The Iowa Farmer's Wife

5 Days of Outdoor Play: Feeding Birds

2012-02-17T09:26:00.000-06:00

Our homemade bird feeder attracted ZERO birds. Isn't that SAD?! Yeah, we thought so, too. So the Farmer headed out to buy some real bird feeders (3 to be exact) and brought them home for Sweet P to put together. THOSE have attracted a lot of birds and some annoying squirrels (we are NOT fans of squirrels around here). I've mentioned before that we live near a cemetery with LOTS of trees so squirrels are EVERYWHERE! And did you know that squirrels will eat just about anything?! I've seen them eat sunflowers, tomatoes, birdseed (including suet) and acorns (of course). Needless to say they wreak havoc on our home garden in the summer. But enough about squirrels.

It was such a nice day that we had a picnic outside and then the Farmer came home to help us fill the bird feeders.

After we filled the feeders we had some fun with the snow on the ground!

I showed the Farmer some of my awesome 8th grade softball skills and he showed me his middle school baseball skills. Let's just say we're both a little rusty! But Sweet P got a huge kick out of us pitching snowballs all over the backyard.

5 Days of Outdoor Play: A Day at the Farm

2012-02-16T14:09:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago we had some amazing winter weather and headed out to the farm to walk around. Because of the way the crops are planted it's been awhile since we've been able to walk in the fields so we took advantage of the day to walk through the fields down to the pond. Sweet P really wanted to get closer, but there's a fence around the pond so we got at close as we could.

After we walked out in the fields, we handed her a shovel and she got to digging in the dirt. We found some of Grandpa's old horseshoes so she threw a few of those, too.

It was Baby Brother's first trip to the farm, but he wasn't really interested (he slept most of the time).

We checked out the gardens and showed Sweet P the compost piles. I think she's going to be a huge help at the farm this summer and warm weather can't get here fast enough.

5 Days of Outdoor Play: The Wonder of Bubbles

2012-02-15T07:30:00.000-06:00

When the going gets tough, the tough blow bubbles.

That bubble wand is AWESOME. It has a fan on it that works by pushing a button. It's easy enough for Sweet P to use and creates a TON of bubbles. I got the idea from our storytime leader at the library and found it at Target for $2.99. Best $3 I ever spent. She loves it!

WARNING: Please warn your children NOT to stick the bubble blower in their hair and press the button. Also keep in mind that warning your child may not prevent them from trying it anyway. This will result in the fan getting stuck in said child's hair. Many tears were shed as I worked the fan out of her hair, but she'll never put the fan in it again.

Happy Valentine's Day: Felt Heart Ornaments

2012-02-14T07:20:00.000-06:00

This idea was submitted by Kitchen Counter Chronicles and featured in The Heart Project book. I fell in love with this idea when I first saw it and knew I had to make them for family members as a little Valentine gift. I ended up making 7 (Gammie, Nana, Auntie RoRo, AunTK, Auntie Maria, Auntie Jane and Blair). Is anyone surprised that I loved something made out of felt?

Sweet P helped with the last one (for RoRo) and pulled the needle through for me on a few stitches. She got a poked a few times, but laughed it off. I loved the way they turned out and wish I'd made a few for us to hang up! Maybe next year Sweet P will be able to make them on her own and we'll have a Valentine tree!

This was a great project for small scraps of felt and such a fun, simple way to spread love.

Valentine-themed Muffin Tin Monday

2012-02-13T15:47:00.003-06:00

We'll do more pink and heart-related foods tomorrow, but here is Sweet P's heart-themed lunch for today!

Clockwise from left: heart-shaped mushrooms, heart-shaped cheese, strawberry/banana popsicle, heart strawberries and strawberry juice (they were frozen), heart-shaped carrots, dehydrated tomatoes

Think she liked it?

Check out more Muffin Tin ideas at Muffin Tin Mom.

Owl Valentines

2012-02-12T12:30:00.000-06:00

If you're one of Sweet P's friends or extended family members QUIT READING or you'll spoil the surprise!

It should come as no surprise that I love owls and will hopefully pass that love along to Sweet P. So when I was thinking of what to make as Valentine cards for Sweet P's friends and extended family, what did I think of? Owls, of course! The Farmer helped me come up with a few sayings (and he even suggested double layering the hearts) and instead of choosing one we have several messages. And of course, my awesome sister (Auntie Rosita) prettied them up with a fancy font.

Owl be yours!
I will owl-ways love you!
Guess whooo loves you?
I give a HOOT about you, Valentine!
I love you owl-ways and forever
Hoot, hoot! I think you're cute!
Owl be thinking of you!

I had to do most of the work on these since Sweet P can't cut or trace yet, but she put on the noses, squares and punched the heart out of the tummy. She also decorated the backs with stickers.

I think they turned out pretty darn cute.

What do your Valentines look like?

Click HERE for more Owl ideas!

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Valentine Tot Preschool: Trays

2012-02-11T07:43:00.000-06:00

Here are a few of our Valentine tray activities:

Counting/Opening and Closing/Sorting Activity: We started with blank hearts and I handed her stickers to stick on the lids of each heart container. We counted them, then talked about putting the appropriate number of eraser into each container. She did the number 3 first because she had 3 erasers in her hand, then she seemed done with it. I showed her how to shake the container to hear the erasers and she wanted to do more. After she did another one, I told her to shake both at the same time and she felt how they were different. She really felt/heard the difference when she shook 1 with another number.

One to one correspondence: She started out with tweezers, but quickly left them aside and did it with her hands instead.

Counting bears sort: Sweet P actually came up with this tray on her own and filled half the tray with red bears and the other half with red. She called it a cake and came around asking the Farmer and I if we wanted a piece. Too funny!

Sorting: I bought this tray at the $ store this week for this exact purpose. The foam pieces are also from the $ store. Sweet P wanted something in each section so we added erasers and sparkly 3D hearts as well. After she sorted the items, we did a few patterns. I did one for her and then she did one for me!

Broken heart puzzles: I used textured paper that I have a TON of and some crafting scissors for these puzzles. I cut each heart with a different pair of scissors and she matched up each broken heart. I thought it'd be more challenging for her, but she figured it out pretty quickly!

A lot of the activities were completed alongside playing with our Valentine Sensory Bin (all the objects we needed were in it!).

Linking to:

Heart-shaped Button Snake

2012-02-10T15:57:00.000-06:00

I made this for Sweet P last year and didn't get around to blogging it before Valentine's Day. She also didn't play with it much because she wasn't ready for the skill of buttoning and unbuttoning the pieces onto the snake.

She's a pro at it now, although she did figure out if she pulled fast/hard enough it would come right off. Maybe we need to work on some gentleness. It's a great activity for car rides or church, too.

This was a quick, simple and inexpensive project. It seriously took about 10 minutes total (okay, maybe it took longer than that to cut out the hearts). I had everything for this laying around the house (again, not really just laying around the house, it was all put away in a craft box in the basement).

All you need is some colored felt, scissors, ribbon and a button!

Cut several hearts out of different colored felt (or use the same color, it's up to you). Sew the button to the end of the ribbon and sew a loop in the opposite end. Cut a slit in each heart large enough for the button to fit through but small enough to stay on the ribbon. Button the felt hearts onto the ribbon and you're done!

Outdoor Play: Her First Snowman!

2012-02-09T07:31:00.000-06:00

Yep. This is Sweet P's 3rd Iowa winter and she made her very first snowman last Saturday. It snowed aaaallll day long (big huge flakes) and finally stopped shortly before she woke up from her nap.

The Farmer created an awesome sled slide for her and then they built these awesome snowmen! Her mittens make it hard to do much molding in the snow (Note to self: buy new gloves for Sweet P) so the Farmer did most the work.

The face of the bigger snowman is geo pegs for eyes, a carrot nose and poker chips for a mouth!

Give Hugs!

After they made the first one (a girl, of course), they needed to make babies to go along with the mama. We used pumpkin faces to make the faces on the little ones and they look hilarious!

Did you get snow this week?

Party Favor Painting

2012-02-08T08:13:00.000-06:00

We brought home some party favor horns from our outing on New Year's Eve and Gammie asked if I wanted them before she tossed them. I said, "We'll find something to do with them." And I'm so excited I did!

It took me awhile to come up with something, but then I realized these would be AWESOME paint brushes! And they were! Sweet P also used them in snow play dough after she painted with them.

I mixed up some paint based on the color of the horns and then placed the corresponding horn in its color of paint. She had a lot of fun, but the strands did tend to stick together. She used each color, then said she was done so we hung it up to admire it. I love the way it turned out!

Looks a lot like fireworks, doncha think?

What random items have YOU painted with? Leave a link in the comments!

Valentine Ideas Blog Hop

2012-02-07T07:15:00.000-06:00

Check out some great Valentine ideas in this blog hop and then add your own! Join us in celebrating Valentine's Day! This Blog Hop will be open from February 7th-February 14th so start linking up your projects!

Here's our post:

2012 Valentine Sensory Bin

Don't forget to visit others and comment/pin ones that inspire you!

I'm hosting this Blog Hop with the following blogs:

Mama Pea Pod, Let Kids Create, My Creative Family, Hands on: as we grow, La Dolce Vita: The Sweet Life, AngeliqueFelix.com, The Golden Gleam, Teach Preschool, Critters and Crayons, Living at the Whitehead Zoo, The Iowa Farmer's Wife, Nurturestore, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Chocolate Muffin Tree, Jamie's Jumble, The Outlaw Mom Blog, Mama Smiles, The Mommies Made Me Do It, Dinosaurs and Octopuses, Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas, Toddler Approved, Messy Kids, Rainy Day Mum, JDaniel4sMom, Glittering Muffins, Red Ted Art, Mommy and Me Book Club, Putti Prapancha, Dilly-Dali Art, Creative Connections for Kids, Mommy Labs, De tout et de rien: Activités pour le Préscolaire, Imagination Soup.net, Rockabye Butterfly, Classified: Mom, Kids Creative Chaos, A Mom with A Lesson Plan, PlayDrMom, RainbowsWithinReach, Living Montessori Now, Curly Birds, Growing A Jeweled Rose, The Home Teacher, A Little Learning For Two, Sun Hats and Wellie Boots, The Imagination Tree, Mummy Mummy Mum, Critters and Crayons, La-La's Home Daycare, Come Together Kids, Tinkerlab.

Link up your Valentine ideas, cards and projects here!

Yummy Ways to Say I {Heart} You

2012-02-06T08:18:00.000-06:00

What's the best way to someone's heart? Through their tummy of course!

Around here, we think it's pretty fun to make themed food. We do a LOT of muffin tin meals, but I also try to make pictures, shapes or games out of her food as well. What do we do for Valentine's Day? Hearts galore, of course!

Here are a few simple ways to say I {Heart} You with a Valentine snack, meal or treat:

I made these heart-shaped pizzas (love bites) for Sweet P last Valentine's Day and they were a big hit! I even cut the cheese and mushrooms into hearts!

Growing a Jeweled Rose also has a heart-shaped pizza and her little one helped! She also spelled out LOVE in peppers!

My personal favorite heart-shaped meal is this heart-shaped tofu meal from Critters and Crayons. As vegetarians, this would be a big hit at our house!

Like I said, we love muffin tin meals and Rockabye Butterfly and JDaniel4sMom have some fun ideas for Valentine muffin tins! It doesn't have to be super fancy or even heart-shaped, just stick a few heart-themed muffin liners in!

Rockabye Butterfly's healthy heart-shaped lunch

JDaniel4sMom's heart-themed lunch with a heart-shaped muffin tin and empanadas!

Tinkerlab has a fun heart-shaped snack idea: a cream-cheese snack that looks like a cookie without all the sugar!

These cheesy heart-shaped crackers from Kitchen Counter Chronicles put goldfish crackers to shame! Look how good they look! What a great snack for a kid to wake up or come home to!

Valentine's Day wouldn't be complete without a sweet treat or two!

Maggy at Red Ted Art whipped up these awesome Whoopie Pies as part of the 100 Acts of Kindness Project. Don't you wish you were Maggy's neighbor?!

These waffle bowl cakes with cherry pie filling from Glittering Muffins look heart-filled!

And finally, these awesome stained glass heart cookies from The Outlaw Mom and Nurture Store are the perfect way to say I {Heart} You! Eat them or give them as ornaments! I love all the different color options for these cookies!

The Outlaw Mom

Nurture Store

Do you have a Valentine go-to meal? Share the link in the comments!

Valentine Sensory Bin 2012

2012-02-05T07:29:00.000-06:00

Sweet P had a ball with her Valentine Sensory Bin last year so last night I made a new one for her. Most of the items were leftover from last year, but I did get a few new things (heart boxes, erasers and heart necklaces) from the $1 spot at Target.

When she came downstairs the bin also had 2 little Valentine projects from Gammie and TK, a Valentine book and the purple and red cups from her sorting bears.

What's in it?

Purple/Red sorting bears
Purple/Red pegs from her geo pegboard
Purple/Red pompoms
February perpetual calendar tile
Heart shaped boxes
Heart erasers
Heart necklaces
Valentine-themed stamps
Valentine-themed erasers
Sparkly hearts
Felt hearts I made last year
2 red yarn balls
Red jingle bells
String of pink pompoms

We sat together after her nap and sorted the red and purple items into the corresponding cups and made a pink pile for the pink things. Each heart box has erasers in it and she likes opening them to see how many are in each one ("This one only has one, mama!"). Later in the week I'll put number stickers on the boxes and we'll try some counting games.

She and the Farmer also had fun with it after her bath yesterday. There are a lot of items that would be fun with playdough so we may try that later this week, too!

Winter Sensory Bin

2012-02-04T08:58:00.000-06:00

I haven't used rice in a sensory bin before so I decided we'd try it out last week. I put white rice in a large bowl along with several other winter-ish items and placed the bowl in a large tub (container). I also placed a spinach container from the recycling bin in there as well so she could transfer. The large tub/container contained the mess pretty well and caught the majority of the rice if she spilled while transferring.

Other items:

snowflakes from Michael's
clear and blue rocks from Michael's
winter stamps
giant snowflakes from Hobby Lobby
plastic penguin from a street fair this summer

Snow Play Dough

2012-02-03T08:44:00.000-06:00

I have a confession: I despise Playdoh.

There. I said it. I don't like it.

But guess what? Sweet P does. So I set off to find a recipe for homemade play dough, which I now realize is a whole lot more awesome than the other stuff.

First of all, it makes a ton and unless you want to open 5 packages of playdoh or mix all the colors together, you won't get this much from a canister.

I used recipes for white play dough from The Imagination Tree and NurtureStore and had to adapt it a bit because it wasn't holding together. I added more and more cornstarch and it finally began to resemble dough. Color can easily be added, but I wanted it to resemble snow so we kept it white and added glitter. Here's how our recipe turned out.

The Recipe: Snow Play Dough

2 cups cornstarch

1/2 cup salt

1 tbsp vegetable oil

1 tbsp cream of tartar

1 cup boiling water

Combine dry ingredients minus 1 cup cornstarch, then add oil. Stir in boiling water and stir until it forms goopy substance. Let sit for a few minutes, then slowly add the additional cup of cornstarch until the dough begins to form. Add more cornstarch if necessary.

I added pink glitter for fun and tried to add almond extract, but it didn't smell.

We had SO much fun with and keep having more fun! The Farmer couldn't get over how awesome it was. It is so smooth and while does get under your nails just like the other stuff, it is just so much better!

There are so many things to do with play dough! We used:

cut straws
bottle caps with googly eyes glued on the top
facial features from a pumpkin kit
New Year's Eve favors
muffin tin
cookie cutters
cookie press
rolling pin
scissors

Here are a few of the things Sweet P has done so far:

Making monsters with bottle cap googly eyes, straws and items from a pumpkin set.

Making cookies

Making cupcakes

Putting "candles" on a birthday cake

What's your favorite play dough recipe?

Simple Heart Garland

2012-02-02T08:22:00.000-06:00

I bought these hearts at Target after Christmas for .50 cents a pack. I knew I wanted to make a Valentine's Garland, but I also thought they'd work as stencils later. We could also make then into ornaments at some point as well, but for now they are garland hanging in our front window.

I used pink yarn to string it all together and alternated colors. It's a great decoration and the perfect mobile for Baby Brother since his playard/changing table is near the window. And it only took 5 minutes to make and hang up!

The Collaborative Heart Project Fundraiser for AHA

2012-02-01T06:00:00.000-06:00

I am so honored to be a part of The Heart Project, a collaborative fundraiser for the American Heart Association. This project was designed and executed by fellow Iowan Jamie at Hands On: As We Grow in honor of Ellie Jo, a 4-year old cousin in her family. Ellie Jo was born with a congenital heart defect and will one day need a heart transplant. Donations to the American Heart Association help fund research that can help Ellie Jo and others suffering from heart conditions.

Jamie came up with the idea for The Heart Project eBook, which features over 100 photos of heart-shaped art, crafts, food and other items from 70+ bloggers. The book is amazing and each photo unique and inspiring. While I'm excited about the 2 projects we have featured in the book, I'm more excited at how this fundraiser will bless individuals like Ellie Jo. I hope you'll join us on this journey to raise $1000 by Valentine's Day for AHA.

Here's a sneak peek of a page in the book:

How can you be a part of the project?

Donate $5 to the American Heart Association and receive the eBook as a free gift as a thank you for donating!
Buy a hard copy of the book (soft cover) for $20. $5 of each hard copy sale is donated to AHA.
Don't want the book? Simply click the donate button below to donate to AHA.
Share this project with everyone you know!

eBook: 5$ donation

Printed Version

US $20.00

Order the Printed Version

{The book is only available through the month of February so get yours now!}

To donate to AHA without purchasing the ebook, click the Donate button:

Progress:

Craftprojectideas.com is donating $1 for every ebook sold in February! This means that in addition to your $5 donation when purchasing The Heart Book ebook, Craftprojectideas.com will donate another $1 on your behalf!

Please visit the Craftprojects.com Facebook page and tell them THANK YOU for being so generous!

Giveaways from other bloggers, Melissa & Doug and Fudoo Boards will be going on from February 1st - February 14th. Visit this post at Hands on: As we grow for a full listing of giveaways and dates. You don't want to miss them!

A list of all bloggers participating in The Heart Project:

hands on : as we grow	♥	A Little Learning for Two	♥	Among Many Blessings
Angelique Felix	♥	At Home with Ali	♥	Broken Treasures
Busy at Home	♥	Busy Kids Happy Mom	♥	Carrie Saindon's Photo Journey
Child Central Station	♥	Classified: Mom	♥	Classroom Magic
Creative with Kids	♥	Creativity My Passion	♥	Critters and Crayons
De Tout et de Rien	♥	Dilly-Dali Art	♥	Dinosaurs & Octopuses
Excited 2 Learn	♥	Hand Over the Cookies	♥	Handprint & Footprint Art
Happy Hooligans	♥	Heart Journey	♥	Imagination Soup
Jamie's Jumble	♥	Kitchen Counter Chronicles	♥	Kreative Resources
Let Kids Create	♥	Little Illuminationss	♥	Living Montessori Now
Loudness of the Lambs	♥	Love and Lollipops	♥	Mama, hocemo nesto da pravimo
Mama Pea Pod	♥	Mama Smiles	♥	MemeTales
Messy Kids	♥	Mindful Meanderings	♥	Mom to 2 Posh Lil Divas
Mommy Labs	♥	Mommy Perks	♥	Mum Paints Lives
Mummy Mummy Mum	♥	My Creative Family	♥	NurtureStore
One Artsy Mama	♥	Peace Love & Rainbows	♥	Play Dr Mom
Putti Prapancha	♥	Rainbows within Reach	♥	Reading Confetti
Ready. Set. Read!	♥	Red Ted Art	♥	Sense of Wonder
Share & Remember	♥	Stacy Molter	♥	Sun Hats & Wellie Boots
Teach Preschool	♥	The Artful Child	♥	The Chocolate Muffin Tree
The Craft Barn	♥	The Educators' Spin on It	♥	The Golden Gleam
The Imagination Tree	♥	The Iowa Farmer's Wife	♥	The Joy of My Life
The Kids Fun Review	♥	The Outlaw Mom Blog	♥	The Preschool Toolbox
The Seeds Network	♥	Toddler Approved

Snow Glad We're Friends

2012-01-31T08:13:00.000-06:00

I gotta just say that I was pretty darn excited when I came up with this idea. I knew that I wanted us to make cards for Sweet P's friends as part of Toddler Approved's 100 Acts of Kindness Project, but wasn't sure how or what we should do.

I finally decided we'd make snowmen out of small paper plates and some leftover white circles from our Santa Advent Calendar. I just needed something witty to say. Then, one night on my drive home from teaching, I had a YES! THAT'S IT! moment. And these cutie patooties were born.

Sweet P made 5 in all and we gave them to friends over the course of 2 weeks.

I wrote the phrase "Snow Glad We're Friends" on each plate while she drew the faces on the circles and glued on the hats. Then, I stapled the head to the body and she put 3 stickers buttons on the body.

She did an awesome job on the faces and was so excited to give them to friends. We gave some in person, put one in a friend's mailbox and I gave one to a friend's mom (mostly because I forgot we'd see him the next day). It was such a fun way to tell a friend we are glad they are in our lives.

Please share any Acts of Kindness you've been doing in the comments!

Pretend Play: DIY Grocery Store

2012-01-29T08:11:00.000-06:00

I've been meaning to post this for a LONG time and here I am finally getting around to it!

One day last fall as I realized Sweet P really loved shopping carts, I had the idea to create her own grocery store. I started saving boxes and containers from food we ate and her grocery store was born.

We have a little blue cart from IKEA that worked great as a cart, but she got her very own shopping cart from Papa Ray Ray for Christmas (now she uses both).

I threw in an old giftcard to serve as her credit card (she even signed the back while playing with The Farmer one day) and a few little bags.

She loves to play grocery store. She puts everything she wants in her cart (yogurt is ALWAYS in there) and comes to check out ("Will you check me out please?"). I scan all her stuff, tell her the total and help her bag her items. After it's all bagged, she pushes her cart with her bag on her arm to her "car" (aka the futon in the basement). And she ALWAYS has a baby in the cart as well.

This was such an inexpensive way to make play food for her and the containers are great for opening and closing activities. And as we do more with math this will be a great way for her to learn adding. I like to think it also shows her how we can reuse containers and boxes from our food.

Last week we put another shelf in the basement (read more in this post) and now she has shelves for her groceries! We'll eventually fill that shelf with other things, but for now it's a great place for her store.

Tissue Paper Art

2012-01-28T08:22:00.000-06:00

This craft is featured in The Heart Project. Find out how to get your copy of this gorgeous crafts book, which is raising fund for an important cause {here}.

I've seen many, many ideas using contact paper so last week while Sweet P and I were on a mini-date to Wal-Mart (do I know how to do it up or what? Actually we call just about anything we do with just the 2 of us a "date") we picked some up.

And last Saturday we went to town creating an art project with contact paper and tissue paper. I grabbed a few pieces of tissue paper we had in our gift wrapping area and brought them down for her to tear.

The Craft: Tissue Paper Art

What you need:
Contact paper
Tissue paper (various colors)
Tape (packing tape or scotch)
Construction paper (optional)

Tape the contact paper sticky side up to the table or working area. Tear tissue paper into little pieces (you could also cut them if your child wants to) and stick them all over the contact paper. When finished, place the construction paper on top of one side of the contact paper (on top of the tissue paper). Fold over the other side of the contact paper so it is all stuck together.

The construction paper covers any open areas on the contact paper. Tada! The finished product!

I don't have pictures of the project in action, but I LOVE the final product. The neatest part is that the little pink heart was an accident! When we folded it together and looked at it, I saw the little heart. We're going to frame it and I can't wait to hang it in Sweet P's room!

Crack the Egg Activity

2012-01-26T08:02:00.000-06:00

I've been wanting to let Sweet P play with egg shells for awhile, but never could remember to save the shells for her. I wanted to do it even more after I saw this post at Linda's Pre-K. Well finally while making cookies recently, I accidentally hit the top of an egg on the mixer and it made a perfect little hole in the top. I carefully dumped out the egg and washed out the inside. It was still intact and perfectly hollow for her little hands!

I set up a tray for her and the striped container was Humpty Dumpty's wall. That kid is ALL about Humpty Dumpty. She sat the egg on the wall, then let it fall on the tray. I asked her if she could put him back together after the egg was in pieces. And she said, "Nooooo."

Playing with "Humpty Dumpty's" pieces

Examining the pieces

Cracking the egg into tiny pieces

Sprinkling egg shells into cookies cutters to make shapes

Sprinkling egg shells on her tray

She had so much fun and really wanted to throw it everywhere. It was such a neat sensory activity for her. Next time we'll take these outside! I also want to try it with hardboiled eggs as well. Dying the eggs would be even more fun, but I'll save that for an Easter activities.

Have you ever played with eggs?

Wordless Wednesday: Visit to the Duck Pond

2012-01-25T08:49:00.000-06:00

The Farmer was holding her hand SO tight while she threw food to the ducks. She was all about just leaning over the edge to throw it!

On MLK Day we took a walk to the duck pond near our house. It was pretty darn cold (it snowed that night) and about a mile walk round trip (the Farmer carried Sweet P most of the way home). The pond looked amazing because it was all frozen except for the middle part. The ducks and geese were walking on the ice and waddled on over to see what we had for them. These birds are usually overfed during the warm months so it was nice for them to actually want what we had instead of snubbing their noses at our offering.

Linking to:

Outdoor Play: Digging in the Winter Garden

2012-01-24T07:33:00.000-06:00

My great aunt Betty was trying to get rid of some leftovers from a garage sale while we were in Texas so we went over one afternoon to see what she had. My favorite find was these tiny garden tools. They are for an indoor garden, but PERFECT for Sweet P's little hands. She also had 2 sets of child gardening gloves!

The weather last week was unseasonably warm for Iowa so me and my girl set out for the raised garden beds and did some digging. Just because digging is fun. I think I may go out and hide some things in one of the garden beds and we'll do this again!

We found pecan shells, sticks, leaves and rocks, but no worms. We also dug far enough down to find frost on the dirt! Again, one of those times I was more impressed than Sweet P! We also did some raking and talked about the grass on top of the garden beds. So glad she inherited the Farmer's love for gardening.

Build-A-Snowman Muffin Tin Monday

2012-01-23T14:57:00.003-06:00

I was so excited about this idea and Sweet P loved it! It's a Build-A-Snowman Muffin Tin Meal! Playing with food at its finest!

After I told her it was a snowman and explained the different parts, she went to town and made several different snowmen before gobbling it up! I chose cottage cheese because the pieces wouldn't sink in like they would in the yogurt we use (it's really thin for some reason). This was so much fun, we may have to do it again!

Clockwise from top left: blackberry eyes, soynut mouth, carrot noses, fig eyes, raisin mouth, celery noses and cottage cheese snow.

She was so excited about her snowmen!

InGenuity™ SleepEasy™ Playard Giveaway Winner!

2012-01-23T14:12:00.000-06:00

Thank you to everyone who entered the InGenuity SleepEasy Playard Giveaway!

Here are your random numbers:

Timestamp: 2012-01-23 20:06:28 UTC

Congratulations Megan! You won the InGenuity™ SleepEasy™ Playard!

Comment #76:

Megan SutliffJan 19, 2012 07:34 AM

I like you on Facebook! (Megan N Philip Sutliff)

Winner will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

Coffee Filter Snowman

2012-01-22T07:53:00.000-06:00

This might just be the simplest art project we've ever done! And you probably have all the supplies around the house! I think it came out super cute!

The Craft: Coffee Filter Snowman

What you need:
large or small coffee filter
small piece of black construction paper/cardstock
small piece of orange construction paper/cardstock
1 piece of blue construction paper/cardstock
gluestick

Cut 7 small circles from the black construction paper for eyes and the mouth. Cut a triangle from the orange paper. Use a gluestick to adhere all pieces to the blue construction paper and WAH-LA! Coffee filter snowman. So simple!

Lid Ornaments

2012-01-20T07:30:00.000-06:00

The inspiration for this project came from these Nature Collage Ornaments posted by The Golden Gleam. We tried several times to collect nature pieces for this project, but the first time we forgot about the berries and they got thrown away. Then I kept forgetting to have her bring acorns inside during her walks with daddy on vacation. We still plan to do the nature version when the weather warms back up.

While we were crafting with TK, Blair and Gammie, we had her sensory bin from last year out. There were PLENTY of small pieces perfect for making ornaments similar to the Nature Ornaments. We liked the first one so much - we made 3!

The Craft: Lid Ornaments

What you need:

Elmer's glue

Small beads, rhinestones, pompoms, jinglebells or other objects

Lid from a glass jar or tin can lid opened with the proper can opener (it doesn't leave a sharp edge)

Yarn or ribbon

Pour Elmer's glue onto the top of the lid, then stick objects in the glue. Allow to dry overnight or until the pieces no longer move around. Glue yarn or ribbon to the back to hang the ornament on the wall or on your tree at Christmas.

Gammie has a fancy hole punch so our tin can lids had holes punched in them for easy hanging!

Collaborative Heart Project Fundraiser

2012-01-19T17:10:00.000-06:00

I am currently working on a project, created by Jamie at Hands on as We Grow, who is pulling together a “Heart Project eBook”. This collaborative project, involving more than 50 bloggers, will be a fundraiser with all proceeds going to the American Heart Association. The Heart Project eBook will be available by making a $5 donation.

Many participating bloggers will also host giveaways in conjunction with the fundraiser to raise awareness.

You can also participate in this great fundraiser by submitting your own heart project by January 25th or by donating to the American Heart Association and receiving a copy of the eBook when it becomes available in February.

For complete details on this event, visit Hands on as We Grow. More information to follow!

Pretend Play: Cardboard Car Wash

2012-01-19T07:30:00.000-06:00

Sweet P is OBSESSED with the car wash. She tells me every time we run errands, "We need to wash the car." And half the time she is right! Especially since we don't have a garage and it snows! One day she was talking about taking her toy cars to the car wash so I decided I'd whip one up for her.

I found a medium-sized box and got to cutting. The hole had to be adjusted several times to accommodate larger vehicles that also needed a wash.

I'm not lying when I say this activity has seen HOURS of play. And it is SO simple.

One of her favorite things to do was line up all the cars at the entrance, then drive them through and park them on the sides of the box. The Farmer and I had a great time with it, too!

We didn't, but this would be so fun to decorate with paint, paper or markers! We're doing that next time!

So what are you waiting for? Go get a box!

Wouldn't want to wait in that line!

Bring it Inside

2012-01-18T13:30:00.000-06:00

What do you do when it's too cold to play outside in the snow? You bring it INSIDE! This idea was inspired by Happy Hooligans fun in the snow!

The Farmer set up the water table in the basement and lugged in a bucket of snow for Sweet P yesterday. She LOVED it! We started off with bowls and an ice cream scoop and she had a ball just scooping the snow from the bucket into the table.

I ran upstairs to get some people to play with and formed a slide for the people to slide down. She wasn't very interested in my slide. She just kept scooping! We made ice cream and cupcakes and I attempted a tunnel. Sweet P went through 3 pairs of gloves (they weren't snow gloves and kept getting wet, but they worked the best for this activity). If you look closely you can find her in all 3 pairs!

Random insert: Our neighbors put a perfectly good book shelf on the curb last night and I said "TAKE THIS HOME RIGHT NOW" to the Farmer (except I was a little bit nicer) while were on our walk last night. Here's how the rest of the convo went:
Him: "I'm not taking that home right now."
Me: "Why not?! Someone is going to take it!"
Him: "This thing has been here ALL day. No one is going to take it."
Me: "Fine. But if it's gone when we come back I'm going to be really mad."
...30 minutes later.
Him: "I can't see it. Someone must've picked it up."
Me: Craning my neck and straining my eyes to find it (we were still several houses down). "You better be kidding."
Him: "Oh wait. It was hiding behind that tree."

And all was right in the world. We lugged it home. He took the frame and the shelves while I lugged the backing, holding Sweet P's hand (Baby Brother was in the Ergo if you're wondering).
End random insert.

While she was playing, I decided to clean above book shelf because it was right next to where she was playing and REALLY dirty. I ran up to get the dust stuff (olive oil & vinegar in a spray bottle) and a rag. Halfway into it, Sweet P wanted my spray bottle. So I found an empty one, filled it up with water and let her go to town. (this paragraph reminds me of a "If You Give A Mouse" book.)

She quickly learned that spraying water on snow turns it to a slushy consistency and if you keep spraying, it melts it into water. That spray bottle got a workout and at one point she was spraying herself in the face on accident. I squatted down to help just as she figured it out and got a face full of sprays. We thought this was hilarious so she sprayed me until my face was dripping. Then the Farmer came down and said "Was she spraying you? Your face is wet." Ha. Then he got a face full, too.

SO much fun. We are SO doing this again. Soon.

Feeding the Birds?

2012-01-18T07:46:00.000-06:00

Last week the weather was FABULOUS. So fabulous that we decided to make a bird feeder. Yep. A bird feeder. It seemed like a really good idea at the time, but since then I haven't seen a single bird. Not one! But it was fun, it turned out pretty cool and it's simple enough to make again when the weather gets warmer. Maybe we'll call it a squirrel feeder and it'll keep them out of the garden. We can hope, right?

The Craft: TP Roll Bird Feeder

What you need:
TP Roll
Peanut butter/butter knife
Bird seed
Hole punch
Yarn
Wax paper

Lay out wax paper (this will minimize mess and give you a place to lay your bird seed). Punch two holes across from each other at the top of your TP roll. Thread the yarn through the holes and tie off. This will give you a way to hang your bird feeder.

Use the butter knife to spread peanut butter all over the TP roll.

Sprinkle bird seed on the wax paper, then roll your TP roll through the bird seed.

Sprinkle any leftovers on top of any open spots on the roll.

Take it outside and hang it for the birds!

Simple!

Like I said we haven't had any snackers, but we'll keep watching for them!

Snow Tracks

2012-01-17T07:14:00.000-06:00

Know what this is?

Yeah, I didn't either. Until I found more in the yard while Sweet P and I were out playing in the snow. It's a rabbit track! I didn't have my camera while were playing, so by the time I went back out the majority of the tracks had disappeared with the snow so this is the only track left.

This track was hanging out right below our bird feeder we made last week (so far we've seen ZERO birds feeding from it). Think it's the wrong time of year for a bird feeder? Anyway, we found it while checking on our bird feeder. I think this little rabbit smelled the peanut butter on our bird feeder, but couldn't figure out how to reach it!

We followed the tracks around the yard until we got to the fence line and saw the track disappear into the neighbors yard. I was SO excited that we'd found an animal track in the snow! Sweet P wasn't quite as impressed as I was (she wanted to go back to the pile of snow the Farmer shoveled into a flower bed). We also saw paw prints from the neighbor's dog in the yard behind us.

We made some of our own tracks with our boots and Sweet P liked the polka dot print her boots made. I'm actually excited for it to snow again so we can have some deeper snow to play in!

Have you seen any animal tracks in your snow?

Note: We don't live on the farm (yet), we live in town so this was a special treat. These are a regular occurrence at the farm!

100 Acts of Kindness Project @ Toddler Approved

2012-01-16T13:53:00.000-06:00

We're joining the fun at Toddler Approved's 100 Acts of Kindness Project.

On Sunday night during our first official Family Bible Time, we discussed the Fruit of the Spirit. We talked a little bit about each "fruit" and later while I was looking over the 100 Acts of Kindness Project, I thought it would be a great way to teach Sweet P about Kindness.

Wanna join in? Head over to Toddler Approved's 100 Acts of Kindness Project page for more ideas and this sweet little button.

Muffin Tin Monday: Winter Theme

2012-01-16T07:23:00.000-06:00

Judging by the "feels like -4" temperature on Friday, winter has finally come to Iowa! So we got out some leftover muffin liners with snowflakes on them and had a winter themed lunch. Not everything fit into the theme, but we had fun anyway!

Far left column: snowman arms (celery), strawberries and chopped snowman nose (carrots)

2nd column: almond butter, snowman mouth (raisins), green olives

3rd column: melted snowman (apple sauce), soynuts and snowman eyes (figs)

4th column: snow juice (soymilk), snowballs (cheese) and crackers

InGenuity™ SleepEasy™ Playard Review and Giveway! (ends 1/22)

2012-01-15T07:47:00.000-06:00

To celebrate 300 likes on my Facebook page, I'm hosting a pretty awesome giveaway!

I received this rockin' InGenuity™ Sleep Easy™ Playard to review when Baby Brother was about 3 weeks old. It's set up in our living room and a great place to lay Baby Brother while I tend to Sweet P. It also has a changing table attachment, which we LOVE, but I may be getting ahead of myself here!

Bright Starts carries a variety of infant and toddler toys, playmats, bouncers/swings and playards. I was delighted to do this review/giveaway because I've loved other products by Bright Starts. We didn't have a playard with Sweet P (we just borrowed from friends or used the one at my mom's house when we visited) and now I REALLY wish we had! Having a safe place for your little one to sleep or play while you cook, clean or take a deep breath is so important. It's also a great way to keep your 2nd baby from getting trampled by your first!

InGenuity™ Sleep Easy™ Playard product description and features:

The patented SleepEasy™ incline feature sets this playard apart! The adjustable bassinet offers 2 sleep positions: Flat or slightly inclined allowing mom to choose the position that works best for baby. For added comfort and entertainment, the playard includes a soothing sound station™ and a fabric toy bar with 2 plush toys.

There's plenty of storage for baby's necessities with Store Right Solutions™. The Just Right Height™ elevated changing table easily pivots away to provide easy access to baby and a comfortable changing experience. Quick fold and go with the One Less Step™ feature makes this playard highly portable and easy to take along.

SleepEasy™ incline with 2 sleep positions: Flat or slightly inclined
Store Right Solutions™: Removable organizer tray and lower zip storage area for baby's necessities
One Less Step™ for quick fold and go without removing the bassinet
Soothing Sounds Station™ that includes 5 melodies and 3 nature sounds
Just Right Height™ elevated changing table easily pivots out of the way
Fabric toy bar with 2 plush toys
Travel bag included

I would recommend this playard to a friend over and over. The fact that the bassinet folds down with the rest of the playard makes travel simple. We took the playard with us over Christmas and it was simple to assemble and disassemble. You do have to pull up a bit on the sides before pushing in the buttons, but once you figure that out it's relatively easy. The bedding portion and bassinet pieces all fit into the travel bag for reduced baggage when traveling. I do wish the changing table could also fold down to fit in the travel bag.

The adjustable bassinet has also been awesome for Baby Brother because he's had major congestion since he came home from the hospital. The slight elevation helps keep him from getting too congested while he naps. Zipping and unzipping the bassinet to elevate the top is a cinch! I also love that the zippers are hidden and not a hazard for baby.

We didn't have a changing table with Sweet P either so that has been a great addition to our baby gear. The height is great on my back and the organizer tray holds plenty of diapers, our wipes and burp cloths. The changing table easily swings out while baby is in the playard.

The storage and easy access zipper is probably my favorite part of the playard. We have extra diapers, burp clothes, wipes, blankets and our playmat stored underneath the bassinet portion. I'm really going to miss that feature when we remove the bassinet!

The Soothing Sounds Station was a huge surprise for me. Most baby gear has music that sounds like a midi file and gets annoying after 5 minutes. I could listen to the Soothing Sounds Station melodies while I sleep! The nature sounds are also very calming.

Baby Brother loves to watch the two stuffed animals on the toy bar and I like that the bar can be moved around. The neutral colors are great and the playard doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in our living room (okay, it does, but not in a primary colors kinda way!) The playard is sturdy and would definitely work for subsequent children! We'll definitely be using this for years to come both in the home and while traveling. The playard is available at several retailers, including Babies R Us.

So how can you get one?!

Buy one! To find a retailer near you, click here. Bright Starts is offering a printable coupon for $10 off any InGenuity product! Coupon may be used at Wal-Mart, Target, Buy Buy Baby or Babies R Us.
OR
Win it! Bright Starts has offered to give away ONE InGenuity™ Sleep Easy™ Playard to ONE of my readers! Retails for $139.99!

Here's how to enter:
Please use a valid email address for each entry.
Mandatory Entry: Visit the Bright Starts website to check out the InGenuity products and leave a comment here about your favorite.

Additional Entries: You are eligible for additional entries once you've completed the mandatory entry (please do this as your first comment).

Like The Iowa Farmer's Wife on Facebook (1 entry)
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Giveaway ends January 22nd at 10pm (CST). Winner will be chosen via Random.org and announced in a separate blog post. Winner will be emailed and has 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. Open to US and Canada residents only. Must be at least 18 years old to win.

FTC Disclosure: I received this product free of charge from Bright Starts in order to conduct an honest review. I was not compensated in any other manner to review this product. The thoughts and opinions in this post are my own and may differ from other users of this product. I am not liable for any issues that may occur from use of this playard. Photos and images in this post are owned by me or provided by Bright Starts.

Kids Crafts Pinterest Board

2012-01-12T09:55:00.000-06:00

Do you Pinterest?

If not, then you should. Because it is fun. And fun is good. (a little Dr. Seuss for ya).

Anyway, this is a collaborative board that several fabulous bloggers pin to and you should follow it! It's full of A-mazing and A-W-E-S-O-M-E (spell it out, it sounds better) crafts and ideas to do with your kiddos!

Follow the board here! Kid Blogger Network Activites & Crafts

Now go join Pinterest if you haven't.

Holiday Highlights

2012-01-11T07:41:00.000-06:00

After being gone for 3 weeks visiting family and friends in the southwest, we've been busy readjusting to our routine at home. We hit the ground running when we got home and are still whirling from that. As we get back into the swing of things, take a look at the highlights from our holiday season.

We had so much fun and got to see so many wonderful people. We're missing pictures of Auntie Maria, Mama Mary, Auntie Jane and Papa RayRay but it was SO good to see them!

Reading with Nana

Modeling her froggy hat from Papa RayRay

Meeting 2nd cousin Royceton, he & Baby Brother are only 10 days apart!

Riding on Nana and Papa Dennis' tractor

Playing with Gammie (I hear everyday: I MISS GAMMIE!)

Meeting PawPaw (Great Grandpa) for the first time

Opening gifts from sweet Blair

In their matching monster jammies from Gammie

Checking out her "Santa" gift-a kitchen! (more on this later)

Building a snowglobe with TK

Hugs from 2nd cousin Noah

TK and Uncle Eric got engaged!

Uncle Eric's surprise party!

Meeting 2nd cousin Tressan!

Playing in the tiny village we found in Allen

Running in the maze we found in Allen

Christmas Eve minus Auntie RoRo and Uncle Will

Christmas Day

New Year's Eve

How were your holidays?

2011 Best Ideas for Kids Blog Hop

2012-01-02T06:51:00.000-06:00

What a year it has been! Sweet P and I did so many different crafts and activities over the year that it was hard for me to choose just one of my favorites for this post, but as I was thinking about it I kept coming back to our Rainy Day Caterpillar.

I came up with this craft one rainy morning and we had a ball creating it. We've actually made two of these caterpillars and one of them turned into a butterfly. The caterpillar was a great addition to The Very Hungry Caterpillar and a fun way to talk about colors. I still love that it could stand up on its own.

In case you missed the original post over the summer, here it is again:

The past few days have been rainy as all get out around here. On Thursday morning we were up SUPER early (which if you know Sweet P at all, any time before 7:45 classifies as super early) so we had time to kill before heading to Trader Joe's and Costco for groceries. With that time we made a colorful caterpillar. We used recycled goods and some fun pipe cleaners she got for her birthday. She picked out the colors of the legs and was cutting paper with these scissors (also a birthday gift). Colorful Caterpillar is well loved, he even came grocery shopping with us!

The Craft: Colorful Caterpillar

What you need:

1 paper towel roll (empty of course)

scraps of tissue paper

pipe cleaners

glue stick

small piece of cardboard

Sharpie

Sweet P tore strips of tissue paper and I glued them with the glue stick to the paper towel roll. Then, we twisted pipe cleaners around the body to form legs.

Our caterpillar has 12 legs, you do not have to use that many! Cut a small circle the size of the end of the paper towel roll out of the small piece of cardboard. Draw a face with your Sharpie. Fit the circle into the end of the roll. Amazingly my cut out fit perfectly so I didn't need to tape/glue it on.

My favorite part is that he can stand up on his own!

Viola! Colorful Caterpillar! This project would go great with The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

Caterpillar Kisses!

What is your Best of 2011 craft project? Join these other crafty mamas and me in the Best of 2011 Blog Hop.

Guidelines for the Hop:

-Please share ONE post (this can be a post of multiple projects) of your favorite kids craft from 2011

-Grab our button and place it in your post or on your blog. Invite your readers to participate!

-Visit other posts and leave comments on those you remember, those you love and those you hope to recreate!

Visit these other bloggers taking part in the Best Ideas for Kids 2011 Blog Hop:

AngeliqueFelix.com, The Golden Gleam, hands on : as we grow,Toddler Approved, Red Ted Art, The Iowa Farmer’s Wife, The Outlaw Mom Blog, Let Kids Create, Come Together Kids, Creative With Kids, Science sparks, Mama Smiles, Rainy Day Mum, teach mama, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Imagination Tree, JDaniel Fours Mom, Teach Preschool, De tout et de rien: Activités pour le Préscolaire, Tinkerlab, Mama Pea Pod, Crayon Freckles, Sun Hats & Wellie Boots, From Tantrums To Treasure Hunts, My Creative Family, Classified: Mom, Puddles and Gumboots, Art For Little Hands, Creative Connections for Kids, At home with Ali, Nurturestore, The Chocolate Muffin Tree, Critters and Crayons, The Mommies Made Me Do It, The Goodlife Bloggers, Putti Parancha, Dinosaurs and Octopuses, Puddles and Gumboots, Messy Kids, Jamie's Jumble

Best of 2011 Blog Hop

(Don't have a blog? Leave a comment to share your post.)

Best Ideas for Kids 2011 Coming Soon!

2011-12-30T18:13:00.001-06:00

Stay tuned for the Best Ideas for Kids 2011! I am honored to be hosting this blog hop with some amazing bloggers! Each of us will share our favorite post from 2011 and you're invited to join the fun by linking up your favorite kid-related post from the past year. Visit on January 2nd to be part of the blog hop and/or find some great ideas for your kiddos!

Hosted by these fabulous blogs:

AngeliqueFelix.com, The Golden Gleam, hands on : as we grow,Toddler Approved, Red Ted Art, The Iowa Farmer’s Wife, The Outlaw Mom Blog, Let Kids Create, Come Together Kids, Creative With Kids, Science sparks, Mama Smiles, Rainy Day Mum, teach mama, Kitchen Counter Chronicles, The Imagination Tree, JDaniel Fours Mom, Teach Preschool, De tout et de rien: Activités pour le Préscolaire, Tinkerlab, Mama Pea Pod, Crayon Freckles, Sun Hats & Wellie Boots, From Tantrums To Treasure Hunts, My Creative Family, Classified: Mom, Puddles and Gumboots, Art For Little Hands, Creative Connections for Kids, At home with Ali, Nurturestore, The Chocolate Muffin Tree,Critters and Crayons, The Mommies Made Me Do It, Jamie Jumble

Mini-break

2011-12-21T14:50:00.000-06:00

Taking a mini-break to spend time with loved ones. We'll be back soon! Enjoy lots of food, family and fun this Christmas season!

Simple Hot Chocolate

2011-12-19T07:19:00.000-06:00

Drink Hot Chocolate was Sweet P's first Action on her Advent Action cards. I didn't want her to have store bought hot chocolate so I came up with a VERY simple hot chocolate recipe. She LOVED it and has had it several times since that first day of December!

The Recipe: Simple Hot Chocolate

What you need:
8 oz. of Organic Vanilla Silk Soymilk
1/2 to 1 tsp of cocoa powder

Heat soymilk for 1 minute in the microwave. Stir in cocoa with a mini-whisk. Serve in a teacup. Makes the perfect mug for a 2 year old!

This was after she and the Farmer played in the snow - the perfect time for hot chocolate!

Glitter Rice Snowflakes

2011-12-16T06:47:00.000-06:00

This was our first experience with glitter and now I know why I've never used it! Glitter gets EVERYWHERE! Oh well, she still had a blast with the rice and the glitter (and could've done without the snowflakes!). I think they came out super cute!

The Craft: Glitter Rice Snowflakes

What you need:
Blue construction paper (we used 2 colors)
White rice
Glitter (we had a pack of several options)
Glue
Scissors
Trays to contain the mess (which sorta worked!)

If your child is scissor-aged have him/her cut out the snowflake. I cut it out for Sweet P and then laid it on the tray. Squeeze glue all over the snowflake, then sprinkle (or dump) the rice and glitter on top! Shake excess off on to the tray and allow snowflake to dry. Then hang in the window!

You could also make these into ornaments, but I love the way they look in the window.

I'm linking up to these parties.

Felt Rudolph Activity

2011-12-14T06:49:00.000-06:00

I saw this Rudolph on Pinterest and KNEW I had to make something similar for Sweet P. As you know, I.LOVE.Felt. LOVE it! But enough about that! This was super easy (took about 5 minutes) and Sweet P was too cute when we played with it! I added the pompons later for a variation.

The Craft: Felt Rudolph

What you need:
Light brown, dark brown, orange, blue, yellow, green, black, gray, purple, red, pink (and any other color you want) pieces of felt
Black sharpie
Scissors
Colored pompons (optional)

Cut a head out of the light brown felt. Cut one circle out of each piece of colored felt including the dark brown. Trace your child's hand on the brown felt and cut out (these are the antlers). Draw black eyes on the light brown felt. Place on a felt board or other surface and play!

This is how we played, but there is also a Rudolph, Rudolph rhyme you can use as well.

We laid out Rudolph's head and antlers, but I kept the circles in my hand.

Me: Does Rudolph have an orange nose? (while placing the orange nose on the reindeer)
Sweet P: Noooooo. (while picking the orange nose off)
This continued through all the colors until red was all I had left.

Me: What color IS Rudolph's nose?
Sweet P thought for a second, then sang: Rudolph the RED-nosed reindeer!!!!! (and I handed her the red nose to place on his face)

So fun and such a great way for her to talk about colors.

Use pompons for a variation.

I'm linking up to these parties.

Tot Preschool: Nativity & Gingerbread

2011-12-13T07:18:00.000-06:00

The first week of December we focused on the Nativity and Gingerbread People. We started our Advent tradition and readings on Monday evening of that week (TK was still here with us!).

Verse: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Phil 4:13

Bible figures: Jesus, Mary, Joseph, the angel Gabriel

We used Homeschool Creations' Gingerbread Baby printables and 1+1+1's Nativity printables.

Tot Trays:

Felt Gingerbread People: I got these last year and was excited to use them for this unit. We had SO much fun with these. We counted them and then did a song similar to 5 Little Pumpkins, then we did 10 little gingerbread and I made up a song about one going away.

10 little gingerbread standing in a line, 1 walked away and then there were 9.

9 little gingerbread walking through a gate, 1 stayed behind and then there were 8.

8 little gingerbread praying up to heaven, 1 fell asleep and then there were 7.

7 little gingerbread picking up some sticks, 1 went to play and then there were 6.

6 little gingerbread playing near a hive, 1 ran away and then there were 5.

5 little gingerbread standing at the door, 1 went in and then there were 4.

4 little gingerbread climbing in a tree, 1 fell out and then there were 3.

3 little gingerbread going to the zoo, 1 got lost and then there were 2.

2 little gingerbread out to have some fun, 1 went home and then there was 1.

1 little gingerbread just for me, lying on a plate he looks good enough to eat!

What Color Are The Buttons? Each gingerbread baby had different colored buttons (there were 8). I asked "What color are the buttons?" And she'd say the color and put the appropriate colored pompon on the card. She even wanted to put a pompon on the gingerbread baby on the front!

Advent Wreath: I found a huge bag of craft supplies at a garage sale this summer and this was one of them. It's from Oriental Trading and although it was a little old for her, she helped glue on all the pieces. We use it for our Advent readings each week.

Size sequencing: We did smallest to largest and largest to smallest.

Sensory: I can't remember what this stuff is called and it has recently been all mixed together, but she LOVED it for 2 weeks. She would play with this stuff all day! I added popsicle sticks and a couple of other tools for her to use with it.

J is for Jesus and Playdoh: I helped her roll the playdoh into J's, but she was really more interested in just playing than J-ing.

Animal/People Sort:

Prewriting Practice: She LOVES these and loves to color on them after she traces the lines. Her lines aren't perfect, of course, but she does a great job.

Gingerbread Baby Letter Match: We only did A-H because she wasn't too into this. She did enjoy the fact that there was a boy on the uppercase and girl on the lowercase letters.

Felt Gingerbread Dress-Up Doll: See link for details

Activities:

Gingerbread Man Puzzle: I laminated, cut out and glue the puzzle to magnets. Sometimes these puzzles are hard to put and keep together so the magnets really helped.

Gingerbread Man coloring sheet: Sweet P was all about coloring this week. I'd say "Can you color his buttons orange" and she'd color that area.

Gingerbread number dot: I traced our foam gingerbread boy and created this. Sweet P lost interested after number 10, but we walked through the rest of the numbers since we have just started doing and recognizing teens. She also traced around him with the dot marker!

Christmas collage: She'd been asking to do the Christmas collage ever since she saw me cut out the pictures for it and then wasn't really interested when we did it. She did like putting on the Christmas stickers.

Gingerbread house coloring sheet: She did this with the Farmer one afternoon.

Gingerbread Man stickers: I traced this gingerbread man too. I held the sticker book and asked her "What sticker do you want for his eyes, his buttons, his mouth, etc." We had so much fun with this and she put all the stickers on! I was so impressed with the mouth!

Gingerbread Coloring poster: This was an advent gift that week.

Mary & Joseph wooden figures: She also colored this with the Farmer while Baby Brother and I went to MOPS.

Other Activities:

Christmas Sensory Bucket: We did a lot of matching pairs and sorting in a muffin tin with the items in her sensory bucket. I found several pairs of awesome tongs at Hobby Lobby in the holiday section for 99cents!

Reading books from her Christmas Book Advent Calendar:

Playing with Nativity Magnets:

Playing with her carmat:

Decorating Christmas cards for Holiday Mail for Heroes: See link for details.

Making pizza:

Making a gingerbread house: See link for details

She also decorated a gingerbread man on Starfall.com.

Simple Snowflake Ornament

2011-12-12T06:22:00.000-06:00

I can't take credit for this because our dear friend Amy came up with the idea. She had a Happy Birthday Jesus playdate last week and had a craft ready for us to make, but the kiddos were playing to hard to be bothered with a craft! Amy packaged up all the pieces for the craft (isn't she awesome?!) and sent them home with us.

While making Christmas Candy on Friday as our Advent Action, we made our ornament while waiting on the toffee to boil. She even threaded the ribbon through the hole for hanging it up!

What you need:

Foam snowflakes (Walmart or Target or even Dollar Tree)

Snowflake ribbon (or any type of ribbon)

Stamp and silver ink

Silver sharpie

Snowflake stickers (or other Christmas stickers)

Large jingle bell

Amy stamped all the snowflakes and I gave Sweet P a silver Sharpie when we got home to add other decorations to the edges. She threaded the ribbon and I threaded the jingle bell onto the ribbon. Wa-la! Simple snowflake ornament!

Then she posed for me so I could get a pic of her hanging it on the tree.

So cute and so simple! Thanks Amy!

2 mos Stats

2011-12-11T06:45:00.000-06:00

Can't believe our little man is already 2 mos old! And he's growing like a weed!!!

I thought Sweet P was a chunky monkey, but Baby Brother weighs 3 more pounds than she did at this age!!

2 month stats

Height: 25 1/4 inches

Weight 15lb 13oz

Percentile: 99%

Felt Gingerbread Dress-up Doll

2011-12-09T07:20:00.000-06:00

Last week our theme was Gingerbread People (more on that coming soon in a tot school post) so I decided to make Sweet P a felt gingerbread person modeled after the foam gingerbread boy TK gave her.

The template

I did clothes for a boy and a girl, but the gingerbread(girl?) never got out of her dress (I had to dress it in the boy clothes for the picture!). She also LOVED putting both bows on its head and calling them pigtails. Sweet P loves all things girl (and calls her brother a girl on a daily basis. The Farmer finds that hysterical...it drives me bonkers.). Everything is a she/girl (unless she knows for a fact it is a boy). But any asexual toy becomes a girl (ESPECIALLY if I call it a he on accident, she says "IT'S A GIRL!"). Anyway, on with the gingerbread!

I used the foam g-boy as a template and cut out a brown piece of felt. Actually, I used his vest as a template as well. I freehanded the dress and other bits (frosting for the arms and legs, mouth, bows) and added pompons for buttons and cheeks.

Isn't it just the cutest little thing?

I glued on googly eyes, then put all the pieces in a little art supply container and set it on a tray for her. It got played with several times last week.

Linking up to It's Playtime! and The Play Academy

I'm linking up to these parties.

Another Healthier Gingerbread House

2011-12-08T08:09:00.000-06:00

Last year we made these gingerbread houses (er, huts) and I knew I wanted to do something similar with Sweet P again this year. Since my attempt to make a house didn't go so well with natural peanut butter, I knew it'd completely fail with almond butter so I decided we'd skip 3 dimensional and make a flat gingerbread house. It worked great!

Here's what we used:
Trader Joe's Cinnamon Graham Crackers
Shaved coconut
Craisins
Raisins
Pumpkin seeds
Trader Joe's strawberry fruit bar
Peanuts
Almond butter

I simply arranged the graham crackers so that it resembled a house, stuck it all together with almond butter and handed it over to her. Oh, I also cut the door and chimney pieces for her.

At one point I tried to make a peanut a doorknob. She said, "I don't want a doorknob." Okiedokie.

She had a ball making it and wanted to eat it right away, but I convinced her to save it to show the Farmer (he was coming home in 5 mins). She was so excited that she was yelling at him through the door when she saw him in the window. Too funny. Maybe next year we'll attempt another 3 dimensional version.

Tot Preschool: Thanksgiving Week

2011-12-07T11:12:00.000-06:00

TK was visiting during both Letter K and Thanksgiving week so we got to have lots of fun with her. I pulled printables from a lot of different sites so I really hope I give the correct credit where credit is due!

Bible Verse: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

We didn't have a bible figure during T-giving week. I don't think pilgrims and Wampanoags count as bible figures!

Her favorite book that week was One Little, Two Little, Three Little Pilgrims. She memorized it. (We read it THAT many times). I must admit I loved it, too! And we checked out this week at the library (I had to hunt for the holiday book section!).

Trays:

We used these fabulous printables from Our Little Monkeys' Thanksgiving Tot Pack:

Pile of Pumpkins: I laminated this and she used flat marbles to find the P's.

Scrabble tile match:

Which one is different? and Who is tallest?: She did great with these! A month ago she didn't understand the concept of different, but she pointed them out and then circled them with a dry erase marker.

DLTK's Dot Turkey: She worked on this twice that week.

Activities:

Hanprint Turkey puppet: I traced her hands, TK cut them out and Sweet P glued on the pieces and decorated the bag. It came out really cute!

Cupcake liner turkey: We got a gift for Baby Brother that had giant cupcake liners as holders for a onesie and I saved them hoping we could use them. This turkey was perfect! Sweet P decorated the liner (his feathers) while I cut out the pieces for his face.

Marker Art: She asked to draw with markers and drew what really looked like a Christmas tree. It's covered up by her turkey book.

1+1+1's Color the Turkey book: This was great for colors and following directions. I laid out the markers and handed her one turkey at a time. I'd read "An orange turkey." and she'd pick up the corresponding marker and color the turkey.

DLTK's Dot Turkey again:

Our Little Monkey's Color by Number Wampanoag

Handprint Turkey Puppet

Hippo: She did the hippo with Uncle Ian and the Farmer one morning. It's a coloring book we have that you choose the eyes from stickers for each animal.

A Heart for a Home's Turkey T-Maze: We have done a few mazes and she doesn't love them, but this go round she marked the T's and then drew the line to the turkey!

Upstairs Shelves:
Puzzles by Mamas Monkeys: I've seen these put on Mega Blox before so I tried it out with these. They were so fun! And she had fun putting them in the wrong spot too! Flat they are so hard for her to keep together. Will do this again with other printable puzzles.

Melissa & Doug's Emotion Bear

Other Activities:
Our Thanksgiving Turkey (it turned out so cool!)

Tot Schooling with Daddy and Uncle Ian

She made this fun handprint turkey at MOPS:

Playing in Daddy's boots!

Decorating the Christmas Tree

Modeling her Turkey shirt that Gammie made!

Playing with a Rhodes roll: She LOVES LOVES LOVES these. They come frozen so we gave it to her straight from the freezer. She got to see it go from hard to soft and had a ball playing with it. "Wanna play with my playdoh, pwease."

Eating Thanksgiving dinner!

Holiday Mail for Heroes

2011-12-07T07:28:00.001-06:00

I so wanted to post this earlier, but the post (and the week) got away from me. Mailing a Christmas Card to a serviceman was one of our Advent Actions early in the month and I really wanted to do this with Sweet P. We watched the video on the Holiday Mail for Heroes webpage and I tried my best to explain to a 2 year old what exactly someone in the military did without going to in-depth about war or their injuries. (See the bottom of this post for the deadline).

I had a pack of holiday cards so we set to decorating the inside.

I wrote a note in each one and then let her decorate with markers and stickers. She had a really good time and even tried to draw a Christmas tree.

You can still send Holiday Mail to Heroes! Letters must be postmarked by December 9th. Visit the Holiday Mail for Heroes website for more information on what/what not to include. These cards mean so much to the individuals who receive them.

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-12-05T15:32:00.001-06:00

Sweet P made her own muffin tin last week. She loves helping out in the kitchen and drags a chair over to stand up at the counter. Here's what she came up with last week:

1st column: clemetines
2nd column: macaroni pasta and peas, coconut, Ak Mak crackers
3rd column: macaroni pasta and peas, pumpkin seed, carrots
4th column: Ak Mak crackers, dates, almond butter

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Santa Calendar

2011-12-05T14:57:00.001-06:00

The Santa Calendar is somewhat of a continuation of our Thankful Turkey. We had such a great time with the turkey that we wanted to keep it going (or a variation of it anyway). The original idea was a tree with ornaments, but when I asked Sweet P if she wanted a tree or Santa, what do you think she picked?

Yep. Santa. So here he is (even though she really doesn't know what he's all about).

This is our "What are you looking forward to about Christmas?" Santa. We ask the question each morning and although she doesn't quite get the question, she knows it's something we like to do.

I free handed the Santa on construction paper and posterboard and stuck him to the wall in our dining area. She has a Santa placemat that has his eyes closed (he's smiling and squinting) and she was a bit disappointed that the one above's eyes were open (of course if I'd drawn them closed she'd have wanted them open).

I cut out round circles from the leftover posterboard and I write our answers on one each morning. We've talked about looking forward to the birth of baby Jesus and celebrating his birthday, visiting family and visiting friends.

This morning after I wrote hers and the Farmer's answers, I said, "Mama is looking forward to.." and I paused to think about it. She answered for me and said, "Coffee." Does she know her mama or what?

Tot Preschool: Letter K

2011-12-04T14:41:00.001-06:00

Sweet is 30.5 mos old

Oy! I'm so behind in posting these and I do them so I can have a record of what we did last year. Here we are the 2nd week of December and I don't even have the Thanksgiving post up, yet! And this isn't it! Oh well, here it is anyway:

We started doing trays this week as we are adding more Montessori based activities to our preschool.

Verse: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. ~Phil. 4:13

Bible Figure: King Solomon

Trays:
Our trays are cookie sheets from the Dollar Tree (what can I say? They were only a $1 and work great).

Opening and closing containers: Sweet P had a ball opening these items. Her favorite was the mini hair spray bottle and she kept taking the lid off and running the squirt bottle through her hair. She wasn't too interested in adding a marble to listen to the sound each one made, but she did do it on a few.

Sensory bag: This bag is filled with clear hair gel and glitter with hearts in it. It gets really cold in the basement so the bag was cold, which she really liked.

PomPon transfer: What started as pompon transfer turned into a really fun activity. I gave her a TP roll to put the pompons through and she started using it as a slide. It wasn't really working so I cut it in half lengthwise, taped it together and created a slide. She LOVED rolling the pompons down the slide "into the fwimming pool (the tray)". This was played with several times that week.

Dress a Gingerbread Man: TK brought this with her for Sweet P and she had a great time putting all the stickers on him.

Activities:

Shannon's Tot School's Letter K Maze: Sweet P did pretty well on this one! It's not her favorite thing so I'm glad we're curbing letters for awhile (since I already printed them!)

Upper/lowercase K Kite: Yes, yes, I drew that awesome kite. She dotted upper/lowercase K's with a different color of do-a-dot marker.

Letter K collage: Lots of kitties!

Foam gingerbread man: See above in Trays

1+1+1's Thanksgiving Pack's Color by Number Turkey

A Heart for a Home's lowercase k

Kangaroo coloring page

DLTK's do-a-dot K

Upstairs Shelves:
Number puzzle from Target $ Spot

Melissa & Doug Pizza Party

Animal Questions puzzle (there's a koala in it!) from Target $ Spot: It has questions about the animals around the edge.

Other Activities:

Leaf Maze with TK: See link for details

Hanging out with Baby Brother

Decorating her Treasure Chest (this is part of our reward system)

Making Pumpkin Granola: See link for more details

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Advent Action Cards

2011-12-04T10:06:00.000-06:00

Remember how I said I have awesome sisters? Here's more proof.

I typed these up in my handy dandy Word Starter pack (it won't even let me make business cards..it's that awesome). I looked at them, almost printed them out, then thought "Maybe Auntie RoRo will take pity on me and pretty these up." Let me let you in on a well-known fact: this is a super busy time of the year for RoRo and her business so I didn't think she'd have the time (and she told me on the phone that she didn't have the time). But much to my surprise and delight, I found a pdf of these adorable cards in my inbox that afternoon.

See? She's awesome. (I also think she probably'd be embarrassed if she visited the blog and saw my plain, jane cards.)

Each morning Sweet P comes down the stairs from her room and picks a card out of her sock advent calendar (RoRo also made that for Sweet P...she must really love us!). Sometimes we do the card right away, other times we wait for the Farmer to come home from work. She loves picking the card out of the sock and has been really excited about the actions so far.

Here's the list of our actions (we only have 16 since we'll be headed south after the 16th):

Day 1: Drink hot chocolate

Day 2: Send a Christmas card to a serviceman (Holiday Mail for Heroes)

Day 3: Sing Christmas carols

Day 4: Make a gingerbread house

Day 5: Dance to Christmas songs

Day 6: Spend some alone time with Mommy

Day 7: Look at Christmas lights

Day 8: Make Christmas candy

Day 9: Take change to a Salvation Army Santa

Day 10: Take Christmas Candy to a neighbor

Day 11: Take a family walk

Day 12: Take Christmas candy to a friend

Day 13: Play in the snow (if we have some!)

Day 14: Make an ornament for Gammie

Day 15: Make an ornament for Nana

And Day 16:

Your action cards don't have to be fancy (or even printed)! Write them on a sheet of paper and hide them around the house, put them in a stocking each day or hide them in the tree. What other actions would you do?

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Advent Gift

2011-12-03T10:35:00.000-06:00

My mom started this for Auntie K when she was little and I knew I'd continue it for my children. Each day Sweet P gets a small gift as part of advent (yes, yes, this is in addition to a wrapped book). Her first year it was mainly bows, socks, a handprint ornament kit, etc. (things useful to an 8 mo old). Last year we added books (wasn't doing the Christmas Book Calendar at the time), stickers, and other small free or $1 items I'd come across throughout the year. Anything we didn't use ended up in her stocking.

I had most of her Advent gifts before the end of January for this year. Either stuff leftover or things we found for 50% off after Christmas. Gammie and RoRo sent a few things throughout the year, too.

Each day she comes downstairs, pulls an Advent Action card (upcoming post) out of her sock Advent calendar and opens a wrapped book. After we read the book she hunts for her Advent gift which is hidden somewhere in the room.

Here's what she's opened so far:

Day 1: Alphabet Alley's A Child is Born Christmas Magnetic Playset (such an awesome set and comes with it's own magnetic playbook). The magnets are thick and great for toddlers. After putting them on the dishwasher Sweet P told me "Mary needs to hold Baby Jesus" so the baby Jesus is in Mary's lap. I love listening to her commentary.

Day 2: Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer window clings. We have a large front window that is perfect for window clings! She loved sticking them up and is currently obsessed with the abominable snowman (he's a mighty humble bumble!).

I have a few gifts that follow our Tot Preschool theme for the week. We are doing The Nutcracker next week so I have a nutcracker wooden craft and a small nutcracker to give her. She LOVES to look at them anywhere we go that has them.

Do you do Advent gifts?

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Chain Calendar

2011-12-02T08:00:00.000-06:00

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Chain Calendar

If you have a Trader Joe's (and you forgot to bring your own bag), you've seen the holiday bags with holiday tags and a chain to cut out.

When Auntie K was here she cut out all the pieces and glued most of the chain together. I counted the chain after she left and realized we only needed 3 more pieces to have 16 links so I found the extras and glued on three more.

Each day after we do our "days" (circle time) we tear off a link to countdown to Christmas (or countdown to leaving town for Christmas).

I love the simplicity of this countdown and that it recycles!

Do you have an Advent countdown activity?

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Book Calendar

2011-12-01T11:48:00.001-06:00

5 Days of Advent Calendars: Book Calendar

I couldn't decide on just one Advent Calendar this year so I decided we'd do not 1, not 2, but 5 different things. Overboard? Maybe. But we've had so much fun on day 1 that I'm glad I did.

When I pulled out and counted our Christmas books, I realized we have 16, which is the number of days we'll be home before driving south for the winter (or at least Christmas). Some are just about snow, but since it snows so much here I figured they'd be a good addition to the Christmas pile.

We've accumulated the books over the past year (we had about 3 last year). I picked up several from garage sales over the summer, bought some on Amazon and Gammie found a few at thrift stores throughout the year.

I'm not sure which ones are our favorites because we haven't read them, yet! But the 5 I listed have 4.5 to 5 stars on Amazon so it sounds like they're some good ones.

I wrapped each book and will set one book under the tree for Sweet P to unwrap each day. We'll then sit near the tree or in our reading corner and read the book for the day.

I'm excited to start this tradition with her because she LOVES books. I know she'll be excited about getting a new book to read each day this month.

We have a variety of books, but here are a few:
If You Take a Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numberoff
Little Porcupine's Christmas by Joseph Slate
The Big Snowball by Wendy Cheyette Lewison
Lift the Flap Nativity
One Night in Bethlehem by Tim Wesemann

Tomorrow's Post: Chain Calendar

New Blog Header & a Plug

2011-11-30T22:14:00.001-06:00

How do people make it through life without a sister? I'm not sure, but I'm glad I don't have to. Mine are Awesome with a capital A. I could list 1,000,000 reasons why, but I'll start with just a few.

First, they both came to visit after we had Baby Brother. Auntie RoRo stayed for 18 days!!! and TK (Auntie Kannon) stayed for 2 weeks. Pretty sure we wouldn't have had Thanksgiving dinner if it weren't for TK and who knows where we'd be without RoRo during those first few weeks.

Also, both sisters contributed to my fabulous new header (I'm allowed to brag about it because I didn't make it...that would be tacky). TK took some great family pics (well, as great as they can get with a 6 week old and a 2.5 year old, right?) and RoRo found a place for one of those pics in the header. I love the colors she used and that snow pic of the farm is my all time fav.

While I'm at it, have I mentioned that Auntie RoRo (aka Rosita Designs) makes custom Christmas cards, invitations, baby announcements and just about any other paper good you can think of? I have? Well, I'll mention it again. And Christmas is COMING (that goose is getting real fat, real quick) so get on it and order some cards from her. Her work is A-MAZING. But you don't have to take my word for it, check it out for yourself!

Rosita's blog

Rosita's website

Oh and one more thing. TK also has a blog and she posted all the fabulous recipes she made while she was visiting us so go visit her and give her some love.

Auntie K's blog