The Doctors Wife

David and the Beanstalk

David has been obsessed with the Max and Ruby episode where Max won't eat his beans, so Ruby tells him the story of "Max and the Beanstalk." Obsessed. He begs to watch it multiple times a day, and I find myself giving in at least once, because he is just SO excited about it. (Plus, when David says beanstalk, it sounds like "beanstomp" and it is so cute that I can't resist!) I decided that it would be fun to plant "magic" beans and grow our own beanstalk. I mixed up glitter and dried beans and put it in a little pouch (I think an from an Anthro gift card) and we "planted" the beans. When the kids woke up the next day our magic beans had grown...

They were so excited! I just free-handed the beanstalk and cut out leaves from green poster-board and used painters tape to attach them to the wall (that way the walls won't get messed up and no sticky residue will be on the wall). This was super easy and I did it while I watched Toddlers and Tiaras. That is a show that I will occasionally catch, and I am thinking that I may have to add it to the DVR line up because seriously? That is 10 kinds of crazy going on and did you see that mother who thought that her daughter screaming at and hitting her was cute?! Anyway...David was super excited, can you tell?

(Oliver would like to be acknowledged...and would also like a belly rub...and perhaps some bacon)

Unfortunately our beanstalk was too high for the kids to climb, and Mr. Brown Dinosaur only made it about 1/4 of the way up before having to come back down.

(Hey, where's my bacon?)

This was a super easy project and the kids had so much fun with it. We measured how tall they were against the beanstalk, and of course we watched Max and Ruby.  

We also used these play-dough mats, and this kept them busy for at least an hour. I had a few letters/cards to write and I was able to get all of it done while they played.

I had a few other things that I was planning to do with the kids, but my plans were sidetracked with an impromptu trip to the eye doctor to have a "foreign object extracted" from my left eye. (two words that don't belong in the same sentence, eye and extracted) Luckily the offending object was  removed and after some amazing numbing drops, all was right with the world again. This was a fun way to start our weekend, (the beanstalk, not the eye doctor) my parents came to visit on Friday and the kids were super excited to show Grammy and PaPa their beanstalk. Hope you had a great weekend!

Laundry Love

I used to be one of those people who abhorred ironing. I loathed it, and avoided it to the detriment of my dry cleaning bill. For anything that couldn't be sent to the cleaners, I was a steamer girl.  A couple of months ago I pulled out the ole' iron and was trudging along when I noticed that no matter how many times I went over something, it never did become quite crisp and wrinkle free. Time for a new iron- I was ready to shell out, thinking perhaps that better equipment would make the task of ironing wee little pants and dresses more bearable. I started looking into Rowenta, and was surprised that lately the reviews are not so good, as in really not so good; so I began to look at what was getting good reviews and found this. Oh ya'll!  I may be an ironing convert. It is so good, and so easy, and so much faster. I actually don't mind ironing now. Plus it is not an expensive iron, and ya'll it really is the smoothest thing ever, it literally glides over the clothes doing the work for you. My Mom was skeptical despite my giddiness (I totally called her after using it the first time) but then she ironed a shirt at my house and now she understands my hype. I had some friends over for lunch a few weeks ago and the subject of ironing came up and I actually got out the iron. ( I know, I have reached a new level of sad and lame- high school/ college me wouldn't even recognize me now) Anyway, loooong story short, I love this iron and if you are in the market for a new iron, I highly recommend this one. 

Do you know who else loves to "iron"? Hannah loves to look at "magazines" and would beg for this every time she "read" the PBKids catalog. Well, her wish came true, as this was one of her birthday gifts and every time she sees me get out the ironing board, she (or David) runs and gets hers. I saw this a while back on Money Saving Mom, and knew that this would be perfect for Hannah. I didn't use the patterns, I just winged it. This was a very easy project, (I did it while Mike and I watched Master Chef). I added a few buttons, trim, etc. for embellishment and I thought for a quick, easy project it turned out pretty cute. Yesterday when I got out my ironing, Hannah got hers out and I presented her with her own laundry. I set up the line for her and she was delighted- she (or David) would "iron" and then she would pin it to the line. She had a great time and it kept them both out from underneath me while I got the ironing off of my to do list!

 

I think this is a really cute project and it really doesn't need the ironing component, (but I knew this would keep my little helper occupied while I got the ironing done) and was so easy. You could also step it up and make it a matching game, or work on color recognition with little ones. Love it when I can get something done and the kids aren't even aware of it! ; )

 

Valentine's Ideas

I had a couple of emails asking me about the activities I am using for my wreath. I am doing very simple things, but I will share for those who were wondering (or if you are snowed in and need something to do!)

Making Valentine's for the Grandparents

•Read a special Valentine's book (x2) (I already mentioned the first book, and I picked up a couple more from our library)

•Make Valentine's for Grandma & Grandpa and Grammy & PaPa (She used an entire glue stick for you Grandma!)

•Bake Valentine's cookies

•Pop Popcorn and watch Be My Valentine, Charlie Brown

•Make a Valentine craft (x3) I don't have anything specific planned, I am going to see what I'm up for when the time comes  ; ) Nothing a quick search on Swagbucks can't fix if I can't come up with anything! (If you don't do Swagbucks, you are missing out, it is like Google, but it randomly gives you points for searching- and you cash in your points for prizes, I have gotten a ton on Amazon gift cards using Swagbucks, and if you sign up, click on my link above and I will get referral credit : )

•Deliver Valentine's (we will be seeing family for David's birthday)

•Take Valentine's treats to dance class

•Make a Valentine's house- (I bought a gingerbread house to make before Christmas, but the sickness from hell hit our house the week before Christmas, and it never got done, but I didn't want to toss it out, and I am not saving it for a year, so we will decorate it with Valentiney candy and call it good)

•Watch a special Valentine show (again I have no exact plan, but will have my DVR ready to catch a Valentiney episode- surely something on Noggin will be Valentine related?)

•Help make Valentine treats for the puppies (heart shaped, of course!)

•Take a special treat to Daddy at work

See? Simple things! I think those of you who asked may be a little let down! For the crafty stuff/ valentines I am trying to use up old scrap-booking supplies so I am not planning on buying anything so I plan on making something up depending on what all I find, or if I see a cute idea somewhere that fits with what I have on hand.  Anyway, I hope this gives you an idea of the kind of things we are up to!

I love how they are concentrating on what they are working on so hard! Hope you guys are all staying warm!

 

 

The Snowy Day (or in our case Days)

A couple of weeks ago we had some snow in our neck of the woods, so we read The Snowy Day.  We have had a ton of snow this last week (along with most of the country!) so I thought I would share some of the activities that we did with this book. 

We made coffee filter snow flakes and decorated them with glitter and hung them in our front window. 

Styrofoam ball snow-man (I got the balls in a set from the Dollar tree)

Puffy snow flakes (Don't you love how she's holding her baby?)

Made Snow angels

And when we got some serious snow, we made a snowman and snow ice cream!

We also did an assortment of color pages, and we watched The Snowy Day on DVD. (I got a set of Scholastic DVD's from TJ Max for $7.99- I LOVE them and so do my kids!) We are due to have more snow this week, ugh! I am ready for spring but have had fun doing snow themed activities with the kids!

 

Rainbow Fun

One of my goals for this year was to be more intentional about my time with Hannah and David, and more specifically having a short devotional with them each morning. So far we have really enjoyed it, I usually print off a color page or two that has to do with the devotional and the kids color them while I make breakfast in the mornings. Last week, one of the devotions was about rainbows and God's promises and I decided to take it a little further and add in a few more rainbow related activities for Hannah in the afternoon while David was napping. 

 We mixed colors using this page.

Hannah had a good time with this- she loves to paint, and there is a Max and Ruby episode where they mix paint colors and she mentioned that she was mixing colors just like Ruby- so cute!

We also made a rainbow fan- we actually made two because I love the idea of demonstrating how there are many shades of each color. Hannah can definitely be a little stubborn on things like this, she is very much a black and white thinker so I loved that this was a fun activity that showed (in such a visual way) how there can be many varieties of the same thing. 

I got the idea for this here.

We had a really fun afternoon and David took a nice long nap so we were able to get in some good one on one time. I love it when we have these easy, teachable moments!

Other color/activity pages we used can be found here.

 

 

Bread and Jam for Hannah

We decided to forego mother's day out this year, so I have been working with Hannah at home on letters, numbers, coloring, etc. I am doing my own twist on Before Five In A Row, and Trish Kuffner's Picture Book Activities.  I love seeing Hannah learn and progress, and she loves doing her activities and projects. I am taking a very relaxed approach, and it is suiting our family very well during this  season. Sometimes David participates with us, and other days we do our "lesson" while he is down for his nap. I know I won't share all of the activities or all of the books we do, but I will periodically share some of what we do. I love the idea of literature based learning, and think it is such an easy thing to implement into daily life since most of us already read to our kids every day. I have used BFIA and PBA as a jumping off point to get ideas, and also make up a few of my own that suit our schedule and Hannah's interests.  Last week our book was Bread and Jam for Frances. I was really looking forward to this particular title since Hannah is such a ridiculously picky eater. I really tried to use the book as a jumping off point for trying lots of new foods. Here is a little of what we did last week:

 

I found some cute workbooks at Borders and we have done several worksheets from them each week. Normally I think 3 is a little young for worksheet type activities and prefer a more natural approach to early learning at this age,  but Hannah LOVES worksheets so it is working for her. Each week I pull out a few that go with our theme. We also did a few other coloring/ painting activities- we traced a plate, colored different foods on the plate and then used glitter to decorate. Hannah LOVES to use glitter, but man it is messy!

 

We also made felt food. I had planned on actually sewing and making "real" pretend play foods, but our schedule was not going to allow for this, so I ended up just cutting very simple food out of felt and called it a day. Hannah and I looked through the book together and she pointed out some of the different foods, and I cut them out for her. This was definitely Hannah's favorite activity and she had (has!) so much fun playing with her felt "food". I think Santa may have to take some time to actually make some felt food for her stocking. (If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just look up felt food on Etsy- so much cute stuff!)

Hannah had a bread and jam tea party with her babies and I thought it was so cute that she did this all on her own! Of course, I had to get pictures of her little table setting.

I also put out our food fridge magnets. We have several sets of fridge magnets, and I try to rotate them periodically and thought this set went well with our book.

I also made Hannah a simple chart to encourage her to try new foods. I made stickers  (there are several different ones, they are really cute, our printer was almost out of ink when I made them, so my pics don't do them justice!) for her chart and after she got four stickers, she got a reward, in this case I took her to get her nails painted. I know that this is essentially bribery and some of you think it is wrong, but it was good motivation to help push Hannah to try new things and I am completely okay with it, especially since she willingly tried new things. We are doing this again this week (this week the reward is a ride on the carousel at the mall) because getting her to try new things is absolutely worth it right now!

 

 

I wanted to have something permanent to help document all of the books we read and did "lessons" on. I came up with an idea to do a charm bracelet- we add a new charm for every book we do. Hannah LOVES her bracelet and I love that she will have a such a sweet momento to look back on.  I have had fun finding cute charms to match the books. I saw this and knew it was perfect!

 

So that is a little bit of what we've done with Bread and Jam for Francis, I'll share other books/ activities periodically, I just have to remember to take pictures!

 

 

He Said, She Said

I have been attacking my to-do list over the past couple of weeks. I have been very motivated to cross things off- especially things that I have been putting off for a sweet forever. Case in point:

This little chair is from my Grandma. My brother has one too- they were at her house and we sat in them in her playroom when we were little. While I LOVE this little chair and the memories that it holds, the orange just doesn't work in my house. Recovering this chair has been on my list for ages, and it really is a simple project but it never gets done. Well, my crossing off fury came to this chair and I was on a mission. However one thing was hindering me, I could not find the staple gun. It was not in it's assigned place and I racked my brain and looked anywhere I thought I could possibly  have put it. So I asked MIke where it was because obviously he had used it last, because of course I would have put it away. He insisted that of course he would have put it away and I had obviously been the last to use it. We both looked, and no staple gun. But I was ready to cross this thing off my last, so I continued undeterred. 

Oh yes I did. Duct tape fixes anything. It's not as taut as it should be, I will have to fix it whenever I find the staple gun (from wherever Mike put it ; ) But for now, it is crossed off of my list.  

 

As for the staple guns whereabouts? I have not a clue, I am guessing we will find it whenever we move- and then we'll know who used it last!
 

Fun With Fish

Since Mother's Day Out ended last week, I have been making plans to have activities to do with Hannah and David so that the days don't just run together with no rhyme or reason (kind of like that sentence). And while I love the relaxed pace of summer, I don't want to end up getting sucked up by the TV when I run out of ideas of things to do with the kiddos. So today we headed to the aquarium and enjoyed looking at all of the fish. Hannah walked next to the stroller and over-all did a great job of staying with me. David, seeing his sister "roam" free wanted out of the stroller so bad, and because he is a charming little Rover, I obliged. He did okay, but he certainly expected me to stay with him and not the other way around. 

(And I totally dressed him in a shark shirt on purpose, because I am cheesy like that!)

Then we came home for lunch on these cute fish plates/ place mats that I found at Target. (Why yes I love a good theme? Why do you ask?)

We played with our fish puzzles,

And Hannah and I did a fun fish craft, we made a fish family with do-a-dot markers. (which are fantastic for toddlers/ preschoolers!) We used the shimmer markers for this, and they actually turned out really neat. We added a googley eye and called it good. Here they are on our fridge:

 

 They are actually quite pretty in real life, but if I were going to do them again, I would have used card stock for the fish, since they were heavily decorated and quite saturated, the paper began to curl up a little (but the layers and layers of color work really well for this so it is perfect for eager artists) 
  

Anyway, we had a lot of fun and I have more fish projects planned for the next few days and I will share more about them next week. Mike is on call this long weekend, so having some fun things planned will definitely help the time pass! Hope you all have a great holiday weekend!

 

I Am That Mom

 

I am that Mom who sends fruit to school for Valentines. (ha!) But with a peanut free rule, candy is pretty much out, plus I saw these somewhere (on a blog? in a magazine? I have no idea, but this is not an original idea of mine!) and thought they were so cute!

  

(the apple tag says, "You're the apple of my eye", the banana tag says, "I'm bananas for you") 

 

  

Curtastrophe

A couple of weeks ago when little Miss Hannah was feeling under the weather, I begged asked my Mom if she would like to come visit for few days so we could hang out and I could try to get a few things done around my house. I have been wanting to make curtains for our dining room since we moved in, but have never gotten around to it. What with the whole going to a fabric store with two small children while doing math in my head that involves conversions and getting out my sewing machine and all that goes with it and you know, actually sewing the curtains, well I just never found the time. But I could not stand curtain-less windows any longer and with my children in my Mother's very capable hands I made a solo trip for some fabric and came home and got down to business. As I began to pin the fabric, I began to regret my fabric choice. Let's just say that it involved puckering and gathers, and it was most unpleasant, especially when I realized that the lady who cut my fabric did not cut it straight (although if you were eye balling it and not measuring it looked fine) and by not straight I mean a difference of anywhere between 4-8 inches off, which is A LOT. So pinning one panel took me a sweet forever and when I actually began to sew the panel, I regretted my fabric choice even more. As nap time was running low and my frustration level was reaching its limit, I decided to sew the second panel guerrilla style, without pinning it. This horrified my sweet Mother and I asked that she leave the room so she would not witness the sewing atrocity that was getting ready to take place. I assured her that once they were hanging up, it would be fine. Just fine. Absolutely fine. And for $30 and a nap-time later, I think they look pretty great. They are assuredly far from perfect (much shorter than I planned- thank you for cutting the fabric all wonky fabric lady) but at the end of the day, mission accomplished.

The Before:

 

The After:

 

And a close up so you can see why the fabric was such a royal pain: