Happy Birthday Drake!!!!!

My sweet Drake is 2 years old today! I wanted to write a few words to him on his spacial day so that he can read it one day!

Drakey,
You make me smile everyday!! You are so feisty! Everyone who knows you has a nickname for you because you are just so likable! I love how you swoon when you see baby girls and how you stick your chest out when guys are around! I love your love for the outdoors. When ever we get outside you quietly walk around collecting flowers and rocks and bringing them to us! I am so grateful that you are my son and that I am your mother! You add so much fun to our family! Happy Birthday Sweet boy! I love you.
Mommy!

Giveaway!!!!!!!!

There are a few more days to enter the giveaway!!!!! Leave a comment on the original post!!!!!

Giveaway!!!!!!!!

My sister Misty is having her Grand Opening of her Etsy Shop! She makes beautiful one of a kind jewelry. She never makes the same piece twice! She is generously giving one of you, my blog readers, a chance to win one of her pieces!

Here's what Misty had to say about her shop:

"Each pieces of Jewelry I create is made on a whim, hence the name "Misty on a Whim". You are guaranteed to be the only one wearing your piece because I make no two alike. I love to be creative and pour whatever I am feeling into the piece I am working on. I get my inspiration from little things that others have overlooked and I see something beautiful in them, like random buttons and singled out pendents. I purchase a lot of my beads at a local Bead Museum. My love for beads has been in me for so long that seeing someone honoring them and persevering them makes me happy. I will be donating 1 dollar from each sale to my local bead museum to keep this beautiful art alive. Thank You for taking the time to browse my shop."

I love so much about her Jewelry and I think you will to. These pieces make such wonderful one of a kind gifts for the holidays. I love that Misty packages them so beautifully with hand selected papers along with a beautiful card to write a note to that special friend, sister, daughter or mother.

Here is how the giveaway will work. One winner will be chosen via random.org. That winner will be able to choose ANY piece from Misty's shop! Don't wait to see if you'll win because the necklace you want might be gone! If you win and you had already purchased a piece then you will be reimbursed in full for your purchase or you can pick and additional piece! If you win and you hadn't purchased a necklace then you will be able to choose form what is left in the shop!

Here's how to enter:

Leave a separate Comment for Each Point!!

1 point- Visit Misty's Etsy Shop and leave a comment with your favorite piece and your email (or have your email enabled by blogger) This is a mandatory comment in order to win:)

Extra points!!!!!!

1 point- Follow this blog! Leave a comment saying "I Follow!"

1 point- Blog about this giveaway and leave the link to your blog in a comment!

1 point- Facebook about this giveaway and leave a comment saying that you "facebooked" :)

You have the possibility of 4 points. I will be using random.org so make sure that you leave a separate comment for each point. The giveaway will end December 2nd at Midnight and the winner will be announced December 3rd at Noon! Good Luck!

Sorting Holiday Erasers

I put out four different shapes of the erasers and this tray that I got at the dollar store. I demonstrated how the activity was done then placed it on the shelf. Caden has done it twice but it was far too easy for him. I had my two nieces (3 years old) over and they enjoyed it and it was a bit of a challenge for them. Drake has yet to try it but I might get it out today during our 1 on 1 time.

Turkey Family!!

For Family Home Evening tonight we talked about being thankful. We also made this Turkey Family! We are vegetarians so we talked about what the Turkeys needed to be happy. After we all did a hand print I pinned it up on the wall and asked them what our turkeys needed; feet, eyes, beaks, water, grass, the Sun. The boys loved watching me paint and "take care" of the turkeys. Caden said they needed water so I painted some, then he said, "Oh, Jack's little turkey doesn't have any water". So Cute! So, I painted Jack's turkey (top one with no mature feathers, he's a baby after all) some water. It was a fun activity and it look so cute hanging in our dining room! And Just for the record; Daddy is first and he is kissing Mommy and then from the bottom it's Caden, Drake, then Jack. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!

Holiday Counters

Picked these up at the dollar tree today!
Holiday erasers, tiny silver bells, and tiny little presents! We will use them for counting, sorting, transferring and whatever else we can think of! My amazing mother(in law but she is more like my Mother then she is "in Law") Picked up the eraser for the boys and I grabbed another pack so we would have 24. Ramble, ramble, go get some:)

Sorting Stones

This is a favorite activity right now. It's the first time we have used a magnifying glass. The activity is to match the stones and then use the magnifying glass to study the similarities and differences.

Art

The Boys used these large Styrofoam sheets from a package, that Caden received for his birthday, to paint. They look so cool up on the wall. They remind me of large canvases! So cool and the boys were so proud. Top Drake Bottom Caden:)

Birthday Cake!

My sister Summer made this cake for Caden's birthday. She got the tutorial at this crafty blog, One Ginormous Adventure. Just wanted to share in case there are other little car obsessed boys out there! I'm sure there are a few;) P.S. It was soooo Yummy! Thank You Aunt Summer!

What's Out Wednesday!

I'm just going to post about our Science and Discovery Table today:) The other shelves have been attacked by birthday presents:)

On our Science and discovery table we have our pretend Grocery store. We've been having a lot of fun. When they want to play I get down a bowl of pennies and we take turns shopping with our grocery basket and being the clerk. Caden loved being the clerk and saying things like "Would you like a bag?" or "Have a nice day!". We use the pennies to pay. We say "that will be five pennies please" and then count them into the clerks hand:) So fun and it is helping Caden understand the use of money to pay for things we need and some counting practice. Drake hasn't wanted to play yet but I hoping as it is out for a while he will invite me to shop:)

We also had some fun matching the fruits and veggies to this farm book we got from grandma Packer:) Thanks Grandma!

Ooops!

A commenter pointed out that I got the thickness of the dowel wrong on the spinny speller. It's fixed now if you would like to check it again. The correct thickness is 1/4 in! Sorry and thank you for pointing it out:)

Cape For Caden!

My present to Caden was this Cape! He loved it and that made me very happy!

Party Favors

Caden had his party this Saturday and it was GREAT! So much fun! I'm going to post all week about some of the particulars:) First, The favors!



I wanted to do something that Caden could be really involved with! He and Drake helped me make six different kinds of play dough, scented lime, lemon, cherry, orange, grape, and glitter blue! We rolled them into balls and put one of each color on a long strip of plastic wrap. Then we twisted them and tied them in a ring.

We stuffed the bags(dollar store) with red shiny stuff(dollar store) and then put a ring of play dough in each one.

We used glue and glitter to make gift tags with the first letter of each child's name.

We also bought one inch dowels and I had Nate cut them into 5 inch pieces to use as rolling pins. I forgot to take a final picture but you can see them in the background of this picture of Jack with Grandpa Packer:)

New Birthday Tradition!

We decided to start a new Birthday Tradition! I thought of this so long ago but kept forgetting to start it! The tradition will be a birthday photo with all of their favorite things! The caption will read...
"You set your cars out all by yourself, you built a block tower, we put on your favorite computer game "Blaster", you had your foot in your wagon, you were sitting on your dinosaur blanket, you were holding "Blankie Duck", you loved gluing and cutting, you were reading your "Sam" book all by yourself, you had the book "One Ted Falls Out of Bed" memorized, and your favorite puzzle was the giant Solar System one!"

Happy Birthday Caden!!!!

My Baby is 3 years old!!!! His party is this Saturday! How did that happen! I just wanted write a few words to my sweet boy so that one day he can look at it and know how much I love him!

Caden,
I love you so much! You made me a mom! I have loved every minute of raising you! Thank you for being so loving and kind to your family! You are such a wonderful big brother. Drake and Jack love you and look up to you so much. Thank you for being so eager to learn! It is so fun watching you explore and get excited when you discover something new. I love that you are so eager to help me with all of my chores and so willing to help your brothers! You make me laugh so often, some of the things you say are so funny!! You are wonderful! I am so glad that I am your Mommy!
Love You,
Mommy

Transferring Fruit!

Drake loved transferring the Halloween erasers so while I was at the Target dollar spot...
... I saw these! They are so cute!! I thought the would be perfect for tongs. I bought three baskets(dollar each!). I bought two baskets of fruit and one basket of Veggies. For the activity I only used one set of fruit but used both baskets. For those of you who don't know about transferring with tongs: The idea is to use the tongs to transfer the fruit from one basket to the other. It is simple and yet they are practicing so many skills(strengthening hand muscles, concentration, empty vs. full, fruit identification, and colors!)

Here are the veggies and the other set of fruit

Me and Caden also played grocery store! More on that later but it was so fun!!

Birthday Chain

This is a classic! Caden and I sat down together during our alone time and wrote all of the things he was looking forward to about his birthday on to strips of paper. Balloons, cake, friends, Grandma and many others. Once they were all written out we worked on putting them into a pattern then into a chain! Caden is very excited to pull one off each day and talk about the exciting thing that is written on it! It also helps him see how much time is left till his Big Day!

DIY Spinny Speller

I made this "Spinny Speller" after seeing it at the Let's Explore Shop! If you can't make your own I recommend buying one. It is a great tool for learning the connection between sounding out letters and forming words.
If you want to make your own...
You need:
5 1in wood cubes
1- 4 1/2in long, 1/4in thick wooden dowel
A drill with a 1/4in bit and a a 5/16th in bit.

Step 1. Drill holes all the way through three blocks, dead center, with the 5/16th bit.
Step 2. Drill holes 1/3rd of the way in two of the blocks using the 1/4 in bit.
Step 3. Slip the three blocks on(they should spin freely)
Step 4. Use the two other blocks to cap the ends. Squeeze a drop of glue on before you put them on.
Step 4. Apply stickers or use a marker or paint or ink stamps? the letters I used were, MCBH AEOU GTDP

If you don't make one, I recommend buying one! Also there are a lot of other great things at the Let's Explore Shop.

What's Out Wednesday!

We have a new area this week!

The Dress Up Area!

Some of you might think that boys aren't into dress up as much as girls but they are(OK, maybe not as much but they are interested!). I think you just have to put out things that interest them. What we have out right now is; trick or treat bags, Halloween costumes, beads, a yellow purse(someone gave this to me with a plant in it and the boys think it is excellent for toting cars about!) cow boy hat, cowboy boots, and a basket with cell phones, keys, wallets, glasses and an old Ipod.

Table Toys

wood jar and stones for filling and spilling, card stock squares with sticker sheets, square nesting cups, ring sorting game(dollar store), puzzles, transferring Halloween erasers with tongs.

Floor Toys
Solar System floor puzzle(Caden is so interested in the planets, the Sun and the Moon so we are going to do more with them soon), stacking cubes, Drake's favorite Dinosaur(It was Nate's when he was a little boy:), shape sorter, and big foam blocks(they are finally into these!)

Sensory Tub

Tiny pumpkins(thank you Grandma) and black beans

Science and Discovery Table
...or what's left of it! The boys have had a ball carving this little pumpkin to bits!!

We also have out the good old wagons full of cars and a homemade cardboard ramp thing.