The Easter Egg Farm by Mary Jane Auch

Have you noticed a trend for E week yet? This book was a fun story about a hen who lays unique eggs. Instead of being white like the other hens' eggs, her eggs are already decorated, and of course, perfect for Easter. There were a lot of Es, but there was also a LOT of text, which made it hard for little eyes to scan for Es. This book would probably be more appropriate for an older child.

Egg Decorating

For our E craft, I bought some foam eggs for Emma to decorate. It was her first time using markers, and she had an absolute ball. I only gave her 3 eggs to start, but she was having so much fun that I gave her the rest of the pack--it kept her busy for almost an hour! I now have 12 decorated foam eggs; I'm thinking of punching holes into the top and making a garland out of them. This was a fun, easy project and is easy to gear to any age. If Emma were older, I might have bought foam shapes for her to glue on, ribbon, glitter, etc. This was a great E project and is helping us look forward to Easter!

Two Eggs, Please by Sarah Weeks

This book told the story of a busy diner one night in New York City. Patron after animal patron comes in to order two eggs, though each one orders their eggs differently. The pictures are fun, the text is short and repetitive, and there are plenty of opportunites to look for Es (though they're often found in the same word--eggs!)

Peter Rabbit's Easter

The Easter bunny brought this book for Emma's Easter basket last year, and it is a fabulous E book. Based on the works of Beatrix Potter, it's a board book featuring Peter Rabbit and his siblings on an Easter egg hunt. There are pop-ups and flaps to lift up and find the hidden Easter eggs. As you can imagine, a book about Easter and eggs has plenty of E words to find. The text is simple and in an easy-to-read font. Emma and I have read it countless times already, and we'll probably keep reading it until the actual holiday rolls around!

D Week in Review

It's obvious that some letters are easier than others. D week was a great week for books, not so great with cooking ideas (though we really enjoyed our pineapple "drink," and will have to make more special drinks to get my picky eater to try new fruits). Emma sees letters all over. I'm impressed that she can look for letters in the middle of a word, and not just at the beginning. She also frequently asks me what letter something starts with. (Just today she asked me about diaper--it starts with D! Perfect timing). I know I'm a bit of a slacker with the timing of my posts, but my little pupil is learning a lot about letters.

Barnyard Dance! by Sandra Boynton

I've mentioned before how we're big fans of Sandra Boynton. *Barnyard Dance!* is probably our favorite book. The pictures are great and the text makes you want to get up and dance yourself. While it contains only a smattering of D words (dance, dog, donkey), there are some Ds embedded in other words, and Emma is getting quite good at looking for them. This book is a fun wrap-up to D week and a great complement to a dance party.

(Pineapple Crush) Drink

In my cookbooks, there is a dearth of good D recipes, especially ones that I could make with the help of a two-year-old. So we settled upon making a special drink.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup pineapple juice
1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
1/2 frozen very ripe medium banana

Combine all ingredients in a blender. Blend on high until slushy. Serves 2.

We made this on a balmy weekend, and doubled the recipe to share with Dad. Emma, who's a very picky eater and refuses most fruits and vegetables, thought it was "quite tasty." It was a bit thick, though, so she enjoyed hers with a spoon.

Dump Trucks by Linda D. Willaims

Another good D book. This book focused (obviously) on dump trucks, naming their different parts and the different jobs they do. The text was simple--1 or 2 sentences in an easy-to-read font, good for looking for Ds. Emma's not all that much into trucks, but I imagine this would be a perfect book for some little boys I know.

Dalmation Puppet

Admittedly, I was feeling lazy when it came to our craft project this week. So I was thrilled to find this at Wal-mart:

A Dalmation puppet kit, with pieces pre-cut and lined with adhesive, all for less than 4 bucks. Here's what the kit came with:

The kit said it was for ages 4 and up, but I thought it was perfect for toddlers. All Emma had to do was stick the pieces on the little bag. I'll admit I was a little OCD and corrected some of her placements for the vital pieces (ears, paws, etc), but the spots were all her.

We're already having fun with the finished product: woof, woof!