Today after her nap, Miss G and I enjoyed a little crafternoon. We set up shop in the warm sunshine pouring through our front window and she worked on decorating felt eggs while I worked creating this new spring felt board set.
This time around, I created paper patterns by drawing very simple flower shapes onto scrap paper. The ‘line drawing’ section of Google images is great if you’re in need of some inspiration, or if you simply want to print off some templates and skip the drawing part all together.
Next, I cut around my flower shapes and pinned them onto bright, colourful sheets of felt (I use the inexpensive stuff made of recycled plastic bottles for felt board sets and save the more costly wool stuff for my Littlest Lulu projects, but both work great).
Then I carefully cut out both my paper patterns and the felt flower pieces all at once. I used the same method to create several differently shaped leaves too.
Afterwards, I cut out several long, thin pieces of green felt to act as stems.
As well as several centres that can be mixed and matched on the flowers.
Here’s our finished spring flowers felt board set… Flowers that can mixed, matched, and combined into tons of different possibilities. Just for fun, I may add grass strips, soil clumps, terra cotta pots to the set later on. And clouds, sunshine, and raindrops would be fun additions too!
Here’s my little love’s finished project. A beautiful colourful felt egg to display in time for Easter.
To learn how to make your own easy felt board and to see our other felt board games, click here.
♥
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Last weekend, while tidying up the backyard a little bit, I came across a random 2×4 shoved in a corner along the fence. I don’t know if everyone thinks this way, but when I come across an item, the first place my mind goes is how could we use this for play? Of course a long flat wooden board almost begs to be used as a balance beam, so why complicate things, right?
Before we got to using it too much, we pulled out our sidewalk chalk and decorated it a bit. And by ‘we’ I basically mean that I drew while Miss G gave instructions. ☺
To start off, we placed it flat on the ground and Grae carefully walked back and forth a few times.
Then I thought it would be fun to add a little incline. I brought out a thin cement block and propped up one side of the 2×4, but Miss G automatically said, “No – TWO blocks! Then we can make a bridge!” So a bridge it was.
This little set-up is so, so simple, but it’s a lot of fun and it’s great for balance and motor skill development too.
After 
Gracen poured water, added greens, and gently stirred hot soup. She scooped soil, packed it down, and added pebble sprinkles to dirt cupcakes. She tended to gooey mud pancakes, flipping them every now and again.
And lucky for me, I was the chosen taste tester.
I thought of putting this little station together for Gracen to explore months and months ago, but only got to it today. Perhaps today just felt like a face painting sort of day? I don’t know…
Either way, I set out her 
And when she did, was she ever excited! She didn’t quite know what it was all about, but she was excited none the less. I stood back and watched her take off her tights. Then she turned to me and asked, “Mama helps Grae Grae paint her toes?” Hah!
Once I explained that they were face painting crayons, she was even more pleased. And off she went, decorating her face.
She went through several changes during the process… First, she announced that she was a raccoon, and after adding a few more lines here and there, she decided that she was a kitty cat.
Here she is with her first finished look. ☺
When it was time to remove it, she tried using the damp cloth I’d provided, but it was quite tricky. Face paint is stubborn, but I knew just what would do the trick…. One of our very favourite body/household/cooking products – organic coconut oil! She dipped her fingers into it, started rubbing it on her face, and the paint literally melted off. Afterwards she was able to use her cloth and wipe her face clean – easily!
Miss G decorated herself for a while longer, then let me have the final turn… The natural choice? Papa eyebrows, of course! ☺ I don’t know who found it more hysterical – her or me.
Yesterday, while shopping for fresh produce, Miss G asked if we could take home a starfruit. It got me thinking. I didn’t know if Grae had ever even seen a starfruit, let alone tasted one. I said sure, let her select the one she wanted, and carry it throughout the store for the remainder of our trip.
Today, after nap time, we pulled it out to investigate. We started by smelling it…
Then moved on to running our fingers over it to feel its texture…
And then to gently pinching it to see how soft or hard it was.
When we were done investigating the outside of the fruit, we decided to cut it open.
Of course the first thing Miss G wanted to do was taste it. This particular starfruit was still a little too green, but you can’t investigate a fun new fruit without tasting it!
Starfruit got her seal of approval, and while munching away, Grae was pleased to discover seeds inside the fruit.
This was such a fun and easy little activity that I think I’m going to let Grae choose one new item during our produce shopping trip each week. While we eat a TON of produce, there are still many fruits and veggies we haven’t tried (especially in our local market’s extensive Asian section). It’ll be fun to branch out a little bit and try new things, and I truly believe that when kids are involved in the shopping and cooking aspects of food, they’re much more open-minded about tasting their selections and creations.
Do you ever set up an activity that you think will be a total hit and it just kind of flops? Or if it doesn’t flop, it just doesn’t take off the way you thought it would? That was the case with this sensory tray.
After a 
I kept it very simple and filled a tray with raspberry-scented shaving foam, sprinkled glitter on top of it, and set out a warm bucket of water with a hand towel.
Grae dove in.
She definitely had fun mixing up the different colours of glitter and squishing the foam between her fingers…
And she even thought it was funny that it stuck to her hands at first, but after a while, the fact that she couldn’t properly clean the foam off of her hands and arms, even with the bucket of water and towel, started to bother her.
She decided to gather some sandbox tools and played for a while longer, but the activity never really took off the way I thought it would. In the end, there was a giant tray of semi-played with foam just left there and she was done.
If anything, this was a great way to get messy. ☺
This is ridiculously easy way to amp up the bath time fun, but it may just be Gracen’s favourite of all time. I wish I had a video of the shrieking, jumping, splashing, and balloon batting just to illustrate what a hit it was. Lucky for us, our tub has sliding glass doors, so the crazy was at least contained. ☺
I decided to try this tonight for Gracen’s half birthday, but it make a great regular birthday bath, and would be just as well received any day of the year I’m sure.
Just fill up the tub nice and full, add some bubbles and a bunch of balloons (I think 10 is a good number if you want it nice and full) and let the fun unfold.
A long while ago, while we were home in the Okanagan for Thanksgiving, I mentioned a wooden 
Gracen’s Poppop built it for her (adding a very useful top shelf), and though it still needs a little sanding and a few coats of paint, we put it to use as soon as it arrived and it’s been in Gracen’s room ever since (we’ll get to the painting…eventually…) 
To add to the few Halloween things we had and the 
She now has everything from one piece numbers, to tutus, boas, wings, hats, glasses, bandanas, and crowns.
Needless to say, dressing up has been a popular activity in our house for a long while now… Not to mention that I love all of the pretend play and role play it encourages. 
Although it’s not currently the right time of year, if you’re planning on starting a tickle trunk for your little one, I’d highly recommend shopping in the few days just after Halloween. I got this cute little fleece robot costume at the beginning of Novemeber for $1.82 when costumes were 90% off (seriously, in the words of Brad, it was costing me more NOT to buy it ☺).
A couple of days ago, Miss G and I experimented with making a couple of changes to our 
We followed our 
We also added some fine glitter because…. Well, because Grae said so. That’s why.
We mixed everything up and added our wet ingredients, going a little bit easier on the water this time. While we absolutely loved our 
The result was a soft, smooth, yummy-smelling play dough that Miss G was just dying to get her hands on.
We made two batches, one raspberry, one strawberry, and added some cookie cutters, a mini rolling pin, and a mini baking pan for a fun creative table set-up.
It’s no secret that Gracen loves to help in the kitchen. So for a long time, we’d intended to buy her a play kitchen for Christmas. But when going back to Kuwait became a serious consideration, we decided to put the kitchen plans on hold, buy one after the move, and opt for handmade felt food instead as it can easily be packed overseas. 
Unfortunately, we had a few snafus with our order and it only arrived a couple of weeks ago… Of course, for Miss G, who was spoiled at Christmas nonetheless and had no idea it was coming, opening the parcel today was the best surprise ever.
We laid out a blanket in the living room, grabbed a couple of stacks of plates, and she’s been whipping up meals ever since.
The funniest part is that every time we’re out and about and she spots a restaurant, she points to it and shouts, “Mama, a resdaraunt! Grae Grae has one of dose at home in da living room. Grae Grae has a resdaraunt station!!!”
It’s certainly no play kitchen, but our little sous chef doesn’t mind one bit.
