Springing into Spring

We are all a flutter that Spring is here! It's so fun with a toddler. Teaching her to experience new growth and the transformation from worn to new is exciting!  

We kicked it off with something that I already know my daughter loves - flowers! 

I originally planned to go for a flower hunt but it ended up raining so we "planted" flowers inside instead. The best part of this activity is the flowers never die and they don't need to be watered. Plus they can be replanted over and over again! 

For the reusable flower garden you will need:

Contact paper

Masking tape

Variety of colored foam

Cut a piece of contact paper any size you'd like your garden to be. 

Using the masking tape hanging it on a window (I used our sliding glass door) sticky side out. 

Cut stems and leaves out of green foam and different flower shapes from the other colors. 

Have your little one plant away! 

The rain eventually did let up but not enough to go on our hunt so flower (eh,hem weed) picking in the backyard had to do. She loved trompping in her raincoat and boots! 

We also created a Spring Sensory Box. 

I put in:

Small rocks and a few large ones (can be found anywhere they sell dried flowers even the Dollar Store) 

A small bird nest (bought in the dollar bins at Target last Fall)

Feathers

Eggs (um, hello it's Easter time so these should be simple enough to locate) 

I also included a spatula from her kitchen set to use as a "rake" and a spoon to use as a "shovel"

She loves to put the eggs in the nest and "watch them hatch". 

Happy Spring! 

Make your own pretend make-up

Like most little girls my daughter is fascinated with watching me do my make-up and wants to do herself as well. 

For several reasons I don't allow her to actually play with mine. I've given her the brushes and even empty compacts to use to pretend. This only got so far with her. So. My solution was to get her some. The problem was all the store bought ones didn't look realistic enough. My daughter would have none of that. Next step? DIY, of course! 

I set out to make my own realistic looking makeup for her. I started saving my containers as I finished them. Ok, I didn't actually go through all of this but emptied out the free samples I get. Even better because they are FREE!! I came up with quite a collection for her! 

Wanna do it? You'll need:

Empty make up containers

Nail polish

Brushes/ applicators (her Auntie found these amazing rainbow ones)

Extra make up bag

How: 

Make sure your containers are clean and dry. 

Pour nail polish into the make up slots

Let dry. 

Soooo simple, and she loves it!!! 

Her little sister is now her victim. 

8 Months 03-22-14

Our lil bug is 8 months old. She has an extended attention span now.  She loves playing with her toys.

 She's pulling herself up on her own and even lets go promptly falling to her butt. But she's trying! She's working on getting her feet under her so she's not standing at an angle. 

She can "walk" (more like stomp and drag) while holding onto things. 

She's becoming a little dare devil. 

And quite the Houdini: 

She has becoming highly interested in food. She actually threw a tantrum the other day because she didn't get any of the snack her sister and I were eating. It was terribly funny and sad. She loves chick peas, watermelon, and she still highly favors avocado and carrots. 

She's starting to make sounds that are interpretable such as "Mmm" for milk "dadada" for daddy and "mamama" for mama. Other than this she's selective when talking. If her sister is in the room Esther doesn't jibber too much. But have her alone and she's all jabber! 

We are working on signs with her but not expecting her to use them yet as she's still learning what her hands can do. 

Weight: 17 lbs

Height: 28 1/4 inches 

DIY Water Mat

I recently went to someone's house for a baby wearing "pet the carriers" meeting and they had this super fun water mat for her little pea that lil e loved. So of course I asked where they bought such a fun toy which they answered and added "it was a little pricey for such a toy". 

Well I looked at my Sister in Love and said a phrase I find myself saying more and more lately, "I can make that". Thanks to a link she found and sent me later I was totally sold on making it. Below is my version of the mat. By making it I saved quite a bit as this took pennies as I had everything already at home. 

Materials:

Ziploc Bag ( you choose the size, I used a gallon) 

Duct tape

Flat toys (I took from one one my eldest sensory bins I made previously and found  sea animals) 

Water 

Instructions:

Place toys in bag along with water about 1/3 full. 

Burp bag until the air is out and seal. 

Use the duct tape on all four sides to make sure it is secure. 

She loves it! 

Dairy Free Chocolate Bar

There are many things I've misses since going dairy free for my newest little sweetie. One of the top things is chocolate!! So I've decided to make my own! 

All you need:

1/4 cup coconut oil

2/3 cup cocoa powder

2 tsp cinnamon

4 Tbs honey

How: 

Melt coconut oil

Stir in other ingredients.

Spread onto parchment paper

Refrigerate until hardened. 

** I sprinkled coconut flakes onto the chocolate before refrigerating. 

Annnd, problem solved!! So yum! 

4 Lucky St. Patrick's Day activities

Other St. Patrick's Day activities we have been up to include: 

Green Sensory Box: 

Materials

Green lentils

Gold coins

Other items that can scoop, hold or sift

Fill a container with green lentils and the objects. Let them experiment and discover on their own. 

Teaches: fine motor skills, science discovery, imagination

Rainbow Water Colors:

Materials:

Watercolors

Paint brush

Water

Card stock

Draw a rainbow onto some white card stock and use watercolors to teach fine motor skills, art and organization (because there is a correct order to a rainbow)! 

4 leaf floor mat:

Create a 4 leaf clover on the floor using masking tape as shown. 

I placed numbers 1-4 in the leaves because I wanted to have my tot place gold coins and other fun St. Patty's objects in each leaf according to the number. 

Teaches: math, number recognition, sorting

Torn Paper Collage Clover

Materials

Green paper

Glue stick

Card stock 

This one I thought would be the easiest for MissE ma'am to do but it turned out to be the trickiest. Tearing paper is a hard task especially when trying to make the pieces small. 

Draw a 4 leaf clover into white card stock. Have your tot tear pieces of green paper and glue them on. 

Teaches: fine motor, tearing and gluing in small spaces. 

I hope you enjoy these as much as we did. 

You are in luck! There's another project waiting for you at the link below! 

Reusable Rainbow Suncatcher:

http://tinyurl.com/kqh6d82

Reusable Rainbow Sun Catcher

We have been in full rainbow mode here. With St. Patrick's Day around the corner we have been doing several activities around this theme. 
Our favorite? The Reusable Rainbow Sun Catcher. 

Materials:
Contact paper
Sharpie
Scissors
Colored foam (ROYGBV and White for clouds) 

Masking tape 

Instructions:
 Cut a piece of contact paper as large as you'd like the rainbow to be. Draw the rainbow on contact paper with a sharpie and with the back paper still on. Make sure there is enough space for each color (roygbv)

Take the backing paper off laying it flat on the table sticky side up. 

Tear masking tape the size of the sides of your paper. Place it on the edges so the sticky sides of both the tape and the paper meet. 

Hang on window or in our case sliding door. 

Cut foam pieces of each color small enough to fit into the spaces. You can let your little try to cut these pieces as they don't have to be any special shape or size. 

--- let them go!  

If you don't have foam construction paper would work just fine but they wouldn't be able to be taken off cleanly to do the activity again. I like the idea of the foam pieces because they can be easily taken off and the rainbow can be done again and again. I prefer redo able projects for several reasons. 1. Less I need to come up with which also means less investments. 2. The more they do things in repetition the more they learn the skill. 3. Repetition reaps independence. I can sit and do this once with her but can leave her to create on her own which is fantastic when my hands are busy with my littlest. 

MissE ma'am LOVED this project so much she decided to incorporate it in play time. Here we are driving a "train" on rainbow road to Neverland! I love how imaginative she is becoming.