Searching for Spring

I can't believe its almost April 1st and the meteorologists are predicting ANOTHER snow storm. Where is the the warm sunny weather? Anyway, yesterday we went out and searched for signs of spring. They were there, but it is cold.

Crocuses were out

Even a few bees

Lots of Snowdrops around.

Alex looking for signs of spring

With a little inspiration we decided to make our own spring flowers. We painted coffee filters with water colors.

Sprayed them with a little water, to make the colors blend together a bit.

Once the filters had dried I twisted them from the center and added a pipe cleaner stem. We placed them in a vase.

We have a bunch of old medicine bottles that were on the property when my parents inherited the house. I love them and they make great vases. 

Since we had been talking about Spring we decided to read Hopper Hunts for Spring by Marcus Pfister (Author of The Rainbow Fish)

The books is about a bunny that thinks spring is a being and goes out looking to meet him. He of course doesn't find him, but makes some new friends along the way. It is cute read and has beautiful, soft watercolor illustrations.

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A Game of Memory

Today was a lazy day. Alex had a evaluation for his speech. This is the second one. He had one at age two and they didn't feel speech therapy was necessary then. Now the speech pathologist feels it would benefit him. There is many consonants that he can not pronounce correctly and he is difficult to understand. Starting next week he will be going to therapy twice a week. So I'm sure I will be posting a lot of speech therapy activities in the future.

We did play a little memory game with our plastic Easter eggs. He really enjoyed it and picked up the idea quickly. I simply filled the eggs with pairs of the same object. Alex would open one egg then try to find the match. If no match was found I would close both eggs and we would start again till we found a pair. For objects we used bunnies and stones from his Easter Sensory Bin, green army men, some little dinos and some pink plastic hearts. You could use any small object. This was good practice saying what was inside the eggs and also talking about colors.

Shutter Love Tuesday - Hands

Hands are the photo challenge theme over at the Trendy Tree House. This is a photo of Alex holding a big cricket in his hand last summer. Can't wait for those lazy summer days, so tired of the cold weather.

 

B is for Bunny

In preparation for Easter we made a few bunnies today to decorate our house.

We made a paper plate bunny. I found the idea here. It was super easy and fun. Alex got to practice gluing and painting. Simply take 2 white paper plates, cut one in half and then cut a strip off of each half to make a bunny ear shape. Then glue them on the back side of your whole plate. Add eyes, some cotton ball cheeks, and a little bow. Paint the inside of the ears pink, add a pink nose and draw on a mouth.

We talked about the letter B and and used Do A Dot markers to color in a worksheet from Making Learning Fun.

We made some hand print bunnies. To make these little bunnies just paint part of your child's hand. We did the index finger and ring finger, because he has such small hands. Older children or adults could paint their index finger and pinky finger to create a bunny face. Use the thumb and pink paint to make the nose. I drew on the rest of the features with a black marker.

I came up with a quick game to practice letters ABC and numbers 123. I wrote the numbers and letters on some paper plates and placed them on the floor. I told Alex to pretend that he was a bunny and hop on the letter or number I called out. He liked this game. Next time I place the plates on the rug, because they were kind of slippery on the laminate floor.

Another game we played that Alex loved was sound matching with plastic Easter eggs. I got this awesome idea from Kerri at Elle Belle's Bows.   She has a great blog so check it out.

Fill some plastic eggs with some objects that would make a sound. Make a set of each sound. I used some rice, jingle bells and some coins. Have your child shake them and match up the two eggs that sound the same. He can then open them to confirm that they are the same items in both eggs. I have to find some other item to put in the eggs and play this game again with Alex. He really enjoyed this game and wanted to keep playing it.

Entering A New Decade...

A handmade card from my son and a yummy carrot cake from my mom.

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned 30. I am excited to see what my 30's will bring, but I also can't believe my 20's are over. Where did they go? They seemed to pass in a flash. My 20's had many high and low points. I started dating my husband when I was 19. We got engaged at 21. I graduated college at 22. I was married to my best friend when I was 24.

We welcomed our wonderful son when I was 27.

I made a few good friends along the way too.

I guess the high points outnumber the low points. I did I lose my Dad to cancer when I was 23, he was 57.  He fought the battle with multiple myeloma for 4 long years. Last year I also lost my grandfather 82, to diabetes and other health problems. Although not a death, I  lost a very strong friendship, because were both going in different directions with life. We had been inseparable since we were 3 years old. (We are still friends, but not nearly as close as we used to be). All were extremely hard for me but I survived, and I am stronger for that.

So with that said, bring on the 30's. I can't wait to see what you have in store for me!!

Sweet

When I read that "Sweet" was theme of Paper Mama's current photo challenge. I immediately thought of this photo. I love this photo. This was last summer. Alex was enjoying his ice cream cone, but was "sweet" enough to let Daddy have some. I love how he is intently watching how much Daddy eats, he wasn't going to be too generous.

 

Check out the "sweet" photos 

I Heart Faces {Slice of Life}

This week's photo challenge at I Heart Faces is "Slice of Life". I take a lot of candid/ journalistic photos so I had plenty to choose from. I took this photo on St. Patty's Day, it was finally a nice warm day and Alex was so happy to be outside playing. We went to the playground. I like this photo because it portrays his personality so well, in his mischeivious little smile, the twinkle in his gorgeous blue eyes and his perfect dirty little face.(I may be just a little biased, lol)

Check out more "Slice of Life" entries at

Easter Egg Sun Catchers

Today we made some simple but fun Easter egg sun catchers.

We were inspired to make some Easter Eggs after reading The Great Easter Egg Hunt by Michael Garland. This is a cute Easter book with many beautiful illustrations. It is about a boy that is following a bunny and notes left by his Aunt to find a Easter surprise. It has chocolate bunnies, chicks,  lambs, words, Easter bonnets and eggs hidden in every illustration. Alex really enjoyed looking for them on each page. He really like "Ispy" and "Look and Find" books.

To make our sun catchers we simply ripped up some colorful tissue paper into small pieces. Of course Alex enjoyed ripping the paper and then we stuck them randomly to egg shaped clear Contact paper. We sprinkled on some multicolored glitter and then covered then with another piece of Contact paper.

I punched a hole in them and added a piece of fishing line and we hung them up in a window.

The Eensy Weensy Spider

We checked out The Eensy Weensy Spider adapted by Mary Ann Hoberman from the library and Alex loved it. It is a cute adaption of what the spider does after the water spout incident. Its a the day in the life of the spider, which includes walking in a parade, falling and scraping her knees, having her mom put Bandaids on her knees (my son's favorite part), swimming with a frog, hugging a bug, getting new shoes and such. We definately recommend this book!

 After we read this book I helped Alex make his own Eensy Weensy Spider.

I cut all the pieces out of construction paper and he glued them on where I told him too.

We made rain drops using  a small paper tube bent into a raindrop shape and stamped on with paint.

I drew a little "boo-boo" on 3 of his legs and Alex covered them with small Bandaids. Alex even drew a sad face on him because he had "boo-boo's".  We also added 6 red shoes and a red hat on him.

 I think he came out pretty cute, and Alex was very proud of him. He couldn't wait to show Daddy and Grammy.

Show and Tell: Frozen

My goal is to keep inspired and keep taking and sharing photos. Hope you enjoy!
Show:

Tell:
Fresh snow drifting around in the wind on a beautiful winter day. A view from my backyard.

 

Check out all the "frozen" entries

Easter Sensory Bin

So here is our Easter themed sensory bin.

So what's inside?
Blue and Orange colored rice. To dye the rice I used food coloring and white vinegar. I purchased a 5 pound bag of white rice, split it in half in 2 large plastic zip lock baggies. I put in about 1 tsp of food coloring (more or less for desired color) and 1/4 cup of vinegar. I mixed up the bag till all the rice was coated and then spread it on cookies sheets to dry overnight.

Alex had a lot of fun mixing the two colors of rice together.

Some plastic Easter eggs for last year. I put a little craft foam sticker inside each one for a little surprise.

A little basket and some felt flowers, I had on hand.

Sorting felt flowers by colors

A Easter Tic Tac Toe game,  from Micheal's.  I quickly painted the bottoms of the bunnies and chicks and the "bunny" board with corresponding colors to make a color matching game. I hid the bunnies and chicks in the rice and as Alex found them I would ask what color it was and have him put it on the correct color circle.

Some little moonstone gems (clearance shelf at Michael's) and spiky egg shaped balls (Target dollar spot) and some wooden tongs I already had on hand.

This box has lots of fun learning opportunities and fine motor skill practice. I think this box will get a lot of use, Alex seems to really enjoy it. Total cost of box was about $6 and we will reuse many of the items for other boxes or projects.

He is still loving his Moon Sand too.  I think the Easter bunny may bring some more, and a bigger box to play with it in.