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:

Lakeshore Learning Store Free Craft -- Career Theme Crafts

Since I had nothing to do this day, I decided to take Katie to Lakeshore for free crafts. Luckily, I happened to go on a day that also had extra career theme crafts going on. I thought these crafts were pretty neat and definitely can replicate again at home in the future when Katie is older and would like to pretend role play. The first career craft is to make a police badge. We were given the badge shaped paper cut out, a star, and a string of yarn to tape on to it so you can hang it on the neck. Then you can decorate it however you like.

The second career craft is to make a chef hat. Basically you use a strip of paper and decorate it, then tape it together to fit your head. Then you use a piece of paper tissue to create the poof on the top and just tape it on from the inside, and ta-da, you have a chef hat. Katie, of course hated me trying to put that thing on her, so this is the best model picture I can get.

Tiny Tots -- Paint a Pumpkin

Today's Tiny Tots' activity is a simple painting project. Orange paint and a pumpkin coloring page, Katie is willing to get dirty more and enjoys painting more nowadays, she is still very cautious to not dirty up her arms, I guess that is good. Since it was a rainy day earlier this morning, I let her stayed indoor to continue to paint instead of go out door to play, she did enjoy staying and painting though.

Community Day at Elizabeth Gamble Garden

A nice little garden with historic home in Palo Alto is a great place to take a stroll. Admission is free and this day's event is Community Day. Arts and crafts activities that related to gardening is available and the police and fire station also participated and let kids ride on their vehicles. Katie was super happy to be able to meet up with her friend Tiffany and they had a blast.

Science in the Park Festival Trip

One day while driving Katie to a library event, I saw an ad outside that said Science in the Park on October 1. After looking into it, I found the information online here, http://www.scienceinthepark.org/#!
We decided to go, and boy, it was a really nice festival. Many kid friendly science, health, arts and crafts stations, and bouncy houses, and all are free with tons of freebies. There were also bottle rocket launches and an egg drop contest. The booths were also in a very spacious and clean area, but the down fall is it soon filled up with many people. Since Katie is still too young to enjoy most of the booths, we spend a lot of our time mainly at the Sulphur Creek Nature Center booth, which also sounds like an awesome place to visit. Many exotic wildlife were shown, and we got to pet a alligator, hedgehog, and some kind of a lizard. There were also owl, porcupine, llama, anteater, sloth, lemur, and bunch of spiders, snakes, and lizards show cased.

And guess what, free hot dog with chips and bottled water for lunch for everyone. Wasn't expecting to have lunch covered there, but look, we had a family picnic. I definitely highly recommend this annual festival.