Brown

Today was brown day! O loved being a kangaroo :)

Another Homemade Book

The pictures aren't the best, but I am very excited about this new book. It was so quick and easy to make! I printed wallet sized and 3x5 pictures and glued them to 4x6 notecards. I narrated each picture, then laminated them using my laminating machine. Elliott took the pictures to his dad's office (thanks, Grandaddy Harry!) to bind them into a book. Its a very sturdy book, and O LOVES it. I'm planning on making A LOT more soon. You can see the other books I've made for O here and here. This book doesn't look as nice as the board books, but its much sturdier. I've had a problem with O trying to pull the pictures (sometimes successfully) off the board books, but I don't have to worry about that with this book :)

Pipe Cleaner Letter Cards

My friend, Jennifer, had the great idea to make letters from pipe cleaners and glue them to flashcards. I'd made letters from pipe cleaners before, but I'd never thought of gluing them to notecards. This was a super easy and fast project. I ran out of red pipe cleaners before I finished making the alphabet. I plan on using these letters in conjunction with O's phonics bags. Thanks, Jennifer, for sharing this great idea!

Color Sorting

Thanks to the One Little, Two Little blog for posting the link to this great color sorting game! We started with blue, red, and yellow, and I think I'll add in orange next time. O was a little skeptical at 1st, but she had fun once she started. She didn't want to participate when I called the activity "color sorting," but she was ready to work when I changed my wording and said it was "color matching." The girl loves to match :)

Baking with Sand

O had a great time baking mini sand cakes and pies this morning on the beach :) Her grandmother gave her some old baking tins that belonged to Elliott's grandmother. We are going to have a lot of fun playing with these, and maybe we'll bake something we can actually eat one day!

Picking Tomatoes

O LOVES to pick the grape tomatoes. I had to remind her to pick only the red tomatoes, and she picks them if they are just slightly red. She also loves to water the plants with her "wawa can," which is actually a recycled plastic bottle that she and my mom decorated. Our tomato plants that are in the earthbox are now about 7 feet tall. They outgrown the tomato stakes, so they are leaning badly at the top. Hopefully, they won't fall over!

Purple

I think purple is my favorite! The hat and bubbles were last minute additions to our purple photo shoot, and they made the picture. O loved blowing bubbles, and I just love the hat! It was my favorite hat when I was around 7 years old, and there is a picture of me wearing this hat hanging on my wall in my bedroom at Guh-guh and Grandpa's house (remember that picture, Anne?)

Unplug Your Kids: Sticky

The unplugged theme this week is sticky, so I decided that we would finally make a tissue and contact paper collage (I've been planning to do this for a while!). My sister thought I was strange when I gathered all of the tissue paper from her daughter's bday presents and brought it home with me, but I had a plan :)
O tried to cut the tissue paper first, but she quickly decided that it was easier and more fun to tear the paper.
I taped a piece of contact paper (sticky side up) to a placemat, and she placed the tissue paper on the contact paper.
After she finished, I put a 2nd piece of contact paper on top of her work.
We hung the finished project on the sliding glass door. O was VERY proud!

Black

My little cat was not thrilled about taking pictures this afternoon. She was excited about being a cat until she got the costume on. She was ready to take it off quickly, and I don't blame her because its HOT!

Dressing Frames

I planned on making dressing frames, but when I saw this set on Montessori n Such for only 9 dollars I HAD to buy them! I really can't resist a good deal : ) I'm sure I would have spent more even if I bought the frames and clothes to make them from the thrift store. I was very pleased with how well made they are, but the buttons will need to be reinforced. O isn't quite ready for these frames, but I can't wait until my 4 year old niece comes to visit because I think she'll love them!

White

We had to really hunt around the house to find things for our white picture. The monkey was mine when I was little and was stuffed in a bag in the top of O's closet. The dress is a 6/9 months sized dress. I can't believe how well it fit her, and she was VERY excited to wear the bonnet :)

DIY Bell Bracelet/Anklet

When I saw this jingle bracelet, my 1st thought was that O would LOVE it (take some time to browse the Nova Naturals site if you get a chance. Its a wonderful resource for beautiful, natural toys). Then I quickly realized that it would be very easy to make. It was! You need a pack of wooden beads, silver bells, and elastic string. Just thread the bells and beads onto the elastic string, cut your string, and tie it in a knot (I triple knotted mine for safety). Its super simple and fast. It was very satisfying to finish a project so quickly :) If you make this bracelet for a child under 3 make sure to supervise them at all times since it could easily break and pose a choking hazard.

Unloading the Dishwasher

I had no idea that unloading and reloading the dishwasher could be so much fun! This is O's new favorite way to "elp mama." She loves sorting the forks and spoons into the right compartments. After she finished unloading them, she quickly started reloading the dishwasher with clean utensils. She was having a great time, and she was dancing to the Beatles the whole time :)

Doing the slide back to the drawer. My girl loves to dance!

Green

Here's a picture from O's green photo shoot. We were surprised by how many green things we found once we started looking. O was especially excited about taking her "big eaf" outside. I want to finish our color photo shoots next week since we'll start our marathon of vacations the week after that. Hopefully, we'll do blue, black, brown, purple, and white next week. Then who knows when I'll actually get the book made :( My goal is to finish it before O's birthday. We'll see!

Magazines for Toddlers???

I'd like to get O a subscription to a magazine for her 2nd birthday which is in July. I'm trying to decide between Highlights High 5 and Your Big Backyard. Does anyone out there in blogland have any advice or opinions about these magazines??? I'd appreciate any input/suggestions that you have. Also, if anyone knows of any other good magazines for toddlers, I'd love to know about them. Thanks!