And We are DONE!

April 11 marked the one year anniversary of our Park Quest. After reading some inspirational outdoor articles, we decided to venture to visit as many parks in the area as possible, the first goal was 50 between April and August. This goal quickly evolved to as many as we could over the course of a year.

Crescent Lake 

This is what we learned:

1. There was no way to get 50 parks in 4 months unless both of us would have been unemployed and wanted to do nothing else but go to parks. We covered 36 parks in one year which breaks down to about 3 parks a month. Even that was tough. Imagine there are 4 weekends in every month, if we only went on weekends, which we didn't but that could have been an activity planned for 75% of weekend time in one month.

   

   Albert Whitted Airport Park

2. Not all parks are created equal. Based on my experience I can say that the city of St. Petersburg seems to work hard on maintaining these community spaces, but if you have just one afternoon in the area there are several parks I would recommend over others. The definition of park is even different for each consumer. As a young family a park usually has a playground, but for a hiker, runner or biker a park has a host of trails to explore, or perhaps for a tourist may just want to sit and see the water. I can provide lists for each of these. 

   

   Myrtle Beach City Park

3. Sand sucks unless on a beach. 

   

   Northshore Park 

4. Fenced in playgrounds are great for parents who want to zone out. 

   

   North Straub Park for Tree Lighting

5. Always take water or a drink with you. I can't remember if all the parks have water fountains but I don't recommend using the ones I do remember. Creatures live in these parts.

   

   Philippe Park in Safety Harbor

6. Don't be afraid to drive a little longer to see something new. We live such rushed lives that if we carve in time to go to a park, we tend to go to the closest because it's easiest when in fact there may be something new to do just minutes a way. 

   

   Hammock Park in Dunedin

7. There is a ton more to see!

   

   Boyd Hill in St. Petersburg

We are so lucky to live in a truly gorgeous part of the country. The weather, of course, is typically amazing, so even on the coldest of days it is great to be outside and we have a ton of options to chose from in the Tampa Bay area. Even though the Park Quest itself is complete, I will continue to share new parks when we get to them, one at a time.

Gaurkee O' Lanterns

Over the past month we have participated in various Autumn celebrations all of which have pumpkins at the center. Instead of buying huge pumpkins every where this year we bought small pumpkins along the way and purchased our big pumpkins at the grocer which was a rather massive savings. 

In my eternal craftiness I wanted to be sure that both girls had something that was age appropriate to do with their respective tiny pumpkins. I spray painted two of them for no reason except I had the paint and I wanted to do something a little different. My mom had gotten both girls Halloween coloring books with stickers. So for Vivian who is almost 15 months, I pulled her stickers out and let her stick them on the pumpkin. The stickiness of the stickers was a new experience for her, and her dexterity wasn't quite ready to unstick them from her fingers at first but she did great. Above all she really enjoyed turning her pumpkin to see all her Sesame Street favorites.

For Lydia I let her squirt her ever favorite glitter glue all over them. She sparkled them all over with various glitter colors. About midway through, dad got smart and out a plate underneath the pumpkin. I purchase a pack of glitter glues that were Crayola and I don't think they were as nice. These ran a little too much in my opinion. I am perpetually annoyed with myself when I don't by Crayola. The couple of bucks I save aren't every worth it, I think at least. However, Lydia didn't notice and she loved it.

The next creative pumpkin endeavor was painting them. This was Vivian's first time painting and I have to say, that she was very good at it. She dipped her brush in the paint and wiped it on the pumpkin. Occasionally, she painted her face and the inside of her mouth but she figured out on her own that it wasn't too tasty.

Lydia for the first time was a little frustrated that mixing all the paint colors didn't mean a rainbow on her brush. She didn't like her brown that manifested from her casual dips in the colors. I got her more paint and a couple of other brushes and it helped a little, but I think it may be time for her to have a brush for every color. We will see if that works a little better for her.
Meanwhile, Eliot was cutting the tops off the big pumpkins. Just when the creative portion was finished he was ready for a little extra help from the girls. Lydia was a little apprehensive at first. She's not one for surprises, so sticking her whole hand, well really whole arm into a large orange vegetable, was not a great idea according to her. Once she saw Vivian, who is totally the kid that will do such things, not lose a limb she was extremely helpful in this process. More importantly she really enjoyed it.

When Lydia was about this age we purchased a potato head pumpkin person. I still think it was one of the greatest ideas. We craved same holes onto another pumpkin and let Vivian work on this one. She loved pulling the pieces off and putting it back in.
Meanwhile, Lydia drew the face of her own pumpkin. I gave her a marker and she just drew whatever she wanted. It was a great one! Once it was craved out and we put a candle on the inside, she was thrilled with her creation. She was very pleased with her big girl self.


For the other pumpkin Lydia wanted us to make Priscilla, the cat. So I did my best but I still think hers was better. The girls colored $1 masks which were fun throughout the night especially as they chased each other and smacked each other on the head. When all the carving and coloring was completed we took the pumpkins to our stoop and lit them, so we could be proud of our work as they glowed in the crisp of the night. We ate candy and laughed and it was a great Halloween night.

Rainy Day Activities

The last couple of days it has been rainy. It is always tough to entertain the kids on those types of days instead of flicking on the television. It is also a challenge with kids of different ages and abilities. Luckily, Vivi is now 13 months and she is more able to participate in a few activities. I had some empty containers that I was saving but I wasn't sure why. I quickly filled them with different objects: dominoes, couscous, a bell, a little person, a couple of little bouncy balls and even one with colorful pompoms. They all made a different sound and some loud some none, but she loved it. She picked them up and shook them up. She loved the one with couscous the best. It had a nice shaker sound.
Meanwhile, Lydia got a few crafts for her birthday that we decided to work on. One was a little mirror to decorate. She loves the glitter glue much to any mom's concern but she did a good job keeping it on the mirror. I have to say it was an easy activity to do and she was able to not only be creative but use various small motor skills.
For Vivi I had an only busy bag set of colored popsicle sticks that have Velcro on them. I prestuck them for her and she liked unsticking them. She isn't quite ready yet to stick them together but it was still a great activity. I have about a dozen of them and so it would take her bit to unstick them. I would simply reconnect and she would start over.
The mirror took Lydia almost the entire time we were sitting together. There was jewels and stickers.
Once she did finish we worked on a princess sticker book she also got for her birthday. The book had little descriptions and outlines of where to put the stickers that Lydia called their shadows. I pulled the stickers out so once I read the description she could find the right picture. There was a page for the princesses, their friends, and the villains.  We did the first page before dinner and the last couple pages after dinner. It provided a lot of opportunities to have conversations about princesses in general.

Admittedly, my 3 year has a much better grip on all that stuff than I would have imagined. And yesterday her favorites were the villains. She chanced Vivian around the house growling like a wicked witch and Vivian ran away laughing so hard. It was delightful.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Our Water Week

This week we have been checking things off the summer list. Everyday this week we have done something in the water.
Monday Lydia took a big jump at swim lessons with her ability to follow directions and actually swim.

Tuesday I needed to get a few things done in the garage and so I filled up a couple of Tupperware of water and let both girls play with the beach toys. They loved it and were entertained almost 2 hours. Later in the afternoon the Rohrs clan came over and we played in the pool for a while.




Wednesday Eliot was home so we went to Northshore pool to play in the kid section. For all 4 of us it was $10 and we were there 2 hours so it was certainly a deal. Parking was free and we took snacks. I also took a could of toys which was a good idea because the kid section was great but my girls are still a bit little and have a healthy fear of water, so the giant buckets falling in their heads they avoided. I had a ball on the other hand. Even slid down the slide.
















Thursday we had a girl day at the Florida Aquarium. We saw fish and played outside in the water park and sandbox area. Lydia really takes a lot of time to warm up to splash parks. She hates water in her face and so she tends to run around them until she gets brave. She never quite got there this time. She played in the sand box and some girl took her shovel so she threw sand in her.
I was a little further away with Vivi and when I went over to ask the mom had one of those looks on her face as if her child would never commit any indiscretion in her short life. I hate that. I made Lydia apologize and she sat time in time out and ate a snack. I should have brought some sand toys. Oh well.
















Friday we had planned on a pool day with the Abuelos. But Vivian was noticeably not feeling well. She had gotten an ear infection.
Luckily even though she was asymptomatic with exception of a fever. I decided to take her in to see the doctor. So we played and cleaned and did house things. We had gathered some leaves from the front yard and painted them. We then used them as stamps. Vivian did very well with a brush considering she's not quite 1 year old yet.
















Later on we had a lovely dinner and playtime with friends. It was a great way to end a busy week. After a couple of hours of play everyone got in their pajamas. Lydia chose hers. She insisted even though it's 90 degrees out and it feels like 103. She did look cute though for sure.










- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Our Week at Kinderarts

Last week we took the girls to the Berkeley Summer Programs for a camp for babies and toddlers called Kinderarts. Originally they were supposed to be in separate classes but they ended up combined which was perfect for me. The first 30 minutes are music, a short snack break and then 30 minutes of art for the older kids.

It is always a great week and it has been fun watching Lydia evolve from a 9 month old in class to being the oldest of the group and really understanding what was happening. This year with two kids was a real rest of my skills.

I don't do anything that different than when I only had one. I still throw some wipes and a diaper in my purse and go. There is just an extra step because you have to take out two kids. Last year I would chant we do not leave Vivi in the car, ever. So Lydia also knows. I had fears of that. Other than some snacks we were on the go.

We did have the great luck of having both Eliot and Grandpa be able to come to lend a hand as well which was terrific. Every time (this being our 3 summer) I am amazed at how much my kids learn and do in such a short time.

Monday








Tuesday












Wednesday




















Thursday
















Friday












- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone