A Week in Review

We had a really busy week. The Girl is really enjoying her schooling.She played with her valentine's sensory bin a lot. It is definitely a HUGE hit around here. I'm really looking forward to putting together some other ones for them to play with. She did really well with her school book this week.

 A shot of all her pages. You can see in the firs tone that she did really well drawing the small "b". She's also doing great with her line drawing. :)

 I finally brought out the stamps that I got awhile back. She doesn't quite understand that she has to keep the stamp flat for the letter to fully show, but she really likes to try. Oh and she used her heart crayons again. BIG HIT!

 She wanted me to help her draw a "B". So I held her hand and we drew two together. Then she kept drawing the lines over and over. She's getting pretty good at them. 

 Gluing buttons to a letter "B". I saw a post where the mom put the glue in a small paper cup and gave the child a Q-tip to dab the glue with. It worked perfect. Now she can do the whole thing by herself.

 One day at nap time I got some one on one time with my sweet boy. We played with the blocks for quite awhile. He thought ti was so much fun to knock over my tower. Of course he also loves to hit the together. 

 My cousin was over one evening. My kids adore her! She sat on the floor and helped them put together the Melissa and Doug ABC floor puzzle that we just got. Of the Little Guy just liked to take it apart. It was fun to watch her try and race him and see if she could put the whole thing together before he could start taking it apart. She never did succeed in that. 

 Story time. The kids love to be read to. 

The many fashions of my daughter!

 See the bandaid hanging off her leg?

 Gotta love the baby legs!

 Fun at a friend's 1st birthday party. 

 He just slept through most of it!

Every Saturday we have been taking the kids to the library. It gives me a chance to get the new books for the next school week, and the kids get to play. We have an awesome new vision center for visually impaired children. It also has a ton of great learning puzzles and games. The Girl loves to sit at a table with Daddy and work the puzzles. 

Block Painting

The Girl loves to paint. She really had fun with this little project. It was super easy to set up. I took yarn and wrapped it around wooden blocks, securing the ends with hot glue. She then dipped them in paint and stamped them onto her paper. It makes a really neat design.

A Day With Granny and G-pa

I'm a little late in getting this post up. We went over for our weekly lunch with Granny and G-pa. The kids always have so much fun while we are over there. My grandparents each have their own little thing that they say to the kids. The Girl is starting to pick up on them. She tells G-pa, "I want a smack!" (A kiss) And every time Granny hugs her, she gives a little shake and tells her, "I'm gonna shake your buttermilk." When The Girl heard we were going over there, she says, "Gonna see Granny, she gonna shake my buttermilk!"

Getting ready to eat spaghetti. 

He's going to have spaghetti too. 

 

He was so excited to drag that cane through the house with him while he crawled.

Playing in Granny's cabinets. 

 

Lately my grandpa has been working with me to make my children some beautiful wooden toys. I have all of these ideas, and we have been making something, just about every week while I am there. Be looking for blog posts when they are finished. On this particular project The Girl wanted to color too. 

 

She loves to go into the garage and look around. "I'm finding something." She will say. Here she is working on the tractor with the tire iron she found. 

 

Valentine's Sensory Bin

I brought out our very first themed sensory bin. It was HUGE hit! The Girl has played with many times this week. She's only allowed to play with it when Little Guy is sleeping, because it is full of little pieces. It gives us some great one on one time.

 This is what we have inside:

• Red colander (Dollar Tree)
• Silicone Heart Shaped Pan (Wal-mart $3.50 and the most expensive thing in the bin)
• Red and White scooper (Dollar Tree)
• Pipe cleaners (Dollar Tree)
• Mini heart boxes (Dollar Tree)
• Red, pink and white beads
• Red, pink and white buttons
• Heart shape cookie cutter
• White heart paper doilies
• Valentine erasers (Dollar Tree)
• Red and Pink heart cutouts with ABC's on them (1+1+1=1)
• Pink and White boxes (Staples Dollar Section)
• Pink and Red pom poms (Dollar Tree)
• Ribbon scraps

We also keep it all on a blanket. This insures that all the pieces get picked up and put away. 
 

 Scooping

 She dropped something down her shirt! 

 Checking it all out! She kept saying, "Oh WOW!!!"

 Putting the boxes in the pan. She noticed that they matched.

 All dumped out. 

 Putting small things in the heart boxes. 

She put a pom pom in her toes!

For a great answer on why sensory bins are so wonderful please check out this blog post; What's the point?

For other sensory bin ideas check out my Pinterest Board.

Bandaid Butterflies

I found this idea while on Pinterest. That place is seriously addicting! I thought it was really cute, and since The Girl in LOVE with bandaids, I thought it would be great for her. She loved it!

 They were eally simple to make. I used round paper doilies. Folded them accordion style and stuck them down with a bandaid. Added a face with wiggly eyes, and we were done. 

Such a silly girl! She played with that bandaid for the entire day!