Rosemary Vinegar

O(4) and I planned to make Rosemary Vinegar for her teachers for "end of the year" gifts, and we finally made it more than a week after school let out for the summer...better late than never!

To make the Rosemary Vinegar, you need white vinegar, glass bottles, and fresh Rosemary. My mom brought us a bunch of fresh Rosemary from her garden. She washed it thoroughly and drained it in a colander. She heated the white vinegar on the stove. While the vinegar heated, the girls pushed the Rosemary into the vinegar bottles.




My mom then poured the hot vinegar into the bottles (using a funnel). After the vinegar cooled, I put the tops on the bottles and put them in a dark place. The vinegar needs to cure for about 3 weeks before you use. It taste great on salads!

We originally planned on O decorating the bottles, and she actually painted a couple of them with glass paint. We then decided that the Rosemary looked really pretty in the bottles, so she didn't decorate all of them. This was a wonderfully simple gift, and O was so proud of the gifts she made!

Fun with Face Paint

Since I stock up on face paint after Halloween, I always have some available for special occasions. When O had Spring Break about a month ago, we spent the 1st morning of the week on the beach and had fun painting faces while we were out there.

O was very specific about what she wanted on her face. Luckily, she's not too particular about how it looks, because I'm definitely not an artist! She was very pleased with the result, and now she says she wants me to paint faces at her birthday party!

It's Hammer Time!

*Sorry to the people who commented on this post. Blogger was down for a while. When it came back up, they'd deleted the post, which also deleted the comments.

My dad (who is building his house from scratch...cutting trees that needed to be cleared for the house and turning them into boards to build the house, etc.) cut a few slices of one of his trees for the girls and I this weekend. I have lots of plans for these tree slices, and we started with a fun hammering activity.

We put this large tree slice under in the shade in our front yard along with a couple of hammers and nails. The girls have had a great time hammering nails. (I never let E(1) do this activity unsupervised just in case she decides to eat a nail!) O(4) especially likes to pull nails out after she hammers them. She was pulling so hard one time that she fell backwards off the tree when the nail finally came out!






While this is not an ideal toddler activity (especially when the toddler is super tired), both girls really enjoy it, and I think we'll spend a lot of time hammering this summer. I love that they are learning so many things through this simple activity...hand/eye coordination, determination, persistence, fine motor control, concentration, etc.

Mud Day!!!

O(4) loves to hear stories from my childhood, and one of the stories I tell her is how my kindergarten always had a "mud day" at the end of the school year. I was never allowed to participate in "mud day" because my parents were germophobe (we had "water day" instead). Since I am not a germaphobe (at least not as much as my mom and Elliott!), I let the girls go crazy with mud this week. They had a GREAT time!

We started off by filling several containers with water.


Then they made grass soup...this is a favorite daily activity. They serve it dry and/or wet.


We started adding dirt to the water to make mud. I was the designated dirt digger at one point.


Both girls eventually ended up in the container of mud.


Afte the girls tired of the mud, we put the waterhose on the slide to make a waterslide. Then I "chased" them with the water while they ran all around the yard. What a simple and fun afternoon!

Fun with the Moveable Alphabet

O(4), E(1), and I had fun with the moveable alphabet a few weeks ago. The girls gathered objects from around the room and brought them to the rug. O and I worked together to spell the words. Then I scrambled the letters, and O unscrambled them. She REALLY loved unscrambling the words! I'm looking forward to doing this more often this summer when we have more time for homeschool!!!

Little Scrubbers

I gave the girls a pitcher of warm soapy water (at O(4)'s request), and the girls had a FANTASTIC time washing a baby doll stroller! This kept them busy for quite a while, and they eventually started scrubbing the floor. E(1) even cleaned a few cabinets when she came in the kitchen! I'm hoping I can make this a daily activity!

Making a Felt Board

I recently made a new felt board for the girls. We have a large felt board, but it's made of plywood, so it's heavy and cumbersome (and we keep it in the fireplace, so it's not very accessible). I wanted a fairly large felt board that was lightweight enough to hang on a wall using velcro (so that it's easily removeable).

To make this feltboard, you need 1 yard of felt, foam core board, and a hot glue gun and glue.

First, I laid the foam core board onto the felt and cut around it.


Then, I just glued the felt to the back of the foam core board using the hot glue. I put about a two inch strip of hot glue on at a time and pulled the felt onto it tightly. I thought about taking a picture of this process, but it was impossible since I don't have 3 hands :)

Here is our finished felt board. It turned out exactly as I envisioned it (that rarely happpens)!


I put a piece of sticky backed velcro on the back of the felt board and the wardrobe, and now we have an easily removeable felt board. E(1) and I have enjoyed using it during our morning "school" time.

Model Magic Birds' Nests

O(4) and E(1) had a bag of Model Magic in their April Fun Box, and we used it to make birds' nests a few weeks ago. The girls loved squishing and shaping the model magic.


We collected twigs before we opened our model magic, and we planned to put the twigs into the nests. However, O didn't like how that looked, so she buried a few twigs within her the walls of her nest.

We left the nests on the porch to dry overnight, and it poured down rain. They got wet, but were ok. We had leftover Model Magic, so we rolled it out and made handprints. Model Magic handprints are SO much better than plaster of paris handprints!

Wet Felted Easter Eggs

The girls, my mom, and I wet felted Easter eggs about a month ago. I still haven't taken a picture of the finished eggs, which is why I haven't posted about this yet. I just realized that I needed to write this post before Easter, so I apologize that I don't have pics of the finished products!

To wet felt Easter eggs you need the following items: plastic, wooden, or styrofoam eggs, wool roving (I bought our wool roving from Hobby Lobby), warm water, and liquid dish soap.

First, we wrapped our eggs in wool roving. Then we dipped our eggs in a bowl of warm, soapy water. We squished the eggs and shaped them with our hands while they were in the water.






After the eggs were well covered with the wool and it seemed somewhat felted, we rolled the eggs on a cooling rack. After they were well felted, we left them to dry. This was a fun and simple activity!




Both girls LOVED this activity!

Fun with a Flower Press

I gave the girls a flower press in their April Fun Box, and they were so excited.

Both girls love to pick flowers, and they enjoy arranging them on the paper before smashing them in the flower press.


I thought about making a flower press, but I saw this for only 3 dollars and decided it would be much easier to just buy it :) It's simple and well made, and it will be a great addition to our nature bag.