What We've Been Up To...

making handmade Christmas gifts, of course! My mom has been busily sewing a very special quilt for E. I chose, cut, ironed, and arranged the squares, and she is sewing it all together. I may try sewing a little myself, but I'm always afraid that I'll ruin it since I have trouble sewing a straight seam. Hopefully, we'll finish the quilt very soon...I've been planning this quilt since long before I was pregnant with E, and it's exciting to finally see it coming together.

Number Sequencing with Leaves

This leaf sequencing activity was quick, easy, and cheap to put together. I bought a pack of silk leaves for a dollar, and I had enough for our Thankful Tree and this activity. I used a permanent pen to write the numbers 1 through 10 on the leaves for O to put in order. She used the number line to self-check. After she ordered the leaves from 1 to 10, she pointed to each number as she said the number in English and Spanish. This was a fun seasonal activity that is easily customizable to the season or holiday. I'm also planning on making a Christmas version of this activity.

Can She Get Any Cuter?

I don't think so! She's 11 weeks old today and growing up way too fast.
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Fruit or Vegetable File Folder Game

Here is another file folder game. In this game, you sort the food as to whether it is a fruit or vegetable. We love file folder games! I downloaded the game at File Folder Fun.

Christmas Dollhouse Pillowcase

Ranee from Ranee Day Crafts sent us this amazing pillowcase dollhouse to play with and review. I love all dollhouses and making an interactive dollhouse out of a pillowcase is such an original and innovative idea.


The dollhouse pillowcase is completely handmade, and each one is original (I prefer for my kiddos to have original, creative, handmade toys rather than mass produced factory toys). When I unwrapped the dollhouse, I was impressed with all of the detail work. (It must have taken FOREVER to sew!) The front of the dollhouse opens to four rooms. You can roll it and tie it with ribbons while you play and button it closed when you are done playing. The dollhouse features 4 rooms...a bedroom, bathroom, living room, and kitchen. The kitchen has a refrigerator that opens, and it is filled with tiny food...cupcakes, grapes, and bananas.

O was very excited to see the gingerbread men cookies on the kitchen counter along with the potted poinsetta by the stove. The living room has a Christmas tree, and O said that the stockings hanging from the fireplace are one of her favorite parts of the house. The bathroom has a bathtub with a fuzzy towel, a pedestal sink, and mirror. The bedroom is my favorite part of the house. The beds have quilted bedspreads with O and E's initials on them.

The dollhouse pillowcase comes with a hand painted peg doll who is super cute. O also immediately moved her miniature wooden family into the house. O loves to tuck her dolls in the beds at night. The dollhouse pillowcase zips onto a pillow, and when O is not playing with it, I just zip the wooden dolls into the pillowcase to keep everything together.

The dollhouse pillowcase folds up nicely, so it is great for travel. O has also enjoyed taking it in the car unfolded with a pillow in it. She sat it on her lap for the whole ride, and she could either play or rest on it :) We are going on vacation in a few weeks and this dollhouse is one of the only toys we'll take with us (other than books and a pack of new puzzles).

O is ready to go with this fun, handmade toy!

There are only a couple of these dollhoses in the shop, so if you want a one of a kind, handmade gift for your child, you need to act quickly!

Matching Silly Animal Pictures

I recently made O another matching activity from a mini calendar. (Here is the butterfly activity that is similar to this one). I cut the calendar apart and laminated the pages. Then I cut the tiny pictures (that were on the back of the calendar) out for O to match to the bigger pictures. She used a magnifying glass to look at the tiny pictures before matching them. This was a fun activity especially since the animal pictures are so silly.

Egg Carton Shake-Up

This fun idea for practicing number recognition came from Mommies Wise Little Bookworms. I made a few slight changes...I wrote the numbers 1 through 6 (2 times each) on circle stickers and stuck each number into an egg cup of an egg carton. We placed a bead in the egg carton and shook it. O identified the number that the bead was on. I'm going to have to remake this game since I used an egg carton that had holes in the top. I knew it was going to be a problem, but I was ready to try this fun idea and didn't have an enclosed egg carton :(

I think this game would also be a fun way to practice color recognition by placing different colored sticker dots in the egg cartons instead of numbers (I need to remember this in about a year for Ema!). I also think this could be a fun simple addition activity...use 2 beads and have the child add the numbers that the beads land on. I may also make an letter recognition egg carton shake-up game soon. We could use it with a bead to shake and then label the letters, and it would also be fun to sort tiny objects in the letter egg carton according to their initial sounds.

Mimi the Sardine Apron

Amy from Let's Explore sent O this Mimi the Sardine apron as a "Big Sister" gift, and we love it! While I love the design, the BEST thing about this apron is that it has a fine acrylic coating (not plastic/PVC or oil cloth), which makes it SO easy to clean! O uses this apron when she paints, cooks, and when she eats. It is a wonderful bib (O tends to get VERY messy when she eats!) since it covers her shirt and pants. I love that I can just wipe it off rather than having to wash it every time she uses it. I was relieved to see that paint (washable tempera paint) wipes off just as easily as food. The straps are adjustable which means that O will be able to use it for years. It also has a pocket for her to hold her paintbrushes or other art supplies while she's hard at work :)

As you can see in the picture, she also likes to wear it just for fun! She's wearing the apron over her beautiful silk dragonfly wings :)

Phonics Bag Sorting

O had a great time sorting her phonics bag miniatures according to their initial sounds. We emptied the objects from 3 phonics bags into a pile and picked up one object at a time. She labeled each object and decided under which letter to place each object. What a great, fun way to practice phonics!

Our Thankful Tree

We've turned our Ghost Tree into a Thankful Tree. I have a basket full of silk fall leaves, a marker, and tape sitting next to the tree. Each morning we write something we are thankful for on a leaf and tape the leaf to the tree. O always insists on writing on her leaf by herself :) I plan to write the year on the leaves and save them in a small wooden box. Next year we can look through this year's leaves to see what we were thankful for this year. So far O has been thankful for lollipops, the Thankful Tree, the turkey (sitting next to the Thankful tree), chicken & dumplings, her baby sister, and ghosts.

ShapeScapeS...Oh My!!!

Amy from Let's Explore sent us a set of ShapeScapeS to try. My first impression was that the set was much bigger than I expected. I usually overestimate the size of things that I buy online, so I was surprised to see that the set was much bigger than I expected.

ShapeScapeS is a "Sculpture in a Box" activity that is really amazing! The set contains over 90 whimsical, high quality plastic shapes. ShapeScapeS was created by Los Angeles sculptor Peter Mayer with intention of providing children with the opportunity to expand their spatial skills and color awareness. ShapeScapes can be transformed into sculptures, wall hangings, or mobiles. The possiblities for open ended, creative play are endless!


I think ShapeScapeS will be a great way for our family to jumpstart a "Family Art Night!" O had a little trouble putting the pieces together. She handed me the pieces and showed me where she wanted them, and I pushed them into place. After a little practice, she was able to be more independent with building her creations by herself. The age range for this toy says ages 6 and up...O is 3, so it's not surprising that it was a little difficult for her at first. It is, however, a great fine motor exercise, and her hand and finger muscles were getting lots of work :)


I love that O will have an easy, non-messy way to create 3d art (I don't typically mind messes, but it is nice to be able to create art with no mess!). I also love that ShapeScapeS is a toy that O will not grow out of...I can easily see her enjoying this toy for many, many more years, and since we are known for saving everything, she may be playing with this ShapeScapeS set with her own children one day :)


Extension activities that I've planned for ShapeScapeS include laying the pieces on paper to create 2d art. It would be fun to trace the shapes and then color or paint them to create abstract art. I also plan to trace to shapes onto felt and cut the shapes out to create a 2d ShapeScapeS felt board activity. I may also take pictures of a few designs for O to recreate. I can easily imagine setting up a Montessori tray using the ShapeScapeS set :)

Let's Explore is having a sale on all of their building toys, so check them out! Everything in the building section is 15% off until November 15. O will be getting a Made By Me Truck in her Christmas Stocking this year, and we love our Twig blocks! I am also very intrigued by the Dado Cubes , and I may add them to O's Christmas wish list (that her grandparents request each year).

Advent Calendar

I made this advent calendar shortly before Ema's was born, and I can't wait to use it! I used Martha Stewart wedding favor boxes and put Christmas scrapbook paper in each box. I cut the paper to fit the boxes and since it fit perfectly, I didn't have to use glue or tape. I put stickers with the numbers on the outside of each box. The idea for this advent calendar came from my bff, Emily. Thanks, EB! I hope this advent calendar will hold up better than last year's, and I can't wait to start this year's advent activities! I am planning to do many of the same activities that we did last year with a few new additions.

Edit to add: I forgot to say that I put magnets on the back so we can keep the advent calendar on the side of the refrigerator (it's on the refrigerator in the picture). I used sticky back magnet tape, and it didn't work very well (it wasn't strong enough), so I'm going to upgrade to stronger magnets that I bought from Hobby Lobby. The tins came from the wedding section at Walmart.

A Fun Felt Turkey Activity

This is a repost from last year...if only I could find the turkey this year.

IMG_1997 (Large), originally uploaded by omamom16.

The idea for this activity came from Itty Bitty Love's jack o'lantern activity. I didn't get around to making that one, so I decided to make a turkey. I couldn't really get a good picture of a turkey in my mind until I saw Laura's turkey, so that turkey was the inspiration. I also got ideas for the feathers and hats from Starfall. To make this activity, I just cut the shapes out from felt, took pictures of the different turkey arrangements, printed the pictures (wallet sized), laminated the pictures, and we were ready to go! I spread all of the pieces out on a bigger felt board, so O could see them easily. To make the small felt board, I just glued a piece of felt to a piece of a cardboard box. I think we are going to have LOTS of fun with this one!

Charm Necklace

Remember this??? This is my charm necklace from about 25 years ago. I was very proud of this necklace and thought I was so cool when I wore it :) Luckily, my mom saves everything, so now O loves the necklace, too (and I'm sure Ema will love it in about 3 years!). She especially loves the pretend lipstick, and she insists that the record is a frisbee. I guess I need to show her a record since it obviously a foreign concept for her!

Fall Handprint Art

O and I had fun making a handprint tree a few days ago. The idea for this activity came from Montessori Moments. I traced O's arm and hand on construction paper (she chose the colors) and then cut them out. She glued the arm and hand "tree" to a piece of paper and glued leaves on the tree. She really enjoyed collecting the leaves, and she especially enjoyed spreading the glue all over her paper!