We're Going to be on the Rachael Ray Show...

on Monday! I was contacted by someone from the Rachael Ray Show a few months ago (when I was 37 weeks pregnant) about making a video of O and I making artwork using the salad spinner and food coloring. We had a lot of fun making the video, and it will be on the show on Monday. Watch it if you can!

Our Favorite Toys

A reader recently asked me to write a post about our favorite toys, so here it is! I love to research and find really wonderful toys for O (and Ema!). I admit that I'm a toy snob, and I prefer for O's toys to be well-made, open ended toys that inspire creative play. I try to buy toys that she'll play with for years instead of growing out of in less than a year. I try to avoid plastic toys and toys with characters...however, I DO make exceptions :) Here are the toys that are most often (daily or almost daily) played with at our house:

Playsilks!!! Playsilks are definitely the most played with "toy" in our house. O uses them in almost every aspect of her play...they make great capes, skirts, hats, scarves, baby doll blankets, baby doll diapers, picnic blankets, bags, shirts, etc. The possibilities are endless! We bought our silks from Dharma Trading Company and dyed them using Kool-Aid. However, they are on sale for another day or 2 at Let's Explore, so you might want to check them out :)

Unit Blocks- O has this set and this set of Unit Blocks. These blocks are very well made and will last forever. O plays with them all the time, and I'm sure she'll play with them for years to come.

Baby dolls- O is a little mama, and she loves her babies. Baby Emma is one of her favorite baby dolls.

Dress-up Clothes- O LOVES to dress-up! She has fairy costumes, princess dresses, ballerina dresses, dr. scrubs, construction worker outfit, etc. The scrubs and construction worker outfit are her newest costumes and therefore the most used right now, but she wears all of her costumes fairly frequently. For Christmas last year we gave her a suitcase full of costumes and accessories :)

Play kitchen and play food- O loves to cook in her play kitchen. She spends a lot of time mixing up crazy concoctions with her wooden and felt food.

Art supplies- O creates various forms of artwork everyday at her art shelf. She has markers, crayons, paint, scissors, tape, glue, and lots of various collage materials availabe to her at any time at her art shelf. She creates some interesting artwork!

Spinny Speller- We all love the spinny speller! We take turns making real and nonsense words to sound out and read. (I'm planning on writing a review of the spinny speller soon).

Playdough & Silly Putty- We love homemade playdough and therapy putty. O LOVES the homemade silly putty, but I prefer the therapy putty because it's not quite as sticky as the homemade putty.



O also has several great toys, games, and puzzles that she plays with occasionally (weekly or monthly). Here are our favorites...

Beleduc Your Body Girl Puzzle. O loves this puzzle, and she has learned so much from it.

Bilibo- The bilibo is so much fun and is so versitle. O was calling it her "turtle shell" a few days ago :) It also makes a fun cradle, a nice chair, an oversized hat, etc.

Latches Board- This Melissa and Doug latches board is lots of fun, and it's great for developing fine motor skills.

Buddha Board- O enjoys painting with water on her Buddha Board. This is also a fun way to practice writing skills. A mini Buddha Board would be great to have in the car...this may be going on O's Christmas wish list :)

Twig blocks- O loves to create different designs and structures with these amazing blocks!

Zingo- We love to play Zingo! Zingo is a great game for Family Game Night.

Rainbow Tunnel Stacker- O received the rainbow tunnel stacker when she was 15 months old, and she played with it almost every day for probably a year. She still plays with it frequently. It's a wonderful toy that can be played with in so many ways...a tunnel for mini cars, bracelets, anklets, rockers for baby dolls, sculptures, etc.

A GREAT Deal on Children's Books

I recently ordered this set of 12 hardback children's books from Weekly Reader for O and Ema. It's such a great deal that I couldn't resist! I was won over by each book coming with a cd of the story. We had a great time listening to 3 of the stories while traveling to my mom's house (How I Became a Pirate is my favorite!), and I hope that O will also like listening to the stories as she goes to sleep at night.

The books included are:

•Corduroy Lost and Found
•Curious George Goes to a Costume Party
•Do Your ABC's Little Brown Bear
•Henry's Show and Tell
•How I Became a Pirate
•The Little Engine That Could Goes on a Class Trip
•Mirette on the High Wire
•Raggedy Ann's Wishing Pebble
•Tops & Bottoms
•What Grandmas Can't Do
plus 2 bonus books

They only cost 24.95 plus shipping! I thought there must be some catch to this, but there doesn't seem to be :)

Where to Find Inspiration Interview

I was interviewd for a Where to Find Inspiration article about a month ago. Here it is if you are interested. Make sure to scroll down to the bottom of the page for links to other Where to Find Inspiration interviews. One of my favorite bloggy mamas is on there...Mom and Kiddo!

Cricket Magazine for Children

Cricket Magazine is on sale. The magazines are usually 33.95 for a one year subscription, but if you use the code N401 they are 24.95. I've wanted to subscribe to this magazine for O, but was unwilling to pay 33.95 for it (that just seems quite high for 9 issues). However, I am willing to pay 24.95, and O will be getting Ladybug magazine. I know she'll be thrilled!

I didn't realize...

how easy having 1 child was until I had 2! I am exhausted most of the time since I spend much of the night awake with Ema. Luckily, my mom has been helping us tremendously (I don't know how we would have survived without her!). She gets up in the mornings with O, since the morning is really the only time that I sleep.

You may have noticed that I have been spending very little time on this blog. Many of the recent posts were written before Ema was born, and I know there are many questions in emails and in the comments section that I have not answered. I feel really bad about leaving questions unanswered, so it would really help me if you would ask any questions in the comments section of this post. That way they'll all be in the same place, and I'll be more likely to answer them :) Thanks for your understanding!

Packing Our Box

My friend Rebecca, who lives in Guatamala, has asked all of her friends to send boxes of things for her to donate to children in need in Guatamala. O, Guh-guh, and I had fun shopping for the children. I told O ahead of time that we were only buying for the children in Guatamala and not for ourselves. I got a little sidetracked by a pair of cute hippo shoes that were super cheap and started looking for O's size. She reminded me "Mama! We're not buying for ourselves!" Oops! Good thing I had her to keep me straight! Guh-guh, O, and I bought lots of goodies for the box, but there is still a little room. We're going to try to fill in all the spaces tomorrow and hopefully ship it tomorrow afternoon :)

Let's Explore Shop Reviews...Coming Soon!

Amy from the Let's Explore Shop sent O a box of wonderful "big sister" gifts! She'd emailed me to ask O to pick out a gift, so O and I went "shopping" on her site and chose several items. We asked Amy to surprise us, and she did! Imagine our surprise when we opened the box to discover that she'd sent EVERYTHING from O's list plus an extra goody! My mom and I were as excited as O was! Thank you, Amy, for your kindness and generosity. I'm looking forward to writing reviews of each item in the next few weeks. Stay tuned...

Showing Growth

Each year I take pictures of O in my wedding dress to show her growth (the idea for this came from Family Fun magazine). She was VERY excited to wear my wedding dress since she loves to pretend to get married. She was also very excited to hold "baby sister" for the photo shoot :) Here are pics from our last 2 wedding dress photo shoots.

A Lesson Learned...

Don't let your kiddo "decorate" the box from IKEA until after you open it to make sure you bought the right thing! O had a fantastic time coloring the box and then pretending like it was a stage for dancing. Then, Elliott opened the box to put together the shelf and discovered that my sister had bought the wrong thing for us...I wonder if IKEA will take it back since it is so beautifully decorated. I also wonder when in the world we are going to find the time to go ALL the way to IKEA...maybe Christmas :(

The Kindness of Strangers...

never ceases to amaze me! Mrs. Cuddles emailed me a few weeks ago and said that she would like to gift me with cloth diapers and covers. These diapers and covers arrived a few days ago. Several are new, and ALL of them are adorable! I am stunned and inspired by her generosity and giving spirit. Thank you, Mrs. Cuddles!!!

Rain Gutter Bookshelves

We recently made rain gutter bookshelves for O's room and Little Kicker's room. O enjoyed helping! I first saw the rain gutter bookshelves in Family Fun magazine years and years ago, and then saw them again on Ohdeedoh. I decided these would be the perfect shelves for Little Kicker's room.

The shelves were easy to make and look great. I love that the books are facing outward, and the shelf takes up very little room which is important since the closet door opens to this wall.

To make the shelves, we bought vinyl rain gutters from Lowes. They are sold in 10 foot sections, and Lowes said they would NOT cut them for us. They wouldn't fit in our car unless they were cut, so my mom, O, and I walked around the store until we found someone who looked nice. I asked very nicely if they could PLEASE cut the gutters so they would fit in our car, and the guy made an exception. Phew! In addition to the rain gutters, we bought right and left caps for each end and 2 brackets for each shelf. Elliott and his dad cut the rain gutters into 2 and a half foot lengths. They put the brackets and end caps onto the gutters and used sheetrock screws to attach the brackets to the wall. Then they were done! Fast and easy! We had two 5 feet sections leftover, so we put one of each on O and Little Kicker's walls.

When I asked O if she wanted a shelf on her wall, she said "kinda...no." She changed her mind after she saw how good it looked :)

My Lake Girl

O's newest job is to pull the rope in after anyone skis or rides on a float. She is SO proud that she can do this all by herself. She's becoming more and more independent everyday, and she loves having "jobs" to do!

Breakfast Cupcakes :)

We haven't had a "Muffin Tin Monday" in a very long time, but I almost always fix O's breakfast in these silicone cupcake liners. She loves it, and it's fun :) On this particular morning, she had Honeycomb, peaches, watermelon, and blueberries. She also had a cup of yogurt and a refill of her watermelon cups.

I Survived...

2 very long work days...leaving our house before 6:30 am and getting home a little after 6:30 pm. I am SO glad that I decided to start back to work at the same time as the other school psychologists as it has allowed me to be a part of the planning process for this year's procedures (they change EVERY year!). I would've been SO lost if I'd waited until October to go back to work. It was great to see all of my work friends, and I had time to run errands after work (while waiting for Elliott to get off work since we ride together). I went to the thrift store by my office for the 1st time since May, and that was very exciting. I bought too many children's books and a cute pair of gymboree shorts (for 50 cents). Today I found some great deals at Wal-mart (more on that later) and used a gift card that O was given for her 2nd birthday...oops! Meanwhile, O has had a GREAT time with Guh-guh, and Guh-guh has washed 9 loads of laundry!!!

I'm working on Monday, and I hope that Little Kicker will be born soon after that :) Then I'll only have 37 more days of work for the rest of the school year. Hooray!

A Family Reunion Activity

We hosted our annual family reunion at our house this past weekend, and I don't think anyone was surprised that I had an activity planned for everyone :) I made a sign with the questions "Did you know...?" and "Do you remember...?" on a piece of cardstock along with blank notecards and markers that I put in a basket. I instructed everyone that each person was expected to write at least one notecard with a little known family fact or a family memory. O even wrote a card and read it to everyone. It said "O loves to read," (her version of this :) and she sang and danced as she sang "O loves to read" over and over again. I think my family was shocked that shy, quiet me has produced such an outgoing little performer :)

I was very surprised and pleased by how well received this activity was. Conversations were sparked when people were thinking about what to write, and further stories and memories were sparked when I read the cards after lunch. I plan to put the notecards in a scrapbook and add to it with new memories and facts each year. This activity was inspired by a similar activity in Family Fun magazine.

Movie Night

O and I had movie night tonight! Can you guess what we watched? If you guessed "Annie," you're right :) She was very excited that the Annie doll that my mom made me when I was little came home with us, and they sat together to watch the movie. O kept her arm around Annie for most of the movie, and now they are both asleep :)

The Magic of a Lite Brite

My mom recently found our old lite brite and put it out for the girls (O and my niece) to use. I loved the lite brite when I was little, and I remember feeling so excited when I plugged it in. It was magical, especially when we turned off all the lights...I'm so glad my mom saved EVERYTHING!

Striving for Organization

My mom spent a couple of days with us last week helping me clean and organize. We accomplished a lot, but we have so far to go!
Here is a very scary before pic of Little Kicker's room (it used to be our junk room). I'll post after pics after the room is completely finished...if that ever happens :)



O kept herself busy while we worked...I'm so glad that she can easily entertain herself :) She wore her "marrying" dress and was SO excited when we found my wedding bouquet (we used silk flowers since the island where we were married did not have a flower shop). She also decided that she should wear her babies during her wedding. She's such a good mommy :)

We Came Home To...

a treeful of peaches!!! We were so excited when we saw all of the ripe peaches when we drove into our yard. We had fun picking them, and then we went to check our earthboxes on the deck. We had about 15 tomatoes, around 20 grape tomatoes, 2 cucumbers, 1 zuchini, and 1 rotten bell pepper. We also came home to a broken hot water heater and a house that is a disaster :( I really hate unpacking!