lil Mop Top: 4th of July Tot School

I am still getting back to tot school activities! How many times have I typed that sentence out in a post?! :) I tried to put out some trays for John with 4th of July themed activities. We also had a TON of fun over the weekend with community 4th of July events. So get ready to read a LONG post about our weekend!

We really only sat down in our school area one day. My niece Bella was here to play so she joined along in the fun. (Her mom and my other sister have a super cute blog HERE!) Matthew is getting into the activities more now that he is older, but really he just makes a mess!

So...here is what we did:

-Using spoons, John and Bella practiced scooping up little squishy balls and putting them in a muffin tin.

-They sorted colored star straws into corresponding cups. Well, that was the task, but I don't think they actually did any sorting! Matthew kept knocking everything over. :)

-They put flags in holes drilled into the top of an old formula box.

-They had a blast waving flags all over the house. Then John had fun waving it in front of the fan to see the effects of the wind. Aunt Al helped him with that one! (please ignore the disaster in the background. Al and I were working on decorations for Em's baby shower and my dining room was turned into a craft area!)

For our 'real life' activities, we had super fun filled weekend!

We started out with a visit to our city aquatic center on Friday night. The boys splashed on the splash pad, played in the wading pool, and swam in the big pool. John uses a puddle jumper life jacket and it is amazing! He can just swim around on his own and jump in on his own. I love it because I can take the boys in the pool by myself and only be half as nervous!

Our city's celebration was on Saturday so we went to the parade in the morning. Even though it is short and simple, it is a fun 'small town' feel. and we get free candy. :)

Then we hung around the house, made cupcakes (Matthew has a first taste of cupcakes!), and had our own little BBQ.

We live near the lake, which is where the fireworks were going to be set off. So, we planned on loading the boys up in the stroller and walk to the lake for some firework action. (I don't really like The Colony all that much, but having our neighborhood connected to a nice path around the lake is one perk that I love!) However, we decided it would be too late for Matthew since he would have been asleep for a couple hours before fireworks even started. So we ended up watching the fireworks in the backyard. Just as fun, I guess!

Sunday morning we had some patriotic pancakes to start off the day. I split up the batter into three bowls and used food coloring to make the blue and red batter. Yes, this is what I look like in the morning when I haven't done my hair yet. Brad is a saint to stay married to me!