Bird Feeders

It has been so nice here lately. Sparkle loves the birds and asks me many times a week to feed them. She loved making this bird feeder. 

Things needed:

Peanut butter (or crisco)

Shaped box (or pine cone)

String

bird seed

 Spread peanut butter on your shape. 

 Sprinkle with bird seed

Hang in the tree

Really simple and easy for a tot to do. I helped spread the peanut butter a little bit, but she was doing a very good job by herself. 

Play dough

Play dough

1 C. Flour
1/2 C. Salt
1 T. cream of tartar
1 T. cooking oil
1 C. Water

Food coloring of your choice.

Add all dry ingredients to your sauce pan. Stir well. Add oil, and water. Stir together before turning on your heat. Heat over medium heat, stirring CONSTANTLY. Once the play dough pulls away from the sides of the pan and all the wet parts look dry, you can dump it out on the counter. Knead it into a soft ball. Let cool and enjoy. :)

Tips: When adding a color, just put the food coloring in your cup of water, and stir in at the same time time. This ensures a nice even color (and no mess on your hands). You can also add fun things to your play dough. Like glitter. Just add it to your dry ingredients.

Seal in an airtight container.

March Sensory Bin

Moon sand

8 C. flour
2 C. baby oil

Dump it all into a bin and mix it all together. Add some toys, and you're set for loads of fun!

It can be a little messy. If using iver carpet, put a tarp on the floor to catch most of the mess. It sweeps up easy off of tile. :)

New School Zone Set Up

I finally got our calendar from Oriental Trading. I also made our "calendar time" board, and bought some new shelves from a yard sale. I like the finished look of everything.

 Our new ABC floor puzzle

 I love these new shelves. They are pretty tall. I like that I can put all the "Calendar Time" stuff on the top and the kids can't reach it. I can also putting Sparkle's Tot Trays on the next shelf down and Buddy can't reach those. The bottom two shelves have Buddy's trays, and free toys. 

 The smaller white shelving unit. It has a tot tray and then free toys. The calendar is hanging over it. 

 The "Calendar Time" board I made.  We sing the songs each morning, and she sticks the corresponding card in it's spot. 

 Sparkle's new cork board, for her weekly work. 

The cups with all the calendar cards in them. 

I am hoping this set up with help us move through our morning more efficiently. So far so good. :)

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.