Oh, the awesomeness that is the annual ‘cousins’ birthday’… A few years back, my sister-in-law and I came up with a plan that allowed us to celebrate all of our kiddos’ birthdays in person, despite living in different provinces {or on different sides of the world}. With all 5 of our kiddos having birthdays between July and November, we simply decided we’d do ONE celebration the one time we were guaranteed to be together each year – August long weekend in the Okanagan – and make it an official celebration of everyone! And that’s what we’ve done ever since. It’s super low-key… We sing a big ‘happy birthday’ song that includes everyone’s names, each cousin opens a special gift, and then we play or hang out or get on with whatever else we had planned. It’s something we look forward to each year!
Category Archives: get crafty
LEGO Self-Portraits
My gosh, are we ever on a roll with fun LEGO projects this week! After yesterday’s gorgeous LEGO mandala art, we decided to try our hand at layered LEGO self portraits today and oh my word – we loved everything about the project!
LEGO Mandala Art
I don’t remember when or how it came up, but recently, Miss G and I were talking about mandalas… Grae asked what makes a mandala a mandala, and since I’m by no means an expert, we popped online to do a little bit of research. What we learned is that artistically, mandalas are detailed circular designs that often contain repeating patterns and shapes. We took a look at lots of gorgeous mandala images and read a little bit about what they symbolize too, which was really interesting. So when I was thinking about fun and different ways we could use our LEGO collection for LEGO Week, I had mandalas on my mind – hence our LEGO mandala art.
Exploring Colour Theory With Ice Cubes
You know what I love? I love fun little activities and explorations that both Miss G and Sam can enjoy despite their 5.5 year age difference. I also really, really love colour theory and how magical it is in the eyes of little ones, so this super simple exploring colour theory with ice cubes activity was a total win in my eyes. For Sam, it was colourful and cold and full of noise and movement {a true delight for the senses!} and for Miss G, it was cool and chilled out and a perfect reinforcer for what she already knows and understands about primary and secondary colours. I did the activity just a little bit differently with each of the bubbas, and I’ve got to say that both methods worked perfectly well {though one was definitely more baby safe in my opinion}.
Easy DIY Rainbow Painter
Oh how we love new books! Honestly, just send Miss G and I to the bookstore or library for the afternoon and you’ll have two very happy girls on your hands.
Easy Heart Balloon Valentines
My goodness we cut things close this year. I’m not sure what happened… We had our idea weeks ago, our supplies were picked up in plenty of time, and somehow we started making Miss G’s class valentines just this evening. The night before Valentine’s Day. Oops.
Mess-Free Marble Painting for Babies
Welp, it’s been exactly one week since my surgery and I’m officially ready to be done with resting and being low key… Sadly though, my body’s not feeling the same way. :/ While I think I honestly thought I’d just hop up off the surgery table with my three little incisions and be on my merry way, this whole having my appendix removed thing has slowed me down more than expected. What I really wanted to do today was to pop Sam into the stroller and go for a long walk in the sun, but with our neighbourhood still being incredibly icy and snowy, I decided not to chance it just yet. For today, my little man and I settled on some indoor fun that was sure not to cause a fall or popped switches – mess-free marble painting.
Season Sensory Bottles
With Grae and Sam being 5 years apart in age, you’d think that they’d be into completely different things, but I’m actually realizing that there are many projects and activities that we can do and tweak just slightly so that both munchkins enjoy them. These season sensory bottles are so much fun and definitely one of those projects that both kiddos got something out of. {Not to mention that they look super pretty sitting on a playroom shelf or window sill.}
Mini Christmas Letter Ornament
This weekend we took our stash of Christmas books out and oh my word… Was Miss G ever excited. She’s been asking to take them out for ages now, so as soon as we did, she got straight to sorting, organizing, and reading them. {Gosh, I love her.}
Baking Soda Clay Baby Footprint Keepsake
It’s hard to believe, but we’re already amidst December, and in our house, December 1st means that all things Christmas are fair game. We’re doing a very low key Christmas this year {like really low key}, but low key doesn’t mean without tradition. Our fun little traditions are much too special anticipated to let go of, so this year we’ll simply pare down a little bit when needed. Like instead of 10 different types of homemade Christmas ornaments, maybe one or two will do…
DIY Sensory Blocks for Baby
Goodness… I’m pretty sure I put making these simple little sensory blocks on my to do list about 3 months ago. It’s ridiculous that it’s taken me this long to get to them given the fact that the entire project took about 10 minutes start to finish, but feel like that’s just my current state of life. Non-priority tasks aren’t happening as quickly as I’d like them to, but it is what it is. Either way, they’re made now, and I’m so happy with how they turned out! Sam loves them too, which is exactly what I’d hoped for. They’re sort of like a combination of a miniature sensory bottle {making them perfect for little hands} and these really fun little sensory blocks that I was highly considering buying online late one night {making them perfect for stacking and crashing}. They’re also part musical instrument, so multi-purpose indeed {hah – have I sold you on making a set for your bub yet??}
Cardboard Cake
Oh my goodness, did Miss G ever have fun creating this colourful, sequinned, drippy cardboard cake! Perfect timing too, as her baby brother’s first birthday is just over a week away and she’s absolutely vibrating with excitement.
Sweet and Simple Fall Leaf Crowns
Fall has officially arrived here in Vancouver and it is absolutely beautiful. So today when Miss G suggested finishing off our day by going for a walk and park visit after school, she certainly didn’t have to convince me.
Coffee Sugar Scrub Kids Can Make
After making a super fun, soap-included funfetti sugar scrub for Miss G last week, we decided that this mama needed a sugar scrub of her own too! My little helper and I hit the kitchen with some basic ingredients from our pantry and came up with an amazing smelling scrub that involves two of my very favourite things – COFFEE and being pampered!
Funfetti Sugar Scrub
Well, I’m excited to say that we’ve officially made it a full 3 months home from the NICU without baby bubba getting sick! According to our nurses, the first 3 months {and especially the first 4 – 6 weeks} are the most critical as far as keeping little NICU babes healthy and bug-free, and I’m so glad we were successful. During those first 6 weeks, we really avoided taking Sam to public places as much as possible, and though we’ve loosened up quite a bit since then, we’re still all about the hand washing in this house. It’s such an easy thing to do and since it’s the best way to keep germs at bay, we’re going to keep on it. After all, we don’t want baby bubba getting sick now any more than we did in the first 3 months – having a sick baby is awful!