This may be a video only a mama can sit all the way through, but every minute seriously melts my heart. Especially around 4:35 when she attempts to convert her ‘3’ into a ‘2’. ☺
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Month: December 2012
Magnet Exploration Station
Today, Miss G and I did a great big deep clean of her room. During the tidying, down came the epically successful styrofoam structures station. It was time. It had been played with every single day for nearly three weeks and was starting to become a giant mess of styrofoam dust and building junk . Luckily, I had been preparing Miss G for the change for the last few days, so everything got taken apart and tucked away without any issues.
What I wash’t prepared for however, was the fact that as soon as her toy box top was cleared off and wiped down, she said “Mama tells Grae Grae ’bout da NEW toy box prajet (project)!” Uhhhh… I hadn’t thought that far ahead. Oops. I explained to Gracen that I wasn’t sure what would replace her beloved building station, but I would think of something FUN, get it ready during her nap time, and surprise her with it when she woke up. No pressure.
Since I had about a gazillion other things I had planned to get done during my baby girl’s nap time, I knew the new station had to be something quick and easy to put together. I dug through our little living room toy box in search of inspiration, came across her bar magnet, and that was that…. A magnet station it was. I gathered up all kinds of small things from around the house – some magnetic and some not – and placed them on a tray along with the magnet. At first, I thought I’d just leave it at that, but then I decided it would be fun to add a sorting element since Miss G loves sorting/matching games so much. I remembered coming across this post on Pinterest a long while ago, and though adding ‘magnetic’ and ‘non-magnetic’ jars into the mix felt a little bit too “academic” or teach-y (we don’t really do planned learning activities yet), I decided to give them a shot. After all, they could always be removed if they were too much. I retrieved 2 mason jars, drew 2 quick sketches (one illustrating magnetic, and the other one non-magnetic), cut them out, and washi taped them onto the jars. Done!
When Gracen woke up, she asked about her new project immediately (this girl doesn’t forget a thing). I brought it in, explained that it was a magnet station, and let her jump in.
After a couple of minutes of exploration, I explained the jar drawings to her. Without hesitation, she started placing things in the appropriate jars.
She was so into it that it didn’t feel like too much at all.
Before long, she’d sorted every last item into the jars and announced, “All done! Dump ’em and do it again!” (A sure sign of success, I’d say. ☺)
♥
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Winter Nature Shelf
Today Gracen’s autumn nature shelf got a much needed makeover…
Gone are the crunchy leaves, dried out sunflowers, mini pumpkins, new apples, and shedding cattails…
And in are the bare branches, pinecones, evergreen limbs, and dried red berries.
If we’re striving for accuracy, the title ‘Christmas shelf’ would probably be more appropriate at this point, but we’re sticking with ‘nature shelf’ because soon enough all of the little Christmas extras (many of which were mine when I was little) Miss G carefully selected and added will be tucked away until next year and we’ll be back to having shelves filled with plain ol’ nature things.
And because we don’t have quite as many wintery things as we did autumn-y things, we decided to use the bottom shelves for seasonal books, which Gracen loves having on display.Here’s a look at our mini transformation…
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A Special Day at the Aquarium
Today Gracen and I were very lucky to be part of a group of blogging mamas {and kiddos} invited down to the Vancouver Aquarium for a special morning.
It’s no secret that we adore our local aquarium, and this visit was even more fun as we got to mingle with friends while following our very own tour guide. After making our way to some of the very cool Luminescence exhibits and some of the regular favourites (the giant sea turtles, penguins, and sea otters), we prepared for one of the really special events – a 4D theatre experience.
The feature film was a 19 minute version of The Polar Express, and though I was super excited to try out the whole 4D experience myself, I was definitely nervous about how my sensitive little lady would react. Just to be safe, I selected an aisle seat right next to the emergency exit, made sure Grae was on my lap, and explained {as best I could} what the experience would be like.
All in all, it turned out okay. She was definitely nervous in some parts and was not at all a fan of being sprayed with water, but at the same time, she didn’t want to leave the theatre either. While I’d probably wait a little while before taking her to another 4D film, I must say, it was pretty amazing.
After The Polar Express, we all gathered around the Pacific Canada Pavillion to await the arrival of the jolly old fellow in the red suit.
It seems he had carelessly dropped his jingle bells in the tank and therefore needed to hop in and search for them…
Luckily, with a very excited audience cheering him on, he found his bells and all was right in the world again. ☺
As always, we had a lovely time at the aquarium and can’t wait to go back again soon.
♥
If you’re looking for a wonderfully unique gift for someone in the Lower Mainland, I highly recommend an aquarium membership. They pay for themselves in just two visits and allow for an unlimited number of admissions for an entire year. For more information on gifting a Vancouver Aquarium membership, click here.
Gracen Tested: Piggy Paint
Since she was just an itty bitty little thing, Gracen has complimented my painted toes and asked for hers to be done the same way. And though I’ve painted them for her a few times, I’ve never quite felt right about putting regular {reeky, toxic} polish on her tiny little nails. So when we were contacted by NailPolishCanada.com to try out Piggy Paint, the newest addition to their stock, I was completely game.
I had read about Piggy Polish many times in the past and knew that it was non-toxic, eco-friendly, and made from a water-based formula and had added it to my mental ‘Gracen wish list’, but had yet to come across it in my day to day travels, so this was the perfect opportunity.
I love having Miss G make decisions for herself (age appropriate ones of course), so we sat down at the computer together and scrolled through the many Piggy Paint colour options on Nail Polish Canada’s site. While I probably would have picked a soft {and nearly unnoticeable} pink like Sweetpea or Angel Kisses, my not {always} so typical girly girl was immediately drawn to Ice Cream Dream and Glitter Bug instead, so metallic teal and silver sparkles it was!
The polish arrived at our doorstep just two days after ordering, and of course my little mail lover was more than thrilled to open up the package and find her new polishes.
Grae decided that she’d like to try the teal paint on her toes first (and I tried the sparkly one on my fingernails just for fun). Besides the ridiculously quick shipping, there were many things I loved about the polish right away. First off, there’s no reeky smell involved. If anything, the scent reminded me of being in my Grade 12 art class during our clay / sculpting unit, and rightfully so as Piggy Paint’s tagline is ‘natural as mud’.
Secondly, the polish goes on easily and you get full coverage in a single coat. You know when you buy a new beautifully coloured polish and you apply it only to realize that you’ll need at least 4 coats to reach the colour it is when in the bottle? Well that’s certainly not the case with Piggy Polish. These brightly hued teal toes? One coat only. I was especially impressed with the sparkly polish. In the the past, if I’ve bought a glittery polish, it normally turns out to be mostly clear with a few sparkles here and there… Not so with Glitter Bug. My nails were fully covered with sparkles in one coat and extremely covered in two.
Thirdly, the drying time is amazing. Without a word of a lie, I finished painting the toes on Grae’s first foot, moved onto the second one immediately, and as soon as I was done, the first foot was 100% dry. So nice when painting the nails of busy, go-go-go toddler.
Now… The one thing I don’t love about Piggy Polish is that it doesn’t last that long. These are Miss G’s toes 4 days after applying the polish, and in all honesty, it started to chip off a day and half to two days in. Buuuuuut, in its defence, although we did blow dry the polish for one to two minutes as recommended, we did not have the base or top coat to try, both of which increase its durability. And here’s the other thing… Can one really expect polish that is free of all toxins to last as long as its chemical-filled cousin? I think not. And frankly, I’m fine with a little girl’s nail polish only last a couple of days… It’s just for fun after all. ☺
To order some Piggy Paint for your own little one (a perfect stocking stuffer!), click here. You can also keep up to date with NailPolishCanada.com by following them on Facebook and Twitter.
♥
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Christmas Tree Decorating Creative Table
As much as I’d love to have an entire room dedicated to play and discovery, our little two bedroom house simply doesn’t have the space. So instead of an actual playroom, we’ve taken various playroom elements and created play spaces around the house so that Gracen always has plenty of opportunities to create, explore, and play. If you were to visit our house, you’d most likely see some sort of sensory tray or bin happening in our kitchen, an easel and art supplies in our dining area, a felt board station, creative table, and toy area in the living room, and a nature shelf, dress-up corner, and book nook in Gracen’s room. This set up works really well for us and the nice part is that if I’m making dinner or folding a load of laundry or doing some sort of other job, Gracen always has the choice of doing a project or activity of her own in the same room.
One of the areas Gracen’s especially taken interest in lately is her creative table. All it is a regular kid-sized table and chair set, but the fun part is that new creating materials find their way onto the table every few days. Some days the materials are really simple (something like card stock, stickers, and crayons, or paper, stamps, and ink pads), and other days the materials are a little more exciting (sparkly pipe cleaners and shiny pony beads, or chocolate play dough, gingerbread man-shaped cookie cutters, and buttons). I almost always put out new materials while Miss G’s asleep, and I leave them for her to discover on her own. Though I don’t actively encourage her to engage in the activities at her creative table (they’re more of an ongoing invitation to create), she almost always squeals in delight upon finding something new and gets creating right away.
This invitation to decorate paper Christmas trees was a HUGE hit today. So much so that she ended up creating seven different trees and took her time with each, creating seven unique masterpieces.
Puzzle Piece Snowflake Ornament
Today, Gracen’s advent calendar pouch included a handful of jigsaw puzzle pieces (from Urban Source) and a handwritten note telling her that they could be used to make a snowflake ornament (I originally found the idea here). She of course was ready to begin the project the very instant she opened it.
While puzzle pieces are the main material, a few other things are needed to make this pretty little ornament… Glue of some sort (craft glue or hot glue would probably work best), some white crafter’s acrylic and a paintbrush, a scrap of cardboard or card stock cut into a circle, a small piece of ribbon or string to hang the ornament from, and some glitter (completely optional, but not in Miss G’s opinion).
To get started, glued 3 puzzle pieces onto our cardboard circle, evenly spaced like this.
During the process, we quickly realized that pieces shaped similarly to this one were going to work the best, so we dug those out and put the others aside.
Next, we added 3 more puzzle pieces. We tried to place them on top of the original 3 as the instructions say to do, but when it didn’t work out very well for us, we slid the original 3 out closer to the edges, and added the next 3 onto the edges of the cardboard circle too. It worked out perfectly and was much easier for Gracen to do.
When our snowflake was completely dry about an hour later, Gracen gave it a good once over with white paint.
While the paint was still wet, she did the job I think she looks forward to most when crafting…. She sprinkled on a very generous amount of sparkles over the entire thing.
Later in the evening when her snowflake was dry, I hot glued a little loop of ribbon onto the back, and voila – a new handmade ornament to add to our tree.
♥
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Mama Essentials
Back in the day, the contents of my purse consisted mostly of a wallet, a phone, pretty lip glosses, and a yummy-smelling hand cream. While many of those things still have a permanent spot in my bag, now that I’m Gracen’s mama, several other things have made their way into the mix. To get the details on what I deem “essential” enough to lug around with me on a daily basis, pop on over to Erin at Large, where I’m being featured on the lovely Erin‘s EDC XL feature. I’m spilling out my bag and sharing some of my favourite must-have mama items… And don’t worry – I cleaned out the beach sand and cracker crumbs ahead of time. ☺
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Candy Cane Epsom Salt Sensory Play
Last night, I sliced my finger open {after my very favourite ever vintage mixing bowl fell from our infamous mountain of clean, drying dishes and shattered all over the floor *sob*}. As I shuffled through our catch-all closet to retrieve the first aid kit, I stumbled upon a giant bag of forgotten about epsom salt. And that’s how this random little sensory activity began. ☺
Having used regular salt {on trays} for drawing and letter printing practice in my classroom many times before, I knew that epsom salt would be just as fun. But to amp it up a little and make it more festive, we decided to turn out plain old epsom salt into the candy cane variety with a little peppermint extract and food colouring.
Of course my little helper did most of the work.
To get started, we measured out a couple of cups of epsom salt into a zip-close bag (you could easily use a jar instead – it just requires a little more shaking power).
Then we added a spoonful of peppermint extract. And because this was the white batch, zipped up the bag tightly…
And shook it up.
We repeated the process twice more, this time adding food colouring into the mix. The end result was a tray of minty fresh, candy cane-coloured epsom salt just begging for little hands to play with it.
I gathered up a few spoons and some silicon muffin cups, and Miss G retrieved some Christmas cookie cutters.
Then she got to playing.
First up was making “pucktakes” (cupcakes according to our silly little girl).
Of course pucktakes need candies and cherries on top, so off she went to collect some buttons.
This simple little sensory station kept her happily engaged while I made dinner and washed a big load of dishes, plus our whole kitchen smelled deliciously of peppermint.
And the fun didn’t stop there… When bath time rolled around, Miss G picked her very favourite epsom salt cupcake to take along with her.
(The really neat part is that if you let the salt sit in the silicon cups overnight, they harden and become little pucks that are easily portable to and from the bathtub.)
Candy Cane Epsom Salt
- 2 cups of epsom salt
- 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract
- 4 – 7 drops of food colouring
Put all of the ingredients into a bag or jar and shake until fully blended. Play!
DIY {Paper Bag} Advent Calendar
I’m not going to lie. I had grand plans to sew a beautiful bunting-style felt advent calendar that was hand embroidered and could be used year after year. But it didn’t happen… And that’s okay.
Instead, I searched around the internet {a couple of days late}, combined a few ideas, and came up with what easily could be world’s fastest, simplest paper bag advent calendar. It certainly won’t be something we keep for years and years, but it could last two or three. Plus it takes almost no time at all to put together and I already had everything, save the paper bags, on hand.
To get started, I purchased 25 of these flat 5 by 7 paper bags (you don’t want the lunch-style ones that fold out at the bottom) from one of my favourites – Urban Source.
Then, using one of the stamp sets I use for my Littlelest Lulu block orders, I stamped the bags with ‘Dec. 1’ through to ‘Dec. 25’. This job could obviously be done by hand, with letter stickers, or by printing labels from the computer, but I chose to do the stamp route this time around.
Once done with the stamping, I folded the tops of the bags down about an inch from the top.
Next, I selected an area of wall to hang my calendar. I went with this spot because it’s right along the ground and allows Gracen to reach her own bags each day, but you could really do any spot you wish.
Using teeny tiny nails, a hammer, and some baker’s twine, I strung up five evenly-space lines for my bags. (I hung the bags as I went just to get a feel for how it would all look in the end, but as long as you know that the bags will fit in the arrangement you choose, you really don’t have to hang them up quite yet.)
Next, I filled the bags, added a note inside each, sealed them shut with washi tape, and hung them on the lines with mini wooden clothespins.
Originally, I had really wanted craft paper bags, but I actually think the white ones turned out perfectly. They are just see-through enough to show the shape of the object(s) inside, which gets Miss G really curious.
This year, because Grae is nearly obsessed with adding to the tree each day, we decided to make her advent calendar all about ornaments. Some days her bag will be filled with a purchased or previously made ornament to add to the tree, and other days, she’ll have to create the ornament first. Either way, there will always be a handwritten note included that tells her why the ornament is special or what she can create using her materials.
Well… That’s it. World’s simplest, quickest DIY advent calendar. It was ridiculously easy to put together, but I know my little lady will adore it just as much as if I’d had the time to make the elaborate one I’d originally planned on creating. And that’s all that matters. ☺
♥
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Christmas Tree Felt Board
Last year, Miss G had her own wall-hung Christmas tree to made of felt. I won’t go into the grossness that is the fact that our garage is home to mice (or the fact that her little tree wasn’t properly packed away), but needless to say, the tree is no longer.
Since Grae’s really been enjoying her felt board games lately, and since I have other plans for the little chunk of wall that held last year’s tree, I decided to make her a smaller Christmas tree felt board set this time around.
All it took was a big sheet of green felt (available in craft stores) cut free hand in the shape of a tree, a brown felt stump attached to the base of the tree with fabric glue (hot glue or craft glue would work just fine too), some ornaments cut from bright coloured felt, and a yellow star to top the tree.
And since Grae had a really nice long nap and I had finished all of the other pieces, I decided to cut out a couple of presents for her to place under the tree too.
Now she has a {new} little tree that can decorate again and again all by herself, regardless of the time of year.
See our other felt board ideas, as well as a tutorial on how to make your own easy felt board here.
♥
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