Madeline and Malarie Headbands

New items listed in the shop, go check them out!

The Madeline Headband

The Malarie Headband

More to come soon!

Lace Up Card

I wanted to make a lace up card for Scarlett to work on her fine motor skills and thought Cookie Monster would make the perfect subject for our project.

I started with a heavy duty paper plate and drew our picture on the center of the plate. You can use anything as your picture, from your child's favorite character, to a simple heart or star.

I then cut all the way around Cookie Monster's head.

Once he was cut out I used a hole punch to punch holes all the way around. I would make sure not to punch your holes to close to the edge so that it doesn't get weak and tear over time. Once you have your holes punched your lace up card is finished. Your little one can use an old shoe lace to "sew" around the edges of your card or you can make your own like I did by cutting a piece of yarn and wrapping the ends with tape to keep them from fraying.

The challenge of getting the yarn through the holes is not only a great learning tool but also keeps their little hands busy for a while.

"COOKIES!!! UMM-NUM-NUM-NUM-NUM!!!"

-Cookie Monster

Colored Ice

It's been so hot here recently and I have been trying to find some activities to do to keep us cool. Well I found one that was a total hit. I filled an ice tray with water then added 2 drops of food coloring to each cube to create some bright colored ice. Aren't they pretty?

I thought once they were frozen they might not be as vibrant but they were still very bright. Then once our ice was ready I filled our little pool up, gave Scarlett a cup to collect the ice in and threw the ice into the pool. She was so excited to see the colored ice and started to call out the colors and put them in her little cup.

You can make a game out of it and have them collect all of one color or just say what each color is as the collect them. My only complaint is that the ice melted within about 10 minutes and we would have had fun playing with it longer. Next time I'm going to try freezing it in little cups or baggies so that we can play longer. The ice turned the pool a little murky looking but the food coloring didn't leave a mark on our skin or bathing suits and we played in the pool for about an hour. We had a blast and I will totally be doing this again.

And of course always supervise little ones near water.

Gardening

Gardening with you children is such a great way to introduce them to healthy foods and instill in them a love for nature. Whether you have acres of land or no yard at all, you can do some form of organic gardening with your kids. Scarlett picks veggies straight off the plants when we are outside and munches on stuff she wouldn't touch if I put it on a plate for her in the house, it's awesome. There are so many ways that they can help too. Let them dig in the soil, help water, plant seeds, harvest your goods and of course eat them. Growing your own food also gives you the piece of mind of knowing where your food came from and how it was cared for.

One touch of Nature makes the whole world kin.- Shakespeare

Re-purposed Boxes

I believe that you can never have to many storage boxes, especially for the kids stuff. I have boxes with clothes to grow in to, clothes they have grown out of, keepsake stuff, things to donate, and so many more. I have some friends that generously pass on their baby clothes for Taylor and I have been just stacking them in his closet until he grows into them. Well I'm am in the process of trying to get myself a bit more organized and so I wanted to store them in boxes grouped by size. I had a few diaper boxes and decided to make my own instead of buying any. I covered the outside of the boxes with some old material I had out in the garage. All you need to make your own is a box, enough material to cover the outside of your box, scissors, and a hot glue gun. 

I started out by cutting out my pieces of material. I used my box as my template by laying it on the material and cutting around it, making it a few inches longer on all sides.

Once my 4 pieces were cut, I placed the box on its side and worked on the long sides first. Laying the material over the side you are working on, center it where you want it, and glued the sides down first, wrapping them around the front and back of your box.

I made sure to glue them nice and tight so that it would have a smooth surface.

Once the sides are secure fold the bottom and top down like you would a present and glue in place.

For the front and back of the box I wanted it to look like it had finished edges. I folded them under on both sides so that they were the same length of the box and and glued them into place.

It makes it appear as if you sewed it together. Then I folded the top over and glued it down and folded the bottom under and glued it down.

You could be done at this point but I choose to add a hand hold on one side so that it would be easier to pull down from a high shelf. I created my hand hold where there originally was one on the box by cutting a T the length and height of the hole and then folding in in and securing it to the inside with my glue.

Now I have 2 new storage boxes that match the colors of his room, kept another thing out of our landfills and they keep me a little more organized, yeah!