Rochester, MN Parks - Silver Lake

Silver Lake Park 700 West Silver Lake Drive NE
Rochester, MN, 55906

One of the two playgrounds around the lake.

There is a walking path that goes all the way around the lake. There are restrooms near this playground.

This is the 2nd playground located near the boat rental area at Silver Lake Park. The kids preferred this playground because of the climbing rock, the swings, and the fact that it was much newer.

Alphabet Activities

We've worked on letter of the day/letter of the week before and here's the list of activities that I came up to go with each letter...
A Activities
Alphabet Puzzles
Airplanes
Automoblox
B Activities
Bubbles
Balloons
Baby Dolls
Butterflies (clothespins/tissue paper)
Books
Blocks
Balls
Baking
Balance Beam
Bingo
Ballet
C Activities
Cloud Dough (8 cups flour/1 cup cooking or baby oil)
Crayons/Coloring Books
Circus (make your own)
Carnival (play carnival games)
Catapult (experiment with different objects from around the house)
Caterpillars (search for them outside, read the Very Hungry Caterpillar)
Cooking (real or pretend)
Colors (color mixing with paint or food coloring in water)
D Activities
Dinosaurs (or dino dig -- sandbox with dinosaurs hidden inside)
Dollies
Doilies (art projects with doilies from the Dollar Store)
Duplos
Dough (various kinds)
E Activities
Egg Hunt
Emotions
Exercise
Experiments
Easy Bake Oven
F Activities
Face Painting
Finger Painting
Flowers (grow your own, paint, color)
Food (play food, grocery store etc.)
Farm
Fishing Game
Fort (build your own in the living room with blankets and pillows)
Family (create a family portrait or a family tree)
Fingerprint Animals
G Activities
Games
Grocery Store 
Gliding (pretend you're ice skating by using plastic on the bottoms of your feet)
Goals (use soccer or hockey goals)
Glow in the Dark Fun
Gymnastics
H Activities
Hair Salon
Hide-n-go-Seek
Horses
Hats (play the silly hat game like on "Who's Line is it Anyways")
Hearts (cut out hearts from construction paper, learn about the human heart)
Health (visit a doctor's office, ready about your body)
Hunger (bring food to the hungry)
Happy (sing, "If You're Happy and You Know It")
I Activities
Igloo (make one out of snow, sugar cubes or Legos)
Imagination Station
Instruments
Ice Skating
J Activities
Jumping
Jokes 
Jam (make your own)
Jelly Beans (have a hunt with pictures of Jelly Beans)
K Activities
Kicking
Karate
Kangaroos and Koalas (learn about Australia)
L Activities
Legos
Little People
Lemonade (make your own and have a Lemonade Stand)
M Activities
Measuring
Moon (moon bounce, learn to moonwalk)
Monkeys
Music
Movies
Mosaic
Magnets
N Activities
Nails (& Hammer)
Nail Polish
Noodles
Nest
Nocturnal Animals
Nature
Night
Numbers
Necklaces
O Activities
Obstacle Course
Outside
Origami
P Activities
Princesses
Pirates
Play-Doh
Puzzles
Puppets
Potato Heads
Paint
Potato Stamping
Playmobil
Patterns
Park
Picnic
Q Activities
Quiet Books
Quilting
Quest
Queen/King
R Activities
Roller Coaster 
Rainbows 
Royal Ball
Restaurant
Roller Skating
S Activities
Sand Box
Stickers
Stamps
Soap-Box Derby
Seasons
Sounds
Stencils
Scissors (cut Snowflakes)
Swing
Slide
Sledding
Swimming
T Activities
Tattoos
Trains
Trucks 
Travel
Tent
Textures
Trampoline
U Activities
Umbrellas
Under the Sea
Unicorns (make horns for the top of your head)
V Activities
Vetranarian
Volcano
Valentines
W Activities
Water Play
Water Beads
Whales
Wedding
Wedgits
X Activities
Xylophone
X-Ray (make your own skeleton)
Y Activities
Yodeling
Yahtze
Z Activities
Zoo 
Zippers
Zip-Loc Bags  (fill them with paint or colored water)

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Eggless)

Chocolate Chip Cookies

These are so good, you won't miss the eggs (unlike other allergy-free menu options). These are husband approved and don't last more than 36hrs. in our house!
So here's the recipe:

Preheat the oven to 350*

Turn on your stand mixer to about speed setting 2
Place in it: 1 stick of butter (cold)
Add 3/4 c. sugar (white/brown mixed), next add 1 tsp. Vanilla Extract, then add 1 1/2 Tbsp. Oil (vegetable) and 1 1/2 Tbsp. Milk, follow that with 1/2 tsp. baking powder, 1/2 tsp. baking soda and 1/2 tsp. salt (only if your butter is unsalted) and then add in 1 1/2 cups Flour (I use a mixture of 1/2 white and 1/2 whole wheat flour), finally add in 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips. When all is incorporated, turn off the mixer. (You can taste-test because there are no eggs :), so pregnant ladies can safely eat this cookie dough too.)

Use a scooper to form 1" dough balls (you can fit about 15 to a sheet), you do not need to add extra grease to the pan. Bake for about 8 min at 350*. I start mine on the lower rack for 4 min and switch to the upper rack for 4 min. Enjoy!

In case you want the ingredients separately:
1 stick butter (unsalted)
3/8c. brown sugar
3/8c. white sugar
1 t. vanilla extract
1 1/2 T. oil
1 1/2 T. milk
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 1/2 c. flour
1 c. chocolate chips

Dad Fill-In

I Love You Valentine

Trace and cut out child's hand. Tape to heart. Bend fingers to make "I Love You," in sign language. (Add treat.) Let your child decorate to personalize them for friends, family and teachers.

This is one my daughter decorated for her teacher. (Her teachers/babysitters get full size Belgium chocolate ;) )

A place to store hair bows

Items needed: 16x20 artist canvas, fabric, chicken wire, staple gun w/staples, ribbon.

I got this idea from: http://beingcreativetokeepmysanity.blogspot.com/search/label/Crafts
I changed mine from wood to canvas so it would be lighter, the 16x20 size also made it so that I only had to cut one side of the chicken wire. Mine is attached to a hook that goes over the door and hangs down almost to the door handle, so my girls can reach it.

Step 1: Cover canvas in fabric and staple on the back (make sure it is pulled tight).
Step 2: Cut chicken wire so it hangs over about 1 1/2" on each side (use a wire cutter).
Step 3: Bend chicken wire around edges of canvas so that it it lines up straight on all sides.
Step 4: Staple chicken wire to the back.
Step 5: Staple ribbon to the back, so you can hang your board.

Potato Stamping

Materials Needed: Paint, paper, potatoes, knife, plate.

Cut potato like this to make a handle.

Cut shapes out of the opposite side. Make sure you cut down at least 1/4" so the image gets paint, but the rest of the potato doesn't.

For our Valentine's potato stamps we did I, <3 and U

Dip (leaving not a lot on the potato).

Press

Fill the paper :)