Valentine's Day Fun

Claire has been having a blast with all the excitement around Valentine's Day this year!  She loves crafts of all kinds, but really really enjoys using a glue stick!  She actually does great with it, better than some 5 year olds I've had in kindergarten!  I precut some hearts in different colors and got a bag of foam sparkle hearts for $1 and she went to town making Valentines.  Such a fun way to work on some basic school yet important writing readiness skills.  We sent some to her friends and the others are decorating our kitchen window :) 

The second set of pictures are from a Valentine cookie making playdate with Claire's good friend Chloe.  The did such a great job!  They both were practicing sharing and using there nice manners with each other b/c they had to share the cookie cutters, and rolling pin.  Very cute!  This also allowed them to work on those ever important fine motor skills by rolling, patting, cutting, icing, and decorating the cookies.  What a fun day!

Valentine Hearts q-tip painting

Our first Valentine's Day craft this year was super easy and cheap (2 of my favorite things).  I precut hearts small, medium, large.  With older kids they could get more involved with the tracing and cutting.  I used an ice cube tray to hold the paint colors and regular old q-tips from the bathroom closet.  Claire was able to sharpen her fine motor skills by using the q-tip to paint as well as talk about colors and color mixing, size descrimination, and how much her daddy was going to love her hearts :)  After they dried Claire used a glue stick to help me glue them to solid black construction paper.  We had enough hearts made to make a page for each mamaw to have too.  Looks great hanging on the fridge! (sorry I don't have a pic of it)  Happy Painting!

easy to make sun-catchers :)

What child doesn't LOVE to squeeze the glue bottle??  That is exactly what they get to do with this project.  This was our first attempt at making suncatchers, so we only did one.  Just lay some wax paper down, choose a cookie cutter shape, (claire did a flower), let them squeeze lots of glue (clear elmers glue) inside the cookie cutter, once the bottom is all covered in glue they can add colored beads.  I got a huge container of them at hobby lobby.  They were $7.99, but I used an internet 40% coupon and got them for cheap!  Only make a single layer with the beads.  Then it's time to cover them with glue :)  I put a heavy book on top of the cookie cutter when we were done to make sure the glue didn't leak out too much.  Set it on the counter and wait for it to dry.  Don't get in a hurry though, it takes a couple days to get dry all the way through.  When dry add a string and hang in the window :) 

shaving cream painting

Bath time with a toddler is always fun, but why not add a little extra excitment tonight?  We colored men's shaving cream with food coloring in a tupperware container.  What a cheap, fun, and educational night in the bathtub!  Not only will your toddler get to explore their senses with the foam cream, but also colors and color mixing.  And believe me this will get them talking up a storm as they explore new things to do with it.  Claire started with a paint brush, but quickly went to using her hands.  The walls were painted, shower door, faucet, and her whole body.  She even started dipping her animal bathtoys in the foam to wash them.  I think she enjoyed clean up as much as making a mess.  I didn't let her sit in the foamy water too long b/c I didn't want it to irritate her skin.  She loved having the water running to fill her cup to wash off. 

We then turned on the shower for the final clean up.  Have fun!

                                                                    materials

playtime

                                                                      

clean up time :)

Making Colored Beans

I'm always using what I've learned as a kindergarten teacher to help me enrich Claire's environment at home.  In the Fall I turned her water/sand table into a corn table by simply adding field corn and bringing it inside.  She never gets tired of playing with it!  Today I decided to color a bag of northern beans I had in the cabinet to create a new sensory tub for Claire to play with.  Not only is this fun, but also super educational.  It's a very inexpensive way to foster vocabulary, motor skills, problem solving, & social development :)  And along with everything else; a hands on way to create memories while encouraging learning. 

Claire and her animals helping gather supplies.

Place beans in a zip lock baggie (double bag) add a tiny splash of rubbing alcohol and about 4-5 drops of food coloring depending on how dark a color you want.  Seal bags and let your toddler shake, squeeze, and toss around the bag until all beans are colored.  Happens quick!

Lay flat to dry on paper towel to absorb extra alcohol.  I turn on the vent above the stove b/c it does smell a bit like alcohol. 

After drying, this batch took about an hour.  I put it in a tupperware container and Claire started scooping with her plastic spoon to fill her tea cups.

An after thought was adding the table cloth to put it all on.  Here she is feeding all her baby animals at her zoo.  The color does slightly come off on hands so keep it off carpet or fabrics.  A super easy and fun way to get it off hands is to simply wash your hands with shaving cream :)  Works like a charm!  If any rubs off on hard toys a baby wipe easily wipes it off. 

Hiding objects in a sensory tub is another excellent way to encourage learning.  Some examples are: Letters, Numbers, Colored Tiles, Money, Animals, Shapes, ect.

Christmas Festivities

Claire watching for Santa :)

at great uncle ron and great aunt carol

pretty in lights

1st gingerbread house

New House

We are moved in and have celebrated our first Thanksgiving and Christmas in our beautiful new house.  We miss Florida, but love the house and property that we have now.  Looking forward to a vacation to FL though sometime next summer :)

Barn

Fireplace decorated for Christmas

Walk To Remember

Today was the first time our family attended the St. Francis Walk To Remember walk for Pregnancy and Infant Loss.  We got lost on the way, but ended up finding it just before everything started.  We gathered at the hospital with all the other families who were there to honor their lost babies.  Seeing the amount of people there was a pleasent surprise.  We took a short walk to a nearby park for a special ceremony.  Along the walk we saw our sign for Baby Jason, I was so excited to see this!  When we settled in at the park we listened to a poem "A Walk To Remember" which brought tears to Matt and my eyes.  A short while into the program they played "Precious Child" which is a song we chose to play at Jason's memorial service.  The lyrics to this song are just so touching and so personal to us we were both in tears again.  We sat and listened as they read the names of all the babies, very touching and loved hearing them read Jason Nicholas Montgomery to honor our little angel!  They then released 3 doves to symbolize the past, present, and future of our lives in honoring our little ones.  Beautiful to watch, and Claire enjoyed seeing them fly up to heaven.  They then played a song and we released some special balloons.  We released balloons for Jason, as well as our 2 angel babies from before Claire.  We also had a special balloon to honor Baby Mason since our dear friends were unable to attend.  Claire had been talking all day about how excited Baby Jason was going to be in heaven because she was going to give him some balloons.  Her pure understanding of everything always amazes me.  She is such a miracle child, and not a day goes by that I do not stop to thank God for blessing us with our precious little girl!  After the ceremony we were able to pick out 3 potted mums as gifts for our babies.  We then had lunch at the park before heading back home.  It was a rollercoaster of emotions, but such a wonderful experience!  Baby Jason and our angel babies are in our hearts and on our minds all the time.  We are so lucky to have such supportive family and close friends who care so much about us.  It means so much to us that you continue to keep us in your prayers and Jason in your hearts!

Camping and Hiking

Before Matt started back at work we took Claire to Turkey Run State Park to hike and camp.  The weather looked questionable, but we decided to give it a try.  It was raining when we left but by the time we got there it was nice and sunny!  We found a campsite, and loaded up to go for our first hike.  Despite going with a toddler and cassie our dog we chose one of the most rugged trails b/c I knew it had some water that they love!  It was so much fun!  We then went and cooked hotdogs on the grill, then went for a bike ride at the campground.  We took Claire to the park to play then got rained on while riding back to our camp.  We were laughing the whole way we were getting poured on :)  After the rain Claire cooked marshmellows on the fire for the first time.  After smores we watched a little Dora and then had our "sleepover" as Claire kept saying.  After a successful nights sleep we packed up and went to the trails one more time.  Another fun hike, but the last 1/2 mile Claire was wiped out and needed Daddy to carry her.  Great trip full of great memories!!!