Creative Play

Having so much fun with creative, dramatic play! Face paint has added a new level of imagination to our world of make believe!

Play day

Saturday Play Day:
Friendship #2

We successfully hosted our first official playdate at our house!!  I think I'm almost as excited as Evelyn - venturing into the world of friendships!

First off, we now have excellent play space in our house!  From Evelyn's "little house" outside to her "little kitchen" and table in the living room to her new "princess tower bedroom" - there are many spaces to play.

Next task - invite Evelyn's "best friend" from daycare over to play... decorate and stamp a pretty little card to send along to little friend's mommy to introduce ourselves, exchange phone numbers and suggest a meeting time. Check!

Saturday - the day of the playdate finally arrives!  Friend brings two princess dresses so they can play dress up; Evelyn is excited to show the Little House since she talks about it all the time at daycare - I bring little plates and cups and juice and fruit snacks outside for a mini tea party and it's an instant hit!  It's a good thing to start outside just to get the silliness and excitement out.

Dress-up time came next and the girls put on a "Princess Show" - this consisted of twirling and bowing, dancing and singing "I'm Sleeping Beauty and my mommy is Snow White".

Finally, in fits of either hunger or exhaustion, there is a minor melt down and we know it's time to call it a day. Successful playdate ends with the girls swapping princess dresses for the weekend with promises to return them on Monday.

Next time: I think we'll have one slightly structured activity and the rest of the time for free play!  The girls got along great and us mother's found we had so much in common!

Evelyn phrase of the day: she tells me "mommy, we swapped princess dresses.  I want to swoop again!"

And they lived Happily Ever After

Fairy Tales

by Evelyn McKiel

This is the summer of the dancing princess... of fairy tales and other fancy stuff!

Dancing at the Irish Fair August 2011

The common outfit for Miss Evelyn has been her ballet dancing shoes and a fancy princess dress... gone are the day of running shoes and jeans.  Bring out the velvet, sparkles, swirling skirts and dancing shoes!  Magic wands and Rapunzel towers.  I'm reminded daily that she's Snow White, baby Mary is Rapunzel and mommy is Cinderella.  Daddy?  Oh, he's the SCARY monster that chases Snow White.  Don't worry though, we can defeat him by giving kisses...

Imagine all of this make believe and imaginative play... Evey with a twinkle in her eye, spinning around on one foot and saying "you playing with me, mommy?  Let's dance!"  Melts your heart!

Photos (a month in review

Eagle's Nest: Having a ball in the Ball Pit

Art: Stamping and gluing Valentine's

Sensory Exploration: Fun with Bubbles at the Children's Museum

Art: Our own Chick, Chicka, Boom, Boom tree

Tea Party and mini muffins!

Birthday Party: Pizza, Cake and Old Fashion Party games

Playtime Activities!

Welcome back blog-readers!

A month in review: 

Evelyn, Erin and Kristi Yamaguchi

It's been almost a month since I've found the time/taken the time to write.  We've been BUSY!  Even as the snow continues to accumulate outside and hopes of spring push further away, we keep plenty busy!

Our favorite weekend activities include:

1. Children's Museum; a grandparent membership allows us to visit regularly and we love the sensory activities, make-believe and expanding our freedom!
2. Eagle's Nest indoor play gym; a chance to release some energy, meet other kids and exercise!
3. Java Train Coffee Shop; a local coffee shop with a fabulous Boxcar Clubhouse for kids!  We like going on our own for weekend brunch or meeting friends!
4. birthday parties and 
5. Bookstores and books; From weekend puppet shows at the Public Library to book reading events at The Red Balloon!

Our favorite activities at home:

1. Tea parties for all the dollies and stuffed animals; we make cookies and muffins and even invited Grandma-ma Roxanne over for tea.  
2. Reading Books have continued to be a favorite past time, along with playing with letters (letter magnets and flash cards), numbers and shapes.  
3. Puzzles; while the chunky shape puzzles become less of a challenge, we seek out more advanced puzzles to work on.  
4. Playing make-believe;  copying mommy and daddy by cooking and cleaning (organizing and washing) in her own little kitchen
5. Art activities; stamping and pasting cards for holidays and birthdays, making collages, drawing shapes (circles, lines, "polka-pocks"), fingerpainting, painting with brushes, markers, crayons... 

Children's Museum

The little lady sure has learned how to multi-task... I wonder who she got that from?  

We were at the Children's Museum last Friday and met up with one of Evelyn's ECFE classmates.  They had a fantastic time playing together and in parallel play.  The bubbles and water tables were an immediate hit for both girls - which is where we started.  We then made our way up to the fourth floor "Our World" exhibit.  This was always my favorite and it is such a joy to watch Evelyn explore/make believe and interact with others as I remember doing so many years ago.  

"Our World" is set up like a miniature town with a co-op grocery store and asian restaurant to make believe and role play within.  Evelyn was immediately drawn to the co-op.  In fact, her words were "Shopping!!"  She found a shopping cart and two shopping baskets that she filled with vegetables and fruit - all while pushing "Babies" around in the cart.  Once we showed Evelyn how to work the cash register, she enjoyed that role as well!  Evey is at the perfect age to really enjoy the museum - I think we'll have to invest in a membership this year!

Fall Frolic!

 Running here and there and everywhere!  A beautiful, crisp November afternoon was spent playing outside in the leaves.  Raking up leaves and jump, jump, jumping into our piles.  Babies was along for the fun and exploration!  Running around the tree and up and down the block - pausing momentarily to "peek-a-boo" around the maple tree!

Peek!  Peek-a-boo!

Baby Dolly

EVELYN AND HER FIRST BABY DOLLY

She showed such pure joy and happiness as she caught sight of this itty bitty baby doll. She reached for the dolly hands and hugged her and kissed her... never to let her go. This dolly was the one and only for Evey - none of the dolls with hair caught her attention. I had the sales gal bring us the new baby-in-a-box and Evey reached out to grab the box... kissing it and holding it in her lap until the sales gal finally opened it for her and took out the doll. They are the perfect pair!

It's uncanny how similar Evey and her doll look! Either could be Evey!!!

Happy Two Month Birthday!

On Sunday, Evelyn was Two months old! We can't believe how quickly the time has flown by... yet it seems like she has always been a part of our lives.

For her birthday, we finally hung her mobile over her cradle and hung up a quilted duck wall hanging. She loves these new things to look at!! The other morning I heard her waking up, yet she didn't cry out for me... when I checked on her, she was happy and intently watching the birds bounce and spin on her mobile!

Another new development: She can now grab at her rattle! I was shaking the rattle in front of her and she put on her "determined and concentrating" look, stuck her little tongue out and started reaching for the rattle. You could just see the wheels turning as she was trying to coordinate her hand and eye to grasp the object in front of her. At first, she would wave around until her hand bumped the rattle. She would grab it and hold on tightly. After a few more times of this, she would hit the rattle more often and would then wave the rattle around when she caught it!

She is also very charming in her new expressions!

She will mimic faces that we make - such as sticking her tongue out! For the better part of a day, she was constantly sticking her tongue out! Grandpa gave her a taste of grapefruit... she enjoyed experiencing a new flavor!

She will mimic faces that we make - such as sticking her tongue out! For the better part of a day, she was constantly sticking her tongue out! Grandpa gave her a taste of grapefruit... she enjoyed experiencing a new flavor!

So many new things! So many beautiful new dresses to wear (She wore her Red Dress for her birthday... and because it was a Sunday I figured I might as well get her dressed up for church).

(Pictures to follow shortly... once I have our computer and internet hooked up at the same time)!

Grandpa's Farm

We have a little traveller in our midst!! We just returned from our first roadtrip with Evey. We travelled to Grandpa Jim's farm by Lake Superior. Thankfully I had Caitlin with me in the car to help us through the few fussy moments!!


We were visiting daddy who will be working up north for the month of March. Evey, Auntie Caitlin and I had a fabulous long week driving around the bay and walking around the little towns. Evey was entertained by the ceiling fans in the Chequamegon Bookstore. She also visited her first library! We read lots of stories and I can tell that storytime will be a big hit over the years. Otherwise, we enjoyed the peace and quiet and relaxed pace of life up north!

Daddy had his first night watching Evey while Auntie Cat and I cross country skied a 10k across Lake Superior! They had their special daddy-daughter time; dancing to everything from The Greatful Dead to Brian Setzer Orchestra. Practicing dance moves for the future daddy-daughter dance at CDH!

We had such a nice time- I think we will try to make it up again for a few more days before I head back to work.

A Day at the Conservatory

We took Evelyn on her first trip to Como Park on Sunday!

We walked all around the Conservatory and she received her first lessons in plant identification/ appreciation! She had the lucky vantage point from daddy's arms!

It was fun to be out and about and to get a brief holiday from the freezing winter chill. She is so good at traveling and didn't fuss until we were leaving (and she was placed back in her carseat).

Notice her monkey outfit, fitting for a trip to the zoo!

Playtime Activities!

There have been so many new things that it's hard to keep up with blogging! Evelyn has begun to smile at us - maybe not the "fully socialable" smile, but she does have her super cute happy moments! We have been learning how to give baby kisses and that always gets a smile.

This week she made huge strides with her play time activities. She follows her rattle and can find it up, down and on either side plus she will reach out for it and try to grab at it!! She will also sit in the bouncy chair and rocking swing for at least half an hour and is entertained by her lion pull toy. We do tummy time on mommy's shoulder and can hold our head up really well. She can even crawl/climb up to my shoulder and from side to side!!