Adventures of Evie

  Today was Treat Street day!! We didn't do much that was exciting during the morning. We played some games, did some art and made some treats. But this evening we got to go down to Treat Street which is an event in our area where businesses hand out candy and coupons.  There are decorations, music, food and of course...CANDY! This is the first year Evie really understands Halloween so it was a lot of fun watching her get so excited every time she got a piece of candy she loved. It was a rainy night but we made the best out of it! I'm really excited to see how she will do on beggars night! Just a few more days and we can trick or treat in our neighborhood! :)

 Today we had a spur of the moment trip for some fun outside the house! We did some worksheets in the morning and Evie played with her sensory bin some more and then when I got off work we got some lunch and headed out to an indoor playground. They had everything decorated for Halloween and since it was midday it wasn't super busy which was really nice. She got to run and play for a few hours and it was a change from our usual activities. It wasn't entirely on theme but it WAS a really fun  way to spend an afternoon! ;)

  Halloween week is half over already which feels crazy! This week has been hectic but we've managed to squeeze in some activities anyway. Today we had a scavenger hunt that led Evie to this banana flavored cotton candy. We made some foam pumpkins in the morning. This actually kept Evie pretty busy for about half an hour. I put some glue on the foam pumpkins and then she got to decorate them with tissue paper and some other accessories. She did a few of them and got pretty creative with it! In the afternoon we cleaned up the herb garden and ran around for a bit in the yard. It was pretty chilly out but we're getting close to not being able to go out at all much so I wanted to get out and take care of some things and get in an extra play day while we can. After we came back in we made some cookies and deep cleaned the house a bit.  We wrapped up the evening with some games before dinner and bed! It was a fun and busy day. :)

  It's day two of Halloween week and today we decided to try paint pour art. We made this fun pumpkin and also a drip painting on a canvas that's still in the process of drying,.  Evie had a lot of fun choosing colors to pour and then watching them run off the pumpkin. In retrospect we should have laid it flat to dry since all the color marble ran off but I also didn't want to leave it out all night in case it rained. Tomorrow we will add some leaves and a curly top! This evening we got to go to Nana's for family night and carve pumpkins with everyone. It's a family tradition and it's one of my favorite ones. Evie got to help clean out pumpkins and then she painted a little one as well.  They came out really well! :)

  It's Halloween Week! Since Halloween is properly at the end of this week I decided to do a week of fun Halloween activities. Unfortunately today went a little sideways when my work schedule changed mid morning. But we still made the most of it. Evie's sensory bin this week is black and orange rice and a variety of recycled Halloween critters from a few weeks back. The rice is recycled too, I just repainted the rice from her space sensory bin. Some of the pieces still glow a bit which was really cool! I asked Evie to draw me a picture of what she a wanted to be for Halloween and she drew me this photo of Ariel. She changed her mind (again!) in the afternoon and now wants to be Elena but we'll see what she chooses when the day finally arrives! Evie got to spend her evening making train tracks and driving trains all over them which she thought was just the absolute coolest. It wasn't a very busy day but it was a lot of fun! :)

  Today was our field trip day! Evie got to go to the aquarium and see all sorts of fish and other aquatic animals and it was a perfect way to wrap up Ocean Week. We've done the aquarium before when Evie was a lot younger and she wasn't super into it but this time she was really interested in the fish which was exciting to see. She was particularly excited to touch the rays and to see the octopus. The octopus wasn't out but we did get to do this fun coloring activity where you color a fish on a sheet of paper and then you scan it into a big screen and you can actually see your fish floating across with your name above it. She did this a few times and got so happy when her little fish started swimming on the screen. We also got to see a few types of jellyfish and she had a lot of questions about them. Jellyfish have been a big topic this week and Evie has had a lot to say and ask about them. It was really neat to see the different kinds up close and it was a much better expe...

  Today we spent some of the day talking about the Indian Ocean and the kind of creatures that live there. Then we talked about salt water and why ocean animals have to live in the ocean (and we talked very briefly about animals that can live in either). We did a few art projects today as well! First we made some little paper plate crabs... Then we made some play-doh urchins with toothpicks. Evie had fun with this one since she could take the toothpicks out and do it over and over again. We made a salt painting as well. This was my first time doing this particular type of art and it was a learning experience! It was fun though and it came out pretty neat. To wrap up today we did a salt water experiment with colored water which I forgot to photograph somehow. 😂 Then we took a trip to the park and Evie played with her nail wheels. It was a pretty fun day! The weather is quickly getting super cold but I hope we are able to take advantage of playing outside for a few more weeks. Tomor...

  Today we are talking about the Pacific Ocean. Evie's very first experience with large bodies of water was the Caribbean Sea but her first official ocean was the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Maui. She has always loved water from the time she was just a tiny baby and she got to have her first snorkeling experience at just 18 months old. We talked a lot about jellyfish today and also about coral and reefs and turtles. But even though we did a few jelly activities we've actually never seen a jellyfish in the Pacific Ocean. We made these cute coffee filter jellies and also a paper plate and tissue paper one. We talked about reefs and how they are important to the ocean's ecosystem and we also talked about how the things we do can affect animals like turtles and dolphins and other fish and whales. Evie's favorite dolphins are Orcas which are my favorite too!  Later in the day we made these cute little ocean cups with blue raspberry jello, graham cracker crumbs, candy fish...

  We're continuing to have tons of fun with ocean week today while we learn about the Atlantic Ocean. Evie has been to the Atlantic a handful of times and when I asked her what she remembers most about it she told me the sand and the jellyfish! While we talked about the Atlantic we also talked a little about oil spills and how they affect the animals who live in the ocean and also those who rely on the animals in the ocean for food.  I set up a little sensory bin for her with clean water, soapy water, and some tools to clean up her animals with. Then we scribbled on them to make the "oil" and Evie set to work getting them all clean and ready to be released back into the water. She had a lot of fun with this one. Water activities are always a huge hit with her.  It was family night again so we ended the day with a fun trip to the pumpkin patch with family. It was a nice end to our day as always!  Not a super busy day as far as activities go but definitely a fun one! T...

  It's Ocean Week! Not to age myself or anything but when I was learning about geography in grade school there were four major oceans; Atlantic, Pacific, Arctic, and Indian. Of course, back then we still had nine planets too, sorry Pluto. 😂 Sometime about 1999 we apparently got a fifth one -- the Southern Ocean. This threw a tiny wrench in my plans to have us focus on one ocean per day this week. We have a little field trip on Friday so we won't be focusing on anything specific that day. To fix this problem we lumped the Arctic and Southern Oceans together for today since they have similar climates. They don't have similar inhabitants though and Evie was SHOOK this morning to find out that penguins actually do not live in the same place as polar bears. At any rate this morning her sensory activity involved getting all her arctic animals out of a block of ice.   This took her about 45 minutes with multiple refills of warm water and some tools. She loved it though and stuck ...

  We had a pretty fun weekend this week! On Saturday I had to work for a bit but we made the most of it and played some games while until I wrapped up. Evie had a little Halloween photoshoot in the afternoon so we got her dressed up and ready to go and spent some time playing outside for awhile until it was time to leave.  I got her this Queen Anna costume about a year and a half ago while I was near a Disney outlet and it finally fits so she was really excited to wear it around.  We also set up a little doll skate park complete with half pipes and ramps and a little Tech Deck skateboard. These things always remind me of my brother because he used to have a ton of them when we were younger. She played with this for an hour or so and cried when I had to put it up so it might show up again in future weeks! We had a bonfire Saturday night and ate some s'mores. Then on Sunday at Evie's request we both dressed up like Anna and headed to the zoo for Hall-ZOO-ween. Evie got a li...

  It's the final day of Carnival Week and today we played some more games! It was library day but we didn't end up going this week since we went twice last week and that gave us some extra time to set up a little carnival around the house again.  Evie got all her tickets ready to pay for her games... We set up some moon mole cans for her to knock over with a bean bag. I expected her to be ace at this since she's typically great at knocking things over. 😂 She wasn't the best but she did get them down a few times. Her favorite game was this racing game. She played this one over and over again and it was really fun to watch her try to determine which car was going to be faster. The more times she played the better she got at determining which one would win. And she always chose the blue car which won the most!  For our final game today of course we had to have a dunk tank! So we have a little "water" dunk tank and she sat her little Sago characters on top (thi...

  Today for Carnival Week we made some cotton candy! It was fun to make together and Evie definitely enjoyed eating it as well. We tried the classic flavor and then experimented with sour strawberry and watermelon. Evie preferred the watermelon and I think the sour cherry was my favorite. We've been continuing to play our games in the morning and weaving in other activities throughout the day. I have a few more carnival themed activities planned but unfortunately, they got a little delayed in the mail!  We're still having lots of fun though. Earlier this week we used some washi tape to make fun colored bandages for Evie's dolls and today she wanted to jazz up her dollhouse so she decorated the whole house with washi tape. Later in the day since our theme was cotton candy we made some cotton candy cloud dough. It's essentially just scented conditioner and some corn starch and it's got an interesting texture since it gets hard and soft depending on how much pressure y...