It's Not All "Woe Is Me"...

I promise!  We've been enjoying the beautiful warm weather here in Colorado, soaking it in and warming our souls in ways we haven't been able to the last 4-6 months.  I swear, for me, open windows with the sounds of the community surrounding our home could pull me out of any funk.  Kids playing, dogs barking, people happily chatting as they power walk down the street?  Try to top that concerto, Beethoven!  Add to that the lake thawing out and beckoning to us with its lazy waves?  It might just turn me into one of those "half full" people :)

Also, thanks to my new social media addiction... Pinterest... our play time has become so much more creative.  And the hat trick is complete! 

Check out these pictures from our "play cooking" adventure:

I just put random ingredients in a muffin tin like lasagna noodles that had been hanging around for too long to be useful, marshmallows, white chocolate chips, herbal tea bags, raisins, wheat berries, popcorn kernels, saltwater taffy and a sweet cutie.

Then gave him pots, bowls, measuring utensils, mixing spoons and spatulas and let him measure, mix and "cook" on the play stove (lid from a plastic storage bin).

This was the mix before it went into the pots to "cook."  River LOVED this and I loved this idea so much I started following Jessie at her blog called Play Create Explore.  She has great ideas for preschooler activities and I love that she isn't afraid to get messy.  As she says in her blog (and I'm paraphrasing)... what only requires 10-20 minutes of cleanup could make memories for your child(ren) for a lifetime.  Definitely worth it. 

Next activity for this weekend?  Hiding dollar store dinosaur bones in the freshly dug patch of earth in our yard where the beautiful Russian Olive tree stood until the crazy winds we've had round these parts pulled it up by the roots.  It was sad to see it go.  According to the number of rings I counted in the stump it was the same age as I am. 

We'll make the most of it, though, and River will just about think he died and went to heaven when he gets to dig up bones with his numerous tractor toys.  At least the tree went first instead of this horrible atrocity I found in one of the books we once checked out from the library:

Scoop and Muck, you should be ashamed of yourselves...  You are not invited to my hippy commune!