[This belated blog post brought to you by uncooperative photos. I had a couple more pics I wanted to share, but I finally gave up.]

Alice in Wonderland

A while back Nana gave the girls several Disney books, and the favorite hands down has been Alice in Wonderland. I ordered the actual movie from Netflix, and we had a pizza and movie night. All three girls were enthralled! Even Goose actually watched most of the movie. Partway through I had to give them a spoiler though. Bug was really concerned about how Alice was going to get home. She loved the idea that it was just a silly dream. We had a number of conversations afterwards in which the girls listed things in the movie that "don't usually, really happen." Since then, Alice and commpany have found their way our everyday lives. Perhaps the most amusing incident was Monkey racing across the house, waving her arms and yelling, "I'm late! I'm late!" before settling onto the potty. A couple of times I've found them dancing around their climb 'n slide singing "We're painting the roses red!" Bug pointed out that the Brown Bear, Brown Bear book has a purple cat just like the Cheshire cat ("only he doesn't have stripes, and he doesn't disappear"). Toward the end of this week we went to a McDonald's that featured a huge twisty slide. Monkey and Bug emerged from the bottom bursting with excitement: "We fell down, down, down, and our shirts bloomed out like Alice's dress!" They spent most of the time there "playing Alice" and going down the rabbit hole. For the evening's purposes they also decided that Goose was Dinah (Alice's kitten--it makes sense: they're both small, mostly nonverbal, and unable to follow Alice down the rabbit hole).

Finger Painting

We made finger paints this week (flour + water + food coloring). This was a brilliant idea I found online somewhere. Not only did the girls love making their own paints, but it's cheap, easy, and edible--that's the preschooler activity trifecta, folks!

Emerging Social Skills
My little introverts faced several socially challenging situations this week, and they handled them all gracefully (over the past couple of months interactions with new, if very friendly people, have resulted in total meltdowns.) We've been having lots of discussions lately about appropriate responses to new people: We do not fall to the ground and start screaming. It's nice to say hi and tell them our names if they ask--that's how we make friends. If they're not up for talking, they can hide behind my legs if I'm there, and simply walk away if I'm not. This week when we had this discussion before attending an event, Monkey noted that we could also remember our special verse (Ps. 56:3), and God would help us be brave. Talk about a proud Mommy moment! The first event was a birthday party--a rained-out pool party, which means about 50 people (mostly under the age of 3) crammed themselves into a little 3-bedroom apartment. Monkey and Bug managed to make their way out onto the relatively quiet balcony several times during the party. They didn't actually try to play with anyone, but we had not a single meltdown! Then Sunday we visited a new church. Not only were there no meltdowns, but they both introduced themselves properly to several new people. We attended another birthday party today (Saturday). This one was mostly people they knew, but Monkey informed me ahead of time that she didn't want to talk to or play with anyone. She stayed within arm's reach for a long while; we had a few iffy moments, but she kept her cool, and dashed off to play outside as soon as her best buddy LA arrived.

Tent

When the girl's beach tent kept blowing over in the backyard,
we pulled out a big sheet and made the climbing dome into a tent.

For-the-Car Toys
Since Daddy's been gone, I've been working on a collection of toys that the girls can only play with in the car. We have road trips planned for this summer, and the church we're looking at attending is a bit farther away. I'm hoping it'll save me having to listen to the whining, and make it for happier car rides for them too. I bought magnadoodles, which have already been keeping them entertained on shorter trips. I also bought 3 small cookie sheets, which are perfect for magnet-based play, in this case puzzle cards (line up two or three to build words and/or form pictures) and a set of roads and tiny cars. I have more magnet activities in mind, but this is what I've gotten done so far. I also punched holes in several sets of flashcards and strung them on binder rings for the girls to look at.

Library Day
The girls asked to go to "big library" this week, and we had lots of fun--especially since storytime is on a hiatus. There were only a few kids, so the girls could have a little more freedom and no competition for the favorite toys (puppets and oversized checkers). They even made friends with another three-year-old roaming the children's section (more positive social interactions!) She sat down with them at the checkers table and Monkey and Bug cheerfully handed her a stack of checkers, so she could build too. They don't really get competition yet, so I haven't bothered attempting to explain the game. We came home with these books:
Pigeon Wants a Puppy
To Market Street (alphabet book with really neat illustrations--people made out of objects beginning with each letter)
1 is One
Bartholomew and the Oobleck
King Bidgood's in the Bathtub! (Interesting, both this and the previous book are about kings behaving badly and the page boys who solve the problem. Monkey and Bug distinguish between books by referring to the "naked king" and the "king with clothes.")
Elsie's Bird
Prehistoric Life Size (full of life size illustrations of dinosaurs--or parts of them. We've watched some episodes of dinosaur train lately, so the girls thought this book was awesome.)

Moments:

• A fire truck came down our street! No emergency, so I'm not sure why they were there, but the driver was kind enough to turn on his lights when he spotted three excited preschoolers.
• Bug "teaching" me colors when I joined her in doing coloring sheets (I'm colorblind--all crayons look brown to me once the papers come off, and I needed her help finding colors.)
• Monkey and Bug successfully cooking a sidedish for dinner tonight. They made roasted asparagus (spread out asparagus, "paint" on the olive oil, sprinkle on the seasonings). All I had to do was put them in the oven, and they disappeared quick once they came out!