Fall Sticky Tree

I found the original idea for this from Teaching Mama and thought it looked like an easy to assemble "art project" I could throw together at the last minute when I needed something to occupy the kids.  To my surprise Bea loved it and played for around 45 minutes with it and then went back to it the next morning and continued to add some of the fall stickers I had set out for them.  Charlie liked it for a few minutes but I think became frustrated when he couldn't reach the top of the tree (my fault) and I think for the next one I'll make them each a tree (or whatever, this has a ton of potential variations).

I drew the tree on contact paper and also set out the fall images and a packet of fall felt leaf stickers that I actually had from last year.

We'll definitely do another fall one, plus maybe a turkey for Thanksgiving, a Christmas tree, etc.  the options are endless!

Heather

Fall Salt Dough

It's finally, almost, fall!!!!  I absolutely love fall, the weather, the smells, everything.  So when I saw that Fun at Home with Kids has a full week of fall posts I knew we had to try some.

Up first, Fall Salt Dough.  I didn't have any pumpkin pie spice on hand (bad mom!) so instead we went with cinnamon.  Bea helped me mix and knead the dough and then started rolling it out and making her fall shapes:  leaves and pumpkins.

 We play with play dough quite a bit and the texture of this was similar so she had no problems rolling it out and making shapes.  I was actually surprised how good they were by the end of the activity!

Here she is making a snowman.  Not sure why, since she does know that snowmen are for winter, but she insisted on making a snowman.

The dough smelled delicious and we both kept taking breaks from rolling and cutting to take a sniff of the cinnamon!

Here is our cookie tray full of fall shapes.  We baked them for around 2 hours at 200 degrees, flipping once half way through.

I'm not sure what we'll do with them yet, probably just put them in a fall inspired bowl around the house, although Bea did say she wanted to put some in her room to look at while falling asleep.  And even though Charlie was napping during this she asked to save some of the dough so he could play with it later.  Someone loves their little brother!!!!

Heather

Bath Time Goop

Today was a rainy and humid day.  I had promised Bea that the next time we had a rainy day we would do, what she calls, "bath painting" again.  I only realized that the last time we had done this was in March and she's still talking about it!

Bath painting is just shaving cream mixed with food coloring and the kids use this to paint our tub.  So far we haven't had a problem with stains in the tub, although we did have some blue stains on our hands today so I think I'll try liquid watercolors next time.

In addition to the bath paints I found a recipe from Growing A Jeweled Rose called Goop and thought it would be fun to try.  It's basically just a mixture of corn starch and water (and color, if you want) but the substance it makes is insane.  It's liquid but also solid, when you try it you'll understand what I mean.  Here's our Goop after I first mixed it.

At first Bea didn't want to play with it.  She kept saying it was really sticky.

 After a few minutes they were both well into it.  We added the bath paints and they painted the walls, mixed colors, painted a few bath toys, and ended it with putting their feet into what was left of the Goop.

Once we were finished I simply turned on the water and we turned clean up into another game.  I'm definitely making Goop again soon!  I think this held their attention for almost an hour, which I think is pretty good for a 3.5 year old and a 21 month old!

Heather

Ocean Fizzy Sensory Bin

Here's another sensory bin that I found over at Fun At Home with Kids.  It's called a Fizzy Ocean Sensory Bin.

I really wanted to do this before we went to the beach while in California, but I didn't get around to it.  I used the baking soda mixed with water method that they describe in Fun At Home but didn't have any shells handy at the time so I just made round forms with some sea creatures hidden in them.  Then I added vinegar (with blue food coloring) to our spray bottles to spray on them and make them "fizzy".

Next time I'll use squirt bottles instead, our spray bottles really didn't release enough of the vinegar at once, although Bea still enjoyed seeing the animals emerge and the baking soda fizz!  And Charlie took a turn at using the squirt bottle as well!

After we ran out of vinegar I added a little water and the kids had fun splashing around and making the sea creatures swim.

At one point Bea even dipped her toes into the water!

Great sensory bin for a hot summer day!

Heather

Moldable Sand Dough

Another hot and humid day here and with the threat of thunderstorms we decided to do our Moldable Sand project in the screened in porch.

I also found this one at Growing a Jeweled Rose, she really has some great ideas!

It actually looks like scrambled eggs here, I followed the recipe she listed which was baking soda, food coloring, and then add enough water to make it moldable.  I also added the suggested salt to give it more of a grainy texture.  She did warn against adding too much water, which I didn't think I had done while mixing it but as the kids played with it the water started to come out and it ended up a little soupy.  Which actually didn't seem to bother either of them, Bea even said she liked it.

Since ours was a little wet it ended up making a huge mess.  The good news though is that it wiped off the kids very easily and I left it outside to dry out some before cleaning up, which made it very easy and simple.

Oh, and Bea insisted on wearing her sun hat when we started playing with the "sand".

Heather

Bea & Charlie

Just a couple of pictures from the pool party we went to on the 4th.  We swam, had a yummy dinner, and a great time with friends.  Oh, and I somehow lost my only maternity swimsuit.  Bea asked if it "fell off of me".  Pretty sure it didn't, but I can't find it anywhere!

As you can see, the main attraction for them was the mini bouncy house.

Heather

Icy Kool Aid Finger Paint

Since it's been so hot and Bea's been asking to paint I decided to do a twist on our usual painting.  I recently came across this Chilled Out Kool Aid paint post by Growing a Jeweled Rose.

Ours was a little more liquid than theirs, but I think that might be because my portions were larger.  Next time I'll split them up into more containers.  However, Bea and Charlie still loved the fact that they were "cold finger paints".  They both began painting immediately and a few minutes later Bea, who hates getting her hands dirty usually, had both hands in the paint and was soon mixing and painting.  And of course Charlie soon followed.  

By the time they had finished both were covered head to toe in paint, but the good news is that everything wiped off of them easily and the clothes came out of the dryer looking like nothing had ever been on them! 

We'll definitely do this one again soon!

Heather

Charlie

This was back in January.  Charlie absolutely loves this monkey hat, and though it's way too small he insists on wearing it around the house (even now!).

Heather

Fruit Loop Sensory Bin

Bea loves sensory bins so I thought I'd start recording some of the ones we do.  Today it was pouring down rain the entire morning so since Soccer was cancelled I decided to pull this out.

Bea and Charlie both love scooping and pouring and since Charlie will still sometimes put things in his mouth I thought fruit loops would be a good option.  I purchased an inexpensive bag of fruit loops from Target and added some of our measuring cups and teaspoons.

Needless to say they played with it for about 45 minutes before we finally moved onto something else.  And they kept asking to pull it out the entire morning!  I guess we'll keep this in rotation.

Heather

Who Doesn't Love a Pink Headband

6/365

I Love My Sister

5/365

First Day Back at School

4/365

St. Louis Airport

3/365

With Daddy

2/365

Photo A Day

Bath time 1/365

One of my New Year's resolutions is to take more pictures of Bea and Charlie.  So I'm taking on the Photo A Day challenge.  I've already started and I'll upload days 1-7 over the next few days (along with adding new ones).

I'm expecting this to be extremely challenging but hopefully in the end I'll have a wonderful snapshot of our daily lives.

Heather

Beatrice, 30 months

This update is almost two weeks late but I'm a little behind since we've been visiting your 'Meatball and PawPaw' in Missouri.

It's hard to believe you're already 2 1/2.  You've become such a little lady.  You love to carry purses and backpacks and will take as many as I'll allow when we leave the house.  Currently your Dora backpack and a clear and green striped tote bag are your favorites.  And you fill them with all of the necessities, coloring book, crayons, sunglasses, and cell phone.

The other thing you love as much, if not more, than your purses are your babies.  There's Super baby, New baby,  Baby doll, Dora, Dora doll, and Ballerina.  Every night you tuck them in under special blankie and at least one will go with us on outings.

You also seem to be going through a dress phase.  Every morning when asked what you want to wear you respond, 'a cute dress with bloomies'.  If only I would've known this at the beginning of the summer I wouldn't have stocked up on tanks and t-shirts!  Size wise you can wear a 2T but it's usually a little big.  In shorts and skirts (when I can talk you into them) you're an 18 months.

Food wise you continue to be picky but you will at least try everything on your plate.  Fruit is a huge favorite, which is good, as is 'yogurt juice' (kefir) right now.  You've also surprised me by loving, and requesting frequently, tofu.

You continue to be a great sleeper, still taking one nap in the afternoon (for about 2 hours) and sleeping most nights until 7am.

Most of all you are such a funny and engaging little girl.  You love to make your little brother laugh, you love to read, you've found a new obsession in Max & Ruby, and you love to pretend play.  We've spent the past 3 weeks in Missouri and you've had such fun that I'm going to hate it when we have to leave.  But preschool starts next month and I can't wait to see what that brings!

Heather

Charlie, 8 months

Time is flying by right now.  It feels like I just posted about what Charlie's doing at 7 months and here his 8 month birthday has just passed.

Charlie is still the happiest baby.  Nothing makes him laugh like his big sister and he can't get enough of peek-a-boo.  Usually we play after his nightly bath and he uses his towel to cover his eyes until I ask "where's Charlie?".

He hasn't started crawling on all fours yet but army crawls everywhere.  And there's nothing he isn't into right now.  It's like he's been scoping out the house for months and now he's on a mission to grab and see everything.

And in true boy fashion he gravitates towards the normal suspects.  He absolutely loves balls and banging anything that makes noise.

He now has four teeth (two top and two bottom) and is still eating really well, as well as really messy.  We've taken to feeding him only in a diaper (classy, i know) because he gets food everywhere.  This past week he decided to blow raspberries every time I would place a spoonful of food into his mouth.

Thankfully his sleeping habits are back to normal.  No more 45 minute crying sessions at bedtime.  I'm hoping that was just connected to teething.  But it does seem we have an early riser.  He usually goes to bed around 8pm and pretty much always wakes up at 5am.  He will nurse and go back to sleep but at that point we're usually awake.

We're also taking trip number 2 in a few days and this time I'll be flying alone with both Bea and Charlie.  Fingers crossed all goes well!!

Heather

What We Wore Wednesday

Jumpsuit:  Target

Sandals:  Old Navy

Heather 

Ice Ice Baby

It's been awhile since we've done any "art projects" (Bea calls anything creative an art project) in our backyard.  It's been so hot most afternoons that we've been staying inside.  However, today felt relatively nice, considering the highs of 100+ this weekend, so we spent the afternoon outside.

This was a pretty simple one.  Last night I made blue, green, and yellow ice cubes using food coloring and an ice cube tray.  This afternoon we put them all in a disposable roasting pan.  I gave Bea a cup with water and an empty cup.  She spent the majority of the time pouring water and ice cubes back and forth and Charlie spent most of the time grabbing the cubes and splashing in the water.  I was actually surprised how much he participated, although I'm not sure why considering how much he loves being a part of whatever Bea does.

After about an hour of playing we went inside and Bea and I had some jello (not the best snack, but I tried to make jello cubes for this and it did not turn out well so we had a ton leftover).

I'm definitely going to do this again.  Maybe next time I'll freeze some bigger blocks of ice and use a bigger container.

Heather