Here SHE is!!!

Our family was blessed with another beautiful baby girl!!! 

Clara Louise was born on May 2, 2013 and her big sisters at completely in love with her.  

Soda Bottle Easter Basket

Juliette made this adorable Easter Basket at school and I had to share it I thought it was so cute!

To make it they cut the top off of a soda bottle then covered the cut edge with duct tape so no little fingers would get cut.  The kids decorated the feet and head with crayons, a pom pom for the nose and foam stickers for the pink of the ears.  There are also pipe cleaners for the whiskers.  The arms are attached with a brad across the top on either side to make the handle, which can move back and forth.  Finally there is a white pom pom glued on the back for the cotton tail.

I don't have a template for the pieces but they are pretty simple you can use white construction paper and free hand the shape of the arms and feet.  The head is a simple circle with a little extra at the bottom so that it sticks up from the bottle.  Then you can get creative and make the ears any shape you want.

**If you try this I would love t hear about it send me a link to any pictures so I can see how they came out!!

How to Catch a Leprechaun ~ Leprechaun Trap Attempt #2

Last year we made our first Leprechaun Trap and the girls are even more determined to catch him this year.  Since he was able to eat his way out of the trap last year, the girls decided we needed something a bit sturdier and decided to use some boxes that we were going to recycle, string and some Plastic Gold Coins.

Emily and Juliette painted the boxes using rainbow colors in hopes of attracting the Leprechaun.  Then Daddy helped them rig up a pulley system over the chandelier with some string that was attached to gold coins.  When The Leprechaun picked up the gold coins we hoped the box would fall on top of him and trap him. 

The girls were all ready for bed and so excited  to see if the trap worked.

   We didn’t catch the Leprechaun, but he did leave us some chocolate coins and in his haste to escape he left his hat behind, which made the girls really happy.  The trickster also turned our milk green and the water in the potty green too.

Hopefully we have better luck catching that tricky leprechaun next year!!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!!!!!

Post-it's + Stack n Smile Photo Blocks = Learning Fun

We have had our set of Stack n Smile Photo Blocks for awhile now, and I always want to use them for learning activities, but never get around to filling their sides with "stuff."  I was putting together a game for Juliette and realized the cubes would work perfectly, but ahh I did not have the time to format a page on my word processing program with the letters I needed then cut them out and put them in the cubes.  That's when I realized POST-ITS !!!!  I was able to quickly write the letters on each post it and they were the perfect size to slide right into the pockets.  I am so excited for all the fun learning activities that we can now quickly put together. 

Letter and Number Sticker Matching

This is a simple activity to put together that helped Juliette recognize uppercase and lowercase letters.

First, I wrote all the letters of the alphabet in capitals on colored dot stickers. Then I wrote the lowercase letters on a plain piece of paper. I did these in a random order so Juliette really had to hunt for them. Finally, she used the stickers to cover the letter matches.

This was the perfect activity for my sticker loving preschooler!!! After she finished she said "another one, another one!!"

So next we did this with numbers and dots. She practiced counting the dots and covering them with the matching number.

Penguin Shapes

Juliette made this adorable penguin craft at school while working with squares, rectangles and circles. The body is a white paper plate and the eyes are white reinforcement stickers. Then they used white shiny paper cut into squares and rectangles for the ice. She was so proud of her penguin!!

We have been having so much fun with our Elf on the Shelf!!  The girls wake up every morning so excited to see where Ginger is and they even talk to her during the day.   Here is a peek at  the fun things she has been up to at our house.

Ginger going for a drive.

Ginger getting a bird's eye view from the ceiling fan...hopefully no one turns it on today!!!

Oops we forgot to take a few links off of our Advent Chain...thank you Ginger for helping us out. I am sure we won't forget tonight :)

Ginger is sharing an update from Santa...hopefully some motivation for Juliette to start being a better listener!!!

 

 

Ginger set up Emily and Juliette's Nativity! How did she know we were going to need it today when we decorate for Christmas?

Ginger loves our Christmas tree, I think she wanted to help put up the star! Emily said the star is her favorite part because it reminds her of Baby Jesus :)

Silly Ginger, Rudolph noses for everyone!!!

Ginger is an Artist!!!

We think Ginger really likes maple syrup...she almost drank all of ours!!

Yay, Ginger Candy Caned our tree!!! We will all be enjoying some sweet treats from Ginger :)