Hanging out....

This is us just doing what we do.....

Leaving is always hard to do...

One of our biggest challenges each day is getting every one ready to leave the house in a timely fashion.  Today the stars seemed to align and we even had time to spare

Silas eating something he's probably not suppose to be eating!

Such a cutie

Ellie with her Hello Kitty from Build A Bear

 

 Since everyone was dressed, looked appropriate and we were all together we decided to try to get a picture of everyone. So, of course, everyone took this to mean that it was the green light to act silly!

It never fails...

Busy Bags

We travel quite a bit and doing so with younger kids can be a bit challenging. Silas is a bit too young to be entertained by much. Ellie likes to use the iPad but on longer trips this can get old really fast!

I found a great website with ideas and patterns for busy bags.  I made several of them for Ellie for our trip to Cancun and she just loved them!

I made everything myself with just a few craft items.

"The hamburger game" - (1) cards with various hamburger orders (2) the different hamburger parts are made from felt

Cooking - Everything is made out of felt and Ellie could pretend to cook various 

items on the stove top

Lacing - These were made with foam and a string and Ellie really liked working on lacing them and pretending she is sewing!

Pizza game - Same concept as the hamburger game except this requires Ellie to count out the different items that go on each pizza. Educational AND fun!

Mr. and Mrs. Potato head -- Once again, everything is made out of felt

Caterpillar - Made the caterpillar on the computer using various sizes of circles. Ellie has to match small and big pom poms to the small and big circles on the sheet

Spelling Cards - (1) made the cards and printed them out (2) Bought a bag of letters at the dollar store
So, Ellie has to match the letters from the bag to the letters on the card.

Spelling beads - (1) made the cards with easy words along with a picture (2) bought this bag of beads with the alphabet on them from craft store.
Ellie has to lace the letters to spell the various words

Sorting - found a bunch of random items that were various colors. Ellie can sort them by color or size 

Cookie game - Printed the "cookie sheets. Each cookie sheet has cookies with multi-colored "chocolate chips". Ellie has to match the colored poms to the chips.

The Ice cream game - (1) made a stack of cards #'d 1-10 (2) made various different colors of "ice cream" scoops from felt. Ellie has to draw a card and then place that # of scoops on the ice cream cone.

Sock game - Made this completely out of felt. Ellie has to match the socks and she also really liked pretending to do laundry. I wanted to make other clothing items but ran out of time.

Fishing - (1) Made the fish from 2 pieces of felt and sewed a magnet in between them. (2) used a popsicle stick with a string/magnet to use as the fishing pole. Ellie enjoyed trying to catch the fish, but it was a bit hard so maybe the felt was to thick!

So, that these are the kinds of things we pack along with us to keep the little ones busy. I cannot wait until Ellie and Silas can play them together - it will be so much more fun for them.

Mom's Lil' Stud

I think the shirt says it all!!

Love this boy!

 Fun at Monroe's!

Some of Ellie's obsessions

1) Taking pictures with statues

2) Going to Build a Bear Workshop

This girl makes us laugh.....

Wildlife West Nature Park & Rescue Wildlife Zoo

We found out that there is a Nature Park in Edgewood AND that they have performances on the weekends! The Park is home to many animals that are native to New Mexico and  it is comprised of animals that have been rescued.

This was definitely up our alley and we decided to pack every one up and head on out.

We were a bit nervous because on our way there the sky began turn a bit blue and it looked like rain was on the horizon. Ellie was so excited to go that we decided to take our chances and fit in as much as we could before the rain hit. 

Walking to the park

Coyote

Ellie found this random old bus and decided to "drive" us

Ellie and mama

The bus

Black Bear

Silas taking in the sights

Elk!

Look at that sky!

Happy boy!!

She was in heaven!!

Trying to figure out what Ellie is doing

 Just when we got our food - the rain hit! Fortunately we were able to find a place to sit under this porch area AND we could still hear the great folk music!

Walking back to the car.....

What a great day!

This was a gem of a find and we really enjoyed our day here. It is definitely a place we would head to again - good food, interesting sights and good music.

Now we are tired!