A Suitcase of Dress-Up Clothes

O's favorite Christmas gift was her suitcase full of dress-up clothes, specifically her beautiful Cinduh-ella gown and glass slippers :) I love that the dress-up clothes are in a suitcase and therefore, super easy and convenient to transport. We brought them with us to my mom's for the week after Christmas, and we're taking them to a tea party when O wakes up from her nap. Here are a few highlights:
O and M have been having LOTS of Royal Princess Tea Parties!

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Princesses playing with Storytime Felt dolls.

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She LOVES Bubble Wrap!

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O has spent a lot of time popping the bubbles on the bubble wrap lately! She LOVES this, and it keeps her occupied for long periods of time :)

A Felt Gingerbread Boy Activity

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For O's 10th day advent activity, we did this felt gingerbread boy activity. This activity is identical to the snowman and turkey felt activities, just with a gingerbread boy :)

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I showed O how to dress the gingerbread boy to make him match the picture. However, she was not interested in copying the picture AT ALL. She wanted to dress him her own way, which was fine, of course :) (Just in case you happen to notice...O is wearing a leotard because she was a "baby balla-eena" and I was the "mama balla-eena." She really wants me to get a leotard!)

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She asked for the snowman after we played with the gingerbread boy for a while. She insisted that he have legs!

Floam is Fun!

My friend, Becca, has been telling me about floam for a while, and we finally tried it! I planned on making homemade floam eventually, but when I saw it in the dollar store, I decided to go ahead and buy it. It's fun and a nice change from playdoh (although we still prefer playdoh). It's a bit more firm than playdoh, and it's somewhat difficult for O to roll flat, but she still has fun with it :)

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The VERY best indoor playhouse

IMG_2013 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

All you need for the very best indoor playhouse is a few blankets or a couple of yards of fabric and a couple of chairs! My sister, brother, and I used to build these playhouses all the time, and it was so much fun. My mom and O had a great time building and playing in this fantastic playhouse on Thursday. O also really likes to play with placemats (she likes to spread them out and pretend they are hospitals, etc.), and she insisted on decorating the inside of her playhouse with them. My mom said that O asked to decorate her house with markers, but mom convinced her that colorful beanbags would be much prettier :) O was very excited and proud to show Elliott and I her house when we got home on Thursday.

The 3 Little Pigs

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O has really enjoyed hearing the story of the 3 Little Pigs lately. After she finished putting the popsicle sticks in the cup a few days ago, she asked me to build a house around her with sticks. I then pretended to be the big bad wolf and she was a little pig :) Notice her beautiful ruby, red shoes and her mama drawn tattoos on her arms :)

A Felt Snoman Activity

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This felt snowman activity was also inspired by Itty Bitty Love and Starfall. I actually made the snowman before the turkey, and I really love him :) I've really enjoyed making these felt activities because they are so quick and easy. It's great to be able to start and finish something in the same night! I hope that O is going to have fun playing with him!

Felt Turkey Activity in Action

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I introduced this activity to O this morning, and she was very excited. I let her choose the picture, and I showed her how to make the turkey match the picture. The turkey's body, face, and legs were already put together on the felt board, so the only parts we added/changed were the feathers and hats. She needed help with this, but I think she'll be more independent next time :) Check back tomorrow for another fun felt activity!

Just in case anyone noticed... yes, O does have a green ball down her shirt! Her daddy gave her the ball when we were at his office yesterday, and she does not like to let it out of her sight. So, obviously the best place to keep it is in her shirt! (it won't fit in her pocket) After we finished the activity, she said the nurse had to take the ball out. Then we played nurse/dr for a while. That's always a popular activity lately!

A Fun Felt Turkey Activity

IMG_1997 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

The idea for this activity came from Itty Bitty Love's jack o'lantern activity. I didn't get around to making that one, so I decided to make a turkey. I couldn't really get a good picture of a turkey in my mind until I saw Laura's turkey, so that turkey was the inspiration. I also got ideas for the feathers and hats from Starfall. To make this activity, I just cut the shapes out from felt, took pictures of the different turkey arrangements, printed the pictures (wallet sized), laminated the pictures, and we were ready to go! I spread all of the pieces out on a bigger felt board, so O could see them easily. To make the small felt board, I just glued a piece of felt to a piece of a cardboard box. I think we are going to have LOTS of fun with this one!

O's Stage

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O asked me to help her spread out her silks to make a stage. She had lots of fun dancing on her stage. I was just glad that she's feeling better (she's had a cold with a low grade fever all week). These playsilks are the best *toys* ever!!!

Family Game Night

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I've been planning to start the tradition of a weekly family game night ever since O turned 2 (in July), and we finally had our 1st family game night last night! We had a great time! O was excited and insisted on spreading out her rug for us to sit on. We played crocodile rocker and Let's Spin and Play at the Park. Both of the games are great for toddlers, and Gracie (our cat) even joined in (she loved the spinner!).

Footprint Ghost Cards

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I saw this on a blog somewhere recently (I have no idea where!), and thought it was a great idea :) I painted O's foot white and then pressed it onto the black construction paper. Once the ghost dried, we glued the googly eyes to the heel, and I wrote the message with a silver sharpie. I had O sign her name. I planned on her writing an O, but she insisted on writing and M (her version) for Mommy. Her M's are basically just a few lines. I said "Oh, it's an M," and O said "No, it's not. That's just lines! O not know how make M!"

Decorating Pumpkins with Stickers

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We had lots of little pumpkins that needed decorating, so I thought O would have fun putting dot stickers on the pumpkins. She loves dots, but she was disappointed that there weren't any blue dots (blue is her favorite color). She was proud of her "smiley face," and we were, too!

Baking Pumpkin Bread

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We are doing lots of Halloween activities today. Guh-guh and O love to bake pumpkin bread, and they are baking a yummy loaf right now! O loves to bake with Guh-guh :) I'm so glad that my mom likes to bake with her because I really don't like to bake (except for bread in my bread machine!).

Leaf Rubbings

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Yesterday afternoon, O, my mom, and I took a walk to look for leaves. She was so cute, and she'd pick up a leaf, look at it, and say "that one is too crunchy." She was so excited when my dad came to visit because we'd told her that he'd love to rub leaves with her. She showed him how to do it, and he was very impressed with the finished product. My mom and dad are holding the paper still for her in this picture. This was a fun and educational fall activity!

Homemade Playdough

Homemade Playdough, originally uploaded by omamom16.

O and I have been at my mom's house for the past week, so we haven't done any Montessori activities, but she has had a GREAT time playing with her cousin, M. Yesterday afternoon we decided to make homemade playdough using Laura's recipe. The girls had a fantastic time. They loved pouring in the ingredients and then mixing them with a spoon. My mom did the actual cooking of the playdough! While they played, M declared that this was "the BEST playdough ever!" I agree! The texture was perfect, and it smells so good. We added cinnamon and pumpkin pie spices to make it seasonal :) O really enjoyed making "duhkees" (cookies), and she and M both said they were making them for me to make me feel better. What sweet girls! Here is Laura's recipe (and you should check out her post because she has LOTS of good ideas for making "playdough of the month."

Homemade Playdough

1 c. flour

1/2 cup salt

1 T. cooking oil

1 T. cream of tartar

1 c. water

Food coloring of your choice

Add-ins of your choice (i.e. spices, extracts, glitter, etc.)

Stir ingredients together well. Just measure them into the saucepan you will be using to cook the dough, but mix them well before heating up the pan. Over medium heat cook the dough, stirring constantly until it forms a ball.
Let the playdough cool and then knead until it's smooth.

Thanks, Laura!

"It's Playdoh Nime!"

IMG_1615 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

O LOVES playdoh. Playing with playdoh is one her all time favorite activities. In fact, I can't think of anything (other than playing sick/nurse/hospital) that she enjoys playing with more than playdoh. In this picture you can see the little bowls that she requested that I make for her pizza. Then she wanted me to make napkins to sit the bowls on. We also made snakes, and she was pretending to be scared of the big snake in this picture. She gave the snake eyes, a nose, a mouth, and a big tongue! We don't play with playdoh every day at home, but my mom has a "playdoh cabinet" at O's level, so she can get all of the playdoh and accessories herself, so we play with it more often here. I'm definitely going to have to put her playdoh at home in an easily accessible place for her.

Cereal Box Puzzle

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I blogged about the cereal box puzzles that I made for O a while back. I planned on introducing them to her within the next few days, so I put them somewhere safe and I've never seen them again :) I've looked everywhere, but I can't find them. So...when I saw a cereal box in my mom's trashcan (O and I are at my mom's house for the week), I decided to try again. O was excited (which surprised me, since she's not a huge puzzle fan). She did a good job and did the puzzle 3 or 4 times before she decided that it was "playdoh nime" (time)!

Update: I'm at home for the 1st time in a week, and obviously I was having a major case of pregnancy brain when I was looking for the cereal box puzzles. They were right there in the cabinet with everything else. They practically fell out on me when I was looking for the blender. Good grief!

Showing Growth

In order to show O's growth, I decided to take a picture of her each year in my wedding dress.

O in 2007

O in 2008. I think she thought I was a little crazy, but she was excited about wearing my wedding dress. She kept saying "too big, too big!"

The idea for this came from Family Fun magazine. A reader had her daughter wear an old fashioned bathing suit every year for a picture until it finally fit her at around age 15. I tried to think of something meaningful that O could wear, and I realized that my wedding dress would be perfect :) I'll eventually put all of the pictures in a book together to show her growth from year to year.

Texture Boards

I made a few texture cards for O about a year ago using old cereal boxes, fleece, bubble wrap, and aluminum foil. She wasn't very interested in them, and they fell apart quickly. I was disappointed, but didn't think too much of it. When I saw these texture boards, I decided it was time to try again! I bought 2 pieces of balsa wood from Hobby Lobby and cut each piece into 9 rectangles using a hand miter saw. I sanded the edges, and then got to work :) I made 2 of each board so that we can do a matching game using touch only (O will wear a blindfold). The boards in the picture are covered with hot glue gun swirls, craft foam squares, lentils, velcro, fleece, paper clips, bubble wrap, and toothpicks. I ran out of wood, but I plan to make many more of these boards. So far I'm thinking of using popcorn kernels, beads, pipe cleaners, pea gravel, mesh, aluminum foil, velvet, flannel, lace, noodles, pennies, etc. I'd love more ideas, so let me know what you come up with!