Bryson's First Birthday Airplane Party

My, oh my, how time does fly! I can't believe we just celebrated Bryson's first birthday!

The party theme was Up, Up and Away for Bryson's 1st Birthday! All of the food, decorations, and games were airplane themed.

Since it was such a nice day, we held the party at the local park. We decorated the picnic shelter with garlands of flying paper airplanes. 

In addition to a variety of "in flight snacks" we served peanuts and pretzels, "jet fuel" juice and "cumulous cupcakes" with propellers and toy airplanes.

 

We had a Planes book that guests could sign and write a little birthday message for Bryson, a Baggage Check where guests could drop off presents, an in-flight movie of Bryson's first year, and Baggage Claim where guests could pick up little toy planes, bubbles or a chocolate treat - because our little boy is just plane sweet!

All of the guests played Pin the Propeller on the Airplane, and also a very competitive Paper Airplane Throwing Contest.

We had a little photo booth between two trees and Bryson's amazing Auntie B found a fantastic airplane costume that made for some really adorable pictures!

It was a great day with friends and family, and I know Bryson had fun!

 

 

DIY Mother's Day Gift

We made a simple and cute gift for the Grandmas for Mother's Day.

I had planned on letting the kids finger paint outside, but we had so much rainy weather leading up to Mother's Day and we ended up doing the project on the kitchen floor instead. I just rolled out a large section of butcher paper and let the kids go crazy. We did use washable paint, because I knew that there would be paint on the floor and probably on the cabinets as well.

They had a lot of fun painting and I snapped a few pictures while they were doing it... a few being around 70, just to make sure that we got a good photo. We picked up a pair of two-photo picture frames at Michael's and put in a picture of them fingerpainting as well as a piece of the painted paper.

The project turned out great and the grandmas both loved them!

We spend Mother's Day at the Minnesota Zoo, and had a great time!

Thanks to Macy's, mothers get into the zoo for free during Mother's Day weekend, which made it a fun and affordable outing for our family.

 

The kids enjoyed seeing the fish, farm animals, and the prairie dogs were an unexpected favorite!

 

Happy Mother's Day from my family to yours!

Toddler Activities: 32 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them  engaged, entertained, and learning throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Potato Stamping: Potato stamping has been around forever! Simply carve the design into the potato, dip in paint and stamp. 

It's especially easy to do an Easter egg stamp because the potatoes' natural shape lends itself perfectly to an egg shape.

Coloring Eggs with Crayons: Use crayons to color on hard-boiled eggs while they’re still hot (but not too hot) from the pan; the wax will melt and adhere artfully and easily onto the shells. This was very simple for Emma to do and the eggs turned out really fun!

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma and Bryson's current favorites are:

• Happy Easter, Little Critter by Mercer Mayer
• The Berenstain Bears and the Easter Story by Jan and Mike Berenstain
• Ollie's Easter Eggs by Olivier Dunrea

 
Most of our books this month were about Easter. We had a blessed Easter and did a number of fun activities with the kids. 

On the Saturday before Easter, we went to a community egg hunt, and then afterwards visited a pet store where we got to see some baby Easter bunnies and baby chicks! 

Emma and Bryson both opened their Easter baskets on Sunday morning before church service. Their baskets included treats like apple sauce packets, chalk, bubbles, and pails and shovels for playing in the sand! 

They even got bunny shaped pancakes for breakfast!  

My 3 good things for today are:

1. We serve a risen Savior!
2. Bryson is walking!
3. We have no more snow in our yard, and even some green grass!

 

Toddler Activities: 31 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them  entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Indoor Snow Painting: It feels as if winter has been going on forever around here. As the days wear on, I've been trying to come up with ways to enjoy our cold, snowy weather while it lasts, instead of just wishing for spring! On one particularly chilly day, instead of bundling up to go outside, I brought some snow inside to paint and play!  I filled a large, deep cake pan with clean snow, and made paint from water and a little food coloring. Emma used a large paintbrush to apply the color. You can also use an eye dropper for a different effect. Emma spent a big portion of the morning decorating the snow while we stayed warm and cozy inside!

Ice Marbles: I've seen these all over Pinterest, and really wanted to give it a try. Ours turned out very well! To start, put a few drops of food coloring or Kool-Aid powder into a balloon and then fill with water. Food coloring makes more of a marble look. Kool-Aid makes a solid color all the way through.

If it is cold enough, place your balloons outside. You can also use the freezer. Depending on how big the balloons are and how cold it is, this will take about 24 hours. Hold them up to the light to see if they are frozen all the way through. Use a knife or scissors to cut the balloon off the frozen ice marble. We let our kids play with the frozen marbles in the tub.

They enjoyed sliding the marbles around, eventually breaking them, and finally watching the marbles melt in warm water. We’ll definitely be doing this project again – I think it would be fun to make some red and green marbles before Christmas to line the driveway or porch!

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma and Bryson's current favorites are:

• Sylvie by Jennifer Sattler
• Mouse's First Spring by Lauren Thompson
• Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr.

 

My 3 good things for today are:

1. We got a new rug for our entry, just in time for a wet spring - hopefully coming soon!
   
2. Emma is enjoying the weather, whether there are snowflakes or puddles to jump in - it is always an adventure outside!
3. Bryson is starting to stand on his own - growing up too fast!

Toddler Activities: 30 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them  entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Coloring in a Box: This idea has been all over Pinterest, and it's BRILLIANT! I've been waiting to try this for a while, so when Bryson's new car seat arrived in a large cardboard box, you can bet I saved the box! Emma had a great time playing in the box and coloring to her heart's content. The mess was all contained and she was occupied for a long time!

Candy Heart Sorting: We got a box of conversation hearts for Valentine's Day this year, and instead of just eating all the candies, we did a sorting and counting activity. I made a sheet with colored circles out of paper and markers we had on hand, but PreKinders also has a great printable here. Sort each of the colors into the colored circles or colored heart spaces. Then we counted each color. We did eventually eat the candies, and read each of the messages!

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma and Bryson's current favorites are:

• I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! by Karen Beaumont
• I'm The Biggest Thing in the Ocean! by Kevin Sherry
• The Day It Rained Hearts by Felicia Bond

 

We did an activity with one of our books, I Ain't Gonna Paint No More! We were a bit more careful with our paints than the little one in the book however! In honor of Valentine's Day, we stamped red hearts using a toilet paper tube. It's an easy, cheap craft that was lots of fun! Simply fold and tape a toilet paper roll into a heart shape, and stamp away. After the stamps have dried, you could even use the paper to make Valentine's Day cards for friends and family!

My 3 good things for today are:

1. Roses!
2. Chocolates! 
3. My three sweet Valentines!

Toddler Activities: 29 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them  entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

DIY Cloud Dough: Aside from being a wonderful sensory activity for young kids, cloud dough is inexpensive and easy to make! Just mix baby oil and flour in a 1:8 ratio - we used 1/2 cup baby oil and 4 cups flour - and you have cloud dough! It looks like flour, but it holds its shape when pressed. We started mixing it with a spoon, but ended up using our hands to mix it thoroughly. 

You’re going to get your hands in it eventually anyway! It kept Emma occupied for quite a while, and she’s asked to play it again multiple times. We used measuring cups and spoons the first time, and have also played using cookie cutter and cars to drive around in the cloud dough. 

This worked alright as an indoor activity, but we did get pretty dusty and ended up needing to change clothes. It swept up and washed out of clothes pretty easily. It would be great to make this stuff in the summer and just go wild outside in the yard. 

 

Snow in the Bathtub: We love playing in the snow! But lately, it's been freezing outside. I'm talking high of -5 degrees freezing with a windchill down to -45 degrees. Not only that but even on days without subzero temps, sometimes it takes longer to get the little ones bundled up to go outdoors than we actually spend playing outside! 

 

One great way to get the outside experience without the headache is to bring the snow to you! On one of our arctic days, I decided to shovel some snow into two of my big stockpots and put the kids in their mittens to let them play with snow in the bathtub. 

I gave them each a measuring cup and a big spoon for digging in the snow and let them enjoy our indoor winter wonderland. When the kids were finished playing, I pulled them out of the tub, dumped out the snow, and turned on a warm shower. They were enthralled watching the melting snow and flow down the drain. 

The idea of playing with snow inside is certainly not new. I even have a picture of my sister and me as kids, frequently sick and stuck inside in the winter, playing with snow in our bathtub.

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma and Bryson's current favorites are:

• Snowball Fight! by Jimmy Fallon (yes, that Jimmy Fallon.)
• Mouse's First Snow by Lauren Thompson
• Snow Day! by Patricia Lakin

We did an activity with one of our books, Snowball Fight! It's been too cold lately to play outside, so we had an indoor snowball fight! We filled three buckets (one for Mommy, one for Daddy, and one for Emma) with cotton balls. We left Daddy's bucket at the bottom of the stairs and ambushed him with a snowball fight when he got home from work. I think this would also be fantastic to do with marshmallows! Unfortunately, we didn't have any on hand. Make sure you follow it up by drinking some hot chocolate!

My 3 good things for today are:

1. Warm socks!
2. Hot cocoa!
3. A blazing fire in the fireplace!

 

Toddler Activities: 28 Months Old

One of the challenges of being a stay at home mom is finding activities for your little one to keep them  entertained throughout the day. These are a few of our current favorite activities:

Decorating a Paper Tree: Emma loved decorating our tree, so I wanted to do some sort of Christmas tree activity this month. I cut out a pine tree shape from green card stock, and taped it onto some white printer paper and added a star. Throughout the month, she decorated it with various objects like Fruit Loops, pompoms, and paper circles. It turned out to be a great quiet time activity and kept her occupied much longer than I anticipated. This activity could easily be done as an "apple tree" at other times of the year.

 

Bird Feeder Craft: Okay, I know what you're thinking. We made a bird feeder last month! In my defense, it has been REALLY cold here the last couple weeks - honestly too cold to take the kids outside. But both Emma and Bryson love to watch the birds and squirrels in the trees outside. So making a feeder to attract the birds is our way to connect with nature when it's too cold to actually go outside to enjoy nature. This craft could not be more simple. I took a pipe cleaner and made a loop at one end, then Emma threaded on a handful of Cheerios. I made a small loop on the other end to hold the Cheerios in place. Simply hook the loop onto a tree branch and you're done. Full disclosure: I hung the feeders we made on our Christmas tree and was waiting until nap time to take them outside. Later that morning, I discovered that Emma had gotten all three down and devoured the Cheerios while I was in the other room nursing Bryson. So ours ended up being a toddler feeder instead of a bird feeder.

And, of course...

Read: Reading is one of the best activities you can do with your child at any age!

A few of Emma and Bryson's current favorites are:

• Baby's First Christmas by Christina Goodings
• Snow by Uri Shulevitz
• Bear Stays Up For Christmas by Karma Wilson
• Merry Christmas, Ollie! by Olivier Dunrea

My 3 good things for today are:

1. We have great weather outside for playing in the snow!
2. Bryson is fully crawling, and...
3. Bryson is pulling himself up on furniture to a standing position. I am choosing to keep a positive attitude and regard this as a "good thing" and NOT utterly terrifying!