A Mommy's Adventures

stART ~ Not A Box

2012-01-26T07:32:00.000-05:00

Welcome to stART! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week. Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

I love the book Not a Box, by Antoinette Portis! I love how it inspires children be able to use their imaginations and creativity to do or be anything that they want. The simple line drawings are perfect for the suspense of the story. We love guessing what his box is and what he will do next. One thing is for sure, this is NOT a box!

To go along with Not a Box we got creative with two large boxes that I had. Pushed the table out of the way and put down a table cloth. Then I gave them paint, stamps , foam rollers and paint brushes and let them create to their hearts content.

This was one of the best projects we have ever done, I think they would have painted all day if we had more boxes.

Clean up was CRAZY but totally worth it, here are a few pictures to give you an idea of what the house looked like afterwards :)

Cooking with Kids ~ Banana Bread

2012-01-25T07:28:00.000-05:00

We had some Banana’s that were really ripe so that meant BANANA BREAD!!

Juliette is getting really good at stirring and mixing when we cook together. The best part is mashing the bananas in Ziploc baggies.

Then squeezing it out into the bowl, I snip the bottom corner so they can easily squish it all out.

Dumping in chocolate chips makes them very happy too :)

Our Banana Bread

1 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup applesauce
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 mashed overripe bananas
1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs, applesauce and mashed bananas until well blended.
Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Add chocolate chips. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

For more great ideas for cooking with kids check out Watcha Making Wednesdays at The Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M.

Muffin Tin Monday

2012-01-23T12:04:00.000-05:00

It has been awhile since we had a Muffin Tin anyday, so when the girls asked if we could have a Muffin Tin Monday, I couldn’t say no!

I made them an extra special lunch with a yummy Banana Strawberry Smoothie. They also had some Honey Wheat Pretzels, Avocado slices and Turkey and Cheese Roll-ups

I think that this picture says it all…two very excited little girls!

stART~ Snow Day

2012-01-19T07:25:00.000-05:00

Emily took the book Snow Day, by Lynn Plourde out on Library Day and we really enjoyed reading it together. Even though we have not had any snow yet the girls can’t wait for it to come. This book is written to tell the story of a snow day from the moment a child rubs the sleep out of their eyes to when they snuggle up to a good book at the end of a fun day in the snow to get ready for bed. It is written in a poetic form that is fun to read and flows really well as the story of this special snow day unfolds.

For our art project we talked about some of the things we can’t wait to do once it finally (hopefully at least once!) snows here. After discussing our favorite things to do in the snow the girls were given a piece of paper, crayons and oil pastels to draw a picture of their favorite thing about the snow.

When they were all finished we added the snow! The girls used white paint that was mixed with glue and a q-tip to dot or spread the glue onto the paper.

Finally they added the sparkling finishing touch…GLITTER!

Emily making snow angels in the snow

Juliette going sledding ( she drew this picture all by herself )

Pattern Block Pictures

2012-01-17T07:17:00.000-05:00

Emily and Juliette always ask to use our wooden pattern blocks, but then get frustrated when the pieces will not stay still for them to work with. They slide all over the table and the girls end up walking away from them after a few minutes. So, when I was cleaning out a cabinet and found a roll of rubber drawer liners I immediately thought of the pattern blocks. I had a long piece so I cut it in half and gave each of the girls a mat to work on.

The pieces stuck to the drawer liner and the girls had so much fun making all different designs with the pattern blocks.

After more than half an hour this turned into…

…a beautiful flower with a butterfly and sun. Emily couldn’t wait to show me her masterpiece.

stART ~ The Snow Lambs

2012-01-12T06:34:00.000-05:00

This week we read The Snow Lambs, by Debi Gliori. This is a story about a Sam and his sheepdog Bess. While they are counting their sheep the Bess goes missing. A snow storm is coming and Sam is worried about his dog. Find out what Bess was up too for the wonderful ending to this story. I loved how after the first couple of pages you can see two stories through the illustrations, what is happening with Sam and what Bess is doing.

We made some Snowflakes to go along with this book. We used some q-tips, glue and glitter. Both Juliette had fun creating their unique snowflakes by gluing the q-tips onto blue construction paper. When they were all finished we sprinkled iridescent glitter over the q-tips. I love how they sparkle!

Emily did her snowflake all by herself. She was able to break her q-tips to the size that she needed by folding them in half.

I gave Juliette a pile of q-tips of all different sizes. She wanted me to start her so I put glue lines for the big q-tips and she covered them with the q-tips then added the smaller ones herself.

Totally Tots

2012-01-11T22:06:00.001-05:00

I am excited to announce that I am one of the new contributing writers for Totally Tots this year. I will be writing the Little Hands-on ABC’s and 123’s feature. I will focus on ABC and 123 hands-on activities that moms can do with their tots.

So, stop on over to check out my first post of the new year and find out what Juliette is “spying!!!”

stART ~ Pinkalicious

2012-01-05T16:51:00.001-05:00

Emily received Pinkalicious, by Elizabeth Kahn for Christmas and both girls have not been able to put it down. They look through the book and retell the story to each other when I am not available to read it to them. So I thought this would be the perfect book for our first stART project of the new year!

We had fun with pink and created a pink cupcake collage with pink Easter Basket filler, pink dot markers, pink pom poms, pink sequins, pink buttons and pink pipe cleaners. Emily and Juliette loved helping me find and think of different pink things that they could use for their projects.

First, I cut our a pink cupcake shape from some craft foam. Then I gave the girls glue and our collection of pink collage materials and let them go to work.

Emily chose the markers to start with and Juliette went right for the do-a-dot markers.

Both of the girls enjoyed gluing on the collage material to decorate their Pinkalicious Cupcakes.

To finish them off we sprinkled them with white glitter for a perfect sparkle!

Emily’s Pinkalicious Cupcake

Juliette’s Pinkalicious Cupcake

Product Review: Moon Dough Push n’ Pop Breakfast Set

2012-01-03T14:39:00.001-05:00

I was so excited when I was contacted by Team Mom to review the new improved Moon Dough Formula. Emily and Juliette have enjoyed playing with Moon Dough at their friend’s house, however after seeing what a huge mess it made did not want it in our house. I have to say I am so glad I gave this set a chance because the girls had SO much fun making all kinds of yummy breakfast treats with it.

The Moon Dough Push n’ Pop Breakfast Set came with 2 colors of moon dough (which can be mixed together for a cool tie die effect or completely blended to make a new color), a play mat, a twisty mold and 3 Push n’ Pop molds.

Juliette was able to use the new Push n’ Pop molds to easily make pancakes, waffles or toast. Emily and I loved using the twisty mold to make the different toppings. The moon dough molds really well and pops right out. Emily was able to do it all by herself and they really looked great.

The new moon dough formula was better than the one that the girls had played with at a friends house, although it did crumble a little bit, it was easy to get it back together and did not stick to their clothes at all. I also loved that it does not dry up. It is also Wheat-free and Hypo-allergenic. The girls were able to make their breakfast creations and play with them for hours without worrying about putting them away.

There is also a Push n' Pop Sea Creatures set available that looks really cute. Sso if you want something that your child will have hours of fun creating with, with minimal mess I definitely recommend these Moon Dough Push n’ Pop Sets!

Disclaimer: Thank you to Team Mom and Moon Dough for providing us with this Moon Dough Push N Pop Breakfast Set free of charge to facilitate my review. This review is 100% my own opinion of this Moon Dough Set and was not influenced in any way by the company.

stART ~ Three Little Christmas Trees (Fingerplay)

2011-12-15T22:39:00.001-05:00

This week we did something a little different. We have been working on this Christmas Tree Poem/Fingerplay so we made some cute Christmas Trees to go with it.

Three Little Christmas Trees

Three little Christmas trees standing all alone, (hold up three fingers)
Their heats were very sad (hands over heart, sad face) 'cause they hadn't found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)
Then "CHOP" went the ax, (right hand chop left forearm) and down fell a tree, (palms together lean to side)
And off it went (bounce pointer finger from left to right) with a happy family. (smile with index fingers at corners of mouth)
Two little Christmas trees standing all alone, (hold up two fingers)
Their heats were very sad (hands over heart, sad face) 'cause they hadn't found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)
Then "CHOP" went the ax, (right hand chop left forearm) and down fell a tree, (palms together lean to side)
And off it went (bounce pointer finger from left to right) with a happy family. (smile with index fingers at corners of mouth)
One little Christmas tree standing all alone, (hold up one finger)
It's heat was very sad (hands over heart, sad face) 'cause they hadn't found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)
Then "CHOP" went the ax, (right hand chop left forearm) and down fell a tree, (palms together lean to side)
And off it went (bounce pointer finger from left to right) with a happy family. (smile with index fingers at corners of mouth)
No little Christmas trees standing all alone, (pointer finger and thumb make a zero)
Their hearts were very happy (hands over heart)
'Cause they all had found a home. (fingertips form pointed roof)

Paper Plate Christmas Trees

I cut a paper plate into 4 different sized pieces and then we glued them together to make a tree shape. The girls painted it with green paint. Then they glued on sequins and spangles for the decorations and added a star at the top and a construction paper trunk. They had a lot of fun decorating their trees and it was great fine motor practice too!

Juliette’s Christmas Tree

Emily’s Christmas Tree

stART ~ The Christmas Story

2011-12-08T07:33:00.000-05:00

This week we have been talking a lot about Christmas. Emily is very excited to be in the Christmas Pageant both at her school and at our church. We have especially enjoyed The Christmas Story, retold by Jane Werner Watson. This Little Golden Book has beautiful illustrations by Eloise Wilkon that help the story come to life.

I was thinking about a project to do for this book, when Emily came home with this perfect one from school. I liked it so much that I want to do it with the children in my Sunday School class.

I ordered the Nativity Stickers from oriental trading back in October and was just going to have the kids put them on a piece of construction paper, but I loved the idea of using the plastic plate. Emily loved it because it was something different than we would normally use she couldn’t wait to find a place to hang it when she got home from school.

There are more than 25 stickers so this could also be a fun Advent activity, where you add a different sticker to the picture each night. Maybe next year :)

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Wordless Wednesday ~ The Best Early Christmas Present EVER!

2011-12-07T21:43:00.001-05:00

Every Christmas as we are putting up our Christmas decorations, I say that I want an outdoor Nativity scene. To me this is the most important decoration, being that this is the true meaning of Christmas. We never really put up that much, but this year, after 7 years I have my Nativity and I absolutely LOVE it!

Michael surprised me with it and when I drove up to see it I just about cried with JOY. It was the best early Christmas present! Emily and Juliette were just as excited, they got out of the car to see it and kept looking for Baby Jesus. Won’t they be excited to wake up and find him on Christmas morning!

stART

2011-12-01T22:27:00.001-05:00

Welcome to stART! I can’t believe how fast these weeks seem to be going by. I have been so busy with watching my nephew and also taking on the co-superintendent position of our Church’s Sunday School program with my friend. I am so excited to be working with this area of Ministry in my church, however there is a lot of work to be done, especially at this time of the year. So, bear with me because I will have some fun stuff to share. In the meantime be sure to link up your projects. I always love seeing all the amazing things everyone is working on each week!

If you would like to join in all I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week. Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Don’t forget to check out the stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects. All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order. I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. **This is a work in progress so if you have participated and would like to be added to the list, leave me a comment and let me know :0)

Wordless Wednesday ~ She’s a hair twirler…

2011-11-30T08:09:00.001-05:00

…even in her sleep!!

Juliette is sound asleep in this picture and stayed like this for awhile too.

Cooking with Kids ~ Cranberry Sauce

2011-11-29T08:32:00.000-05:00

Last year we made homemade cranberry sauce for the first time and it was a lot of fun and super easy. So this year we did it again and both Emily and Juliette were able to help with every step!

First we tested to see if the cranberries would sink or float. After that we cut one open to see why they float and found out that there is a huge air pocket in the middle of them.

Then we got down to business, we washed the rest of the cranberries and picked out any bad ones.

We combined orange juice, cranberry raspberry juice and sugar and heated until the sugar was melted. Then we added the cranberries and waited a minute. We started to hear some popping and it was very exciting.

We all took turns stirring it until it was nice and think. This was Emily and Juliette’s favorite part!

Cranberry Sauce

1 bag cranberries (12oz)
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup 100% cranberry raspberry juice

Melt sugar into juice over medium heat. Add rinsed cranberries and cook over medium heat for about 10-15 minutes. Cranberries will pop as they heat up then bubble until it finally gets thick. When finished pour into a small casserole dish and refrigerate. Will firm up and set while in the refrigerator.

For more great ideas for cooking with kids check out Watcha Making Wednesdays at The Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M.

stART ~ The Turkey Ball

2011-11-17T07:00:00.000-05:00

The Turkey Ball, by David Steinberg is one of Emily and Juliette’s favorite books. This is a cute rhyming story about some turkey’s who get all dressed up and spend the night dancing. It is a lot of fun to read this book, which is good since we read if very often :)

For our project we made collage turkeys. First I cut a paper plate in half and the girls decorated it with do a dot markers.

Next, I gave them all our collage materials and they were able to decorate it however they wanted. I love having a bag of collage material that I can just dump out onto the table. It makes it so much easier than having to look through and collect a little of everything.

Finally they glued on the pieces of the turkey’s body.

Emily’s Turkey

Juliette’s Turkey

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Her Favorite Curl

2011-11-16T21:17:00.001-05:00

stART ~ Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf

2011-11-10T07:30:00.000-05:00

This week we read Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf, by Lois Ehlert. This is a great book that explains the life cycle of a tree. As always Lois Ehlert’s textural collages are stunning. As we are reading we love seeing all the different items that are used to create the pictures.

We actually decided to read this book after Emily came home with her Art Project from school. They made leaf prints and it reminded me of the cover of the book.

We actually did leaf prints at home with our art group at the beginning of autumn too. They are so much fun to make and even the littlest kids (15 months old) were able to get involved and make great prints!

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

stART ~ Corn Is Maize

2011-11-03T07:30:00.000-04:00

Check out the stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects. All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order. I have also included a list of all the blogs that participate in stART. **This is a work in progress so if you have participated and would like to be added to the list, leave me a comment and let me know :0) This week we read Corn Is Maize, by Aliki. This is a Let’s Learn and Find Out Science book. It gives lots of information about how corn grows from a seed too how corn was first discovered. Parts of the book were advanced for Emily, but she still enjoyed the pictures and talking about corn and the different things we get from corn.

After reading the book we made some popcorn for a snack and to use for our Art Project. Both Emily and Juliette were very excited about this!

After they snacked on some of the freshly popped popcorn they glued it onto the yellow construction paper that I cut out to look like a corn on the cob.

When they were finished we added the green husk to it. It was cute to watch them snack on their art medium as they were working on the project. They both enjoyed this and thought it was fun. Apparently we need to do more edible art projects :)

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T21:22:00.000-04:00

Costume Fun 2011

Emily the Peacock

Since last Halloween, Emily decided that she was going to be a Peacock. We had a lot of fun making her costume. She wore a pair of brown leggings and brown boots. Then she wore a hooded sweatshirt (it actually has Ariel on the front of it) and a long sleeved teal shirt (to hide Ariel). I made her feather fan from a piece of foam core board, which I covered in felt half circles in different shades of yellow and bright green. Then I glued the peacock feathers to stick over the top. The feather fan stayed on with elastic that I sewed into a circle and threaded through 2 holes in the middle of the foam core board so she could wear it like a backpack. Finally I made an alligator clip for the head feathers. I covered it in teal ribbon then hot glued 3 pipe cleaners to the middle and then hot glued pieces of black and blue feathers.

We were stopped throughout the night by other trick-or-treaters of all ages to comment on how cute her costume was!

Juliette the Ladybug

I am not sure how we decided that Juliette was going to be a ladybug, however the whole month of October if you asked her what she was going to be she knew and answered “a ladybug!”

My mom and I sewed the wings for her costume out of felt and used elastic to attach them over her arms like a back pack too. She wore a black long-sleeved onesie and black leggings with black socks and shoes. I knew she would never wear a headband for the antenna so I lined 2 alligator clips with black ribbon and hot glued a pipe cleaner to each one. Then I rolled the top of the pipe cleaner into a ball. She loves clips so they stayed on the whole day without any problem.

She loved wearing her costume. I love that we can now add it to our dress up collection.

Trick or Treating

The girls loved being able to pick their own candy at the different houses!

Waiting to yell “Trick-or-Treat”

Cousin Brianna the Cat walking with Juliette…they had so much fun together!

Off to the next house for more treats!!

Once we got home Emily couldn’t wait for Daddy to dump all of her candy on top of her, I think this will be a yearly picture!!

Then Emily sorted all of her candy!

(I used to love doing the same thing with my candy when I was little too)

Happy Halloween!!!

A Very Merry Shutterfly Christmas Card Giveaway!!!

2011-10-29T22:19:00.001-04:00

I have used Shutterfly for both Emily and Juliette’s Birth Announcements and was so pleased with how easy they were to create and personalize. Last year we began the tradition of creating a Summer Fun Photo Book and I loved how easy Shutterfly made it to record all the special memories we shared together. Every year we send a Christmas Photo Card to our friends and family because I think it is great to be able to send smiles along with our Christmas Greetings! For Christmas last year we created our cards on Shutterfly and I was impressed with all the different styles available. It was a lot of fun to try them out with the pictures that we took. I was thrilled with the cards that we finally decided on and ordered from Shutterfly.

This year there are so many new styles to choose from and after checking out all of the new Christmas Card designs I can’t wait to create our family Christmas Card.

So far my favorite designs are:

All The Happiness

Bold Bright Joy

Snowflake Borders

Once the great Christmas card photo shoot of 2011 is over and I upload my pictures I will be able to make the final decision. Until then I definitely recommend checking out all that Shutterfly has to offer!

**Update**
Here it is!! Our photo shoot was a little less than fun, however the card still came out amazing. Can't wait to recieve them and then send them to all of our family and friends. Click below to check out all the other amazing designs.

5x7 Folded Card

View the entire collection of cards.

The Giveaway!

Shutterfly has generously offered 2 of my readers a chance to win 25 free 5x7 flat or folded cards.

( Winner will be responsible for all applicable taxes, shipping and handling).

Mandatory Entry

Visit Shutterfly and tell me which is your favorite Holiday Card Design or Shutterfly Photo Gift Idea????

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This giveaway ends on November 5, 2011 at 11:59pm.

The winner will be drawn by random.org and announced on this blog as well as emailed. Winner will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be drawn. Email address must be in at least one comment or visible on your profile to win.

Disclosure: I will receive free cards for writing this post to participate in Shutterfly’s holiday card promotion however these are my own unbiased experiences and opinions.

stART ~ Stellaluna

2011-10-27T07:22:00.000-04:00

Emily and Juliette enjoyed listening to Stellaluna, by Janell Cannon. This is a wonderful story about a bat that is separated from its mother after they are attacked by an owl. Stellaluna lands in a bird’s nest and is then raised with the family of birds. She begins to act like the birds, eating bugs, sleeping at night and sleeping upright in their nest. One day when she learns to fly she finds her mother and learns that she can see in the dark and that she is supposed to sleep upside down. Stellaluna is excited to tell the birds what she has learned, but they soon find out that although they are very similar to each other, they are also very different. Emily was happy that they were still friends at the end of the story. I thought this was a great story, and liked the facts that are included throughout the story and on the last to pages as well.

To go along with this book we made toilet paper tube bats. I folded the tops of the tubes down in opposite directions to make the two points for the ears and point at the bottom for the body. Emily and Juliette painted their bats and once they were dry glued on there wings and used small red dot stickers for the eyes.

The girls finished bats.

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Having Fun Learning

2011-10-23T20:27:00.001-04:00

Having Fun Learning Together This Week!!!

Emily is 4.5 years old and Juliette is 27months old

Emily and Juliette are really enjoying helping me watch their cousin who is 12 weeks old. He fits right in with them and both Emily and Juliette look forward to having him come over. The girls have been keeping busy with lots of different activities while I am with the baby. They play nicely together and so far it has been working out really well.

The girls liked coloring in a different spot. I let them bring their papers and markers onto the floor in the living room, the change of location made this activity a little different and they thought it was fun.

Juliette has enjoyed having some quiet time in her room, when I went to check on her she was quietly “reading” her books. I often find this bookcase completely empty after she has “read” through all of them and left them in a huge pile on the floor! She is such little bookworm, just like Emily :)

Juliette loves helping feed her baby cousin.

Emily enjoyed dressing up her Snap 'N Style Doll and making up stories to go with them. This doll is getting ready to be in a wedding! The highlight of Emily’s week would have to be getting to use the peeler to help me peel carrots for dinner.

The girls with Grandpa playing Sequence for Kids . This game is a fun strategy game. Emily loves playing to block other people, she will block them before putting down her own winning piece.

Emily relaxing on the couch working on her Lauri Toys Dot-2-Dot Lacing Enchanted Kingdom cards. These are lacing cards that have numbers on them like a connect the dots puzzle. She has to begin at #1 and lace through to the last number in order.

Emily found and cut out pictures in a magazine that began with the letter A

Juliette has really enjoyed building with Duplos she has been creating some really great structures. Usually she just fills the whole board with one layer, now she is building up to make some tall towers.

After making our Water Color Leaves for our stART project the girls had fun exploring with the liquid watercolors and diffuser paper a little more.

Great fine motor practice with theseMelissa & Doug DeluxeLacing Beads

Juliette played Perfection . She requests this game a couple of times a week. She does it without the timer and then when she is finished we push the board down set the timer and wait for it to pop up.

Juliette is amazing at Zingo , she has been playing this bingo game almost a year now and every time we play I am amazed at how she seems to barely look at her card yet know exactly what she needs and what I need when we play. Her favorite part is moving the tile dispenser to show the new tiles.

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking these buttons!!

stART ~ Corduroy’s Halloween

2011-10-20T07:32:00.000-04:00

This week we read Corduroy's Halloween, by B. G. Hennessy. This is a cute lift the flap book that tells the story of how a little bear named Corduroy prepares to celebrate Halloween. Emily and Juliette love looking under the flaps to see the fun surprises underneath while we are reading the story.

Both Emily and Juliette liked the Jack-o-Lanterns that are in the story so we made our own out of paper. To make them a little more special we made them sun-catcher Jack-o-lanterns.

I cut a pumpkin shape out of card stock paper and the girls picked which way they wanted to hold it so they could have a tall skinny pumpkin or a short squatty one. Next, Emily had fun drawing a face on hers. Then I cut it out with an Exacto knife type of a cutter. For Juliette I drew the face and cut it out.

Then they painted their pumpkins.

After they dried they glued yellow tissue paper to the back of the pumpkin over the holes for the eyes, mouth and nose. Emily was determined to cover her entire back with tissue paper.

Finally they glued on the stem, leaf that was cut out of construction paper and the vine which is a piece of pipe cleaner.

Emily’s Jack-o-Lantern

Juliette’s Jack-o-Lantern

I love how when the sun is shining it really lights up the Jack-o-Lanterns face!!

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Watcha Making Wednesday ~ Funfetti Pancakes

2011-10-19T22:00:00.001-04:00

Emily and Juliette LOVE to help me cook. They are always helping me bake and love mixing and pouring and scooping the ingredients, but this week they were super excited to actually help cook the pancakes on the stove with me!

First of course they helped mix all of the ingredients together:

I love the look of concentration on their faces as they are working.

Then to make them extra special we added… …Fall Sprinkles to the batter!!!

Time to get cooking

I added the batter to a squeeze bottle so they could squirt the batter right onto the griddle. Juliette did this too, but safety was my first concern so I was not able to take a picture, just imagine the huge grin on her face as she is actually at the stove helping make the pancakes!!

I made the E and J for them, pancake batter in a squirt bottle is a lot of fun!

Emily getting to flip her pancakes.

Juliette listened so well, I trusted her to flip them while I took a picture. She did a great job!!

The girls with their Initial Pancakes.

I happened to have some whipped cream in the fridge so we added that to the pancakes too!

Our Pancake Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 1/4 cups milk
1 egg
3 tablespoons canola oil

Directions

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Make a well in the center and pour in the milk, egg and oil; mix until smooth.
Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour, scoop or squeeze the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 1/4 cup for each pancake. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

To make them extra fun add in a few shakes of colored sprinkles it will look just like Funfetti cake mix!!

For more great recipes check out Watcha Making Wednesdays on The Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M

stART ~ Count Down to Fall

2011-10-13T07:47:00.000-04:00

This week we enjoyed reading Count Down to Fall, by Fran Hawk. The girls are starting to notice all the changes in nature as Fall has arrived. They love pointing out the leaves that are changing color and the acorns they find on the ground. This book counts down many popular fall items with a fun to read rhyming text. I love all of the details in the illustrations. There is so much to talk about on each page. Emily likes to know the names of certain flowers and trees. So this book was great for teaching her the names of the different types of leaves that we are finding on the ground.

When I saw the idea for this project on Superheroes and Princesses I knew it would go perfectly with this book.

For this project I cut out a maple leaf shape and an oak leaf shape on diffuser paper. Then I used my hot glue gun to make the veins on the leaves. Then I gave them to the girls to paint with red, orange and yellow liquid watercolors.

Emily and Juliette painting their fall leaves.

They had so much fun painting the leaves that I wished that I had made more of them to paint!

They look so pretty on our Sliding Glass Door, just like falling leaves!

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Peek a BOO!

2011-10-12T12:40:00.000-04:00

Open Ended Art ~ Concentric Circles

2011-10-11T21:25:00.000-04:00

The girls love to sit at the table and color or draw with their markers and crayons. This is actually how they spend a good part of the morning. They have access to the paper, coloring books, markers and crayons at all times. I store them in the bottom of the hutch in the dining room right next to the table.

One day when I walked over to the table to see what they were up to Emily had started drawing a large circle on her paper.

When she noticed me she said “Look, I am going to keep making circles with all of the markers!”

She did exactly that, marker after marker, circle after circle she drew until it was all colored in.

Look how pretty and she did it all on her own and had so much fun doing it too!

For more great activities for your kiddos click on the buttons below:

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-10-10T13:15:00.000-04:00

This week for Muffin Tin Monday the girls were so excited to use the new Wilton Teddy Bear Silicone Baking Cups that we one from the Wilton Giveaway over at JDaniel4’sMom! So thank you very much Deirdre @ JDaniel4’sMom and Wilton for making today’s Muffin Tin Monday extra special :)

Our Muffin Tin Lunch

Cottage Cheese with Pineapple, Red Grapes, Turkey and Cheese Roll Up and Pasta with Butter and Parmesan Cheese.

I used these fun muffin cups to have the girls re-try Cottage Cheese with Pineapple. It is something that reminds me of when I was little and that I love, but Emily and Juliette never seemed to like. This time Emily said she enjoyed it, however Juliette is still not a fan!

Having Fun Learning

2011-10-09T21:49:00.000-04:00

Having Fun Learning Together This Week!!!

Emily is 4.5 years old and Juliette is 26 months old

This week I started watching my nephew who is only 2 months old. He will be with us 3 days a week so this first week we spent just getting used to having a baby in the house again! Emily and Juliette loved helping out with him and showing him with lots of love, hugs and kisses too. I love that Juliette is getting to experience helping out with a baby the way that Emily did around her age.

While he was napping we were able to fit in some activities, hopefully we will be able to keep up the momentum with all the things we have started and are working on :)

The girls enjoyed making Mini Apple Pies.

We made some leaf prints. Emily was really into this and picked the leaves she wanted and the colors that she wanted. Juliette did a few with my help. She was excited after the first one and then she wanted me to help and then she would rather just play. Emily Played Memory, What’s Missing? This is great practice for paying attention to details. Emily seemed to like the change from the regular game, even though she didn’t always get it right she still wanted to play.

We discovered a Giant Green Squash in our garden. We thought the vine was a Pumpkin and were very excited to find this!

For our stART project we read Who Hoots? and made paper plate owls. Our fall sensory bin minus the silk leaves was a huge hit this week. They asked me to take them out right away, but they loved scooping and pouring with the split peas and popping corn. Emily decided that she would sort the split peas and popping corn!

Emily used apple stickers to make her own patterns.

We used our domino set to make matches. She loved being able to match every one and see what design it made. Emily colored in the faces for the apples in the Apple Happy Poem. I plan on doing a poem like this each week so that she can add it into a poetry notebook. She loved reading it after we were finished.

Juliette wanted to make smiley faces. I made one for her and she kept trying to copy it. So far she made a circle shape with lots of dots inside for the eyes and nose and mouth. She was so excited and I was very proud of her! At the bottom of the paper she was trying to write her name. She was asking me to help her. I guess she sees Emily writing and drawing pictures so she wants to do it too!Juliette liked making pictures with different shapes with The Learning Journey Match It (Shape Shuffle) activity. We talked about the colors and she shapes as she was working.

Using a real knife to cut apples was definitely the highlight of Emily’s week. We made a regular sized apple pie for dessert and Emily loves trying to use her little knife to cut things. I said she could help me with her little knife, however once she started to try to use it I noticed it was way to dull and was actually afraid she would get more hurt using that knife. She did a great job cutting the apples in half for me!

Juliette did a few with my help, but I was obviously unable to get a picture since I wanted to make sure she kept all of her cute little fingers :)

Both Emily and Juliette were also excited to help with slicing and coring the apples. They each tried one apple. Emily did it all by herself, Juliette needed my help as soon as I finished taking the picture. We pushed down on it together. These were both great practical life skills that I hope to practice with them more often.

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking these buttons!!

stART ~ Who Hoots?

2011-10-06T07:30:00.000-04:00

This week we enjoyed Who Hoots?, by Katie Davis. This was one of Emily’s favorite books as a toddler and she continues to enjoy it now as a preschooler. The books starts with the question “Who Hoots?” and then it is followed by a bunch of animals that don’t hoot. Finally it says that an Owl does not hoot which is wrong and very funny to little kids. It goes on to say that “Of course an Owl Hoots” and give a little snippet of information about the owl. This is repeated with a few other animal sounds and at the end they want to know who can make all of these sounds? Can you guess who???

To go along with this book we made some really cute paper plate owls.

All you need are 2 paper plates (0ne of the paper plates I trimmed the top off of to form the ears the other one was left whole), brown paint, and yellow, white and black construction paper. First the girls painted their paper plates. I squirted the paint right onto the plates and they used their fingers and paint brushes to cover the plate with. I cut out Juliette’s owl eyes and she glued the circles together.

Emily cut out the circles for her owl’s eyes and glued them together. They added a triangle for the nose.

Then cut one of the paper plates in half and glued them onto the other paper plate to make the wings.

Emily’s Owl

I think Emily’s owl looks like it is trying to shake some ones hand!

Juliette’s Owl

I like how Juliette’s is peeking to the left, they are next to each other above the door, so it looks like he is looking at Emily’s owl.

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Wordless Wednesday ~ We Grew a Giant Mystery Squash

2011-10-05T07:22:00.000-04:00

For months now I thought we were growing pumpkins. I started out with a group of Zucchini Plants and soon I noticed a vine venturing across the garden. I didn’t pull it out because it looked like a pumpkin plant. It grew and grew and grew all through our fence. I was cleaning up the garden and was about to pull it out because I haven’t seen any sign of a pumpkin and by this time I figured we wouldn’t get any. Then all of the sudden I saw this!!!

Not a pumpkin, but possibly more exciting…a Mystery Squash!

It is huge and heavy and we have no idea what it is. It seems like a cross between a butternut squash meets zucchini, meets watermelon.

I picked it because I was afraid an animal would eat it or it would rot and we would never get to hold it, but am afraid that we actually picked it to soon. The skin is very delicate like a zucchini.

So, if you have any idea what our Mystery Squash is please let us know. Either way we are enjoying showing it to everyone that comes over!

Memory a New Way

2011-10-04T07:30:00.001-04:00

Emily and Juliette have been enjoying using our Mickey Mouse Paint Chips, which we got for free from Home Depot to play the traditional version of Memory. They turn them upside down and pick to cards until they get a match and repeated.

Emily enjoys it, but I wanted to challenge her to something a little different and came up with…

Memory, What’s Missing?

First I put some of the cards out on the floor

I told Emily to study them and try to remember what was there. Then she closed her eyes and I took one away.

She had to tell me which one was missing.

She did really well and said the yellow one was missing!!

After a few times we added more cards. This was harder for her and she would get it right part of the time, but she said it was fun and wanted to keep trying. We took turns taking the card away and figuring out which one was missing.

We also played it with them in straight lines too.

This was a great way to practice paying attention to details and working on memory. We talked about noticing patterns, for example in the first set there were 2 of each color. You can do this with any group of toys to go along with anything you are working on or your little one is interested in. Next time I think I might take out our little people!!

For more great activities for your kiddos click on the buttons below:

Muffin Tin Monday and the Mini Apple Pies

2011-10-03T20:59:00.002-04:00

This week for Muffin Tin Monday, the girls were very excited to have some Mini Apple Pies in their Muffin Tin Lunch. We made them in our muffin tin from the apples we picked when we went apple picking.

Emily and Juliette's Muffin Tin Monday Lunch

Homemade Mini Apple Pie, Vanilla Yogurt with Carvel Crunchies (if you get a carvel cake ask for extra crunchies, they are great in yogurt), Pretzels and Turkey and Cheese Kabobs

Both Emily and Juliette had fun helping me make the Mini Apple Pies. We made our own crust so first the girls took turn adding the flour and sugar.

They both thought the pastry blender was a lot of fun and used it to cut the butter into the flour and salt. Once the dough was rolled out I cut it into circles and the girls pushed them into our muffin tin.

Emily and Juliette each scooped some of the apple mixture into the crust. The girls enjoyed taste testing the apples as I cut them to make the filling.

Our Mini Apple Pies out of the oven and ready for a taste test!

Can you tell that Juliette was excited to dig in!!

Our Recipe for Apple Pie

Double Pie Crust

2/3 cup plus 2 tablespoons butter
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 to 5 tablespoons cold water

Cut butter into flour and salt until the size of small peas. Sprinkle in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, tossing with a fork until the flour is moistened and pastry cleans side of bowl.

Gather Pastry into a ball, divide in half to make top and bottom crust. Flatten and roll out on lightly floured surface. Place in pie pan.

Filling

1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I probably use a lot more, I just shake it in until I like the color)
Dash of salt
6 cups thinly sliced pared apples
2 tablespoons butter

Heat oven to 425 degrees. Mix sugar, flour , cinnamon and salt. Stir in apples. Fill lined pie pan, then dot with butter.

I usually do a lattice top to for my pie with other half of the pastry. Then cover the edge with a aluminum foil and bake for 40 to 50 minutes, removing the aluminum foil during the last 15 minutes. The crust should be browned and the filling with begin to bubble.

For more great recipes check out Watcha Making Wednesdays on The Ramblings and Adventures of a S.A.H.M

Having Fun Learning

2011-10-02T21:37:00.001-04:00

Having Fun Learning Together This Week!!!

Emily is 4.5 years old and Juliette is 26 months old

This week Emily started trying to write words. She has been sounding them out for awhile now and this week she decided she was going to make some of her own. She makes the sounds of the words and then writes them down. She mixes up the order of some of the letters but is really doing a great job with it. I keep encouraging her and following her lead with most of the literacy activities we are doing. I don’t want to frustrate her so right now we are working at her pace and with what she is interested in.

Juliette spent the week doing puzzles, playing games with Emily and reading lots of books. By far her favorite thing to do is use the scissors to cut paper. She is doing amazing with this and she really just wants to cut all the time. I make sure I am always with her and watching her. I actually moved the scissors from the easy to reach place we usually store them to a hidden location because she will help herself to them, and a toddler walking around with a pair of scissors is a scary thing if you ask me!

We had another fun trip to the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center for a friend’s Birthday Party. The girls were able to feed the animals and we went on a tractor ride to a pumpkin patch to pick some pumpkins. Emily and Juliette loved using stickers and markers to decorate their pumpkins.Emily and her pumpkin.

Juliette and her pumpkin…I love the sideways face!

We went upstate to go apple picking and there was another place to feed some animals. I think it is so funny that at the beginning of the summer Juliette was terrified of feeding the animals and now she can’t get enough!

Apple Picking…we have a bushel of apples just waiting to be turned into lots of yummy apple treats!

Emily and Juliette found my flute. Juliette just wanted to hold the whole thing and make her own sounds. Emily let me show her how to hold just the mouth piece and blow over the hole. She still has to practice it, but she was very determined to get a sound out of it! The girls helped me make some corn bread to go with the Chili we were having for dinner. Both Emily and Juliette with drop whatever they are doing to help me bake something. The took turns scooping, pouring and mixing. For some fine motor skill practice and open ended art Emily and Juliette made some fall color mosaics. I gave them each a piece of green construction paper and little pieces of brown, yellow, red and orange construction paper and a bottle of glue. They both had fun putting the pieces onto the glue.

Our Wooden Block Set has become a favorite toy around here. Emily loves creating different castles and Juliette loves knocking them down! I think we will be adding another set onto our Christmas Wish List :)

We read One Red Apple and made this great apple to apple tree craft. Emily loved the poem that went with it and had fun putting it together.

As I mentioned earlier, Juliette LOVES using her scissors. She colored this picture in and said “Ready for scissors” went to the drawer and got them out and started to cut. I sat with her while she worked on it. She cut lots of little pieces and then worked on cutting the paper in half. Once she was finished I found a new place to store (hide) the scissors. She was not happy about this when she went to go look for them and they were not there!

Emily completed this Melissa & Doug Underwater Wooden 48 Piece Jigsaw Puzzle earlier in the day and then Juliette decided it was her turn. She asked me to help her every once in awhile, but was able to find most of the pieces herself. I think she called me over just because she likes me to watch her.

Emily loves this Tangoes Jr. set, she can do all the level 2 cards and gets so excited about figuring them out. Juliette was working on the other side of them, which has the outlines for the pieces and she has to match them.

Juliette worked on this Melissa & Doug Sort and Snap Color Match . She was making this fish for Daddy. Once she was finished she liked turning it upside down and popping the pieces out one at a time. This is a great color activity and fine motor skills practice.

Emily played Trouble with Daddy. This was great fine motor skills practice, one to one correspondence and number recognition. We love Trouble!!

Emily worked on this pattern page which was on the back of her Scholastic News from school. She was excited to use the set of 24 colored pencils I found in the basement with my school supplies!

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking these buttons!!

Apple Picking 2011

2011-10-01T21:30:00.000-04:00

This year we drove upstate New York with Aunt Christina and Uncle Scott to visit our cousins and go apple picking. This is the second time we went to Indian Ladder Farms and we all really enjoyed it, even after driving about 4 hours and getting lost (darn GPS!).

Emily at Indian Ladder Farms.

(Juliette was not in the mood for a picture)

Before we went to the orchard to pick our apples we enjoyed some yummy apple cider doughnuts and Apple Cider. Then we went to the petting farm to see the animals.

The kids loved feeding the animals.

Uncle Scott was intrigued by the horns on this guy!

Finally we headed over to the orchard to pick some apples.

This is one of my favorite picture from our trip! Juliette found some that were just her height.

Carrying the bag.

Pulling the wagon. Emily filling up the bag. Of course we had to taste test the apples as we were picking them!

On our way to find the Cortland Apples.

The girls really loved having Daddy and Uncle Scott lift them up so they could pick the apples at the tops of the trees!

Cousins!

Juliette did a great job filling up our bag too!

Our Family ~ Picture Apple Picking 2011

If you are near the Albany area I highly recommend Indian Ladder Farms. We drove over 3 hours to visit and views and the fresh delicious apples are really amazing and seeing our cousins made it even more special!

Now let the apple, eating, baking and creating begin!!!

What is your favorite thing to make or do with apples?

I will be sharing some of ours during the next few weeks. We do have about a bushel of apples to work with :)

stART ~ One Red Apple

2011-09-29T07:35:00.001-04:00

This week we have been having fun with apples and One Red Apple, by Harriet Ziefert went along perfectly with everything we have been doing. This is a beautifully illustrated story of the life cycle of an apple tree, from tree to market tree to market, to picnic, to seed, to sapling and tree, and finally to a new apple. I think Emily loved it because she is always saving the seeds from foods to plant in our garden!

To go along with this book I found this Apple Life Cycle Poem Craft on Pinterest and new Emily would love making it.

First, I cut out the pieces for Juliette because she wanted to do exactly what Emily was doing. Then I had Emily cut out her own pieces. I drew some of the pieces on the paper as a guide and some she wanted to do herself.

Next, the girls glued the pieces on the blue paper which we folded into 4 equal spaces. Emily did this part completely on her own, it was like a puzzle for her. For Juliette I helped her by telling her where to place the pieces (ex. Glue the red circle in the middle of the first square). I was really happy with how for the most part she listened to the directions and then followed them. I just had to point to the box that she had to put the pieces in. If it was not perfectly placed I did not move it.

Then they used little red dot stickers for the apples in the apple tree. Juliette also wanted green apples in her tree so she added those too.

Finally, I wrote the words to the poem and we read them together. After thinking about it I would have liked to write the words on separate pieces of paper and have Emily match them on her own.

Now it is your turn!! Click below to link up a book you read and the project or activity that you did to go with it.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Little Flutists in Training

2011-09-28T23:09:00.001-04:00

I have played the flute since 4th grade, but packed it away after High School. After talking about it with some friends recently, I dug it out of the box in the basement and started playing it for the girls. I couldn’t believe I was still able to play! Emily and Juliette were very excited to have their turn trying to play the flute too.

Juliette held it up to her mouth and made the sounds for it, Emily did the same, but after I showed her how to hold it she almost got a sound out. We will keep practicing.

Of course Juliette’s favorite part was having me blow into it while she pushed the keys down!!!

Muffin Tin Monday ~ Indoor Picnic Style

2011-09-26T22:14:00.001-04:00

This week for Muffin Tin Monday we had a living room picnic lunch!! I found the Care Bear Blanket in Juliette’s closet and thought that it would be perfect for an indoor picnic. The girls were both so excited to be able to actually eat lunch in the living room.

The Girls’ Muffin Tin Lunch

Peaches, Vanilla Yogurt with sprinkles, 1/2 an Apple Cider Doughnut and some Apple Slices with Peanut Butter.

Emily set the picnic up and added the Tea Set to the middle.

Juliette wanted Panda to come for lunch and shared her peaches with him.

There smiles say it all!!

Having Fun Learning

2011-09-25T23:15:00.000-04:00

Having Fun Learning Together This Week!!!

Emily is 4.5 years old and Juliette is 26 months old

This week Emily has been working on reading. She enjoys sounding out words and is always looking for something that she can try to read. We also worked on a few math activities. Emily enjoyed doing some basic addition so we will continue to work on that next week.

Juliette enjoyed working with colors and began singing the alphabet. She gets up to "G” and I think she is so cute to listen to. We are singing the whole song in the car more often now so she can hear it and learn the rest of the letters.

Apple Graphing ~ Emily counted the apples in the picture and then filled in the bar graph at the bottom.

Mickey Mouse Color Matching game. Emily and Juliette played the beginner version of this memory game, where we keep all the cards face up and they have to pick two that match. After we played the memory version where we turned them over and they had to remember where the matches were. I used fewer cards and Juliette did really well with it. Emily was happy to help Juliette play. As we were playing we were talking about the colors that we were finding. Juliette was able to name them all!!

The cards for this game are just the free Disney Paint Chips from Home Depot.

Scrabble: Junior Edition ~ I found this game at a thrift store for .99 cents. It is in perfect condition and Emily liked playing the easy version of it with me. She had to match her letters to complete the words on the board. When she completed a word she would get a point. This was great for letter recognition. Emily practiced cutting out shapes for a project. She has great control of the scissors and does not want any help at all.

Emily made a cardboard tube castle for our stART project after reading the Fussy Princess, by Mercer Mayer.

Juliette had her first Mommy and Me class this week. We made a cute sponge print apple tree. I was so happy that she sat for Jesus Time and listened to the story. She was not shy at all and went right to play with all the different toys.

She loved the sand table just like Emily did! She practiced pouring and spooning the sand.

Emily had fun with this Appleseed Addition Math Sheet. She rolled the dice to see how many apple seeds to draw on the apple. Then she added both sides together to see how many she had in all. She totally understood what to do and was happy to do it on her own.

Juliette colored a paper with her name on it. While Emily was working. I told her that this is what her name looked like and read her the letters as I was writing it.

We visited our Children’s Museum for a special Members Preview for the new Exhibit. Dragons and Fairies ~ Exploring Viet Nam Through Folktales. While we were there we were able to sample traditional Vietnamese food, which Emily ate and enjoyed and Juliette did not want any part of. We also found Viet Nam and our state on a big globe so we could see how far we are from each other. Emily loved the globe and wants one of her own so we can see were all the different places are. (Looks like we will have to be doing a lot more geography soon!!)

Here they are making Rubbings for the animal that represents the year that they were born in.

Emily ~ Rooster

Juliette ~ Ox

Mommy and Daddy ~ Rooster

I made Juliette a color sorter. I punched holes in the top of a take out container lid and put reinforcements over them which I colored with marker. Then I cut up some pipe cleaners in the same colors and gave them to Juliette to stick into the container. She told me the color she was matching as she put it in. This was great fine motor skills practice too.

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking these buttons!!

stART ~ The Fussy Princess

2011-09-22T07:15:00.000-04:00

Emily has been very into the Little Critter books by Mercer Mayer. I loved these books when I was little and was so excited to pass my collection onto Emily and Juliette. While at Grandma and Grandpa’s house we found Little Critter's The Fussy Princess, by Mercer Mayer and Emily has been enjoying it ever since.

In this book Little Critter tells his fussy sister a story about a very fussy princess that is never happy. A dragon hears about the fussy princess and how everyone does everything for her and decides that he likes the sound of that and kicks the princess out of the castle and moves right in. The Princess is forced to sleep outside without her favorite stuffed animals and comfy bed. In the very cute and funny ending she learns that it is not so nice to be so fussy.

After reading this book Emily decided she wanted to make a castle of her own. We used a cardboard cereal box and toilet paper tubes to make the castle. Emily painted the outside pink.

She used stickers to decorate the inside and outside. We rolled up construction paper for the turrets and used straws and triangle pieces of paper for the flags.

She even added their pictures to the inside. These were photo stickers from Snapfish. She thought they looked like picture frames for the castle wall.

Emily’s Cardboard and Paper Towel Tube Castle

Wordless Wednesday ~ The Prospect Park Zoo

2011-09-21T08:54:00.001-04:00

We had a fun trip to the prospect park zoo, I loved watching everyone pointing to the animals that they were finding. I think everyone’s favorite part was the Baboons. They have a great exhibit at the Prospect Park zoo, and they were running all around playing and chasing each other for the kids to watch!

Juliette watching the baboons. This was my attempt at getting Juliette to try going into the turtle shell…it did not work, but I had fun!

Fun and Learning with Baking Soda and Vinegar

2011-09-20T07:30:00.000-04:00

This week the girls experimented with the reactions between Baking Soda and Vinegar to create some pretty cool art!

I had leftover flower and baking soda from when I made some fizzy sidewalk chalk paint, and we had leftover liquid watercolors from art group, that I just couldn’t dump down the drain. So, I thought the girls would have fun working with these materials in a new and different way!

First, I added vinegar to the liquid watercolors then they used pipettes to drop the colored vinegar onto the baking soda mixture. This was seriously so much fun all three of us spent over half an hour dropping colors watching it fizz and trying it again.

Emily liked making little drops and watching each one fizz. She worked one color at a time until the mixture was almost black and would not fizz anymore.

Juliette liked trying all different colors it looked so pretty!

While we were busy creating we were able to talk about the colors and what happened when the colors would mix together. I also used the words acid, base and reaction when describing what was happening when the vinegar mixed with the baking soda.

The mixture of flour and baking soda made the mixture fizz a nice amount but not as much as if it were only baking soda. It was perfect to do inside at the table. We all agreed that we have to try this with our friends for art group!

For more great activities for your kiddos click on the buttons below:

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-09-19T12:53:00.000-04:00

This week for Muffin Tin Monday the girls had slightly different lunches. Over the weekend Emily and I made Cream Cheese Kicker dip to bring to a party. To my surprise Emily really enjoyed this dip so I was very happy that I saved a little bit of it for us to have later. She was very happy to see that it was in her Muffin Tin Lunch, and was even happier to use her little knife to spread it on her own crackers! Since Juliette did not like the dip she had pieces of American Cheese to put on her crackers.

Juliette had crackers, cheese, grapes and a Mallowmars

Emily had Cream Cheese Kicker Dip and crackers to spread it on, grapes and a Mallomars

Emily enjoyed spreading her own dip on the crackers so this turned out to be a great practical life activity too. It is so cute because she is always looking for reasons to use her little knife.

In the background Juliette was really enjoying her Mallomars!

Having Fun Learning

2011-09-18T20:58:00.000-04:00

Having Fun Learning Together This Week!!!

Emily is 4.5 years old and Juliette is 26 months old

This has been a busy week as we started getting ready for the beginning of school. Emily is very excited to go to pre-school this year. And I am very excited for all of the activities we will be doing at home together too! Emily knows all of her letters and can count to 50 (further with a little help). She knows many sight words and is beginning to actually sound out words to read cvc words. Right now she really wants to read and I am going to go with that. Every day she seems to get better and better so that is where our focus with be in the coming weeks.

Juliette is showing more and more interest in doing the same things as Emily. She will sit with us and do a easier version of Emily’s project or activity. She can count to 12 and knows most of her colors. She is also learning how to use scissors too. After watching Emily she decided she needed to give it a try, and just like Emily she was able to do it almost perfectly on her first try. I gave her a long strip of paper and held it as she practiced opening an closing the scissors to cut the strips.

Emily had her first day of Pre-K this week! She had a great time and made some new friends.

At home this week we had fun learning about the farm with our Farm Theme

Emily worked on the puzzle pages of her farm puzzle book. This book has information about different farm animals on one page and then a 12 piece puzzle on the other page.

Juliette worked on her puzzles too. We love these Melissa & Doug Deluxe Farm in a Box Jigsaw Puzzles. Juliette worked on each one. She was able to do them by herself, and would ask me to help every once in awhile.

Emily enjoyed them too. To make it a little harder, she mixed all of the pieces together and did each puzzle.

We had a wonderful trip to the Suffolk County Farm and Educational Center in Yaphank, New York. This is a real working farm and the girls were able to go on a tractor ride and feed the animals. You can read more about our visit here.

I put together a book basket and put all of our farm books together in it. The girls loved looking through it and even brought a bunch of the books to their table to read.

For our stART project we read Moo, Moo, Peekaboo! and Emily drew a farm picture with her craypas.

Emily enjoyed doing this Read and Stamp activity. It incorporated Math, Reading and Fine Motor Skills practice into a fun activity.

We picked some more carrots and tomatoes from our garden. The girls love eating the things that we grew and get so excited when they are ready to be picked.

During Art Group we explored watercolors. The girls painted with liquid watercolors and then we covered them with plastic wrap to create an interesting effect. We learned that you can not saturate the paper or it does not work as well, but they still had fun painting.

While Emily was at school Juliette and I had time to work together. I tried out this pipe cleaner and colander activity that I saw on Pinterest. She loved it! The holes in my colander was really small and I thought she would have trouble with it, but she was so focused. Not only was this a great fine motor activity, we also talked about the different colors she was using and where she was placing them. “You are putting the brown pipe cleaner next to the blue pipe cleaner.”

We had a great week, and I love getting back into a routine!

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking these buttons!!

Field Trip Fun ~ Suffolk County Farm and Education Center

2011-09-16T21:28:00.000-04:00

We went to the Suffolk County Farm and Education Center with Cousin Brianna and Aunt Jayme and my friend Sarah. This is a real working farm with lots of animals to pet and feed. Sarah arranged for us to have educator take us on a tractor ride and guided tour which was really nice. While we were there we were able to see the farmers working and ask them questions too. The coolest thing about this farm is that although we had to pay for the tractor ride and tour anyone can come and just visit it for FREE! They sell the food for the petting area, but you can just come and walk around and look at the animals any time.

Buckled up and Ready to go!!

Welcome to the farm :) The girls and me on the tractor ride.

Our Tractor driver.

Emily and Juliette taking in the sites of the farm from the tractor ride.

We saw…

horses,

lhamas,

machinery,

pigs, goats and cows.

Next we went to the petting area where the kids could pet the animals and also feed them.

Juliette liked looking at them at first.

Emily LOVED feeding them!

Once of the goats needed to be moved from one pen to another so we were able to help, while he was walking the kids were able to feed and pet him. It was nice that they were able to get so close to him.

Juliette and I fed one of the little goats. I was so happy that she finally gave it a try. After that we fed a lot more together!

This cow was moved into the pen of the goat we helped move. He had a hurt leg.

This is one of the chickens from the chicken pen. The kids were also able to see a fresh laid egg. The last animal we saw was a cute lop eared rabbit.The girls had fun playing in the Nature Explore Classroom, there were lots of fun things to play on. They really enjoyed the tree trunk climbing structures.We finished the day with a picnic lunch under a covered arbor house. It was the perfect end to a fun filled farm day!

The farm really tired them out, all three fell asleep for the whole ride home!

stART ~ Moo, Moo, Peekaboo!

2011-09-15T09:08:00.001-04:00

This week we enjoyed reading Moo, Moo, Peekaboo!, by Jane Dyer. I actually bought this book from the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. for my youngest brother over 17 years ago! I was going through books at my mom’s house and came across it. I loved it when I bought it and I am so happy that I can now share it with my children! It is a simple and cute board book. On each page the animal that is featured on the following page is peeking through to give you a hint as to who it is. Both Emily and Juliette loved reading along with me and guessing the animals and making the sounds. Although it is a board book, my 4 1/2 year old loves it!!

I had big plans of making a peek-a-boo style project with pictures peeking through cutouts in paper, but Emily found some craypas and came up with her own project…and I have to say I LOVE IT!

Emily hard at work on her picture.

She drew this picture all by herself and was so proud of it, I think it goes with the book perfectly!

This is the Farmer. These are the animals…there is a horse, cow, chicken and sheep.

I love all the little details like how they are behind the fence!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Look Who’s Driving

2011-09-14T09:56:00.000-04:00

…Well pretending to drive that is!!!

Emily was sleeping in the car and Daddy ran into Stop and Shop to get some groceries so what better way for me to occupy Miss Juliette, who was WIDE awake than to let her pretend to drive!

She insisted on buckling up before she started …

…but then I think she realized that she couldn’t see over the steering wheel that way.

Guess she will have to wait a few more years :)

Read and Stamp

2011-09-13T21:35:00.001-04:00

Emily is so excited that she is starting to read so I thought that she would have a lot of fun with this read and stamp activity.

My dad found this Melissa & Doug Baby Farm Animals Stamp Set at our Church’s White Elephant Sale last year for a really great price. I tucked it away and thought it would be the perfect thing to use for this activity.

I folded a piece of white paper to make 8 even spaces. At the top of each box I wrote the directions. For example, I see 4 red pigs.

First, Emily read the directions.

Then she used the animal stamps to fill in the boxes.

Emily was so careful to pick the right stamp, the right color and to count as she was stamping the animals throughout this whole activity. She did this whole activity on her own. When she had trouble with any of the names of the animals she looked at the stamps that she did not use yet and made the sound of the first letter of the name to help her figure it out.

This activity can also be done with farm animal stickers. I just noticed that I have a set in my sticker box, so I might try it another day that way!

For more great activities for preschoolers click on the buttons below:

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-09-12T22:03:00.001-04:00

Emily and Juliette loved the lunch we had for Muffin Tin Monday this week! They were both very excited for the fruit roll up that was in a birthday party goody bag. We only had one and Emily was so sweet and shared it with Juliette so they could both have it for their muffin tin lunch.

Macaroni and Cheese, Grapes, Apples with Peanut Butter for dipping and a piece of a fruit roll up.

Can you tell that Juliette is really excited for her Fruit by the Foot?!?!?!

Having Fun Learning

2011-09-11T22:36:00.000-04:00

The Past Few Weeks Having Fun Learning Together!!!

Emily is 4.5 years old and Juliette is 26 months old

Here are a few of the things that we have been up to the last few weeks before school starts this coming week.

The girls had fun with a set of 100 colored paper clips. They sorted them by color, made patterns with them and linked them together. Juliette was so proud of herself for being able to link them together all by herself. Emily really enjoyed being able to link them together into a pattern.

We did a fun Sink and Float Experiment. The girls made predictions about whether or not the object would sink or float and then they tested it by dropping the object into the tub of water. They recorded their predictions and then their results.

Our weaving basket was a big hit. The girls practiced weaving different textured ribbons through the laundry basket.

I made some fizzy sidewalk chalk paint and the girls had fun drawing on the driveway with the paint and then spraying it with the vinegar to watch it fizz and bubble.

We visited the Holtsville Ecology Center. Many of the animals at the center have been injured and can not be released into the wild. Emily was very interested in finding out why the animals where at the center. The Bald Eagle they are looking at was hit by a car.

I had the girls finger paint on some tin foil. This is a fun sensory experience. The girls then had fun making mazes and letters in the paint on the foil.

Emily, Juliette and Mommy were able to go for a pony ride. Emily was excited to ride by herself. Juliette would only go if I went with her and she cried the entire way. (Emily took the picture of Juliette and me) We read I’m Gonna Like Me for our stART project and Emily drew a picture of herself and then collaged some things that told about herself.

We made blueberry muffins for our Church’s Homecoming Brunch.

Emily helped make lasagna for dinner.

Check out the great things that others are doing with their children by clicking these buttons!!

Sink or Float?

2011-09-10T23:35:00.001-04:00

This summer the girls had a lot of fun exploring water and how some of the toys that we played with in the water sank and how some floated. My friend and I thought it would be fun to introduce the girls to a little Science Experiment to see what would sink and what would float.

First, the girls made their predictions. They held the object and decided if it would sink or float. Then they recorded their educated guess on the sheet with either an S for sink or a F for float.

Next, they tested their prediction with a very simple experiment, drop the object in the water and see what happens.

Next, they recorded their results on their chart.

(Click on the image below to download a copy of their chart)

Finally, they counted how many items sank and how many items floated and recorded it at the bottom of their papers.

The girls really enjoyed this science project and even the Juliette and her friend were able to help by dropping the objects in the water.

For more great science activities click on the button below!!

Are you Pinning???

2011-09-09T11:45:00.000-04:00

If not you totally should be!!!

Pinterest is so much fun, slightly addicting and a really great way to share and organize all the amazing ideas you discover as you are browsing the world wide web. I love it because I am always finding ideas and then forgetting where I saw them. I am also always finding a lot of ideas that are really great, but that I don’t get a chance to blog about. ..through Pinterest I can share those ideas with others quickly and easily without having to do my own post about them.

Here are just a few of the amazing ideas I found through Pinterest:

Straw Weaving from Home Ed Groups

Amazing Popcorn Recipes from Chickabug

This awesome Pipe Cleaner Magnetic Discovery Bottle from Pre-School Play

So if you are on Pinterest click here to follow me and then I can follow you…

If you are not on Pinterest, leave me a comment and I will send you an invite…I really, really, really think you will love it. Then you can follow me and I will follow you :0)

stART ~ I’m Gonna Like Me

2011-09-08T10:40:00.003-04:00

Welcome back to stART! I hope that everyone had a great summer. I know we are enjoying getting back in to our new routine. I am so excited to begin stART again and to see all the great projects that everyone has been working on! I hope that you will enjoy our story and art project and maybe even share your own too. All I ask is that you link back to A Mommy’s Adventures somewhere in your post by either adding my button or a text link, so that others can see all the other great projects that everyone shares too! The linky will be open all week. Be sure to stop by and visit the different links…every week there are so many different and fun book and craft ideas!

Check out the stART tab in my navigation bar where you can find our past stART projects. All the books that we have read and did a stART project for are listed in alphabetical order.

This week we read I'm Gonna Like Me: Letting Off a Little Self-Esteem, by Jamie Lee Curtis and Laura Cornell. This is a great book that shows children that it is ok to make mistakes or be different than everyone else. The rhythmic text paired with the amazing illustrations make this a fun book to read out loud.

I couldn’t be prouder of Emily because after we read the story I asked her why she liked herself and she told me…”Mommy, I like myself because God made me and he loves me.” It is moments like this that make me feel so good!!

To go with this book we talked about all the things that Emily likes and what makes her special. Then Emily made a “Me” collage.

First, Emily drew a picture of herself and then cut it out.

She glued her self portrait on a large piece of construction paper. Then she cut out all different pictures from magazines that told about her and glued them around her on the paper.

Emily’s About Me Collage

Wordless Wednesday ~ Puppy Love

2011-09-07T08:27:00.000-04:00

Grandma and Grandpa got a new puppy!!

Emily, Juliette and their Cousin Brianna were so excited to see Zoey for the first time. Emily couldn’t wait to pet her and hold her. Juliette was not as sure, she took a little time to warm up to her. But now she asks to visit Zoey every single day. It will be so much fun to watch them grow up together!

Laundry Basket Weaving

2011-09-06T07:35:00.002-04:00

One day when I was doing laundry I looked at the laundry basket and thought that it would be perfect for practicing weaving. I went through my craft bin and found different textured ribbons to tie on to the basket for the girls to weave. I wanted them to be able to try weaving with a variety of ribbons so there was string from a bakery, curling ribbon, elastic and a few types/widths of decorative ribbon.

This activity was such a big hit, the girls were occupied by weaving the ribbons throughout the basket for at least a half an hour. Plus they kept asking for it throughout the day. In fact it was the first thing that Emily wanted the next morning when she came down for breakfast!

There was plenty of room for both girls to work.

They were both so focused on weaving the ribbons through the basket.Juliette got right to work on the green ribbon. Emily got the brown one all through one whole side… …and around to the next!

I loved to see the different ways they chose to weave the ribbons through. They didn’t limit themselves to the sides, they pulled them right over the top and even practiced some tying too!

The next day Emily turned it into a sled and had to “buckle” Juliette in.

The girls had such a great time with this activity, which was a great fine motor workout as well as an open ended art project with lots of creative play thrown in!

**If you try this with your children just make sure they are supervised at all times. The lengths of the ribbon can be a strangulation hazard. As soon as Juliette started going into the basket I made sure that Emily did not put any of the ribbons any where near her neck or or even shoulders. **

I am linking this activity up to:

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-09-05T21:09:00.001-04:00

This week for Muffin Tin Monday Emily helped me pick out everything that was in her Muffin Tin lunch. When we were not sure what to put in the last spot Emily said “Mommy my drink!!” and we found a cup that fit in perfectly!

Emily’s Muffin Tin Lunch

Top Row: Muddy Buddies, Water, Hummus

Bottom Row: Sliced Peaches, Yogurt and Pita Chips

Emily and her Muffin Tin Lunch

Not so Wordless Wednesday ~ A Hurricane Party

2011-08-31T08:26:00.000-04:00

As Hurricane Irene approached my Sister-in-Law and Brother-in-Law decided to come stay with us…which turned out to be a good idea since their neighborhood ended up being evacuated anyway.

The kids had such a great time together, it was more like a party to them…which was definitely a good thing. We left all of the worrying up to the grown ups!

Emily and Juliette were very happy that their cousin sleep over our house!

Pre-bedtime pretend sleeping. If only they actually fallen asleep :)

I was worried about a few of the large trees in our yard that are close to our bedrooms so we slept altogether in our living room. I brought the girls toddler mattresses down so they would be more comfortable. They were very excited about this and ended up cuddling up next to each other on Emily’s mattress.

Watching the news in the morning to see where Hurricane Irene was.

Thankfully this was the worst of our damage…the top of this very tall pine tree snapped off and fell into our neighbors tree. The whole backyard smelled like Christmas!!

We have been praying for all of those who were affected by the hurricane. We realized how blessed we were to be safe, still have power and have minimal damage to our property.

Exploring Alternate Canvases ~ Rock Painting

2011-08-30T07:35:00.000-04:00

I love the idea of exploring alternate canvases. The girls have had a great time painting with every possible item under the sun like yarn, spaghetti, forks, bubble wrap, duplos, the list could really go on and on. But, we always seem to paint on the same thing…plain old paper!

So when I noticed that my sister had a pile of really big rocks sitting in her backyard I had to take a few I knew they would be perfect for the girls to paint on! I planned on putting them throughout the garden and having the girls paint on them outside, but the mosquitoes are so bad this year that we have not been able to spend much time in our back yard. Even bug spray does not seem to keep them away. So we brought the big rocks inside!

First, I scrubbed all of the dirt off of the rocks. We did this with our art group and each child was able to pick the rock that they wanted to paint on. Then I gave them a paint palette and set out a bunch of different brushes and they got to work creating.

Emily decided to paint a rainbow on one side and make a lady bug on the other.

Juliette was happy to swirl all of the different colors around on her rock.

I am still hoping to try this again outside, I think it will be fun to use washable paints and let them keep painting new pictures on the rocks throughout the yard. Maybe we will be able to get a really big rock/boulder as a canvas too!

What alternate canvases have you tried having your children paint on?

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-08-29T08:16:00.001-04:00

This week for Muffin Tin Monday we had a lunch full of some of the girls’ favorite foods!

Emily and Juliette’s Lunch

In their tins:

Cucumber Slices, Strawberry Banana Yogurt with Sprinkles, Peaches and Watermelon

They ate it all up and even asked for more…their favorite part of this lunch was the watermelon, of course!

Getting Ready for stART!!!

2011-08-25T09:18:00.001-04:00

I can’t believe the summer is already beginning to wined down. We noticed the other day that it is getting darker much earlier and it is also a bit cooler than it was just a few weeks ago. Instead of shopping for sun block and bathing suits we are scouring the stores for great deals on school supplies and making plans for the upcoming school year! I am also preparing for the beginning of stART. I have been thinking about the new books that we will be reading and the different projects that we will do to go with them. But for today, need your help! I want to create a blog roll of all the blogs that participate in stART each week. I think this would be a great way share the wonderful things we do each week with even more people. For people that are considering joining in they can look to the blog roll for inspiration, for those of us that already participate each week it is quick way to check in for some new ideas.

So here is where you come in, if you participated in stART at least 3 times last year and plan on continuing to participate this year leave me a comment and let me know!

If you are new to stART be sure to find out more about how to join in the fun HERE, because a Story + Art = A Great Start

I will officially start stART back up on Thursday, September 8th so be sure to check back to see what we have been up to!!!

Wordless Wednesday ~ Our Little Carrot

2011-08-24T07:48:00.000-04:00

They were both so excited for their little carrot and shared it between the two of them, even giving Mommy and Daddy a taste too. Hopefully we will be able to pick a few more by the end of the summer!

Open Ended Art ~ Initial Collages

2011-08-23T07:37:00.000-04:00

During Art Group the girls made Initial Collages. We had kids from 14 months to 4 1/2 working on this project. They were all able to participate in it, some were just more into it than others.

I cut pieces of poster board into the initials of the girls first names. Then they used markers to color all over them. Finally, they were able to glue on all the different materials. I had different types of fabric, ribbons, felt, tin foil, sandpaper, tulle and tissue paper.

E for Emily

Emily did hers all by herself, she even cut the pieces to the size she needed, asking for help only to cut the pieces of fabric that needed the sharp scissors to cut it.

J for Juliette

Juliette worked on hers for a little bit and then decided we needed to work on it together. She sat on my lap and we each glued pieces on to her initial. I showed her how to overlap pieces and had just as much fun as she did working on it!

Emily and Juliette had fun working on these collages!

I am thinking of mounting them on colored paper and framing them in their rooms.

Summer Fun List ~ Make Homemade Lemonade

2011-08-22T08:21:00.001-04:00

I have never actually made homemade lemonade myself, but have always wanted to so I thought this would be the perfect thing to add to our Summer Fun List. Lemonade always makes me think about beautiful warm summer days playing outside and having a good time.

First we gathered all the supplies we would need:

6 lemons, 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1 cup of water

I also got out my little juicer and pink glass pitcher.

First, I made a simple syrup with 1/2 a cup of sugar and 1 cup of water. This was a simple step and all I did was just melt the sugar into the water in a saucepan on the stove then let cool.

Then it was time for the girls to get to work!!

Emily and Juliette took turns juicing the lemons. I cut them in half and they used their muscles to push it around on the little glass juicer. They thought it was neat that the pits stayed in the top and the juice flowed to the bottom.

In between of course they had to taste some lemons…they were nice and sour!!

Finally, we added the juice of the lemons, the simple syrup that I had made earlier, some ice and enough water to fill the pitcher, probably about 4 cups and the girls took turns stirring it.

Time for a taste….the girls loved it!!

Duplos + Names = Having Fun with the Alphabet

2011-08-18T07:20:00.000-04:00

We play with our Duplos almost every single day. I am always amazed at the different creations the girls come up with, especially when playing with Grandpa. But this time I have to say we had so much fun and it was while creating LETTERS!!

I first made an A and then a N to begin writing my nephews name in Duplos. Once they saw what I was up to they couldn’t wait to see how I was going to make the rest of the letters. Of course once it was finished I had to do Emily and then Juliette’s name!

Emily was happy to pose for a picture, unfortunately Juliette was not so cooperative.

I plan on trying this again and having Emily help me make all different words.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Naptime Fun

2011-08-17T07:34:00.000-04:00

Juliette loves to lay on my back when I am trying to get them to take a nap. The other day she decided she would lay on Emily’s back. They were laughing and having so much fun, I grabbed the camera and added their baby doll to the pile. It is a cute little girl Pyramid!!!

Color Mixing Ice Cubes

2011-08-16T07:29:00.000-04:00

Emily and Juliette love playing in the water and they love ice cubes. Whenever an ice cube drops from the ice maker they run from wherever they are to pick it up and hold it while it melts. So, I thought it would be fun let them play with some ice cubes outside. I filled up our large sensory tub (a.k.a. under the bed storage container) with water and added some ice cubes. To make it even more exciting I froze some ice cubes with food coloring in them and added those too.

Emily, Juliette and their cousin had fun picking up the ice cubes and also pushing them around with popsicle sticks.

As the ice cubes melted we were able to see the colors begin to blend together. It was very pretty to look at…

…and then it turned BROWN!

We talked about how when you mix all the colors together you get brown. This was a great way to experiment with colors and keep cool on a summer afternoon!

Muffin Tin Monday!

2011-08-15T14:08:00.001-04:00

I couldn’t wait to make a Muffin Tin Monday meal with our new Silly- Feet Baking Cups. I found them at the Christmas Tree shop for only $1.99!!! Of course after using them and seeing how much the girls loved them I am kicking myself for not picking up a few more sets.

Emily and Juliette’s Muffin Tin Lunch

Peanut Butter and Jelly sticks, Cucumbers and Tomatoes with Dipping Sauce (Italian and Ranch Dressing)

They both loved their new Muffin Tin Monday cups and can’t wait to use them again.

And The Crafty Kits 4 Kids Winner Is…

2011-08-15T13:57:00.000-04:00

…Judy at What I Live For!!

Congratulations to our winner and thank you to everyone that entered :0)

Wordless Wednesday ~ Sleeping in the Tent

2011-08-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

Emily was so excited to be able to sleep in her tent with her sleeping bag during our recent vacation. Our hotel room was nice and big and we were able to fit her pop up tent in for her to sleep in with no problem at all!

Juliette actually joined her for part of the night, but work up and decided sleeping with Mommy would be better :0)

Summer Fun List ~ Make S’mores

2011-08-09T07:54:00.000-04:00

I LOVE S’mores, they remind me of camping when I was little. Then all I wanted to do was set my marshmallow on fire, now getting a perfect golden marshmallow is my goal.

When Emily and Juliette’s cousin came over, he actually brought over all the ingredients to make s’mores, including some really cool sticks for roasting the extra large marshmallows! This was perfect because making S’mores was on our Summer Fun List!

Emily and Juliette are ready with their sticks and marshmallows

Let the roasting begin The fire was really hot and they stayed just long enough to take the picture and for my nephew’s marshmallow to catch on fire!But, the end result was a delicious and very messy treat.

Can you tell they LOVED them!!

Summer Break for stART!!!

2011-08-04T09:33:00.000-04:00

Wow it has been a fun and very busy summer, I can't believe that it is the beginning of August already. Keeping up with these two kiddos this summer has been a huge adventure! Although we have been doing lots and lots of reading, we have unfortunately had less time for our usual art projects and I have struggled to get a stART post up each week. I have lots of fun things planned for September and look forward to sharing them with you. As of now I am officially putting stART on Summer Break as we continue to enjoy the unstructured fun of summer. But do not fear, we will be back in September, ready to share lots of great new books and the fun art projects that go with them.

In the meantime, be sure to check out all of the great stART projects we have already done as well as all of the amazing projects that have been linked up each week.

Wordless Wednesday ~ Emily IN the sand…literally!!

2011-08-03T07:34:00.000-04:00

We had a great time at the beach…Emily especially loved getting buried in the sand by Uncle Jonathan and Mommy!!!

She was even able to get out almost completely by herself :0)

Quick and Easy Balance Beam

2011-08-02T07:10:00.000-04:00

While we were outside washing the car Emily and Juliette decided that the cobblestone on the side of the driveway would be the perfect balance beam!

They both kept walking up and down the driveway balancing on the stone. It reminded me of walking on the edge of the curb when in the same way when I was little.

Spontaneous gross motor skill workouts that are full of giggles and grins are always a fun way to spend a cool summer evening!

Crafty Kits 4 Kids Giveaway Event!

2011-08-01T22:39:00.000-04:00

Wow, 13 kids friendly blogs are participating in this Crafty Giveaway Event. Each blog had to come up with a simple crafty kits for children aged 2-6 to giveaway! Each blog is hosting their own giveaway and you can enter to win which ever kits you think your child would enjoy.

Be sure to check out the end of this Giveaway Post for a Link to all of the other participating blogs

Sensory Collage Kit

On A Mommy’s Adventures I will be giving away a Sensory Collage Art Kit. This kit contains everything your child needs to create an amazing Sensory Collage.

Included in this kit you will find:

A piece of Contact Paper (this is especially great for creating collages with younger children, however children of all different ages get a kick out of the sticky paper)

String, Tin Foil, Sand Paper, Feathers, Pipe Cleaners, Stickers, Buttons, Pom Poms, Tissue Paper, Felt Die Cuts, Cut up Straws, Foam and Crepe Paper all in a variety of colors and sizes.

To Enter:

Just leave a comment on this post and you will be entered to win this kit

(Please leave your mail address if you don't have it enabled on your profile).

Extra Entries:

Follow A Mommy’s Adventures (1 entry)

Subscribe by e-mail or follow us via RSS (1 entry each)

Follow A Mommy’s Adventures on Facebook - leave your username (1 entry)

Follow @kme0310 on Twitter - leave your username (1 entry)

This giveaway is open WORLDWIDE and ends on August 13th at 11:59pm.

Good luck and visit the other giveaways in this awesome event:

Wordless Wednesday ~ Look what we picked from our garden!!

2011-07-27T07:50:00.000-04:00

Emily and Juliette were very excited to pick the first Zucchini from our garden this year! This is the first thing that was ready to be picked this year and we are very proud of it…in fact both girls wanted a picture with it. Last year we didn’t get any Zucchinis and this year we moved them to a different spot and they did so much better. ..we couldn’t be happier :0)

Summer Fun List ~ Watch a Movie Outside

2011-07-26T07:38:00.000-04:00

We added Watch a Movie Outside to our summer fun list while we were writing it down together. Uncle Scott has a huge blow up screen and projector so we were able to watch Max and Ruby Under the Stars on the big screen!

We invited some family and friends to enjoy some ice cream sundaes and then watch Max and Ruby Under the Stars!First we had to get it set up. Daddy and Uncle Scott worked together to get it set up.

Look how big it is next to our swing set!! While we were waiting for it to get dark we had ice cream cone sundaes. They enjoyed these very much. Finally it was dark enough to begin the show. All the kids loved seeing Max and Ruby at night outside on the big screen.

We can’t wait to do this again, it was a great time and a beautiful night!

Muffin Tin Monday

2011-07-25T07:45:00.000-04:00

This past week we finally had a chance to enjoy a Muffin Tin Monday meal. We have been so busy that we keep missing it. But I decided to surprise the girls with a special lunch of some of their favorite foods!

The Girls had:

Hot Dogs, Yogurt, Cucumbers and Tomatoes with Ranch Dressing for dipping and a Munchkin for dessert

They were both very happy with the Muffin Tin Surprise!

btw – Juliette IS dipping her hot dog in her yogurt :0)

Wordless Wednesday ~ A Future Gymnast!?!?!

2011-07-20T07:10:00.000-04:00

“Look mom no hands!!!”