Disneyland

We are sooooo spoiled to live only minutes away from the happiest place on Earth, Disneyland! I have to confess, that we go at least once a month, if not more. I have an annual pass and Nosy Nora is still free, so it is a great cheap outing. We have lots of friends with passes as well, so we often meet up with them. It's always a fun day, and I love seeing the park through a toddler's eyes. You're only a kid once right? So, might as well live it up!

Sawdust Festival

Today we went to the Sawdust Art Festival in Laguna Beach. I love going to art festivals and craft shows, I always feel so inspired to go home and create my own art. Of course, I don’t always find the time, but I do have lots of crafty ideas in my head, and someday they will all come into fruition! 

I also believe kids are never too young to be exposed to art.  Nosy Nora had a great time riding the trolley down to the festival, making a collage, and listening to the live music. There are so many talented artists at the Sawdust Festival. The weather was perfect, and we had a wonderful day.      

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Tot School

Tot School is exposing early learning skills through FUN play. As you know from my previous posts, I am all about the simple things in life! Click on Tot School for a direct link to the website and to learn more. I get many of my creative play ideas and learning activities from this website. Nosy Nora is almost past the Tot School stage and will be moving on to preschool activities soon.  But for now, she still enjoys these activities. 

The activity today was transferring pom-poms from a tray into a plastic jar (Tray, pom-poms and plastic jar from the $1 spot at Target) using toast tongs (I found mine at Bed Bath & Beyond). This activity kept her attention for over 20 minutes.  First she practiced using the tongs to pick up the pom-poms and drop them into the container.  Then she started sorting them by color, first putting in the blue ones, then the pink ones etc. I didn’t even prompt her to do this, color sorting was her own idea! You could also have the tots sort by size. She really enjoyed this activity, and it will help her work on fine motor skills and color recognition.  My intention was for her to also string beads onto cord, but the cord was stretchy and too hard for her to use. I am going to buy stronger cord and try that on another day.  Instead she just enjoyed playing with the beads in the blue tray.   Using toast tongs to pick up the pom-pomTransferring the pom-poms into the jarA proud tot with her jar full of pom-poms!

Pretend City

Today we joined some friends at Pretend City in Irvine. Pretend City is  a great children’s museum that opened in August of 2009. Here is a description from their website: This interconnected city allows children to "pretend" to be the adults. With an entire city at their fingertips, children can experience what it is like to live, work, play and be a part of a community. With over 15,000 sq. feet of educational interactive exhibits and activities, Pretend City brings learning and imagination to life!

Nosy Nora and her friends had a great time. If you live in Southern California, you should definitely check it out. 

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