Build and Grow

About a week and a half ago we were at a friend’s house. Rachel, in her wanderings, came across an apron which she put on. Rachel likes aprons. It was cute because it was just her size (compared to my apron which she likes to wear but is way too big). So my friend told me where they got the apron. As it turns out, Lowe’s, the hardware store, has a free clinic for kids every other Saturday, and they give the aprons away there. We found out that the next free clinic was today, so we registered and went. They built a little fortune teller toy, kind of like the precursor to the magic 8 ball. The kits were all put together, and all they had to do was nail the box together with the die inside. They gave (loaned) each kid a little hammer and the kit.

Both Rachel and Gabi seemed to really enjoy it. It was interesting watching Rachel’s hammering skills improve with each nail, although her arm was getting tired toward the end. She also hammered her finger once, but took it quite stoically. She also hammered my finger. I only cried a little.
Gabi was devastated to have to give up the little hammer. Even though she got an apron, a badge and the toy, she really wanted to keep that hammer. They give a badge for each completed project. One little kid there had his apron covered with badges.
I think we’ll do that as often as we have a free Saturday morning that coincides with their clinic. It was a lot of fun.

Immediately after the Build and Grow activity, Rachel had a birthday party to go to. The theme was the movie Tangled. The little girl’s mom did a great job with all kinds of fun activities and decorations. Rachel had a lot of fun. She came home with a goodie bag. As she was going through her loot she found that she had several chocolate coins. With one of them she opened it up, broke it in half and gave half to Gabi. She is a very sweet little girl, and learning how to share very well.

We belong to Netflix. We take turns getting movies for Jeff and/or I, and for the girls. We recently had, for the girls, a DVD of Mickey Mouse Club House. One of the previews was for Winnie the Pooh. Rachel decided that she really wanted Winnie the Pooh, so I put it next on our Netflix list and told her that we had to wait for it to come in the mail. She has been asking every day if “Winnie and the Pooh” is here yet. I keep telling her no, but it will be here soon. It finally arrived today. She did a good job of waiting patiently for her movie to come in the mail.