Cardboard Stamping and Letting Your Kids Take Control

I got the idea for cardboard stamping from Julie K in Taiwan. We made our own cardboard stamps from a box that held one of our favorite treats (Strawberry Twirl Cookies) and cut and taped them into different shapes and sizes. My idea was to have the boys use the stamps to create pictures on the paper. Honestly, the only one that was into it was Reece. Wyatt made one picture with the stamps and then quickly started using the stamp as a brush and Seth stamped one time and said he didn't want to do it. My first instinct is to tell them to do it and do it the right way, but I decided to let them do what they wanted. I let Reece stamp to his little hearts contentment and let Wyatt use the stamp as a brush. I asked Seth what kind of art project he would like to do because I didn't just want him to go back to playing or trying to watch TV. He said he wanted to do a Lightening McQueen project. I thought one of the stamps we made looked like a car, but he said it didn't so I gave up on that. Then I remembered that we had colored pasta shaped wheels from our sorting project from the other day so I asked him if he'd like to glue those on paper and he said yes. Yeah, Success!! So, I gave him a bottle of glue and bunch of the pasta and he got busy. Wyatt saw what Seth was doing and wanted to glue pasta as well so he joined in and Reece did too. So, we ended up having a long afternoon of art which was so much better than what I had planned. It just goes to show that when I let go of the control that things work out better in the end.

Sorting with Colored Noodles

I took this idea from Tutus and Turtles. We colored the pasta with food coloring (put the pasta in a ziploc bag and cover with rubbing alcohol, add food coloring and shake to mix, let sit over night and then take out and drain, spread out on cookie sheet to dry for a few hours) and then used it for a sorting game. I gave Wyatt and Seth their own container and they put it in a pie tin. Then they raced to sort they pasta into the muffin tins. I realized about halfway through that I gave them too much and they were running out of steam. Next time I'll give them less and I want to get them a pair of kid tweezer/tongs to make it more difficult to pick up the pasta. They did have fun at the beginning though enjoying the racing aspect of it. The colored pasta will also be great for craft projects.

Shaving Cream Letter Tracing

I decided to bring some fun into Wyatt's tracing activities while Seth was at speech class. So, I pulled out the cookie sheet and some shaving cream and had him trace his letters in the shaving cream. He really liked it. I remembered towards the end that I could add food coloring to it too and that was fun as well. This will definitely be an ongoing activity.

The letter C
The Letter A
With the Food Coloring
Wyatt was excited about his "Mickey Mouse Hands"
Even Reece got in on the action, but I kept a VERY close eye on him to make sure none of the shaving cream went in his mouth or eyes

A New Fun Way to Waste Some Time

I found this website and have found a new way to waste some time that I should probably spend cleaning my house.

Reece

Seth

Wyatt

Optimus Prime is In The House

Wyatt disappeared after breakfast and then ran back downstairs and yelled "Surprise! I dressed myself!" I knew immediately the goal of his self-dressing: to look like Optimus Prime in the red and blue. The shirt is Seth's and is about two sizes to small and the shorts are from soccer. I probably would have let him keep it on except we were taking Seth to speech class, so I made him go find a blue t-shirt to wear instead.

Transformer Race Cars

Jerad pulled out his old Transofrmer Race Car Track from when he was a kid. The boys LOVED it!! The crashed the cars more than they raced, but they still had a blast.

Just like Daddy

Saturday while Jerad was mowing the lawn Seth decided to get out there and help him. It was so cute and I just had to grab my camera.

Muffin Tin Monday-Children's Literature

This weeks theme for Muffin Tin Monday was Children's Literature. We chose Gregory, the Terrible Eater by Mitchell Sharmat. It is such a cute book. The basic theme is that when you don't want to try new foods if you will try them a little at a time you might end up liking them. Gregory doesn't like normal goat food ("junk food"), tires, boxes, shoe laces, newspapers, etc. and would rather eat healthy foods like, orange juice, cereal, fish and scrambled eggs. His parents don't know what to do with him and take him to a doctor who recommends that they introduce one new food at a time so that he'll learn to like new things (which he does).

For our lunch we had:

Broken Down Cars (Car Movie Graham Crackers), Grapes, Shoe Strings (Pull apart Twizlers), Blueberries, A Necktie (A strip of candy that cut to look like a necktie), Cheese, Pretzels, Turkey, Yogurt, Tomatoes, Juice, Flat Tires (Donuts)

Pictures of the "junk food" Gregory doesn't like in the beginning of the book.

Unplug Your Kids-Soft

For this weeks Unplug Your Kids project the theme was soft. I have been needing to make some playdoh for Seth's speech class so I decided now was the perfect time to do that. Hey, playdoh is definitely soft : ) We used the recipe I found at Kiddio for playdoh made with Jello for the coloring so it not only looked good, but it smelled great too. We only got through two colors (I bought 5 colors) because I ran out of Cream of Tarter. So, I'm going to the store today to buy more so that we can finish up. The boys loved it. We doubled the recipe so that we could send half to school and keep half at home for the boys.

Seth helped make the purple Grape Jello Playdoh, which he said looked like yogurt while we were cooking it.

Wyatt helped with the Yellow Lemon Jello Playhoh and he said it smelled like Ranch Tacos. I just smiled and said okay. I have no idea what the boy is talking about, but okay.
The two colors cooling off after I finished kneading them.

I didn't have enough rolling pins for all three boys so I gave them jars to roll out the playdoh.

Wyatt used the slotted spoon to make impressions in his playdoh.

Seth used the slotted splatula to make some impressions.

I rolled up balls for Reece and then he stuck his thumb in them. He also enjoyed sticking plastic utensils in them.

Wyatt was very proud of his playdoh covered jar.

Friends Forever

The boys got to have their friend, Samantha, over to play the other day while her mom was at tennis practice. This is the same Samantha that Wyatt declares his undying love for saying that he knows in his heart he is going to marry her. They were so cute on our walk to the bridge to see the fish. On the way back home Wyatt and Samantha held hands, but I didn't get a picture of that : (

Seth's First Day of School

Seth had his first day of school/speech therapy class while we were in DC. So, my parents had the honor of taking him. My dad took these wonderful pictures for me. Doesn't he look thrilled for his first day at big boy school?