Apple Cupcakes

We made apple cupcakes for my niece's birthday party today, and I thought I'd share the recipe since this is the recipe that I shared for the postcard swap.
Apple "cupcakes" are simple and fun to make. My sister and I made them this morning and didn't involve the girls since they were so busy playing.
To make the cupcakes cut the apples in half horizontally. Scoop out the seeds. Then spread the apples with your favorite topping. We used cream cheese (with a little sugar) and peanut butter. We then decorated the apples with Teddy Grahams, sprinkles, chocolate chips, and goldfish. Serve the "cupcakes" in cupcake liners :) The kids liked the cupcakes, but most of them did not eat much of their apples. I think the apples were just a little too thick. Next time we'll cut them a little thinner or just buy smaller apples.

Who Needs Toys...

when you have tons of bubble wrap?!!!

Since I'm having Spring Break this week, O and I decided to spend the week at G & G's house. O has had a fantastic time playing with her cousin, M, for hours and hours each day. We've also attended storytime at the library (our library no longer has storytime) and M's playgroup. It's been a busy and exciting week!

Matching Pictures to Letters

O is really into learning her letters and letter sounds lately, so she loves all alphabet activities. Luckily, my mom had this fun letter activity that she let us borrow :) I put out 7 letters at a time and handed O the little pictures to match to the letters. The pictures are fabric and they stick to the letters using velcro. This was a lot of fun! The letters are made by Lakeshore, but I was unable to find them on their website, so they may not make them anymore.

Sequencing Cards

I downloaded these sequencing cards from Montessori for Everyone and introduced this activity to O last week. She had difficulty with the basil cards, but did well with the other 2 sets. There are so many great free printables at Montessori for Everyone. You should definitely check them out!

Flower Button Board

I recently made this flower button board, so O can have fun practicing her buttoning skills. It was fun and easy to put together.
To make the board, you need: felt in various colors (I used ecospun felt), fabric, foam core board cut to size,buttons, thread, fabric glue, and hot glue.
I glued the stems and leaves to the fabric using fabric glue and then sewed the buttons at the top of the stems. I used hot glue to attach the fabric to the foam core board. Then I cut out various flower shapes from felt and cut button holes in the centers. Now O can make her own beautiful flower garden!
(It was nice to finally have an original idea instead of just copying ideas from other blogs :)

Here She Is!

It was so neat to watch her play with her toes and contemplate sucking her thumb! I'm looking forward to having a 3d ultrasound in about 2 months. We had one with O, and it was just amazing. It will be a lot of fun for O, too, since she'll really be able to see the baby.

Where does it come from?

 
I introduced these "Where does it come from?" puzzle cards to O last week, and we really enjoyed doing this activity together. The cards include many things that she would not have a clue about (gum comes from trees, newspaper comes from trees, etc.), so I didn't have any expectation of her doing this activity independently. It was fun to discuss the pictures and teach her about where things come from. I'm looking forward to doing this activity with her again soon :)
I printed and laminated these cards close to a year ago, and I have no idea where they came from! If anyone knows, let me know.

Fun with Pattern Blocks

O was not interested in these pattern blocks at first, and I thought that perhaps it was too difficult since I had so many blocks out for her. It turns out she just wasn't interested that day :) When she decided to complete the patterns on her own, she had no problems and REALLY enjoyed herself. My niece (who is almost 5) also LOVES the pattern blocks :)

Meet Roberta the Robot

My niece has to make a robot for a school project, so my sister, my niece, and O have been working diligently on this project. Roberta is super cute, and the girls are SO proud!



Melanie thought it would be fun to give the robot human organs made from playdoh :) It turned out great! M's favorite part was playing with the playdoh :) The girls have learned a lot about their internal organs during the making of the robot.



Melanie has given the girls several lessons on the names and functions of their internal organs.



Please excuse the dissaray!

We're Thinking...

Pink! It's a girl! We are VERY excited. Thanks for all of the well wishes :) Hooray for baby girls!

It's a ...

healthy baby! We had an ultrasound today, and the baby looks great :) It was a huge relief to see a healthy, very active baby! Do you want to know what it is?

Another Color Match with Clothespins

To make this activity, I put color dot stickers around a bowl and matching color dot stickers on the clothes pins. O matches the clothes pin with the correct color dot to the dot on the bowl.






This activity was very difficult for O at first because she was using her left hand, and it is not as strong as her right hand. I suggested that she try her right hand, and she was able to complete the task. She was VERY proud because she had planned to give up after the first try. I was proud of her for persisting until she finished :)






This activity is great for improving fine motor skills, hand-eye cooordination, and concentration. Enjoy!

Rock Family

O will be getting this family of rocks for one of her handmade Easter gifts. I hope she loves them :) I've had making this family of rocks on my to-do list for months, and at first I was a little dismayed by how they turned out. Then I decided to lower my perfectionistic standards and just enjoy their simplicity :)

(I wish I could find the blog that inspired these rocks. The inspiration paintings were MUCH nicer!)

Decorating Blown Eggs

Decorating blown eggs is a tradition that my mom started with us when we were kids, and she still has a few left. I'm hoping to find them when we go to her house this weekend.

I decided to continue the tradition by having O decorate 2 or 3 blown eggs (and we'll date them), and I'll decorate 1 or 2 special eggs for her. We'll hang them on the egg tree (that we don't have yet, so that tradition will start next year), and when she is grown she can have her special eggs for her own home and children. I'm planning on coating the eggs with mod podge to strengthen them in the hopes that they'll last a long time. Here are our creations:

I decoupaged pictures from some of our favorite picture books onto the egg. It didn't turn out very well, and I was pretty disappointed. I should have used smaller pictures and next time I'll try to choose pictures that are printed on thinner paper.







I painted this egg with leftover chalkboard paint. I think it will be fun to decorate and write messages on it each year.







Here is one of O's creations. She painted 2 eggs and colored 1 with markers.








My mom and sister made an egg for each girl (O and my niece) using tissue paper and mod podge. They wrote their names on the eggs, and they are very pretty.

Thanks to Jo for the idea to use skewers to hold the eggs! It made painting and decorating the eggs so much easier!

A Grassy Centerpiece

O and I planted grass for our Easter/Spring centerpiece. She had fun finding her eggs in the grass :)











Gracie was especially excited about the grass. We're going to find a much larger container and keep grass all summer for Gracie to enjoy (on the 2nd story deck since she is an inside cat).