Non-messy sensory play {pom-poms}

Ok so this idea is definitely not new... but it is so simple and super entertaining! You can search pinterest and come up with all kinds of activities to do with pom poms (use tongs, make magnetic pom poms, use for color matching, patterning, etc.) but we kept it very simple today and just used a few plastic containers for some free play. I also used these Rubbermaid water bottles for the girls and they were a huge hit! Both of them loved putting pushing the pom poms through the little opening. In fact it entertained my youngest (almost 13 months) for a good 20 minutes... an incredibly long time for her :). My oldest daughter (4 years) loved it just as much and had fun sorting  out all of her favorite colors.

Are there any super simple sensory activities you have done with your littles lately??

Decorating pumpkins and zucchini {mr potato head style}

Still want to decorate some pumpkins with your kids this fall? I finally tried out this idea I saw in a magazine a few years ago and my daughter loved it! We grew the pumpkins in our garden this year and also grabbed some way too big zucchini that was growing in there as well. We have a ton of Mr. Potato Head accessories so this worked out great. The project is pretty straight forward so I will let the pictures do the talking. As far as where to drill the holes... we just guessed. They are funky and kind of off but you can't really tell and the kids don't care :)

 

Last year we tried melting crayons on our pumpkins... it didn't go too well for us though (crayon wax splattered everywhere/burned!). But this post here makes it look easy and hers turned out super cute. What are some other ways you have decorated pumpkins with your littles? 

Links to fun printables for your littles.

I just wanted to share a few of my favorite sites that have really great free printables that you can use with your kids. We use these for preschool but also just for fun! They are great to have on hand when your little one is needing some entertainment.

The gal over at Busy Little Bugs posts a new freebie each Friday. All of her illustrations are super cute! I printed off a few of the things (like this shadow matching freebie) laminated the pieces, added velcro,  and stuck it in our road trip binder for my preschooler.

Go check out Mr. Printables. There are so many neat things that you are able to print off (all for free too!). We use the weather station and a modified version of her calendar for preschool. I really want to print off this and this for daughter to play with as well. Oh and make this US jigsaw puzzle as well!

Confessions of a Homeschooler has a ton of free educational printables. I use her do-a-dot printables for my daughter during preschool and just print of the letter and number that we are focusing on that week. I also use her alphabet pattern block printables which is something my daughter enjoys doing quite a bit! Oh and she also loves doing this clothes pin match up games.

We haven't tried these yet, but I know as a kid I would have loved these intricate coloring pages. Or this page with blank faces for your child to fill out.

Made by Joel is a really neat site where a dad posts all kinds of fun things that he makes for his kids. We have used his paper city printables which are pretty fun!

Ok so I could go on and on but those are some of my favs. I would love to hear any sites you know of that have fun printables for kids!

Fall Fashion

Bentley's first birthday is right around the corner and it's been so hard for me to accept. I decided that I had to find something to get excited about and let me tell you, I have!! Oh my gosh can I just say that toddler boy clothing is pretty much stink'n adorable! when I found out I was having a boy I was really excited but I felt like the girls got all the cute clothing. It's true there are a ton of cute accessories for girls and who doesn't love a pink tutu?! But look at all this cute fall clothing for little men, I just LOVE it!!

 one two three four five six seven eight nine

I'm loving the colored denim with a cute pair of moccasins and a neutral colored shirt! I think those scarves are awesome paired with a basic onesie and some jeans. OMG I love those baby Sperrys, ok come on those are cute!! I seriously Can't wait to dress Bentley in his fall wardrobe!


xoxo Tara

Homemade baby food

So unfortunately I always think to take pictures after I'm done doing something so I apologize in advanced! I wanted to give you all some homemade baby food recipes, just in case your like me and are always looking for ideas!

Pumpkin and Banana:
Just as easy as it sounds!
~1 16oz can of pumpkin
~2 ripe bananas

Blend until smooth. You can also add a little cinnamon if you want to get crazy!

Broccoli, pear, and apple:
I'm always tyring to make sure Bentley is eating enough veggies, this insures that he is but because of the pear and apple he doesn't know it!
~ a head of broccoli
~2 green apples
~1 pare

 After washing cut everything up into chucks and put them into a steamer. (If you don't have a steaming basket you can always put them in a shallow pan with a little water. Make sure you watch it, you may need to add water!) When your fruits and veggies are nice and tender drain and blend until smooth.

Berries and Greens
again this one helps you get in all those delicious greens!
~ 1 cup of a green medley (kale,spinach,chard)
~ 1 cup of mixed berries (fresh or frozen)
~ 1/2 cup Greek yogurt

If you use frozen berries make sure to defrost them first. Put everything in your blender and...you guessed it, blend until smooth!

Let me know what you think and if you have any yummy recipes to share.
xoxo Tara

Exposing children to God's Word {Children's Storybook Bible Review}

Today I wanted to share our favorite children's Bible that we read to our 4 year old because I love it so much! It is called The Jesus Storybook Bible and I highly, highly recommend it! It is easy for kids to understand and it definitely does more than just present the stories of the Bible to kids. Every single story in the book points back to Jesus and to the love He has for us. It is really engaging and it even makes me want to dig deeper into my Bible to learn more. We started reading it to our

daughter when she was about 3 1/2 but I would say the ideal age range would probably be 4-8ish (obviously it just depends on your kids though). The stories are a bit long with more words than pictures so it does require a longer attention span. To make sure we read this book every day, I have made it part of her morning routine. We read two stories a day and once we finish we just start over and read it again. As she has gotten more familiar with the stories she has asked more questions and we have been able to discuss more things each time we read it!

The first children's Bible we got for our daughter was The Beginner's Bible. It is very simple

with nice illustrations and does a good job introducing some of the well known stories of the Bible. It does not go into much detail or very deep but it is definitely a good starting point for young kids.  

Right now reading from these children's Bibles is a great way to bring up things about Jesus that we want our daughter to know. We try to bring Him into everyday life as well by pointing her towards Him when she needs help (like with her attitude) and just talking about Him during the day. But I am curious to know how you expose your little ones to Jesus and Gods word. Do you read to them out of your Bible? Or do you do a family Bible study/quiet time together? I would love to hear what you do or any ideas you may have!   

Camelbak

Ok, so I plan on doing our "10 and 11 month must haves" next week but I wanted to share something we just got and are loving! It's the Camelbak kids water bottle. Bentley started being able to drink from a straw at 6 months and since then he's always grabbing our water bottles. So, finally we got him one of his very own. It's the perfect size and they come in all kinds of cute patterns. I'm in a total monster craze right now! Anything that has a monster on it, I have to buy it! So you guessed it, Bentley's Camelbak is this adorable monster one. You can find a good assortment at target or as always here on Amazon!

 

Let me know waht you think!

xoxo-Tara

Read along stories.

I recently rediscovered the awesomeness of read along stories. We found an entire section of books in our library that come with an audio cd that reads the story to you. Even better, most of the cd's have a signal for the child to turn the page so this can be an independent activity for kids who can't read on their own yet. So instead of turning on a show for my older daughter while I am putting the baby down for the night, I have been setting her up with a few books and cd's. She loves this and it is a great calming activity before bed! 

The one down side is that most of the stories are only 5-7 minutes long. I lay out the books and cd's for my daughter ahead of time and have taught her how to switch out the cd's and press play so this isn't a big deal for us. But for younger children, one option would be to buy a few audio stories that you own the books too and put them all on one cd so there is no need to switch cd's. Or a little more high tech option would be to just make a playlist of all the audio stories on your computer or portable music device and gather all the books and hit play.

Anyways, this is a great way to sneak in some extra reading time into your little one's day (and keep him occupied for a few minutes!), not to mention just a fun way to shake up nightly bedtime stories. Try it out and see what your little one thinks!

Ball Pit

Looking for a clean, easy activity for your little one... well look no further! I made this ball pit for Bentley the other day and he had so much fun! We even invited a friend over and they had a great time together. Now this isn't the most inexpensive activity but it only takes two things and once you buy them you'll have them forever.

1. A Pit- You can find a plastic pool almost anywhere and now that fall is right around the corner I'm sure you can a get a great deal on one. You could also look around the house and see if you have anything that would work. You could try a playpen or large plastic container.

2. Balls- I found mine at a kids consignment store but  if your not so lucky here are some online!

Try it out and let me know what you think!

xoxo- Tara

Bubbles on the sidewalk.

So my daughter and I were using straws to blow bubbles one day and discovered that you could use your straw to add air to bubbles that were sitting on the ground and make them pretty big. We figured this out after she spilled some of her bubbles and some of the ones we blew stuck to the wet part on the ground without popping.

The key is to dump some of your bubbles on the sidewalk (as soon as the bubble touches dry concrete it will pop) and also to make sure that your straw has been dipped in bubbles otherwise it will pop the bubble as well. We did use paper straws so if you try this with a plastic one let me know if that works!

We had lots of fun making ladybugs and long caterpillars out of the bubbles too.

I did want to mention that we made a batch of these awesome bubbles a while ago. I have a large container holding the bubbles and I just refill up the little bubble containers with our own solution. I would highly recommend using the recipe I linked to above, the bubbles are so much stronger and they don't seem to pop as quickly as store bought bubbles.

This activity was just a fun twist to normal bubble play. My husband and I were even entertained by it for quite a while. We will definitely be doing this super easy activity again in our house!

How to calm a fussy baby

Disclaimer: these things may only work on Bentley and have the ability to make things worse for your child but its worth a try!

Try putting them in the tub. I find the warm water sooths Bentley. His whole mood changes when he can play with his toys and splash in the bubbles.  



 

Try going for a walk. Bentley loves to get out of the house and is too buys looking at everything to fuss.  

 

Try going for a dip! This is the best of both worlds not only is he outside but he also gets to splash around. If you don't have a neighbored pool try heading to the public indoor pool.

 

Try a new snack. Give them something they have never tried before. chances are if they like it they will be too busy enjoying to to be upset!

 

What do your do to calm you fuss little one?

 

xoxo Tara

Baby Sensory Bin {rice cereal}

I have a really hard time coming up with activities for my 9 month old to do. So when I saw the idea somewhere on pinterest to use rice cereal in a sensory bin for baby, I was all over it. We had extra oatmeal cereal in our pantry since my daughter would never eat it when we offered it to her. So I grabbed our dry baby cereal, a small plastic tub, a few cups and some letters and headed outside.

I actually only ended up using one of the containers of cereal in the bin. I thought it was plenty and that way we can do the activity again!

Playing with the dry cereal by herself held her attention for ony 5-10 minutes.

I then stepped in and played with her. I showed her how you could pour the cereal from cup to cup, hid the letters underneath the surface or under a cup for her to find, ect. 

We also felt it with our toes.

We had a friend join us and I gave the girls a bowl of water to extend the activity.

They LOVED having the water! They played with it for a good 20 minutes by themselves while I chatted with my friend.

This one discovered that it was actually quite tastey when it turned into mush and so she had a nice after dinner snack.

I thought this activity was great! It was super cheap and entertaining. I think it would work with older kids too (my 4 year old wasn't there so I will be sure to include her next time). It is pretty messy so I would recommend doing this outside if possible. That way you won't be worried about the mess and you can let your little one mix and taste and throw as he pleases :)

Have any of you made a sensory bin for you baby? What did you put in it? My next idea is to use jello... I will let you know how that goes!

Baby Sign Language

In the past few weeks I started noticing  that Bentley was getting very frustrated when wanting more food, to be held, and other things that could not communicate to us other then screaming. I wasn't sure how to go about this because I didn't want him to think that I was giving in to his screaming demands but at the same time he didn't have another way to tell me anything. So my husband and I have started trying to teach Bentley some sign language. In just the past week I have already noticed a big change. When he wants more food and starts to scream I ask him "more?", sign it, wait for him to stop screaming, and give it to him. This only took a few days and now he doesn't even get to point where he wants to scream out for it. As soon as he's done with what is on his tray I ask and sign "more?" and he understands that more is coming even if it takes me a second or two to get it to him. In the next few days I will probably start helping him make the signs as well. I really wish I would have started earlier but better late then never!

 Here are the signs we are learning:

Up

More

 Water

 Milk

xoxo- Tara

 



Pictures from babysignlanguage.com

Making them feel extra special on their birthday.

{source}

So my oldest daughter turns 4 in just a couple days! I have been getting a few ideas off pinterest for her party but I have also been looking for a few simple things I can do for her throughout the day to make her feel special. She is old enough to remember things so I thought it would be fun to start some traditions and do them on her birthday every year.

Here are a few fun things that I know any kid would love:

• decorate her door after she goes to bed the night before (maybe go all out and do something like this!)
• make a special breakfast and give her a yummy treat or bring her breakfast in bed 
• make a punch box for her party or do it just for her and put something fun in each hole (we did this last year for my daughters party and she hasn't stopped talking about it since)
• make an effort to spend extra time with her during the day just playing whatever she wants to
• let her pick out her birthday dinner and maybe even a special drink to go along with it
• put together this amazing birthday bath for her at the end of the day

Even just doing one or two of these things for your kid would brighten her day even more. Growing up, I got to pick out my birthday dinner and I looked forward to it every year! 

Also, when my daughter turned 3 last year we started doing this with her. Each year we ask her the same questions and I write down the responses (last year we even recorded it on video so we could hear her sweet voice). I plan on putting together a book with her responses and a picture of her for each year. It will be fun to see how her answers change over the years!

 What are some traditions you did growing up or that you do for your kids on their birthday?! 

B&T's 8&9 Month Must Haves

WOW my little Bentley boy is already 9 months old! Here are some things we found helpful the last 2 months.

 

1. I love this snack tower by Munchkin. It holds three different snacks but you can buy two or more towers and clip them together! It also has a pour spout on each section, which is nice if you drop it, they wont go everywhere!

2. We did a guest post a few months back on Fancy Nonsense and Leah had mentioned these delicious Little Duck Organics Tiny Fruits. I thought I would give them a try and let me tell you Bentley loves them! They are freeze dried fruits that contain nothing but the organic fruits labeled on the bag. They are about the size of a pencil eraser and are so yummy. Now the bag says they are for kids one year and older but we haven't had any issues with them, like all foods I just keep a close eye on him.

3. Around 8 months Bentley grew out of his baby bath. I bought this anti-slip bath mat for our tub at Target but have found them much cheaper at Home Goods. He is able to enjoy the big tub without slipping on the porcelain.

4. I have gotten so much use of of these Tommee Tippee Wipes. They are great for cleaning dropped pacifiers, sippy cups, and my favorite the table tops at restaurants. Now that Bentley sits in a high chair when we go out I think it's important to wipe down everything because he loves to put his mouth on everything he can!

5. Speaking of germs I also love The Floppy Seat. Not only does it keep Bentley from putting his mouth on dirty high chairs and shopping carts it also makes them more comfortable. It has little pockets and hooks for toys too!

xoxo-Tara