Thursday, April 21, 2016

Week Fourteen: Sticky Easel

A couple years ago I did a fun fall project with Owen and contact paper. It was such fun and when I stumbled upon some Pinterest projects this week that use contact paper. It seems that they are called Sticky Easels, if you want to do some browsing yourself, too. :)




One by one or throw the whole bowl? THROW IT!




For this project we kept an open ended art theme. When I have some spare time I will be trying out some matching/learning games on the sticky easel. I have visions of drawing boxes or Venn diagrams and having O sort different pictures from magazines or shapes and things that I can cut out ahead of time. I'm also hoping to try out some puzzles just to see what that would look like!

What ideas do you have?





Wednesday, April 13, 2016

Week Thirteen: Spring Break!

Spring break was so great. I finally overcame the mom guilt and was able to take advantage of the daycare I was already paying for. Monday I sent O to daycare all day while I caught up on work. Tuesday and Wednesday we went on morning adventures and then I sent him to daycare for the afternoon both days, and Friday I kept him all day. It was kind of perfect!
Thursday I sent him for the whole day and did basically NOTHING. All day. 
It. Was. Amazing.

However, since ya'll probably wouldn't keep reading a blog about me watching Netflix all day, I'll focus on the fun we had!

First up was the Preschool Playdate at the Science Museum of Minnesota on Tuesday morning. On Tuesday mornings they have activities geared toward the preschool set and as an added bonus they have free admission with our Children's Museum membership for the Preschool Playdates as well!


So many fun things to explore at the Science Museum!


Next up was a super fun play date at the new indoor play space in Stillwater. It is an extension of Gammy and Gumpy's toy store and is called Kids Oasis. It was a super cool space with lots of imaginative play toys and spaces, a sandbox, a climbing area, a space for little babies, train tables, and some party rooms. O had an absolute blast and we will definitely go back there!



Firefighters, grocery stores, magnet toys, tea parties, and so much more!

 
Finally, we have been dealing with a lot of BIG emotions lately. It seems as though O is really struggling with how to handle his frustration. We decided to make a calm down bottle to see if giving him something to focus on would help. It seems to be working, at least a little bit, and it was a blast to make! We used about 3/4 HOT water and 1/4 glitter glue. We whisked them together and then added fine glitter. Poured it all into a rinsed out water bottle with smooth sides and super glued the cap on. The result is pretty mesmerizing. O asked that we make more, and I want to make a tiny one using a travel size shampoo bottle that would be easy to toss in my purse when we go out and about. 

Whisking is so fun! 


The moral of the story, is that it is good to be kind to yourself and give yourself 'me time' whenever you can. Because I had 'me time' over spring break I was a better and more engaged mom that was excited to do so much fun stuff. It is so hard to not let the mom guilt take over, but when you can find it in you to tell the mom guilt to go to hell, it is pretty freaking fantastic.


Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Week Twelve: Puffy Paint Disaster

Pinterest fails are so fun to look at... when they aren't your projects.

I bet you can see where this is going already. The beautiful puffy pain rainbow from Pinterest looked so fun! I made this puffy pain with my class to paint clouds and water to illustrate the water cycle. It was great!
Shaving cream + glue + food color until it was a good consistency.
You know what isn't great? A toddler covered in food coloring that won't wash off. ;)

Ok, ok. I'm being a tad dramatic. It washed off a day or so later. And he had fun. And we had fun watching him. So I suppose it was *technically* a win. But my oh MY does it look quite different than the Pinterest example.

We will be doing this again. Perhaps with white "paint" on colored paper. Perhaps outside where we can hose everything off. But we will try again for sure.

O was impressed!
Super, super impressed. 
SO impressed. 
Yeah, this seems about right. 
Can you tell which one is from Pinterest and which one is ours? ;p