Six years ago today, Emma captured my world. So small. So perfect. So graceful. So opinionated!

Six years later, I still can’t believe she is in our life. What a joy and privilege it is to hear her, watch her, and learn with her, each and every day!

Happy birthday, Emma!

I love pattern blocks – they are one of my all-time favorite toys! Which is saying a lot, because I tend to get as excited about toys as my kids!

One way in which they sometimes frustrate my kids, though, is that they will be in the middle of building some huge, complex [...]]]>

I love pattern blocks – they are one of my all-time favorite toys! Which is saying a lot, because I tend to get as excited about toys as my kids!

One way in which they sometimes frustrate my kids, though, is that they will be in the middle of building some huge, complex structure when they bump a piece and all the other pieces shift, too. I had considered buying magnetic pattern blocks, but they still have this issue to some degree – and they are much more expensive.

Then I saw this Sticky Table Art post at No Time For Flashcards, and I had my solution!

We taped a large sheet of contact paper (sticky side up) to the floor, and the kids went to town! I had intended to use painter’s tape to attach it to the table, but the painter’s tape cleverly donned an invisibility cloak so that I couldn’t see it sitting right in front of me, so we used plain old scotch tape on the rug instead.

This was so much fun!!! Our babysitter even got into it, helping the kids create this elaborate ship scene (with a red fish under the water)!

I love that this method allows the kids to work together to create scenes, and that they can stick their pieces on and know that they aren’t going anywhere. They also get some great fine motor skills practice pulling pieces off of the sticky paper!

Do your kids play with pattern blocks? Another non-traditional way we love to use them is with play dough!

Next up: pattern block mosaic wall art. Seriously awesome!

Sharing with Tuesday Tots

I think this Abraham Lincoln President’s Day craft is genius! All credit goes to Emma’s excellent kindergarten teacher – she brought it home from school on Friday.

This is the first year any of my kids have “gotten” the idea of what a president is – and with elections coming up this [...]]]>

I think this Abraham Lincoln President’s Day craft is genius! All credit goes to Emma’s excellent kindergarten teacher – she brought it home from school on Friday.

This is the first year any of my kids have “gotten” the idea of what a president is – and with elections coming up this fall, it seems like a good time to talk to them about it!

We talked about how being president is a job, where the president lives, and some of the things the president does: go to meetings, talk to people about what would be good for this country, meet with leaders of other countries.

What have you been learning about? From last week’s links, I LOVED this “Make Your Own Elmo” party favor for littles from Growing A Jeweled Rose – fabulous!!! Clarion Wren shared a fun toddler train counting puzzle that her son got to help make. The Great Backyard Bird Count is a highlight every year for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about another family’s experience participating at {Free.Learning.Life} !

Valentine’s Day this week took a jolt when we learned that my brother’s four-day-old baby S had to have emergency surgery, that night. Luckily he came through without complications (definitely not a given with the problem he had) and is recovering beautifully. He’ll be in the hospital for a while yet, but is [...]]]>

Valentine’s Day this week took a jolt when we learned that my brother’s four-day-old baby S had to have emergency surgery, that night. Luckily he came through without complications (definitely not a given with the problem he had) and is recovering beautifully. He’ll be in the hospital for a while yet, but is out of the NICU. All three kids drew S some pictures for him, and it was fun to see their perceptions of what a newborn baby would like. Lily’s drawings are on the left, Johnny’s in the middle, and Emma’s on the right. Johnny was positive that S’s favorite colors are green and brown, and all three kids agreed that he loves green – incidentally, his mother’s favorite color! We were very worried for a few days, and it is fantastic to see S doing so well!!!

Valentine’s Day was a Daddy love fest around here – Emma made him this card, and both she and Johnny worked hard on wall decorations. Emma’s heart (on the right) is a robot rendering of her heart guy. Johnny (photo on the left) cut out several random letters, but if you look closely you may be able to make out his robot guy at the bottom of his decorations, on the left center.

Both Emma (left) and Johnny (right) drew family portraits for Valentine’s Day:

Johnny was very busy drawing this week! He drew these two monster robots:

And this very creative guy! I love the originality in Johnny’s drawings – and they they are very happy!

I bought my kids Melissa and Doug Sticker Collection books after reading about them at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns – pink for the girls and blue for Johnny. All three kids have thoroughly enjoyed them, but Johnny absolutely ADORES them! They’ve provided some great downtime for me over the past couple of weeks! I was especially happy to see that the boy version was (mostly) weapons free. I get so tired of weapons on boy toys – and my non-violent Johnny doesn’t like them either!

I wish there were more books like these – my kids adore them, and it was so fun to hear the stories they made up to go along with their scenes! Do you have any sticker recommendations for me?

We’re still working on the Great Backyard Bird Count – I highly recommend participating, it’s free (you can even win prizes!) a lot of fun!

How was your week? Link up to the Afterschool Blog Hop, hosted this week at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns!

Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile here!  I am the oft-frazzled, book-loving [...]]]>

Today I’m thrilled to feature a post by Lynn, from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile. Lynn’s blog is an excellent source of information on books for early childhood – and I especially enjoy reading the Bibliophile’s opinions of the books!

Lynn from Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile here!  I am the oft-frazzled, book-loving mom to a rambunctious four year old and toddling one year old.  I spend most of my day picking things up, and asking people to please not do things.  I have been on a blogging hiatus for a few months, but my recent foray into Usborne Books has inspired me to rejoin the community of book-loving "mommy bloggers" that I am blessed to count as friends.

This week Mama Smiles is hosting a virtual Usborne e-show, and you’re invited!  Come and browse (feel free to stay in your pajamas; we won’t tell anyone), pick out a few favorite titles, and share them with those you love!

To kick off the e-show, I am sharing the most popular Usborne book in our house this week: How Big is a Million.  A million is a very big number. But exactly how big? Pipkin the penguin wants to know just that. Come with him on a journey of discovery and you can see for yourself. Pipkin travels around, encountering a group of 10, 100, and 1,000 items, until he finally gives up and heads home.  In the end, his mother points him toward the sky to see a million tiny stars – all on a very large poster kept in a pocket at the rear of the book.  It is a wonderful tool for allowing children to visualize the abstract idea of a big number. Our four year old’s reaction?  He loved it!  The book also captured the attention of a group of kids his age at a recent playgroup.  The poster has a definite "wow" factor.  We’ve read the book over and over again.  Incidentally, this was a big surprise to me, because our boy has a quirky dislike of "more and more of things," which has caused many a book to make a quick exit from our house.  The poster may have the tendency to get a bit tattered if we keep up with this level of wear and tear.  It would be much gentler on it to take it out of its pocket and tape it up for awhile, rather than to keep folding and unfolding it. 

Here is what he had to say about it: Do you like this book?  Yes!  I read it all the time. What do you like about it?  Just that the penguin is asking really big questions, maybe, or I think because of the poster with a million stars at the end. Do you want to read more books like that?  Yes!

Our next purchase?  How Big Was a Dinosaur. 

Another hit from our most recent Usborne home party was There’s a Mouse About the House.  What so impressed me about the book was that all of the children, from 18 months old to four years old, were scrambling to read it.  In fact, when the books were packed away, a two year-old shouted "mouse!" and pointed toward the boxes.  He scared me for a minute there!  I ordered a copy, as did his mom.  We can’t wait to get our hands on ours this week.  The unique feature of the book is that it contains a small cardboard mouse in a pocket on the front cover; children slip the mouse through a slot on each page and around the page as they read.  It adds a fun element to keep kids interested, but also has a number of educational benefits:

• holding the mouse is like holding a pencil, so it teaches fine motor skills.
• Following the dotted line encourages early writing skills.
• The mouse always moves from left to right, which is important to early reading skills.
• The child learns to turn one page at a time. If they turn a few pages at once, the mouse won’t be there.

Very clever!  This is one of Usborne’s best selling books, and I can see why.

Give Away

This week, we will be giving away one copy of EITHER How Big is a Million or There’s a Mouse About the House to one random comment on this post.  To enter (first entry is mandatory): 1) Go and visit the Mama Smiles Usborne e-show and come back and comment on a title you would love to own.   For additional entries, you can: 2) like our Usborne facebook page and comment to let us know (there will be a give away there soon too!). 3) Follow Mama Smiles and comment to let us know. 4) Follow Chronicle of an Infant Bibliophile and comment to let us know. That’s four possible entries per person.  U.S. only please.  Winner will be chosen on February 25.  You can learn more about becoming an Usborne book consultant here.  Happy shopping!

I think decorating cupcakes was a favorite activity for several of the kids attending Emma’s birthday party! We set it up just like Lily’s cupcake decorating party, giving each child their own Dixie cups with different toppings. I frosted the cupcakes ahead of time since it was a larger group.

It was fun [...]]]>

I think decorating cupcakes was a favorite activity for several of the kids attending Emma’s birthday party! We set it up just like Lily’s cupcake decorating party, giving each child their own Dixie cups with different toppings. I frosted the cupcakes ahead of time since it was a larger group.

It was fun to see how differently they approached it. Some (like the girl above) had a clear vision of what they wanted to create, and worked carefully to produce the perfect result.

Others mostly wanted to use ALL the toppings. All three of my kids fell into this category, although I’m not positive Johnny even decorated – he mostly ate:

I made up another egg-free recipe to avoid a grocery store run. I actually had eggs in the house this time, but I didn’t have oil. Or applesauce. So I substituted greek yogurt for the applesauce in the recipe I used for Lily’s party, and doubled the recipe. I’m thinking I should have baked them for 20 minutes instead of 25 – they were a little over-baked.

They looked beautiful, just like the applesauce version! Emma wanted red frosting, so I mixed butter, powdered sugar, a little milk, and a LOT of red food coloring, stuck it in a piping bag, cut the tip off, and swirled it on. Very easy. I hadn’t made enough frosting for two dozen cupcakes, so the leftover ones got nutella for frosting.

Decorating cupcakes is such a fun and simple party activity, I’m hoping to do it again for future parties!

Have you had a cupcake decorating party? Do you have another party activity that you love?

Sharing at Multiple Mummy and Link and Learn.

We have been putting paint (and other liquids, like hair gel with food coloring) in ziploc bags to play for years now, and it is always fun – especially since I discovered the trick of taping them to the table with a sheet of white paper underneath to make the colors pop! One [...]]]>

We have been putting paint (and other liquids, like hair gel with food coloring) in ziploc bags to play for years now, and it is always fun – especially since I discovered the trick of taping them to the table with a sheet of white paper underneath to make the colors pop! One thing I kept intending to do but never got around to, was mixing colors – every time I suggested it, my kids vetoed the idea! Then Rainy Day Mum mentioned that I had inspired her to try this method of color mixing, and decided to give it another go!

This time I didn’t ask, just set it up! They still think the color mixing idea is a little odd, being their minimalist selves, but they enjoyed it! I was hoping to do a range of different colors, but they all wanted the same set; red, white, and blue. Next time, maybe!

Emma used her hands to create some very modern-art-looking pieces, like the one above!

Lily has consistently been extremely delicate in her explorations, while Johnny favors more of a full-body approach:

I’m actually hoping to try this out with one of those GIANT ziploc bags – doesn’t that sound like fun?

I also need to introduce Lily to one of Johnny’s original favorite activities: taking small toys and having them make footprints in the paint!

We use the freezer bags for this activity – they are stronger than the ordinary bags, and don’t rip very easily. I also recommend using washable paint over food coloring, just in case the bags do break. I like to dilute our paint with dollar store hair gel, which gives a nice texture. Shampoo can be fun to mix in, too, and creates a different effect. We tried baby oil this time, and the results weren’t particularly amazing. When I tape the bags to the table, the kids enjoy using them for days on end – and so do their visiting friends!

Have you played with paint inside a ziploc bag?

Sharing with Fun Sparks, Living Life Intentionally, Link and Learn, and 3 Boys and a Dog

Are you ready for spring? My kids are still hoping for more snow, but I’m ready for some warmer weather! Which is why I’m excited to be cohosting the spring edition of the All Year Round Blog Carnival, along with sunnydaytodaymama, Winding Circle, The Mahogany Way, Smiling like Sunshine, and Home Baked!

Here [...]]]>

Are you ready for spring? My kids are still hoping for more snow, but I’m ready for some warmer weather! Which is why I’m excited to be cohosting the spring edition of the All Year Round Blog Carnival, along with sunnydaytodaymama, Winding Circle, The Mahogany Way, Smiling like Sunshine, and Home Baked!

Here are a few favorite spring activities from this blog:

• Searching for signs of spring
• Finding caterpillars
• Caterpillar to Butterfly craft
• Homemade sidewalk paint
• Photographic study of emerging Japanese Maple Tree leaves
• Biology: exploring plant buds
• Gardening
• Playing with rocks
• Playing in puddles after a rainstorm

What do your kids love to do in the springtime? The linky will stay open into May 15, when we’ll start a new linky for summer posts, so keep coming back as you blog about new activities – and to see new activities as they are added!

You can go here for code to include a button. Please be sure to link to your specific post URL, not your blog’s home page.

Happy Valentine’s Day! My kids are incredibly excited about this holiday, and it’s been fun celebrating with them – from making valentines to talking about things we like about friends and family members. Emma brought this cute heart guy home from school!

Emma also made a heart pillow for my sister K, [...]]]>

Happy Valentine’s Day! My kids are incredibly excited about this holiday, and it’s been fun celebrating with them – from making valentines to talking about things we like about friends and family members. Emma brought this cute heart guy home from school!

Emma also made a heart pillow for my sister K, who turned 17 yesterday! I helped sew the pillow (I used my pinking sheers to trim the seam for nice smooth curves this time), she stuffed it, I stitched it shut, then she drew the face on with Sharpie pens. I love that she drew a face with the tongue sticking out – just like her other heart guy at the top of this post. K is the one who taught her to draw faces like that! I’m pretty sure it’s the first time K has received a heart-shaped gift, even with a birthday so close to Valentine’s Day, and I was so pleased to find something Emma would enjoy making that could double as a fun teenager gift! K has been a great friend to my kids, and they all adore her. We mailed it off last week, and K loves it! =)

We’re making today Daddy Appreciation Day – with notes to Mike around the house! What are you doing to celebrate?

Sharing this post at Red Ted Art

We had a wonderful time earlier this month starting a new family tradition: sibling celebrations for half-birthdays! A few weeks ago, Valerie at Glittering Muffins asked me if I was interested in writing about a sibling day celebration, and I thought Lily’s half-birthday was the perfect occasion! I’m so glad we did it [...]]]>

We had a wonderful time earlier this month starting a new family tradition: sibling celebrations for half-birthdays! A few weeks ago, Valerie at Glittering Muffins asked me if I was interested in writing about a sibling day celebration, and I thought Lily’s half-birthday was the perfect occasion! I’m so glad we did it – everyone had a great time!

Emma and Johnny were thrilled to make some presents from recyclables. They both chose to make box-based playscapes, complete with figurines. Johnny made these stick figures:

And Emma made one of her square guys:

It was so fun watching Emma and Johnny wrap up and deliver their gifts!

Emma’s card says, “Happy half birthday LiLY! LiLY I love YOU! I LIke LiLY because she shares.”

Johnny’s card says, “ToLILY HALF.BIRTH”

SO many fun links last week! I think these handprint cats from Reading Confetti are adorable! My Creative Family linked up a fruit salad that looked so delicious that my kids and I gave it a try – VERY tasty! Sunnydaytodaymama shared their favorite spring activities – be sure to check out the spring carnival I’m cohosting with her as well as Winding Circle, The Mahogany Way, Smiling like Sunshine, and Home Bakedthis Wednesday! These fun lightbox Valentine’s Day-themed activities from Interactive Mamas have me planning yet again to make a lightbox – hopefully I get it done this time!