Simple. Messy. Fun!

A little trick in writing numbers...

2011-09-16T12:50:00.002-05:00

My little man has started kindergarten and is LOVING it. He comes home and tells me all about his day learning new things. When I ask his favorite thing he says, EVERYTHING! (Well, he has recently mastered the art of swinging, so now recess is the current favorite, but he still loves everything else as well.)

He came home last week telling me little rhymes his teacher had taught him on how to write his numbers. I had never heard them before so I wanted to share them with you all. He struggled a bit in writing his numbers before, but now that he knows these little rhymes, he has no problem!

1 - 1 is easy, 1 is fun, just a line and then you're done!
2 - Around and back on a railroad track
3 - Around the tree, around the tree, that is how you make a three
4 - Down and over, down some more, that is how you make a four!
5 - Short neck, belly fat, Mr. Five has a hat (that is my favorite)
6 - Around a loop, make a swoop
7 - Across the sky and down from heaven, that is how you make a 7
8 - Make an S but do not wait, go back up and close the gate.
9 - A circle and a line make a nine.

So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed those little tricks and maybe they can help your little ones too!

Easy Canvas Prints

2011-07-13T20:48:00.001-05:00

I was recently contacted to see if I would be interested in trying out Easy Canvas Prints. I have been wanting to order a canvas for awhile, so this seemed like a great opportunity to try out canvas prints!

I finally decided on a picture, it is a little older one of my kids but I just LOVE it. I sent my order and about a week later I had a pretty package on my doorstep. It even arrived a day or two earlier than expected. :)

My little helper and I opened it up and were very pleased to see how nicely the canvas had been packaged. As you can see it was wrapped in plastic and secured nicely inside the box.

So pretty! It was in perfect condition, and the canvas itself was nice and thick.

I chose to do the image wrap so my picture wrapped over the sides. You can choose mirror image or a border color also. There are really so many different options to customize your photo! And it is so easy to play around on the site until you find just the right canvas for you.

Want a canvas for yourself? Go to the Easy Canvas Prints page on Facebook and "like" them. You will get 50% off and free shipping. You can't get much better than that!

Disclosure: I was provided this canvas at no cost to myself. All opinions are my own.

Shape buttons

2011-07-06T13:28:00.001-05:00

Miss Livi Lou and I are enjoying some one on one time together while the older two visit grammy and papa for a few days. :) As we were wandering around Hobby Lobby yesterday we came across a bag of colorful buttons in many different shapes. I think it was priced at $4.99, but of course I had the 40% coupon with me, so it was a nice little bargain.

We will probably use them for many different projects (making necklaces, bracelets, maybe on pipe cleaners so it is easier for Livi's little fingers; sorting into bowls by color or shape; and I am sure Aidan will want to use some in one of his cardboard and paper and tape inventions).

Yesterday we just grabbed her Sesame Street placemat off the table which had a bunch of different shapes on it. (I think we found the placemat at Walmart for a buck). Livi had a good time finding shape buttons to match the shapes on her mat. She was even being particular and wanted it to be the same color as on the mat.

Just one of the fun things Livi and I are getting to do in our nice quiet house. :)

Last minute father's day gift idea

2011-06-16T19:22:00.001-05:00

Here is a fun gift for father's day that is super easy and fun. I did this a couple of years ago for my hubby and he liked it, it was time to update those pictures. :)

Dress the kids up in one of daddy's shirts and take some fun pictures. My friend just took some pictures of her girls in daddy's dress shirt and tie and also some in his favorite sports team shirt. We bought daddy a new shirt for his favorite team as part of his gift, so I grabbed two other of his Cardinals shirts and gathered up his hats and a couple of the kids stuffed animals that were Cardinals themed. They picked out what they wanted and we went out in the backyard and had a little photo shoot. :)

I think they turned out pretty cute:

Print them off at Target/Walmart/Walgreens wherever, put them in a frame - Great fun present!!!! At least I think so. :)

Have You Ever Seen a Smack of Jellyfish?

2011-05-27T14:15:00.003-05:00

That is the title of this fun book I found while at the Shedd Aquarium last week. It caught my attention because the title of the book was also a question on the screen at the dolphin show.

Whenever we are on vacation and at those gift shops, I always try to get something that really is quality and not get caught up in all the junk that they are trying to sell you. For me it has to be something that we saw while at the place we are visiting, useful, and hopefully educational. This excellent book fit all three. It was really interesting to learn the collective nouns of different animals. And the artwork is just beautiful. This book appeals to my two-year-old, my three-year-old and my five-year-old (and their mommy!).

This is the description from Amazon - "After discovering that a group of ferrets is called a business, Sarah Asper-Smith became fascinated with the intersection of language and the natural world. Using bold prints overlaid on vibrant colors, she created Have You Ever Seen a Smack of Jellyfish? to chronicle the poetic words used to describe the magnificent animal kingdom. From a knot of frogs to a watch of nightingales, the book takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the alphabet with animals as its guide, including an army of ants, a gaggle of geese, and a zeal of zebras. This book's color illustrations and playful use of language appeal to readers of all ages."

I thought this book was so great I just had to share it with you all. I hope if you find it or buy it you love it as much as I do!

My budding architect

2011-03-30T20:02:00.002-05:00

Aidan's preschool class has been learning about construction and building things this past week. He came home one day and told me he needed paper and a crayon and told me he needed to draw a picture of what he wanted to build before he built it. I asked him if they had talked about blueprints at preschool. They had some that another parent had brought in for them to look at. He was so excited to draw it, then build it.

Can you tell how proud he was? ;)

It was an interesting little lesson about construction and architecture that I would not have thought to do with him, but was very happy that he came up with it!

Also check out this cute idea over at Quirky Momma - Toilet Paper Roll Architecture

52 Week Challenge

2011-03-24T05:55:00.001-05:00

Week 50 of 52

Cuddling with my sleepy little bunny. A rare sight indeed. She will be two in May so she usually stays awake on car rides now and I usually have two other kids to manage so if she does fall asleep in the van I have to take her right up to her crib to finish her nap. And she is too busy usually to want to stay still to cuddle with mommy. On this day though, hubby was with us so I could keep her in my arms, cuddling my little baby after she fell asleep on the drive home. A rare and very nice little afternoon cuddle. :)

52 Week Challenge

2011-03-10T10:21:00.001-06:00

Week 49 of 52

I celebrated my birthday this week. On my actual birthday, my kids behaved miserably, hubby was sick with the flu, equals not a great birthday and no dinner out. :(

Hubby was feeling much better yesterday though so we were able to go out to dinner at Ruby Tuesday so I could enjoy my free birthday burger. Yummy! And all three children were so super well behaved at the restaurant.

We came home and had some ice cream and the kids sang Happy Birthday. Since I didn't have a cake or anything to put candles on, Aidan suggested we use our Melissa and Doug play cupcakes and they even come with candles. :) So I pretended to blow out the candle on my play cupcake. Should have maybe tried the picture before the girls had dug into their ice cream. Very hard to try to get them to look up at daddy for a picture!

My mom did make me a french silk pie, my favorite, and I enjoyed the last slice on my actual birthday, which was the highlight of my day. And obviously, as you can see, I turned 33 this week. :) Thanks for the pie mom!!!

52 Week Challenge

2011-03-02T20:38:00.004-06:00

Week 48 of 52

Me and my kiddos, hanging out, eating some popcorn, watching the Amazing Race. :) Its educating them about other countries and cultures, right? I thought so. :)

Letter Hunt (in the newspaper)

2011-02-22T21:25:00.000-06:00

Yesterday, before I recycled the newspaper, I gave it to Aidan along with a marker. He has been working on the letter "R" in preschool this week so I asked him to find and circle as many "R's" as he could find. He went on to find a few other letters also.

It was great exposure to new words, new format (newspaper as opposed to books), and of course identifying letters. Aidan is already very familiar with his letters, but I thought it would be great exercise for his eye while he was patching.
He is still working on holding a pencil correctly so it was good practice for that and I could mix it up a little and have him draw a circle, or square or triangle or any other shape around each letter.

Just a little fun we had with the newspaper once mommy and daddy were done reading it.

52 Week Challenge

2011-02-02T20:35:00.003-06:00

Week 47 of 52

Me and my girls chillin' after a long day. Just another example of whenever the mommy sits down, she has a bunch of kids that jump in her lap!

Online Storytime at Barnes & Noble

2011-02-01T17:53:00.002-06:00

Does everyone know about the Barnes & Noble Online Storytime? Every month they have a new book on their website, read to you by the author. This month the book is Pinkalicious by Victoria Kann. Pinkalicious is one of Ella's favorite books (she was a little bummed that I couldn't turn on Purplicious after Pinkalicious ended). :) Just click on one of the links and it will take you over so you can have Pinkalicious read to you too!

Winter Paintings

2011-01-26T14:00:00.000-06:00

I came across a wonderful blog today, Meet the Dubiens, via ABC and 123. They were highlighting this cool art project they had done. I got out some watercolor paper and painters tape and went to work making the tree with the painters tape.

The kids used their watercolors and painted the entire page.

Once the paint was dry, I gently pulled off the painters tape, leaving the white silhouette of the tree.

I also thought their watercolor/crayon resist project was so pretty and had to do it with the kids while we had the watercolors out. Aidan thought it was pretty cool how the snowflakes appeared when he painted the paper.

Next on my list to do from Meet the Dubiens: Lava Bottles. :)

Fun with Window Markers

2011-01-25T20:29:00.002-06:00

After I saw this post at Teach Preschool today, I knew I had to finally get out the window markers we got the kids for Christmas. I had been nervous about getting them out before because I had no idea if my toddler would stay coloring on the window or just think she could color with anything on the window (she is my little destructo - must keep a constant eye on her!).

I knew I had these two frames, just waiting for another project and thought the big kids could use them with the window markers. They thought it was so cool. Next time we do it I am going to try putting different shapes like Teach Preschool did and see what they do with them.

Aidan was excited that when his work was done he could just go hang it up - already framed!

52 Week Challenge

2011-01-19T18:55:00.002-06:00

Week 46 of 52

I switched over to the Shoot Me logo instead of the Mom is Missing logo. The challenge is being hosted on a different blog now and wanted to make sure I sent everyone to the correct address!

So another week, another photo of me on the couch with my kids. Doesn't Olivia look so pleased? She is such a little sassy-pants. :)

We built a space shuttle!

2011-01-10T20:47:00.002-06:00

Okay, so maybe it isn't all that exciting, but to Aidan it is. :) It is his favorite thing right now.

Don't ya just love his astronaut costume? I got it for like $3 on the after Halloween clearance and he got it for Christmas - LOVES it! Wears it all the time.

So with his fabulous renewed interest in space, (he has been obsessed with Star Wars as of late), I wanted to find something fun we could make. I came across this fun idea and thought he would like it. I had to reinforce the card stock wings with cardboard and he wanted me to add this blue painter's tape I had sitting out.

He was happy with his orbiter for a couple days, but then was reading through one of his space books and noticed the solid rocket boosters in a picture. So I explained how those are the rockets that help get the shuttle out into space. He HAD to have these added to his shuttle. So I brainstormed a little and thought maybe a 2 liter pop bottle would work great as the external tank, and two 20 oz pop bottles would make good solid rocket boosters. I wanted to have Aidan paint them, but he was too impatient for that, so we just covered them with construction paper. My husband informs me that the external tank is supposed to be brown, I thought it was more red-orange and red was the color of construction paper I had. I just found a website that says it is orange, so if you make it, you could make it the correct color. :)

Aidan wanted me to just tape them all together. I thought it would be more fun to use magnets to hold them all together, so as he was playing he could detach the external tank and the solid rocket boosters, just as the orbiter would. Sadly, my magnets that I had on hand are not strong enough, and we are in the middle of a snowstorm, so he might have to wait another day or two for mommy to get to the store and get better magnets or maybe some velcro.
Does anyone else have an idea of how I could attach them but be able to separate them easily?

The entire shuttle mission, ready to launch. Oh, I forgot to take a picture, but he also used Tinker Toys to build a launch pad. So fun!

There are so many other awesome space ideas floating around right now!

Counting Coconuts January theme is outer space - sooooo many cool ideas there.

Totally Tots has great ideas with their A is for Astronaut.

Homeschool Creations Astronaut Preschool Pack is so fun. I have it all printed out and laminated, and started a few of the activities with the kids today.

I also just found this other fun space shuttle craft so Aidan and I may need to make it sometime as well.

Good Moon Songs and Rhymes over at Preschool Express.

52 Week Challenge

2011-01-05T20:42:00.001-06:00

Week 45 of 52

Does it seem like all of my pictures of me and my kids has me laying on the couch with one or more of them around me? I just realized this and it would seem that I am always just laying around. Which is so far from reality - in the short evening time we have with hubby at home (who can take the pictures) I do try to sit down for a little bit, and as soon as I do - they all pounce on the mommy! Without fail. But they are all in bed now, so I think I will really go lay down and rest. :)

Me and my Livi

52 Week Challenge

2010-12-30T11:22:00.001-06:00

Week 44 of 52

Even though Olivia is pretty destructive, ripping things apart most of the day, for some reason, when it comes to ripping paper and opening presents, she still doesn't quite get it. ;) So mommy got to help her open some of her Christmas presents.

Happy New Year!

52 Week Challenge

2010-12-23T20:48:00.002-06:00

Week 42/43 of 52

Such a slacker, I know. But here is my photo from last week snuggling on the couch with Livi and Aidan (and Bitty Baby is the doll laying on my hip)

And my photos from this week:

First on the Minivan Express.

And then with my handsome little man after his preschool Christmas program. Isn't he so cute? I had let him pick his outfit and let him choose from a couple different sweaters, but he went right for this cute tie we had gotten from a friend.

Some Christmas Fun

2010-12-23T20:39:00.002-06:00

Just a couple fun things you might want to try tomorrow.

You can go to Portable North Pole and have Santa send your child a personalized video email. It will take you about five minutes or less to fill out the info and your kids will love it!

Also, did you know that NORAD tracks Santa? We did this last year and the kids thought it was so fun. Go here and be able to track Santa as he makes his way around the globe!

Make some magic reindeer food. Read more about it and get a cute printable here.

Merry Christmas!

Minivan Express

2010-12-20T21:26:00.001-06:00

Another successful year of the Minivan Express tonight. Our town has something called Jolly Holiday Lights where there are just a ton of light displays sponsored by local businesses. Our $7 admission goes to support the Make-A-Wish Foundation. So not only did we see a ton of awesome lights in one place, we supported a great foundation in a small little way.

Here the kids are rocking out to The Polar Express soundtrack. Ella was really getting into it, Livi and Aidan have a bunch of popcorn and Christmas marshmallows stuffed in their mouths.

I made Aaron take a picture of me and the two big kids once we made it through the park. Livi fell asleep right before we got there and missed the whole thing. Oh well, maybe she will make it next year. :)

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-09T10:37:00.005-06:00

Here is the Shutterfly card I finally decided on. I think I will also use this as my 52 Week Challenge picture. I am tiny, but I am in the two family pictures in the card. :)

Week 42 of 52

Framed With Love Christmas Card

Click here to browse hundreds of Christmas card designs.

View the entire collection of cards.

52 Week Challenge

2010-12-02T08:45:00.002-06:00

Week 41 of 52

Here are a few failed attempts at a nice family picture over Thanksgiving. My mother-in-law got these super cute outfits for the kids and their cousin and we tried to get a good picture of all 4 grand kids for grammy and papa's Christmas card. That was a big failure too. Oh well. This first one actually isn't too bad, but is slightly out of focus and Livi has a stunned look on her face.
Now that we have our tree up at our house I think I will try to get the kids dressed nice again and try again. Wish me luck!

Shutterfly Holiday Cards

2010-11-19T13:27:00.007-06:00

I have been using Shutterfly for all my photo needs for quite some time now. I usually get all of my prints from Shutterfly. I like the prepaid photo print plan because then I can get the prints so inexpensively and since I have already paid for it, I can just put in my order rather than finding where I left my purse. ;)

I also do a lot of scrapbooking this way. Both myself and my mother-in-law have made many a photo book on Shutterfly. I love how many options there are to make the book just the way you want it. I have made Shutterfly photo albums of my kids artwork, special father's day book, and baby's first year. My favorite though is making my family blog into a book. I know there are other websites out there that will pull your blog into a book for you, but I really like how I transfer it over into a Shutterfly book and I can customize the pages.

A fun photo book that does not take much effort at all is My Amazing Alphabet Adventures. My mother-in-law has made one of these for Aidan and I think she has just made one for Ella. Aidan LOVED seeing his face is all these fun pictures and really is a great ABC book.

One other thing I have already made to give to Aidan as a gift this Christmas is a Blank Notebook. I got to choose the style and add his picture to the front. He has really been enjoying drawing lately and I thought he would love his own personalized little notebook.

Some years I make calendars with lots of pictures of my little cuties for grandmas and grandpas. I usually make the wall calendar, but it is nice that they have other formats as well.

I also have ordered our birth announcements and holiday cards from Shutterfly. They always have so many beautiful cards to choose from! This year I think I have it narrowed down to:

Retro Snowflake Bursts Christmas 5x7 photo card

Snowflakes And Wishes Christmas 5x7 photo card

Vivid Hope Christmas 5x7 photo card

Can you tell I am drawn to the "browns". We had our family pictures taken outside this fall, so I think any of these would work really well with our photos.

Which card do you like best?

Bloggers get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly… sign up: http://bit.ly/sfly2010
I wrote this post as part of Shutterfly's Holiday Card promotion. I will receive 50 free cards from Shutterfly. My opinions in this post are all mine and I really do love and use Shutterfly A LOT! :)

Friday Finds

2010-11-19T05:55:00.001-06:00

Random fun things I saw this week that I wanted to share:

How cute is this pumpkin turkey over at Naptime Crafters. I got a fake pumpkin on clearance the other day so we can have it as an inside decoration because I thought the kids would like that more now that it is getting chilly and we are not outside everyday.

Super cute hats at the Etsy store, Something Diane Made. I like to crochet so I have been trying to find a pattern to make my own, but haven't had any luck. Might just have to buy one of Diane's!

We love our Elf on the Shelf. Kelly at Sewing in No Mans Land is way more crafty than I am and made her own! So cute!

Loaded Pretzels over at Sherbet Blossom. Yum!!!!!!

Cute Peek-A-Boo House over at I can Teach my child. I might need to make one of these for Olivia.

Turkey Cookie at This Little Project. Is there anything better than "cookie, carmel, chocolate kiss and candy corn glued together with creamy peanut butter"?

Snowman hair clip tutorial. This is so cute! I need to go get me some ribbon. :)

52 Week Challenge

2010-11-18T08:36:00.003-06:00

Week 40 of 52

Aidan and I were playing around with my iPod Touch and liked the camera feature that lets you see when you are taking a picture of yourself. I am sure there is a technical term for it, but I am not that tech savvy. It is a little bit grainy of a picture, I didn't have many lights on at the time I don't think. But still, kinda cute. :)

52 Week Challenge

2010-11-11T06:55:00.000-06:00

Week 39 of 52

The other night, my girls climbed up onto my lap in the rocking chair. I asked hubby to get the camera and take a picture for me. Aidan did not want to be left out though and quickly joined us for the picture. :)

Princess Cake

2010-11-10T13:12:00.001-06:00

My little princess, Ella, will be turning three very soon. We celebrated with my family a little early because my brother was home from Colorado. My mom had this idea for her cake that apparently my grandma used to do for her when she was little. My mom said they used to use Barbie, but so far Ella doesn't know who Barbie is and Disney now makes the princesses like a Barbie doll, so my mom got her Cinderella.

You make an angel food cake. Strip the princess and put her in the middle of the cake. My mom made a little paper skirt to help with the height different between Cinderella and the cake.

Decorate the princess and the paper skirt with frosting to complete the dress. Cinderella in a beautiful ball gown (colors chosen by Miss Ella herself).

Ella loved her princess cake! And even better, she has Cinderella (just wash her off and put her real dress back on) to play with now, even though the yummy cake has long been devoured!

52 Week Challenge

2010-11-03T21:11:00.003-05:00

Week 38 of 52

Just two quick pictures of my little man giving his mama some loves after trick-or-treating. It was so cute how he had his arm reached up around my neck. What a great kid I have!

Oh, and just cause I like to show them off, here are my little trick-or-treaters:

Paleontologist
(I made him a shirt that says: I Dig Dinosaurs)

Fancy Nancy

Yoda

52 Week Challenge

2010-10-28T06:55:00.001-05:00

Week 37 of 52

There was a community Halloween event last week that we took the kids to. Now these are not the costumes they want to wear for actual trick-or-treating, but since I did not have those pulled together quite yet, we did some creative thinking with our dress-up clothes and came up with some pretty cute outfits! Hubby was nice enough to get a couple pictures of me and the kids. :)

Mommy and Little Red Riding Hood:

Mommy and all three kiddos:

My cowgirl, little red riding hood, and construction worker:

The Little Orange House

2010-10-27T15:59:00.002-05:00

You may have already heard this little story before, but I heard it for the first time at story time today at the library. I searched for it online because I thought it was kind of a cute little Halloween story. Go check out The Little Orange House. :)

A new ice cube tray

2010-10-27T13:25:00.001-05:00

Olivia tried eating the markers while we were doing the acorn craft, so I found something different for her to work on. The other day at Walmart I saw this ice cube tray, meant to make the long skinny tubes that would fit in a water bottle. I thought for sure that could come in handy for something, and bought it.

I gave Livi the ice cube tray and some clothespins and she went to work putting a clothespin in each hole. I have also had her do this using the drink stir sticks. When we use the drink stir sticks, I work with Ella to make a pattern out of the colors. Good fine motor and hand eye coordination for Olivia and some patterning skills for Ella!

Acorn Art

2010-10-27T13:13:00.001-05:00

My friend Tonya did this activity with her little girl and I thought my kids would love it too. So while we were at Grammy and Papa's a couple of weeks ago we collected a bunch of acorn caps.
When we got home we took our markers and colored the inside.

Tried to do at least two of each color so we could use it as a matching game and maybe also do some patterns.

Put some glue in the caps and let dry over night.

And now we have a shiny, pretty new centerpiece at the table made by the kids!

Thanks for sharing this idea Tonya! The kids love playing with them. :)

52 Week Challenge

2010-10-21T06:55:00.000-05:00

Week 36 of 52

Last week, Hubby took a day off of work so we could all go to the pumpkin patch together. We had such a fun time exploring this, new to us, pumpkin patch.
A wonderful woman who was on the wagon with us out to the pumpkin patch and corn maze offered to take our family picture. Wasn't that so awesome?!
So here is me with my whole family. Love it!

Pumpkin art

2010-10-18T21:31:00.001-05:00

Just thought I would share a couple little jack-o-lantern art projects we did the other day. The first was just a paper plate that they painted orange. It looks like in this first picture Olivia has just taken a lick of the orange paint, and Ella has decided to paint her hand. Isn't painting with three little ones fun!

Yep, definitely not liking the taste of that paint!

After the paint dried, I had cut out a few simple shapes for them to glue on as the face.

Our other craft was just a brown paper lunch bag, painted orange, stuffed with newspaper and tied at the top with a string. We added little faces to these as well.
Besides Olivia's mouthful of paint, I think they had fun making their creations. :)

52 Week Challenge

2010-10-14T06:55:00.000-05:00

Week 35 of 52

Aidan got his new issue of Highlights High Five this week and we sat down on the couch to read it together. It took his sisters about 2.5 seconds to climb up and join us. :) Anytime mommy sits down, apparently everyone has to be right on top of her. So we all read Aidan's magazine together and I made hubby take a picture of us. :)

iPod Touch fun!

2010-10-10T20:17:00.003-05:00

Hello everyone! We have a new toy in our house. An iPod Touch! We are probably way behind the times and you are all thinking, she is just NOW getting one? :) And yes we did and are having a lot of fun with it.

I like it because it helps feed my internet and facebook addiction. :) I am also loving it for some of the apps I have downloaded that I thought the kids might like and help keep them busy at doctor appointments or the like.

A couple of my favorites are:

iWriteWords - I am loving this one for Aidan and I am sure Ella will be enjoying it soon as well. Aidan is still working on the correct way to write some of his letters. He is a lefty and I have been noticing that he starts writing his letters from the bottom and going up. Does anyone else notice this with their lefty or is my kid just backwards? This app has been great practice for him in the correct way to write a letter and he really seems to be enjoying it. It has upper and lowercase practice as well as words, upper or lowercase. I tried the Lite version of it first since it is free and really liked it so we paid for the full app which is $2.99 right now I think.

Shape Builder - Another excellent app that has many different puzzles. Once you get all the pieces in the correct spot the shape turns into the animal or instrument or whatever and plays its sound. Aidan really likes this one as well. It is only 99 cents.

Planets - This app is free and my little astronomy boy is loving it! It isn't exactly an app for kids, but it has a lot of great info about the planets, when they are visible, a 2-D or 3-D image of the night sky with all the constellations named. We are really enjoying this one - especially for free!

These are just a couple of the ones we have discovered so far. I will share a few more later, but would LOVE to hear your favorites. I am new to the world of iPod and would love to hear your suggestions on apps that you or your kids love. Thanks!

52 Week Challenge

2010-10-07T06:55:00.000-05:00

Week 34 of 52

Just a couple self portraits and one taken by my little man. Ella wanted to try with the camera too, but she was making me too nervous that she was going to drop it. :)

Me only partially smiling, partially instructing Aidan, when he figured out how to snap the picture. :)

Book Slings

2010-10-04T21:26:00.001-05:00

Did you all see the fabulous book sling in Family Fun magazine? Or perhaps you saw it awhile ago at Penny Carnival like I did and have been wanting it for the kids rooms for awhile. My awesome mom-in-law whipped up a super fun space one for my son:

And a pretty flower one for Ella:

The kids love sitting in their beds and having some of their favorite books right at their fingertips. Love it! Go to either of the links above for the directions on how to make these awesome book slings!

Dinosaur Eggs

2010-10-03T21:43:00.001-05:00

Aidan is still very interested in dinosaurs. He also loves getting his hands dirty and smooshing things in his hands. I had come across this craft a couple of weeks ago but then just put it in my head for things to do. Then Aidan was outside tapping two rocks together and saying he was trying to crack the dinosaur egg - which meant it was definitely time to do this craft!

I won't rehash the whole process because it is laid out wonderfully over at Preschool Rock. Check out that link to get the recipe for the dough.

All three kids had a great time with the dough molding it around our tiny plastic dinosaurs (I see they are back in the dollar spot at Target if you are in need of some).
It did take a couple of days for the rocks to dry. I should have tried the hair dryer method they advised on the Preschool Rock site. But make sure you find a sunny warm spot and you should be fine.

We had the tape measures out to decide where we wanted to place some new trees we were planting in our yard, but Aidan wanted to see which egg was the biggest, so we did!

Pounding away trying to get the dinosaurs out.

And, just like a true paleontologist, he used a brush to gently remove the rest of the dirt and sand.

52 Week Challenge

2010-09-29T21:17:00.002-05:00

Week 33 of 52

This past weekend we took a little trip up to Minneapolis to go to the zoo. My sister had given us tickets as a thank you present for being a part of her wedding and we decided to try to use the tickets before it got too chilly! We couldn't have picked a better day. We had beautiful weather and the kids had so much fun exploring a new zoo.

I guess you can't tell in the picture, but Livi was sitting on top of one of the tires of a tractor in the farm area of the zoo.

Not that many 0f you will be going to the Minnesota Zoo anytime soon, but I was looking around their website and found many fun activities in the education section of the website. I printed off the scavenger hunt for grades K-3. I was a little disappointed that we didn't do much of it. Aidan would have liked it I think, but trying to manage it while keeping an eye on Livi and Ella who kept climbing out of the zoo stroller was just too much for me. Maybe next time we go.
I just thought I would share it in case any one is going to a zoo sometime soon. Check out the zoo's website - you never know what you might find!

52 Week Challenge

2010-09-09T11:54:00.002-05:00

Week 31 and 32 of 52

I am cheating again. I have two pictures to share so I am counting them as two weeks. :) Hope that is okay! The first is from my sister's wedding last weekend. I was the maid of honor and Ella was the flower girl so we both got to go get our hair done. It is a little blurry, but still really cute I think. We are looking in the mirror to see how pretty we are. :)

Then yesterday my boy turned 5! Unbelievable! I made daddy take a picture of Aidan and I on his birthday. :)

Happy Birthday Little Man!

2010-09-08T06:55:00.000-05:00

My little boy turns 5 today! This past weekend we had a little party with my side of the family. Usually my sister-in-law makes my kids b-day cakes as that is what she does professionally (no reason not to take advantage of that excellent resource right?!). But this year we are doing two separate parties, so I had to come up with a cake by myself. Now, even though it didn't turn out exactly as I had envisioned it, it was still an awesome cake in my son's eyes, so that is really all that matters.

Aidan is really into space and planets right now so I thought it would be fun to do something along those lines for a cake. I did a search for planet cakes, and this one stuck out. I thought about making the fondant myself as my sis-in-law assured me it was easy. But last weekend was also my sister's wedding and there was just no reason to make myself crazy trying to make fondant, when I could use my 40% off coupon at Hobby Lobby and get the Wilton pre-made, pre-colored fondant. :)

I love that this cake had child participation! Aidan and Ella thought it was just like working with play dough. I had only bought the pack that had blue, green, yellow and red fondant, so Aidan told us what colors needed to be used for each planet and he and Ella worked to make all the planets.

Notice the red spot on Jupiter and of course Saturn had to have a ring. He did also make Pluto and the other dwarf planets as well.

So we ended up with a circle cake, with yellow frosting. The cake was the sun, Aidan wanted grandma to add the sun's rays to the top. The planets were placed in their orbit around the sun. There was a little leftover fondant after the planets were made so they decided to make the space station. That is the blue thing on top of the cake. A few fondant stars and 5 candles to top it off!

Happy Birthday Aidan!!!!!!!

52 Week Challenge

2010-08-11T22:21:00.001-05:00

Week 30 of 52

My friend and I took our kiddos up to Ames, home of Iowa State University, on Tuesday. We had a great time going to the brand new aquatic center and taking a ride on CyRide the city's bus system. We had talked about taking the kids up to walk around on campus sometime this summer (we both graduated from there). We didn't end up walking around campus, which is just fine as the heat index has our temps up in the 105-110 region. But we did end our day with the tour of campus from the nice air conditioned CyRide bus. It was even more awesome because we had the whole bus to ourselves and our bus driver was very nice.

Livi was the only one that didn't enjoy the ride cause mama wouldn't let her down so she could walk around. Mean mommy, I know. My friend did get a good shot of Livi and I though. :)

The funny thing is, my friend and I had debated on going up either Tuesday or Thursday. We decided on Tuesday, you know just in case something came up, we could fall back to Thursday.

Little did we know WHAT was going to come up and happen to our poor city of Ames Wednesday morning. After 3 straight nights of rain totalling 10-12 inches, the town is FLOODED! The highway and interstate and two major roads through town, under water. Water main is broken leaving everyone with no water and what water they do have, they need to boil. If you care to see pictures of our poor little Iowa town, check them out here.

Friday Finds

2010-08-05T21:23:00.002-05:00

Totally random and fun things I liked this week:

We are trying to plan out our landscaping for our backyard. We had considered a backyard play set, but it seems like everyone in the neighborhood has one, and NO ONE plays on theirs. And after our adventure to Jester Park and the natural play scape, we decided to try to do something similar in our back yard. I just did a google search for natural play scapes, and didn't find much, but these "builder boards" sure looked cool!

Create miniature houses - how fun and easy are these?

Painting around the hole - I have not tried this yet, but am very curious to see what my kids do with a paper with a hole in the middle!

Hanging book display - So I still think the gutter bookshelf is genius, but I think I want a couple of these next to Aidan and Ella's beds. It looks so cute!

Waterfall Water Wall - I want to try to make one of these. I think the kids would love it!

Have a great weekend!

52 Week Challenge

2010-08-05T11:40:00.001-05:00

Week 29 of 52

Yesterday my family went to our local amusement park. We were a little nervous about the kids enjoying it just because last time we went, Aidan was almost 2 and would not go on any rides. This time, sooooooo much different. They all loved it. Livi of course is too small to go on most rides, but she did enjoy the carousel, the train and the ferris wheel. Here is a photo of her and I on the carousel. :)

Friday Finds

2010-07-22T21:54:00.002-05:00

Filth Wizardry has again shared a super awesome idea. Actually three super awesome ideas, all to do with literacy and working with duplo blocks. So smart! I will be scouring garage sales for some more duplo blocks I can make some of these with. Go check it out!

Water noodle lacing over at My Little Gems. I am really wishing I would have grabbed some more pool noodles when they were on clearance at the Target dollar section. I think my kiddos would really enjoy this and Aidan has really been loving making patterns lately.

Pepper and dish soap experiment -This is over at Muffin Tin Mom. I have never done this before but I am just sure Aidan is going to think it is the coolest thing ever!

Super cute baby hat - I saw it through U create and will have to try to make one - so adorable!

52 Week Challenge

2010-07-21T22:49:00.001-05:00

Week 28 of 52

Oh my little Livi. She all of a sudden does not seem like a little baby anymore. She is like a tiny little girl. She walks, she babbles, she giggles. She most definitely shares her opinion on things and is very feisty. Her first word - No (complete with head shake to go with it). Seriously, did her first word have to be "no". Oh well. She is silly and playful and learning new things every day it seems.

Oh little Olivia, stay little just a little bit longer for mommy. :)

I had to throw this one in here too because it just cracks me up. This was her attacking me right before we took our self portrait together. :)

Tile Print Painting

2010-07-20T21:23:00.002-05:00

Have you ever read the blog Let the Children Play? It is written by Jenny, an early childhood teacher at a progressive preschool in Australia. I LOVE LOVE LOVE everything she shares. I especially love her posts about their outdoor play. They provide all kinds of loose parts for the children and it is amazing to see what their little imaginations can dream up. Their latest addition to their outdoor play space, a big pile of dirt. LOVE IT! My son would be in heaven. I keep thinking of a story my supervisor would share about a parent who asked if we could use just "clean dirt" on our playground. Are you kidding me? What on earth is "clean dirt"? Children should be in play clothes and they should be allowed to explore and learn and experience and imagine. And not worry about their clothes getting dirty. That is part of what I find so refreshing about this blog when I look at the pictures.

The project that I was inspired to do today was originally posted on Let the Children Play in February, but highlighted again this week. Off to Menards we went to find a nice big, cheap tile we could use. We got these 12x12 tiles for 77 cents a piece. I put some paint in cups and they painted the tiles. Aidan and Olivia really liked it, Ella, wasn't as into it today for some reason.

I knew I could count on Aidan to cover his whole tile with paint.

Then we used q-tips to write names or draw or whatever we wanted to do. Aidan chose to write his name.

When they were satisfied with the paint on their tile we put a piece of paper on top and pressed down lightly. Lifted the paper up and had a lovely print.

My kids didn't get as into it as I thought they would, but I think it was partially because we did it outside and it was very humid here today. I am definitely trying this again. Next time I will be adding different items (cups, toothpicks, etc.) that they could use to draw/experiment with.

And please go check out Let the Children Play. You will be so happy you did!

Some fun books to get them moving

2010-07-19T20:31:00.007-05:00

I love to go to garage sales. You never know what kind of treasures you will find. I am usually zoned in on children's clothing, books, puzzles, or toys. I LOVE finding items that are so gently used you can barely tell, and for only a fraction of the price their original owners paid! LOVE IT!

Anyway, last week we found this little gem at a garage sale:

It really is just the song with a bunch of added things to do if you are happy and you know it - jungle style! So simple, but so cute and my kids LOVED it!

Which got me to thinking about other books that we love that also get the kids up and moving:

From Head to Toe by Eric Carle

Clap Your Hands by Lorinda Bryon Cauley

Okay, now here is where my mind has gone blank. I thought for sure there was a fourth book I wanted to share with you. But I have been thinking about it for the past 24 hours and cannot come up with it, so I give up. I will just share these three and then ask YOU what your favorite book that gets your kids up and moving is. :) Can't wait to hear your favorites! We love to check out new books.

Landing on the lilypads

2010-07-19T10:24:00.001-05:00

I feel like a fraud as I was typing the title to this post, because we didn't actually call them lily pads yesterday while we were playing. But when I went to type the title, that is what came into my head. And now the next time we do this activity I am going to have them use the little plastic frogs I got at Target dollar section awhile ago!

Anyway, we have these little blocks that are supposed to be water toys. So I had them out and we were playing with them yesterday. Then I remembered we had a bunch of frisbees in the garage and it might be fun to see if we could get them to land on the frisbees. It was very fun, but not easy. The frisbees of course move and float around in the water, hard targets to hit. But all that really mattered was that it was new and different and got our bodies moving and working. Practicing throwing skills, getting wet, laughing, thinking, splashing!

Friday Finds

2010-07-15T21:20:00.002-05:00

Some fun things to share this week!

"Uncrustables" and Homemade Croutons - I need to get one of those gadgets and we had just been talking about trying to make our own croutons.

How to Build a Cardboard Castle and other things - This just looks cool. I bet Aidan and daddy could have a lot of fun with these!

Car Seat Cooler - Um, can you say GENIUS! Now to learn to sew.

Doll House - I soooo wish I had seen this before I bought all the furniture for Ella's dollhouse I made. I love her creativity!

Handmade paint brushes - we will definitely be trying these out very soon!

Baby shower gift idea - such a sweet idea!

Splashing in the rain

2010-07-13T08:41:00.001-05:00

Have you ever let your kids dance in the rain? Or splash in the puddles afterwards? If not - shame on you! We had a nice little rain yesterday, and though we didn't make it out in time to dance in the rain, we sure ran out to splash in the puddles!

One of the bad things about a new neighborhood (besides lack of mature shade trees) is that the sidewalks are too good. :) No puddles on the sidewalks. Of course excellent sidewalks are wonderful for walks and bike riding and everything. But after a rain, you need some puddles to stomp in! We had to settle for the water running down the road at the end of our driveway. They didn't seem to mind, and since we live on a cul de sac, there was no traffic. The girls preferred going barefoot.

They also loved drawing with their chalk. It was so pretty on the wet driveway. And when it started sprinkling again, Livi was lucky to have a big brother to help her out with the umbrella. :)

Natural Playscape

2010-06-29T20:50:00.001-05:00

This is the most awesome playground I have ever been to. I might be partially drawn to it because it is the same concept the playground that my old center follows. Natural elements. No slides, no swings, just places for children to explore and use their imaginations. You can read all about this particular park here.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE the natural building blocks made out of tree branches or stumps. Cut down to few inch thickness, sanded down a little. Great building blocks!

This was one of their favorite areas. A little maze of paths through tall grasses. I should have posted a picture of the kids in the grasses. To a 2-5 yrs old the grasses are pretty tall compared to you!

The absolute favorite: the pond. Between splashing, moving rocks around and playing in fountains, they could have played in this little space ALL DAY LONG! Until a fox snake joined the party and scattered everyone!

Fossil dig. Under all that sand there are several "fossils" that have been buried. The last time we were there Aidan was loving digging until he found the fossils. This time, he and his buddy brought their big dump trucks and were busy with the work of just moving the sand. :)

What do you think about this type of playground?

Here are a few more articles about this particular playscape:

http://playgrounddesigns.blogspot.com/2009/08/jester-park-natural-playscape-granger.html

http://www.kidsplayparks.com/spot_kid_friendly_parks_Jester_Park_Natural_Playscape_Granger_IA_80926.aspx

http://www.recmanagement.com/200905aw1e.php

52 Week Challenge

2010-06-24T05:00:00.000-05:00

Week 27 of 52

I think it is going to take me a full two years to finish this one year challenge. Oh well. I am getting in more pictures, which is the whole point, even if most of the time my husband is rolling his eyes and thinking I am silly when I ask him to take a picture.

Here is a picture of me and Ella hanging out. This was taken shortly before we tried to go for a walk for the evening. I can tell because she doesn't have a huge cut and scratches all around her eye in this picture. You can read more about her clumsiness that night on my family blog here if you want. It is one week after she fell off her trike and lost a tooth though. Can you see that little gap in her top teeth that a two year old should not have? Yeah, that's my Ella. You can read more about that adventure here. I swear, I am going to have a full head of gray hair by the end of the month just because of this beautiful, happy, loving and very clumsy child.

Candy Land substitutes

2010-06-22T20:52:00.004-05:00

Oh my poor neglected blog. I can't believe I haven't posted in a couple of weeks. Shame on me! Sorry guys.

I have had this idea in my head for a couple of weeks. Ella and I were playing with her dollhouse and I thought of a fun new way to use the people my friend made for the dollhouse. We decided to use them as our markers while we played Candy Land instead of the little red, green, blue or yellow people that come with the game. How much easier is that for my little Ella to remember which one is hers?! She just has to look on the board and see where "Ella" is. We had a lot of fun playing Candy Land tonight. :)

Oh, and not to leave Livi out, she got to sit in her highchair and play with grandma, papa and little Livi.

Addition to our washer fun

2010-06-08T08:48:00.001-05:00

The other day I added our magnetic wands to our washer and viewtainer trays. The kids thought it was awesome that the wands picked up the washers.

Aidan in particular thought it was very handy. Much easier and less tedious than picking up each washer individually. ;)

52 Week Challenge

2010-06-03T07:42:00.001-05:00

Week 26 of 52

This just feels like a repost of last week's picture to me, even though it isn't. But another shot of my and all my munchkins, as they are almost always all around me. Sometimes it drives me crazy that they are always right on top of me, but someday they will be all grown up and not want to cuddle with mama. So I will try to remember that and enjoy their cuddles while I can. :)

Playing with washers, again

2010-06-01T20:40:00.002-05:00

I know I already posted this idea that I stole from my friend Emily. But I finally made it over to Menards and found the little containers she used and picked up a few. They are called Viewtainers. I threw a bunch of washers on some trays for the girls to work on this and Olivia LOVED it!

She is at the perfect age for wanting to dump and fill and that really is her favorite thing to do right now. Getting the washers to go through that little slit is good fine motor work for her and she is happy she can see where they go since the containers are clear.

She just looked so cute doing her work I had to share the project again! Thanks for letting me share my sweet little girls with you!

Friday Finds

2010-05-27T21:26:00.002-05:00

Lots of good stuff around this week! Enjoy!

Fun gift idea - Wordle

Flower Frisbees at Make and Takes

Cute teacher gift - smores

Girly name decoration - I have been wanting to do something like this for Olivia's new room - I think this might be just what I want!

Patio Paver Planters - soooo pretty!

Hope you all enjoy your three day weekend!

52 Week Challenge

2010-05-26T22:13:00.001-05:00

Week 25 of 52

Just a quick snapshot I had my husband take as all three kids climbed onto the couch to sit by mommy. I love my little cuties!

Sidewalk for the village

2010-05-24T21:07:00.003-05:00

This was my friend Kim's idea for making sidewalks for our "village" I am just a copycat because I found the mosaic stones on clearance at Michaels the other day. We just took some little wood boards (I bought a 6 pack for $2 at Michaels) put a little craft glue down and glued the stone tiles to the board.

Sidewalks or roads could be made any number of ways, but this was fun and a little different material than we have used before. Aidan actually helped me lay the stones out. The kids really love this little addition to our village.

Friday Finds

2010-05-20T21:27:00.003-05:00

Some fun from the blogging world this week!

Have I told you how much I love Pink and Green Mama? She just has such fun ideas. I wish I had an ounce of her talent and creativity! So this week you need to check out two of her ideas.
Kids Art Apron from Hand Towel
and
Solar Night Light

Fun Bandana Quilt Tablecloth at Aesthetic Nest

Kids Chalkboard Table and Chairs at Centsational Girl

And then there is the sandbox I want us to build in our new back yard. Or actually, ideally, the backyard playhouse from Knock-Off Wood. This lady is seriously so talented. Careful as you start looking around her site. You will quickly pile up a list of things you want to build for your home!!!!

Finally I wanted to share my finished Dry Erase Activity Book that I shared from Somewhat Simple a few weeks ago. I put some of her pages that she shared in Ella's book, but I added some coloring book pages and a handwriting page as well.

I can't remember where I actually printed this one from, but there are many places you can type in anything you want and have it printed out like this for practicing. Here is one I have used before - Amazing Handwriting Worksheet Maker.

I also printed off some of the ABC coloring sheets from Fisher-Price because I think they are adorable.

Have a great weekend!!!!!

52 Week Challenge

2010-05-19T21:40:00.001-05:00

Week 24 of 52

This week our little girl turned one AND our son graduated from preschool. So I actually have a couple pictures to share!

The first is at Olivia's birthday party. Most of the gifts were opened by big brother and sister while she watched, but I finally got her to sit in my lap and try to rip some paper with the big kids.

After her party we headed over to Aidan's preschool graduation. He was so proud of his graduation cap!

Hanging outside I tried to take a couple of pictures with Livi. I kind of like this one so I thought I would share.

Happy Birthday little Olivia!

Our little village

2010-05-18T21:56:00.001-05:00

I have been wanting to do some sort of magical little outdoor space since I saw Pink and Green Mama's Garden Fairy House. I LOVE the idea of a special little space outside for imaginative play. Now, I have gone a little overboard in creating our little "village" but we have had a lot of fun creating and painting so far. We still have some people to paint and some more details to add, but I thought I would share it with you now, because all our little buildings are actually birdhouses. Which are all on sale at Michael's this week for only $3.99. So in case you wanted to build a little village of your own, now would be a great time to head to Michael's and pick out which pieces would be fun for you!

My friend, Kim, is also making a village with her kids. She has some fun ideas I want to share, but I better get her permission before I steal her photos!

Swat a keyboard

2010-05-17T22:19:00.001-05:00

Back in March I told you about my friend Emily's idea for "Swat a Letter". Well, she showed me her swat a keyboard mat the other day. I just thought I would share it with you guys too. It is drawn on half a clear shower curtain. Fun way to learn the location of keys on a keyboard in our world where toddlers play computer games! :)

More fun with washers

2010-05-16T20:30:00.001-05:00

Sorry for the photo quality. One of the other playgroup mommies took it on her cell phone and emailed it to me. Because this awesome sensory table was made by my friend Emily. After I had made the washer necklaces I had shown her another cool idea of putting scrapbook paper on the washers with modge podge and then putting a coat of diamond glaze over it. She made a few necklaces this way, but also thought her girls would love to play with them in the sensory table.

She put in a couple of ropes to string the washers on. Then she bought a few little wooden pieces (the circle, squares and hearts) at Michaels, drilled a hole and stuck a little wooden dowel in them. Had the girls help her decorate with foam stickers and then spray painted them some pretty colors. Great fun to put the washers on! She also found those fun cylinders at Menards. I think she said they were supposed to be for little nails or screws or something, but they are just a clear cylinder with a rubbery top and bottom. The top has a slit cut in it. PERFECT for slipping little washers into! I know it was a big hit with our playgroup last Wednesday!

She also got a steel stamping set and is planning on stamping things like numbers or days of the week to introduce a fun new learning opportunity. Genius! Thanks for the great ideas Emily!

Friday Finds

2010-05-13T21:35:00.000-05:00

Sorry I don't have a lot to share this week. I have suddenly felt I need to get the house completely in order before Olivia's birthday party this weekend. So painting and other projects have had my attention. I have some more fun ideas from my friend Emily, so hopefully I can get those posts up soon. Have a great weekend everyone!

Graduation Certificate - A fun way to commemorate the school year. I will be doing this with Aidan when he graduates from preschool this Sunday!

Kid's Drawing Case - What a cute little pattern and perfect for taking along to church, restaurants, doctor's office, anywhere! My kids love to color so this little thing would be perfect for them. (hint, hint, grandmas!) :)

Sensory Table Idea

2010-05-11T18:32:00.002-05:00

This is actually an idea from my friend Emily from her days working at a child care center. If you find you have some Rice Krispies that have gone stale, throw them in your sensory table. Throw in a few cars (I would recommend more like a monster truck or something with bigger wheels, higher off the ground). Makes a fun crunching noise when they drive over it. You can see Ella's hands here, she just liked playing with the cereal, and of course since it is a small cereal, I wasn't afraid of Olivia playing with it and choking on anything.

Friday Finds

2010-05-05T22:39:00.007-05:00

Just a few fun things from this week:

Homemade Foam Stamps from Tired, Need Sleep - Just so smart. I never know what to do with those little foam things - great idea for giving them a little longer life!

Hair bows - I have been searching everywhere locally to find some plain small snap clip barrettes and cannot find them. Somehow I came across this site that sells them, but also have some good tutorials on how to make the hair bows.

Photo Necklace from Not So Idle Hands - Sooooooo cute!

Perler Bead Bracelets - I had not thought to use them as beads for bracelets, but that would be a terrific fine motor activity to do with them also.

And have you heard of the Starbucks Frappuccino Happy Hour? I just might have to be swinging by a Starbucks between 3-5 from May 7-16! Half price Frappuccinos!!!! Yummy! They are my guilty pleasure. :)

Obstacle Course!

2010-05-03T20:43:00.001-05:00

Today the kiddos were riding their bikes in the driveway. Fun, but it seemed a little same ol' same ol' stuff to me. I saw the garden hoses laying in the garage and had an idea - obstacle course! I laid out the two garden hoses to make a path, grabbed our tunnel, put out a ball, and their bikes.

They could choose to kick the ball through the path made by the garden hoses, or just run through it. Great practice for Aidan exercising control while he was kicking the ball though.

At first they just thought it was super cool so kept running through the path. :)

I tried to keep the tunnel from blowing away by putting a planter on either side.
After the tunnel they have this little red wagon they pulled over to the driveway and rode their bikes around a set of cones.

That is just what we had and used today. Use your imagination! Grab your hula hoops, hopscotch, jump ropes, etc. If you don't have two garden hoses, but want to make a path, maybe you have some jump ropes, brooms, anything to lay out a path. Got a scrap piece of wood - use it as a balance beam. The sky is the limit! And I guarantee your kids will love it!

My new favorite craft

2010-05-02T19:49:00.001-05:00

I have been wanting to try stamping on washers since I saw this fun idea on nannygoat. And then I saw this one at Not So Idle Hands. I needed to get myself a steel stamping set! I finally found my way to Harbor Freight. If you don't have one near you just order from their website. The steel stamp set cost me $5.

Then I went to Menards and grabbed a couple of bags of washers in a couple different sizes. Went outside and started hammering away!

So far I have made a necklace for my two big kids and all their playgroup friends. It is soooooooo easy. I used a pretty ribbon and beads for the girls necklaces and a more "manly" piece of rope (that I had from long ago when I used to like making hemp jewelry) for the boys necklaces.

My kids love theirs and I hear that at least one of our little playgroup friends has been wearing hers ever since. Ella certainly seems happy with hers!

So if you are a friend of mine, beware, either you or your children may just have one of these coming your way soon!!! I have plenty of washers to use!!!!! :) For the mommies I will probably go to Michaels or Hobby Lobby and pick up a pretty bead and chain from their jewelry making sections. Such a fun, cute little gift!

52 Week Challenge

2010-04-29T16:34:00.001-05:00

Week 23 of 52

Last weekend we went to Grammy and Papa's house. This means the kids had a wonderful time, and I am easily in a few pictures because my mother-in-law LOVES to take pictures. Thanks Jane!

So here are a few of me and my girls hanging out.

I love Ella's smile in this one. :)

And Olivia's coy little look in this one. :)

My big kids and I waiting for a table at Pizza Hut after church.

Thanks for the pictures Jane!

Chicka Chicka, Boom Boom!

2010-04-27T20:40:00.001-05:00

We have those foam letters and numbers that you can put in the bath. We also just got some bathtub crayons (I got both the letters and the crayons at Target, but I am sure they are available in many stores). I pulled them both out last night and decided to make a coconut tree on the side of the tub with the crayons. The kids had fun saying the different letters going up the coconut tree. Aidan has the book pretty well memorized so he could say a lot of it. But the highlight of the fun was the excited "Chicka chicka, BOOM BOOM" and crashing all the letters back in to the water. :)

What to do with old hardware

2010-04-27T15:25:00.002-05:00

My friends were doing a little spring cleaning the other day and came across an old computer. Instead of just hauling it off to wherever you are supposed to take old computers to, they handed it over to their kids. I am told that my little friend Jayden here spent over two hours with some tools taking apart every little bit of that computer. Not a single screw was left in it when he was finished.

What fun! What a great fine motor workout! Practice with tools! Problem solving! And if your children work together at it - Teamwork!

I especially love that he is wearing his hard hat, gloves, and "safety goggles" a.k.a. sunglasses. :) Thanks for sharing your project with us Jayden!

Don't have an old computer laying around, how about a phone, keyboard? Anything that you have no use for anymore that can be taken apart - guaranteed to be A LOT of fun for your kiddo!

We Are Beautiful!

2010-04-21T21:47:00.002-05:00

Kim over at Mom Tried It is hosting a blog hop today to help spread the word to all women that WE ARE BEAUTIFUL!

So many people have such a negative self image. I struggle with this myself. I have many things about my body that I am unhappy with. I used to be pretty athletic, but being pregnant with or nursing a baby for all but 5 months of the past 5 1/2 years has taken a toll on this poor body of mine.

I am not as brave as Kim to take a picture in my swimsuit, but there are two body parts in particular that are not my favorite, but they are a part of me, so they are beautiful.

While I was pregnant with my first child, I never ended up with any stretch marks or anything. While I was pregnant with my second and third my legs began hurting and I sat helpless as spider and varicose veins spread across both my legs. I wore prescription strength support stocking to help cut down on the pain a little, but they weren't all that helpful (plus, imagine being 8-9 months pregnant and bending and trying to tug on the tightest pantyhose imaginable!). Anyway, after the girls were born the pain of the varicose veins did subside (thank goodness!) but the veins are still there sticking out and spreading across my legs. Not the most attractive things in the world, but really, whenever I look at them I think about being pregnant with the girls and how lucky I am to have such beautiful, healthy little children in my life!

(Sorry, I couldn't get a better picture, they run all down my leg and all around the arch on my foot.)

The second is a birthmark I have on my face. Honestly, it used to bother me A LOT! When I was a teenager we even tried to have it lasered off. But after a couple very painful laser treatments, it did fade a little, but is still there. A hard thing for a teenager, but I am a grown woman now, and who really cares if I had a little pinkish splotch on my cheek. I used to always wear my hair down and part it so the hair could cover that side of my face. But now, almost every day my hair ends up in a ponytail. It is just a part of me and it is BEAUTIFUL!

I agree with Kim that we all need to start believing that we are beautiful, "imperfections" and all! We are the role models for our children. If we say negative things about ourselves, even if we don't think the children hear us, they do. I have two girls and I certainly don't want them to ever think they are not beautiful people! I want all three of my children to know what wonderful, beautiful little people they are.

As kind of a side note, while I was trying to think how I wanted to write this post I read some posts that were in my Google Reader, and saw Teach Mama's post for today: Quick trick: the power of positive talk. Go on over and read it. Just a great reminder that not only do we need to speak/think more positively about ourselves, but of course about our children. If they hear you say negative things about them, they may just live up to those thoughts. But think what could happen if you praise them for their accomplishments, all they do, and just for being their wonderful selves. They will take all that praise in, feel so good about themselves, and want to live up to those expectations you have for them. So seriously, go on over to Teach Mama to read some tips on how we can help speak more positively to our children as well!

52 Week Challenge

2010-04-21T21:37:00.001-05:00

Week 22 of 52

Yesterday my husband had to work all day and then had an evening thing as well. Which meant I was alone with the kiddos from 7:00 am to bedtime. We had a good day, but needed a little something in the afternoon to really break up the day and make sure we all were still happy. Since it was such a beautiful day we decided to head to the zoo. I snagged a couple of self-portraits of me and Olivia.

And this was such a cute picture of the three of them I wanted to share it too. :) Very hard to get all three smiling and looking at the camera at the same time, so I will take two out of three! :)
This is one of our favorite places to take pictures at our zoo. It is overlooking the sea lion exhibit and is the spot that a nice woman stopped and took our picture last year on my son's birthday and sparked my pay-it-forward challenge!

Shuttle landed!

2010-04-20T09:56:00.001-05:00

Just an FYI for anyone that is interested. Space Shuttle Discovery landed this morning in Florida. You can see video of the landing here. :)

Space Shuttle

2010-04-19T20:37:00.003-05:00

As you may know, the space shuttle Discovery was supposed to land today. But because of weather conditions in Florida the landing was postponed until Tuesday morning. This shuttle landing is to be the last time the space shuttle's landing approach crosses the United States on its way to land at the Kennedy Space Center. You can read more about why that is here.

I was excited because the first landing path was supposed to bring the shuttle across part of Iowa at 7:30 this morning, so I thought maybe we would be able to hear the sonic boom as it went by. But since it was cancelled today, the new landing paths do not go across my area. I was hoping to be able to share that with Aidan since he is so into space right now, but we will settle for watching video of the landing. But if you are at all interested - check out the possible landing paths and see if you might be able to hear or see the shuttle. :)

Stir stick sorting

2010-04-18T21:38:00.001-05:00

I know I have seen this idea around on other blogs before, sorry I can't remember where. I just saved a parmesan cheese bottle and lid after it was empty. And I saw some drink stir sticks on clearance the other day at Target so I grabbed them. They looked fun and colorful and I thought there would be something I could use them for.

So I had Ella practice some fine motor skills by putting the sticks in the little holes of the shaker. We also practiced colors by having her tell me the color of the stick before the dropped it in. Even unscrewing the lid to do it all over again was a good thing to practice.

Aidan wanted a project he could do with the stir sticks as well. So I asked him if he could figure out how to put them together to make a "T". He was excited and kept asking me to have him make different letters.

Of course you don't need to have stir sticks; pipe cleaners, tooth picks, cotton swabs, etc. would be just as fun to use!

Friday Finds

2010-04-15T20:39:00.004-05:00

Just some fun things I saw this week, I thought you might like them too!

Long distance date with grandma - what a fabulous idea!

Earth Day craft - we will be doing this tomorrow and probably be making other planets too, Aidan will love that - he has been begging me to find him more projects on space!

Dry erase activity book - Ummm - GENIUS! I have some of his handwriting workbooks put in sheet protectors so he can reuse them, but I love this idea of making a fun activity book in a scrapbook album. She has many printables available that she put in her book also!

Monkey Bread recipe - I usually make mine differently, but these look so yummy I want to try it!

Fun with boxes: Part 2

2010-04-13T15:03:00.002-05:00

We also used the boxes as giant building blocks to make forts, castles, etc. This particular fort had the assistance of the couch, coffee table and some floor cushions, but we have made many stand alone box forts (which of course I always forgot to take a picture of).

Think they like it? :)

Fun with Boxes: Part 1

2010-04-11T20:21:00.001-05:00

We have a lot of empty boxes around our houses. A LOT! So until we can get them to someone else who needs moving boxes, we are having a little fun with some of them!

Our first project was to make a choo choo train. I wanted to let the kids paint the boxes, but alas, could not find our box of paints! :( So we just used markers instead. Not quite as fun, but it will do. Because really, that was only part of the fun. The part they really enjoyed was playing with the boxes as a train. They would sit in the boxes, "drive" it to the next station, rearrange the cars/boxes. Just had so much fun with it.

I'll share some more fun we have done with our moving boxes this week. I know not everyone is going to have a ton of moving boxes around to play with, but maybe you could save a diaper box or maybe you had a package delivered to your home and you could save the box. Or just grab a couple from your grocery store as they are stocking the shelves! :)

52 Week Challenge

2010-04-08T08:07:00.002-05:00

Week 21 of 52

Last weekend our baby girl learned to climb the stairs. What a big girl! Our old house was a split level, so when the older two learned the stairs they only had 6 stairs to go up. Our new house is a two story, so poor little Olivia had to climb 16 stairs. About half-way up she started fussing and looking at us like, "Would you people please just pick me up!" But she had her cheerleaders at the top of the stairs:

She made it!

All that hard work deserved some mommy loves. :)

Drying artwork

2010-04-07T22:03:00.000-05:00

For playgroup today, my friend Kim had all kinds of fun activities set out for the kids. The most popular were all the art supplies she had out on her table. With so many masterpieces being made, she went and pulled out this nifty little guy she found at IKEA. By the way, if you have an IKEA near you - I am soooooooooo jealous! (we are planning a trip up to Minnesota just so we can go to IKEA!)

Anyway, back to her IKEA find. It is of course supposed to help dry clothes, but how cute is that little octopus for drying kids artwork?! I think it is perfect and want one of my own! :)

New House

2010-03-30T08:31:00.001-05:00

Well friends, our move to our new house is done. We are LOVING our new home and neighborhood. We have already met a few neighbors and one even brought us flowers! I now know more people in this neighborhood than I did in 6 years in our old neighborhood. And there are a TON of little kids to play with. We explored the neighborhood a little yesterday and found an awesome bike path and park. I could not be more excited about our new home!

Of course there is still this to tackle:

Yes, that is a three stall garage completely filled with all of our stuff to sort through. We ended up just tossing stuff from the moving truck into the garage and going back to get another load to make sure we were out of our old house in time.

So, I hope to get a fun project put together for my kids that we can share with you all. I know they are getting antsy for an art project or really just anything fun to do with mommy. Hopefully I will be back soon!

The imagination of a four-year-old

2010-03-23T21:08:00.001-05:00

What do you see in the picture below? A bunch of sticks laying in my yard right? That's all I saw. Just a bunch of sticks that I will NOT miss picking up. (Our current house has 6 trees on our tiny lot, 0 trees at our new house, good and bad points for both, but picking up 10,000 sticks, definitely not something we will miss.) Anyway, it is just a bunch of sticks, right?

No, no, no, says my four-year-old. This is his museum of dinosaur fossils. See that fossil he is holding below? That is the neck bone of a Seismosaurus. It was one of the longest in the back yard, so obviously this bone belonged to one of the largest dinosaurs.

He kept walking me around the back yard picking up different fossils and telling me what dinosaur they belonged to. So creative!

Countdown to moving - 2 days!!!!!! I love Ella's expression in this photo so I had to share.

52 Week Challenge

2010-03-17T21:49:00.001-05:00

Week 20 of 52

So the snow has FINALLY melted and we were able to get into the front yard and take a picture with the SOLD sign in our front yard. :) Well, at least Olivia and I are in the picture. My two big kids are spending the rest of the week with grandma so I can get some packing done without their help. :) Big moving day in 8 days!!!!!

Storage Solution

2010-03-16T21:57:00.001-05:00

My mom gave me a bunch of packages that her new curtains came in. This one came in so handy when I was trying to find a something to hold one of Aidan's dinosaur puzzles. It is like a 3-D Triceratops foam skeleton and it just would not fit back into the box it came in. I tried to make it fit into a gallon zip-lock bag, but no luck. Then I remembered my stash of empty curtain packages. They are clear so he can see what is inside, have a zipper so Aidan will be able to easily open it, and even better, have a little pocket on the inside where the picture of the curtain used to be. I stuck in a fun fact card that I cut off the original box before I threw it in the recycle bin. Perfect little storage solution!

My crazy life

2010-03-15T22:04:00.003-05:00

Hello friends! I am sorry again that I have not been posting. Life has been a little crazy around here. We sold our house after 8 months on the market, and had to find a new one immediately as they close on our current house on the 26th. Luckily we found a home we love and after all the fun of inspections, appraisals, etc. it finally looks like everything is a go to move on the 26th.

On top of all the house moving/packing craziness, at Aidan's last eye check the doctor told us to start patching. I bought the adhesive patches at the store and he did okay with wearing it (he only needs to wear it an hour a day at this point). But then I took it off and my poor little man's face was red for at least an hour afterward. I immediately began a search for a better way to patch because I cannot do that to his poor face everyday. I ended up ordering from Framehuggers. I found a fabulous blog called Amblyopia Kids and they were recommended on there. Lots of great info I have been sifting through to help my boy on our new patching adventure. Do any of you have experience with patching? Is there another fleece/felt reusable patch you would recommend?

This is Aidan and his friend Khaki:

Khaki has a new pair of glasses! I don't know why I hadn't thought of it before, but as I was researching a different way to patch Aidan's eye, I saw a lot of programs that sold stuffed animals with glasses. And the stuffed animals would get a patch to match the child's. So smart!

But Aidan already has two special friends, Khaki and Shorty. Khaki happens to come from the Build A Bear Workshop. I knew they sold sunglasses for the bears, but was hoping that they also sold real glasses. They did! Aidan was able to choose between "Harry Potter" glasses and these brown ones that were shaped more like his. You can see he chose the brown rectangular ones so Khaki could look like him. After we got home he said he wants to go back and get the Harry Potter ones for Shorty so he can be as handsome as Khaki and himself. :)

During patch time today I had Aidan use some markers and color a patch for himself and one for Khaki. So he was pretty excited to put his patch on today. I read somewhere in my research that a parent put a little bit of lotion on the skin before applying the patch so it wouldn't adhere too thoroughly. We tried it and it still stuck just fine and did not hurt him a bit to take off (YAY!!!!). I was so scared to put a patch on him the last two days because I did not want to rip it off his poor little face at the end of the hour. But I know it needs to be done, so I am glad this little lotion trick worked until we can get the reusable fleece patch we ordered. :)

Today he only asked once to take the patch off. I just said it wasn't time yet and he left it alone for the rest of the hour. He was very happy that Khaki was wearing a patch and glasses just like him. So happy that I thought to check for glasses at Build A Bear. They were only $4 and I had a coupon - so worth it to help my little guy!

Anyway, that is probably way more info about my life than you care to hear about. I kept thinking I could keep up with my blogging even with all the moving, the patching, and other stuff, but I just haven't been. So I apologize. Hopefully things will get back to normal here in a few weeks, but until then, I will just accept that I will be posting sporadically at best. Thanks for listening to my ramblings... if you made it this far!

Swat a Letter

2010-03-08T21:31:00.001-06:00

I got this idea from my friend Emily. I think she told me to put the letters in order like on a keyboard, sorry Emily, I can't remember. She also gave me the mat, which is actually a Pull-ups potty dance mat from a Huggies House Party she hosted. So double thanks Emily!

While we were at Walmart I saw a two pack of flyswatters for a quarter. I got them thinking of using them for painting. But was excited when Emily suggested this activity. I just had the kids shout out the letters of the alphabet and I wrote them randomly around the backside of the mat.

Fly swatters ready? YES!

We took turns so there was no accidental sibling swatting. I would call out a letter and they would find it and swat it. I had Aidan sing the little song the Leap Frog Fridge Phonics says, "The S says sssss, the S says sssss, every letter makes a sound, the S says sssss." to make it more on his level. Ella also sang the song, but is still learning her letters, so just finding the letters was the focus for her.

You could do this for any number of skills. I think I am going to make a number one for Aidan. We could have made lowercase letters, put the letters as they would appear on the keyboard if your child is learning to type on the computer. Basically the fly swatter was just a fun tool the kids used to point out the skill we were working on. :)

Friday Finds

2010-03-05T07:09:00.003-06:00

It has been a busy busy week in my house. We finally sold our house, after 8 months on the market) had to find a buy a new house (as we have to be out of our current on March 27), set up all the inspections, fix things, find some movers, start packing, etc, etc etc. So I apologize in advance if my posting becomes a little sporadic in the next few weeks. Again, busy, busy, busy!

Here are a few fun things I saw this week:

Animal Sorting File Folder game from Homeschool Creations

Tons of fun kids crafts at AllCrafts.net. You better believe Aidan is going to be wanting to make some of these dinosaurs.

Designer Paper Towels

Have a great weekend!

52 Week Challenge

2010-03-03T21:19:00.001-06:00

Week 19 of 52

Don't my daughters just looked thrilled to be in this picture? :) We were all cuddling on the couch during our Sunday night pizza and a movie. I made daddy grab the camera and take a picture, but they would not give us any smiles. Oh well.

Flowerband Giveaway

2010-03-02T08:08:00.003-06:00

My friend Tricia, who makes these gorgeous flower bands is having a give-away - just in time for Easter! There are such cute dresses out there for the little girls and she is just the person to help you accessorize with a beautiful flower band or flower clip for your little girl's hair.

This is one of Olivia's flower bands - LOVE IT!

She is giving away a custom designed flower band or flower clip to match your little girl's outfit. To enter the give-away you can visit her blog and leave a comment. And you can earn another entry by becoming a fan of her Facebook page, Frills and Flowers. The contest ends at 10:00 a.m. on Wednesday, March 3. So head on over today!

And as always, you can visit her Etsy shop, Frills and Flowers and see all of her gorgeous creations.

Oh, and I just tried one on Ella this morning too. Gorgeous!

More fun with planets

2010-03-01T16:06:00.004-06:00

We are all about planets and the solar system around here these days. Even our breakfast turned into a space project. I was getting the girls their breakfast and I heard him naming off the planets in their order from the sun. I looked over and he was lining up his Cheerios planets. He included the sun closest to him, then of course comes Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn (with an extra Cheerio on top to represent the rings!), Uranus and Neptune. So funny!

Some other cool things we have looked at:

Cool photos from the Hubble Space Telescope

The Pioneer Woman has a fun solar system project her kids decided to do. She has a link to an excellent coloring book with each of the planets too.

Cool picture of sun and all planets and dwarf planets. Helps to show Aidan the relative size of each of the planets.

I decided to make Aidan a little solar system book to help keep all his coloring pages and songs, and pictures together. He takes this thing EVERYWHERE! In fact, he just came into the kitchen, gave me a hug and said, "I love you mom cause you made me my cool space book." :)

I just took a file folder (cause I have a ton of them) my three hole punch and three brads and made a little makeshift binder for him to add his new pages. For the cover I just used some Microsoft clip art of each of the planets and the sun. I am excited he likes it so much.
Now he is asking for a dinosaur book too. :) Because as he will remind you if you ask him if he really likes space now, he will tell you, "I love space AND dinosaurs!"

Indoor camping

2010-02-28T20:56:00.001-06:00

Saturday night my husband decided to set up our camping tent in the living room. The kids thought it was the best thing ever! We had our little lanterns and flashlights and turned out all the lights.

You know what else is so fun, for adults and kids alike? A head lamp. I had given one to my cousin's son for Christmas along with a few books (tried to maybe make reading extra cool for an 8 yr old boy) and my husband decided he needed one too. As you can see, my children quite enjoyed it as well. We got ours for like $10 at Target.

Doesn't Aidan look just mean in this picture! His face is kind of squished together by the way the lamp is sitting on his face. :)

We were going to let the kids sleep in the tent and maybe do some fun things like make s'mores in the microwave, but sadly, we had some little people making poor choices that night so the tent fun had to end. Hopefully another night though.

Has anyone else done some indoor camping?

52 Week Challenge

2010-02-24T21:01:00.002-06:00

Week 18 of 52

I was good this week! I have three cute pictures to share of me with my kiddos. The first is me with my Ella cuddling and watching a movie during our family movie night. She just has the best smile, doesn't she, even when it is upside down!

I was taking some pictures of the big kids doing their art projects and decided to try to turn the camera on me and Livi. I think I got a couple of good ones. :) Poor thing fell on Ella's dollhouse and scraped her forehead really good, and then later fell and bumped her mouth on something else, cutting her gum and giving her a fat lip. Being newly mobile is so hard isn't it? She's one tough cookie, though!

Star Punchout

2010-02-23T21:40:00.002-06:00

Thanks for the space ideas that some of you have shared with me - keep 'em coming!

This one came from my mom today. I was telling her about Aidan's new interest in space and she said we should draw a star outline and then use something to punch out along the lines. I had actually just purchased some kids plastic yarn needles, so we used those. Toothpicks would work great too.

Please excuse my terrible excuse for a star. Yes, I drew it, not my son. I was feeling a little rushed as he wanted to do this because I was on and off the phone with our realtor (our house finally sold today after 8 months!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!). So we'll just ignore the sorry excuse for a star and focus on the project. :) Aidan did draw the asteroid and punch it out though. :)

While at Hobby Lobby today to get the materials to make this, we found some planet shapes to add to our storytelling bag. When we got home he asked for a flashlight. He took the flashlight and the planet shapes (Earth and Saturn) up to his room. He came back a few minutes later and told me to come see his solar system. He had closed the shades in his room making it really dark. He turned on the flashlight and had the planets sitting on the floor about foot and 2 feet away from the light. The flashlight was his sun. He of course later added his star and asteroid to his universe and was delighted to see his star patten on the wall when he shined the flashlight through it.

So those are just a couple new things we tried today. Punching the holes to make the star is excellent fine motor practice!

Will you help me?

2010-02-21T21:22:00.002-06:00

Hello friends!

As you know, my son has been obsessed with dinosaurs for quite some time now. Recently he has become interested in space and planets and moons, etc. I have been searching for some good, quality resources and activities I can do with my four-year-old that would be interesting and at his level. I plan to put together some things to help him learn about his new obsession, but I thought I would ask all of you if you had seen anything (books, blogs, websites) or done anything with your children that you think my Aidan would enjoy as well.

Thanks everyone!

Here are a couple of fun things I have found so far:

Coloring page of planets

Very cool pictures showing the size of the planets relative to each other

Solar System Trading Cards

Solar System in Motion song

Space Lapbooks - soooooo much info and links on this page. Still sifting through it all, but it looks awesome!

Friday Finds

2010-02-18T20:47:00.003-06:00

Just a few things that caught my interest this week:

Teaching Word Families - this is something I have been working on with Aidan lately as he has shown a lot of interest and I love these new ideas.

Olympics - Head on over to Dresses 'n Messes for a lot of different fun Olympic ideas.

New Favorite Website - I don't know how I came across this awesome site, but Kim of Mom Tried It is just pure genius and has so many fun and clever ideas to share. Just this week she has inspired me to sign up my son for a Lowe's Build and Grow clinic, shared a fun way to get kids to eat rice cakes, and if only I wasn't trying to sell my house - I would now have plastic bugs on all my light switches. You need to click on the link to find out what I am talking about there. Seriously, go check out all her fun ideas!

Art Gallery Display - I want to make one of these! What a great, pretty, easy way to display children's artwork!