Halloween Sensory Box

I set up O's Halloween sensory box with dried black beans, cups, scoops, and Halloween knick knacks on Sunday night and had it waiting for her at the table on Monday morning.  She was SO excited!  She's really enjoyed playing with it, but it really needs another bag of black beans.  She has to be extra careful to not spill the beans since E would be sure to pick them up and try to eat them (she's been eating cat food lately!). 

Here is our Halloween sensory box from last year.  This box doesn't have as much stuff as last year's, and she seems to enjoy it more.

Kaju Burfi Attempted

O and I had fun making Kaju Burfi a few weeks ago.  I found the recipe on National Geographic Kids.  This recipe was simple, fun, and the end result was delicious. 

To make Kaju Burfi, you need 3 cups of ground cashews, 1/2 cup of water, and 2 cups of sugar.

O spooned the cashews in to the grinder.




Then she ground them  with a little help from me.





While O worked on grinding the cashews, I heated the sugar and water over medium-high heat.  O grew tired of grinding, so I finished grinding the cashews while stirring the sugar water.  Meanwhile, E was tired and wanted me to hold her.  As soon as the sugar/water mixture looked ready, I threw the cashews in and mixed them.  I poured the mixture into a glass pan and spread them out.  Our cashews were not ground into powder (as the directions described), and the sugar/water mixture wasn't quite ready, but our Kaju Burfi was delicious!

Ball Exercises

I try to do exercises with E on our large, bouncy ball a few times a week. I have her sit, lay on her back, or lay on her tummy.  We started doing these exercises when E was a few months old at the suggestion of my sister who is a pediatric physical therapist.  I always have my hands on her, and I keep the ball steady by bracing it between my knees.   A great book that encourages this type of activity with babies is Active Baby, Healthy Brain.  

A Personalized Book for E

A representative from Little Bunny Press contacted me a few months ago offering a book for review.  After browsing their site, I decided that I was definitely interested.  These personalized books are beautifully made.  The stories are cute, and the illustrations are great.  E LOVES animals, so I chose the Zoo book for her.


I uploaded a picture of E to the site, and in a couple of days they emailed a proof for me to approve.  It looked great, so then we just had to wait for our book.  The binding was not glued properly on the 1st book that was sent to me.  I emailed the company on a Friday night and within 2 hours they had emailed me back apologizing and promising to immediately send another book....AMAZING customer service!!!



The 2nd book was PERFECT, and it arrived the day before E's 1st birthday.  We took her to the zoo on her birthday, and this book was the perfect gift for her.  She loves to look at the animals, and she gets so excited when she sees her picture in the book.   I know that this book will always be a treasured keepsake for her!






Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Little Bunny Press is offering a 15% discount for readers of this blog with the coupon code : CHEERIOS

All About Blue

I recently introduced the bag of blue objects to E. She really loves taking out and exploring each object.







Then she puts the bag on her arm and walks off as if she's going shopping. Could she get any cuter?!!   (I don't think so!)

Water Xylophone

O, E, and I made a water xylophone this afternoon. O poured water into the glass baby bottles in progressive amounts. After the bottles were filled with water, we added food coloring to make them beautiful :) The girls had fun making music, and O did hand over hand to show E how to play the xylophone.


After we finished making music, we poured a little water from each bottle into mugs. We folded paper towels and dipped them into the colored water to make art. O enjoyed this part of the activity more than the making and playing of the xylophone.



Our colors were not very vibrant since we only used a few drops of food coloring in each bottle, but O was still very pleased with her paper towel art!

Loving the Rice Pit

We revamped our rice pit a couple of months ago, and started letting E get in it to play when she was about 11 months old (she's almost 13 months old now).


I have to watch her closely because she'll occasionally try to sneak rice in her mouth, but she LOVES the rice pit.
We usually come straight to the rice pit on our screened porch after we get home from dropping O off at school. We have fun scooping, pouring, using the funnel, etc.



The rice pit is definitely a favorite activity for O and E, and I highly recommend it for hours of fun!

I added a few links showing the rice pit that O used to play in when she was a little older than E is now.  I can't believe how little O used to be and how quickly she's grown up :(

Catching a Rainbow Science Experiment

O, E, and I usually do a science experiment or an art activity each afternoon. Last week we did the "Catching a Rainbow" science experiment from Kidzone.

We poured a cup of milk into a bowl. Then O squeezed 3 drops of red food coloring at the top of the bowl, yellow at the bottom, and blue at the opposite side (to form a triangle). I squeezed a couple of drops of dishwashing liquid into the middle of the bowl, and we observed the changes.



I printed a sheet from Kidzone for O to complete about our experiment. She worked on it as she watched the rainbow.


She was SO excited when I told her that she had a homework. She said "Homework! I've always wanted to do homework!" I read the questions to her on the sheet, and she dictated the answers to me.

This was a fun experiment, and I'm excited by how much O enjoyed drawing what she saw and answering questions.  I think we may start a science journal for her to draw and write about the different experiments that we do. 

What a week!

It's been an exciting, annoying, and painful week! 

O tried out for a part in The Nutcracker Ballet, and we received a letter yesterday saying that she will be a cherub!  She is SO excited.  I've spent the morning chasing down tickets, and still don't have any...

Elliott upgraded our internet service, but instead of getting faster it went out and we haven't had access since Tuesday.

I threw my back out on Wednesday and can barely move.  Luckily, I had to work at my easy job yesterday (School Psychologist), so I was able to recover a little before I was back on for my more demanding job (mama). 

Drying a Tray with a Sponge

I saw this work at O's school, and I knew it would be a fun one for us to have at home.
To do this work, E shakes water from a bottle onto a tray. She then dries the water with a sponge. E LOVES it! She did it over and over and over and over...

We talked about the concepts of wet and dry while we did this activity.

The bottle is a salt shaker from Dollar General. Don't make the mistake (like I did!) of putting too much water in the bottle...you only need a very small amount.

Oh, The Possibilities...

When I saw this spiral rainbow notepad at the grocery store a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't resist buying it for O. The possiblities for creative art projects are endless!

So far, she has enjoyed writing notes on it with a pen (she is really excited about writing with a pen, and she likes to write all of our names), making a mini accordian fan for E, and she has started working on a collage using a piece of contact paper (sticky side out) that I taped to the sliding glass door. She loves to make contact paper collages, and I think she'll be making a lot of them with these colorful notecards. This notepad was definitely worth the 2 dollars it cost!

And the Winner Is...

Kellie at Training Up a Child! Kellie, please send your choice of shoes, size, and your mailing address to me at chasingcheerios@gmail.com

Thanks!

Painting on Canvas

The girls had a great time painting on stretched canvases this week, and I'm excited to have new art to hang on our walls! I decided to do this art project outside by the lake for easy clean-up, and I'm SO glad that I did!

The hand of a true artist! E was covered in paint, and she tasted it, too, of course.


After O finished her painting, she painted herself. She painted her hands, feet, and legs. Again, I was SO glad that we did this project outside, and I was so glad that it was warm enough to go swimming after we finished!


The girls were proud of their masterpieces!

This one is by Baby E (12 months old).


And this one is O's (4 years old).


After they finished their artwork, we went swimming and caught a baby soft shell turtle!

O named him Buddy (she names all turtles Buddy), and we observed him for about 10 minutes before letting him go. Evidently he lives on our beach because O accidentally caught him again today! She scooped up a cup of sand, and then said in an almost scared voice "Look! There's something in here!" The turtle was buried in the sand with only his head peeking out. We watched him for a while again before letting him go. Hopefully, we'll see him again tomorrow :)