Rice Sensory Box

Yesterday I made Annabelle a rice sensory box. It was fun for both of us! I loved dying the rice different colors (I made yellow, blue, green and purple) and Annabelle loved mixing it up! The box was equipped with a sand sifter, shovel, measuring cup, foam fish cut outs, ribbon, plastic cup and fake flowers. Annabelle liked the shovel and cup the most since she is big into filling things up and dumping them back out again. A did try to eat the rice once... I was surprised that she didn't try it more than once! I guess she is starting to move out of the "everything goes in the mouth" phase. Hooray! Here are some pics.

I made about 3 cups of each color rice. Used food coloring and rubbing alcohol. Let it dry outside in a pan for about 2 hours during nap time. 

Shovel, measuring cup, sifter, plastic cup, foam cut outs, sand plastic fish mold, ribbon and flowers.

A liked filling the cups up with rice

By the end, all the colors were mixed together- fun! Looks like Mardi Gras! 

A's Quiet Book

I finally finished it! After several months time and numerous trips to the crafts store my Quiet Book project for Annabelle is finally complete. Yea! A few pages are from patterns I found on the web but there are some that are all my design. Here are some pics of the finished product.

Cover!

Left side: match bees to flowers. Back of bees have shapes that match the flower petals. Right: Put spots on the ladybug. The spots are Velcro. When you are done unzip the ladybug and store spots inside.

Mail page- mailbox opens and flag moves. Envelopes open and there are letters inside

Train with finger puppets- elephant, lion and monkey

Left: owl in a tree come out of the hole. Right: flowers unbutton and sun is Velcro.

Breakfast page. Left - make a bacon egg and cheese sandwich on the plate. The banana is Velcro. Right is the Sbucks page. 1 is a tea cup with removable (snap) tea bag. 2 is coffee lift the flap to find two coffee beans. 3 is a frappacino cup with pull down flap. There are three removable strawberries.

I Spy page with ID card. (This one will not be used till shes older.) 

Left: Dress the monkey with bows, dresses, skirt and shirts (velcro). Right: match the cupcakes.

Catching Up

Our Internet has been spotty lately so I am late in updating our weekly activities. Below you will find my favorite pics from last week. We spent a good bit of time outside... no worries, A is heavily coated with bug spray! Darn you West Nile! Enjoy.

Nilla Wafers are still tops on A's snack list

Mac N Cheese has been added to the approved eating list

Sprinkler time

A likes junk mail more than anyone I know.....

Tillie laying on our sidewalk chalk art

She. Is. Running.

Trains!

Learning about food with our new shopping toys

Pom Poms and Pipe Cleaners

Want to entertain a busy 13 month old? Give them a bunch of pipe cleaners and a colander and watch them figure out how to stick the cleaners through the holes. Then give them a bunch of multi colored pom poms and an empty container. Poke holes in the top of the container and watch them go at it! Annabelle worked on both of these activities for a half hour! It was super fun to see her at work! Inspecting all of the "equipment" and then trying to figure it all out. Here are some pics.

This Week in Annabelle's World

Annabelle and I stayed close to home this week. After our vacation it was time to recover and get things back to normal. Yes, we had some play dates and there was Splash Day but mostly we were here at home playing and learning. Annabelle got some new toys this week. It seems that A has outgrown a lot of her toys (how did that happen?) I want her to keep having fun and learning so we have new blocks, sorting, food and color toys.... oh and a toy remote control because she LOVES to get a hold of our remote and throw it on the floor. We frown on breaking "Mommy and Daddy toys." Anyway, here are the pics of the week.

Oh- side note, Annabelle is now eating kix cereal, peaches and Mandarin oranges!!! YEA! This is big as she was only eating Nilla wafers, grapes and strawberries for about a month.

Annabelle at work

Rolling with my hommie!

Future dancer. I love this pic

Annabelle has wings....

New blocks

All ready to head to the Farmers Market. Don't I look cute?!

Cookies! Annabelle likes to watch food cooking in the oven.

Tutu!

Jumping in pillows! 

Splash Day

Thursday Annabelle and I hit up the Lake Highlands Splash Park for LECPTA's Splash Day. We already knew that she loved playing in splash fountains from our earlier trip to Austin so this was a no brainer. Annabelle had a great time running around in the park with her friends and since it wasn't crowded with big kids (YEA!!) she had free rein of the playground area too. Here are some pics. I can't wait to go back!

Water!

I own this park!

Neighborhood friends

Dancing in the rain

Tebowing? This is the funniest pic to me!

The Road Trip Part 2

So we are safely back in the Big D after our Texas tourist vacation. We had a great time and returned home relaxed and ready to get back into our routine. As promised, here is the second round of pics. So fun!

Playing in the Bee Caves splash fountain

And... she's running. Her fav thing to do.

A meet Bevo..... Bevo meet A. 

UT Tower 

Family photo from UT Tower

More Swimming

On The Road Again!

I had to include these shots of A on the road. She is such a good travel companion! Sweet girl and Tilliebean shared the backseat during our in state adventure. They were good buddies and kept each other occupied.