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. ☺
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 
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’. 
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. ☺
Today, 
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.
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 
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. 
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.
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 – 
Then, using one of the stamp sets I use for my 
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. 
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.
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This evening, Miss G and I put together something I loved making as a child… a simple paper chain. We started with some paper scraps I had left over from a Christmas bunting and used a paper cutter to trim them into neat strips.
Miss G then chose her “special starting paper”, loaded one end with several swipes of a glue stick… 
And I helped her roll it up and she pinched it tightly while counting to ten.
Together, we added ring after ring…
Until we had this sweet little holiday-themed paper chain. I’m not sure what we’ll do with it yet… In my classrooms, I’ve always used them as a countdown tracker of sorts, snipping off one link until the big day, but I’m not sure that Grae is going to want to cut apart the creation she’s so proud of. It may just be a sweet little addition to the holiday decor we’ve slowly been adding around our house.
Don’t ask me how I come up with these things… Tonight as I was running a bath for Miss G, I randomly decided to surprise her with a special themed bath. I basically gathered up a few things from our 
Gracen was super excited when I dramatically flung open the shower curtain to reveal her surprise bath and immediately jumped in.
I was a little bit worried about her sitting on the hard items by accident, but she automatically cleared them out of the way as soon as she climbed in without me having to say a thing. 
Two things to keep in mind when converting your bath tub into a mini ocean… Make sure the ocean items are washed in warm soapy water first (duh!) and try to pick rocks and shells that are smooth so that no little tushies are poked during the fun.
The huge part of the fun of course is swimming around in the tub with sharks and whales and crocodiles… We got these little sea creatures at the dollar store quite a while ago, but you can find them at toy stores and teacher stores too. 
While we had our painter’s tape out for our 
♥