St. Patrick's Day Toddler Play Date

Last year, we celebrated St. Patrick's Day with a Toddler Play Date with a bunch of our favorite friends.  While we may have missed the opportunity to post last year, it's so nice to catch up and share all of our activity ideas with you this year as the season of green has again rolled around.

We always try to keep things short and sweet, so we had some free play time, music, craft and snack.  I had a story ready and waiting - but the kids seemed a little too busy this time!  Our kids were all around 12-18 month toddlers for this play date but I think they'd even still enjoy most of the activities.  

We started with a sensory bin filled with lots of green things - blocks, shapes from our shape sorter, balls, glitter shamrocks and gold coins from the craft store.  We also included shamrock shaped Mardi Gras beads which the kids loved finding.  To make our sensory bin nice and green, we filled it with green split peas which were absolutely perfect!

While we played, we put on some good uptempo Irish music to keep things lively.  If you don't have any already, iheartradio offers a free Shamrock Radio station that would work very well!

We worked on our St. Patrick's Day craft, which was really simple to bring together.  We started with a piece of blue paper and cut a wide U shape from the center.  Folding the paper lightly in half makes this very easy.  We cut a matching sized piece of contact paper, peeled the backing, and applied it to the paper - leaving the adhesive "sticky" through the rainbow shaped window. 

We had cups of tissue paper squares in all of the colors.  Some kids needed some assistance, but for the most part, everyone had a good handle on this simple St. Patty's Day project.

Even a year later, our finished product still hangs on the white board in our kitchen.  This would also look great in front of a window giving a sun-catcher effect!

We finished our play date off with the traditional snack of leprechauns - Lucky Charms.  We're not one for formalities.  We pretty much pour it on the table and let them graze for the marshmallows. 

   

And while our kids were pretty played out, we had a great little story picked out to finish out the event.  Perfect for toddlers just learning their numbers, this festive book will have them counting along!

What other ideas for St. Patrick's Day play dates have you used in the past?  We'd love to hear from you!

Round Hill Farm: Field Trip Friday

I'm excited to introduce Field Trip Friday - a time to share our experiences at all the places we've visited as a family!

My mind reminisces every so often of childhood memories at Round Hill Park.  With a bag of stale bread in hand, I'd hop out of the car and head straight for the lake where I'd lob hunks of crust at the ducks circling in the water. My grandparents took me most often, and as a former farm boy, my Pap was always glad to see my excitement at the animals there.

Now visiting with my own little ones, I was so excited to feel the familiarity of this special place and thrilled to see some of the new updates to make the park even more fun for kids!

We made our way to Roundhill park last Friday on a gorgeous day with a few moms and kids from our playdate group.  Special thanks to Sara from curouslittlekid,com and her "20 Things to do in Pittsburgh for under $20" post for the recommendation!

We started out at the duck pond where I excitedly got out my bag of semi-fresh "stale" bread thinking that my babes would do just as I had once done and feed the ducks.  This was a bit of a "fail" (as Dan would say) as I watched Brayden, then Juile, stuff their mouths full of their bread without second thought to the ducks.  They did enjoy watching me feed the ducks though and Brayden has even begun giving us an adapted duck "quack" (more of a grunt really.)

After the pond, we visited the farm portion of the park where animals of sizes could be found!  When you first pull in, this is to the right of the entry.  A nice stroll through the buildings allowed us to see chickens, turkeys, sheep and pigs the later my kids just adored.

Although I haven't written much about my passion for photography quite yet (don't worry - it's on its way), I am learning to have an eye for great locations and Round Hill Park is definitely on the top of my list for a great Pittburgh photo session location!  It has stone retaining walls, beautiful white farm fences and even great mildly sloping topography to provide some great backdrops.  Fingers crossed we can make it there this fall to get a little session in with the kids!

After visiting the animals, we got back in the car and headed towards the spray park.  This area is to the left of the main parking lot in front of the entry road.  For us, this was definitely a car ride but you could probably walk it if you were ambitious!

The spray park is provided free from Allegheny County and features numerous water features - fountains, sprays, and a barn that periodically dumps water on those standing beneath it.

The kids had an absolute blast running through the spray and trying to touch all of the streams of water.  Even though there were a few groups there when we attended, I felt like there was plenty of room for all of us.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves on the fun that Brayden and Julie had there!  

Just a few notes for anyone visiting in the future:

• There were a few park benches around the spray park area, but we took extra towels and a packed lunch which worked out well.  There is also a pavilion and some playground equipment nearby if you are looking for something more substantial.
• Unlike the city Spray Parks (I believe), Round Hill Spray Park does have chlorinated water.  I personally am thrilled about this as I feel like this could be kinda germy if the water wasn't properly cleaned.  Keep in mind I'm relying fully on my nose for this information so your mileage may vary.
• Finally, there are a few port-a-potties and at least one large portable stall designated for changing.  No indoor facilities are there, but this works pretty well. 

So our official review of Round Hill Park?  We loved it and can't wait to go back. :-)

We'd love for you to take one quick second and help us climb the Top Baby Blog ranks by clicking the link below!

Special thanks to Katie of Katie Fair Photography for sharing some of her pictures with us for this post!

Twin Tip Tuesdays

I have been trying to find time to blog a little more lately and am thinking that having a regularly scheduled post will help me keep with it.  When I thought about why unique thing my blog has to offer the world, I really think our twin experiences are what set us apart from all the other million "mom bloggers" out there.

So here it is - the premier of Twin Tip Tuesdays.  Each Tuesday, I'll share a little something that helped me along the way, a review of a twin pertinent product, or an issue that focuses on twins.  Usually these will apply to everyone else too - especially those of you who continue to say "I don't know how you do it!"  Well now you'll know...

My first Twin Tip Tuesday recommendation is to find a support group.  I know I know - your kids are such a handful that you can hardly get out of the house (stay tuned for next week's tip) but it's really really worth it!

I joined a local "new moms" playdate group probably around when my kids were three months old.  And it wasn't until they were eight months old that I was brave enough to take even one of them out of the house alone to spend some time with other girls.  It was that bad!

And is it a challenge?  Sure... I had one of the other moms tell me "oh I have two kids so I understand" when I was trying to explain.  No offense - but you don't understand.  Your three-year-old can walk on his own, listen to "stay right there" and climb in and out of his booster seat alone.  Mine - not so much.  Having two kids at the very same stage IS very difficult - especially when that stage is one of much reliance on Mom.  My point is, I feel your pain and hesitation.

But once I dived in, and got to know these wonderful girls, I couldn't imagine my days without them.  We're very active on facebook and chat about everything related to motherhood - kids, dinner, husbands, Mother-In-Laws, breastfeeding, diapering, who needs to visit the doctor and who achieved what milestone.  I am especially lucky that almost all of these girls have kids within a year of my twins age so we have a lot in common.

Having mom friends is SO important to have a sounding block.  My mom remembers having kids, but isn't "in the trenches."  My girlfriends who were in my wedding are still very very important to me (love you guys) - but they have their limits to what they want to hear.  Will they watch a video of your little darling dancing?  Absolutely.  Spend a few minutes talking about what the kids are eating lately? Sure.  But going into the gory details of diaper duty and analyzing the details of immunization schedules?  Not their deal.

It's awesome for the kids too.  Brayden and Julie know all about playing with each other, but I never realized how outgoing Julie was until I let her run wild with her playgroup friends.  I've discovered that Brayden adores running with other little boys and just glows like I've never seen him before.  We get out with them once or twice a week, and it's GOOD to leave the house - especially when it gets a little overwhelming being at home.

Finally - it's good for Dad.  How you ask?  Because Mom's Night Outs are the perfect opportunity for him to spend an evening with the pair of wild children and gain a little appreciation for what you might struggle with every day.  This is only my opinion but - they're his kids too... You shouldn't have to "ask him to watch them" just as he doesn't ask you when he makes plans.  Communicate obviously, but I'm a firm believer that twin Dads need a taste of twin chaos from time to time to be reminded what an incredible breed we twin moms are.

My playgroup branched off of babycenter.com so that's a resource to check out as well as meetup.com or MOPS and MOMS.  Find your place and settle in!

Don't forget to check in next week when I share our process for getting out of the house with two.  A wild ride indeed!