Day at the Movies

I took Grace to her first movie today. We saw Horton Hears a Who. She's seen this movie a dozen times or so since it's been playing in the van for the last 2 weeks. I have heard it just as many times but this was my first time seeing the whole thing. She was very excited especially when I mentioned that there was popcorn and candy at the movies.
I even let her pick out one candy---plain M&M's of course. They were the most expensive candy--$3.50. Yipes. Too bad the theater staff was not prepared because we ended up waiting for 20 minutes to get our popcorn/candy. I kept trying to convince Grace that we didn't really need it but she refused to budge from the line. Next time I'll just hide some in my purse---don't tell.We were in auditorium number one which I thought appropriate since it was her first movie.
It was really neat to see her face when we first walked in and she saw the big screen. There was a trailer playing when we walked in and her eyes got big and then she couldn't take her eyes off the screen.
Sitting down with the goods.

There were not enough boosters for her to sit on and she was not heavy enough to sit on the chair by herself (it kept folding up on her), so she just sat on my lap.

Her favorite part of the movie experience was "the bathroom", no kidding. I asked. "Wow, this is a great bathroom, Mommy" were her exact words when we went in. I guess she'd never been to such a large bathroom and it was decorated with black and white checkerboard tiles. Guess it made quite an impression. Grace's overall impression---"It was loud." She loves this movie. I thought it was alright but was a little confused. The main point was that "a person's a person no matter how small", but are elephants and kangaroos and Whos really people? Hmm, I don't know, is it just me or does there seem to be something wrong with this argument? Just my two cents.....

All in all we had a great time. She sat through the whole movie although she started getting tired near the end but then so did I.

Birdseed Cookies

I found a recipe online for making birdseed cookies to hang in the trees. We are in the bird mood here after giving my dad a bird sound clock for father's day as well as a bird sound player to identify different bird calls. I was hoping that we could attract some more birds to our backyard. We've only seen pigeons and grackles (mostly) but once saw a cardinal. Since we love making cookies, I thought it a great combination.
"Cutting out the cookies". The "dough did not stick together too well but we did the best we could. Grace picked out heart, butterfly, flower and clover cutters.
I really just packed the seed dough into the cutter and pressed it in the mold. We let it dry for a good 24 hours after poking holes in the middle with a straw. Of about 15 cookies, 6 made it to the yarn threading process.
We hung 4 in the backyard along with a new birdfeeder and gave one to Grandma and Grandpa and the other to Nina. As of this morning 2 cookies were completely devoured (either we have some very hungry birds, or the squirrels got to them). I am also sad to report that something knocked down the bird feeder and all the food spilled out to the ground. I've noticed a few more pigeons but so far nothing to0 exciting (still waiting on that pale-headed brush finch). I don't suppose all that bird seed on the ground is going to help us in our fight against the ant invasion. Oh, well we had fun making them.

So Grace can sew

Embroidering has long been a passion of mine starting around high school with back packs, jeans and t shirts. I've been sewing and embroidering more and more in the past few months. I've been anxious to pass my "skills" on to Grace (and Lucas eventually). So, I was excited to find some advice on teaching your children to sew in a new book that Steve got me a book called The Creative Family. There was a picture of her 3 year old sewing and I couldn't wait to get Grace started. We used burlap and DNC tied to a large, blunt tapestry needle as suggested in the book. She really got the hang of it fast.
Her first attempt. Concentrating.....concentrating.....concentrating......
It took me a while to get her to look up from her work so I could snap this picture. I think her favorite part of the whole process was----using mommy's scissors to cut the thread. Hopefully that will change as we try other projects in the future.
And what was Lucas doing, you wonder. He made off with my extra thread stash. So silly. He had been sitting on the little couch when he saw me with the camera taking pictures of Grace. He immediately got up and came over to see what all the fuss was about.
Can't you just hear his little grunts? "Uh-uh, mama, uh-uh". Oh, this baby boy is so sweet!

Fairy tea party

Grace and I attended our first fairy tea party at Terra Toys. She didn't dress up like a fairy but was sad when she saw the other little girls with their fairy wings and skirts. My fault for 1--not having a fairy outfit and 2--not thinking that others would show up with their fairy attire. Bad mommy. We had a good time despite my lack of foresight.The goal was to make your own fairy, get your face painted and have a cup of tea without losing your parent amidst the crowd and toys. They had various tables including a hair assembly table, a dress assembly table and the last table for wing/arm assembly and the final touch of adding fairy dust. Sprinkling (or should I say pouring) the fairy dust was Grace's favorite part. It took me several tries to get her away from that fairy dust (glitter). In the above picture she had just attached the hair.The final product after getting her away from the glitter.

A close up of the fairy now named fairy Myla (at least for today). Those eyes kind of creep me out but I couldn't convince her to cover them up with smaller google type eyes.

Enjoying a cup of pepperminty tea and a cookie. Neither was that great but what do you expect it was free. Like a good guest she drank the tea and ate the cookie but later confessed to me in the car that she didn't really like tea---"only milk mommy". Noted.

Getting her face painted. She did really well waiting patiently in line. She spoke up when asked what she wanted painted. "I would like a flower on my cheek, please." I was such a proud mama.

When she got a look at the finished product in the mirror she gasped (very dramatically) and said "Oh it's so beautiful". Of course.

On our way out the door. What a fun tea party, but next time we'll bring some fairy wings and milk.

This is what we found when we got home--Lucas hanging out with Grandpa watching cartoons.