Earth Day Celebrations

Today was such a fun day. Spending time with my cousin was so fun. Usually, Brittney spends time with her when we see her, but it was nice to have some time with Isabelle and get to know her 5 year old self a bit more. I got up this morning at 8:30 and prepared all the treats. I prepped the cupcakes, and made the cupcakes, I prepped the dirt terrarium dessert by making the brownies and the pudding. I prepped the crafts so they'd be all set and ready to go. When Isabelle first got here, I wanted to do everything at once. I was so excited to get started on the crafts and show her what I made. I was excited to have fun with her. I slowed myself down and did one thing at a time. The very first activity we did, which I was a little disappointed with, was a DIY alka seltzer 'lava lamp'. I didn't even take pictures because it didn't work how it was supposed to work. I added too much oil, and too much water, and it wasn't even worth taking pictures of. I am going to try it again, I would like to see this actually work. Would be great for a science experiment. After we made the lava lamp, we ate the globe cupcakes. Oh my word! Blue lips and teeth. It was like a smurf exploded. 

I am really pleased with how the cupcakes turned out. They are so pretty.

I gave Raelyn a mini world cupcake. She was gobbling away.

Not to mention the perfect cupcake liners! I forgot all about them. Flower cupcake liners. How perfect for Earth Day right? They are so cute. 

After cupcakes, we were on the fast track of craft making. We made the binoculars first, and then the butterflies. I had made Raelyn's binoculars first as an example for Isabelle. I am also really pleased with how the binoculars and butterflies turned out. 

This lead me to an idea where we could go outside and play with the binoculars and butterflies and go on a butterfly hunt. But before we went outside, we had another treat to make! The dirt and bug terrarium.

I had Isabelle watch me make the first one and then she kind of lost interest. I quickly made mine, and we took ours outside to eat. While we ate, we spotted a bird at the bird feeder. 

Isabelle was very quiet. I am so proud of her. 

After we ate our dirt cakes, Isabelle hid the butterflies and we  'used' our binoculars to find them. Playing with this little girl today was lots of fun. After she hid the butterflies, and helped me find them, then I hid the butterflies and helped her find them. 

After the butterfly hunt, she wanted to swing on the swings for a little while. I ran across in front of her over and over again. She thought that was hysterical. I made funny gestures with my arms as I ran, I was very animated when I ran across in front of her while she was swinging, trying to avoid her legs as she was swinging high. 

While she was swinging, I came up with the fun idea of a nature scavenger hunt. I went on Pinterest and quickly found a nature scavenger hunt and Isabelle and I went on our way... suddenly it started to sprinkle... a heavy sprinkling of rain. That didn't stop us, I got out my trusty umbrella. Before we started the scavenger hunt, we took silly pictures. 

And on the scavenger hunt we went! We used an empty egg carton for out nature findings, another idea from Pinterest. I found this awesome, simple list for us to go off of. 

She is so fun.

We dumped out the contents in their correct places and recycled the egg carton. 

She spent the whole day with me! I am so happy. Today was tons of fun, and Isabelle kept telling me over and over, "This is so fun, Courtney!" I was really happy to hear that she was enjoying herself as much as I was. 

Tomorrow is actual Earth Day, April 22nd. I will watch the Lorax and eat my veggies that I eat every day after school. I may or may not do another craft project, depends on how much time I have tomorrow with homework and such. 

This week is only three days! I am so happy. On Thursday night, I am attending my high school's fashion show. A handful of my friends are going to be in it, or behind the scenes, and I am going with my mom to support them. 

It's fun having little cousins that I can do crafts with. I am glad they are in my life. They are fun little girls. 

Happy Earth Day everybody!