Counting the House

Counting the house is fun activity in which you count various objects around your house and write the number beside the correspondng picture on your list. This great activity came from Let's Explore. The list is available for download at Let's Explore...Thanks, Amy!!! After printing the list, I laminated it so that O can use a wipe-off marker to "count the house" and use the sheet over and over again. We walked around our house together counting the various items. She enjoyed holding the clipboard "like a teacher." O LOVED this activity, and I think it's one that we'll do often. I may also make an outdoor version :)

O's Obsession..

O is obsessed with the medical profession :) She loves to play "broken arm," "broken leg," "heart compressions," "blood," "having a baby," "surgery," etc. She was excited to match these body parts stickers on these body chart posters, and I'm really glad that Elliott bought this body chart set for our kids long before they were born :) O will be getting a "Doctor's Office in a Box" for Christmas, and I can't wait to see her face when she opens it!

Playdough Turkey

We haven't done very many Thanksgiving activities this month, but O did enjoy making a playdough turkey a few days ago. I gave her the bowl of playdough, a container of feathers, and 2 googly eyes. Her turkey looked a little like a snake with feathers, but she didn't mind :)

My 1st Knitted Hat!

One of my New Year's Resolutions was to learn to knit, and last night I finally learned! I knitted a hat while mom and I watched Gray's Anatomy (I find the show very annoying, so I was glad to have something to do). I admit that I cheated a little and used a Knifty Knitter. I was excited and surprised by how easy it was to knit a hat. I just wish I'd made the hat a little bigger! It fits O's baby dolls perfectly, and next time I'll make one big enough for O or E :)

O has been reminding me for months that I'm supposed to be learning to knit (how in the world did she remember that?!!!), so she was excited to see me knitting. I'm looking forward to teaching her to use the knifty knitter soon.

Bambu Kids Kitchen Utensils

Amy from Let's Explore sent O this set of 5 child sized kitchen tools (as part of a VERY generous "big sister" gift). The kitchen utensils are 9.5 inches long and are made from organically grown bamboo. They are finished with a natural food safe oil. The set includes a serving fork, rounded spatula, spatula, round spoon and long spoon. O enjoys using them to "cook" in her play kitchen, but they are also great for "real" cooking :) I love that the set is made from organically grown bamboo and is therefore environmentally friendly. I'm sure we'll be using this set for years of cooking fun!

These fun utensils are on sale this weekend at Let's Explore.

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.