Boca Beth

Boca Beth sent us several bilingual products to help us learn Spanish quite a while ago (and I'm FINALLY getting around to writing a review!). We have the Boca puppet, the I Like Animals dvd, the My First Songs in Spanish cd, and the Boca Beth coloring book.

O LOVES to watch the dvd, and she especially loves the 5 Little Monkeys song and the bonus songs at the end of the dvd. I like that the Spanish words are written at the bottom of the screen during the dialogue, which makes it easier for me to read and follow along with the dvd. I REALLY wish that the words to the songs were printed on the screen as well.

The cd and dvd pair English and Spanish vocabulary and are great for learning basic Spanish vocabulary. We practice our Spanish during circle time in the mornings, and the cd is a great way for us to sing and learn at the same time.

O always makes sure that she has her puppet when we play the cd or watch the dvd. Sometimes she won't say the Spanish words, but the puppet usually will :) This is the only Spanish dvd we've watched, so I don't have anything to compare it with, but we enjoy it, and I feel like O and I are both learning from it. I really prefer the method of pairing English and Spanish words together rather than the immersion method which is why this program appeals to me. Check out the Boca Beth website for more information and for free Spanish flashcards and activities.

Phew! Glad to get this review posted...it's long overdue. I stopped taking products for review for a while, but I've started accepting products again. I've got some GREAT things to tell you about over the next few weeks!

Matching Stenciled Shirts

O and I made matching freezer paper stenciled butterfly shirts for O and E last weekend. O chose the butterfly stencil from a set of nature stencils that she received for Christmas. I traced the pattern onto the freezer paper, cut out the pattern, and ironed the paper (shiny side down) onto the shirts. I mixed fabric medium with acrylic craft paint, and O and I painted the shirts. This was a fast, fun, and easy project with great results!!!

O was very excited to have matching shirts with her sister since they have both grown out of their matching appliqued shirts.

O has had a great time pretending to be a witch lately...she wears her orange witch hat and high heeled "glass slippers." She's quite a sight :)

We made these shirts a couple of weeks ago, and I was surprised by how much the butterfly faded in the wash. Maybe cheap acrylic craft paint and fabric medium isn't the way to go...

Fun in the Snow

It rarely snows here, so when it does we get VERY excited. We had almost 6 inches of snow on Friday night, which is more snow than we've ever had in my lifetime. I think Elliott and I were more excited than O. Here are a few highlights...

Elliott pulled O around the yard on water skis. They were perfect for snow! O was thrilled that she was snow skiing!!!


Our inner tubes were also perfect for sledding down hills!


O and I made snow paint...I filled 3 bottles with water, and O put a few drops of food coloring in each bottle. I had a lot of fun painting our snow man. O was much more interested in eating the snow. When I asked her to help me, she said "I can't. I'm eating the snow. Snow tastes gooder than food!" The snow tasted even better after Elliott insisted that we sprinkle organic sugar on it for O to enjoy (it's healthy if it's organic, right ? :)

Our snowman building skills are pretty pathetic, but he looked pretty cool once we painted him...he looked tie-dyed :)



We made snow cream. O filled a mug with snow, and I poured half and half and a couple of drops of vanilla extract in the mug and mixed it up. She said it was delicious!


Elliott collected a bowl of snow, and we poured warm maple syrup over it. It doesn't look that appetizing in the picture, but it was VERY good.


I was surprised to see this snow sculpture on our fence...a pregnant belly and boobies :)


We played in the snow for a couple of hours, and I was SO grateful for the Beco...E was nice and cozy and slept the whole time we played.

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.