B is for butterfly snack

Better late than never!!!

I am finally getting around to posting the very simple butterfly snack we made. I ended up eating it because my son won't usually touch anything new. It was yummy!!

B is for butterfly...

I used peanut butter but if allergies are an issue, cream cheese or flavored cream cheese work well too. You could also use icing.
You need:
celery
peanut butter
pretzels


I used broken pieces of pretzels for the antenna but I am sure you could use pieces of string twizzlers (pull and peel) or something else.

This picture turned out terrible... but it shows the idea, anyways! Bon appetite!

D is for Daisy

I have had this ready all week but we finally got around to making it. To prepare for your daisy, all you need is a circle, petals and something to glue for the letter D. Tristan chose pompoms.

I precut everything out then I showed T where everything should go. Then he started to get it glued down. Not too bad!

D is for dinosaur feet

Yesterday, Tristan and I painted his dinosaur feet. They would have been really cute had we painted the claws a different color, but we stuck with black. It was the easiest way for Tristan to paint them :)

First, find some sturdy cardboard. We used a pampers box and it worked GREAT.
Next, draw and cut out your dinosaur feet. If you draw a basic tulip, you will be fine.
Then, PAINT!!

Let the paint dry completely.
Then you are going to punch two holes in each dinosaur foot. Through these holes you will be stringing ribbon or twine or yarn, whichever you choose. Where you thread the string depends on your child's feet. String it from below so that you can tie it on top.

Let the dinosaur fun begin! :) Have fun! I am picturing these as a party favor for a dinosaur birthday party. Haha!!

mod podge

wwAs I have stated before, I LOVE working with Mod Podge. MOD PODGE ROCKS reposted an awesome tutorial on how to make these amazing dishes. I was so excited to see this because the time I tried this, it failed. I know what I will be doing this weekend during Hurricane Irene...mod podging plates!

I get a lot of questions about whether or not you can Mod Podge on glass plates.  The answer is yes, you can.  One thing that you should always keep in mind is that you should Mod Podge on the back of the plates, because Mod Podge isn't food safe.  I spotted these at Frugal with a Flourish and I love the colors - Pretty Handy Girl did an awesome tutorial as a guest post to show you how Mod Podging on the back of plates works.  It's quite simple, and great for a beginning Podger.  Visit the complete tutorial here. (As written by Mod Podge Rocks.)

Thank you Mod Podge Rocks for passing this on!

 

 

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!

Angie, from My Four Monkeys, does some awesome giveaways on her blog! Be sure to check them out at http://www.myfourmonkeys.com/http://www.myfourmonkeys.com/2011/08/my-four-monkeys-story-time-extra-special-by-ashley-clement-frey-giveaway/.

This week she is giving my book Extra Special away in addition to several other items. Jump over and take a look! She also wrote a nice book review as well.

Doodles and Glue: ETSY!!!!!!!!!

Doodles and Glue: ETSY!!!!!!!!!

ETSY!!!!!!!!!

I love making things. I always have and probably always will. Now that I am a SAHM I actually have a little bit of time to get crafty. Although I honestly believe it is more of an enjoyment then something to profit from, I figured I needed something to do with the things I make. I can't keep it all! That is where my favorite website comes in. ETSY. I decided to go ahead and open a store on ETSY. The fees are minimal and hopefully I can sell some of my projects! Jump on over and take a look!

D is for dinosaur fossils

Ok so maybe your fossils do not have to be dinosaur ones, but have fun making fossil prints! Follow these simple steps to have your own fossil prints. Your child will have a blast!

If you already have dough or play dough, simply take a ball of dough and make it as flat as you can. Then have your child use household objects like coins, cars, and other toys to make prints in the dough. Encourage your child to be creative and to see how many items he/she can find that make cool "fossils". Have your child try to make footprints using toys in the dough.

Dough recipe
(1 cup flour, 1/2 cup salt, 1 cup water, 1 tbsp oil, 2 tsp cream of tartar)

• Mix all ingredients in a pot and stir over medium heat.
• Mixture will be soupy with lumps. Suddenly it will form into a ball.
• Remove from heat, and knead on a non-stick surface.
• Useful for many types of projects.
• Store in fridge, or allow creations to air dry.

Note:  By the time you have kneaded it for 3-5 minutes, it should look and feel like playdough.  This dough can crack as it dries depending on the shape of the object.

Dinosaur soap

I HAD to pass this on! What an excellent idea!!! All credit for this post goes to Hands on Crafts for Kids. Thanks for letting me share your idea!

by Tracia Ledford Williams

It's hard to resist adding a fun project to clean up. Make decorative soaps for a fun look at dinosaurs. You will need: Clear glycerin soap Colored glycerin soap Soap molds Plastic dinosaurs Microwave Glass measuring cups Sharp knife Optional: glitter and fragrance oil Instructions: Have an adult, cut clear glycerin soap into 1" cubes and colored glycerin soap into 1/4" cubes. Place into glass measuring cups and heat in the microwave on high for 15 seconds at a time. Check between times. Do not overheat soap, just melt it. Place dinosaurs into the molds, pour clear glycerin over them, and place small colored pieces of glycerin into the mold around the dinosaur. Allow soap to cool 1-2 hours, or place into refrigerator for 30 minutes. Lightly twist mold and remove soaps from mold. Soaps can be placed in a clear cellophane bag and decorated with stickers for gift giving. Delta Soap Creations™, Fragrant Accents™, Finishing Touches™, Clear Glycerin, No Tip Mold.

D is for dinosaur coloring sheets

Tristan is watching the Land Before Time right as I type this. I remember this movie from when I was a child! He is just now showing interest in dinosaurs. I found some great coloring sheets through ask.com and thought I would pass them along. All you have to do is print them! Thanks, ask.com! Enjoy!

CLICK HERE FOR DINOSAUR COLORING SHEETS

D is for...

This week we are off to a slow start. We have had so many things going on that we have not had time to sit down and create anything! Sorry for such a delay in posting. I have had lot of time for D planning and so I wanted to give you a list of ideas you can take to make some D items. I will be posting again once we get to make our projects. :)

D words...

Dad (we will be doing this one!!!)
dinosaur
dolls
door
dragonfly
dog
dice
dance
dime
dirt
dollar
doctor
dentist
daisy (we are doing this one)
dance
drum
    

What can you come up with for these words??? Let's share some ideas!!

C is for Clipboards

These are some of my FAVORITE things to make. Needless to say, this is a craft that Tristan did not partake in, but it could be adapted for him! I am sure he could make something cute. Anyways, I just wanted to share!

I make these (and most things I make) using Mod Podge. You can get it at any craft store. They sell several versions, but for this, you just need to regular kind. It has an orange label. :)

                                



The front of a mini clipboard. Perfect for note and check lists!

                                                                           The back...

                                                                             Aloha!

                                                        The back of the full sized one.

C is for Colors!!!

There are so many things you can do with "colors" but Tristan is really enjoying paper and glue. Works for me! Budget friendly and gets the point across. I do hope to venture into some other things soons, but for now, we are happy.

I am proud of him for remembering the words and letters and sounds we have been talking about. I am so honored to be able to stay home to have these times with my little fella!






C is for colors...

C is for Canoe

Let me begin by saying that I thought this would be easy....it must not have been our day...

I cut out two matching "canoes" and punched holes along the bottom. Then we laced a fuzzy yarn trough the holes. I just used what I had close by but any string, yarn, twine  would work. The reason we struggled was beacuse of the yarn we used. Even with taping the end of it so it would go through the hole, it kept getting stuck.

Anyways, I am sure you can do much better than we did! Tristan liked that it had a pocket. We only laced the bottom so that the top would open up. If you dont care about the pocket then just use one canoe and lace around the whole thing.

More caterpillars...

I am finally able to post Tristan's caterpillars. After working with the shapes and colors, he said he wanted to make another one. We glued it on the paper that he took to practice cutting. ;)




 With this one, we talked alot about colors and shapes. I let him glue them how he wanted. You can see the globs of glue coming through the paper!! :)

This is the second one he wanted to make. It was actually nice because he started counting the circles and talking about the shape.








I wanted to paint the egg carton and turn that into a caterpillar but we ran out of time. We have been busy, busy, busy! Hopefully we will get to that next week. If you try it, be sure to use the egg cartons that are cardboard. Paint sticks to it MUCH better than the styrofoam ones.

C is for caboose

 Being a boy, Tristan loves trains. This past weekend my father-in-law took Tristan to a train yard. He loved watching the trains. He was bummed he did not get to see the caboose, though. He said the train was too long. :)

This week we made our own simple caboose for the letter C. The bean gluing is a hit here so we have beans everywhere! I think the biggest thing with learning letters is that they get to see it often and talk about it often. It is amazing how quickly young children pick things up if you just have a conversation! My husband came home from work and started asking our son about different words like apple, cat, boat etc... and asked him what letter they all start with. He got about 90 % of them right. I was floored! It just goes to show that learning is fun and kids thrive on the quality time we spend with them.

Cool Site!

I follow a few awesome sites that have great deals and ideas on how to save money. Now that I am home, I am trying harder than ever to find those deals so we can save more! I was directed to TOTSY today and I really liked it. They had some really really cute things at really reasonable prices. I just wanted to pass it on to you! The other thing they do is allow you to pass the site on to others. If someone signs up, (which is totally FREE) then they give you $15 to spend at the site after your friend places their first order. Not bad!

C is for caterpillar

The Very Hungry Caterpillar is one of my ALL TIME favorite books! Eric Carle is amazing! I think that this books leaves the door open for the imagination to make any kind of caterpillar craft. I hope the ideas below help!

Caterpillar on a Leaf
Cut a large leaf shape out of green construction paper. Glue eight penny-size pom poms in a row onto the leaf.

Caterpillar shaped C
For this activity, do the exact same thing as above, but when you have your child glue down the pom poms, have him/her glue them in the shape of the letter C.

Egg Carton Caterpillar
Cut a section of 4 egg cups from an egg carton. Paint and let dry. Draw on a face with black marker and attach a pipe cleaner for anetennas. I once saw an idea where a preschool teacher put wings on the caterpillar and put it in a paper bag (when the children weren't there) and told them that the caterpillar had made a cocoon. After a few days, she let the kids open the bags and see that their caterpillar had turned into a butterfly. It made a big impact on the kids.

Caterpillar Prints (using an apple or potato)
Cut a potato in half. Using the flat, round side, dip it into paint and make a print with it. Continue to make prints side by side until you have a long row or squiggle shaped line of circles side by side. Then draw legs, antenna, and a face!

It is C week! (song)

C Is For Cookie

(spoken)
Now what starts with the letter C?
Cookie starts with C
Let's think of other things
That starts with C
Oh, who cares about the other things?  
(sing)
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me
Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C
 
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me
Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C
 
(spoken)
Hey you know what?
A round cookie with one bite out of it
Looks like a C
A round donut with one bite out of it
Also looks like a C
But it is not as good as a cookie
Oh and the moon sometimes looks like a C
But you can't eat that, so

(sing)
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me, yeah!
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me
C is for cookie, that's good enough for me
Oh, cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C, yeah!
Cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C, oh boy!
Cookie, cookie, cookie starts with C!

cute Back to School idea

http://dealseekingmom.com/easy-no-sew-pencil-holder-and-notebook-cover/

For those of you who have school age children, or just need a cute idea for pencil cases and book covers that you have around the house, I thought I would pass this on to you! They look too cute!

I am currently working on a NO SEW project for Tristan's room. I am making him a pillow case with his name on it. I will let you know how it turns out!

raising butterflies

Grow your own!!


I realize that we are deep into summer and it is probably too late to do this now, but as I have had butterflies on my mind, I keep thinking back to the ones that we hatched! We had the kit that you can order off of Amazon and other sites. It comes with the cage and the larve. It is amazing to watch the caterpillars get big and fat and then spin their chrysalis when they are ready. My son loved to check in on them daily. Out of 10, we were able to successfully release 6. Not too bad! I encourage anyone who can do order the kit. It is WELL WORTH the money!

butterfly chain craft

Another cute idea for a butterfly craft!


Check out this awesome website to get all of the steps on how to make this! I just LOVE this one! We will be making this very soon!

Click below to see all of the steps:
Chain Butterfly Craft

B is for Butterfly!

B is for Bats...yuck!

There are SOOO many cute ideas for making bats with your child. With Fall coming up, why not start getting ideas on different bats you can make!

Here is a cute example. I am a sucker for crafts made with handprints or cutout hands.



The body is a heart, the wings are hands cut out, and then the head is a circle with ears. You could use buttons, beads, candy or other household items for the face.

Banana Pudding!

Another recipe favorite for us is the very simple BANANA PUDDING.

Since it is B week, it fit in perfectly!

ingredients:
2 boxes of vanilla instant pudding
bananas
Nila Waffers
whipped cream
milk


Make the pudding according to the directions on the box.
I like to use a clear bowl so you can see the pretty display. Layer the pudding, waffers and bananas in the bowl. As you are doing this, be sure to have your child help! He/she will love putting the banana pieces and cookies along the top of pudding layers as well as along the outside of the bowl. Top off the yummy dessert with whipped cream. Enjoy!

Just another day

Today has been such a nice day! Tristan and I got to go out to the park and to the library. It is "B" week, afterall, so we needed to get new books! We had a great time sitting and reading together in the kids section. You have to understand, though, this is monumental for us. The last time we went to the library I thought we may get kicked out! I realized later it was really my fault because I had never really explained how quiet libraries needed to be and so forth. Today, walking in, Tristan put his finger over his lips and said, "Shhh, Mama....whisper..." The little guy whispered the WHOLE time we were in there! WooHoo!!

So today we focused on  books. Since quitting my job, I have  decided to make more of an effort to get to the library weekly. Tristan really enjoyed going through his section and finding some books he thought he may like. I encourage you, if you do not already, go to  the library and spend some time there with your child. There is lots to learn from books! 

potty training songs!

click here for potty training songs

I ran across these today and giggled like crazy. They are too cute! Enjoy!

Teddy Bear

Teddy Bear
(sung to the tune of row, row, row, your boat)

Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn around.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, touch the ground.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, tie your shoe.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, that will do.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, go upstairs.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, say your prayers.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, turn out the light.
Teddy Bear, Teddy Bear, say goodnight!

-Author Unknown-

B week :) brown bear with beans and a snack

Tristan and I started off the week with the letter B. He made a brown bear with beans and we made blackberry butterfly jigglers. Yumm-o! Enjoy!

Last week I posted about the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear What do you see? It was perfect for this activity! Tristan enjoyed it alot!


 Tristan really liked gluing the beans on the letter B. He got really excited to try and cover up all of the glue spots. He told me that the bear needed paws so he glued some on his paws as well. :) You could also use buttons or beads, too!

This is one of our blackberry butterflies. They were REALLY yummy! I always cut the recipe for jigglers in half because we will never eat all of them, but we still got 6 butterflies out of the pan.

potty training blues...

I have heard awesome stories of how children suddenly decided they wanted underwear and bam, no more diapers!  That is not the case for us... whoa...

Some of the books we have been reading are The New Potty by Mercer Mayer and Potty Time with Elmo. Another all time favorite is Once Upon A Potty by Alona Frankel.


Once Upon A Potty is a favorite from when I was a little girl.  The book is sold where you can choose it for a girl or a boy. The books are super realistic with images but in a cartoon way. They are very real. I just love them!


We have tried all the tricks in the books for boys but we are still working...

Upcoming B week :)

Yesterday we had to go to Richmond for a doctors appointment so we did not get to do an activity as planned. Thats ok... we are flexible :)

I am excited about next week, though. There are SO many B activities that I am having a hard time deciding which ones we will actually get to do! Here are some thoughts to get your creative juices flowing.... bats, butterflies, bees, bears, blue, brown, books, black, bugs, birds, bird feeder, bug box....I could keep going! I want to also give you some fun songs you can sing and hopefully little puppet plays too. I am trying to think of the best way to get all of that on here, though. :) Get excited! It is going to be FUN!

One book I love for B is Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see? By Eric Carle Such a a great book to read with your child!

APE time

I am not an artist by any stretch of the imagination. I really wanted to make an ape with Tristan, though. I apologize for how much this does not look like one! I tried! He didn't care. He still told me that ape starts with A so I was happy!

 Because of my sons age, I went ahead and cut out all of the body parts. I wanted them to all be basic shapes likes circles and squares etc, but it didn't work out that way. We did talk a lot about circles with this project, though. If you child is older, try having them come up with shapes that they can make to put together to create an ape (or other object/animal) or draw it out and let them at least practice cutting.

 I put all of the pieces together (roughly) so he could see what we were trying to make. I wanted him to be able to try to get a picture in his head to see what he could come up with. I was just curious ;)

Tristan's final product! Not too bad! You can't tell too much, but there is a massive amount of glue stick smear on here. We will keep working on that! I'm thinking this guy looks more like several other animals that it does an ape. Oh, well...

Diecuts with a View All-Occasion 12-by-12-Inch Glitter Scrapbook Paper

Fruit Smoothies

My family LOVES homemade smoothies. A lady I used to work with gave me this recipe. It is the best! Of course, tweek it with your favorite flavors :)

1 cup of juice (orange works well)
1 cup of yogurt (I usually use one yoplait container or 1 cup out of the big tub of yogurt)
1 full sized banana
frozen fruit (prob. about 2 cups)

dump it all in the blender and blend until it is very smooth

This makes enough for my son, me and my husband. Not huge portions but plenty..

I like this recipe because I do not like to use ice. It is just my preference. Also, they are very healthy! When my son goes through his spells of not wanting "real" foods, I try to stick one of these in there. It at least makes me feel a tiny bit better :)

Bon Appetite!

recipes

For several reason, we have yet to make our "A" snacks. I have all of the ingredients ready to go so I will still post pics with the final products once we get to make them. I went ahead and put the recipes on their own page. Go to the tabs at the top of the page and you find them there. I will gradually add to them as we go! Don't forget, if you have any awesome ideas to share, please post them in the comments below each post. I know other readers would love to have more ideas :) Have a blessed day!

Making a Display

One of my friends and I were having a discussion several weeks back. We were trying to come up with the best idea for displaying the things that our children make without having those paintings and crafts overtake the whole house. Below you will find the step by step on how to make a magnetic board. It is simple and anyone can do it! The best part is you can make them in so many ways and for so many different purposes! The one I made below is very simple because I expect it to be totally covered up!!!
Materials:

• MAGNETIC white board (you can get these anywhere in any shape and size. Ebay is great for this too)
• STRONG magnets - I got mine pretty cheap on ebay otherwise try a hardware store. They need to be really strong to go through the art project and a piece of material
• ribbon for a boarder and to hang
• a large piece of material
• something to use for your magnet covers such as buttons
• glue gun

Let's Begin!

Iron your background material and lay it upside down on your surface. Place the magnetic board upside down on top of the material.

With a glue gun, glue the material on the edges so it is tightly fixed onto the white board.

Turn it over

(picture wont rotate) This shows the board now covered with the main material. Now you want to get the ribbon that you chose for the boarder. Because my brown ribbon with cars and trucks on it was so thin, I decided to use a thick white ribbon behind it to make a wider border. It is up to your taste on how you want to do this. Glue guns work really well but you are going to want to test a piece first because some ribbon shows glue through it.

Glue the ribbon around each side of the board. Be sure to pull it tight so it does not gap.

After the boarder is completed, decide how you want to hang the board. When I covered the board with the fabric, I covered the hardward for hanging so I had to cut out holes in the fabric. I used a solid brown ribbon and tied it to both pieces of hardward for the board to hang from.

If I had made this for a little girl, I would have used a lot more bows and ribbon. You could put bows with the ribbon on each side at the top. It would be too cute! :)

Again, I don't know why this won't stay rotated. Sorry! Anyways, above shows the final product.

Don't forget to come up with a cute idea for your magnets! I looked high and low for cute truck buttons to match the ribbon but I never found any. I decided to cut a up a piece of ribbon that had trucks, boats, planes etc. I glued one of each onto white ribbon to match the boarder then glued it on the magnet.

Have fun getting creative! :)

A is for Apple prints!

A is for APPLE prints!

Ok...so my son really likes to paint. And with this comes GLOBS of paint :) This works MUCH better with not so much paint, but nonetheless, it is still fun. Have Fun!

                                     I can't seem to rotate this.... but here we are getting ready!

The final product. I chose to use red and green for the obvious reasons, but any paint works. Also, the less paint, the better the prints! Have fun!

Day One!

Today was day #1 of our  letter learning adventure! We started with the letter "A" and boy is this going to be an interesting journey! Today, I cut out a capital "A" and a lowercase "a". I had planned to glue grass on them first, and to make them much cuter, but due to Tristan's temperment, I knew we only had a small window of time to work today. I wanted to make the best of what time he was willing to focus :)

So I cut the letters out of pretty scrapbook paper. I always keep a random supply on hand. Any kind and color of paper will work, though. Then I got black paint and squirted a tiny amount for dipping fingers in to. We used Tristan's pointer finger and made three dots right in a row. We did this is several places around the two letters. Then we drew legs on them to make them ants. We talked about how ants starts with "A" and how we have two kinds of letters...capital (or uppercase) and lowercase. Tristan really enjoyed making ants. As you can see in the picture, he did some totally on his own ;)

Another idea which would work great if you have one is to use a stamp pad instead of paint. I just try to use supplies that I already have.

You could also, for older children, have them cut out three circles for each ant, then glue them and make the legs and antenna. That would help them with cutting and gluing as well.

There are many things that I wish we had done differently, but this is what we got! Tristan knows what an A is and he had fun. Mission accomplished!

Tomorrow we will be making a yummy Apple treat!