A Simple Storytelling Game

O and I have had fun telling stories together using this storytelling game lately!

To make the game I borrowed these wooden figures from her phonics bags and put them together in a drawstring bag (from IKEA). To play the game we take turns taking one figure out of the bag at a time. The first person starts the story, and we keep adding to it using the figures as prompts. I was surprised by how much O enjoyed this game, and I was happy enough with it that I bought more figures from WM. You can find these (already painted) wooden figures at WM, Hobby Lobby, and Michaels. They cost about 50 cents each.

Walking the Line...Valentine's Day Style :)

This is the last Valentine's Day post, I promise! For this activity, I used a long piece of red yarn that I shaped into a heart on the rug. O REALLY enjoyed walking the line that was shaped like a heart! She's very into balancing lately, so she had fun balancing beanbags on her head as she walked. We really need to walk on the line more often!

Valentine's Paper Dolls

O has enjoyed these fun Valentine's Day paper dolls that I printed on magnetic paper. Although, I admit that I was more excited about them than she was :) I'm looking forward to making more magnetic paper dolls for her soon. Happy Valentine's Day!

Marshmallow Heart Art

O made marshmallow heart art this afternoon while warming up after playing in the snow all morning. She had a great time and said she wants to do this every Valentine's Day.

To prepare this activity, I drew a heart on a piece of cardstock. I gave O a muffin cup full of mini marshmallows. We bit the marshmallows in half, ate one half, and placed the other half on the line to make the heart. O loves marshmallows, but doesn't get the opportunity to eat them often, so this was very exciting for her :) This art didn't last long...within a few hours she'd eaten all of the marshmallows off of her paper! I guess that's a good thing...now I don't have to figure out how to preserve and save this piece of artwork :)

No-Sew Felt Fortune Cookies

I had fun making felt fortune cookies for O and my niece for Valentine's Day. I saw lots of no-sew felt fortune cookie tutorials on various blogs, but for some reason I just couldn't make sense of them. I decided to just try to make one on my own, and it was so easy! Here's what I did...

First, I traced around a drinking glass and cut the circle out of felt. Then I put about an inch long strip of fabric glue on one side of the circle, folded the circle in half, and held it together with a clothes pin.

I waited a day before doing the next step. I folded the cookie and put a drop of glue on either side and held it together with a clothes pin. I hope the pictures make sense because I'm not explaining it well at all :) The clothes pins were stuck to a couple of cookies, but it worked well overall.

I cut small strips of paper and wrote messages on them. I slipped them into the cookies and was done! I think the girls will have fun writing their own messages and sharing the cookies with their family and friends :)

It's Snowing!!!!!!

Can you tell we are EXCITED?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Chocolate Playdough Hearts

O and I recently made chocolate playdough using this recipe. It smelled divine, but we halfed the recipe and I never could get the texture quite right (it was too sticky). O had a great time making chocolate hearts and tricking her Grandaddy and Grandpa into to thinking they were real (they played along...O is not very good at deception :).

Heart "Cookies"

O and I had fun making salt dough "cookies" for Valentine's Day.

We made them a little differently this time...I decided to bake them instead of letting them air dry. We also varied the recipe a bit (we followed the recipe from the long thread). We mixed a cup of flour, 1/2 cup of salt, and a 1/2 cup of warm water. We rolled out the dough and cut out the hearts. We then baked them on 250 for about 2 hours.

O really enjoyed painting the hearts...we're going to glue magnets to the back of the larger hearts, and we made necklaces out of the smaller hearts. This was a fun and easy craft project (that we enjoy doing for almost every holiday!).

Heart Pocket Pillows

My mom and I made heart pocket pillows for O, E, and my niece. The pattern and directions for this gift came from Handmade Home. The pillows were quick and easy to make and are perfect for sending little love notes to our sweet girls.

Would This Be Allowed...

in a real Montessori school?! O has recently developed a love for her knobbed cylinders. After she completed the work correctly, she started pretending that the cylinders were a mama and her babies. She had a great time, and I couldn't bring myself to interrupt her creative play. Would this type of play be allowed in a "real" Montessori school?

Just in case you are wondering...the big cylinder that is lying down is actually a mama who is having a baby.

Play Make-Up Kit

My mom made O and my niece a bag full of play make-up, and this gift was the HIT of Christmas! (even more so than the doctor kit!)

To make the pretend make-up, my mom collected empty compacts from friends and family. She also bought cheap make-up from the Dollar Tree. She disposed of the actual make-up and filled the trays with fingernail polish. The polish took a couple of weeks to dry (it was VERY humid, which is why it took so long to dry), and now it looks just like REAL make-up!

O and my niece have had a wonderful time pretending to put on make-up, but they REALLY enjoy setting everything up and having us pretend that we are customers who are buying the make-up :)

This compact of brush-on lipstick is my favorite :)

This eye shadow is lots of fun, too!
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I think it's so funny that O loves make-up so much since her mama rarely wears any make-up at all (I can't stand the stuff). I'm glad to have an alternative to the nasty, gooey pretend make-up that you find in the toy section at most retail stores.

My mom got the idea for this gift from a website that she read months and months ago (can't remember where).

E's Birth Announcement

I was happy with how E's birth announcement turned out, so I thought I'd share :)

To make E's birth announcement, I printed the information on iron-on paper and ironed it onto a onesie. Then we had several photo shoots before deciding on the perfect picture. I uploaded the pics to snapfish and ordered 4 x 6 prints for the announcement. I intended to turn it into a card, but I couldn't find a card on the site that didn't have extra "stuff" on it, and I wanted to just have the picture. Unfortunately, I edited the pic before ordering it, and E looks a little green in the pic (it looked fine on the computer...just not so good in person). I bought 4 x 6 envelopes, but I was so late sending them that I eventually just added them in with our Christmas cards. I'm REALLY bad about sending cards. I always make a list of people to send them, too, but by the time I finally send them, I forget to look at the list. Then I don't know who I've sent cards to and who I haven't. So...if anyone that we know in real life reads this blog and you didn't get a birth announcement, now you know why :) I know there are several that I forgot to send because I have extras, and I didn't order extras :(

The idea for this birth announcement came from an old issue of Martha Stewart Kids.

Glittery Snow Playdough

O and I made homemade snow playdough about a month ago, and I just realized that I'd never written about it. We followed this recipe and added white glitter and peppermint extract. It smells delicious! We had fun making and playing with the playdough, but O lost interest in it rather quickly (very surprising since she used to be obsessed with playdough). Luckily, this playdough lasts and lasts (if you store it in an airtight container), so I'm sure she'll be ready to play with it again eventually :)

Heart Suncatcher...Or Not

I planned for O to make a heart suncatcher using contact paper and crepe paper streamers. I cut a heart out of the contact paper and taped it (sticky side out) onto our sliding glass door. I gave her a basket of crepe paper streamers and a pair of scissors. I told her she could cut or tear the streamers and then put them on the sticky heart. She cut a few streamers, but then decided that she'd rather her heart have tails. My little artist has a mind of her own!

"Dance Streamers I Love You"

We do a lot of spontaneous dancing around here, but since we've started having Family Game Night and Family Art Night, it seemed like a fun idea to have Family Dance Night, too (we also have Family Block Night frequently which is O's favorite!). O says every night is Family Dance Night, and that is fine with us.

For our 1st scheduled Family Dance Night, I made O some dance streamers using bamboo pocketbook handles (that her grandmother gave her) and crepe paper streamers (leftover from making the surprise ball). I just stapled the streamers to the handles. Simple, fast, and fun!

I asked O what they are called when I was writing this post, and she said they are called "dance streamers I love you."