Back-to-School Apple craft

With Big Brother at Kindergarten all day and the baby pleasantly exploring toys, Lauren and I have more one-on-one time and it's been wonderful.

Even though Lauren isn't old enough for school, it doesn't mean that she isn't equally excited. She squeals and points at every school bus that passes by and is proudly wearing her backpack around the house. She wants to do flashcards, "homework", learn to tie shoes, and all of the other things she has watched Turner learn over the summer.

In the theme of Back-to-School and Autumn approaching; I found a simple apple craft for us to do.

Here is what you will need:

Paper plate
Glue
Red tissue paper
Brown construction paper or cardstock
Green construction paper or cardstock

This was a great activity for Lauren to work on her fine motor skills as it involves lots of tearing and/or cutting and lots of object placement.

Here's what you do:

Tear or cut the red tissue paper into several pieces. We attempted to make the paper pieces about the size of Lauren's fist. Some were smaller and some were larger... the more diverse the better! Just make sure the pieces aren't too small as your toddler is going to have to glue each piece onto the plate. Lauren even enjoyed rolling some of the pieces up into little balls to add to her apple. Let them get as creative as they want!

She made tearing tissue paper look a lot harder than it really is!

 

 

While your toddler is tearing paper, cut a stem out of the brown construction paper and a leaf out of the green construction paper.

Now that all of your apple parts are ready, it's time to glue them onto the plate. We covered the plate in glue and started adding the red pieces of tissue paper. While it was drying, we glued on the stem and the leaf. After all of the pieces of paper had dried, we went back over the apple and filled in a few gaps.

Ta-Da!!

 

Kindergarten!!

We were all very excited to go to the open house at Turner's school, but as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, Turner started to freak.

He didn't want to go inside the school. He didn't want to meet his classmates or his teacher. In fact, he just kept repeating, "I want to go home."

Not what we were expecting.

We walked to the classroom and found his name at his table. Then, we found his cubby and put his school supplies away. We did a sweep of  the classroom and met his teacher.

Earlier that day, we were making pasta necklaces and Turner wanted to make a bracelet for his teacher. I remembered to put it in my purse before we left. I wasn't sure if Turner would be brave enough to give it to her considering how uncomfortable he was in his new class, but he surprised us all and politely handed it to her before we left.

The best part is, she wore it on the first day of school. So nice!!

I'm happy to report that Turner did much better during his phase-in day and wasn't clingy or sad when I left after lunch.

Is he enjoying school? For the most part. He gets upset in the mornings when I tell him that he has school and he gets upset at bedtime when I tell him he has school again the next day. But he does great during drop-off and when I pick him up after school, I ask if he had a good day and he always replies with a yes. Every day he shares stories about his day and he always says that he had fun.

When he gets sad about having to go to school, I ask why he feels this way if he enjoys it. He tells me that it's because he has to go every day and he misses playing with his toys and he misses his screen time.

I'm guessing that after a few weeks have passed, he won't miss those things so much because he will have developed friendships and gotten used to his new schedule.

Overall, I have to say so far so good.

 

 

Shaving cream slip and slide.

To celebrate Turner's last day at home before he started Kindergarten, we busted out the shaving cream and had some fun!

The kids played in the shaving cream for a long time and we decided that the best way to cool down was take a break in the shade and enjoy a hot fudge sundae.

 

 

Leaf Rubbings

The leaves are starting to fall in our backyard and every day we are seeing (and feeling) Autumn.

The kids and I scouted our backyard for fallen leaves and did a few leaf rubbings during our craft time.

It was a little tough for the kids in the beginning; but once they got the hang of learning how to shade with their crayons, they thought it was pretty cool to watch their leaves appear.

I think they turned out great!!

Selecting their leaves and figuring out their placement.

Getting started.

Completion!!

A Visit to the Bakery - Amish Style

Last weekend, the kids were up super early and Hubs gave them an early breakfast. This pushed our morning snack time up a bit and I decided that I wanted to take the kids to a bakery to pick out their own pastries.

A good bakery is hard to find.

I had the wonderful opportunity to work in a bakery when I was 14. It was my first real job. I made $4.25 an hour and I got an education on what goes into quality baked goods. I worked the counter and served boxes upon boxes of cakes, cookies, and pastries to people all day long. It's insane how far people are willing to travel for a cream stick, bear claw, or a molasses cookie.

Needless to say, I wasn't willing to settle.

Thankfully, we live about 10 minutes from an Amish bakery that was recommended by a few of my friends. So, off we went!

The kids had fun browsing the shelves and cases full of goodies. They wanted so many things!  It took them a while to make their final decisions, but after 20 minutes we walked out satisfied.

I selected an individual size Elderberry pie and Candied popcorn. Hubs was happy with a tray of Maple Rolls. Turner chose a small tray of Chocolate Whoopie pies, while Lauren opted for Raspberry Yogurt covered pretzels and an individual size Black Raspberry pie.

We just might have to make this a once-a-month tradition.

*I had to limit pics because the Amish do not like to be photographed. As a courtesy to their beliefs, I only snapped a few shots.

Turner was having a huge dilemma about whether or not to choose the chocolate mint cookies.

Heading toward the whoopie pies!!

Mmmmmm... PIE!

Tyler Veronica - 8 months

 

How To Send a Hug

This craft is perfect for Father's/Mother's/Grandparent's Day, Get Well wishes, or a personal keepsake.

I think it's a wonderful timestamp to savor as your child grows.

Here is what you will need:

• Paint
• Construction paper
• Ribbon or twine
• Paper punch

First, paint the bottom of your child's hands.

Second, make a couple of strong prints onto the construction paper.

Third, stretch your ribbon across the child's chest, measuring their left fingertip to right fingertip and cut the ribbon to length.

Next, after the paint has dried, cut out the handprints. (I traced a large circle over the handprints to ensure I didn't cut any of the fingers or disfigure the handprint)

Then, use a paper punch to make a hole at the bottom of the handprints.

Last, tie a handprint to each end of the ribbon.

Now you have a precious, true-to-size hug from your little one.

I think they make wonderful little gifts. I know the Grandparent's would be excited to receive these in the mail as a 'thinking of you' gift.

Turner and Lauren thought it was really cool to see how big their hugs are, and they giggled when they saw Tyler's little hug. I took turns giving them "hugs" from Tyler then from each other. I got lots of smiles from them during this craft.

Top to Bottom: Tyler, Lauren, and Turner's hugs.

Lighted Aquarium

Today we made lighted aquarium's!!

Here's what you will need for this craft:

Glass bowl
Tissue paper
Elmer's glue
Water
Small plastic bowl
Foam brushes
Small light (I used battery operated tea lights)
glass pebbles

And here we go....

• Cut or tear blue tissue paper into strips.
• Pour 2 tablespoons of glue into small plastic bowl and add a tablespoon of water. Mix until the glue is thin and runny.
• Adhere the tissue paper strips to the outside of the glass bowl using the glue mixture. Do this until the bowl is covered.
• Using several different colors of tissue paper, cut out fish, plants, and other sea life objects to adhere to the top of the blue tissue paper.
• Fill the bowl halfway with glass pebbles.
• Add your light to watch your aquarium glow.

Enjoy!!

The fish bowls are going to make great night lights for the kiddo's tonight!!

Fun at the Fair - A post in pictures

A Sunday in the Sun

Today was one of those days where a person doesn't want to spend a minute indoors. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect.

Turner and Lauren went fishing the first part of the day with Grandma and Grandpa, then they went out for milkshakes. When they returned home they napped for a bit and then spent most of the evening outside flying their kites.

The kites were gifted to them last week and every day since then, they've approached us at least once a day asking us if we can take the kites out of their packages.

Today was the day!

The kids with their new fishing poles.

Breaking in their new poles at the lake.

Turner chose to run with his kite instead of standing with it.

So proud of Lauren! She was determined to get her kite up in the air by herself, and she did it!

Lauren ran out of steam, so Hubs picked her up and ran her around the yard with her kite. What a guy!!

I'm pretty certain that Turner ran a couple of miles tonight. He had so much fun flying his kite!

Our visit to the Build-A-Bear workshop.

Today, we took a spur of the moment trip to Build-A-Bear workshop.

It was difficult to take pictures since the kids were running everywhere, but they had such a wonderful time.

We had lunch at the mall beforehand and there were moments when I thought the stroller we rented was more popular than the bears!!

Turner changed the outfit for his bear quite a few times before he could decide what he wanted. Lauren, on the other hand, could have cared less about the clothing; she was all about finding the perfect accessories.

This definitely was not Hubs' favorite outing, but he was a good sport. He hopes that he will never have to go to another Build-A-Bear for the rest of his life. Spending an hour playing dress up with stuffed animals isn't his idea of a good time. However, I thought it was wonderful. I can't wait until Tyler gets old enough for one so I can go back.

Tyler munching on a breadstick during lunch.

The rented "stroller" if you can really call it that. The kids loved it!

Getting ready to have their bears stuffed with the magical colorful stuffing.

Turner watching the stuffing machine as his bear comes to life.

While the big kids were getting bears, Tyler partied in the fire truck and smiled at strangers.

Lauren, going through all of the steps to prepare her bear's heart.

Turner giving his bear a shower.

Lauren showering her bear.

The finished product! Tinkerbell bear for Lauren and Batman bear for Turner.