Almost every weekend I make a large amount of a particular meal, divide it into portions large enough to feed 5 kids and freeze it. This way, I at least have some evenings where I really don't need much time for meal prep, while the daycare is on. When it is time for me to make pizzas to freeze, I often involve the kids in the preparation. It is a fun, easy meal for them to help with.
The morning group enjoyed it thoroughly. They like to taste all the ingredients, including flour, salt, tomato sauce, and of course, mozzarella cheese!
Riley and Noah helped me bake some more in the afternoon, so we ended up with 3 pizzas in total! Thanks for the help, kids!
I put some paper up on the walls one day, so we could paint a mural the next day.
Of course, they couldn't wait for the next day, so I let them colour with crayons first.
They had a great time with this activity, and it did not get out of hand. Even the youngest knew to only colour on the paper.
The next day I prepared all the paints, got the kids into their paint smocks, and was personally so excited for them to enjoy painting all over the walls.
Well, they painted for about 2 minutes, and then one by one, said "I'm done painting." It was quite the waste of paint! At least Amadea hung in there for the long haul. Oh well, you just never know how an activity is going to go with kids. Sometimes you prepare something so extravagant and they're like, "Meh". I'm keeping most of the paper up so they can colour on it from time to time, in the next couple of months.
One activity both the morning and afternoon groups enjoyed was water play with sea and pond creatures. The afternoon group in particular were amused with this activity for quite some time, delighting in the pretend play.
The older kids (including Riley herself) baked the cake. We included all the kids in the decorating part. They did a great job, placing most of the Smarties onto the cake. Taste-testing is always essential!
We weren't planning on having a big birthday celebration for Riley, since she had her own party; a pool party, and it was awesome! Still, the next day, on Riley's actual birthday, I couldn't help but to bust out the party hats.
Once they each had a hat, Riley had the group sing happy birthday to all the kids, one by one, so everyone could feel special.
She also asked that Leila wear a party dress, since it was, after all, her birthday. But Riley herself was in pants, so we gave her one of Leila's dresses to wear. This was unsatisfactory to her, not because it was a little tight, but because the skirt did not spin when she twirled around. Leila's did, and she needed a dress that met that requirement too.
So, I had to text her dad to bring over a dress that fit the bill. (It's not as bad as it sounds. He lives in the building, and was working from home.)
So he brought up this beautiful dress for his little 4-year-old princess, and her happiness was restored. Here you can only see 2 princesses, but we ended up also putting Amadea in one of Leila's dresses before we went outside. I should have known Amadea would love this, since her favourite thing to do is to try things on: shoes, boots, hats, bracelets, etc.
I found a birthday banner in the closet that we had used on the door for Thomas's birthday. This time, we taped it to the wagon so everyone would know it was someone's birthday.
And here's princess Amadea. One of her favourite games to play with me is tag....well....only with me catching her! She thinks it is hilarious!
Here are a couple of clips:
The birthday girl enjoyed her special day, at the park with her buddies.
But soon it was time to go home and eat the very special cake they had all made.
Happy birthday, to our little real life princess. We all love you, Riley!
No comments:
Post a Comment