Sassy Cow

When you live in Wisconsin, there are lots of fun opportunities to see cows.  We recently enjoyed such a privilege when Aurora and I spent a Saturday at Sassy Cow Creamery, our local organic dairy. 

Aurora pet a day-old calf and submitted the name “Three” in the name bucket.  We “moo”ed at it a little while and moved on to other fun things.  We played with sidewalk chalk, we used great deliberation coloring a farm scene, and we ran back and forth tossing beanbags in the cheese-shaped cornholes. 

Oh, and of course, we ate ice-cream.  Who needs a spoon anyway?

As the day continued we watched a milking, enjoyed a hayride, and saw a newborn calf stand for its’ for time.  Mostly we played in the barn.  Hours and hours running up and down the grazing line of cows.  We identified those we like best.  We stomped in the puddles created by their watering hoses. 

I thought we were driving out for a bit of ice-cream, but it turned into an entire day of fun at the farm.

Bubble Wrap Circle

Aurora’s godfather sent her an amazing painting of a narwhal.  Her wall is enriched, she now knows and loves Monodon monoceros, and we gained a ton of packaging wrap for play!  So we called over a friend and went to town.

The game I envisioned had the girls coloring in numbers 2-10.  We placed the numbers under pieces of bubble wrap. 

The girls stood on “x”s in the center of a floor, drew a numbered playing card, found their number in the circle, and jumped on the bubble wrap while the music played.  Yeah, so that was my game.  Way, way too structured for two year olds.  They were good sports anyway! 

The game morphed into a much more age appropriate run around and jump on bubble wrap when music played and freeze when it stopped.  Occasionally, they would yell out what number they were on, but mostly they just bounced, popped, and giggled.   Terrific use of an afternoon and a box of bubble wrap.  

Shooting Stars

As she always does, Aurora humored me for a little bit and played with her new shooting stars in the way I had envisioned.  

We stood at the sidewalk and shot them into the hula-hoop.  She smiled gently as we played.  Then, at her request, I returned my camera to the apartment, and we continued we played with the stars in a manner that she deemed more fun – we took the stars for a walk, put them in and out of clover patches, and carried them close to our chest. 

Felt Board: Color Birds

Blue bird, blue bird, come to my window

Blue bird, blue bird, come to my window

Blue bird, blue bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

Yellow bird, yellow bird, come to my window

Yellow bird, yellow bird, come to my window

Yellow bird, yellow bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

Orange bird, orange bird, come to my window

Orange bird, orange bird, come to my window

Orange bird, orange bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

Red bird, red bird, come to my window

Red bird, red bird, come to my window

Red bird, red bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

White bird, white bird, come to my window

White bird, white bird, come to my window

White bird, white bird, come to my window

Buy molasses candy

Sung over and over again by Mom for thirty minutes or more at a time.  It is repetitive and happy half hour.  

Beaded Bracelets

Take pony beads and thread them on pipe cleaners and ta da – kitty toys bracelets! 

Normally Aurora would giggle and giggle at the cats as they batted pipe cleaners and pulled beads out of bowls, but she was too focused on her craft.

 So diligently she threaded bead after bead on her carefully selected pipe cleaner.  At her requested, I sorted the beads by color so she could focus on just the purple, then the grey, and then green. 

When her dad came home from work, she skipped her usual grand greeting and only turned her head with a quick “hello” before she resumed beading.

Pie Day

Happy Pie Day (yesterday 3.14)!  Aurora was a big fan.  Had I been on my A-game then we would have made all our goodies, but some weeks just aren’t those weeks.  So, we used the help of the greater Madison community.

At the children’s museum Aurora made here own tiny apple pie.  We brought it home so that Dad could help us cook it. 

Then we got a pizza pie.  Apparently, calling it a “pie” was distressing to Aurora who insisted through tears that it was simply “pizza.” 

And of course we topped the day off with cherry pie and ice-cream.

 In the spirit of mathematics, we added some counting books to our usual nighttime fare.  Her favorite, You Can Count on Monsters (Richard Evan Schwartz, 2010), extended her bedtime by a good little bit because we read/counted all the way to 64!  

Felt Board: Chicka Chicka Boom Boom

Aurora is on the mend!  The fever broke late last night, this morning she ate half a squeezey fruit, and the doctor said we had turned the corner.  Already she is showing an interest in gentle play – a perfect opportunity for our new series of games of turning our favorite books into felt boards.  Today we played with lower case letters and a palm tree inspired by Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (by Bill Martin Jr and John Archambault, illustrated by Lois Ehlert, 1989). 

This is how she played with her new felt board yesterday.

This is how she played today.

I am so encouraged by her play, so relieved at her improvement, and so impressed that my two and a half year old knows all her lower case letters.  Aurora is so great.