Tag Archives: play

Envelopes with Love

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Reagan took one of her paintings that she made last week off of the fridge, held it up to me and said ‘paint mama paint’. Seriously, could she get any cuter? Without hesitation we headed to the basement and grabbed the needed materials. While setting up, I noticed the white envelopes that I had pulled out the night before to mail a letter to my cousin in Canada. What better way to show a little love to our favorite out-of-towners than custom made envelopes. As usual, I allowed Reagan to go to town and be as creative as she wanted. We talked about who we were going to send each envelope to and what we would put inside. This was a fantastic way to practice the names of the ones we love:)

Materials
envelopes
paint
paint brushes
dish for paint (we used a tupperware container because they’re easy to clean)
something to protect the surface of your table (we have a cardboard mat that we use)

Project is self explanatory. Allow your child to paint the envelopes one at a time. Allow to dry for at least an hour. Use a black Sharpie marker to address the envelope. IMG_4344

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Perfect Morning

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Bundle up the kiddos it’s time to feed the UCKS! Check out that 55 degree temperature…Woot! Woot! Today was a cloudy Rochester day (not a shocker), but was nice enough for us to be able to spend the late morning and early afternoon outdoors with t he kids! The ‘ucks’ as Reagan calls the ducks were at the top of her to do list, so we met Erin and the boys in Schoen Place for some much-needed uck time.

Reagan feels the need to snack right along with the ucks, which is why we can never bring anything but fresh bread…those lucky little ucks.

When the bread was gone, we headed across the canal to have lunch and dance in the pavilion.  Oh to be a kid again.  These two are hysterical and love to dance to their favorites Justin and Kelis!

After a few falls, it was time to head to the library for a much-needed potty break and a little QT.  Henry gave me a long talk about how important it is for Reagan to have two gloves…his reasons included – only a few fingers being warm, her boo boo on her hand getting cold and not getting better and it looking silly. He’s such a smart kid- I felt like I was getting a lecture from my dad. (only one glove made it into the stroller from the trunk of the car)

The library is a comfortable and familiar place for both kids.  They know their boundaries and enjoy being able to have a bit of freedom to choose what they would like to do. They stuck together today…

Time flies when you’re having fun and before we knew it nap time was quickly approaching.  It was back in the stroller for Reagan and a quick walk to the car for Henry.  Holden was a trooper, like always, and slept the entire time!

How lucky are we to be able to stay home with our kids?  I am so grateful to be able to experience each new adventure with Reagan and fortunate enough to have Erin, Henry and Holden to share the adventures with as well.

Moon Sand

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What a mess…but so much fun! I underestimated the power that flour has to get all over anything that is anywhere close to it. Reagan and I started this activity on a towel that I set down on top of the kitchen rug. Within minutes, I had to roll back the kitchen rug, because the flour was starting to get everywhere. We will definitely be doing this activity outside next time.

The amount of each ingredient depends on the amount of Moon Sand that you want to make. We used two cups of flour and just continued to add baby oil until we reached the consistency that we liked. Reagan used the measuring cup, measuring spoon, large spoon and spatula to stir the sand, scoop it from one container to the next, create sand mounds and so much more!

Materials
Flour
Baby oil
Bowl or Tupperware container
Measuring Cup
Measuring Spoon
Large Spoon
Spatula

Measure desired amount of flour into a bowl or plastic container that your child can manipulate easily. I used a glad plastic container that has side gripped handles that are thin enough for Reagan to hold onto and is large enough for her scoop in and out of, as well as to build in.

Add baby oil, stirring with a spoon or spatula and squeezing with your hands until desired consistency is reached. I wanted to be able to form balls with our sand, so I continued to add baby oil until we were able to do so. We probably added about 1/4 cup of baby oil- total guesstimate.

Reagan played for about 25 minutes with the Moon Sand and loved every minute of it! The baby oil made our hands super soft and left them smelling fabulous as well–thanks to the lavender-scented oil!

We threw away the Moon Sand, put the dishes in the dish washer and shook the towel outside before washing.

Spaghetti Spaceship

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Another fantastic fine motor activity! Henry and Reagan enjoyed this activity and spent about twenty minutes breaking their pasta noodles, sticking them into the play dough and then placing the Cheerios onto the noodles. Henry’s verbal skills are much more advanced than Reagan’s and his imagination is fantastic!. He talked about how the play dough was a spaceship, the noodles were seats and the Cheerios were the space men.

Materials for Two:
Spaghetti Noodles- We used 5 noodles
Play Dough- Enough to make two balls
Cheerios- A small bowl for each child

Form play dough into a ball and then flatten on the bottom.

Break noodles in half or whatever size you want.

Insert noodles into play dough.

Place Cheerios onto noodles.

Pint-Sized Picasso

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This was such an easy activity from start to finish!

Materials

Washable Paint
Construction Paper
Corks
Styrofoam Plate
Something to cover table

This activity took no time at all to put together and allowed for me to utilize things that I already had in the house. I found an old set of washable paints and was excited for Reagan to stray from her normal blue and pink paint (I have yet to remember to purchase more colors). But, low and behold the paints were dry;( I even tried adding a little water to the bottle and shaking it, but it just wasn’t the right consistency anymore. So back to the trusty old standby colors.


I placed a cardboard mat underneath where Reagan would be working, even though it’s washable paint, it doesn’t always wash out 100%. I gave her a piece of construction paper, four wine and champagne corks, paint on a styrofoam plate, told her that they corks were stamps and let her go to town!

IMG_2103

She LOVED every second of the paint stamping. I mean, why wouldn’t she…she LOVES to dip, dip! Here she is, using sign language, to ask for more.

The activity lasted about 15 minutes before Reagan began to stamp her hands, her face, the chair and was even successful at getting the dog once or twice.

When the fingers went in the mouth, I called it quits on the activity. I could have easily given her a binkie and she would have continues to paint. However, I’m trying to confine the binkie to the crib and the car, so the binkie was not coming to the kitchen table to paint.

We had a blast and ended the activity with her favorite thing…a tubbie! Sometimes I think that Reagan loves to get messy because she knows that she will end up in the tubbie.

Everything cleaned up really easily. I threw away the styrofoam plate and corks- no paint brush washing today! And returned the left over paper, the paint bottles and the cardboard mat to the craft section in the basement.