Up Coming Activity Water Olympics July 29th

I am so ready for this weeks playgroup with the humidity we are having. Tiny Friends we are going to have a fun Water Olympics so prepare to be wet(please bring a towel and swimsuit if you would like).




While we are arriving we will begin making our Olympic Race number for a Tiny Friends so wear. Create a design, draw a picture, write you name, and don't forget your race number.



After finishing your Olympic number you will be ready to start with our Water Olympics course. We will see everyone at 9am for the 2009 Tiny Friends Water Olympics.

Gone Camping

Thanks for coming everyone! This activity was exactly what camping should be RELAXING. We painted a few rocks and made some trail mix and just had a good old time. We had new Tiny Friends join our group this week. First we had Cassandra , Simone, Tabbitha and their mom Sherrie. Also we had Luz and her son Canaan along with Canaans Nanny and her daughter sorry I missed their names.





Here are our Tiny Friends Painting their rocks.



Mixing and Eating trail mix was a big hit. We had peanuts, chocolate candies, raisins, marshmallows, and sunflower seeds thanks Sherrie.



Here is a Tiny Friends with her trail mix.



Here is Sherrie with her daughters Cassandra, Simone, and Tabbitha.



Here we have Luz and Canaan and Canaan's Nanny and her daughter.



Oh and I almost for got out Tiniest Tiny Friend at play last week was the Lobster Friend we found under the picnic table.

Up Coming Activity Gone Camping July 15th

So who's up for camping this week! The weather has been perfect for camping or any other outdoor activity for that matter and I hope tomorrows weather is just a beautiful.

This weeks playgroup activity should be more laid back then last week with us shaking ice cream with frozen hands. We will begin with making nature crafts. We will be painting some rocks, Tiny Friends can paint a tiny bug or butterfly or make a whole rock village.



When our Tiny Friends have finished or are taking a break they can come over and make a trail mix of there own.



Hope to see all our Tiny Friends at playgroup for a much needed relaxing camping trip.

National Ice Cream Day

This playgroup activity turned out to be so fun. The best part of the whole activity was that our ice cream turned out solid and tasted good. One other thing before I show pictures is that we have a few new Tiny Friends first Amy and her mom is Winnie. They were at Park on Wednesday and joined us and are planning to come very week we are so excited. Our other new Tiny Friends are Trent and Cecile and are so glad they have joined our group.

Here is our ice cream parlor before the Tiny Friends arrived.



Before we got to making our delicious ice cream we made some ice cream cone frames to hold a photo. We used pop sickle sticks to make the cone and then mounted that to card board and finished the top off with pom poms to create ice cream.



When we finished up our frames we headed over to being making our ice cream. I was a little nervous but it turned out and the Tiny Friends enjoyed. Here is our recipe.

Recipe for one serving:

* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 tablespoon of sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract or chocolate syrup
* lots of ice
* rock salt
- or use table salt if needed

1. Add milk, sugar, and vanilla to sandwich size zip lock bag and seal.
2. In gallon size zip lock add ice and salt and place filled sandwich bag inside and seal.
3. Begin shaking and shaking and shaking. Then stop your hand are now frozen. If possible wear mittens when shaking ice cream.
4. Takes between 5-10 minutes for mixture to become solid.
5. Enjoy

Here we are shaking.



Here they are enjoying there ice cream.



These are our new Tiny Friends:



Amy and her mom Winnie and



Trent and



Cecile and there mothers name is Carma.

See you next week!

Up Coming Activity National Ice Cream Day

I Scream You Scream We All Scream for Ice Cream. This will be by far the Yummiest playgroup activity of the whole Summer. We hope to have many Tiny Friends to eat ice cream with.



To start our play group we will begin by making a Ice Cream Cone frame. We will use Ice Cream sticks also know as pop sickle stick. When finished they will be able to place a pictures of their self on National Ice Cream Day in the frame.



Once most of our Tiny Friends have arrived we will begin with making our ice cream.

1. Mix sugar, milk or half & half, and flavoring in a bowl, then seal it in a quart-sized plastic bag.



2. Take roughly two quarts of ice (crushed if possible) and place it into the gallon-sized bag with rock salt. Ideally, the gallon bag will be roughly half full with the ice and salt mixture.

3. Place the sealed quart-sized bag with the ingredients into the gallon-sized bag. Make sure the bags stay sealed! Do not allow the contents to mix at any time. If the bags don't seal sufficiently, use duct tape to seal the top of both bags to ensure they don't open during shaking.



4. Gently agitate, massage, and shake the bags for about five to ten minutes. In this amount of time the contents of the quart (smaller) bag should start to turn into solid ice cream.

As you agitate the two bags, it is important that you are mixing the contents of the inner bag, but you don’t want to be so aggressive that you burst the inner bag or cut it on the ice (double-bagging should prevent this).

If your hands get uncomfortably cold, use a towel or an old t-shirt to hold the bags as you massage them; they will be quite cold and might become slippery with accumulated condensation. Consider using gloves or massaging while holding onto the top seal if a towel or similar cloth is not available.



5. Then once you are done, you may enjoy your ice cream!



Recipe for one serving:

* 1/2 cup milk
* 1 tablespoon of sugar
* 1/4 teaspoon of vanilla extract or chocolate syrup
* lots of ice
* rock salt
- or use table salt if needed


Some of our Tiny Friends mothers had mentioned helping with a few of the supplies. If you would be willing to bring a supply from the list below please leave a note in the comments before Tuesday evening so I can pick up last minute needs. One note when bringing a supply/ingredient please remember to bring enough for about 7-10 Tiny Friends.

Supplies: Sugar, Vanilla Extract, Rock Salt or Table Salt, Milk, Spoons, Gallon Size Zip Lock Bags, Sandwich Size Zip Lock Bags, Paper Towels.

One last note before signing up for a supply to bring please read all comments to see what others are bringing.

Thank You all.

Healthy Picnic

We had the best turn out and the most fun of all our activities this far. We had 4 new Tiny Friends join our group this week. Audrey and Alyssa are sisters that just moved to the area then we also have Emma and Jacob they are sister and brother and are just joining just for the first time.



Here are Alyssa and Audrey. Sorry we didn't have a chance to get a picture of Emma and Jacob we will next week if Jacob slows down long enough.

The caterpillar place mats were easy and the children were able to glue and decorate most of it there selves.







Here is our beautiful healthy caterpillar picnic before our tiny friends starting dinning.


And last but not least are our tiny friends enjoying our healthy picnic.



These tiny friends are becoming friends.



Thank you everyone for coming and making it so much fun. Next week is National Ice Cream Day!!!

Up Coming Activity Healthy Picnic July 8th

I am sorry this post is so late but I have good reason. I have been organizing our playgroup for this week. I think each of your children are going to have a great time.



I have very few images this week so I will have to try an describe how this playgroup activity will go. We will start out making our caterpillar place mats. Each child will have a place mat to decorate with a caterpiller and any thing else their creative hearts desire.

After we have finished our place mats we will have the children gather round the caterpillar picnic table and sit down with their place mats. Then we can help the children select what health and nutritious items then would like to dine upon while we read a story.



I hope to see many new friends this week.

If you are just joining our group please make sure you take time to add to our flag and decorate a name tag.

I hope to see many new friends this week.

9:00 am at the Grist Mill Park at 4710 Mt Vernon Memorial Highway, 22309.

Patriotic Parade

Playgroup once again was great fun this week. We had a few new friends join us this week, Sonia and her mother Nadia and Karson and his mother Valerie and nanny Isabel.

Sonia and Nadia working on the hats and I think they turned out cute.



Our completed hat



Our parade leader.



Here they are all lined up and in there patriotic colors.





Karson showing his patriotism.