Girls . . . play nice!

Every Tuesday and Thursday, the girls and I have been meeting with a playgroup. Our group consists of two girls Maddy's age and one little boy Baby Lulu's age. We do things like go to the park and have a picnic, gather at each other's house and just let the kids play and do crafts, head to the indoor bouncing center and let them jump til their heart's content . . . you know, fun two year old stuff.

So anyway, yesterday, we headed to one of the other children's house to play and do our "turkey" project. We (or shall I say I - the control freak) have decided that each Thursday, we'll do a kiddy craft. So, I printed out templates, etc and headed out the door with girls, armed to make turkeys in honor of Thanksgiving.

We arrived at our friend's home, unloaded my um-teen number of bags (seriously, with two in diapers it's like packing for a week long trip just to run to the store!), and greeted our friends at the door. Maddy ran inside and immediately hugged her friends. They headed back to the play room and began to choose the toy that each would play with. Now, let's inventory here . . . one grocery cart, one baby doll stroller, three 2 year old girls. Problem! And I bet you can guess what happened next . . .

"Mine!"
"Momma, so and so is not sharing!"

And then we see girls, yanking at other girl's toys and then all of three of them start crying.

I can't say I'm surprised. My mother-in-law warned me of this. She did a brief observation of 2 year olds back when she was in nursing school. She said she found that 2 year old children like to play independently. I believed what she had told me, but for some reason, I thought that we could MAKE them play together.

So, getting back to the 2 year old drama queens, we gave them all a good talking to and sent them on their separate ways. And you know what? They each played in a little corner all by their lonesome. And each was happy to do so. And the house was a much more peaceful play to be!

So, here are a few pictures to document our crafting fun! Our little turkeys making turkeys!

And the finished product . . .


The turkey is made from a plastic plate and construction paper. If you'll notice, the feathers are made by tracing the child's hand. Cute, huh!!

We explained Thanksgiving and that we should thank Jesus for everything that we have. Then we talked about turkeys . . . what sound do turkeys make? Gobble! Gobble! Gobble!

All in all, I think the playdate and craft time went very well. So, I leave you with this . . . what happens when you leave two, two year old girls alone for more than 30 seconds?

This . . .