A New Spin on the Toddler Activity Bags

Ok, I have to admit that I CAN'T STAND ziploc bags. They just seem very wasteful and flimsy to me. However, I couldn't think of anything else to use when I made O's toddler activity bags. Then, about a month ago, I saw these pencil pouches. I knew they would be perfect for most (but not all) of the bags. They are much more durable, and they look so much better than the ziploc bags. I am VERY happy with them. These bags will also provide O with lots of opportunities to practice her zipping and unzipping skills. Also, since they have metal grommets, I can hang them from hooks or group them together with book rings when we travel.

Mini Animal Match

I bought these decorations for O's crocs a couple of months ago from a dollar store (Family Dollar, I think). I wasn't sure if they would work for her crocs (they didn't), but I knew they'd make a cute matching activity. I know she'll love this work since she loves "niney" things. Don't try an activity like this if your child still puts things in his or her mouth! O occasionally puts things in her mouth, but usually only after she makes SURE that I'm looking. She likes my reaction (or perhaps my overreaction). Regardless, she'll not be unsupervised while doing this work.

Frog and Lily Pad Game

The idea for this game came from a commenter on the magnetic fishing game. I bought a packet of plastic frogs from the Dollar Tree and stuck tacks in their backs to make them magnetic. Then I borrowed the lily pad that O got from the lake today to use as a pattern, and I cut lily pads from craft foam. The blue playsilk makes the perfect pond, and we'll use the fishing pole from the fishing game. When we play this game, we'll work on one-to-one correspondence by trying to put a frog on each lily pad. We'll also talk about sizes since the lily pads are 3 different sizes, and we'll talk about colors since the frogs are several different colors. I think O will like this game because she LOVES lily pads. She has to get a lily pad to hold every time we go for a kayak or pedal boat ride, and she gets excited when lily pads wash up on the beach :)

Just a Little Advice...

Don't buy your husband a telescoping limb trimmer for his birthday! Obviously, Elliott had way too much fun with his this past weekend :) It looked like a tornado hit our yard! The crazy thing is that other than the destruction on the ground, you can't really tell he cut any limbs.

Thrifty Thursday

A couple of weeks ago we went to a second hand children's shop, and I hit the jackpot! I bought the puzzle and game in the picture, plus 3 sets of BOB books, and a set of Brain Quest cards for 18 dollars. I am most excited about the game and puzzle because they will be perfect on our new Montessori shelf :) I put everything else away for later. Last Thursday I went to the thrift store and bought 20 children's books (yes, I am addicted!), a tray for Montessori work, 2 small bowls for Montessori work, and a ballerina costume (for O's suitcase of dress up clothes that I'm giving her Christmas)...all for 12 dollars! I love thrifting!

Hard at Work

Don't be fooled by this photo! I filled the wagon with sticks, and O only pushed it for a few seconds. She had trouble balancing it. I think we need to practice when its empty a little more before I fill it again :) Her Guh-guh and Grandpa gave her this great wagon for her birthday, and she's excited to have an "agon just ike dada!" Hopefully, I'll get a little more work out of her tomorrow!

Cake in a Mug

Thanks to Laura for posting about making cake in a mug! We tried this on Sunday night for a special treat, and it was delicious. O was talking about her "pecial treat" all day. I couldn't believe how easy these were to make! Here's the recipe:

You need: a mug, 4 tbs of sugar, 4 tbs of flour (I used 3 tbs of white flour and 1 tbs of whole wheat flour. Next time I'll do 2 of each.), 2 tbs of cocoa, 3 tbs of milk, 3 tbs of oil, and an egg. Combine the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients, and mix WELL. We didn't mix our quite well enough, and we had egg and flour streaks in our cake :) Put your mug of cake mix in the microwave, and cook it for 3 minutes. Pour it into a bowl and enjoy!

While O and I mixed up the cake, Elliott was making whipped cream to go on top. He shook and shook a jar of cream with 2 marbles, but it was still watery by the time the cake was ready. We poured it into the mini blender (that we used to make baby food when O was tiny), and it was ready in a flash :)

O had fun mixing all of the ingredients together.

Delicious, but VERY rich! Thanks, Laura for sharing this fun and yummy idea :)

We Made a Toad House!

No one has moved in yet, but O and I made a nice little toad house on Friday afternoon. It was very simple... just turn a pot on its side and put a layer of sandy soil on the bottom. Hopefully, we'll have some occupants soon!

Riding in the Kayak

Lately, we've been taking a kayak ride every afternoon (our wonderful neighbors let us borrow theirs!). O loves to drag her hand in the water as we glide along the water. I love to watch her little hand and hear the water running through her fingers :) We look for turtles, fish, and alligators. O REALLY wants to see an alligator, but I REALLY don't!

Learning to Balance

I've been planning on making O a balancing board out of leftover boards from her swingset for a while, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Today when we were going in from playing in her sandbox, she decided to balance on the bricks. What a great idea, O! I'm sure this will now be a daily activity!

A Painting for Grandpa

Since we are into homemade gifts, I decided that O would paint her Granpa a painting on canvas for his birthday. She was thrilled! She chose blue and yellow for her colors, but then asked for green. She looked skeptical when I told her that she could mix blue and yellow to make green. She was very happy when she saw the green appear on her canvas!
She loves making handprints!
Ta-da!
She added a little red after the blue, yellow, and green paint dried to spice things up a little.
Here's her masterpiece :)

Paper Plate Food

O and I had fun making paper plate food today. For this activity you need pictures of food cut from a magazine, glue, and paper plates. O and I looked through old magazines and chose the pictures of food about a week ago, and this afternoon I cut the pictures out. O worked on cutting bits of the magazine, but she's really too little to handle scissors effectively on paper (we need to practice cutting playdoh again). She enjoyed putting the glue on the backs of the pictures using a glue stick. I had to hold the pictures still for her. She also liked patting the pictures onto the plate. After the 1st 2 plates, she was a little tired of the activity and kept leaving saying "mama do it by self." She came back and helped with the 3rd plate, but I did the 4th one by myself :)
She was proud of the finished products! She set her table (by her play kitchen) and fixed supper for dada as soon as he got home!

Making a Baby Doll Cradle

O and I made a cradle for her "niney" babies using an oatmeal box. It was simple, but it took a few days since it had to dry between each step. First, I cut the oatmeal box. Then O and I painted it with mod podge glue. She LOVED doing this!

While she was painting the box with mod podge glue, I cut out strips of construction paper (O chose the colors) that we laid them on top of the mod podge.
We let the cradle dry for a day before painting it with another layer of mod podge glue. Again, this was SO MUCH fun for O. She stayed busy picking the glue off of her hands for quite a while after we finished this project :)
Here's the finished cradle. Its the perfect size for her "nineys," and she loves to rock them in it. The cradle actually turned out to look a bit like a roll of lifesavers, but O doesn't mind. I thought about embellishing it with stickers and lace, but decided to just leave it as is.

Homemade Tortillas

O and I made homemade tortillas for lunch yesterday, and they were delicious! The recipe came from her Highlights High Five magazine (we LOVE this magazine!), and I adapted it a little. You need flour, salt, vegetable oil, vegetable oil spray, shredded cheese, and water.

1) Mix together 3 cups of flour (we used 2 cups of white flour and 1 cup of whole wheat flour) and 1 teaspoon of salt

2) add 1 cup of water and 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil (we used olive oil, and I added a little more water since we used whole wheat flour)

3) stir until mixture forms a ball

4) make 12 balls of dough

5) flatten the dough with your hands or a rolling pin

6) spray a pan with the vegetable oil spray (we didn't have any spray, so we just used olive oil), and cook each tortilla over medium heat for 2 minutes (we cooked ours a little longer because I like them when they are a bit crispy). Turn it over, add cheese, and cook until the cheese melts.



I was excited by how easy and fun this was! O had a great time tasting the dough. She kept asking "O taste?" Pouring the flour in the bowl
Mashing the dough with her hands
Rolling the dough with her rolling pin
Eating her cheese quesadilla. They were a little greasy since we used olive oil instead of cooking spray. Next time, I'll use a bit more whole wheat flour. O had lunch a delicious lunch of cheese quesadillas, blueberries, and tomatoes while standing in her kitchen helper while I cooked all of the tortillas :)

What She's Into...

Most of our Montessori work is put away until we start back with our school, but we have a few things out that see daily use. O LOVES the lentil tray! I'm so happy to see her enjoying it so much because she ignored it for months after the initial "newness" wore off.
She also is really into washing the windows!
She gets the knobbed cylinders down every other day or so. I planned to put them away for a while, but they are so big that I didn't have anywhere to stash them. I guess that's a good thing, since she has enjoyed working with them so much lately.