Muffin Tin Monday Swap

We interrupt this blog break for an important announcement:
Our Muffin Tin Swap package has arrived! I took a day to rejuvenate myself with a pedicure and a new hairstyle and came home to this beautifully decorated package. I couldn't wait to open it....I was like a kid at Christmas. Here's what was inside:

Flower muffin tin cups, sprinkles, flower picks, recipe for dirt along with the ingredients (Chocolate cookies, chocolate pudding, and gummy worms), suggestions for flower muffin tin ideas, and cute matching flower cutouts. I cannot wait for Bekah to see. I'll be sure to post her reaction! Everything was so creative. I plan on using everything right after our move on Tuesday. It is definitely something to look forward to.
Thank you so much to Mariah from Giggles Galore, she was an awesome swap partner! Check out her blog, she's so creative and her kids are adorable!
Also, thank you to Michelle from Her Cup Overfloweth for hosting this Muffin Tin Monday Swap. It was so much fun! If you would like to join in the Muffin Tin Monday fun, check out her site here. Thanks ladies!

We're Moving!!!

We are moving into our new house early next week, so I will be taking a short break from posting. I'm up to my elbows in boxes! We're so excited and cannot wait for this move! It's just such a busy time! We'll be back after the move in full swing! Thanks for understanding! See you soon!

If You Give a Cat a Cupcake

We have recently fallen in love with all of the "If You..." books. The last time we were at the library we picked up "If You Give a Cat a Cupcake."
We decided to do this activity to go along with the story.
First Bekah colored her cupcake.

Then she drizzled glue all over the cupcake.

Finally we added sprinkles and let it dry.

Here's our very blue cupcake.

You can find many ideas to use with this book here.
I was also thrilled to find this site with more activities.

Goodnight Activities

Since we're very busy moving we haven't been doing many crafts, so I thought I would post something that we use every night. We made this awhile back when we did the letter G week. This was our Goodnight Activities poster.

We have it hanging up on our bathroom door. Bekah will run to it to see what comes next (even though I'm sure she remembers.)
All we did was take a large piece of black construction paper. I found some clip art pictures that went along with goodnight activities we do each night and we glued them on in the order she's to do them. We did bathtime, brushing teeth, getting pajamas on, reading a book, praying, and going to bed. So simple to make and it really got Bekah excited about bedtime!

Muffin Tin Monday - Daddy's Cookin'

I was thrilled to find out that there was no theme this week for Muffin Tin Monday since we are moving into our new house in 1 week. I have so many things already packed and know I would've had a hard time being creative. So, while I was packing up our bathroom my husband made Bekah's muffin tin meal (thanks, Nathan!)
Bekah had:

Grilled black bean and cheese quesadilla, sour cream, homemade applesauce, green grapes, milk, and a sugar cookie.
You can find out more about Muffin Tin Monday over at Her Cup Overfloweth. It's such a fun time! We look forward to Mondays every week!

Gone Fishin'

This is a game I made for Bekah awhile ago. We hadn't had it out for months, so the other day when Bekah was looking for something to do I got it out. She played with it for at least an hour.
It's very easy to make. I simply cut fish shapes out of card stock and wrote a letter on each side. I then put a metal paper clip on the mouth of the fish.

We used a fishing pole from a Melissa and Doug puzzle, but you could also make one out of a wooden dowel, string, and a magnet.

Spread out the fish shapes and have your child go fishing. When Bekah would catch a fish she had to tell us what letter fish she caught. If she couldn't, she had to throw that fish back. We had so much fun!

Friendly Fireflies

While we were on vacation we saw TONS of fireflies. I haven't seen that many fireflies since I was a child. Bekah loved them. My husband would catch one in his had to show her the bug up close. It was such a memorable experience for all of us, so when I saw this craft on No Time For Flashcards I couldn't wait to do it. I was even more excited when I found the yellow and orange band aids in the dollar store!
This was such a fun craft to do!
First we drew a nighttime scene on our sheet of black construction paper. We talked about how daytime is light out and nighttime is dark out.

Next we added our orange band aids for the fireflies body. This was also a good fine motor skill practice with taking the bandaid out of the wrapping.

We added two yellow band aids for the wings.

We're concentrating!

Here's our three friendly fireflies. Bekah insisted on hanging them up in her bedroom!

Dark and Light

This is a simple game that we played this afternoon. I picked up some paint samples while I was shopping this week to make this. Just make sure you pick out both dark and light colors. I then cut them into separate rectangles and put them in a bag. On a plain piece of paper write dark on one side and light on the other. I then had Bekah sort the color samples according to whether it was dark or light.


This was actually a lot easier for her than I thought it would be. It didn't take long at all. However, I think it was great practice for sorting and for distinguishing between dark and light colors.

Our finished game.

Our Gingerbread Bath People

Recently Bekah hasn't been wanting to take a bath. I was looking for ideas to get her interested again when I came across this idea from Pink and Green Mama. These took all of 5 minutes (if that) to make and you only need colorful foam and scissors to make them.

Here she is putting them into the tub.

She loved all the bright colors!

Bekah calls them her Gingerbread men....how funny is that!

Muffin Tin Monday - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

Bekah and I are getting back into the swing of things today after being sick this weekend. What better way is there to start a week off than with Muffin Tin Monday! Today's theme over at Her Cup Overfloweth, is Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I was trying to come up with some creative ideas and nothing was hitting me. Finally, she got out her toy dump truck to play with and I thought wouldn't it be great to serve her muffin tin meal in the dump truck! So, that's just what I did.

In our dump truck was:
Hot dog "logs", cheese puff "rocks", and chocolate cake "dirt". Bekah couldn't wait for her dump truck Muffin Tin meal.

We also decided to do a craft along with our Muffin Tin Monday meal. Bekah has been loving the Little Red Car song from over at No Time For Flashcards. She was singing this all day yesterday. So, I found this car craft from DLTK's website(which we colored red to go with the song!)
Color your car pieces. We also used some red glitter glue.

After your glitter glue dries, cut out the pieces and glue them on a sheet of paper. I drew a street scene on our paper.

Let the glue dry and enjoy!

Happy Muffin Tin Monday!

Tot School - Sick week

We started out great with tot school this week and then Bekah got strep throat. To make it worse, Mommy got strep throat shortly after! What a week it's been!
Bekah is 37 months.
In Tot School this week we:
Practiced our scissor skills.


Played Little Mouse, Little Mouse felt board game.

Made a Tissue Paper Flower.

Helped our sore throats with fruit chillers.

We hope to get back into the swing of things this week!
You can learn more and see what others have been up to at 1+1+1=1.

My Anniversary

Five years ago today I married the love of my life. We met in college in a music theory class and knew shortly after that we would be married. God has really blessed us with eachother and with our little girl.

Since this is our five year anniversary I really wanted to do something special. I've been thinking about it for a long time. We considered going away for the weekend, but then we bought a house and money is kinda tight right now. So, we got a babysitter (thanks, Grandma) and decided to have a sort of stay-cation at home. I was going to clean the house from top to bottom, we were going to go to a movie without cartoon characters in it (we never get to do this), and have dinner and dessert at our favorite restaurant....Then we found out Bekah has strep throat. She seems fine (we caught it really early) and Grandma still wanted to take her. But, now I'm starting to feel sick. My husband says that even if we don't do anything but stay home and watch movies it will be fine with him, but I feel terrible! Don't you have when sickness has such terrible timing! Who wants to call the Doctor on their 5th wedding anniversary. I know it could be worse, but I'm still bummed.

Tissue Paper Art

A few months ago I tried a tissue paper art project with Bekah. She got very frustrated and I ended up being the one doing the project. I didn't try it again. Then she got this tissue paper art kit from her Uncle and soon to be Aunt for her birthday. I was less than thrilled to try it out again! Last week she saw it on top of the art supplies and asked to do tissue art. So, we tried it again. Guess what? We both had a blast!

We had an art kit to do this, but it could easily be done with art supplies you have on hand. Simply cut a shape out of construction paper, drizzle with glue, crush small pieces of tissue paper and add to your shape.

Our shape was a flower.

It ends up looking so pretty when it's done!

We love Veggies!

I have tried many times to give my daughter salad. She just won't eat it. She would gag and carry on. I figured it was because it was raw since she loves cooked veggies. I really didn't push it because I figured at least she was eating her cooked veggies. Well, wasn't I shocked the one day when she was picking lettuce out of our garden and eating it, picking peas and eating them, and picking green beans and eating them! All raw!

When I saw this idea from Funny Days with Mommy and Maddie I couldn't wait to make it for my new lettuce eater!

It was very easy to make. You simply cut the salad shapes from craft foam. We did lettuce, tomato, and shredded carrots.

Bekah served Daddy lettuce when he came home!

Little Mouse, Little Mouse

We just bought a house and are moving soon, so I've been trying to get Bekah excited about the move. We've borrowed books from the library on moving and one of those books was called "A New House for Mouse", by Petr Horacek. For some reason Bekah was taken with this book as soon as she saw it in the library pile. I remembered a game I had seen in Mailbox Magazine and knew it would go along well with this book.

First I cut house shaped pieces out of different colored felt. You could use whatever colors you have on hand. You could also do this just with paper and not use the felt board.

Put your felt houses on the felt board.

You will also need a cut out of a little mouse. We used the one from the magazine, but you can draw one or use clip art. We then taped a piece of sandpaper on the back of the laminated mouse to keep him from falling out.


Hide your mouse under one of the houses. Say this chant, "Little mouse, little mouse, are you in the (green) house?"

Have your child check under whichever color they pick to see if the mouse is inside. "Hello, little mouse!"

Bekah asked to do this again and again. It was such a fun game to play!