Bubbles, Balloons, & Blessings

Having Trouble

2011-06-03T05:27:00.001-07:00

I've been having the hardest time posting lately. I'm not sure if it's my computer or blogger acting up again. I'm continuing to work on the problem. Bear with me! =)

Balloon Painting

2011-05-23T07:37:00.000-07:00

It's so much fun to paint with things other than paintbrushes!

This pretty flower was made with an almost deflated balloon that I found on the floor of our sunroom.

Bekah picked her paint colors and went away creating pictures with her balloon and paints.

I think it came out so adorable! Can you tell Bekah's favorite color is orange!

Worm Tunnels

2011-05-18T08:20:00.000-07:00

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We are big fans of worms in our family. Bekah loves to find them digging in our garden and has never shyed away from holding one.

One of her favorite books is Bob and Otto by Robert O. Bruel. It's a book about a worm and caterpillar who are best friends. We've read it many, many times!

This may not be the prettiest craft, but Bekah had so much fun making it. We mixed brown paint with a little bit of flour to make our "soil". Bekah painted this on brown construction paper and then we added pieces of tan yarn for our worms. Very easy and very fun!

I am linking to stART over at A Mommy's Adventures.

Playing with Baby

2011-05-17T13:48:00.000-07:00

Sarah is now 6 months old! I don't know where this 1/2 of a year has gone! She is such a joyful baby, we feel so blessed.

Now that she's 6 months she's able to do so much more that just sit and stare at us. She's rolling over, scooting herself across the floor, babbling, giggling, and more.

All of this activity caused me to look into some fun things I could do with her. I got The Baby's Game Book by Isabel Wilner and Sam Williams from our local library. We've been having so much fun trying out the different "games" in this book. Sarah especially loves the knee ride games.

Her favorite one is this:
(Bounce the baby on your knee)
Trot, trot, trot.
Go and never stop.
Trudge along, my little pony,
Where it's rough and where it's stony.
Go and never stop.
Trot, trot, trot, trot, trot.

The picture above was taken when we were doing this little knee ride/chant together. She giggles so much!

Pyramid Game

2011-05-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Bekah has really started enjoying the show The Backyardigans. I printed this pyramid game from http://www.nickjr.com/printables/index.jhtmland we had such a fun time playing it.
I made a book full of different fun printables inside plastic page liners and included this fun game. When Bekah say's the famous, "Mom, I'm bored...." I just pull this book out and she can find something fun to do inside. We call it the Bekah's Bored Book. I'll share more about our "I'm Bored Book" in another post.
For the pyramid game, we would take turns rolling the die (I found our big green ones at the dollar store).

We would then color the numbered line that matched what we rolled. For example, if we rolled a 2, you would color in the 2nd line of the pyramid. We used dry erase markers so we could play again and again.

You win by being the first one to color in your entire pyramid.

Sesame Street Felt Characters

2011-05-05T06:22:00.000-07:00

I made these Sesame Street felt characters after seeing them on My Two Happy Homeschoolers awhile ago. Bekah loves playing with felt and these were very easy to create.

Word Ending Match

2011-04-13T05:33:00.000-07:00

I printed this from Preschool Post when we did our transportation unit awhile ago, but didn't get to it until now. Bekah needed a little help getting started on this, but once she understood what to do she did great!

We watch Super Why on PBS kids a lot, so Bekah related this activity to Wonder Red's song. We had a great time learning!

Fly, Butterfly, Fly

2011-04-12T08:21:00.000-07:00

One day last week Bekah and I made some butterflies using coffee filters, clothes pins, markers, and a spray bottle filled with water.
First we flattened out the coffee filters and colored them with markers.

Once that was done we sprayed them with water until the colors blended together. (I put paper towels under them so the marker didn't bleed onto my table.)

After they dried, we drew faces on the top of a clothes pin and attached it to the middle of the coffee filter.

Then we hung them up in our dining area for all to enjoy!

Daniel in the Lions Den

2011-04-11T05:59:00.000-07:00

Bekah and I had recently had a lot of fun learning about Daniel in the Lions Den. We read the story from her childrens Bible and then made a cute craft I found at DLTK-Kids website.

After we finished, Bekah wanted to act out the story of Daniel in the Lions Den. We had so much fun taking turns being Daniel or the lion! When Daddy came home we even performed it for him. I think Sarah was one of the lions!
Bekah loves to paint and this project had her painting the lion's mane with a toothbrush, which she thought was great!

U is for Umbrella

2011-04-11T04:43:00.000-07:00

We're finally continuing on with our alphabet crafts. With the rainy weather we've been having I thought U is for Umbrella would be perfect!

Bekah loves doing the letter crafts. I hope to complete the alphabet with her soon!

Here is our U is for Umbrella inspired from No Time For Flash Cards.

Easter Egg Game

2011-04-08T08:37:00.001-07:00

After playing this game for the 5th time this morning I thought I should post about it. I actually put it together last year after seeing it on Tired, Need Sleep. I was so sure I had already written about it, but when I looked I was shocked that I couldn't find it. It was as well loved last year as it is this year and easy to put together. The instructions are included on the game, but it's pretty simple. You make a colored egg dice, roll it to see what color egg you get, and see what animal you get inside the egg. The goal is to be the one with the most chicks at the end of the game.

Bekah thought it was hilarious when she would get a cow or zebra in an egg! We also left some empty and she thought that was so funny!

Bekah's Bakery

2011-04-06T06:06:00.000-07:00

After seeing this great idea on Frugal Family Fun, I couldn't wait to try it with Bekah.

I got out some playdough and some baking items (cupcake liners, rolling pins, cookie cutters, and birthday candles) and told her this was her very own bakery. I also set up her play oven next to her, so she could "bake" the items she made.

She got her animals out and they were her customers. It was so cute seeing her animals wait in line for their bakery order.

Bekah had a blast making cupcakes and cookies and it kept her entertained for a long time.

Love's Power to Multiply

2011-04-04T17:03:00.000-07:00

I asked for Stacy's permission to make a guest post on here. I'm grateful for the opportunity, especially because of the topic that I get to write about.

If you have read even one post on this blog, you would be able to see that Stacy is a very special woman. She is smart, creative, and one of the kindest, most giving people I know. Alright, I admit that I am quite partial. We have been married for nearly seven years, and it has been a real joy. No, we are not perfect, but perfect for each other and very much in love.

Honestly, when our first daughter, Bekah arrived, I thought that having children would compete with Stacy's affection for me and mine for her. The opposite happened - our love grew. I admire Stacy so much more as a result of sharing the wonderful adventure we call parenting.

When we became blessed with our second daughter, Sarah, love multiplied in our household once again. There some doubts about how Bekah would react to a baby sister. Would she be jealous or resentful? While there are times that Bekah craves attention from us (often at inopportune times, like Sarah crying for a bottle or needing a diaper change), she has adjusted very well. She loves her little sister. We can tell from the many moments of tenderness shared between our girls. One such moment is shown in this photo that we took a few weeks ago. It just melted our hearts.

Thank you for reading and God bless you.

~Nathan

Sarah's First Tastes

2011-03-29T06:40:00.001-07:00

Last week Bekah came down with strep throat and Sarah has had a stuffy nose. Now my camera is giving me problems. Thankfully, Bekah is on medicine and is feeling much better and Sarah seems to be on the mend. Unfortunately, Nathan worked on my camera last night and then started looking at new cameras on ebay.....not a good sign! =)

We've also had some big moments around here. Sarah had her first taste of food yesterday. Thankfully the video function on my camera worked!

She's growing up so fast!

Airplane Snack

2011-03-19T06:48:00.001-07:00

Here's a cute snack Bekah had during our transportation week. She absolutely loved it and gobbled it up!

All we needed was a banana, round cookie (which I broke in half), chocolate graham crackers (you can use regular), and we used some whipped cream for the clouds. Simple!

stART - Bear Snores On

2011-03-10T06:00:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite authors is Karma Wilson. Bekah just loves her books! Bekah loves having Bear Snores On read to her, so when I saw this book and craft at Army Angels I made a mental note to do it soon.

I had cut 2 circles for the head, 2 ovals for the body, 2 shapes for the arms, and 2 for the legs. Then, Bekah set to work on the bears face. She added googly eyes, small circles for the ears, and drew a face on him.

I stapled around the two ovals and the two circles until they were just about closed all the way around. I was going to use cotton balls to stuff him, but realized we had a big bag of shredded papers to use (go recycling!). So, we stuffed his body and his head. She loved this part!

Then we enjoyed reading The Bear Snores On.
I'm linking to stART at a Mommy's Adventures as well as Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted Art.

Wordless Wednesday - My Silly Girl!

2011-03-09T05:56:00.000-08:00

Homemade Chocolate Cupcakes and Buttercream Frosting

2011-03-08T05:38:00.000-08:00

One day last week Bekah insisted it was one of her stuffed animals birthday. She used some scraps of wrapping paper to wrap them a (recycled) gift and wanted to make them a birthday cake. I had to admit, cake sounded pretty good to me and I had just seen this awesome buttercream frosting recipe on Good Cheap Eats. So, we set off to make these homemade chocolate cupcakes and buttercream frosting.
The chocolate cake/cupcake recipe doesn't have any eggs in it, so I didn't feel a bit guilty letting Bekah lick the beaters. (I know they say since they eggs are pasterised, they won't hurt you, but I still worry).

Bekah had a great time adding the sprinkles!

These were so much easier than I thought they would be and so delicious. My husband claimed they were his favorite part of dinner that night and he is not a big sweets eater!
Now for the recipes:

No Egg Devil’s Food Cake

Mix together:
3 cups flour
2 cups sugar
6 Tbsp. cocoa
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Add:
3/4 cup oil
2 Tbsp. white vinegar
2 tsp. vanilla
2 cups cold water

Bake at 350 for 50 minutes or 15-20 minutes for cupcakes.

Homemade Buttercream Frosting

1 cup butter, softened
3-4 cups powdered sugar
1-2 Tablespoons milk or half and half
1 teaspoon vanilla

In large mixing bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Add three cups sugar, 1 Tablespoon milk, and vanilla. Beat until combined and fluffy. Adjust with more sugar or milk, depending on what consistency you’re looking for.

Transportation Fun

2011-02-25T05:44:00.000-08:00

We had a great time with our transportation unit. We didn't get to everything this week since Daddy was home Monday and we pretty much relaxed that day. We hope to finish up next week.

We did get to do some great things, though.

Bekah had a great time with this transportation matching game printed off from Homeschool Creations. You can find a whole Transportation packet here.
We also a painting activity with our cars and planes. Bekah really loved making tracks with the cars and planes wheels.
Bekah sorted things that go onto these printables I found at Printable Share.

Bekah's favorite activity this week was the craft we did to go with the story of Jesus calming the seas that I found at I Can Teach My Child.
It was a great week.

I'm linking to Preschool Corner at Homeschool Creations.

stART - Jesus Calms the Sea

2011-02-24T04:20:00.000-08:00

This week we read the story of Jesus Calming the Sea from our Young Readers Bible. Bekah really loves when we read her Bible to her. I saw this great idea at I Can Teach My Child. She has tons of great ideas on her site. We had a great time doing this story and craft together.

First, we read the story together. Bekah then decided that the stormy side should be black with blue rain drops, black clouds, lightening, and purple waves. She loves to paint, so this was a perfect project for her. We added a boat attached with a brad so we could rock the boat and Jesus sleeping (which I drew for her). She helped color him and thought he looked great in his "yellow jammies."

You've gotta love her placement of the lightening bolts and the rainbow blanket! I love the imagination of a 4 year old!

Then instead of waiting for it to dry and doing the calm seas on the other side of the paper, we just did another one. (what can I say, we were in a hurry since baby sister was napping!) =)

Bekah made a beautiful blue sky with pink clouds (I guess she's heard that pink skies are a sailors delight!) and blue water. We added another boat, Jesus calming the sea, and a sunshine.

I am linking to stART at A Mommy's Adventures and Kids Get Crafty at Red Ted Art.

Indoor Car Wash

2011-02-23T05:26:00.000-08:00

Just recently when we were coming home on a bitter cold afternoon, I pulled into the garage and Bekah spotted her blue ride on car. She looked at me and said, "Oh, we should wash my car today..." Um, Bekah it's 10 degrees out....I don't think so! But, then I saw this awesome post on Frugal Family Fun and KNEW she would love it! It only too a few minutes to put together with things we already had and there we had an indoor car wash. Now, I won't lie to you, this made a bit of a mess, so next time I will put a towel under the water dish and that will help that problem. However, this entertained her for AT LEAST an hour. This made me a very happy Mommy!
I cut a few car shapes out of foam.

I then filled an 8x8 dish with warm soapy water and put a piece of sponge and towel next to this.

Bekah used her washable markers to make the cars dirty.

Then she used the dish of water to wash them. We had fun listening to the Car Wash song as she cleaned them.

So fun!

Things that Go Sorting

2011-02-22T09:45:00.000-08:00

This week we're working on a transportation unit. One of Bekah's favorite Baby Einstein videos has been On The Go, so she is really enjoying this unit. Today we did a Things that Go sort. It was pretty easy for her, but she really enjoyed doing it.

I printed these off from Printable Share and just used her toy cars, planes, trains, and boats.

Making Crystals

2011-02-18T05:09:00.000-08:00

Bekah has been getting some fierce cabin fever lately, so I've been trying to do a variety of fun projects with her. She absolutely loved this project and we still have our crystals on our windowsill.

All we needed was a jar, borax, boiling water, pipe cleaners, and string. Bekah made her first pipe cleaner into a snowflake shape while I boiled some water. We tied a string to our "snowflake" and attached the other end to another pipe cleaner. I poured the boiling water in our jar and we stirred in Tablespoons of borax until we couldn't get any more to dissolve (saturated solution). We lowered our "snowflake" into the water and waited for our crystals to grow.

My Heart is Like a Zoo - stART project

2011-02-17T05:31:00.000-08:00

This week we used the book, My Heart is Like a Zoo by Michael Hall. I saw this book mentioned on a few different blogs and decided it would be a great Valentines Day project. After reading the book, I asked Bekah which animal she would like to make as a craft. She chose the lion (I think because it's on the cover of the book). So, I cut out all the parts we would need and Bekah glued them together to make the lion.

After making the lion, Bekah then decided we should make the owl, so we did. Then she decided we should make the frog, so we made the frog. And finally, she thought the crab would be fun to make, so lastly, we made the crab. We've really enjoyed this book and making these cute animals together.

You can see what others are doing for stART at A Mommy's Adventures.

Wordless Wednesday: What to do with your Bumbo box

2011-02-16T04:03:00.000-08:00

We bought a Bumbo seat for Sarah and Bekah had the greatest time with the box:

Stickers and Shapes

2011-02-15T04:07:00.000-08:00

Bekah has always loved playing with stickers, so when I saw this idea, I was excited to do it with her. However, it got lost in a pile somewhere and didn't get pulled out until now. This great idea came from Muffin Tin Mom and didn't require much work on my side at all!

I already had star stickers on hand, but you can really use any small stickers to do this project. We just printed out the shapes (you can even draw these free-hand) and Bekah put the stickers around the outline of the shape.
Simple and fun!

Valentines Day Muffin Tin Monday

2011-02-14T13:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Muffin Tin Monday. We haven't done a muffin tin meal in awhile now, but with today being Valentines day I figured it was a perfect time to start up again.
Bekah had her breakfast in a heart shape muffin tin. She had:
Life Cereal (her current favorite), heart shaped banana pieces, & strawberry yogurt with valentines sprinkles.

You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom.

Simple Way To Say 'I Love You'

2011-02-14T12:46:00.000-08:00

One night as I was taking a bath I spotted Bekah's bath crayons in the corner of the tub. I grabbed the orange one (her favorite color) and wrote "I love Bekah" on one of the tiles. After she found her little "love note" she exclaimed that it "made her day!" That night when she took a bath she wrote me a note: "Bekah loves ME". (ME was her sounding out and spelling mommy.)

Since that time we all write notes back and forth with bath crayons. Some times when I clean the tile there are 5 or more notes we've written. It's just a simple way to say, "I love you"!

Happy Valentines Day!

Hetty's 100 Hats

2011-02-10T05:26:00.000-08:00

We did this project when we were learning about the letter H. I have to admit, I ended up being the one to make the hat, but I do think Bekah thought it was pretty neat that you can make a hat out of a piece of newspaper.

Hetty's 100 Hats is an adorable book by Emma Dodd. It's about a little girl who starts collecting hats. She is determined to have 100 hats. At the end of the book, there are directions included to make your own newspaper hat. Bekah really enjoyed this story, but did not want to wear her hat. Oh, well!

Puffy Paint Snowman

2011-02-09T05:11:00.000-08:00

I found this easy idea for a puffy paint snowman on MeloMomma. First, I made a mixture of white glue and shaving cream. (Our kitchen ended up smelling like an old man, but the craft ended up being very cute!)

I set up Bekah's art easel for this project, which she loved. I had also cut out black dots and an orange triangle for the nose.

I love simple crafts like this!

Sarah's Birth Story

2011-02-08T05:35:00.000-08:00

The week before Sarah was born I had a doctors appointment. The doctor told me that he was pretty positive he would not see me the following week for my next appointment. He was sure I would have delivered by that time. Well....a week later I was driving to my doctors appointment...feeling very angry with that doctor and not very happy that I was scheduled to see my least favorite doctor in the group. It was also a bleary and rainy day, which didn't help my mood. As I drove past Dunkin' Donuts I thought what a great idea it would be to surprise Bekah and my mom (who was watching Bekah) with donuts. Yummm!

After a short wait the nurse took me back and checked my blood pressure. It was elevated and she kinda hinted that I might be having the baby that day. I wasn't having any contractions, though, so I thought maybe she was joking. When the doctor came in to examine me he found that I was already 5 cm. Because of that and my raised blood pressure he immediately sent me next door to Labor and Delivery. I was so excited that I called Nathan before I even made it to the elevators! He was at work (which is an hour away) and I knew the first thing I needed to do was to call him. When I got him on the phone he was as excited as I was. I reminded him to take his time....I wasn't having any pain and didn't even know if they would be keeping me. I was actually still thinking I would be getting donuts soon! I called my mom who said, "I KNEW I should have gone with you!" She had my dad stay with Bekah and she came to be with me. It was such a whirlwind of a morning.

It felt very surreal as I drove myself over to labor and delivery. I stood making out papers at the front desk very thankful that I wasn't in pain...yet. The doctor on duty there checked me and decided to start pitocin. (I had this same drug when Bekah was born.) The nurse was wonderful and I was surprisingly calm through all of this. My mom and Nathan were there in no time. It all went rather quickly. I got to the hospital at 11 AM. They started the pitocin at 1 PM. Sarah was born at 5 PM. It was a very smooth birth and I ended up not having any problems with my blood pressure. (Thank the Lord!). She cried right after being born (it was so good to hear that cry) and she weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz.!

One thing that shocked all of us is how alert she has been right from birth. She loves checking out her new world.

I feel extremely blessed by God for what He has given me.
Here's Bekah meeting her new baby sister for the first time.

I'm Back......

2011-02-07T11:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a very busy few months since I've blogged last. First of all, I am now a mommy of two!

Our baby daughter, Sarah, was born in November and has been keeping us busy. Things are finally settling down into our "new norm", so I plan on blogging more now. I really wanted to just take this beginning time to focus on my family. It was great to take a break, but I've missed blogging and I love being able to look back at our memories and things we've done.

It's great to be back!

Bekah's New Favorite Game

2010-09-27T11:10:00.000-07:00

I love all the printables available here on Nick Jr. I saw this Team Umizoomi scavenger hunt and printed it out for us to play some time. It has become Bekah's new favorite thing to do. The one Saturday night we pulled it out and she played it again and again.

Then, as soon as she woke up Sunday morning she wanted to play again. It has become such a fun activity for all 3 of us to play.

She was so surprised to wake up the other morning to find the pieces hidden around our living room. Before Daddy had left for work he hid the scavenger shapes for her to find. She had a blast looking for them!

You can print off this great game here.

Preschool - Letter H

2010-09-24T08:22:00.000-07:00

This week we had a lot of fun with the letter H.

We made a H is for house from Totally Tots.

From our Raising Rock Stars Preschool our verse of the week was "Honor your Father and your Mother." Exodus 20:12.

She also made a little book called Hearts and Hands.

Cut out her letter H cards.

A favorite of the week was the power point show from the members only section of Raising Rock Stars Preschool. It is totally worth the money!

Another fun activity we printed off from 1+1+1=1 was this pom pom number matching. Bekah really had fun with this.

We used more printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler.
The number cards are still her favorite. She actually pulls these out herself to play with during the week.

Hippo sequencing.

A new activity for us. Bekah had to use a push pin to poke holes in the letter H. She loved this!

Here she is holding it up to see the light shine through her holes.

DLTK had a cut and paste hippo that Bekah put together.

I printed these animal homes matching cards. Bekah loved this activity. We actually just matched them up and glued them on paper, but they could also be made into a matching game. I cannot locate where I printed these from, but will try to find and add a link.

This hot and safe sorting was something I copied out of the most recent Kindergarten Mailbox magazine. It would be very easy to recreate. All that's needed is clip art of things that are hot (candle, oven, match, fire, etc. and things that are safe teddy bear, pillow, table, chair, etc.) I then had Bekah sort the things that were hot and the things that are safe.

One of our fun activities was that Bekah played a lot with her Splaster. She really loves the art section, but there are also great learning games on here.

We did a lot more activities and had a great time in Preschool this week!

stART - House for Hermit Crab

2010-09-23T07:55:00.000-07:00

This week we've been working on the letter H. A book we've really been enjoying is A House for Hermit Crab by Eric Carle. Bekah LOVES any of his books, so you just can't go wrong with this one!

I found a cute project at homeschool share that went along with this book. They actually have a whole lapbook that you can put together, but we just made the art project.

The story in the book is about a hermit crab who has outgrown his home. He finds a new shell to live in, but it is very plain. He decorates it with sea stars, sea urchins, and many more things.

Our project was to decorate the Hermit Crabs new home with whatever Bekah saw fit. We added stickers, feathers, sequins, and buttons. She really got creative and had a blast!

She spent a long time working on her beautiful hermit crab picture.

You can see what others are doing at A Mommy's Adventures and over at Kids Get Crafty.

Preschool - Letter T

2010-09-17T09:15:00.001-07:00

We're finally all over the sinus infection that invaded our house! It was nice to get back into more of a routine. It was, however, tough to get Bekah into preschool work this week. We worked at her own speed on Monday and Tuesday. By Wednesday she was back into the swing of things and loving preschool. Here are some highlights from our week.

I like to start Monday morning with a toy that Bekah hasn't played with in awhile. This bear puzzle was too hard for her when we bought it, so I put it away until now. She did much better with it this time.

This week we worked on the verse "Thou shall not steal." Exodus 20:15. We discussed what this means and Bekah memorized her verse. We're loving the Raising Rock Stars Preschool curriculum from 1+1+1=1!

Here she is writing the letter T.

Our T is for Tractor from Totally Tots.

We also used a lot of the printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler. Bekah loved the turtle theme!

Here she is counting and connecting paperclips to the turtle. This was a wonderful fine motor and math skills activity.

Matching the color word with the color on the turtle.

This was the favorite activity of the week. I would call out the number and she would have to jump to it. We did this again and again!

Counting turtles.

I also began introducing telling time this week. We worked on learning what hour it was with this clock printable I found at Home Grown Hearts.

I also had this time matching sheet I had printed off from an old Mailbox magazine. I get mine from the library.

Bekah loves the computer. One morning while on www.playhousedisney.com she went to Handy Manny and created toys. She was so proud to print off her toys and color them.

One of our favorite books this week was Trashy Town by . I found great ideas to go along with this book at Totally Tots.

We also did this cute trash can shape match-up from 2 Teaching Mommies.

I found these cute labels from 1+1+1=1 to learn words. Bekah loved helping me label our house. I wonder what hubby is going to think when he gets home!

Our cute little turtle.

Hope you all had a wonderful week!
You can see what others are up to at Homeschool Creations
and 1+1+1=1.

Apple Pie Play Dough

2010-09-17T06:09:00.000-07:00

WARNING....this stuff is highly addictive! I could just sit and sniff it all day! It really smells like the real thing! Thankfully, my daughter is old enough to know not to eat it!

I found this recipe for apple pie play dough over at Along the Way. We've made pumpkin pie play dough in the past, but never apple pie play dough. However, I made a HUGE mistake when making this. I told my daughter I was going to make it the next day. After I did that I kept hearing the question, "can we make apple pie play dough now??" So, I finally gave in and made it that night.

I ran out of regular red food coloring, but had the Wilton gel food coloring left from when I took a cake decorating class (about 5 years ago!). Needless to say, the gel coloring was all clumpy and I ended up having to knead it in. I ended up with pink hands! Just make sure you have enough red food coloring before you make this! =)
Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

* 1 cup of flour
* 1/2 cup of salt
* 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
* 1 tablespoon of cream of tarter
* 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg
* 1/4 teaspoon of allspice
* 1/2 cup of water
* 1/2 cup of apple juice
* red food coloring (add until you get desired color)

Directions:

1. Mix all the ingredients together in a large sauce pan.
2. Place on medium high heat on the stove
3. Stir frequently until the dough starts pulling away from the sides of the pan.
4. Remove from the stove.
5. Once the dough has cooled enough to handle knead the dough.
6. Place it in an airtight container.

Freight Train - stART Project

2010-09-15T04:58:00.000-07:00

This week we've been learning about the letter T. A book that has been one of our favorites for awhile is Freight Train by Donald Crews. An idea I've had bookmarked is this Shape Train from My Two Happy Homeschoolers.

It was very simple to make and I really made an effort not to help Bekah. I wanted her to be able to make it herself (even if it wasn't perfect). I think she did a great job. Yes, it drove me crazy that the wheels were on top of the train, but this is HER train....not mine. Does anyone else struggle with this? Anyhow, she did wonderful and I love that it was made by her.

You can see what others are reading at A Mommy's Adventures.

Neighborhood Bingo

2010-09-14T07:29:00.000-07:00

We had a terrible sinus infection that attacked our house last week! My husband came home from school a week ago Friday sick. Bekah came down with the same thing on Tuesday (except with throwing up as well) and I got it by the next Friday. Let me just say, YUCK! We spent a lot of time sleeping and watching movies.

Thankfully, we're all feeling much better and are able to get back into some preschool activities. I'll be posting more of these later, but here's a great idea we were able to get to before illness hit our home. It's a neighborhood bingo game that we've played 3 times already!

I found this family fun activity over at 2 Teaching Mommies. I love their new blog....they have a ton of great ideas and free printables. Our family loves taking walks around our neighborhood together, so I immediately printed this when I saw it.

Here's Bekah showing how she found everything on her list! (she got a m&m as a prize for finding everything!)

Sarah's Nursery

2010-09-04T05:57:00.000-07:00

Thought I would give you all a little peek at baby Sarah's nursery. It was our goal to get this room all ready for her before Nathan went back to teaching this Fall. I am pleased to say that we were able to do it!

We were blessed to find her "new" furniture on craigslist and my mom bought her the adorable bassinet. This will make it's way into our master bedroom once she arrives.

I can't wait to meet our tiny princess...although I feel like I already know her so well!

First Week of Preschool and the Letter L

2010-09-03T04:29:00.000-07:00

This was our first official week of preschool and Bekah was so excited about it.
I looked into many different curriculum plans and decided on using Carissa's Raising Rock Stars Preschool from 1+1+1=1. She has some amazing ideas on her blog and I'm so pleased to be using the RRS with Bekah. We will also be supplementing with other things and I will be sure to link to those as well.

This week focused on the letter L and everyone we saw this week was told that it was "L week"!

We began our morning with a school bus puzzle. This used to be hard for her, but now she can do it without a problem.

Next we had a very special breakfast of French Breakfast Puffs from Pioneer Woman. I have to admit, these were a bit sweet for my taste buds.

While I cleaned up Bekah played with her Melissa and Doug tangram puzzles. She's really been into these lately.

After getting dressed we began our "official" preschool day. Bekah made a book called I See. She read this little book to all of her little animals.

We played an adorable school house game that I printed from Childcare land.

It has been so hot here this week and Bekah has been begging to go swimming, so after lunch we took a pool break. It was heavenly! (I love homeschooling already!)

We made cool structures with toothpicks and marshmallows. This was perfect to make the letter L.

Bekah practiced writing the letter L. We're really working on our pencil grip. We're getting there.

She cut out L is for... cards. I found this picture so funny!

Pretending to be a ladybug!

Our Wooly Lamb turned out really cute! This was from an old Mailbox magazine.

I think one of the most favorite acitivites were these Exercise A-Z cards that I printed from Homeschool Share. This is Bekah Balancing on one foot.

Look at that smile! I think she loves homeschooling as much as her mommy does!
You can see what others have been up to for preschool at:
1+1+1=1 and Homeschool Creations.
Hope you all had a great homeschooling week!

stART - The Clumsy Crab

2010-09-02T07:54:00.000-07:00

Wow! It's been a long time since we've posted about a stART project. We've been doing book/art projects, I've just been really bad with blogging this Summer! Well, now we're back in full swing!

This week we read the Clumsy Crab by Ruth Galloway. Bekah loved this book and I couldn't wait to do this craft I had seen at Along the Way.

Once it was dry, Bekah had a great time playing with this little guy!!

You can see other great stART projects at A Mommy's Adventures.

It's a Girl!!!

2010-08-31T07:27:00.001-07:00

IT'S A GIRL!!!

Well, I have to say that I was completely stunned by this bit of news. I thought boy, but my husband thought it was a girl right from the start. We've known for awhile now, I've just been really bad at posting! We're so excited to be welcoming another little princess into our family! I'm 28 weeks, so time is flying! November will be here before we know it!

What's Missing?

2010-08-27T05:43:00.000-07:00

I recently saw this great idea on The Activity Mom. She has so many great ideas on her blog! This one was simple to put together and Bekah loved doing it.

All I did was look through magazines for some pictures that would work. I then cut a piece out of the picture and glued it onto a piece of paper. Here's what it looked like.

Bekah then had to match the pieces to the correct picture.

So simple, yet so fun!

18 weeks (which was 3 weeks ago!)

2010-07-10T05:24:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of my growing belly. I was 18 weeks pregnant in these pictures. I'm finally feeling much better and have more energy. I feel so blessed to be carrying this precious little child.

Here's some pictures of our growing little one. I was 18 weeks pregnant in these pictures. I'm finally feeling much better and have more energy. I feel so blessed to be carrying this precious little child.

Paper Plate Snail

2010-06-18T05:43:00.000-07:00

Bekah loves bugs! Slimy bugs, flying bugs, any kind of bugs. So, when I saw this color mixing snail craft that Allie posted on Family Education I couldn't wait to make it with her.

I put a glob (yes, that's a very technical term)of blue and yellow finger paint on a white paper plate and let her mix away.

I really wasn't sure if she would like using her hands to do this. She went through a stage where she really didn't like getting all messy. As you can see....that has changed! She loved it!

After the paint dried I drew a spiral on the plate and we cut out her snail.

Father's Day Toolbox Card

2010-06-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hopefully my husband won't suddenly decide to read my blog and spoil his surprise, but I just had to share this adorable Father's Day card that we made this week. You can get the template for the tools and the instructions here.

Inside the card we wrote:
I couldn't have built a better Daddy!
I realized afterward that I crossed the l in built and was able to fix that later. I think he'll love it!

Chalk Alphabet Game

2010-06-15T12:32:00.001-07:00

This is a great game that I saw in a recent Family Fun magazine. I just drew upper and lowercase letters randomly all over our driveway.

I would then call out a letter and Bekah would have to run to the lowercase (or baby) letter while I would run to the uppercase (or Mommy) letter.

Bekah LOVED this game and would have played much longer if it wasn't so hot outside. She was so bummed out when it rained and washed our letters away!

Curious George and the Pizza Party

2010-06-10T05:36:00.000-07:00

We're finally getting back into the swing of things. Between my pregnancy and not feeling well all the time and end of the school year things life has been pretty hectic. We were so glad to get back to our stART projects this week!

We read Curious George and the Pizza Party.

First, Daddy and Bekah made the dough. I like to use Money Saving Mom's pizza dough recipe. We also added some whole wheat flour to make it more healthy.

They had fun getting all messy!

In the story, Curious George cuts the dough out into different shapes. Bekah insisted she wanted a squrrel shaped pizza!

We added the sauce.

And the toppings.

Yummy!
Check out A Mommy's Adventures for more great stART projects!

Uppercase and lowercase Letter Match

2010-06-09T05:33:00.000-07:00

I found this awesome uppercase and lowercase matching activity at 1+1+1=1.

Bekah had to find the lowercase letter that matched the uppercase letter and put a clothespin over that. This was an awesome activity because it worked her fine motor skills as well as her letter skills.

I was amazed at how quickly Bekah was able to do this. I haven't sat down to teach her all of these lowercase letters, so I really thought she would have a harder time. We have however seen these in different games, toys, and dvd's. It goes to show me how much kids learn in playtime!

Bekah's New Room

2010-06-08T09:18:00.000-07:00

We moved into our house almost a year ago and finally finished redecorating Bekah's bedroom. It was something we really wanted to complete before we move on to the new baby's room. I really wish I had taken a before picture.

Bekah helping paint the primer.

New curtains.

Nathan put in the ceiling fan....good job, honey!

Over her bookshelf.

She loves it and we're so happy with how it turned out!

Fish Counting Game

2010-06-07T16:30:00.000-07:00

I was planning on using this fish counting game for during our Ocean week, but Bekah caught me making it and asked to play with it once I finished. Who am I to say no to learning!

I cannot find where this idea came from. I will keep looking so I can give credit where it is due, but if you know, please let me know! The blogger who came up with this made it with construction paper, but I decided to make it into more of a game and made ours out of felt.

The cheerios are the "bubbles" that the fish is making and Bekah had to match up the correct number of bubbles to each fish. She had a blast doing this. It kind of reminded me of those cheerio books they sell.

This was really fun and I can't wait to pull it out again!

Caterpillar Snack

2010-05-04T10:05:00.000-07:00

I saw this adorable caterpillar snack on Mama Jenn and couldn't wait to make it for Bekah.
All you need is a banana, some pretzel sticks, and chocolate chips (or raisins, but Bekah doesn't like raisins!).

She loved helping me put the caterpillar together and ate every bite!
It went perfectly with our theme this week, which is caterpillars and butterflies.

Our caterpillars are in their chrysalis and we are awaiting for them to emerge as butterflies.

Tiptoe Through the Tulips

2010-05-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

I'm back! My "morning/all day sickness" is finally going away, so things are getting back to normal. We've been enjoying this beautiful weather and the flowers that have emerged in our yard, so we made this tulip craft. It was very simple to put together and came out cute!

I drew a tulip on white paper and Bekah drizzled glue all over it.

She then added some colorful squares of tissue paper.

We glued on a green leaf and stem and hung it up to enjoy!

Big News

2010-04-12T06:13:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't been on in so long, but I have a very good reason....

I'M PREGNANT!

We're very excited about the new baby, which will arrive in November. I, however, have not been feeling very well. I hope to be back up and blogging this week!

Little Break

2010-03-30T16:11:00.000-07:00

I plan on taking a little break from blogging for about a week. Hope you all have a very blessed Easter! See you soon!

Stacy

Alphabet Match-Up

2010-03-24T16:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry I've been MIA. Life has been crazy. We had a wedding shower to be at, our driveway was dug up to repair some electrical lines, and Bekah now has a stomach virus. I'm praying that life calms down for a bit now! Here's a fun activity we did last week:
I saw this activity awhile ago on The Activity Mom and couldn't wait until we had an empty paper towel roll to do it.

We had the alphabet stickers, so I just drew letters all over the paper towel tube and let Bekah match up the letters. She loved doing this and even though she stopped half-way through, she came back to it later on that afternoon.

Raising Rock Stars - Adam and Eve

2010-03-19T05:01:00.000-07:00

This week for our Raising Rock Stars project we talked about Adam and Eve and the fall. We read the story from our toddlers bible and our Young Readers bible this week.

Bekah was very interested in the story and asked many questions. It was such a great time together and I can't wait to do more bible stories together!

We did two different projects to go with our bible story this week. The first one was this activity of Eve and the snake. Bekah loved playing with this. I printed it off from Christian Preschool Printables.

We attached the snake to a Popsicle stick so that Bekah could move him in and out of the tree.

The second activity we did for our Adam and Eve story was this spingy snake from DLTK's site.

You can see what others have done at 1+1+1=1.

stART project - Mouse Paint

2010-03-18T09:22:00.000-07:00

This week for our stwe had a fun time reading Mouse Paint by Ellen Stoll Walsh.
We've read some other books by her, but this was a definite favorite. Bekah absolutely loves to paint, so this was a great activity for her. It also reinforced color mixing.

I found this printable from here and got out our finger paints. Bekah would put the correct color(s) in the spaces and see what would happen when colors would combine. She loved doing this.

You can see what others are doing at A Mommy's Adventures.

Letter L Activities

2010-03-18T05:14:00.000-07:00

Last week we worked on Letter L. We made a letter L is for Lion that I had seen at Funny Day's with Mommy and Maddie.

We also made lemonade with our juicer. Bekah couldn't wait for Daddy to taste our lemonade. It was yummy!

(Don't worry the juicer was off as she was putting in the lemon pieces!)

We also did these fun lollipop activities that I found at Home Grown Hearts.

(She loved using our flashlight this week!)

(I realized the 3 was backwards after I took the photo and helped her fix it!)

Bekah had a lot of fun with the ladybug printables I found at Confessions of a Homeschooler.

I loved seeing her and Daddy work on this cut and paste ladybug!

This Letter L cut and paste is a favorite of Bekahs. You can find it at Homeschool Creations.

Muffin Tin Monday - Green

2010-03-15T09:59:00.000-07:00

Happy Monday! Today's Muffin Tin theme is Green. I had a really hard time thinking of green food (that Bekah would eat). Now don't get me wrong. She loves peas, green beans, and broccoli....but I didn't have any of those things on had. I had green peppers and celery, which she refuses to eat! So, this is what I came up with:
Shamrock shaped American cheese, green salad with ranch dressing, marshmallows and stars cereal (a knock off of Lucky Charms), pears (hey, the skin was green!), and Thin Mint cookies (mint is green, isn't it?).

Can you tell she's been into the cookies?!

You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom!

Other Letter R Activites

2010-03-12T05:46:00.000-08:00

Here are some other Letter R activities that we did during our week:

We had races with these cars that I picked up at the dollar store. Bekah loved this activity and has wanted to play with these cars again and again. In the picture below she even made a road for them.

Rice writing. I poured some rice in a baking sheet and showed Bekah how to use her finger to write in the rice. This kept her busy for a long time!

Rice Cake Art.
We used sweetened condensed milk with some food coloring to paint on the rice cake. I didn't think Bekah would like eating this, but she loved it and ate two of them!

Letter R Scavenger Hunt. This was printed out from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I wasn't prepared, so I kept having to help Bekah find letter R things. We found:
Roary (her webkinz dog), a rose, a rabbit, and a rope.

We also did this activity where Bekah had to cut out the pictures that began with the letter R and paste them to the sheet with the letter R on it. I found this printable at Homeschool Creations.

It was such a fun week!

stART - Is You Mama a Llama?

2010-03-11T05:42:00.000-08:00

Our stART project this week was Is Your Mama a Llama by Deborah Guarino. This week we are currently learning all about the letter L, so this book was very fitting. I printed off a llama coloring sheet from here and had Bekah color it.

She then put some glue on the llama and went to town with the cotton balls.

I think it's so funny that she put one on the llama's face. We have the book from the library and also got the Is Your Mama a Llama scholastic video. Bekah loves these videos and watches them over and over. It's fun to enjoy the book in a different way!
You can see what others are doing over at A Mommy's Adventures!

R is for Rainbow

2010-03-10T05:28:00.000-08:00

We had a blast during letter R week doing rainbow activities. There are so many wonderful ideas out there that I wish we could have done, but the week went by quickly. Here's some of the rainbow activities we during the week.

We made a rainbow book. This was an idea I had seen at Delightful Learning. There is also a video to watch on her site that helps with putting this book together. Bekah loved making her rainbow book!

We made rainbow crayons. Next time I will use cupcake liners. They took a little bit of work to get them out without liners. This was fun to do and a wonderful way to use up broken crayons. Bekah helped me unwrap all of the crayons, so it was also a great fine motor activity!

This roll a rainbow activity comes from Confessions of a Homeschooler. She has a lot of great printable activities that center around rainbows. We used a lot of her printables. This one was definitely a favorite!

Another activity we did from this same blog is the upper and lowercase letter matching.

A yummy activity we did with our rainbow theme was to make a rainbow cake. I actually took the easy way and make a funfetti cake. Bekah loved it!

R is for Rabbit

2010-03-09T05:06:00.000-08:00

We started our R week with R is for Rabbit. I figured that with Easter and Spring right around the corner this was a perfect theme.

First we made an R is for Rabbit. I saw this idea at Always Something to Learn.

I also saw this idea at Always Something to Learn. It's a Rabbit file folder game.
You can find it here.

This shadow matching game that I printed that was a bit tough for Bekah, but we worked on it together to get it. I found this with the Runaway Bunny Lapbook at Homeschool Creations.

I also found this Rabbit sequence at Homeschool Creations that Bekah worked on. She's really getting good at sequencing!

She even fell asleep with one of her rabbits. My sweetie!

Muffin Tin Monday - Yellow

2010-03-08T07:12:00.000-08:00

We have been enjoying some sunny weather and it has made us so happy! I was so excited that the muffin tin Monday theme color was yellow because what color is happier than yellow!

Bekah had her muffin tin for breakfast this morning. She had:

Yellow smiley face pancakes with syrup, pineapple, banana slices, and milk.

I made the pancakes with yellow food coloring. I took a little bit of pancake mix out and colored that with blue food coloring for the eyes and smile.

You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom. Happy Monday!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear - stART Project

2010-03-04T05:33:00.000-08:00

This week we used the book, Brown Bear, Brown Bear by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle as our stART project. I had seen this idea over at The Ramblings of a Crazy Woman for a coffee brown bear. It looked so easy to put together and Bekah loves the book Brown Bear, Brown Bear, so we set to work.

I printed off a bear coloring sheet from here and Bekah drizzled glue on him. I guess she wanted a polka dotted bear, because she really wanted just dots of glue. I should have had the glue with a paint brush, it would have worked so much better, but she didn't want to use a paint brush.

She then sprinkled her bear with the coffee.....mmmm....it smelled so good!

We let him dry and enjoyed our coffee brown bear. Don't you love the dots on his face and front legs! So funny!

You can see what others are doing at A Mommy's Adventures.

Making Juice

2010-03-03T04:08:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it's those spur of the moment activities that are the most fun. For us, this involved a basket of oranges that were about to go bad. I've been trying to live a more frugal life and make use of all we have, so I had to come up with something to do with those oranges. So, what did we do? We made juice!

My sister had given us a juicer for our anniversary last year, so I decided to pull it out and put it to work. Bekah was more than happy to be my little kitchen helper.

I would cut up and peel the oranges and she would put the pieces in the juicer. (with it off, of course!) We first tried it with the peels on, but it was very bitter!

It actually made more juice than I expected. Bekah insisted on keeping some for Daddy to try when he got home. It was the most delicious juice we've ever had!

This was such a fun activity and Bekah keeps asking to make orange juice again (I think I've created a monster!). What I loved about it was this:
1.) It made her smile.
2.) It not only got her helping in the kitchen, but was also a great learning experiment seeing how the fruit turned into the juice.
3.) She became so excited about a healthy food.

It was also a great bonding experience for the two of us.

Letter Q Activities

2010-03-02T04:57:00.000-08:00

The past two weeks we've been working with the letter Q. I had planned only one week, but we've all been sharing the flu, so it has taken forever to get through this letter. However, we've had a lot of fun with it!
We made a Q is for Queen. I got this idea from Funny Days with Mommy and Maddie.

I also found these at AC Moore for a dollar awhile ago, so we made Queen's crowns.

This was a great game that Bekah really loved. I drew an uppercase Q on a piece of construction paper and grabbed a handful of quarters from her piggy bank. We then stood back a little bit (I put a paper for the marker of where to stand) and tried to throw our quarters on the Q. This was kind of tricky, since they would bounce and roll off, so we made some changes.

Instead, what we would do is we would stand over the letter Q, hold the quarter up to our noses and try to drop it right on the letter. Bekah played this again and again!

Another quarter activity was quarter rubbings. Bekah was amazed at how this worked!

I found great printables at Confessions of a Homeschooler for Q is for Quilt. We enjoyed using all of these!
Magnet pages. I made my own magnetic pom poms using Home Grown Hearts tutorial here. It was so easy to do! All you need are pom poms, circle magnets, and a glue gun!

Quilt piece matching.

Find the upper and lowercase Q worksheet.

Q is for Quilt coloring page.

Quilt scissor practice. Bekah loves to use her scissors!

We also made this page that looks like a child in bed that I got from Mailbox magazine. I think it would be pretty easy to replicate, though. I had cut all different squares of paper for Bekah to choose from to make her quilt.

Finally, we made a quilt book that I found at Making Learning Fun.

Muffin Tin Monday - Think Spirng!

2010-03-01T12:18:00.000-08:00

After a weekend of snow, snow, and more snow, we were thinking Spring. So, even though there was no theme for today's muffin tin we did a flower theme. Bekah loved it and had:

A flower shaped grilled cheese, vanilla oreos, strawberry yogurt, and strawberries. Yumm! She ate every bite!
You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom.

Bekah's New Game

2010-02-23T08:03:00.001-08:00

I cannot take any credit for this one...Bekah came up with it all by herself! The other day, Bekah and Daddy were playing this Curious George game on pbskids.org and having a great time. When they had finished Bekah grabbed her animals and large dice and made up this human board game.

She would roll the dice and then either her or her animal would take that many steps. I added the colored construction paper as the "spaces". The one to make it to the end first was the winner. When she used her stuffed monkey the "prize" if you made it to the end first was a banana. She loved playing this and I loved her creativity.

Muffin Tin Monday - Orange

2010-02-22T10:23:00.000-08:00

Today we are back to Muffin Tin Monday. Last week Bekah was sick, so we missed that, but are back into the groove today.
I'm busy cleaning and sorting through toys, so lunch was very simple. Bekah had:

Arthur mac and cheese, baby carrots, orange segments, and orange juicy juice. Yummy! She hasn't had mac and cheese in awhile, so she really enjoyed that!
You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom.

Animal Matching Game

2010-02-20T04:28:00.000-08:00

Bekah loves animals. She's really not into taking care of baby dolls, but loves her stuffed animals. When I saw this game at Homeschool Share I couldn't wait to share it with her. We made it into a file folder game and I laminated all the pieces for sturdiness. Then, she had to match the close up picture of the animal print to the correct animal.

When she saw me making this she kept asking to play with it. She couldn't wait!

Dress Up Dolly

2010-02-19T04:05:00.000-08:00

This awesome printable doll came from Wee Wonderfuls. You can find the pattern here. It was a bit time consuming to cut out the doll and her wardrobe, laminate and attach to magnetic sheets and cut out again, but was so worth it! My husband was awesome and helped me cut everything out (I promised him I wouldn't post any pictures!) He's such a wonderful daddy!

We used a cookie sheet I had gotten from the dollar store to attach our doll to. Bekah had a great time playing with her new dress up doll!

stART Project - All You Need for a Snowman

2010-02-18T07:38:00.000-08:00

We've been having a fun time reading the book All You Need for a Snowman by Alice Schertle.
Since we've been having snowy days here I thought this would be a perfect book for our stART project. To be honest, I'm kinda tired of the snow, so instead of going outside to play in the snow, we made an indoor snowman.
I drew three circles for our snowman on blue construction paper and Bekah painted them white.

I hadn't planned on it, but Bekah insisted on cutting out her snowman. In the process she decapitated him (whoops!), but this was quickly resolved with some scotch tape!

Once the paint dried, Bekah glued on some buttons and sequins for his eyes, nose, mouth, and buttons.

Here's her finished snowman:

I would definitely recommend this book...it's such a fun story and my daughter has loved reading it!

I think we may bring some snow inside to play with in a little while....

You can see what others have made for their stART project at A Mommy's Adventures.

Measuring Inches

2010-02-17T11:34:00.000-08:00

What a week it's been. Last Tuesday my husband came home from work sick with a stomach virus. He was so sick...I don't think I've ever seen him that sick. So, I went crazy cleaning and trying to keep Bekah and myself from getting this bug. Well, we thought we were out of the woods until Bekah got sick as we were leaving for church on Sunday. What a fun Valentines that was! Anyhow, she's feeling much better now, so we are back to some fun learning activities.

I've been enjoying reading the blog The Activity Mom, where I found this post about measuring worms. Bekah has been fascinated with Daddy's measuring tape, so I knew this would be a big hit. It definitely was.

I had cut out this printable ruler and laminated it. I wanted something sturdy for her to use. I then cut different sizes of yarn (2 inches, 4 inches, 6 inches, and 8 inches). I made little cards with 2, 4, 6, and 8 on them for Bekah to sort as she measured.

Bekah did a great job and had a lot of fun. I've been having trouble keeping her attention lately, but she sat and did this for the longest time!

Happy Valentines Day - Letter H is for Hearts Week

2010-02-14T05:13:00.001-08:00

This week has been filled with hearts! We've been concentrating on the letter Hh (H is for hearts, after all!)

We started off our week making a heart shape guy.

Here's Bekah having fun with heart clappers. (I got these at our Dollar Tree).

We did a craft to the book, I Lost My Kisses.

Bekah has loved getting to use scissors. She was amazed to open up this paper and see that she had cut out a heart! She decorated it afterwards.

I know she's in two different outfits doing this one. We actually did this twice.

Here we are making a yummy treat with heart sprinkles.

Bekah did a sequence with hearts and pom poms.

There are some awesome heart printables at Home Grown Hearts that we used this week.
These are a few of them that we used:

Heart Shape searcher:

Letter H Magnet page (from www.makinglearningfun.com). I made these magnetic pom poms using Erin's directions here:

Heart Addition:

Upper and lowercase H matching:

Other Letter H Activities that we came up with:
We searched for the letter H (upper and lowercase) in magazines. When we found them, we would cut them out and glue them to this big letter H.

Using a hole punch. This was tough for her, but she kept at it!

This is an awesome Hot and Cold file folder game. We hadn't worked on this in awhile, so I took it out again. Bekah loved it even more than last time!

Happy Valentines Day!

I Lost My Kisses - stART project

2010-02-11T05:51:00.000-08:00

Bekah and I have really been enjoying the book, I Lost My Kisses by Trudie Trewin and Nick Bland. It's an adorable story about Matilda who wakes up one morning to find her kisses are missing. She's upset because her daddy is coming home and is afraid she won't have any kisses for him.

For our stART project, I made some stampers by gluing valentine erasers (I got a whole pack of them at the dollar store) onto the top of juice lids.

I didn't have a red ink pad, so I put a little bit of red paint on a plate and we used that. It probably would have come out nicer with the red ink pad. Oh, well!

Bekah had fun using her new stampers to make kisses and hearts and flowers.

You can see what others did for their stART project at A Mommy's Adventures.

Beautiful Blogger Award - How Sweet!

2010-02-09T15:59:00.000-08:00

I'm so excited....I received the Beautiful Blogger Award from Jo Shabo at Somewhat Organized, Slightly Crafty Tot Teacher and Mommy. If you haven't seen her blog, you should check it out right away! She has awesome ideas and is an all around great blogger. That's why I am so honored that she chose me for this award! Thanks so much Jo Shabo!

So, here are the rules to receive the Beautiful Blogger award:

* Thank & link to the person that gave you the award.
* Pass this award onto 15 bloggers you’ve discovered & think are fantastic.
* Contact said Blogs & let them know they've won
* State 7 things about yourself.

So, here we go...

7 Things about myself:

1.) I have played the flute for 19 years and have my bachelors in music education. I still get to play professionally with local groups and at weddings and funerals. My husband and I also get to play in our church often. (He plays violin.)

2.) My faith is extremely important to me. I am a Christian and have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

3.) I have a butterfly tattoo on my right ankle - my daughter thinks someone drew on mommy!

4.) I have hazel eyes that change color according to my mood (seriously)! When I am happy they are blue and when I am sad or angry they turn green.

5.) I have 3 older sisters. Yup, I'm the baby!

6.) I LOVE to read books....especially fiction. My favorite author is Karen Kingsbury.

7.) I'm addicted to cooking and cookbooks. I rarely make the same recipe (except for staples like meatloaf and spaghetti) and my husband loves being my guinea pig!

So, there you go, 7 things about me!

Here are 15 bloggers that I think deserve this award:

*Almost Unschoolers

*Home Grown Hearts

*Mommy's Kitchen

*A Little Fun with Me and Lu

*Confessions of a Homeschooler

*Cooking During Stolen Moments

*Tried and True Cooking with Heidi

*One Mom, Five Boys

*Mama to 3 Blessings

*Counting Coconuts

*Doing Life Together

*Dresses 'n Messes

*All About the Journey

*Happiness is Homemade

*Homeschool Madness

These are all blogs that I love to visit!

Thanks again so much for the award, Jo Shabo!

Muffin Tin Monday - Hearts and a Craft

2010-02-08T08:55:00.000-08:00

This week we're doing H is for hearts, so we did a heart shape muffin tin.

In Bekah's muffin tin, she had:
Grilled Cheese hearts, spinach salad with heart cucumber and homemade poppy seed dressing, heart salami, heart strawberries, and heart doughnut (from Krispy Kreme).

I was surprised that she had two bites of the doughnut and then was done with that. She loved the grilled cheese and the heart shaped strawberries the best!

To go along with our heart muffin tin we made a heart shaped guy. He turned out very cute and was simple to put together.
I drew a heart shape on the inside part of an old cereal box and Bekah went to town painting him red.

She also painted herself red!

Bekah then glued on the eyes and drew a mouth.

Then we used strips of red construction paper folded like an acordian for the arms and legs.

You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom.

A Little Bit of Our Story

2010-02-06T19:55:00.001-08:00

My husband and I met in college where we were both Music Education majors. We went on to graduate and ended up working in the same school district, same school building, same music room. My husband taught string orchestra and I taught K-5 general music. It was a wonderful work situation. I got to wake up each morning and go to work with my sweetheart.
When we became pregnant with Bekah, we both decided that I would leave my teaching job and become a stay at home mom. It was the best decision and one I have never regretted.
My husband is still teaching strings at the same school and loves being able to instill a love of music into those elementary kids. He has now started a blog to help students who play an instrument, especially a string instrument. You can visit it by going HERE.

Are You Ready For Some Football?

2010-02-06T16:44:00.001-08:00

I saw this adorable football craft at No Time For Flashcards and knew it would be a lot of fun for the Superbowl. While we aren't really football fans (Bekah kept calling this a baseball!), we still like to have some sporty fun!

First, we took a brown paper bag and I drew two football shapes (for the front and back). I also drew the laces on one side). Bekah painted the sides brown and we let it dry.

After it was dried, we cut out the football shapes.

I stapled about half of it together and Bekah crumpled up some newspaper to stuff inside.

Here she is stuffing the newspaper inside the football.

Here's the finished football!

We had so much fun playing with it once it was all done!

Friday Following

2010-02-05T07:36:00.000-08:00

I'm always looking for new blogs to read and follow. It's also nice to have new followers of my blog. This is why I'm linking up with Friday Follow. It's a huge blog party where you get to visit lots of other blogs and hopefully follow them. So, come on over and join the party!

stART Project - The Mitten

2010-02-04T04:40:00.000-08:00

One of our favorite books recently has been The Mitten by Jan Brett. I found this adorable printable from Jan Brett's website that we had so much fun with.

Bekah colored the animals and I cut them out.

After the animals were colored she wanted to color the mitten.

We used double sided tape to attach the sides and top of the mitten. Then, as I read the story Bekah would put the animals into the mitten.

She had so much fun with this craft!

We also had fun doing this mitten activity that I found at childcareland.com
It follows the Brown Bear, Brown Bear idea. I had Bekah call out what colors would come next and choose that color. For example, "Red Mitten, Red Mitten, what do you see?" "I see a yellow mitten looking at me..." and so on until all the mittens are looking at me.

You can see what others are doing for their stART project at A Mommy's Adventures.

Sweetheart Candy Counting Game

2010-02-03T08:28:00.000-08:00

I saw the idea for this sweetheart candy counting game at No Time For Flashcards. I picked our candies up at the dollar store and quickly traced some hearts with numbers 1-12 on a large piece of construction paper. Bekah had to put the correct number of candies on each heart.

Bekah did well with this, but to be honest, became quickly bored. However, we did it right before dinner and she was hungry, so that could be why it didn't last long!

Here's how far she got...pretty good for being hungry!

Happy Groundhog Day!

2010-02-02T07:05:00.000-08:00

We started our morning talking about groundhogs and how it was groundhog day. We even watched Punxsutawney Phil make his prediction here.
After we watched and found out that we're going to have 6 more weeks of winter (blah!), we made a groundhog craft from Making Learning Fun.
Bekah colored in the groundhog and the grass.

She then cut on the dotted lines. She loved this part!

We glued the groundhog to a large craft stick.

Then, after folding the grass in half, we inserted the groundhog into the grass and pushed him up and down to "pop" out of the ground.

After our craft we watched and sang along to I'm A Little Groundhog.

The Doctor is In....

2010-02-02T04:28:00.000-08:00

Apparently we have been running an infirmary here at our house. I've had about 5 check-ups in the past few days and numerous shots from "Dr. Bekah."

We've also had a dolphin with a hurt "beak":

a cat with a hurt tail:

Our dog has had a hurt back:

and Daddy's blood pressure has needed monitoring:

However, Dr. Bekah has come to the rescue for us!

In all seriousness, this used to be the child that hated bandaids! I got a box of colorful ones from the Dollar Store to put in her Doctors kit and she now wants to put them on everything (including herself)! So funny!

MuffinTin Monday - Shapes

2010-02-01T09:29:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday! For today's Muffin Tin Monday, the theme is Dr. Seuss. As you can see, we didn't go with the theme today. Instead, we did a shape muffin tin. Bekah really loved her lunch and we got to use her snowflake muffin tin for probably the last time this year.

In her tin, she had, square cheese nip crackers, circle peanut butter and jelly sushi (see how to make this below), American cheese triangles, semi-circle tomatoes, a round orange, and a rectangle brownie. I made these brownies the other night and they were THE BEST. We got the recipe from Cooking During Stolen Moments. They are seriously the best brownies I have ever had!

You can see what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom.

To make the peanut butter and jelly sushi -
Cut the crust off of one piece of bread.
Roll the bread out using a rolling pin.
spread with peanut butter and jelly.
Roll the bread up and cut into pieces.
Enjoy!

February Calendar

2010-02-01T06:28:00.000-08:00

Happy February....the last full month of Winter! I've been wanting to do calendar work with Bekah for quite some time now and finally found an idea I loved. This calendar printable comes from Childcareland.com under free printables.
We printed out the printable calendar and I used double sided tape to attach it to a large piece of construction paper. I used the hearts that printed out with it to decorate the top of the paper.
Every day we plan on tracing a number. Today was the number 1, tomorrow will be the number 2.

I wasn't sure how Bekah would take to this, but she LOVED it! We finished tracing the 1st and she said, "Okay, now I'm going to sleep and then it will be another day!" She can't wait to trace the next one!

S is for Snowman

2010-01-30T08:49:00.000-08:00

Even though all of our snow has melted, we've been learning that S is for snowman. Now, don't get me wrong....it isn't warm here. It was warmer for a day or two and is now bitter cold outside. Yuck! Anyhow, today, we made a snowman out of the letter S.
Here's what we used to make our S is for Snowman:
A letter S cut from white construction paper, two black "coal" eyes, one orange carrot nose, two brown twig arms, a top hat with stripe, and blue construction paper to glue it onto.

After I drew and cut out a white letter S, Bekah glued it to a piece of blue construction paper.

Next, Bekah glued on the eyes and carrot nose.

We added the twig arms.

And topped him with a top hat complete with colored stripe.

Here's our finished S is for Snowman:

We have also really been enjoying the printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler. These were so awesome and we had a ton of fun with these printables.

Yummy Felts Giveaway

2010-01-28T06:17:00.000-08:00

Yummy felts is a great new blog by Michelle from A Mommy's Adventures. She is having an awesome giveaway HERE. They are giving away a sweet sugar cookie dough felt set. You can enter by clicking on the link above. Can't wait to see who wins!

The Biggest Snowball

2010-01-27T13:41:00.001-08:00

This week for our stART project we have been reading The Biggest Snowball Ever! by John Rogan. When I requested this book from the Library I had no idea this was Christmas related. However, I have a little girl obsessed with Christmas, so it worked fine for us.
This book is a lot of fun to read and Bekah wanted to keep looking at the silly illustrations. We decided to make no-bake snowball cookies to go along with our book. Here's the recipe:

Here's what you will need:
2/3 cup butter -softened
1/2 cup sugar
1T. water
3T. cocoa
1/2 t. vanilla
2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup powdered sugar

Mix the butter and sugar together. Add the water, cocoa, and vanilla. mix well. Add rolled oats, mix well. Roll about 1 tsp. of the mix in your hands to form a ball. Roll in powdered sugar.

Mixing the butter and sugar.

Stirring in the oats.

My official "taste tester".

Bekah's snowball cookie!

You can see what others are doing at A Mommy's Adventures.

Raising Rock Stars - Creation

2010-01-26T20:18:00.000-08:00

I've really been wanting to teach Bekah more about God's Word. She "learns about Jesus" in Sunday School and Church, but I want her to see that Mommy and Daddy see it as important too. So, I've decided to link up with 1+1+1=1's Raising Rock Stars.

For our first week we did the story of Creation. I think since there is so much information we might do a two week study.

We read from our Children's Bible as well as the books The Seven Days of Creation adapted from the Bible and illustrated by Leonard Everett Fisher and the book, The World God Made by Donna D, Cooner. The Seven Days of Creation book had such beautiful illustrations. It was definitely a favorite!

Our project this week was a HUGE poster of what God made on each of the seven days. Bekah was so excited when she saw the size of the poster board. She couldn't wait to start!

First, we used the coloring sheets found at Christian Preschool Printables. Bekah colored them in and I cut out the picture. (I really think she rushed through these to get to the point where we were ready to glue them on the HUGE poster board!)

I wrote on the poster board Day 1, Day 2, etc. and Bekah had to match up the correct picture to the day.

This was so simple to do, but she loved every minute!

Here's our finished product...

Muffin Tin Monday ABC's and 123's

2010-01-25T10:28:00.001-08:00

The theme for today's Muffin Tin Monday meal was ABC's and 123's. This is what we did:

A - applesauce
B - bananas
C - cupcake (which I removed until after she ate some "real" food.
1 - 1 juice
2 - 2 homemade ham and cheese hot pockets (these are delicious, by the way. You can get the recipe from Our Best Bites.
3 - 3 goldfish crackers

I was so surprised when she ate almost her whole lunch! Yay for Muffin Tin Monday! You can find out what others are doing at Muffin Tin Mom.

Snip, Snip, Snow

2010-01-23T20:22:00.000-08:00

This past week Bekah was sick with a virus, so we ended up snuggling on the couch watching Blues Clues numerous times. When she was finally up to it, we read the book Snip, Snip, Snow by Nancy Poydar.

The story is really cute. It's about a little girl who really wants it to snow. She goes to school and begs her teacher to make snowflakes, so they make them out of paper. When they finish making the snowflakes they look outside and are so excited to see that it's finally snowing. At the end, there are directions to make your own paper snowflakes, so Bekah and I did just that.

We actually used coffee filters and just flattened them out a bit.

Bekah needed quite a bit of help folding and cutting the snowflakes out, but the look on her face when we unfolded the filter to reveal the snowflake was priceless!

After we had finished quite a few snowflakes I suggested hanging them up on our living room window. She is so proud of these snowflakes!

Polar Bear Paper Bag Puppet

2010-01-22T08:27:00.001-08:00

Bekah has suddenly taken to paper bag puppets. We started with a polar bear puppet, since that's what we were learning about this week.
Bekah put glue on the paper bag.

She then added the polar bears head and ears. (I had drawn on the eyes).

Bekah drew on the nose and mouth.

We also added hands to our polar bear and she colored in claws.

Cotton Ball Polar Bear

2010-01-13T08:12:00.001-08:00

We continued our polar bear week by making a cotton ball polar bear from here. We made it into a bit of a math lesson by using the numbers to go along with it.

First thing I did was to cut out all the numbers. I then put them inside a paper bag and had Bekah pull out a number.

She would then find the same number on the polar bear and glue a cotton ball on that number. (I cut my cotton balls into 4 pieces to make them go farther).

It was a great introduction to numbers 20-31, since she's not too familiar with these numbers. However, this takes awhile and I could tell I was losing her attention, so I joined in and we made it into a little game by taking turns.

I think it turned out pretty cute!

Polar Bear Book

2010-01-12T08:19:00.000-08:00

This week we are learning about polar bears. Our first activity was to make a polar bear book. Bekah has been really into coloring, so she loved making this. I found the pages for our book here.

I love how the book gives facts about polar bears. When Nathan came home last night Bekah read the book with him and told him about how polar bears live in the Arctic. Does't it feel great when your kids really get it?!

Bekah colored the pages and then asked for glitter. So, I broke out the glitter glue and she went nuts covering all her pages with glitter. She spent the longest time with this....it was great.

Here are some pages from her polar bear book.

Penguin ideas

2010-01-11T10:21:00.000-08:00

Bekah and I had so much fun with penguin week. We finished up and are now getting into a week of polar bear projects. I'll start posting our polar bear adventures tomorrow, but wanted to finish up on the penguin posts I didn't get to. Here are some simple, yet fun ideas to do for a penguin lesson:

*Roll and Color Penguin - This is a fun little game. Bekah would roll the dice and add up the dots. She would then color in the number that was rolled.

*Make a penguin book. I actually got this idea from Mailbox Magazine. However, all you would need would be some cute penguin coloring pages, have your child color them (and add glitter, if you're brave!), then staple them together to make a book.

*Tracing penguins.

Muffin Tin Monday

2010-01-11T10:07:00.000-08:00

Happy Muffin Tin Monday. Today's theme was Back to school/learning. Bekah had her muffin tin for breakfast since breakfast is brain food.

I was so excited to use these new funny feet muffin cups. I picked these up at AC Moore this past week. I've admired them on other blogs and couldn't wait for Bekah to see them.

She was so excited for her muffin tin breakfast. She had:
Scrambled Eggs, ketchup, strawberries and blueberries, and teddy bear toast. Yummm!

You can find out what others are having at Muffin Tin Mom.