Personalized Paperdolls Shadowbox

I love the personalized paper dolls that Sandy from Sandy Ford Designs made of my girls so much that I put them in a shadow box.  (O also has a set to play with...that's the beauty of purchasing a pdf...I can print as many copies as I like!). 

I traced the girls' hands onto scrapbook paper, cut them out, and put them in the shadow box as the background.  (I wish that my shadow box was bigger, so that the hands were more visible.)  I also think it would look good to have a collage of black and white pics behind the paper dolls...so many possibilities and so little wall space!  I hope that Sandy will stay in business for a long time because I'd like to get updated paper dolls made of my girls every couple of years. 

I'm looking forward to printing the dolls and clothing on magnetic paper for our upcoming road trip!  I may have more fun playing with them than O! 

I really love making shadow boxes of the girls' mementos, crafts, and pics.  Here are the links to some of my other shadowboxes...arts and crafts shadow box, ballet shadow box, and handprint lillies shadowbox.

Scrubbing the Table

E LOVES to help clean!  This week she's started scrubbing the table after meals, and you can tell from the picture that she has a lot of work to do on this art and food stained table!  She is always so happy and proud when I give a her a job.  I just hope she'll stay so eager to help out around the house! (the novelty seems to have worn off for her 4 and a half year old sister!)

A Basket Full of Valentine's Day Card Making Supplies

O really enjoyed making Valentine's day cards when we were at G and G's house this weekend, so when we got home I put together this basket of card making supplies for her...she was THRILLED and got right to work! 





In the basket are Valentine's Day stickers, a heart puncher, a glue stick, scissors, cookie cutter (to use as stencils, red and pink contruction paper, white cardstock, heart doilies (from the dollar section at Target), folded construction paper with a half heart drawn on the side (so she can independently and successfully cut her own hearts), a stamp pad, and markers.  O loves to make cards so much that I may put together baskets like this for her for all holidays! 

One good thing about this craft is that when she is done, she can just put everything back in the basket which makes clean-up fast and easy. We are keeping the basket in the center of our kitchen table so that it is out of reach of sweet E (except when she climbs on the table!).

Baking Bread

E and I baked bread (in our bread machine) on Wednesday morning.  E LOVED helping measure and pour the ingredients into the machine!  I hope to make baking bread an every other week activity. 





Since we made homemade bread, we had to have homemade butter to go with it!  We poured heavy cream into a small blender (previously used to make baby food) and blended it until it was buttery.  E did NOT like the noise, but she didn't mind quite as much after she tasted the butter.  Her little hand kept sneaking back to the bowl for just one more taste!





Here's our recipe for Honey Oatmeal Bread...

INGREDIENTS

1 1/4 cups water

3 cups bread flour (we used 1.5 cups of bread flour and 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour)

2 tablespoons honey

1 1/2 tablespoons dry milk powder

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup quick cooking oats

2 tablespoons margarine

1 tablespoon active dry yeast


DIRECTIONS

Place ingredients in the pan of the bread machine in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Select White Bread setting, and Start.
 
Here's sweet O using this recipe to make bread almost 3 years ago.

Valentine's Day Sensory Box

I put together a simple Valentine's Day sensory box for E this morning.  It kept her occupied, so that I could attempt to organize my house (this is a monumental task, although I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel). 

I have realized again and again (I don't know why I keep forgetting this!) that simple is better, so I didn't put much in this box...dried pasta (I need to add another box), glittery heart stickers, a couple of cups, red monkey tongs, and a scoop.  E was really excited by her sensory box and sat right down to enjoy it.




I loved how she tried to put the pasta in the tongs!




After playing for several minutes, she seemed to be losing interest.  I suddenly realized what was missing...a container with a small opening for her to put the pasta in....she was thrilled when I gave her a baby bottle and demonstrated how to put the pasta in it.  She got right to work and was proud to fill it up and then shake the pasta back out again.









I plan to add another box or 2 of pasta and use this sensory box for several months.  I'll just take out the hearts and replace them with other seasonally appropriate items.

Edit to add:  E was never out of my sight while playing with this sensory box.  Please monitor your children carefully and do not give small items to children who put things into their mouths.

Knotted Bones

O and I recently completed a science experiment in which we soaked a chicken bone in a jar of vinegar until it was bendable. The directions said to soak the bone for a week, but our bone wasn't bendable after a week.  We put it on the countertop and forgot about it for several weeks. 



Elliott got tired of seeing it and asked if he could throw it away, so we tried it out again before throwing it away.  Sure enough, it was bendable!  We tried to tie it in a knot, but it wasn't long enough.    O was excited to bend it, but ready to wash her hands afterwards...it was kind of gross (I was glad I didn't have to touch it). 

Our Nature Bag

We have acres and acres of woods behind our house that are perfect for nature walks.  Now that weather is nicer, we're trying to take several "woods walks" a week. 


O and I painted a squirrel on a drawstring backpack (freezer paper stenciled) that we take with us on our walks.  We have several necessities in our bag...a magnifying glass, crayon rocks, a notebook, and a flashlight.  I intended for O to wear the bag, but it's too big for her.  Last time we took it with us, Elliott wore it (since I am usually wearing either the baby or O...yes, O still fits in the Beco and LOVES it!).



O sat down on a fallen tree to draw what she saw.



Sweet sisters



We have fun inspecting holes with flashlights and looking at fallen trees with a magnifying glass.  It's also fun to find odd trees in the woods.  O was thrilled to see this strange tree...she said it looks just like a climbing wall, and she immediately ran to climb it.



While we are in the woods, we are ALWAYS playing pretend...we are either characters from the Little House on the Prairie books or characters from the American Girl books.  Lately, we've had fun pretending to be the characters from Kaya's books.  Baby E LOVES Kaya and calls her "KyKy," so she was thrilled a few days ago when we were pretending that she was Kaya.  My mom gave O a miniature Kaya doll for Christmas which was the highlight of O's Christmas.  O recently gave the doll to E since E loves Kaya so much.  Her kindness and generosity floored me...I hope they will always love each other so much!

Arranging Silverware

E LOVES to arrange the silverware in the dishwasher.  She'll spend 10 to 15 minutes moving the silverware from one section to the next...totally focused and engaged in her task.

O's Recent Artwork

O started drawing faces more than a year ago, but it was shortlived, and she quickly went back to creating abstract art.  I was excited when she started drawing animals and people recently.  E always asks us to draw cats and dogs for her, and this is what inspired O to start drawing.  O loves to draw cats and dogs for her sister!  Here are some of her recent drawings...

a self-portrait
















a portrait of me




I love all of these drawings.  I'm thinking of making a photo collage of all of her cats, and she may do some embroidery with one of her drawings...she's very into embroidery lately!

Geometric Solids for Baby

I introduced 5 of the geometric solids to E last week (I left out the ones with sharp points).  I told her the names of the solids and showed her that she could stack them.  Then I sat back and watched.  It is so rewarding to just watch her explore new materials.  She loved stacking the solids, and she kept trying to get the ellipsoid to balance on the top.




That didn't work, so she tried to balance the sphere.




I thought this was a good lesson in physics...until it worked!  It ended up being a lesson on persistence and balance!


Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

More than anything she loved taking the blocks out of the basket and then putting them back in again.  She spent a LONG time with this activity and was so focused the entire time.  Gotta love Montessori for building concentration and the ability to be completely absorbed by a task!




She was very proud of herself when she got all of the blocks into the basket!