Fabulous Fairy Princess Birthday Gift

Little went to one of her very first official birthday parties this weekend, and to say she was excited is a complete understatement! She talked about it for 3 days, telling me all that she 'knows' about birthdays and on the day of declared she'd be wearing her birthday hat (from her first birthday) and wore it around the house for most of the morning! I think she was most excited about the cake, and boy did she devour it!

I on the other hand was super excited to put together my hippy birthday gift! So I asked the mom if it'd be ok and went to work. My theme - a fairy princess messy kit! I wrote up recipes and gathered materials and wallah, a Fabulous Fairy Princess Messy Kit!!!

Here are the two magic fairies and wand to create some gooey magic! 

The note says:

We are two fairy princesses excited to play.

We create potions and magic that will make your day!

So grab your ingredients, your wand, and of course us…

Let’s mix and squish us some magical stuff!!!

Next I wrote up recipes I found online (ack I DID NOT keep the web links for these recipes and therefore can't share them because I can't give credit...lesson learned for next time), I changed all their names to fairy theme. I laminated each of them for durability. 

Recipes Include:

Fairy Playdough -Stove Top Recipe

Fairy Playdough - Non-Cook Version

Pink Fairy Slime

Fairy Goop

Fairy Dust

Fairy Treasure Boxes

Fizzing Fairy Potion 

I gathered up the materials to create and boxed them up! I hope the little one that got these will have fun making cool fairy creations and of course getting messy! 

:) 

Learning about Noah's Ark

As the Little's get older and as we go into home schooling I'm finding that it's important to me to start introducing the Bible to them. Since I'm not terribly familiar, I think it's going to be a great way for all of us to learn and to work on creating a relationship with God.

Since the Littles are so small, right now our learning will all be through play. I think Noah's Ark is a great place to start!

Here's my fancy shmancy laminating machine that I picked up last year on lightening deal at Amazon! It's fantastic and does and 8X10, I highly recommend. 

I just found animals on the internet, some that Little knew, others that she's not so familiar with, printed them out, laminated, cut, and whalah! 

So here is our sticky wall Noah's Ark. I cut out an Ark and covered it with contact paper. I left it up and let her explore.

Since I wrote this post she's asked to play "NoNo's boat" over and over. We also borrowed books from the library to extend her understanding of "NoNo (Noah)." : )

Fall and Halloween Activities - So Far

This was a dollar store find from LAST year, although I have seen them in store this year too.

She did this last year, when she was just newly one, and again is enjoying it as a two.

These are cupcake decorating sticks and Styrofoam. Super easy to set up, great for fine motor development.  These are pumpkins and ghosts. I DID see bats the other day, so I "may" have to go back and get some :)

This is fall table scatter, I scored this last season in clearance at Target, whoot whoot! I originally got it for the light table, but have so much that I thought a sensory bin would be fun.

Here's the invitation that I set up. There were scoopers and other containers available too.

Little took the invitation and decided to take it from scooping into imaginary play and began to feed her animals. 

 These animals needed to lay down so their faces could be in the food hehe.

Shaving Cream and Liquid Water Color Play

This afternoon we took out an old favorite of mine that I loved to present the kiddos when I was teaching - shaving cream and liquid watercolors.

We have a VERY old white table, which works perfectly for this activity. I placed the shaving cream on the table and "hid" the liquid watercolor inside. You "hide" the colors by placing cream on the table, squirting a color in the middle and then putting more cream on top to conceal it.

Here's Little Exploring

After a while she chose the colors and we squirted them onto the huge pile. The colors made such a pretty mixture!

She surprised me and put her hands in the mixture for a few seconds at a time and then washed them immediately. She likes sensory activities but doesn't LOVE to be messy :)

Here's the table mid process.

Ice Block Building - First Time

There is a wonderful site that I found years ago before they got big. They had this activity and so I've been wanting to try it. I got the molds during Amazon's Prime Day...they were the only awesome thing that was on their "day of sales!"

Here's the finished product - I'll need to post a pic of the actual molds later. 

Investigating.

Realizes they stack. 

 
 Oh so much CONCENTRATION!

Here's when they fell down. Little visited this activity for about 30 minutes before she was done. She stacked and transferred the blocks into a basket that she carried around. Once done we used the blocks and melted water to water our veggie garden. 

In time I'll color the ice cubes and add things like droppers, tongs, salt, etc. to support the evolution of play. I have my eye on the next size down cubes, so maybe for Christmas I'll be able to get those ones!

Happy 4th!

Here's some shots from our Fourth. Daddy worked all week, and stayed home, and the Mini was with his mom this year. The two Littles and I went to my parent's house for a few days, it's always nice to go "home." :)

I HAD written "Daddy worked all week and got to stay home alone!" But had to take it out because on the fourth there was a knock at the door and it was him! He drove for an hour and a half to spend almost less than that with us, only to turn around and drive back, what a guy, what a wonderful surprise!

Little let me put a bow in her hair, which was an amazing accomplishment, and even KEPT it in during the first part of the day. Little Ry was super cute in his star hat!

Here's Little, her enthusiasm for the day was less than stellar. We're titling this photo: "Have a happy 4th or else!"

We went to my parents small town parade, it was very much the small town parade that one would expect. Little was most excited about a few horses and some tractors that rode by, oh and some balloons, whoo! 

Here's Little Ry checking out the cars in the parade, vroooom! 

Other weekend highlights were seeing the cousins, eating ice cream sandwiches, swinging and bubbles in the backyard, and swimming at "Grandpa Warren's" my mom's neighbor. 

The Mini also saved about a half a dozen fire works for the Little, so a few days after the Fourth we went outside and lit them off. It was still light out, but maybe next year when she's 3 she can make it till dark! 

Joy!

Joy is - Swinging! Whoo Hooo!!! 

Early Literacy

Just sharing, Little Ry getting his early Literacy Skills on! 

Here's Little "Reading" one of her favorite books :) This kid Loves to read! She stays up at night in bed reading for 20 to 60 minutes every night! Hope this love sticks with her!

Little Man's Reserach, Block Building, and Mommy's OCD Moment.

When Miss Little was born (two years ago), a few weeks later I received a letter in the mail from UC Davis about infant research studies. Being the nerdy Child Development major I am I was SO excited to take her! It takes us over 30 minutes just to drive there for their studies, and they only last about 5 minutes but I just think it's so neat and love doing it! She started at 4 months old and is still participating at 2, I think when she gets to be 3 she gets to do the hands on studies, rather than just the eye tracking ones. Currently she's in studies trying to understand language in infants.

Little Ry just turned 4 months so he's now eligible to participate...I totally put him on the list of participants even before the was born! :D Mini was curious what the camera set up was like, he was imagining a camera mounted on his head! So here's a picture, the thing on his head is an eye tracking device which links with a camera in front of him and the screen he watches. They gloss over the research but essentially he's tracking faces which show preference based on expression for this study. Until 12 months he'll be enrolled in research examining infant cognition.

Long story short, this nerdy SAHM loves to get just the very very small dose of something closely related to my field (you know, besides just developing my own children!), and this does the trick! Pretty sure this is the cutest research participant EVER!

This summer it has been pretty cool, until the last few weeks, and since then the kids and I have been hiding in the house after 10 am so we don't melt! Last month Little had a birthday and got some AWESOME blocks! I was so excited because she'll be able to use them for such a long time and I'm pretty certain they'll last until my husband and I have some grandkids --- a LONG LONG TIME FROM NOW!

Just a shout out, I do believe the blocks were purchased form Lakeshore Learning...best store ever!

The great thing about these blocks is not only can she use them but my 10 year old has been using them a lot too! He's been setting them up, almost like dominoes, and then knocking them down with Nerf bullets. He's also been using dominoes and doing it that way with them! You have to be creative when Momma puts a limit on Media viewing ;)

Anyway, her's a shot of Little and Mini building. Blocks - bringing together the 10 and 2 :)

Lastly, I have a bit of OCD about certain things, well here's one lol! Little insisted she "Help You" with the vacuum. Aghhhhh, is what my brain says, "Oh thank you" is what my Child Development side says. I left it like this until I used the vacuum again but ack lol. Those that know me totally get this (My Erika know's what I'm talking about)!

Shots from a few days in summer.

Here's a few shots from our summer days so far...

The Little is sometimes a high sensory seeker...as can be seen here, "napping" in the sandbox. Oh so much sand EVERYWHERE! 

Three nights of sleep. Hard Work = Deep Sleep! My favorite is where she fell asleep with the Hungry Caterpillar book open! 

We got to go out for a treat (smoothies) and to the park with the zip line. Initially I asked Little if she wanted to go and she shook her head and said, "No!" But after giving her time to warm up and choose, she decided she DID want to go...and then she didn't want to stop! Big Brother held her tight and they went a few times, and only fell off once at the end, but he caught her! Little Man was along for the ride and the life of the party as he slept through the whole park trip. 

Here's a video of it! 

Roll baby roll! Little Man has FINALLY rolled over! Here's the action shot at a little over 4 months old. 

Here's to more fun during our summer days! 

Dramatic Play Area - Always A Work In Progress

As with the whole learning environment, it's a work in progress, as it always is. The dramatic play area is no different. I've been thrifting for storage for this area and have one shelf set (a few more not picture in progress).

So here's a shot of one shelf. There are some IKEA tins cooking pots and pans. I love them because they are affordable and realistic! I found these great wooden coaster that work perfectly as plates at our local thrift store! At the bottom are slice fruits and veggies, which are always a hit, and on the top are another favorite company's item, the Melissa & Doug cookies...although the frosting on one is missing in this pic :) 

I set up a play invitation for Little, pizza and birthday cake making, again from Melissa & Doug. She insisted I sing happy birthday to her duck after she created her cake. This activity kept her busy for quite some time. 

We have a lot of other items in our play area, but again I'm trying to go to more realistic looking pieces (wood, metal, etc.). More pictures to come as more changes are made :) 

Colored Oatmeal Sensory Bin

I have seen colored oatmeal on Pinterest and have been wanting to try it. I FINALLY got around to it and it was SO easy and pretty quick! 

I picked up some oats on sale at our grocery store. I used both regular food coloring and biocolor. Both came out great, I just didn't have green or red biocolor...perhaps an excuse to make an order!!! 

I chose to mix in a bowl, but you can do a baggie and shake it too, espeically if your Little wants to help..mine was napping! I did 2 cups of oatmeal for each color and about 3/4 cup coloring and water. I placed them in the sun to dry and in a few hours they were completely dry. The oatmeal did stick together, but I just used my hand to break the pieces apart. 

THE FINISHED PRODUCT! 

I presented the oats to Little along with some wooden bowls, spoons, ceramic leaf bowls, and some old heart scoopers, which she used basically the whole time. She did watch me put the bin together so the fact that I got a picture of the finished product before she tore into it was an accomplishment all on it's own! 

After playing for a while, she decided that our thrift store find, the bunny bank, needed some tasty treats. The oats kind of remind me of looking like fruity pebbles cereal. 

This was super easy and semi quick to do, although drying did take some time. I've done the same with rice too and again, super quick. We just store this on a low shelf in the room in a plastic bin with a lid and use until she loses interest, then switch out for another sensory material.

Again, I'm Not a Blogger...

I love the idea of documenting our play and life, and think, "Oooooh I can do that!" SO then I start and do it for a few weeks and then life happens and BAM, no more.

So, again, going to try, but we'll see.

Since the last post, WHICH was a year ago, we have added to our family!

We Now Have a MINI, A LITTLE, and ANOTHER LITTLE! Our newest addition joined us in February, he's so sweet and adorable and already growing up so fast! The MINI is again on summer vacation, he's 10 and looks like he's 13, he's finally as tall as I am and I bet by the time summer is over he'll be taller than I!!! The LITTLE is 2, that's right folks, 2, and YES she got the memo and is living it up...2!

I am still a stay at home mom, which I love because it's best for my children, but I still miss "working"...perhaps one day. Yes I use the term "working" as in outside the home...don't even get me started on any of that!!! My poor husband works so much, SOOOO much, but we sure are a lucky bunch that he does so that we can be home together.

All in all, life is GOOD and we are GOOD and how wonderful is it that, that is where we are! <3