, when it shouldn't be too busy, and she said she'd give the girls a little tour of how things work in the post office.

We finally broke out the floam that Nonna sent a while ago.  I had put it out in the hallway by the stairs, where I've moved our other art supplies, and thought of trying it this evening.  The paper that came with it said that the compound may separate from the beads, and to simply squish it and mash it to get it back to its correct state (an almost dry, non-messy blob).  Well, this didn't happen.  Mommy sat their squishing and squashing, and squishing and squashing, only to be a big slimy neon yellow mess.  No matter how much I worked it, the stuff did not want to go back to its correct form.  As I was doing this, I was reading further down the package where it says not to get it on your face, your clothes, or this, or that and the other warnings listed.  I decided I should probably try to go wash this guck off of me.  Poor girls, by the time I was able to free myself from the "slime monster" status that the girls had given me, we didn't have time to break out anything else, like play-doh... good old play-doh.  We sat down in the book area and read "Make Way for Ducklings" before getting ready for bed instead.

I spent some time looking at kids crafts of pilgrims and native American's, and then found some to draw and cut out for Abby and Zoë.  I showed the choices to the girls, and they chose Pilgrim ladies, and an 'Indian Woman', so once I had them drawn and cut out, Abby and Zoë set to work coloring them... and color them they did!  Once they were all done, we glued them to toilet paper rolls.

I also drew and cut out two cornucopia's, and then hole punched along the edges, so that Abby and Zoë could get some fine motor skill practice by lacing a piece of yarn around it.  After this was done, they glued pictures of fruits and vegetables to the front of it.

I combined a couple of different ideas I found online to make "Thankful Turkeys" with Abby and Zoë today.  First I traced around their feet on brown construction paper, then both girls chose three colors for me to trace their hands in.  Abby chose green, orange, and yellow.  Zoë chose red, orange, and yellow.  Next I drew eyes, a beak, and that red dangly thing (for the life of me I can't remember what it's called) on the heel side of the foot cut out and then the girls colored that in then we glued it to a toilet paper roll.  Next they chose which order they wanted their hand prints to go on the back of the tp roll for the feathers.  On the handprint "feathers" that were to be showing first, I had Abby and Zoë both tell me 10 things they were thankful for (one to write on each finger of their hand prints).  Zoë said; toys, baking, Mommy, Daddy, Sissy, Aunts, Uncles, Grandparents, being able to swim, and rainbows.  Abby said; swimming in the bath at home, having good food to eat, Grandparents, Uncles, Mommy, Daddy, Aunts, Sissy, that her body can exercise, and her bunny snuggly.  After this I helped Abby and Zoë glue the hands on how they wanted them to look (unfortunately some of Abby's "thankful thumbs" are hidden behind the turkey, but that's where she wanted them so that's fine with me.  Abby was very specific that she wanted all her hands to go sideways and none of them to point up.  For Zoë, as long as she was getting to glue them on, she wasn't too picky about where to place them.

Abby and Zoë received a package from Caitlin with a fun craft. (as well as a couple of books)  There were styrofoam balls, glow-in-the-dark google eyes, as well as glitter glue and pipe cleaners in orange, black, and green.  Abby and Zoë had a blast making them.  Zoë used a couple of different colors for her spider body, then quickly moved on to attaching legs in all colors.  She chose to put the eyes right next to each other, in the "correct" position.  Abby spent a lot of time painting the entire ball with every color, having me refill her pallette several times.  Finally she was ready to move on to legs, and slightly cock-eyed eyes.  There were extra materials, so of course both of the girls are already begging to make friends for their spiders.  Thanks Caitlin!