Oh, how I love me a good sensory bin. When Miss G was a toddler, we were sensory bin QUEENS. Seriously though. We probably had a minimum of two sensory bins going on any given day. She loved them, I loved them, and they come with SO many benefits, so we just ran with it.
Well, as soon Sam started digging in our freshly planted container garden, I knew exactly what we needed to put together for him – a gardening sensory bin! A place where he’d be free to dig, fill, plant, and rake to his heart’s content.
So that’s exactly what we did.
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Here’s what it included:
– potting soil (the plainest, nothing added soil the store had)
– several small pots from the seedlings we’d purchased for our garden
We also used the double bin method that I often use with Sam (my boy who can destroy an entire room in approximately 30 seconds flat). It’s not a perfect system, but it does help contain the sensory bin filler (in this case, soil) and the extra space can also be used to house materials you want nearby, but not necessarily right in the sensory bin itself. This is our go-to small sensory bin and this is my beloved jumbo sensory bin.
As I usually do when introducing an open-ended activity, I sort of just sat back and observed from the get-go.
Now he had spent the last few days helping Grae and I transplant seedlings into containers, but it was the sweetest thing to watch him carefully fill his pot with soil and then stick a flower in the centre.
Before long, Miss G joined in. I’m always more than happy to let her enjoy activities I’ve set up with Sam in mind, but I do sometimes like him to get a stab at it first – before seeing how his big sister would interact with the materials.
Now I don’t know whose idea it was, but once Grae joined in it wasn’t very long before one of our pump pressure water sprayers came into play. {Side note: I looove these for gardening with kids as I feel like they make it hard to over water or hurt the seedling with a flow that’s too strong.}
Of course once the water came into play, a whole lot of drinking and showering came along with it – hah!
Just for fun, let’s take a look at the last time I did a gardening sensory bin for Miss G, shall we? This was back in October of 2014 {so Grae was just over 4 years old} in the courtyard of our apartments in Kuwait. I took the photos for the purpose of sharing them here on the site, but never got around to it {#storyofmylife}. Her bin was similar, but included the CUTEST white picket fence and tiny wooden ladybugs. Also, those lilacs? Beautiful. {Still sad that I had to leave so many fun things behind when we moved home.}
Aw, my sweet baby girl!!
You can also see another gardening sensory bin we did when Miss G was just a year old here. My gosh – the concentration and determination in that video just kills me!
By now, I think it’s pretty obvious that Miss G and I love to make and give homemade gifts. I love giving something unique that can’t just be purchased at a store, and I think we both love the process of coming up with an idea, collecting the materials, and putting it all together in a fun way. Our gifts are never overly involved {okay, with the exception of the portable activity packs maybe}, but they’re fun and normally aim to inspire play and creativity, which is very much us.
Oobleck, goop, goo, cornstarch paste… Whatever you call it, we’re huge fans! The cornstarch and water mixture has been a staple in our play repertoire for a long time now and it never fails to captivate those who dare to dig their hands in. With Halloween having just come and gone, we’ve played with it a ton lately. Sometimes paired with creepy crawlies, sometimes with giant googly eyes, and other times all on its own. It’s been loads of fun for Miss G and her little friends in the courtyard, so today we decided to try something different… Colourful SCENTED oobleck!
Today Gracen and I put together this very simple sensory bin stand for her brand new {big} bedroom. It was an idea I’d seen on Ikea Hackers a few years back, and I’m so glad I remembered it. It’s simple, inexpensive, multipurpose, and fully customizable, which I love. And now that we’ve put it to the test, I think we may even get another one to add to our collection.
Oh my word… I’m so glad we finally got around to trying this! I pinned the idea over a year ago and I knew it was going to be fun, but I had no idea just how much Miss G would love it and how much play it would bring about (just wait until we get to those pictures!)
Our rice-filled, Japenese-themed sensory bin was such a hit with the little girls at Gracen’s 3rd birthday party, we decided to bring it out to enjoy again today. We brought a soft blanket, parked ourselves in the shade of a big tree on the far side of the yard, and Grae snuck in the calm, quiet time she quite desperately needed in order to regroup after a couple of busy people-filled days (if you’ve yet to try it, slowly running your hands through dry, cool rice is quite therapeutic).
The last few days have been hectic. With only 5 days to pack up our entire house and prepare for our first of two upcoming moves, Brad and I have been working at full steam sorting through things, preparing boxes of items we’ll need for August, boxes that will go straight to Kuwait, and boxes that will go into storage until we return home to Canada in a few years. Sort of sadly, that leaves our little lady to play independently almost all day long most days. As a result, I’ve been pulling together all kinds of random, super simple activities with whichever everyday materials are nearby at the moment. Luckily for me, this morning as I popped on the internet for a brief moment, there was a discussion on different ways to use fresh mint going on in one of the awesome blogger networks I belong to (if you’re not already one of the 68 000 people that follow our Pinterest board, you certainly should be!) We have loads of mint growing in our backyard, so I took a bunch of the suggestions, mashed them together and created this fresh mint soup station for Miss G to explore.
To start out, I set out a big bunch of fresh mint, a pair of Gracen’s scissors, and few plastic bowls and spoons. Grae began smelling and cutting and ripping the mint and the amazing scent of fresh mint filled our house. She dished out bowls of ‘salad’ and delivered them to us as we worked.
Before long, I sensed that something would have to be added to the mix in order to keep Grae engaged in her play, so I grabbed a small container of green glitter and a jug filled with water and a couple drops of green food colouring and quietly added them to the bin. (Slowly adding elements to sensory bins as play progresses is one of my favourite tips for keeping munchkins engaged in their play.)
In no time at all, bowls of sparkly green soup were rolling out of Gracen’s fresh mint kitchen.
Looks delicious, right?
This was such a simple set-up, but Grae enjoyed it so much that I just tidied it up to make it look inviting again, and I’m leaving it out overnight for Miss G to enjoy again tomorrow. We’ll see how the mint lasts!
♥
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On the way home from a little mama/daughter photo shoot today, Gracen asked if we could build a duck pond. I’m not sure where how or why this request came about, but I was as game as she was.
It’s been a while since we’ve put together a new sensory bin and what I loved this time around was that instead of me putting something together for her to explore and investigate, we created this one together. Very similar to a frog pond sensory bin we’ve played with before, our duck pond sensory bin included glass beads in blues and greens, rocks, driftwood, some flowered branches from the yard, and a couple of toy ducks we already had on hand.
In order to make it outdoor-friendly, the pond’s water was nice and warm.
So warm apparently that Miss G didn’t mind getting her entire body soaking wet.
Grae played for a little while before moving onto more exciting things with Grandma Charlotte, but I know she’ll get lots more play out of it once the excitement level gets back to normal around here.
I loved this simple variation on the usual cloud dough, and today I simplified it even further for some messy morning sensory play with the cousins. To create some “snow dough” of our own, I simply made our usual cloud/moon dough and dumped in a couple of small bottles of silvery light blue glitter. A fun way to kickstart the New Year, right?
Though I could have added more festive / wintery items (mini evergreen trees, plastic animals, snowman accessories, etc.) to the sensory bin, I just stuck to the usuals this time around… Plastic cups, bowls, spoons, and cookie cutters and the kiddos loved it.
Three of the four munchkins were very eager to join.
Let the fun begin!
The sparkles are hard to see, but if you look closely, you should be able to spot them.
Kinslee digging in.
The fourth monkey just couldn’t resist the fun.
Snow dough toes. ☺
Korbin was a master moulder.
A girl who isn’t afraid to get messy.
Snow dough smoothie, anyone?
Experimenting with snow dough snowmen…
A safer building site.
Snowballs stacked.
Ummm, Grae… What happened to your hair?
Who says the snow dough has to stay in the bin?
Mission accomplished!
This explains things.
Sparkly Snow Dough (we doubled this recipe for a group of 4 children)
8 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of baby oil (or other oil)
1 small container of white/silver/blue glitter
Mix with your hands or a whisk until ingredients are evenly distributed. Play!
♥
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Gracen had a wonderful time with her friends at her birthday party and has talked about having friends over to play every day since. So with my little lady’s wishes tugging at my heartstrings and our beautiful Vancouver weather continuing into September, I decided to host our first ever {outdoor} messy play date.
It’s been something Gracen’s been anticipating all week, and yesterday, she helped me pick out and put together our snacks, sensory bins, and art stations, and today we had four of her little friends over to play in the backyard. It was morning of ‘treats’, friends, hugs, and getting dirty, which suited Gracen just perfectly.
Though I tried to take photos during the play date, attempting to drink a hot coffee, engage and supervise a handful of one and two year olds, and visit with fellow mommies at the same time ended up being quite a lot on its own. Afterwards, however, once all of our friends had departed and Miss G was tucked in her crib for her nap, I couldn’t help but smile at the piles of mess all around me. Mostly eaten snacks, well played with sensory bins, almost empty juice cups, dried up paint, and little white plaster footprints across our backyard pad… All signs filled bellies, happy babies, and old-fashioned messy play.
Over this past long weekend, we celebrated Gracen’s 2nd birthday with a backyard party in the sunshine. The afternoon went amazingly well… The sun was shining as hoped. There was just the slightest breeze. The decorations were handcrafted and colourful. The snacks were made of local ingredients and individually portioned for easy toddler chasing. The wee ones played until they were soaking wet and filthy. The sweets were plentiful. And Miss G had the time of her life… An afternoon filled with “yittle fwends”, tons of play, 2.5 “cupcakes”, Davison Orchard’s fresh-pressed apple juice, an endless supply of crackers and treats, and a generous sprinkling of hugs – for her, it just doesn’t get much better than that.
Since the party, she’s wanted to talk about it constantly. “Mama talk (about) Grae Grae’s birf-day party?” is a request I now hear more times a day than I have fingers. We discuss all of the details of the day, and inevitably end the conversation with a “More play yittle fwends, Mama?” Yes, Babygirl… We’ll have your little friends over to play again sometime very soon.
Here is Miss G’s special afternoon in photos… (Be prepared. This may be the most photo heavy post of. all. time. But I’m sure you already expected that, right?)
The Invitations:
These simple little invites {along with almost all of the decorations} were made while we were in the Okanagan on vacation. Using this free printable as a starting point, I sketched out what I wanted the invitations to look like and Bradley designed them using Photoshop. Once they were designed, we printed them on Grandpa Dave’s colour laser printer, cut them out by hand, created homemade pouches for them, and punched out some pretty confetti to tuck into the pouches.
The Decor:
This last minute little chalkboard greeted guests on our front porch and asked that they make their way around the side of the house.
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I crafted a few of these ribbon chandeliers out of embroidery hoops and wide grosgrain ribbon, and hung them up around the yard to dance in the breeze.
Last year, I did a more traditional timeline of Gracen through the months, and although I loved how it turned out, this year I wanted something a little bit different… I ended up deciding on a ‘timeline tree’. We chose 2 photos for each month {from 13 to 24}, added the text using Photoshop, printed them, and hung them back to back using jute and curtain clips from IKEA that we already had on hand. And voila. Our plum tree instantly became a tree filled with memories of the past year.
Across the way, in our fig tree, I hung the felt poms we had made for last year’s party, giving it just a touch of colour. The beauty in not really having a colour scheme, is that everything goes. ☺
On the main food table, we displayed the letters T-W-O I crafted with cardboard letters, tissue paper dots and Mod Podge.
I also strung up one of the many fabric buntings I sewed for the occasion between two vintage apple crates that Grandma Charlotte’s family has had since she was a little girl. In the middle, I framed a copy of the birthday interview I did with Miss G on her real birthday so that guests could take a read.
For an added touch, we picked a couple of the beautiful dahlias growing in our front garden and popped them into vintage mason jars that used to belong to Gracen’s Great Grandma Amy.
Our photo booth backdrop consisted of a plain sheet {not very glamourously duct} taped up to the wall of our house, and a handmade fabric bunting strung across it.
The Snacks:
Here’s a peek at the food table… Since the party was from 2:30 to 4:30 p.m., we stuck with snacks only and tried to keep them as portable as possible so that parents could munch and chase after their wee ones at the same time. Also, although we had a separate table to baby/toddler friendly treats, I wanted to make sure that everything we served was Gracen friendly (save the desserts)… Nothing more insulting than not being able to eat the food served at your own party!
On top, a layer of hummus topped with fresh veggies, many from Grandma Charlotte’s garden. On the bottom, individual layered bean dip cups {with homemade pita chips on the side}.
Fresh berry cups.
Okanagan cherry cups.
Plums picked straight off our tree the night before.
Besides these snacks, we had individual fruit salsa cups with homemade maple cinnamon crisps, as well as brown paper bags of stove-top popcorn.
For the adults, we served chilled lemonade and citrus iced tea in mason jar cups.
We also had an ice water station, which the kids quickly discovered and had a blast playing with.
At the toddler table, we served toddler trays (which included a variety of healthy bite-sized snacks), as well as fresh-pressed apples only apple juice from our favourite place in Vernon – Davison Orchard.
And for the wee babes – purée pouches in a variety of flavours.
The Sweets:
Sadly, I forgot to take pictures of the desserts on the day of the party… Not sure how I managed that one, but I’ll blame it on being busy I guess. Fortunately, I took a is a couple of crumby photos the night before while I was baking into the wee hours of the morning.
For the adults, I decided to try out these mini mason jar cheesecakes and I’m so glad I did. They were easy to make, easy to hand out, and out of the 20 I made, we were only left with 2 at the end {at a party with a total of 12 adult guests}.
For the munchkins, I used Pioneer Woman’s vanilla cupcake recipe (I made them using 1/2 wholewheat flour), baked them in flat-bottomed ice cream cones (a trick I learned early in my Kindergarten teaching days – no wrappers to mess with and much easier for little ones to hold), and topped them with this {ridiculously rich} buttercream frosting, candy sprinkles, and fresh raspberries. I also baked some regularly (sans the cone for adults that preferred cupcakes to cheese cake).
For Miss G, I whipped up this sugar-free banana muffin recipe (and added an extra banana, skipped the salt, and replaced the melted butter with grapeseed oil), baked some in a flat bottomed cone so it would look like the ones many of her friends were eating, and topped it with fresh whipped cream (made without added sugar – just a touch of vanilla) and a fresh raspberry on top. I baked up the rest of the batch as regular muffins, and topped several of them with whipped cream and fresh raspberries for the other babes who don’t do sugar yet.
The Play Stations:
Since first birthdays are often more about the adults than the wee ones, I wanted to make sure that this year’s party was all about play. Messy, fun, noisy, old-fashioned play, just the way Miss G likes it. I set the stations up all around the yard, making sure there was plenty of space and a little something for all different tastes.
A big bucket of sidewalk chalk sat at the beginning of the path.
A construction bin filled with pea gravel , tower building supplies, scoops, tractors, and a hardhat for the little builders.
And on the other side of the yard, we used a hot water heater drip pan and this homemade bubble solution to create a ‘baby in a bubble’ station.
We also had Grae’s pool blown up and filled with water and toys, as well as the sandbox filled with all sorts of moulds, buckets, scoops, and plastic dinosaur bones.
The Birthday Girl:
After having a good hour and a half of quiet time in her room, we decided that the birthday girl was probably too excited to nap. We got her up, lathered her with sunscreen, and she picked out a party dress and decided how she wanted her hair done. Then it was time to head out into the backyard and get started on playing while we waited for her friends to arrive.
The Action:
Gracen was beyond thrilled when her guests started to arrive. Hugs and playmates = one very happy little girl in our house.
Although the whole ‘baby in a bubble’ thing was really hard to do in the beginning, the solution did make great big bubbles using regular wands, so I was glad I had picked them up the night before.
All of the sensory bins, with the exception of the gardening one (which I don’t think even got touched), were a pretty big hit.
The kiddos enjoyed digging for dinos in the sandbox.
And the birthday girl made her rounds all afternoon.
This little corner was put together with our littlest guest and Grae’s beloved friend, “Baby Tate”, in mind… Away from the action, in the shade, and filled with all of Grae’s favourite toys from when she was a baby.
Before long, it was time to bust out the bikini and make a splash in the pool.
Judging by our now beautifully decorated cement pad, the sidewalk chalk paint was one of the favourites.
The snacks, hugs, and company weren’t bad either…
Time for Cake:
As you can see by Grae’s face, she wasn’t so sure about her ‘2’ sparkler… Luckily she had her little friend Jaiden nearby. I think her excitement and lack of worry made everything alright. What did go over very well with Miss G, however, were the “cupcakes”. Yes, cupcakeS. She ate every single last bite of the one I’d baked in the cone for her, then demolished a second one, and made her way through half of another. Two and a half muffins?! Hey, when it’s your party, you’re allowed.
Better with Time:
As the party went on and the bubble solution got handled more and more, the better the bubbles got (just like Jackie from Happy Hooligans said it would). Our resident bubble expert, Jordan, was not only able to put both Gracen and Jaiden in bubbles, but he was also able to make bubbles that were seriously HUGE.
The Photo Booth:
Before leaving, we asked each of our guests to have their photos taken in our makeshift photo booth using the felt props I’d created for last year’s party. Here they are…
Ava and Jordan (somehow their parents made it without being in the photo… sneakers!)
Auntie Brandie, Jackson, and Kevin.
Auntie Silke and Ainsley.
Grandma Charlotte and Uncle Brett.
Tracy and Keagan.
Auntie Steffie and Baby Tate.
Jaiden and Cheri.
The Goodie Buckets:
This was probably the part of the party Gracen looked forward to the most… Handing out her goodie buckets to her friends. We’d collected little items for them for a long while and Grae was so excited about them that I’d made sure to really prep her about the fact that we’d be giving them away. Thankfully, it worked like a charm and she was very happy {and proud} to hand them out at the end of the party.
To go with our backyard theme, the buckets were filled with a watering can and sidewalk chalk (all bought at Michael’s), as well as a big beach ball (purchased at Superstore), a mason jar of Bouncing Bubbles, and a bubble wand (purchased at our local teacher’s store). The best part? (And I totally blame me being excited about this on the Ogasawaras, because before them I never really got that excited about a good deal…) At regular price, each of the 8 buckets would have cost well over 16 dollars, but because we started collecting early and found some great deals, each only cost around $4! (Crazy, right?)
And that was our afternoon. Miss G loved it and we did too. It was the perfect way to celebrate our little girl turning two.
After a quick torrential downpour and a whole family nap (amazing!) the sun decided to grace us with its presence. After a string of rainy days, we wasted no time heading out into the backyard to soak up a little dose of vitamin D. We gathered up some sidewalk chalk, bubbles, our cloud dough sensory bin, a water sensory bin, a tricycle and a bicycle, multiple blankets, and homemade popsicles and enjoyed a laid-back afternoon outdoors, just the three of us. Here are a few snapshots…
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