Monster Truck Puzzle: A Craft

A good way to get Enzo interested in an activity is to make it monster truck themed. Here is a quick activity I came up with that involves matching puzzle-like shapes in order to form a picture. Enjoy!

Enzo-isms

One of my favorites things about having a two-year-old is his use of language and the clever and funny things that come from his mouth. 

There are so many funny things that Enzo has said over the past few months.  Here are a few that come to mind:

Enzo-ism #1

Enzo:  Daddy, I hungry.

Pablo: Oh, really.  Is your belly hungry?

Enzo: No, I hungry in my mouth!

Enzo-ism #2

Me:  Enzo, did you poop?

Enzo:  Noooooo.

Aunt Grace:  Enz, are you lying?

Enzo:  No, Grace.  I not a lion.

Enzo-ism #3

Enzo was sitting on his Pop's lap in the driver's seat of the parked car.  Enzo was playing with the windshield wipers and head light controls. 

Pop says, "Enzo, blow the horn!"
Enzo blows on the steering wheel as if he were blowing out birthday candles. 

It's Friday! Here's Some Music!

It's been a while, but I went on a glutenous shopping spree on iTunes last night, and man, did it feel good.  Don't you just love filling up the iPod with new music?  Me, too.  Except, of course, for mornings when your husband really wants to listen to his new Neil Young's Greatest Hits album during your morning commute. That's a lot to ask so early in the morning; Neil Young's voice is piercing at that time of day, especially when I have a new playlist of freshly purchased music beckoning me.  Oh well, you win some, you lose some.

Here are a few of my purchases:

Music In The Park

Last winter, my sister, who works in the city, told me about a park downtown that has music stations throughout.  We have been meaning to go take a look for several months now and finally got around to visiting today. 

The boys had a great time playing the xylophones and chimes.  There was a huge funnel-like sculpture that echoed if you yelled into it.  The boys mainly liked using it as a sliding board and monster truck ramp. 

We capped off the morning at a cafe snacking on fresh baked treats and cold drinks. A perfect and easy summer day. 

The walk had a vocabulary lesson ever few feet- words that sound the same but have different spellings and meanings.

We loved this bamboo tunnel.

A Craft That Took A Detour: Window Charms

 I have been saving paper towel rolls for a long time. I decided today it was time; the mountain of empty rolls needed to be tossed or used. There is so much you can make with empty rolls and my boys love playing with them.  I decided to keep them and start putting them to good use. 

Source

Today I decided we would make paper towel roll snakes.  It's a cute little craft, one I thought Enzo would enjoy.  As we began working, the craft ended up going in a totally different direction resulting in a window charm or wind chime.  I really love the finished product and the process incorporated so many fine motor skills. 

Materials:
pipe cleaners
paper towel roll
paint
beads and/or pasta
(next time we'll also add some glitter and stickers to dress it up)

Step 1: Cutting the tube into sections and painting the tube segments

Step 2: Punching holes in each side of the tube and on both ends.  There should be 4 holes total on each segment. 

Step 3: Thread pipe cleaners through the holes and begin fastening the tubes together. 

Step 4: We threaded beads and pasta on pipe cleaners, which Enzo wanted to wear as a bracelet.  When he was tired of wearing the bracelet (he's fickle), I fastened it to the end of the chime for decoration. 

Massimo played in finger paints!