Children's Museum

Yesterday was chock-full o' fun and learning as we headed to the Minnesota Children's Museum after the play was over at the Children's Theater.  They had a special Valentine's Day event going on so in addition to all of the great hands-on exhibits they always have we also got to make sugar cookies.  Baba hadn't been to the museum in years (and by years I mean decades) so I wasn't sure who was having more fun, her or Eva.  

Three generation days are always so awesome.... maybe I'll even start a blog series called "3 Generation Days" to highlight the girls fun we have.  Girls rule!     

Cheesin' it up with Ronald in the skyway to the museum

"Driver, take this bus to St. Paul."

Baba putting on a puppet show (I told you I couldn't tell who was having more fun lol)

Watching Bab's puppet show...

And then putting on her own

Get ready for water play

Stopping to do a random puzzle

Eva decided to eat her frosting instead of putting it on the cookie

Face stuff!

Putting on a show.... she's not a ham at all or anything ;-)

Minnesota Children's Theater

Eva had her first theater experience yesterday at the Minnesota Children's Theater's production of Harold and the Purple Crayon and it was so much fun.  We ended up having wonderful seats; I bought the tickets weeks ago and I had selected the best available but it wasn't until arrival that we realized we were just 5 rows back from the stage and at a perfect elevation to see everything.  The show was 75 minutes with a 15 minute intermission and Eva was in awe the whole time.  The play incorporated a number of songs (the actor who played Harold had an amazing, full on Broadway talent voice) and very cool special effects to tell the story of a little boys whose imagination and purple crayon open up a whole world of adventures.  Eva is already asking when we can read another book and then go see it's "show" :-) We'll be seeing every age appropriate show they put on as the years come and go. 



Giving her ticket like a big girl

Eva hiding from the camera

Reading the playbill before the action begins

Nerd ball!

Of course Baba bought Eva her own big purple crayon, which she has been using non-stop

Eva also bought finger puppets

Stolen photo since I knew better than to take any during the actual show

I stole this from the MCT website because I think it's so very cool.  We believe:

• Young people embody complex realities, imagination and possibility, and their concerns must be central to our programming choices.
• Young people have the power to know the world and to transform it.
• The mentoring of young people is a key responsibility of Children's Theatre Company.
• We are part of a larger world and our theatre has a responsibility to illuminate connections, build bridges, and celebrate diverse cultures.
• Theatre must encourage the power of imagination and critical thinking.
• Artists must be valued and provided with the tools to achieve excellence and realize their vision.
• We do our best work when all are involved as collaborators in the pursuit of the artistic vision.
• We must embrace the fundamental attributes of young people: curiosity, risk taking, candor and imagination.

Swimming Lessons

Eva had her very first swimming lesson today at Lifetime (our gym) in Maple Grove and she did even better than I had hoped for!  She got right in the water with the instructor and was putting her whole face under water within a few minutes.  Up until now she has always panicked a little when she goes under water, so I was very pleased.  She had a great time and on top of it my friend Erin's 2 boys Ray & Jack take swim lessons at the same time in the next pool over, so I have someone to talk to every Saturday. 

I'll keep everyone updated as she goes but I think this summer will be the summer of pruney fingers and awesome tan lines :-)

Waiting to be called

Ring around the rosey- only 3 girls in her class!

back floating

Milk

So today's blog isn't going to be super exciting but hey, I didn't say the whole month would be thrilling. Plus, I work from  8:00-5:00 at my day job then 5:30 to 11:00ish at the restaurant so I have little time to blog on Fridays.

While out to dinner last Friday night with my friend and her children her two year old asked, in her very cute two year old voice, why Eva wasn't drinking milk. [side note: she had water] My friend joked, "because her mommy doesn't want her to grow."

Actually, I do want her to grow, just grow in the right way :-)  Numerous studies have shown that the number of fat cells is set during adolescences and then remains constant in adulthood.  Losing weight as an adult requires shrinking the size of each fat cell, but it will not reduce the number of cells (i.e. you can still re-gain the weight fairly easily).  Add that to the fact that organic milk has been proven to, "cut saturated fats by 30-50% and still get the same intake of beneficial fatty acids, as the omega-3 levels are higher but omega-6 is not, which helps to improve the crucial ratio between the two" and you you get my reasoning behind limiting Eva's non-organic milk intake as much as I can.

Will one glass kill her? Of course not; but if I can save $2 by not buying an 8 oz glass of normal milk at a restaurant so that I can put it towards the cost of her organic milk, which she drinks almost non-stop at home, that's an easy call to make.

Marquette Pride

It's been almost 6 years since I left college but I'm still so proud of my alma mater! 

Funny God

This was too cute not to post and it actually is pretty accurate, click on it to enlarge.


Reading

The New Years Resolution that's been easiest to keep up on has been reading to Eva everyday for at least 40 minutes, or 300 minutes in a week if we fall behind on a certain day.  I've noticed a huge increase in her concentration levels and she "reads" so much more now, meaning she has more parts memorized and says them at the same time I do.  Here's a normal stack of books we'll go through every 2 days.  

Why 40 minutes you ask?  The following is a blurb on why the recommended 20 minutes a day is so important.  Now double that and you've got what we're doing with Eva.

To fully understand the benefits of reading aloud to children and what reading 20 minutes a day can do for our children, we have to move beyond the immediate and look at the big picture. The big picture is the cumulative amount of reading time during all the years leading up to kindergarten. Children typically enter kindergarten at the age of 5 so we need to look at the power of reading 20 minutes a day from the ages of birth to 5 years.

20 minutes x 30 days = 600 minutes or 10 hours per month

10 hours x 12 months = 120 hours per year

120 hours x 5 years = 600 hours over 5 years 
A typical public school system is in session for 180 days each school year. Each day is made up of approximately 5 hours of total instruction time. A school day is certainly longer, but what is important is the total instruction time. Easily 40% of all instruction time during the school day is wasted with administrative matters, behavioral issues, and other non-instruction events. This leaves 3 hours of total instruction time in a typical school day.


3 hours x 180 days = 540 total hours per school year

 

Meaning, if you read to your child 20 minutes a day, every day until kindergarten, you will have already exceeded a year's worth of learning before they even begin school.