Last of Summer

What do you do when your child is waiting for a birthday party...but it's several hours away? Well, if you haven't wrapped the gift yet...you could draw a line all over the wrapping paper and give your child a handful of stickers. Tell him/her to place the stickers along the path. This kept M busy for about 2 hours. Some children will not have the patience to stay with this activity for as long, but some might spend even longer. When we ran out of stickers I gave M our return address labels...we have a zillion! Also whenever I use up a stamp sheet I save the one large sticker "stamp" for M's collection of stickers.  We have been painting a lot around here. The first art work we decided to do was the American Flag. M was super excited to do it all herself. She just wanted me to tell her which colors would go where. color by numbers idea, only we did paint by lines. I got the coloring page online from:  http://us-flag.net/pictures/coloring-page/

More Travel ideas!

 

Make an i-spy bottle!

I let M choose all the items and help me put them inside. Then we got a funnel and filled it will pellets, you could also use rice or beans.

Another idea for travel! I printed some fun worksheets for M to learn how to spell her name. They are free off of this website. http://www.handwritingworksheets.com/

Then I laminated them. Practice writing, erase, and repeat!

Happy journey!

Rain rain stay a day

When it rains M is bored...unless we go out to jump in the puddles. BUT if it rains all week, I cannot handle jumping in puddles all day every rainy day! So, we must come up with other fun things to do inside. She chose water coloring. For those of you mommy's that worry about messes...just do it!! Water colors actually are really easy to clean up and if you want, tape down the picture and if they still fit, have the tike sit in a high chair, that way if the water spills it's more likely to be contained (as shown in the picture above). Another thing M likes to do with me is help me sew. She hands me the pins and likes to sort them by color. She helped me pick out the fabric and the ribbons for these "taggies" I put together. I put the clear plastic wrapper from the popcorn is inside to make the crinkly sound. (If you have other kids napping this works as a great activity! I can monitor M extremely well) While we enjoy our one on one time M likes to tell me all sorts of funny things too.

Travel activities to keep kids busy!

We are heading off to Hawaii for a few weeks... YAY! But the trip will end up taking us about 10 hours to get there, and also to return. I have a baby and a 3 year old! What to do?? Well, I have been busy creating some fun travel games for M to keep her busy.   Mr. Potato Head printable.  I got it from http://theteacherwife.blogspot.com  Just print, color, laminate, and magnetize!    The travel tray idea is from  http://mykindofmakeover.blogspot.com She decorates hers really cute, but I don't have much time left so I am just keeping it silver. I found these on the dollar isle of Wal-Mart. I loved stampers when I was little, and I don't have to bring an ink pad along or worry about cleaning up the stamps! I bought this puzzle to color from Jo-Anns (another $1 find). I got the idea to put magnets on it for the travel tray from  http://mykindofmakeover.blogspot.com The best part about having games that are magnetic is, one less chance of the piece falling down on the floor and getting lost... hopefully it will work!  Going along with the magnetic idea...I bought a cheap ABC puzzle and I thought how about we have fun learning the order of the alphabet! M can find the first row of letters and make them on her tray to match the card. Then the next row. Then the next row....

Birthday gift idea

We went to a birthday party, but it was during a busy week...not a lot of time to make a gift or get to the store to shop. SO...I went to my birthday box stash picked out a coloring book...but I felt like that wasn't good enough, seeing as this is M's good buddy. So I wrapped the coloring book in scrapbook paper and made it a fun presentation. (I got the idea from Parenting magazine). It was fun!

Happy Birthday Banner

My wonderful husband turned 28 yesterday. We had a great time celebrating. I enjoy putting up the birthday banner I sewed for him last year. It was super easy. I bought the heavy felt and printed out the words in a font I liked from the computer. I used the font letters as my pattern for the felt. I then sewed the letters directly onto each square with a matching thread and sewed each square onto a long ribbon.

Recycle

What to do with an empty duck tape roll..... M wanted to make a craft and I was busy preparing a package to send off to my sister-in-law for her birthday...and I ran out of tape. M grabbed the empty roll and put it on like a bracelet. Which then gave me the idea, let's decorate your new bracelet! So I cut a piece of card-stock to fit the roll and got out stickers. She used one of my stampers as well. The stickers she chose are the glow in the dark stars. Fun idea by M- make it glow! After she created her strip I glued it onto the roll and mod podged over it. It turned out cute and she likes to keep it by her bed so she can see it glow at night.  Easter is just around the corner. It is now spring time....but it feels like summer already here! The hardest part about summer time is getting M to drink lots of water. So, we decided to decorate her straw with an Easter bunny. M drank 3 glasses of water for lunch after that!

St. Patrick's Day Report

 

We celebrated St Patrick's Day on Saturday, so I thought I had better hurry and post our craft! M loves using my glue stick. So I cut up all my green paper scraps and cut out two large shamrocks for her to decorate. She spent a good hour gluing all the small pieces. Lots of fun!

Felt Food

Sometimes I go a little crazy... and I make tons of a craft, then I get burned out. I would not make anymore felt food, even if you paid me! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE crafting. I had a great time making this. BUT I wore myself out. Now I get to enjoy watching M play with this, and I know it was worth it after all. I bought the felt food patterns from Esty. The cute collection was created by BuggaBugs

Journals for your kids

When I found out I was pregnant with M I decided to record my feelings in a new journal. It started out as my pregnancy journal but it quickly became M's journal. I would write about the visits to the OB to her, tell her how excited I was anticipating her arrival, and I even put in ultrasound pictures. The day she was born I had my hubby write in it to her as well. And from that moment on, it was official. Each of my children get a journal written by mommy from their first few years. Or at least the first few months of their lives, depending on how well I keep up! I'm happy to say, I have been able to keep up. I now have been writing in M's journal for 3 years. (Yes, it's the same journal, so obviously the first year is more recorded. After that the following two years have been just birthday mile stones, and special times). When J was born, I started hers. I hope that someday when my girls are expecting their first born, to give them these special journals. My hope is they will read them and know how I felt while pregnant with them. I hope that it will inspire them. I hope they will be able to feel the love that I have for them-- Love through the challenges we have faced in order to get them here on earth, the struggles, and the miracles.