On the shelves-19 months

 I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season.  It was very busy at our house with lots of family visiting and fun was had by all.  

I did manage to get a few works on the shelves for LJ in December.

Melissa and Doug pattern blocks. 

 I got these off of the used children's items site I belong to for a very reasonable price.  They come in a wooden box with several different wooden frames.  I just take out one at a time which has pictures on both sides.  I put it along with the shapes it needs into a basket for LJ to do.  

 Mystery Bag

Although we have been using the mystery bag for exploration for a while now we have only just started using it for stereognostic recognition.  I put an assortment of known objects into  the bag.  LJ pulls them out and names them.  He then puts them back into the bag and I ask him if he can find a certain one without looking.  He enjoys playing this game and is usually successful.

Putting Cheerios into a pill container.  

I bought a seven day pill sorter for my pills and vitamins but before I put it to use I gave it to LJ to sort Cheerios into.  He had great fun opening the sections to get the Cheerios in and out.

We even managed some Christmas themed activities.

Here is a Christmas mystery stocking with a tiny snowman, red ribbon, needle felted Christmas tree and several candy canes.  

Pushing colored pompoms through the correct hole and then retrieving them from inside the shoe box.  LJ was pretty random on when he chose to match the colors.

We did several Christmas crafts together but this one worked the best with both children.  Simply gluing tiny pompoms onto a pine cone to make Christmas trees.

 They both enjoyed this activity and they turned out nicely!

Snow Bath = Awesome!!

One of the activities that L and LJ had in their advent calendars was a "Snow Bath"

This was in L's words "Awesome!!"

 

I got the inspiration from Growing A Jeweled Rose.  If you want sensory bath ideas this site has them all!

 

So here is what I did.  First off I put a drop of blue food coloring in the water and added a couple drops of peppermint extract.  I found the perfect foam snowflakes at the Dollar store and added in a little reindeer and polar bear to play with.  I set the mood by bringing in a bedside lamp instead of the bright overhead light and hung a few glowing icicles around the room.

 

For the snow I used shaving cream for them to paint the bath and themselves with and to make "real" snow I used baking soda with enough cold water mixed to give it a snow texture.  This is sooo cool as it feels and looks like real snow and just melts in the warm bath water.

 I cut out pieces of craft foam so they could make their own snowmen.

They played for ages and much fun was had by all. 

I think we may just do it again!!

Merry Christmas!

The antics of Mr. Jingle

 This is Mr. Jingle.  He has come to our house this year to make sure we are getting ready for Christmas and having a fun time doing it!  During the day he sits up on the mantle but at night he gets up to all kinds of mischief.....

 

 

This little guy has been a super fun addition to our Christmas preparation and excitement.  L has been searching for him first thing when she wakes up.  I think he will be making another visit next Christmas season!

Some of our Christmas/Advent crafts and activities

The last couple of years I documented every day of our advent activities but I've found this year I just simply don't have the time!  Instead I've decided to just record some of our favourite crafts and activities.

On the first day of December L started off her advent calendar with a bang.  I was super excited to finally be able to take her to the Nutcracker Ballet this year.  I've wanted to take her for ages but it was just way too expensive for us.  This year a local dance school put on the whole production with professional dancers in the lead rolls.  It was spectacular and also fit our budget.  L didn't move for the whole thing and her eyes were glued to the stage taking it all in!  A definite early highlight.

 

We've also been crafting up a storm.  I wanted to make special ornaments for L and Baby J this year and found this adorable one for Baby J on the website Atelier Pippilotta.  She makes the cutest things!  I just love how it turned out.  So soft and gentle yet still masculine.  Perfect for baby's first Christmas.

 

 We've also been making a ton of these cute felt Christmas trees.  I found the idea from on Julia Crossland Art.  She uses thick felt but we just used cheap felt from the Dollar store and double up each color.  Now that L has learnt to sew they make the perfect presents for teachers and family from her.  We have a little Christmas tree assembly line going!

 Our Christmas nature scene.  This year we decided to add some gnomes and some cute little wooden penguins that Santa brought me last year.  L's favourite part is skating the skater around the tin foil pond and making marks on the "ice".

 Another advent activity was to make some Christmas art for Baby J's room.  We recycled the black and white star canvases and painted them with red and green.  L did the red one and I did the green one.  We just glued colored strips of construction paper onto the canvass and then put some jewel sticker on for ornaments.  I love how simple yet effective they are.  I found the idea on Pintrest somewhere but I'm afraid the reference got lost in the Pintrest black hole!  If this was your original idea please let me know and I will credit you!!

 

L also received How The Grinch Stole Christmas one day for her advent calendar and she loves it.  She loves having different people read it to her and reading it herself!

 

Another advent activity was to decorate the gnome home for Christmas this year.  I will have pictures soon!

Advent Activities 2011 Week 4

Day 20

"make angels"

We made these last year and L was asking to make them again this year.  They are very simple to make just using coffee filters.

Day 21

Okay honestly I just can't remember what we did this day.  This is what happens when you don't record things right away! Lesson learned!

Day 22

"Auntie M and Uncle J arrive"

This Christmas was a very special one for us as not only was it our family's first Christmas in our new house but my husband's sister and her husband came to stay with us all the way from England.  L was beside herself with excitement.

Day 23

"make angel decorations"

I saw these on a blog while I was blog surfing and now I can't for the life of me find it again to link back to .  If these were your idea please leave me a comment so I can link back to you.

These are so simple to make just using a cardboard cereal box and a Styrofoam ball.  We tore up some Christmas paper and modge podged it to the body, head and wings.  Once they were dry I glued on the heads and wings with a glue gun.  L made the little one and I made the big one.  I'm really happy with how they turned out.

Day 24

"Go skating at the Winter Wonderland"

Every year our local arena does a wonderful job of turning a boring old skating rink into a magical wonderland with trees, lights and winter scenes.  They turn the lights down and play Christmas music.  It's such a wonderful family event.

Phew that's it I managed to do it.  Looking back and remembering all of these activities we really did have a fantastic Christmas season.

Advent Activities 2011 Week 3

Okay I know it's waaay past Christmas and I've been seriously neglecting this blog but I did want to record our advent activities this year before I forgot.  So here goes...

Day 14

"make Nutcracker puppets"

L was seriously into the Nutcracker ballet this year so she really took care with making these puppets.  You can download them here.

Day 15

"Ice and decorate the Christmas cake"

This is an age old tradition in our family that goes back to when my sister and I were little girls.  We've had these decorations for ages.  The best part is putting the cheeky brown sprinkles behind the reindeer's!

 Day 16

"make picture frames"

I saw these over at The Magic Onions and fell in love with them.  I was amazed how beautifully they turned out and wish I'd bought more frames.  We'll be doing these again in the future for sure.

Day 17

"make ice ornaments"

These are just so beautiful and easy to make.  L and my mom collected different bits of nature, then popped them into her bunt pan and filled it with water.  It wasn't cold enough to leave it outside so they put it in the deep freeze until we used it.

Day 18

"look by the fireplace"

I got L one of those colouring pages that has black felt or something like it and you colour around it with markers.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture but she really enjoyed this activity.

Day 19

"Go to M Garden's "

This is quickly becoming a Christmas tradition with our family.  A local heritage house in our area puts on an absolutely phenomenal display of lights on their huge estate.  For the past two years now we've invited over our friends for dinner and then all gone to look at the magical lights together.  It's a highlight of the season.



Advent Activities 2011 Week 2

 Day 8

"Make candle holders for your teachers"

I had great plan on making cute little candle holders out of air hardening clay for L's teachers but when we opened the package I realised it was actually paper mache! I had to do some quick thinking and we ended up making bowls for them instead.

L had a great time mixing up the goo.

 L and Granny had collected little rocks and shells from the beach the day before.

 Good thing we started this project early as they took two days to dry by the fire.  Here is the finished product.  Not sure what they're going to do with them but it's the thought that counts right?

 

Day 9

" Look by the fire place"

I found this cute little 3D puzzle at the dollar store.

 Day 10

"make snowman hand print ornaments"

These have been all over the blogsphere this year and last and I really wanted to do them with L.  She did the hand print and I painted on the snowmen.  She also helped push the shiny garland into them.

 Day 11

"bake gingerbread cookies"

L made these Christmas gingerbread cookies to take to her sing along at school.

 Day 12

"Look under the tree"

This was before we had any presents under the tree.  L found a little kit to make this Rudolph ornament.

 Day 13

"Look on the table"

I found this foam gingerbread house kit on sale at our local craft store.  We'd never done one before and it was tons of fun.  I love how it turned out.

First week of advent activities 2011

This year since I don't have as much free time our advent activities have been a combination of little gifts, crafts, and Christmas activities.

Day 1

"Look on your chair"

L started off her advent calendar by finding a pair of Christmas socks with snowmen on them.  I'm having a hard time peeling them off her feet long enough to wash them!

Day 2

"Find all of our Christmas books"

I was amazed at how many Christmas books we've acquired over the years.  Some old favourites like The Night Before Christmas as well as a new collection of wonderful Christmas stories.

Day 3

"Make Christmas cards."

We took on the ambitious project of making cards for all 22 children in her class.  We have been trying different styles of cards on different days and are about half done.

Day 4

"Look by the fish bowl"

L found this cute little snowmen pencil crayon.

Day 5

"Make candy cane ornaments"

Simple yet effective!

 Day 6

"Make snowflake decorations"

We were making some modest snowflakes until Daddy got involved and took the snowflakes to a whole other level!  This was really a fun family activity.

Day 7

"Look by the fireplace"

L loves The Nutcracker ballet and reading her Nutcracker storybook.  For day six she found a little wooden nutcracker ornament that she could paint herself.  She was absolutely thrilled to have a Nutcracker like Clara and carried it around all day before painting it.

Bath Flutes

One of the best gifts L got for Christmas this year are these water flutes.  She uses them in the bathtub and we both love them.  As well as having fun playing there are so many learning opportunities.

You tune the flutes by adding water up to the line of whichever note you would like.  L is able to see how making the tube smaller by adding water makes a higher sound and filling with less water makes a lower sound.

They also come with music sheets which have color coded notes.  You tune the flutes and then L just follows along with the colors.  L can play Mary Had A Little Lamb and Old MacDonald.  She can also make up her own songs.

This is not a review post.  I just thought I'd share how much we both love this Christmas gift!!

Recycling Christmas Cards

We have been using our Christmas cards to make thank you cards.  We did this last year and I cut out bits from the old cards for L to make collages.  This year she did all of the cutting, pasting and designing herself.

We've also been making little boxes out of them.  For any of you who don't know how to do this I made a little photo tutorial.

 First cut your card in half.  Then draw an X on both the inside bits.

 Fold up each end almost to the center of the X.

 Then do the same for the sides.  Not quite as close to the center this time.

 Cut along the lines created by the folds just until they intersect.

 Fold the two side pieces in and then fold the end over top of those pieces.  Do this on both sides.  You may need a bit of tape or glue to secure them if your ends aren't very long.

 Do the same for the other part of the card and you have a cute little box with a lid to store precious Christmas ornaments or treasures in!