The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Every Christmas I search for a new book for Max that we can use in ways other than just reading it together. Books that you can create crafts from, themed activities, snacks, etc. For his first Christmas he received Frosty the Snowman, the following year he received Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (I love that book), and then this year he received The Very Hungry Caterpillar. 

The Very Hungry Caterpillar has been used as a birthday party theme, so there are a lot of fun ideas for activities, decorations and food for this book. Again, as I have mentioned before I try to choose activities that are age appropriate. If you don't, it is just not worth the prep and time spent. You will end up with an uninterested or frustrated little person, and that's just no fun for anyone. 

We started by reading the book, and then I put on the CD (it came with our book) where Eric Carle reads the book. I paused it after each page and Max used his story sequence stick to put the story together. He really liked this and asked to do it again before dinner tonight.  

Max is very into numbers right now. He is counting evvverything, so this number identification activity was perfect. He loved it and did it two more times later in the day. It was also great for fine motor. He struggled a little in beginning, figuring out how to pinch the clothespin, but he picked up on it after a few tries and with a little help and from there he loved it. 

I did all of the painting activities back to back because secretly... I have no patience for kid's painting and the mess. But I love the outcome so I power through. Max painted a rainbow caterpillar which took him forevvvver to paint.. but his attention to detail and making sure he painted every little spot (still missing some) was cute. 

We did hand prints which was a lot of fun. He is finally at the age where he follows direction perfectly and has the patience to wait for me to direct him where to put his hand. Mason's turned out pretty cute too :)

The butterfly painting was really neat and Max loved this one the most. Super easy. We dropped four different paint colours that Max picked on one side of the paper and then fold the paper in half and rub. Peel the paper back and tada, you have an abstract butterfly. Ours dripped a little while drying, creating two perfect little antennas. 

The other craft we did was another fine motor craft. I have a ton of beads left over from Christmas so I picked out a bunch of green ones and Max went at it, making a pipe cleaner caterpillar with a googly eye. 

For decoration I made a balloon caterpillar. The boys love balloons so it was an easy thing to throw together. 

For food, Max had a fruit caterpillar with his breakfast, which he was completely taken by, and then an apple and caterpillar cupcake for his lunch treat. Okay, so about that cupcake. Last night I made an entire batch for ONE cupcake for Max today, and he ate the gummy worm, took a few licks of the icing and informed me he was done. COME ON. I know, I'm nuts. Ah well, I froze the rest.

If anyone is interested in the crafts/activities let me know if you are interested in the links for the story sequence and/or number identification activity. 

So it was a hit! It took up our morning, once the babe went down for a nap, which is nice for a quiet day at home (hence the p.j.'s)

Look for my Easter basket post soon for ideas... pretty excited, this year I get to fill two baskets :) :) :)

Thanks for stopping by!

~ K

Valentines fun for your littles

We are in full blown Valentine's crafts and activities mode over here! I am guilty of always starting a littttle too early on celebrating holidays, but whatever, there aren't any rules right!? 

What I typically do is screenshot what I find on Pinterest, and then I make a list of the materials I don't have. I make a trip to the dollar store (because they have EVERYTHING) and then whenever I get get a free moment, I prep the activities ahead of time. This makes it super easy for mornings or afternoons where I need a quick filler (because the boy with the mountain of toys is wandering aimlessly around the house.. go figure). I sit him down and everything is ready to go. Right now I have a Valentine's discovery bin ready to go and a tray of pink glittery playdough with various shapes of heart cutters. 

So far we have made an heart wreath (Max glued the wreath and stuck on the hearts) and an alphabet letter recognition activity. This was a huge hit. We also used marbles (make sure they are the heavy marbles) to paint hearts. Max loved watching the marbles jump around the aluminum pan. 

For Max's Valentines for his preschool buddies I am using a ton of plastic dinosaurs I have left over from his birthday cupcakes (after soaking them in boiling water to clean). I haven't finished them yet, but here is the Pinterest pic I worked off of. The printable was free on the blogger's page. If you follow me on Instagram you will see my finished product in the next few days. I also made two special Valentines for Max's buddy and his baby sis because they are extra special to us :)

And for your viewing pleasure, a couple decor pictures :)

In other news, the other day we had enough snow fall to cover the front lawn. Max and I went outside during the babe's nap for some fresh air. If you have any squirt bottles laying around (or find them at the dollar store), coloured water seems to be a huge hit with littles!! He emptied them quickly but he had fun while it lasted!

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend!! Thanks for stopping by!

~ K

A wintery railroad

I'm sure that many of you can relate when I say that days at home can be long. Most days we go out in the morning; to the local drop-in, the library, an open gym or to meet up with friends. But I do like to keep the boys home after we have had a couple of busy days, so Mason can have a morning nap in his crib and because I don't think it's healthy (for us) to be on the go 24/7.

On these days I try to have a new activity for Max to do. This is partially for my sanity too, as I can only spend so much time in our playroom in one day. 

I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought it would be simple and fun. Max does not play a whole lot with his train set, so I was not overly concerned about it becoming stained or smelly (it actually smells really good now). 

I laid out a large garbage bag that I had cut open and then laid a large piece of cardboard on top of that. I set up his train set, a 'digging site' and a forest with some of Max's plastic jungle figurines. I used a full can of shaving cream to create the snow. I could have used more shaving cream, as I didn't get to cover all of the areas I wanted too, but it ended up being enough as the mess was able to be contained easily this way. 

I would say three years of age would be the youngest age I would try this with. Max was able to understand that I wanted him to stay on the cardboard area, and he was to keep the shaving cream off of the floor. 

At first I sat back and let him explore. He was very interested in the foot prints he was able to make. He was also interested in scooping the 'snow' with his one front end loader. After awhile I joined in. He asked me to get his Paw Patrol Ryder figurine from the basement, and somehow we ended up re-enacting an episode of Paw Patrol. The one with the snow monster!? We piled farm animals on top of each other and covered them in snow. It was also fun to see the different tire tracks his diggers made against the cardboard. 

(Just ignore this gawd-awful attempt at a road... I put this together the night before and was clearly done for the day)

Overall it was a neat activity. I think next winter when he is a year older and engaging in more imaginative play, and his brother can join in, he will have even more fun. 

Clean up was easy too. I loaded everything into a wash basin and rinsed everything off. I folded up the cardboard and garbage bag and put everything into another garbage bag. Super easy. Max's clothes and a towel had to be washed. No biggie. You should try this one for sure with your littles! 

I am hoping to post our Valentine's Day crafts in the next few days and this year's Valentines. They involve dinosaurs, plastic shovels and free online printables I found. Just wait until you see them... they are too.stinkin.cute. 

Happy love month!!

~ K

Max's Dino Dig 3rd Birthday Party

Ok so here's the thing. While I have not posted in over six months :S I have had such good intentions of posting at Halloween and Christmas. I even had a draft Halloween post from a little Halloween party I threw for Max and a buddy, but it did not get done within a timeline that would have made sense to post. Sooooo, I'm saving it until next year. For those of you who have still been checking all of this time to see if I had posted, thank you and I'm sorry. Life got in the way. Big time. But in a good way :)

But then something happened that brought me back. That made me say to myself MAKE TIME! 

My Max turned 3!

... and I threw a Dinosaur party. My mom and MIL kind of shook their heads at me, and questioned why go to all the fuss that I did. But people, this is what I LIVE for. I love details. I do not care if no one else notices them. I do, and this is one of things that makes me happy and smile. I love to see little ones have fun and do activities and crafts that I have put together. I actually have been questioning myself over the past few months that I should have been a teacher after all :/ But that ship has sailed so I will just have fun creating for my boys and their little friends.  

I always like to have something outside the door to let everyone know where we are celebrating. This year in keeping with the theme, I made dino tracks. 

I decided to have three different activities for the kids to do. We had one hour do to activities and eat and then the second hour we swam (the party was held at the YMCA). 

The first activity was decorate a safari hat. I thought this would be cute in lieu of the typical party hats. I found them on Amazon, and had to buy way to many, but I had a friend who was a life saver in helping to decorate and she is a teacher so I will share the rest with her and her students. I bought a huge container of foam stickers from Micheal's, threw them into a few Chinese take out trays, made a cute sign with the chalkboard I use for everything, and put everything on top of my Mexican blanket. Boom. done. so cute I can't stand it. The total cost was $35. Pricey but worth it to see that adorable decorated hat on Max.

The second activity was Feed the T-Rex. I used paint I had around the house, rice that I had in my pantry and bought the white and burgundy felt to make the steaks. Super easy and cheap.

The last activity was Max's Dino Dig. I made a cute sign and filled two plastic bins with rice. The rice was $25. I bought shells, rocks, mini dinos from the dollar store and plastic eggs I had around the house. I used little paint brushes and rakes/shovels I had at home and made two containers for the "dino tools." I used my kitchen utensils container and taped a sign around it. Be resourceful and thrifty where you can be people!

For the centerpieces for the table, I had planned on having helium Dino balloons tied to wooden number "3"s, but unfortunately my vision did not happen. As soon as I started adding the card stock Dino pieces to the helium balloons, the weight was too much for them and they all fell to the ground. I had to do some quick thinking and I ended up taping them all to four small vases I had lying around. I put a single piece of blue tissue paper in the bottoms of the vases for filler. The wooden "3"s then just stood on their own. I was bummed that what I was hoping for wasn't going to happen, but in the end I really liked the look of the balloons in the vases. 

The backdrop to the food table was a labour of love. I found the template for the leaves online and drew and cut them by hand. 

For the food we kept it simple. I had four themed bowls of snacks (triangle chunks of mozza as dino teeth, bugles as dino toes, yogurt covered pretzels as dino bones, and timbits as dino eggs) and then I did a large tupperware filled with fruit in the shape of a Brontosaurus. We ordered pizza and had juice boxes and bottled water... and of course the most important part of a birthday party meal.. the cake. I make vanilla cupcakes and used green icing, chocolate sprinkles and toped them with little plastic dinos. 

Side note... on Max's actual birthday, the week prior, we had this cake :)

For the treat bags I made potato stamps to decorate dino bags. Each little friend took home a small bag of "dino eggs" (mini eggs), two "magic dinos (dino grow capsules), a small pad of paper with a dino on the cover, and a dino nose which I was the most excited about :).

My little Triceratops

Finally, I borrowed three large dinos and made party hats for them. Two were stationed at the food table and the other one was by the treat bags, along with a small chalkboard sign that read "roar means thank you in dinosaur" :)

 

... and there you have it! A fun Dino Dig party for the little dinosaur lover in your life :)

See you sooner than six months from now ;)

~ K

Indoor campout and learning that a toddler can turn anything into a weapon

When I was little I played school 24/7. My best friend's father who lived around the corner from me, had a floor to ceiling chalkboard in his basement workshop, and for many years I played in that workshop on a regular basis. My friend and I both 'taught' our pretend classrooms side by side with a chalk line drawn down the middle of the board to separate our classrooms. PLO was permanently written on my side ;) Remember PLO!?

While I decided when I was older that a classroom was not where I would spend my days, I continue to love creating. Today, my little guy is my student :) ... and I have oh so much fun dreaming up fun activities to do with him in my favourite space.. our home.

This creation all started after I saw the idea for a s'mores snack online. From there, it snowballed. I am loving pretend play with Max now that he is starting to understand that not everything is literal. i.e. even though I am calling this cotton ball a marshmallow does not mean you put it in your mouth and chew it ;) Everyone around us seems to be going camping this summer, and while I would love too as well, the timing for us this year would not be ideal.

So.. I give you.. our indoor camp out.

This was so much fun to put together and for the most part I had all of the materials needed lying around the house and playroom.
 

I made Max a pair of binoculars to play with. There are countless ways to decorate these and you can use various materials as well.. paper, felt, yarn, buttons.. really anything you have lying around. I also bought a little lantern for Max to use in the tent. This also gave me a super cute photo op ;)

I looked up camping books for toddlers and found a Curious George and Dr. Seuss book; two series that we enjoy reading. I thought it would be fun to have a snuggle in our tent and read about what you do when you go camping.

I made two fun signs from materials I already had at home; again super cheap and easy.

The snack was super simple; honey teddy grahams, chocolate chips and mini marshmallows.. CAUTION.. highly addictive.

Our fire was made out of tissue and blocks. Again, you can use different materials, sticks, paper towel rolls, rolled construction paper, etc. 

Take a cotton ball and glue it on the end of a piece of doweling and boom, you can roast a marshmallow over your pretend fire.

Of course, often times, your idea does not turn out exactly as you had planned. Max refused the snack at first (likely because three different foods were touching each other.. oh the horror!), but came back to it hours later right before bed time (of course). Then at one point he turned the roasting sticks into weapons.. during one of his "I'm an insane toddler with way too much energy coming out of my limbs and now I am going the beat the fire and mommy's leg" moments... which was kiboshed in two seconds flat by mommy.

Overall though, we had fun sitting in the tent, reading the books and playing with the lantern in the dark :) I'll leave the set up out for awhile to let him explore it some more, and who knows maybe in the next few days he will sit quietly in my lap and pretend to roast marshmallows with me in a gentle manner .. ya right.. that poor tissue paper does not know what's coming ;)

Hope everyone is having a lovely week so far. I'll sign off for now.. I have to go put out the fire ;)

~ K

Welcome home Mason

We are officially a family of four (or six if you include the pets)! Mason is two weeks old already! He is the sweetest little peanut, more petite than Max and so very chill. Diaper changes and baths are the only thing he currently protests. He is a crazy night time sleeper.. sleeping about 5-6 hours when he first goes down, and then a couple more hours after his feeding between 4-5:30ish. I know this is likely to not last, but I am loving not feeling the need to nap during the day for the time being.. especially since I honestly don’t know how I would ever try to nap with having the babe and a toddler to care for and a gazillion other things to do every day. We are so lucky to have Mason here with us and I am loving every second of him as well as being home with my boys :)

We have been out a few times, twice to the drop-in center (I had helpers both times) and to the park once (again with a helper), and a few doctor’s appointments.  I also took Mason to Walmart and Giant Tiger with me to shop for some cheapy tops, since my maternity clothes are way to baggy, yet my normal clothes are still much too tight. I struck out at Wal-mart and was super frustrated and a little down, but found a couple of loose work out tops and GT and they have been my go-tos for the past week. This morning, I was feeling extra confident and took Max for a wagon ride while walking our pup AND wearing Mason in my carrier… and I NAILED it :) We were gone about 45 minutes and everyone enjoyed the fresh morning air.

So without further ado, welcome to Mason’s nursery :) Originally I did not think I would change or style this room differently after moving Max to his new bog boy room. I felt like I had “done the boy nursery” so to say and I was more focused on Max’s new space. But in the end I decided that the new little man in our lives needed his own special space, and my taste has changed a bit since two years ago. This time around the space is much more minimalist in nature. With Max I had a lot more decorations and little trinkets lets say. This space has the bare minimum and I wouldn’t have it any other way.. I love it! 

I have been loving foxes lately, and while I had not planned on having a theme, those sneaky little foxes somehow found their way in the room ;) I chose a light grey for the walls, with orange and teals as the accent colours. I had a friend sew me a new cover for a chair cushion (after my pregnancy with this little one, and continuing to read books to Max at bedtime in this chair up until the 7^th month the cushion had become mayyyybe 1cm in thickness…lol.. can you say heavy load!?). 

Max had a pom pom garland hanging above his change table and he loved loved loved staring at it from a very young age, so I bought a tissue paper tassel garland for this little peanut and matched the colours on the prints above the crib to the tissue colours.

I said goodbye to my side of the road and kijiji dressers and bought the dresser that matches Max’s new dresser in his new room. I LOVE these dressers.. they look rustic yet are much more functional (being new) compared to the dressers I was using. I fought daily with my cheapy/free finds I used in Max’s nursery, opening and closing the drawers and having them catch every time had become pretty annoying. 

  

While Mason is still sleeping in our room I still change him in his nursery and I also do his early am feed in our rocker. With the window open a crack and the fresh air coming in, and the birds starting to sing as the sun is coming up it is a very peaceful moment for Mason and I, where we get to have some alone time in the midst of our busy home during the day .. enter Max trying to climb on my back as I feed Mason on the couch or trying to fit a soother into his mouth while I explain to him he is nursing and cannot take the soother at that moment. Lol

Life has become much more busy and at times much more frustrating as I am learning to not feel constant guilt about one little boy lacking attention from me when the other has my focus. However, at the same time it feels as though Mason was always meant to be here with us, and thinking about it just being the three of us already seems so long ago and incomplete.. because watching these brothers together gives me a warm, goosebump, starburst kind of feeling :) I have two sweet boys.. I am so lucky.

~ K