Phonics Pouch Swap

We received our package full of phonics swap goodies for our phonics pouches a few days ago! Our favorites are the tiny food (O and her cousin loved feeding the food to their tiny dolls!) and the paper ball. I also love the bag! Thanks, Jo and Olivia!
Here's the link to O's phonics bags, and these are the directions for introducing them to your child.

Tray Tuesday

We forgot about Muffin Tin Monday, so we planned to do it on Tuesday. My sister didn't like the looks of my muffin tins, so we decided to have Tray Tuesday! Its not quite as fun as Muffin Tin Monday, but it worked for us! O had stewed grape tomatoes with bell peppers served on brown rice, crab and pasta salad, tomatos, cucumbers, avocados, and banana peppers, and grilled chicken and yellow squash.
My niece had basically the same thing, but she also has dip-dip for her cucumbers and tomatoes and for her chicken. I added O's dip-dip later.

Making Chalkboard Paint & Slime

Since we have a new chalkboard, we thought it would be fun to make chalkboard paint. We used these instructions.

O practiced her pouring skills by 1st pouring 1/4 cup of cornstarch into a bowl. She then poured in 1/4 cup of water. She stirred a little, then I helped her mix it together well.
She chose to make her paint blue since its her favorite color. I thought the blue was really pretty when she was stirring in the food coloring.
My niece also joined us in this fun activity.
The kids had fun painting on the chalkboard, but the red paint was the only color that really showed up.
After painting for a while, we poured more cornstarch in a dish, added some water, and had LOTS of fun making slime. I think my sister and I may have had more fun than the kids :)
These were definitely activities that you want to do outside! We just used a garden hose to rinse everthing off, so the cleanup was fast and easy.

Here's their artwork. Beautiful, right?

A Few Birthday Party Activities

I had several different activities set up around the yard during O's birthday party.
O's birthday ring- I LOVE her birthday ring. It makes me happy to just look at it :)

O is decorating her hat and bag with fabric markers. The kids used the bags for their pinata prizes.
Playing in the sandbox was fun!
The kids loved the pool. They floated and fished with a magnetic rod and reel fishing set that I bought from Target (for 4 dollars!).

DIY Gigantic Outdoor Chalkboard

One of my goals for O's birthday party was to make a huge outdoor chalkboard. I barely made it...I was still painting it at around 12:00, and the party started at 3pm. It was fairly easy to make.
1st- buy 1 piece of treated plywood and cut it to the desired size
2nd- paint the plywood with primer. You may want to sand it first. I painted ours with 2 coats of primer, and it still had rough spots that I filled in outdoor wood filler. Then I had to wait for the wood filler to dry, sand it, then paint another coat of primer. After 3 coats of primer, I painted the board with chalk paint
3rd- I taped off a border with masking tape, and then painted it with 2 coats of chalkboard paint.
4th- After the chalkboard paint dried, I pulled off the masking tape and painted the border red. I painted 2 or 3 coats on the border.
The kids loved drawing on the chalkboard at O's party, and its also lots of fun erasing the chalk with water using paint brushes.

Baking for the Party

My mom came to stay with us for a few days before O's party to help us get ready. Thanks, Guh-guh! My mom and O are baking peanut butter cookies to use for the ice-cream sandwiches
Mixing up Cheerio treats with sprinkles
Making #2 sugar cookies
O was very proud of these cookies, and she definitely know the number 2 now! She kept asking for "more number 2 cookie, please."
Decorating the cookies.

Making a Pinata

We've been working all week to get ready for O's birthday party. One of our projects was making a pinata. It was easy and fun, and O thoroughly enjoyed herself. We'll definitely do this again!

1st we mixed 2 cups of flour with 3 cups of water
Then we dipped strips of torn newspapers into the mixture
We squeezed some of the excess water out
We then smoothed the pieces of newspaper out onto the balloon. After we covered the entire balloon, we let it dry. Then we put a second layer of paper mache on the balloon.
After the balloon was dry, we painted it green (O's choice). Then she and Guh-guh painted different colored polka dots on it. I added strings and a cup last night to make it into a hot air balloon. Its simple and not that pretty, but the kids LOVED it!

Homemade Sound Cylinders

I made these homemade sound cylinders using lotion containers that my mom, sister, and I have been saving for about a year (specifically for this purpose). Each container has a match, and I put lentils in 2, marbles in 2, and bells in 2. There are stickers on the bottoms of the containers, so that O can self check to see if she is correct. Here are directions for this work. We've done this work once, and it didn't go well. O was not at all interested in listening to the sound cylinders, and she only wanted to open the containers. We'll try it again once we start back with our Montessori school in a few weeks (or whenever the new shelf is built!).

Children's Storage Bin Recall

We've finally been affected by a recall. We were lucky up until today when I saw that these storage bins from Lowe's were recalled due to excessive levels of lead :( We have about 9 of these bins, and 4 of them were in O's room. It makes me feel a little bit like screaming. The good news is that the bins were high on a shelf, and she rarely even touched them. It still makes me feel sick. Anyway...if you have any of these bins you can return them to your local Lowe's for a full refund. So now I know what Elliott and I will be doing for our anniversary next weekend...

Homemade Paper Doll Birthday Card for My Sweet O

I really wanted to make a homemade birthday card for O, and when I saw this I knew what I had to do :) I printed the doll on cardstock, cut her out, and painted her with watercolor paint. After I painted her, I laminated her. I traced around the doll to create an identical back, so the card could open. I taped them together using white labels.
I cut dresses out of scrapbook paper, and then I laminated the dresses. I put a small sticky magnetic square on the back of the doll and on the back of each dress. Then I put magnetic squares in the file folder, so O would have a place to keep her doll and all of the dresses.

She's going to love the dot file folder!
This was an easy, fun, and quick project, and I hope O likes it. I'd really like to make shoes for the doll, but all of the shoes that I made looked ridiculous. I may work on them again later if she asks for shoes (and I'm sure she will!).

More on O's Play Kitchen

Several people have asked where we bought O's kitchen, so I thought it would be a good idea to post the answer instead of putting it in the comments section (just in case anyone else is wondering ) :) The kitchen is from Target, and the brand is Play Wonder. It seems to be fairly sturdy, and we hope it will last for several years at least. I don't think its a piece that will last until O has kids. My niece has a very sturdy one that will last for generations (see it here). The main selling point for us is that it is very compact (and our house is VERY small). I planned on building one, but Elliott was not in favor of that idea :) We are all very happy with this one. I've also gotten amazing deals on wooden food sets at Target. I just bought a lunchbox filled with a peanut butter and jelly sandwhich, jelly, peanut butter, and milk for 3.74! Last year, at the end of the summer, I bought a smores & kebob set and a hamburger & hotdog set for 3.74 each. I love a good deal! I actually hesitated to buy them since they have lots of meat in them, and we don't eat red meat. However, I decided to call the meat in the kebab set teriyaki chicken since it's so dark. We call the hot dog a tofu dog, and we call the hamburger a mushroom burger. O was especially excited about the mushroom burger because she LOVES mushrooms, especially grilled portobello mushrooms :)

The Best Way to Wrap a Gift!

Leave the gift in the box it which it was shipped. Then put a few squirts of finger paint on it, and set your child loose! O had a great time painting Guh-guh's gift :) I planned on wrapping it in newspaper, and then painting it. Then I realized this would be much easier and faster (especially since I couldn't find any tape!). I think I know how we'll wrap all of our Christmas gifts this year! And the best part...its easy to recycle (I hate the waste of wrapping paper).

The finished product! Beautiful!

Felt Food and O's Play Kitchen

We gave O a kitchen for her birthday last night, and she LOVES it. Elliott and I bought the kitchen in February, and its been in a box in our garage ever since. We were very tempted to give it to her when we bought it, but luckily we resisted the temptation :) My mom and I have been making felt food off and on for the past few months to go with the kitchen set.
bell pepper slices, sweet potato chips, and carrot slices
a tomato slice, red sauce (under the tomato), and lettuce

fried eggs (I think this is my favorite piece!)
O cooked fried eggs for me this morning, and I asked her to make me a sandwich. This is what she brought me- an egg and goldfish sandwich :)
whole wheat bow tie pasta
whole wheat ravioli
pea pods- I made the stuffing into tight little balls so it feels like peas inside the pea pods

sugar cookies and chocolate chip cookies baking in the oven. Every time O opens the oven she says "stay back, mama! hot!"
This is another favorite of mine. Tiny goldfish to go with a tiny goldfish cracker box. I'm also working on different colored goldfish to go with a goldfish colors box.

I made a tiny cupcake with a #2 on the top, but its disappeared. I'll post a picture of it when I find it. Also, check out this fabulous felt food!

Just a Reminder

I just wanted to say again (in case you missed it) that I answer questions in the comments section in which they were asked. Its the simplest and fastest way for me to answer questions, so if you have asked a question make sure to check back for your answer :) Thanks!

We Had a Wonderful Day!

Thanks for all of the birthday wishes! O was very excited this morning when she came upstairs and saw her crown and everything else. She immediately tried to cut her cake, but it was a little difficult. She insisted on having goldfish crackers for breakfast (along with bananas and raisins). After breakfast we went to storytime at the library where she had fun dancing and singing. She was very excited that dada went with us to the library. We signed up for swimming lessons, then headed to the water park to meet up with our family and friends. O took a short nap on the way to the water park. She was very excited about her "choc-choc" banana and the delicious homemade peach ice-cream that Aunt Mem made. We played in the pool and relaxed in the lazy river for a fun-filled 4 hours. What a great day!