Cooking with Kids...

Here's a little tip I learned from my sister. When we make cookies I use a a mini muffin pan. I let Cole break the dough apart and put some in each little hole. Then we add our sprinkles (we put sprinkles on everything) and bake them up. They make the perfect little snack treat.

Number Fun...

We took a break for the Letter of the Week and decided to work a little on our numbers. This was a really fun activity that involved cutting, which is always a hit. I found the numbers 1-10 in a magazine and circled them for Cole. He cut them out and matched them on our sheet. After he had matched them all up I let him color in the numbers.

Craft Closet...

Here is a little peek into my craft closet.  I try to keep all my items for kid crafts pretty well organized.  I usually plan out our activities for the week and hang them on the inside of the door.  This makes it easy for me to grab what we're doing while Cole takes his afternoon nap.  I keep supplies that we use regularly near the front of the shelves, and other specialized items towards the back.

Letter of the Week - D

Our second activity for D week was to make a duck.  We started by painting our D with yellow paint.

Add feathers to the back of the D.

Cut a small beak out of orange paper (I let him do this himself).  And add a google eye.  This was the first craft we've really done with feathers and it was a fun one.

Letter of the Week - D

Our letter of the week was D this week.  We made a D Dinosaur!  I drew some triangles on scraps of green paper and let Cole stamp Ds on them with green ink.  

 Then he cut out the triangles.  I try to let him cut on his own as often as possible.  He actually did really well following the lines on this activity.

He glued his pieces on the back of the dinosaur and then glued on a mouth and eyes.  This was a really fun letter of the week that Cole really enjoyed.

Crafting Boycott...

I don't usually post personal stuff over here, but I just couldn't resist this one.  I had these paper towel rolls laying out for Cole to make a craft after his nap and he told me he didn't want to make anything he just wanted "play" with the tubes.  So that's what we did.

Photoshop Actions...

I've been playing around with some of my Photoshop Actions lately.  For this picture I used Creamy BW which is available for purchase here.  If you are just starting out with Photoshop and want to play around with some actions before purchasing any I would recommend the Pioneer Woman site.  She has a collection of great, free actions and lots of tutorials on how to use them. 

smile. laugh. scrapbook. - Framed Print

This may be one of my very favorite new items that we've added. I love the idea of being able to hang a cute and simple scrapbook print in your room or just above your workspace. I especially love it if you share your scrapbooking area with someone else. Mine is a joint office/playroom for the kids so it's nice to look up every now and then and be reminded of how much I love this hobby.

Heart Stamped Wrapping Paper...

This was another Valentine's Day craft, but it could easily be used for Mother's Day or a birthday. Start by bending a toilet paper roll into a heart shape. As you can see from the first picture I used a small piece of scotch tape to keep the top of the heart together. This was because I knew that Cole wouldn't be able to hold it together himself. Dip the end of the roll in paint and stamp away. We used pink paint and then mixed in some blue to make purple. Allow the paint to dry and use the paper to wrap a gift for someone special.

Toilet Paper Roll Butterfly...

Back around Valentine's Day we made this awesome Toilet Paper Roll Butterfly. Cole painted the roll bright pink. While it dried he cut out two light pink hearts that I had drawn for him. Add eyes, antenna and the heart shaped wings and you have an adorable little butterfly.

IKEA Hack: KURA Bed Tent Planetarium

Cole received this 3-D Solar System set as a gift and instead of using the included string to hang the planets from the ceiling, we decided to hang them inside his KURA Bed Tent. I used a needle and threaded the string through the top/center part of the tent. Then I knotted it at the top and attached the planet at the bottom. We started with Mercury up by where he sleeps and ended with Pluto (because we still consider it a planet at our house) down by his feet. He loves to look up at it in the evenings. The planets glow in the dark so they work out great inside the tent where much of the outside light is blocked.

Make your own Tutu (part 2)...

Once the pink tutu was complete I took some pictures of Kiley in it. I think they turned out pretty good.

Make your own Tutu...

With a little girl in the house I wanted to learn how to make my own tutu for her. I started with a spool of tulle and some elastic. The tulle was purchased at Michael's for $2.99. I cut the tulle into 18 inch pieces. I measured around Kiley's waist and used a safety pin to secure the elastic. I used a book to hold the elastic in place while I knotted the tulle. I continued all the way around the elastic until it was full. Tomorrow I'll post pictures I took of Kiley in the actual tutu.

Puzzle Storage Ideas...

Cole loves puzzles. The little boxes that they come in take up lots of space. We store all of our puzzles in plastic sandwich bags. I particularly love these quart sized Hefty OneZip bags. I cut out the picture of the puzzle from the cardboard box and then put that picture and all the pieces into a ziploc bag with a slider closing. The slider makes it easy for Cole to open and close them all by himself.

Supplies needed: puzzle, scissors & slider bags

The finished product!

Toilet Paper Roll Snowman...

Since it has been chilly here we decided to make a toilet paper roll snowman. We painted the paper roll white and then added a face, hat and scarf. The hat is actually a baby sock that I cut and then rolled the top.