Tiny Tots -- Gingerbread... Tree?

Today's project is actually a cooking project, well, kind of. We are making a Christmas tree out of edible materials. Kind of like making a gingerbread house. This is actually a pretty interesting and easy project. For the cone shaped tree, we used icecream waffle cones. Cover it with some green dyed frosting and use sprinkles and M&M's as the ornaments. The majority of the work was completed by me while Katie snacks on a tiny piece of waffle, but she definitely did the sprinkle part, as proven in the photo. Katie wasn't thrilled about eating the tree, as a matter of fact she didn't even finish eating her tiny piece of cone, I guess not letting her eat sweets still paid off in situations like this. The rest of the class all devoured the entire tree before their moms had a chance to finish the trees. That why she ended up with the best looking tree which mom had plenty of time to work on. :p

Tiny Tots -- Christmas gift bag and photo frame ornament

Katie's Tiny Tots class is making two projects this time. We started out with decorating a Christmas gift bag with a Christmas tree cut out. Katie does her usual bingo bottle dots on it.

The next project is more exciting for Katie because she loves to play with those little knick knacks used to decorate the frame. That frame was quickly destroyed when taken home, because she peels everything off to play with again.

Surprisingly today she asked me to put on her flower shirt for her and actually asked me to take off her favorite Blue's Clues' shirt. She even let me put a skirt on her, what a shock. Of course I have to take a picture of her.

Christmas at Ardenwood

One of the special events in December of Ardenwood Farm is the Christmas at Ardenwood. Some good old fashion music and puppet shows, and tons of arts and crafts project. I definitely had a lot of fun doing many of the arts and crafts, they are a bit too advance for Katie, but she definitely enjoys the end products. I learned how to make a Danish Heart this day, and here is a picture of Katie holding the woolly lamb I made her.

There were also arts and crafts like making cards and ornaments, corn husk angels, and tying your own mistletoe, which by the way after I looked up online, I found out that mistletoes are poisonous and I took it away from Katie, just in case she ingest any.

And we got our picture with Santa:

This is also the first time I toured the inside of Patterson House, it was fully decorated for Christmas.

Niles Festival of Lights Parade

Every year after Thanksgiving, Niles have a Festival of Lights Parade. The parade starts at 6:30pm and is only about half hour long event, but the street is packed with people. This year we bring Katie to the parade again. Night time photography is kind of tricky also with a wiggly kid and a moving parade background.

And this is the pictures from last year:

Tiny Tots -- Thanksgiving Potluck

The last class before Thanksgiving we had a potluck. The class even did a little cooking project of making corn bread. Each child helped to put a bit of the ingredient in the mixing bowl and also pouring it into the baking pan.

And remember that turkey hate we made a couple of weeks ago, the children are wearing them today. I was surprised that Katie was willing to wear the hat for a long time, it must have felt comfortable.

And we are all ready to eat:

Tiny Tots -- Leaf Wreath

Continuing on with our Fall/Thanksgiving theme, today's project is to make a leaf wreath. I actually think this is a pretty neat idea. The project is very easy actually, just use a paper plate and cut out the center, so you end up with a ring. Then you start gluing on all the different color leaf pieces. At the end you can hole punch the top and tie a string in to hang. Katie was totally using the glue like it was one of those bingo markers, so the wreath did end up very sticky and messy, but once it was dry, it was actually pretty good. I think if I do this project with her in the future, maybe we can first go on a nature walk to collect real leaves instead.

After receiving sticker rewards for so many classes, Katie is learning to give stickers too. Pikachu must have done a really good job for teacher Katie:

Happy Hollow Park & Zoo

I wouldn't call this place a real zoo, the animals are quite lacking compared to Oakland zoo, but it sure does feel like a kiddie amusement park. Katie loved the carousel ride, she could stay on it whole day if we let her, which is good since the admission tickets cover the rides, so in reality she could ride as much as she wants to. Just the carousel alone made us decide to get the membership for this place, and since it is not that expensive and we could get discount at other zoos and parks makes it a pretty good deal.

I remember when Katie was just before one year old, she was scared of touching animals, but now, she is very adventurous and always want to pet every animal she sees.

Tiny Tots -- Turkey Hat

Since Halloween is over, Tiny Tots moved on quickly to the next holiday, Thanksgiving. Making a turkey hat this time with colorful feathers. Katie loves this kind of arts and crafts, sticking little knickknacks on stuff, so she had a blast gluing those feathers on. Katie also surprised me by pronouncing many of the colors in class today, for sure now I know she knows, yellow, blue, green, red, and pink. I have a feeling she probably knows the other colors too, but I just haven't heard it yet.

Katie and classmate, Jacob:

G&M Farm

Last weekend before Halloween, we went to one more pumpkin patch with Katie's friend, Tiffany. We were enticed by their 6 acre corn maze, and decided to make a visit. The corn maze itself was okay, I like how they set up questions at the turns to help you choose left or right, but I also feel pretty dumb that I almost can't answer any of those questions about corn knowledge. But the maze is simple and straight forward enough that it is impossible to get lost in there. The maze itself costs $9 a person to enter with coupon, and many of the other attractions also require fee, which is the downside. However, there are many free activities for the kids that is fun enough for them. Here is Katie in a big sand, I guess I should say corn box:

Here is Katie in the haystack maze, the walls are not as tall as the one in Perry Farm, but Katie enjoyed it never the less:

Riding on the cow train and refusing to get down, this train drives pretty fast and is a pretty exciting ride I guess:

Tiny Tots -- Halloween Parade

Remember the trick or treat bags that we made couple weeks ago? Today they are getting used. Today in Tiny Tots class we are doing trick or treat. Each parent brings in some treats for each kid and we also walked outside the building to play parachute on the grass. I tried to bring Katie to class with a snow white outfit I bought her first, but she absolutely hates that outfit. She was constantly crying and tugging on her costume while saying take it off. Look at her teary eyes.

I tried to get a couple shots, but soon gave in and let her wear her normal t-shirt for the class. Oh, by the way, today's class project is to paint and make a doorknob hanger, but the Halloween costume event was just so exciting, I think most kids didn't even bother finishing the project.

Second outfit, ha, mom has a backup plan, worked out much better, or maybe it was because the distraction of all the treats. Maybe she can be snow white next year, sigh... I better let her watch Disney snow white right before Halloween next year to ensure success.

Katie sitting next to teacher during parachute circle time:

Group picture was very hard to take, the kids were everywhere, today we have two lady bugs, two cows, a spider, two firemen, a spiderman, dracula, and of course, Katie the pumpkin, isn't it surprising how you can get so many duplicates in one small class already?:

Ardenwood Farm with Layla

My best friend from college visited me during the weekend all the way from Las Vegas, this is her second trip here ever since we were both pregnant at the same time. I don't know if it is because Katie still remembers her daughter Layla from last year's visit or not, Katie was surprisingly friendly. I have never seen her so friendly before, at home she was constantly offering her toys to Layla, and trying to find more toys to offer and even gave Layla hugs. I guess I was worried for nothing about them fighting. Since Layla loves animals, we decided to pay Ardenwood Farm a visit, we arrived close to their closing time, so we actually didn't get charged admissions at all, lucky! Layla smiled instantly when she saw the farm animals, and Katie was happy following around, which was surprising also, usually she would want to be carried already. I guess her old friend really did give her an energy boost. Happy time sure go by fast, we now wait happily for next year's visit, or maybe we might even make a trip to Vegas next time.

Layla and Katie this year:

Last year:

Thinking about it, they played really well together last year as well.

Newark Library -- Toddler Story Time and Toddler Arts

I took Katie to the Newark Library for Story Time today, their story time is pretty nice compared to the Fremont Main Library ones. Each child gets to have the book right in front of them as the stories were read. They also teach a little bit of sign language and also do a little bit of music. Today, there was also finger painting activities after the story time. Katie goes ahead and "shares" the little boy's painting with herself, good thing that the little boy doesn't mind at all, and I was able to get this picture that looks like they are working together.

Katie somehow thinks the plate is the actual artwork here.

Tiny Tots -- Boo Glasses

As Halloween gets closer, more and more of our projects are Halloween related. Today's project is making a Boo glasses. It is really just a paper card cut out of a glasses shape. And here is Katie trying to sprinkle sparkles on the glasses.

I really have to say, those sparkles are very very very hard to wash off from her hands, no matter how hard you wash, you can always see more sparkles you missed. Note to self: this is a bad idea.

Sulphur Creek Nature Center -- Toddler Time

Ever since the Science in the Park trip, I wanted to give Sulphur Creek Nature Center in Hayward a visit. They have many animals there and even animal renting. So we can rent certain pets by weeks. I was even happier to learn they have toddler time there. This month's topic is whiskers, so the kids get to pet or see various rat and mouse types of animals.

After introducing the animals to the kids, we head on to do a craft project, making a raccoon mask with whiskers.

I heard they are going to have some Halloween activities here too. I just might check it out.

Tiny Tots -- Trick or Treat Bag

Tiny Tots project today is to make a trick or treat bag for Halloween. The bag it self is simple, roll the top down and punch two holes to string in those fuzzy wires as handles. Paint and stamps were provided to us today to complete decorating the bag. Katie was excited to try out the stamps, however, with her way of using it, the bag ended up with a big blotch of paint as decoration.

Halfway doing the project, a student mom from another class showed up with two 8 weeks old puppies for sale and the whole class gets to see and pet puppies.

And here is the completed treat bag, with mom's demonstration side showing and Katie outside playing.

Children's Discovery Museum of San Jose Again

We haven't been to the CDM for a while now. This time we are going with Katie's friend Tiffany. Don't know if it is because of Tiffany's influence, Katie is willing to wear smocks nowadays and even willing to touch paint. However, the all time favorite activity is still playing with water. A change of clothes is always necessary when coming to the CDM. Those smocks do absolutely nothing to prevent them from getting wet from head to toe, I don't even know why I bothered with it in the first place.

Ardenwood Harvest Festival

We went to the Ardenwood Farm corn harvest festival this Sunday. It is actually pretty fun, even for the adults. The very first thing we did was get on the train ride, however, it does feel a little bit like we were cattles (the big crowd and wooden rails).

Next thing we see the corn field and we just can't wait to go pick corns, so we went there first. It was super fun, you get to pick as much corn as you want, you just have to give half of what you picked to the farm for educational program purposes, and the rest, you can take home. The corn field was large and like a maze, I regret doing this activity first, because it is really labor intensive and we ended up have to carry that big bag of corn around.

Katie is picking corn too, well, I guess more like dropping corn:

Look at the corns we got:

Katie is helping putting the corns in the bag:

There were also many other activities in the farm, arts and crafts like making corn husk dolls, quilts; food items like fresh pressed apple cider, old fashion ice cream making, etc.; and wool threading and blacksmith demonstrations, music and shows. But... we were so tired from the corn picking, we didn't have more energy to participate in these events, since we still wanted to see the pumpkin patch at Perry farm at the front door.

Katie trying to climb down the tall hay stack pyramid:

Katie running in the hay stack maze, I think this must be totally fun for kids, since they can't see beyond the walls like us tall adults can: