This is Owl & Free Printable Craft

Yesterday I held a story + craft with the ADORABLE book This is Owl! This is an interactive books that asks kids to clap, tap, blow, even "twit-twoo" to help tell the story! The kids LOVE that they get to really participate in the story, and who doesn't love a cute little owl!?

I really like to include a craft at the end of my story times, so for this week I decided to draw an Owl for each of the kids to color, glue onto a half sheet of black construction paper, and then "build a nest" with more construction paper cut into tiny strips.

After a little thought, I decided to make a printable Owl that was very basic, so that kids could make each one their own by adding different colors, patterns, etc. Watching each child customize his/her artwork always amazes me, it's like a tiny glimpse into what's going on in their heads.


I love how my almost three year old only wanted yellow strips, and added "Q's" in her sky (her name is Quinn).

I also love how my five year old thought her picture needed a branch :p.

You can order the book for your family  here (it would also make a great gift!). And download the printable owls here! I have two per page, since I was making it for my story time. I figure many of you might have more than one child, or maybe you want to color an owl of your own ;).

Enjoy!!

Toddler Easter Basket

Kylie's third Easter basket at 2.5 years old included:

• sidewalk paint
• watercolor paint
• two Easter themed stamps I found at Target
• a package of Annie's fruit snacks
• three Reese's peanut butter eggs
• the books Little Lamb and Miss Rumphius
• Eeboo brand puzzle I found at our local bookstore
• Grimm's Wooden Rainbow toy (I think it's just the "small" size, as opposed to the Mini or Large).

IT"S A GIRL!

So we found out back on December 7th, but I just never got around to updating the blog! Daddy wasn't able to make it to our ultrasound so I made him this box to open with KyKy when he got home.

Hoping to do another pregnancy update soon!

Fall Book Ideas!

Just sharing some fun fall themed books that we own or have checked out at the library!

We love books in this house and are always looking for new titles to check out! So, maybe this post will give some other families out there some new ideas -and also remind me next year what my library favorites were! :P

Fun With Felt: DIY Felt Wall!

Our DIY felt wall:

 

So ever since I saw the idea of a felt board on Pinterest I knew I would have to try it out! But instead of actually making a felt board, I decided to be lazy and just hang the felt directly onto the wall with painters tape. We have the perfect half wall in our split level house to do it on and this way I didn't have to make any holes! I will admit that I first tried to tape both the sky and ground up without sewing them together, which lasted a little while but then I had a little area right in the middle of the scene that things wouldn't stick to very well. So I eventually did sew the light blue and green panels together. When we want to make the ocean or the backing for the map I just stick the blue over our base sky and land and painters tape the sides and it works fine.

I have had the felt wall for probably five months now and I just add little pieces here and there as I I have time. Some pieces I have sewn together, some I have just hot glued. I think the scuba diver is my favorite (I found the template on Pinterest here) and the little piggies are Kylie's favorite!.

There is still so much I want to do: more farm animals, more foods, a big bad wolf, a garden, more things to show the changing seasons. It really could be a never ending addiction for me. I also have many more ideas for the world map (although I still need to add Antarctica) that include more than just felt! My inspiration from that project is coming from here and here. But since Kylie is still a little young for some aspects of it, I will probably hold off until this winter.

Confessions

Forgive me father for I have sinned.

I have been spoiling baby girl with new toys, books, and puzzles a little too much lately. Remember last year when I wrote this post about how as far as toys I was doing pretty good? Well, oh how the mighty have fallen. This year I want EVERYTHING! She plays so good now and is just at the age where it is so much fun to buy her things because she is excited about them, but also isn't bratty about them yet.  Plus, I LOVE playtime, so I get sucked into the new toy trap almost as much as a 5 year old! But in my defense, I go most crazy for the geeky educational type toys. I do feel the need to note here that I think pretty much any toy has some educational value because PLAY=LEARNING. So there is my problem!

She seriously has more self control than me. The other day in JC Penny I needed to find something for $10 to use a coupon I had and I found these two little stuffed animal mice, Jack and Gus from Cinderella, and I was going to buy them to her. Well after she had been holding them for a while and when we went to check out she said "put them back"!  The back story here is that I usually tell her we are going to put the toys back with their friends and say goodbye/see ya next time. So she was actually the one that prevented an impulse buy.

Another way I have been defending myself is because most of my purchases have been from garage sales. So, I feel better about the price and that the toys are second hand and thus better for the environment. But, I'm still probably spending a little too much money and it's so close to her birthday! I'm sabotaging myself because there will be nothing good left for a birthday present.

Gah. So I have confessed my sins and I will try to work on them. Probably best to avoid temptation altogether and just stay home!

Everything Easter!

At some point I will be able to write a post with some substance again, but today I only have time to post a couple more Easter crafts and baby girls Easter goodies :)

Easter crafts:

Wooden Easter Eggs I painted filled with stickers to find on Easter morning: 

Goodies for the Easter Basket:

And the finished product: 

I tend to obsess over stuff like (I blame it on my mom who always gave us perfectly put together things for the holidays), but I absolutely LOVE the way it turned out and I can't wait for Easter morning now!!!

A Simple Easter Craft

Nothing too fancy, but the start to our Easter/Spring crafts, hopefully there will be more to come! I just cut out some egg shapes out of paper and then we just had 'decorating' them. I do highly recommend the sponge brushes for stamping/painting in general, not just for this craft. My daughter is loving painting right now and she is also loving using these circular brushes. I have seen people use clothes pins stuck on pom poms which would work just as well probably but these were so cheap at Walmart I couldn't resist!

What My Baby Girl Wishes Were Toys

A while a go I wrote a post about my favorite toys. Well, ever since I read this splendid little article, I have been putting together in my mind a post about the non-toy items that my daughter has loved to play with as a baby/toddler so that I could always remember them.

The Nalgene bottle was her first obsession. She would love to move the handle back and forth and back and forth and explore the cover with her mouth. She wanted that bottle any time it was out. The second is a set of coasters at my mother-in-law's house. Once she was mobile and could pull her self up on the coffee table she discovered these delightful stacking circles. Her and her Memere would count and stack them. She loved them so much that Memere bought us a set for our house, and now of course she could care less about them! Ha, no I'm just kidding, she does still play with them once in a while and likes to tell us their colors but she isn't as interested as she first once was. Ugh the toilet a paper roll. Okay first of all I DETEST this ugly holder more than anything. When we bought this house (two weeks before baby girl was born I will remind you), I wanted to bring these to the dump as fast as possible, but it just never happened and after the baby came, I gave up on trying to find an alternative toilet paper roll dispenser because I had more important things to worry about, obviously. To this day, my daughter loves to play with the toilet paper roll and the holder. The same thing was in our other bathroom too but that one was really rusty so it did at least make it into our basement and is still awaiting the day I remember to bring it out with the trash. And the kicker is, every single time I bring baby girl downstairs to switch out the laundry she runs over to it and plays with it. Every time.

Now that she is older, baby girl loves to play with things that are small and can be put in and out of containers. She loves to get all the straws out of the box and then put them back in. In and out in and out. She also loves to rip paper off of crayons and stand on books or anything that could be a step (the more dangerous the better in her eyes I think).

Baby Shower, Diaper Cake

My sister-in-law is expecting a precious baby girl in April and a few weekends ago we threw her a baby shower! My baby girl and I had a blast preparing and celebrating such a wonderful event :)

My sister-in-law is one of the sweetest people I have ever met and of course I wanted to do something a little special for her gift, so I made a diaper cake. They are actually quite easy to make, because everything is so cute anyway! I rolled up the diapers while I watched "At Home in Maine", a documentary about home birth, and just assembled the goodies as I purchased them.

 This diaper cake includes: 

128 Size 2 Diapers

5 Headbands

4 Recieving Blankets

4 Pair of Socks

3 Bibs

3 Baby Toys

(praying doll, stroller toy that jingles and little elephant rattle toy)

2 Pair of Pants

1 Onsie

1 Package of Boogie Wipes

1 Bottle of Baby Shampoo

1 Tube of Butt Paste 

My mother-in-law also made some really sweet DIY details for the party include these darling washcloth puppies: 

 And these beautiful favors:

And of course I have to include some pictures of this cutie pie enjoying herself with her cousin :)

 As I said we had a fabulous time and really look forward the arrival of our sweet niece/cousin in ONE MONTH!!!