Oh how I love this DIY coconut oat milk bath… It’s so soothing and gentle and believe it or not, it doubles as a cleanser, so no soap required! We use it daily, but it’s our go-to solution for diaper rashes, dry itchy skin, and eczema flare ups too.
Author: Jen
Spring Texture Hunt
Whew… After a long, snowy winter here in the Okanagan, I *think* spring might actually be here and I can’t tell you how good it feels! We arrived home on Good Friday after a week in Vancouver to find nearly all of our snow gone and despite the fact that it briefly snowed on both Easter Sunday and Monday, I feel like we’ve officially turned a corner. Sunshine, warmer temperatures, and little bits of green beginning to appear after months of snow and grey skies? Yes please!
In celebration, we spent a good part of our weekend outside… We brought the kids’ bikes out, set up our trampoline, did some yard work, and best of all – we did our very first nature activity of the season – a spring texture hunt! I can’t tell you how sweet my two little nature explorers were out in the yard searching for different textures with their clipboards in hand.
Now at 2 years old Sam absolutely didn’t need a clipboard or printable to collect / record his findings, but because he wants nothing more than to be exactly like his big sister at the moment, I decided to make him a modified spring texture hunt printable too and thank goodness I did! The moment he saw Miss G with her pencil and page clipped on her board, he shouted his go-to, ‘Too! Too! Sam too!’ and was pleased as punch when I passed him a clipboard of his very own.
I’ll share both down below, but for Grae I designed a more open-ended observation sheet that allowed her to sketch out the nature items she found plus come up with her own words to describe their textures. For Sam, I simplified and gave him boxes pre-labelled with texture words. Now for his recording sheet you could very well have your child draw the items, but Sam’s not there yet of course and in an effort to keep it as tactile and simple as possible, I decided that we’d help him glue his nature items right onto his sheet {which actually worked out really well}.
Kids, clipboards, and a glue stick in hand, we headed outdoors to see what we could find as far as interesting textures in nature go.
Needless to say, nature is FULL of all kinds of amazing textures and finding a bunch of different ones was a breeze right off the bat. I followed Sam’s lead and went off into this little corner filled with rocks, shrubs, a tree stump, and our little patch of remaining snow and together we gently touched things and talked about how they felt on our hands. I will say that while the whole clipboard part of this activity is totally unnecessary for little ones like Sam, the actual touching and describing part is fantastic. He carefully ran his little hands over the items and listened so intently as I used words like ‘bumpy’, ‘rough’, and ‘hard’ to describe them – so awesome for his vocabulary development!
Miss G immediately got to exploring, feeling things along the way, and recording the ones that really stood out as having an interesting texture on her observation sheet.
She really enjoyed coming up with words to describe the different textures and many times she had several words to describe a single nature object. This very cool leaf, for example, led to words like, ‘fuzzy’, ‘soft’, ‘furry’, and ‘tickley’, though in the end, she decided that its softness was its most prominent feature when it came to touch.
Sam actually really enjoyed adding to his observation sheet too. Brad or I would put a thick layer {or little clump} of glue down in a box, and he’d run over with his nature item and really press it on to ensure it would stick.
More than anything this was just a fun way to display his little collection of nature items he was so proud of.
Now I will say that not all of the nature items the kids found were necessarily ‘spring’ items (the crunchy brown leaves that have been hidden under the snow since fall, for example), but I decided that that really didn’t matter. It’s spring, the items were found during spring, and that was good enough for me! If you were doing this activity with your kiddos or students and wanted the focus to be specifically on spring items, however, you could of course specify that.
This whole idea, believe it or not, was inspired by a show the kids have been watching {and loving!} lately called SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids. Have you seen it before? Now if you know me, you know I’m not a huge fan of television for kids, but my kids do enjoy watching a show now and then {Grae especially} which leaves me bouncing between Netflix and Common Sense Media trying to find something that is not only appropriate, but also hopefully little bit inspiring or motivating too? {A tall order, I know…}
Well, I’m so glad I came across SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids. In the series, Scout, a sweet and smart mouse introduces the Gumboot Kids to a collection of clues that leads them outdoors to uncover the wonders of nature… Things like sunflowers filled with seeds, echoes, falling acorns, shadows, and constellations – all of the most important things!
Our spring texture nature hunt was inspired by this episode, The Soft Rock. Take a watch and let me know what you think. Easily my favourite thing about SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids is that the episodes truly inspire you to get outdoors with your kiddos – and how many television programs do that?! I also really love that each episode includes a mindful moment {something Miss G has been practicing since Kindergarten} and music by Jessie Farrell that is actually really enjoyable {because we all know that not all kids’ music is – hah!} I also really like that the episodes are around 5 minutes each and best of all? At just over two and at 7 and a half, both Sam and Grae find the shows interesting and engaging – win!
{US friends, you can watch by subscribing to Curious World or Kidstream. You can also subscribe to Kidstream via Amazon or Comcast Xfinity.}
In addition to SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids, I was lucky enough to preview two ‘spin off’ shows – DAISY & The Gumboot Kids {a crafty version filled with nature DIYs and led by SCOUT’s best friend DAISY} and JESSIE & The Gumboot Kids {a fun music-focused version featuring the talents of the same artist, Jessie Farrell who just released her third children’s album, Sparkle & Shine} and both are every bit as wonderful and inspiring as the original! Fun fact: SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids has won several awards both here in Canada and internationally, and while DAISY & The Gumboot Kids is brand new, it’s already been nominated for both Canadian and international awards too!
Alright, now back to our hunt…
Here’s how things ended. Grae probably could have kept on texture hunting for another hour or so, and Sam found a bunch really cool nature items but was ready to move onto other things before his collection sheet was fully complete – perfectly age appropriate in my opinion.
If you’d like to try this activity with your kids or students, feel free to use our printable observation sheets:
BLANK SPRING TEXTURE HUNT OBSERVATION SHEET (Grae’s)
LABELLED SPRING TEXTURE HUNT OBSERVATION SHEET (Sam’s)
Enjoy your time outdoors with your little ones and be sure to check out The Gumboot Kids series when you have a chance!
And if you already have little SCOUT & The Gumboot Kids fans like I do, be sure to check out their new merchandise line. Miss G and I recently picked out a few things and she’s anxiously awaiting their arrival in the mail!
This post is sponsored by The Gumboot Kids. As always, all opinions and stories are my own and I only ever share things that we truly enjoy.
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Easter Weekend {2018}
Oh Easter long weekend, how I adore you. Also? I sort of love that spring break ran straight into Easter weekend this year. Between 4 days in Palm Springs with my girlfriends, a week in Vancouver with our little fam jam, and a low key long weekend of Easter fun at home, I feel like definitely made the most of our break.
Good Friday was a travel day for us, so Saturday morning the kids and I hit the ground running and went out first thing to get groceries and pick up a helmet for Sam while Brad slept in. When Sam went down for his nap, Grae, Brad, and I got started on setting up our trampoline after having stored it in pieces for the winter. It was a big job and Brad and I nearly gave up at one point, but we ended up getting it put together in about 3 and half hours, which is two hours less than what it took the Springfree guy when we first got it, so yay us for sticking it out!
On Sunday morning we woke up to snow {yes, in April!} so instead of crying and packing the kids into the car and immediately heading back to Vancouver {I kid… sort of ;)}, I mixed up some pancake batter, I pulled out my griddle, and put together these little bunnies for a late breakfast. Sam dove in immediately and had his first ever taste of dark chocolate {not sure why I didn’t replace his chocolate chips with raisins, but what’s done is done – hah!} while Miss G admired her bunny and ensured we could make another if she ate the first.
{this post contains affiliate links}
After breakfast we got to some egg decorating, which was a total blast. We’ve done all sorts of decorating methods over the years {silk dyeing, fruit and veggie dyeing, marbled shaving foam dyeing, good old wax resist dip dyeing…} and this year we decided to try volcano dyeing – a fun, science-y twist on egg dyeing!
You can get all of the details over on Toddler Approved, but basically you create baking soda-based paints, paint your egg with them, let it sit for a minute…
And then give your egg a vinegar bath which creates a super fun, fizzy reaction.
We didn’t follow the instructions exactly and chose to swap out the food colouring for washable liquid watercolours {CAN}…
But I think our eggs still turned out just beautifully!
After Sam’s nap, the kids got dressed in their little matchy-matchy overalls and fox socks {CAN}, which pretty much was the cutest thing ever.
{For the record, I will dress them in coordinating clothes forever and ever so long as they let me.}
With matching outfits on and baskets in hand, we headed out into our {very brown, very in need of attention} backyard for an egg hunt.
This year we did the same thing as we did last year and had Sam search for blue and green eggs and Miss G hunt for pink and yellow ones.
I love this method because a) at this point, Sam’s eggs and Grae’s eggs are filled with very different things and b) because it allows Sam’s eggs to be fairly easy to spot and Graes eggs much harder to find.
The best part? How into it Sam was this year! Last year he found a few eggs, discovered they had raisins in them, and it was game over. He quit searching and began eating. This year he was a total egg hunting rockstar.
As was Miss G, of course. Despite some of her eggs being in super tricky spots, I think she finished off the day missing just 2 of her 30 something eggs.
When they were mostly all found, it was time to find out what was inside, which was so much fun. Both kiddos found treats, stickers, animal figurines, egg-shaped sidewalk chalk, and finger puppets for our collection, and Sam had little ankle socks, a vehicle-themed threading set broken up over several eggs, and a small toy fire engine in his.
Miss G had sticky notes, stamps, and loads of different type of hair ties in hers.
For a late lunch I decided to make something I often make on the weekends – a family snack platter. As usual, it included loads of fruits, veggies, and nuts, but I decided to make it a little more Easter-y just for fun.
I whipped up a chocolate peanut butter spread with natural peanut butter, cocoa, and pure maple syrup to put on little multigrain baguette rounds, I included some of the eggs we’d dyed, plus Love Ducks and bunny crackers, and cut pineapple, cantaloupe, and tofu into fun spring shapes using cookie cutters. I finished the whole thing off with just a few dark chocolate covered cashews and then it was time to eat!
Needless to say, Sam loved it…
As did Grae. In fact, I’m pretty sure she ate all four purple hardboiled eggs.
I don’t have anymore real camera photos to show for the remainder of the day, but it was basically spent out on the freshly set-up trampoline and then it was into our usual eggy bath at the end of the day. Plastic eggs, a couple of scoops, and a bin or bowl that will float on the water are always a hit!
Early Monday morning we kicked off our annual Easter basket scavenger hunt, which is always so much fun but was even better this year because Sam was old enough to really participate. I sometimes go a little bit overboard with Easter baskets because a) I’m a bit of a squirreller and by the time Easter rolls around I’ve often collected more than I intended to and b) because we’re not really people who buy things for our kids other than on special holidays and occasions, so I can happily justify it. Also, I just love spoiling my kids a few times a year. :)
Our kiddos were up with the birds as usual, but we managed to hold off the scavenger hunt until 7 a.m. until they could wait no longer.
The last couple of years Brad has come up with rhyming clues and I’ve written them out onto little card stock eggs or bunnies, but this year we went the lazy route and printed off these pre-made scavenger hunt clues and they were perfect!
They took the kiddos all around the house until they finally found their baskets in our laundry room on top of the dryer!
Here’s a peek at what was in them this year:
First up, a close up look at what was inside little Sam’s basket {oh, how I looooove putting together Easter baskets}…
- a little tee and shorts for spring
- a Hugo & Debra Naturals coconut bath bomb {CAN}
- Make It Grow by Debbie Powell {CAN}
- a metal kazoo to add to our collection of musical instruments {CAN}
- a Constructive Eating utensil set {CAN}
- a few Holtztiger animals to add to his collection {CAN}
- some Annie’s Homegrown snack mix
- The Little Rabbit Who Lost her Hop by Jedda Robaard {CAN}
- Stabilo’s Woody 3-in-1 crayons (these are amazing and can be used on windows too!) {CAN}
- a little garden rake
- Bilberry fruit snacks from Ikea
- a red truck he fell in love with while visiting Dilly Dally Kids
- a packet of AuraCacia Calming Foam Bath {CAN}
I’ve provided Amazon links above because I know it’s easy for most people to order from, but I picked up the majority of these items from our very favourite kids store in Vancouver, Dilly Dally Kids {you don’t even know how happy I was that we were in Vancouver just before Easter!} If you can ever pop in and check it out, I highly recommend you do. Their shelves are stocked full of very carefully curated kids’ items and books and sometimes I feel like whomever does their ordering is inside my head because their store is pretty much a collection of all of my favourite brands, books, and toys. I picked up the bath products at Nature’s Fare, the fruit snacks while at Ikea obviously, the little outfit and snack mix from Target while I was in Palm Springs, and the Stabilo crayons from Collage Collage {our favourite Vancouver kids’ art studio}.
Next up, Miss G’s basket…
- Draw, Colour, & Sticker Nature Sketchbook {CAN}
- a Papo unicorn {CAN}
- a slide whistle to add to our musical instrument collection {CAN}
- a sweet little ruffle sleeved romper
- a Hugo & Debra Naturals coconut bath bomb {CAN}
- strawberry fruit snacks from Ikea
- Pür bubble gum (the girl is gum obsessed) {CAN}
- a small garden shovel
- a few little Scheich animal figurines to add to our collection {CAN}
- a Denman Island dark chocolate bunny
- a packet of AuraCacia Cheering Foam Bath {CAN}
- a Spirograph set (best fun ever!) {CAN}
- Nature Anatomy by Julia Rothman {CAN}
Again, I found most all of this at Dilly Dally Kids while we were visiting Vancouver, but the romper is from Target, the fruit snacks are from Ikea, the gum is from Winners, and the bath things and chocolate bunny are from Nature’s Fare.
The kiddos enjoyed their Easter basket goodies for a good couple of hours while Brad brought our car into the shop {yes, on Easter Monday!} and I very leisurely made an Easter brunch of wholewheat cinnamon buns, egg and potato bake, tofu scramble, and berries before we all sat down together and enjoyed it.
The rest of the day was spent outside in the sunshine jumping on the trampoline, getting some yard work done, and doing a spring texture hunt as a family.
{Aren’t these sweet? You can get both free printables here.}
Until next year, Easter weekend…
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Confessions of a NICU Mom
This post is sponsored by London Drugs. With every Huggies Diaper purchase made by an LDExtras member between now and April 30th, 2018, a $2 donation will be made to the Huggies No Baby Unhugged program at Victoria General Hospital here in BC. As always, my stories are my own and I truly do believe that the Huggies No Baby Unhugged program is a huge support to NICU parents across Canada.
Is there ever a point where you stop being a ‘NICU mom’?
I’m not sure there is.
Sure, they sign the discharge order and you exit those doors baby in arm, feeling this overwhelming sense of gratitude and freedom, but I’m not sure you ever shake the NICU experience. It changes you.
Of course you can’t rewrite the past, but gosh – would it ever have been nice to know something – anything – about life behind the doors of neonatal intensive care unit {or prematurity for that matter} before it became our reality.
After world’s most routine pregnancy and delivery with Miss G, I was blissfully ignorant about what was to come 27 weeks into my pregnancy with Sam. In some ways I do think my ignorance was a blessing, but I also know that the situation would have been less terrifying had we not gone in completely blind.
I honestly had no idea what to expect… No idea what it would be like to be a NICU mom. No idea what it would be like to be a mama to a preemie babe born before he’d even had a chance to make it to the third trimester.
So. Looking back on it now 2 years later, here’s what I would say if someone asked me what it was like – truly like – to be a mama of a preemie babe in the NICU…
I was terrified. Initially that the NICU team wasn’t going to bring our baby back to the delivery room after whisking him away in a plastic bag. Then that he might not make it through the set backs and out of the NICU. That we’d get a phone call from with terrible news in the middle night. That he might not come back from one of his episodes of forgetting to breathe. That he’d develop some crazy complication once we’d made it through the scariest part… Ah, and the list goes on. I made a decision to enter the NICU each day and shower our little boy with love and positivity, but deep down inside I was terrified of losing him.
I felt like I had failed. Truly. As a mama, the one thing you’re supposed to be able to do is keep your baby safe and growing until they’re ready to be born, and when you can’t even do that? It feels like you’ve failed your baby. {And your husband, and your family, and everyone else who loves that little bub.} Even when you know there was nothing you could have done to prevent preterm labour. In my case, even though I knew there was nothing I could have done to prevent my appendix rupturing. Your logical side understands that, but you feel responsible nonetheless and it’s awful.
Having to rely on donor milk added to the feelings of failure. Beyond being able to carry them safely to term, the one thing us mamas are ‘supposed’ to be able to do is provide nourishment for babies, and when your body fails to be able to do either? Ugh. It’s crushing. Besides my body not being ready, I was admitted to a different hospital shortly after Sam’s birth and didn’t get to see him at all for 14 days, my ruptured appendix went undetected for 15 days, and in an attempt to try and stop the massive infection inside my body, I was put on 11 different antibiotics over a 31 day stint. The odds were definitely against me, and despite pumping every 2 – 3 hours nearly around the clock, I produced next to no milk for a very long while. Of course I was beyond grateful for the donor milk Sam was able to receive (mamas who donate breastmilk are my heroes!}, but I felt like a crap mom for not being able to provide it myself.
I was exhausted. Like beyond exhausted. Between feeling near death for weeks, pumping around the clock, trying to give as much as I possibly could to Grae at home and Sam in the NICU, and the emotional toll of it all, I was so, so tired. My eyes stung, my head hurt, and I felt like I hadn’t taken a full, proper breath in weeks.
There’s a lot of guilt. Oh, the guilt. It was suffocating at times. Beyond the not being able to carry or nurse your baby bit, for me there was this overwhelming sense of guilt that came with having two kiddos, both under different roofs. When I was at the NICU with Sam, I felt guilty about not being at home to support and spend time with my girl who was having a tough time transitioning into Kindergarten, and when I was at home with Grae, I felt guilty for not being in the NICU with Sam to hold him, care for him, and comfort him through tests and blood draws.
Leaving our baby was heartbreaking. Ugh… One of the very hardest things about being a mama of a preemie babe who is in the NICU… There’s the initial having to leave the hospital without your baby when you’re discharged which is devastating, and then there’s having to leave him there every. single. night. as you make your way home for some sleep. Like at what point do you decide you’ve spent enough time with your newborn baby and that it’s now time to leave him? Thankfully we had the most amazing nurses at BC Women’s who’d often spend time holding him and loving on him, as well as volunteer ‘hugging’ program you could sign up for so your baby would have loving human touch and cuddles while you were away, but even so – it was hard.
I cried a lot. Oh god, was I ever a mess. Not in front of others and definitely not in the NICU {well, with the exception of the very first time I got to hold Sam – Brad joked that I was going to drown our baby in tears when he already had plenty of breathing issues of his own}, but in the car by myself as I drove to and from {mostly from} the NICU in the dark? I’m pretty sure I cried every single day for months. And I don’t consider myself to be an overly emotional person. Sometimes it was out of frustration, often it was just sadness and guilt and feeling completely overwhelmed, and I know the exhaustion didn’t help either.
I was sometimes jealous of other moms. Terrible, I know… Especially since we had a relatively ‘easy’ NICU journey compared to some and it truly does no good to compare, but seeing other mamas at the hospital with big, full-term bellies… Mamas walking down to the car park with their 24 hour old babes in car seats… Mamas coming into the NICU with their arms full of bottles of expressed milk… Mamas with teeny nursing babies in their arms at the hospital coffee shop… It was hard. And I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t envious sometimes.
Despite it all, I’m incredibly thankful. Thankful to be a NICU mom. Thankful for amazing medical care. Thankful for our nurses and doctors and specialists. Thankful for the things we learned and the people we met along the way. Thankful that it was just a season and that we made it through. Thankful for coming out stronger. Thankful for our Sam who is a healthy, growing, and thriving two year old who brings our family so much joy. Thankful for it all.
Something else I’m thankful for? Huggies’ No Baby Unhugged program to coming to more hospitals across Canada. Because as a NICU mama, you truly need all the support you can get. And while the reality is that you just can’t be in the NICU 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, knowing that your sweet baby can be held and hugged by Huggies’ No Baby Unhugged volunteers should that be what you want, would certainly be comforting.
Now here’s the good news… If you buy disposable diapers, you can very easily help. Between now and April 30th, 2018, London Drugs will make a $2 donation to the Huggies No Baby Unhugged program at Victoria General Hospital for every Huggies Diaper purchase made by an LDExtras member. How easy is that, right? You can see all of the details here.
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Little Blue Truck Story Telling Basket
Oh, how Sam LOVES the Little Blue Truck books. They get read again and again and again in our house, so to spice things up and encourage some imaginary play (one of our IDP goals for Sam at the moment), I decided to put together this simple Little Blue Truck story telling basket for him to explore.
{this post contains affiliate links}
Now while we have Little Blue Truck Leads the Way {CAN} (my personal fave being a city girl myself), Little Blue Truck’s Halloween {CAN}, Little Blue Truck’s Christmas {CAN}, and Little Blue Truck’s Springtime {CAN} (my least favourite and a bit of a disappointment to be honest), Sam seems to seek out the original Little Blue Truck {CAN} most often, so that’s what we went with for our story telling basket.
We just used things we had on hand (hence our little GREEN truck and a missing goat), but I think we did okay! If you’ve never seen these Holztiger wooden animals, they are my absolute favourite. They’re pricey, but we collect a couple at a time (usually in Christmas stockings and Easter baskets) and the quality is outstanding. Definitely a collection I’ll hold onto until my kids are grown.
Here’s what we included in our Little Blue Truck story telling basket {or tray}…
- Little Blue Truck {CAN}
- wool felt squares in colours that coordinate with the illustrations of the book {CAN}
- a CAT dump truck
- a pick up truck
- a Holztiger cow
- a Holztiger horse
- a Holztiger hen
- a Holztiger chick
- a Holztiger sheep
- a Holztiger frog
- a Holztiger goose (meant to be our duck)
- a Holztiger pig
- and we would have included this Holztiger goat had we had him
{Canadian friends, you can find the Holztiger collection on amazon.ca here, but most are incredibly overpriced… I recommend getting them from Dilly Dally, our very favourite Vancouver toy shop instead.}
I set the basket and a tray out on the coffee table just before picking Miss G up from school so it was there for them to discover when we walked in the door.
Now while I set put this story telling basket together with Sam in mind, I knew Miss G would be just as into it… She dove right in, helped Sam use the felt squares to create the ground, and grabbed the book and began reading, while sam played with the vehicles and animals as she read.
And boy was he ever into it!
His play didn’t end once Grae was finished reading the book, either. He kept vrooming the dump truck around, getting it stuck in the brown ‘mud’, and using the animals to {very enthusiastically} help him push it out. Then the animals were getting stuck in the mud and the trucks were getting them out, and THEN the truck and the dump truck were having races around the farm! This is the beauty of a story telling basket or tray – there’s no right or wrong way to play and the original story the collection of items is based on is just a jumping off point.
Miss G actually got in on the fun and helped set up this fun little scene too, which I just left out as is. The plan is to leave it out for a while so that the kids can come back to it and enjoy it as they please, and I’m guessing it’ll be revisited again and again.
In the meantime, I’ve got another really fun Little Blue Truck activity in mind that I know the kids will just love… Can’t wait to share!
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Car and Truck Colour Sorting
Oh my goodness… This boy and his cars and trucks. He’s nothing short of obsessed. The other thing he’s been really into for months? Colours. Smack the two together and you’ve got a car and truck colour sorting activity that’s incredibly easy to pull off, but super engaging for little car and truck lovers like Sam.
{this post contains affiliate links}
Here’s what you’ll need:
- coloured construction paper {CAN}
- sticky tape
- small cars and trucks in various colours
Set up couldn’t be easier… Basically choose a surface {we went with our coffee table, but a floor would be great too} and loosely tape sheets of construction paper in various colours down to it. These will serve as your colour categories or ‘parking spots’ or ‘garages’ if your little one is as obsessed as mine is.
Now this activity was actually inspired by something I saw Sam doing in the playroom a few days earlier {he was colour matching his cars and our SPRI balance pods {CAN} while carefully placing the cars atop the pods} so I knew I probably wouldn’t have to give him much guidance… I simply set out a little basket filled with his cars and asked if he wanted to park them in their spots and with that, he got started. My favourite thing was watching him with this little aqua car… He went back and forth between green and blue several times before deciding just to hang onto it – hah!
After that it was smooth sailing though… He’d often tell me the name of the car and then its colour as he was placing it in its spot.
{aqua car makes a reappearance}
At the beginning, he’d announce the colour of the truck or car and then simply place it down on the coordinating piece of construction paper…
But before long he was ‘vrrooooooming’ his cars across the coffee table and slamming on the brakes when they’d reached the parking spot.
Doesn’t this look like a total blast?
I’m guessing Sam thinks so because we’ve already played it again TWICE!
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Potion Making for Kids
Oh, potion making… Miss G has done this for years and years {check this post out} and it’s still not old. During the spring and summer we do a nature version that includes all kinds of grasses and weeds and flower petals to make nature / fairy potions and it’s also become our go-to when Miss G is having a friend over {so far, they seem to love it!}
{this post contains affiliate links}
Now while I’ve been letting Miss G get herself set up for potion making for the last couple of months, we started going through ridiculous amounts of baking soda and vinegar and Brad was challenged with getting trays brimming full of magic potion overspill to the kitchen sink from our dining area every afternoon {clumsy old me didn’t possibly stand a chance, and if I’m being honest, it wasn’t going so well for him either – hah!}
Now I loooove BIG fizzy eruptions just as much as any 7 year old and letting kiddos lead the way when it comes to their play is my jam, but after several weeks of letting Grae really go for it, I decided it was time to reel things in just a little bit. My goal was to cut way back on our supply usage, hopefully encourage more purposeful potion making, and avoid the massive mess that was impossible to get to the sink without soaking the tile floor… And so, I put out this little invitation to play one day after school and I have to say, it totally worked.
All it took was keeping the potion making supplies and the potion mixing bottles nice and small! That’s it!
Here’s what I set out on our Ikea tray:
- white vinegar and a pipette {CAN}
- liquid food colouring {CAN}
- glitter {I really want to give a biodegradable glitter like this one a try}
- baking soda with a tiny spoon
- shaving foam with a medicine syringe
- several small craft jars {these would be amazing | CAN}
Besides the tray with the significant lip around the edge, I always make sure to put out an old rag just in case too. Science explorations can be messy sometimes!
And then Miss G gets to it…
There’s absolutely no right way or order when it comes to potion making {though Miss G seems to have a little system of sorts} – it’s all about experimenting, observing, and having fun!
G’s usual method? A scoop of baking soda in the bottom, then a shot of shaving foam, a single drop of colouring, and a sprinkling of glitter.
Then the best part…
VINEGAR!
How pretty is that?!
And the fun doesn’t stop after the first fizzy eruption… From there she adds to it, stirs it, shakes it, and adds more vinegar to create a second {and third and fourth…} fizzy eruption. {It’s actually amazing how little baking soda and vinegar you need when using these small vile-like containers.}
When she’s ready to move onto the next potion, she usually caps up the one she’s just finished and sets it aside.
Then onto the next!
By the time she’s done, we usually have an entire collection of potions…
Such simple, inexpensive fun.
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Valentine’s Day Tea {2018}
My goodness… Our EIGHTH annual Valentine’s Day tea. Can you believe that? This little tradition started when Miss G was just a tiny little nugget and we were living in an apartment building in Kuwait surrounded by all of our closest friends and colleagues. I think back to that time when there were 5 of us first time mamas, all on leave from work, all living in the same building, all with wonderful housekeepers to help take care of our homes… How lucky were we to have our journeys as mamas start out that way? We filled our days with coffee mornings, walks along the gulf, potluck meals, and loads of conversation about motherhood, babies, marriage, life abroad, and everything in between. It was lovely. And while hosting gatherings and little events was certainly easier back then, I’m so glad we’ve kept up our Valentine’s Day tea tradition.
In my post about last year’s Valentine’s Day tea, I finished off with:
My goal for next year? To take at least one photo of our Sam and maybe get to planning our little tea earlier than a few days before the get together – hah!
Well, one out of two isn’t bad, right?! This year I DID manage to get a photo that includes our sweet Sam {albeit a bit out of focus – oy}, but did I manage to plan the tea out with time to spare? NOPE. Not even close. With Brad gone the long weekend before Valentine’s Day {the weekend we’d usually host it}, I decided there was no way I was managing 5 days of solo parenting, plus preparing for the tea, and having our house not look like a tornado had run through it. I didn’t know if we’d just skip it or do it at a later date, but after spending most of the week playing catch up, Thursday night I decided that tradition is tradition and we were going to pull it off. On Friday I grocery shopped, did some snack prep, and cleaned the house a little bit, on Saturday morning I got the house ready, and on Saturday afternoon, we hosted our tea! It was certainly a tight timeline, but I’m so glad we pulled it off.
I kept things incredibly simple this time around and set out a few big batches of our super squishy homemade chocolate play dough with some heart shaped cutters and lose parts…
Placed some fresh tulips and heart-shaped balloons around the house…
And then focused on the food, although even that was kept very simple.
Our friends brought a big platter of crackers, cheese, and fruit which was a total hit, and then we had some simple heart-shaped pb&j sammies…
A variety of our favourite Love Child Organics snacks and a few of our favourite bliss ball varieties {we did a seed / fruit free version of our chocolate cranberry pumpkin seed bliss balls, a pecan version of our date-based chocolate almond bliss balls, and a batch of our oatmeal chocolate chunk energy balls}.
We also had some root veggie chips…
Some homemade banana muffins, some not homemade multigrain croissants with butter and fruit juice sweetened strawberry jam…
And some dark chocolate dipped strawberries. Plus a fruit and veggie platter. Plus coffee. Lots and lots of coffee for us tired mamas and papas.
And that was it. I think all of the kiddos spent some time playing with the chocolate play dough, everyone got something to eat and drink, and the majority of the afternoon was spent down in the play room with the kiddos running amuck and us adults chit chatting over the mild chaos. It was great fun and I cant wait to do it all again next year. Though I WILL throw my plans together a little earlier next time (*I think I can, I think I can, I think I can*).
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Slime Strings Using a Cooling Rack
Oh, how we love slime. Grae and I started making it when she was just over two years old and one of our favourite things has always been to create slime strings using slotted spoons, sand sifters, and colanders {check out Baby G’s slime strings during her first ever slime play session!} It’s just so neat to watch the slime slowly sink down through the holes and emerge on the other side as perfect, thin cords.
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Well today we took our slime strings to a whole new level by pairing our slime with a cooling rack and my gosh – was it ever cool. Miss G was sitting up at the island playing with some of our freshly made Valentine’s fluffy slime and Sam and I had made a batch of banana muffins earlier in the day, so the cooling rack {CAN} was just sitting there on the counter, and that’s when I remembered previously seeing this slime paired with a wire kitchen shelf for cutting practice.
Besides our fluffy slime and cooling rack {CAN} I grabbed on of our favourite play trays (we have a stack of these and use them for all kinds of kids’ projects) and a couple of big mason jars.
Then Miss G propped the cooling rack up on top of the jars with the tray below, took a chunk of slime and stretched it out into a fairly thin layer, and placed in on top of the cooling rack.
It looked really neat right from the get-go, but check out this progression:
Isn’t that cool?!
And what’s even cooler? The little curls and twists and the slime strings form when the hit the tray.
Just check that out. Aren’t they neat? These were Miss G’s favourite part and she said they remind her of curly hair – hah!
If you’ve got some slime and a cooling rack on hand, I highly recommend you try this… My guess is that your kiddos will be adding slime to the top of the rack again and again {just like mine} because it’s SO neat!
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Car Ramp Sensory Bin
Oh, how this little boy of ours loves cars, trucks, tractors, and all things that go. Help him set up some sort of ramp and he’ll send vehicle after vehicle after vehicle down that hill. It’s his jam.
One day a little while back while Grae, Sam, and I were down in the playroom, this idea sort of randomly sprung to mind. Brad had tucked a bunch of empty wrapping rolls in our play closet earlier in the week and Sam was enjoying his trucks but was frustrated that the ramp he’d set up wouldn’t stay in place. While I briefly thought about trying to help him tape his giant ramp in place, I remembered our stash of paper rolls just waiting to be used for something fun, and that’s when this little car ramp sensory bin was created!
Now thinking back, I’m pretty sure that this idea was inspired by The Imagination Tree’s awesome cardboard tube racing activity… I remember seeing her beautifully painted tracks and colourful images a long time ago… I probably just didn’t realize what a little car enthusiast I’d have on my hands one day in the future!
Our ramps certainly aren’t as pretty as hers and maybe one day we’ll paint an entire set of paper roll roadways {how fun would that be?}, but these certainly did the job and setting everything up was incredibly quick and easy.
Because this little set up was completely impromptu, I didn’t take photos of the set up process like I usually do, but I think it’s pretty self explanatory.
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All you need is a pair of scissors, some cardboard tubes, painter’s tape {CAN}, and a big, shallow bin {CAN}. {Any big, shallow bin will do, but this huge under the bed bin is one of my absolute favourites for any kind of sensory or small world activity.}
All you have to do is cut the tubes in half lengthwise, trim them down to whichever size you like, and then use painter’s tape to secure one end to the edge of the bin and the other to the base of the bin.
Add a bunch of little vehicles and it’s time to play!
The beauty of having your ramps contained in a big bin? The cars zip down quickly, but stay within reach! A bin of this size also means that there’s more than enough room for several kiddos to play at once, and Miss G actually did play alongside Sam for quite a while.
While we’ve tucked our bin away for now, I’ve saved the paper tube ramps to use again next time and I’m certain it won’t be long before Sam requests this activity again.
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Will You Be My Valen-SLIME? Valentine’s Day Slime Favours
One thing both Miss G and I just LOVE doing is creating little favours for her classmates on Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day. Okay, and maybe on the last day of school too. ☺︎ And while we have given other things {these heart balloon valentines are proof}, our go-to is usually play dough or slime. A) because both are super fun, and B) because they’re something outside of the usual candy / chocolate.
Calm Down Kit for Kids
Oh my… Have we ever been dealing with some big emotions lately. Miss G’s always been a spirited kiddo who feels things deeply, but in the last few months it’s been at a whole new level. Especially after school. I’ve been doing my best to to not bombard her with questions immediately after picking her up, to not ask too much of her as soon as we walk in the door, and to make sure she’s got a big snack and glass of water once home, but even then – some days are just extremely emotional for her.
As frustrating and as hard as it can be sometimes, I’m trying to tackle it as we would any other difficult situation – by helping her find strategies to cope and get through it. Things that help her work through her emotions. And so when I came across this anti-anxiety kit created by Sharla of The Chaos and the Clutter, I wondered if something similar would help Miss G in situations when she was feeling anxious, upset, or angry. I asked and she was totally on board, so we began collecting the items for this little calm down kit together.
Chocolate Cranberry Pumpkin Seed Bliss Balls
Bliss balls are a staple in our house. In fact, I’m pretty sure I’ve made a batch a week for the last 4 years or so. They’re easy to whip up, they’re usually quite nutrient dense, and they’re sweet and dessert-like at the same time. Plus they last well, they’re a hit at play dates, and they’re easy to pop in your purse or diaper bag for whenever a a little pick-me-up is needed.
Tinker Play Dough
Welp, Miss G went back to school yesterday and we’re officially missing her already. {Not to mention the slow mornings, pajama days, and general lack of a schedule we had over the break.} I told myself that I’d sign Sam and I up for some fun things come January, but honestly, I just haven’t done it yet… Besides the fact that Vernon isn’t overflowing with options and our school drop-off / midday nap / school pick-up routine really only allows for a class or program between the hours of 9 and 11 am, I know that any play-based program with shared toys will most likely mean sickness after sickness for Sam because a) cold and flu season and b) preemie immune systems suck. And he’s still recovering from his post-Christmas sickness! So for now, we’re sticking with our snowy walks, coffee shop visits here and there, and a whole lot of play at home.
Hulk Fruit Sauce
My goodness – this apple / pear / spinach / chia sauce has been on repeat like no other over the last few months… So much so that it’s earned itself a nickname. HULK FRUIT SAUCE. Hah! I actually have no idea how that name came to be, but the Hulk is green, so…?