Crafty Summer Playdate Easter Eggs

This would be the third playdate I hosted.  It was close to Easter so we did Easter egg painting.  Ant was still a bit shy but she was warming up to her new playmates.  Thanks to the other moms for these photos....

 Spray painting was requested and since we had left over paint from last play date...

 Food coloring to dye the eggs.

 Kids left the table when the snacks came out.  We had waffles this time I think.

 And the giant easels were also a favorite last time so I took them out again.  Ant seemed to do more now.

She still spent a lot of time observing her playmates.  When she would see them doing something, she would copy.  All of them were older than her.

Crafty Summer Playdate: We're going on a bear hunt

Things will be getting pretty hectic for me soon and tot school with Ant won't be the same since we decided that I would get back to work.  Thank goodness for community!  Our friends from our Singles Apostolate (who are now married like us but have not joined the "marrieds" group teehee) have children the same age as Ate and Ant.  And, my childhood friend with whom I went to girls club, was more than eager to revive our memories and create a similar one for our children.  We met at a cafe with other like minded moms and viola!  We had planned a weekly series of summer playdates.

There were 12 playdates scheduled beginning March and culminating at the end of May.  We successfully had 11.  One was cancelled due to bad weather.  Five of the playdates were hosted by yours truly and it was a series of crafternoons.  The other playdates were hosted by other moms doing music & movement, sports & science, baking, pizza making.  The culminating was a make-up session for those who missed some craft days.  And it was an exhibit of the kids artworks.  We also took turns bringing merienda for all in attendance.

I started the first playdate with a lot of free painting on giant vertical canvasses that the kids absolutely loved.  Ate and Ant's grandparents allowed us to use their garden for this.  Then I went on to reading the book "We're Going An a Bear Hunt" and did hand motions for the "swishy swoshy" and other parts.

And you can guess what the kids did when I poured the paint on their empty white velum paper.  That was their favorite.

They also tapped along with their hands.  Ate watched most of the time.  And seemed overwhelmed with too many kids.  She enjoyed most the "washing up" activity.  We weren't able to get a shot but I put out buckets of water around so that kids can just dip their hands in to wash up.  By the end of the afternoon, we had about 3 tots down to their diapers marching around with paint and water all over their bodies.  That was fun to host.  Ant needs to adjust a little more to the new faces.