Beauty and the Beast

This morning I caught Matias channeling his inner Angela Lansbury at the piano.  He said that I could share it.  Enjoy!

Gift-Wrap Sensory Bin

This month we made a gift wrapping sensory bin.  The kids are having a lot of fun with it...and it didn't cost a cent to make!  

It contains:

wrapping paper
tin foil squares
cotton balls
small gift boxes
various ribbons
small gift bags
trinkets to wrap: jingle bells, ornaments, a little glass heart jar
a spool of ribbon with the ribbon end taped on for winding and unwinding
pipe cleaners

The tinfoil and pipe cleaners wrap around the items so that you don't need scissors or tape, and the kids can make "presents" independently.  They have been wrapping up presents for each other and me all day.  Great fine motor practice and a nice way to play together.  An added bonus is that it has been giving us lots of practice at graciously receiving gifts and saying "thank you" that should serve us well in the coming weeks.

Playdough Snowmen

Today we came up with a fun activity to do.  Inspired by the book All You Need for a Snowman, we made playdough snowmen.  I used my favorite playdough recipe:


1 cup Flour
1/2 cup Salt
1 tablespoon Cream of Tartar
1 tablespoon Cooking Oil
1 cup Water

Then I put out a bowl of snowman accessories...buttons, sticks, tiny polar fleece scraps to use as scarves, and the best part- tiny carrot noses.  Our mini-carrots came from our garden (our carrots didn't get very big), but you could make them out of paper or use baby carrots from the store. The kids had a blast making some Picasso-like snowmen.  

No-Sew Fleece Carseat Canopy Tutorial

Click here for the tutorial...my blog has moved!

{this moment}

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Name That Baby!

Beatrice or Violet?  Can you name that baby?  

A)

 
 

B)

C)

 
For the record, Violet got 2/3 correct.  Matias got all 3 correct.

Trains!

Violet has been enjoying our wooden train set a lot recently.  She knows all the trains by name, and they have many adventures together.  Her favorite game is to knock one train off the track, and then have the breakdown train come to rescue it.  Here is a bit of video of her playing with the trains...Thomas, Billy, Metra, Breakdown Train...and yes, her voice really is that cute in real life!