Easter love

One of my favorite things to do is have a cute lunch set up with a few activities for Ember and Aiden when she gets home from school. To be honest I was sad about the half day Kindergarten, as Ty had full day and I was nervous for a change. Now those hours when Ember is home from school before Ty gets home and her and I can visit and craft and catch up on the day are truly times and memories I treasure with her! I am no longer looking forward to full day school.

Combining tot-school crafts and fun with these two cuties. Ember is teaching Aiden the letter B here and working on fine motor skills. 

Each holiday we head to the Library and load up on every book we can find... We took these and had an outdoor picnic and school. 

Yay for SPRING BREAK!!! Lunch outside in our pajamas! 

I was a little saddened this year by my lack of Easter decorations.... So I took that into my own hands. Also the lovely tea party on the table set up by Aiden and Ember is magical! 

DIY memory/matching game

I saw this memory game on pinterest and thought Ty might like it. He is a bit small to catch on to the memory part of it but he likes to match them. After I finished making it Jayson and I played for a minute and waited for Ty to want to join in. He eventually ran over and wanted to try. He thought it was pretty cool for about two minutes. Then Ember took over. She mostly just stacks them and re-stacks them. Either way they are being used!

I cut out 24/ 5" squares. You will need one for the back and one for the front.

 Take 12 of them and make a 3" hole. I traced them out with marker then used an exacto knife and scissors.

Cut out 24/ 4" fabric squares. Make sure to do it by doubles. You will need two of each.

Add a stitch to connect them and start playing.

Ty thought it was pretty cool. He likes to flip them all over and when he sees two of the same he matches them up. So he is combining the two ideas..haha He did keep saying

"thanks mom for my new game"
"mom these are pretty softer"
"mom, why is there so many"
"mom we make fun stuff" -- my favorite!

I cut it down to six and played the matching game with him! He would put the one that matched and place it on top of the other.

felt boards

Miss Embers:

I have been wanting to make the kids some felt boards for a while. I finally got around to it and decided to make them for Valentines.

I wanted hers to be bright and colorful! The inspiration for the houses came from here. I am in love with the way it turned out. I am dying to see her face... Only a few more days.

It will most likely will end up looking like the third one with houses on the street and cars in the air... That's OK!

I have seen felt boards before where nothing was glued together. All the pieced were separate. I like the idea.. I just think Ember is still too small for that so I glued all the houses, cars and trees together but she can still move them around how ever she wants.

The only thing glued down is the hills and the road.

EEkkk.. Excited for her to play with it!

Tyger's

Ty has been loving Dinosaurs lately... We watch a lot of Dinosaur Train on Netflix. I can't wait to see his face... Ty's needs a lot more pieces. I plan to make him a few more dinosaurs and trees. The good thing about the felt boards is you can add as many pieces as you want! 

He can name a lot of the dinosaurs when he is watching the show... hopefully he can recognize these ones. My artistic ability is slightly lacking. 

all my inspiration is here
hopefully the kids like them... These ones are small enough to hang up or tuck under the bed.. if they do like them ill probably make one more really big one to stay hung up on their wall low enough for them to play with.

I used an old canvas for Embers and a cork board I had laying in the closet for Ty's. All the small felt pieces I had on hand. The big felt pieces I got at Joann's with a 50% off coupon. Then a little hot glue and thats all the supplies needed. O and a little fabric paint for the dino faces.

The best projects are the ones you can whip together with stuff you already have on hand!

DIY Halloween finger puppets

I'm not usually that into Halloween but the kids make it O so much fun! They love their quiet book finger puppets so I thought some Halloween themed ones would be fun for this year.

I pulled out all my felt scraps....

Cut some scary finger puppet shapes.

Sewed them all together...I am lazy and I used white thread for all. I also suggest sewing them all together before you start to add eyes and layers or your sewing machine foot might be too big to get close to the edge.

I used good ol hot glue to attach everything.

 Ty was helping me and couldn't wait tell we were done to start playing with them!

On the cat and witch I put a dab of glue down then laid sewing floss down for the hair and whiskers... Then I added the nose and hat to cover it up. Now looking at the witch I think purple floss would be cute for the hair.

The kids love them and they were only an hour project! I think they need a place to stay. Maybe a pumpkin or a haunted house... I'll work on it and share later.

1-2-3-4-5

Jayson was watching the football game, Ember was sleeping and Ty well Ty was just being Ty. . . Everyone was doing their own thing so I thought I would cross one of my pinterest projects off my list. I love Sew much Ado. She made the most adorable felt flash cards...Hers are pretty fancy, my version is pretty basic but believe me Ty still loves them.

I didn't want to buy anything for this project. I wanted to use things I already had in my craft boxes. I had two felt pages the same color so they became the base of the flash cards.

I cut them 3x5 with a rotary cutter and mat.

Pulled out some scraps for the numbers and shapes. Yes, I totally keep my scrap felt in bread bags...Works great! Thanks mom for the good tip!

Found some colors I liked and pulled them out. I traced out the numbers with a disappearing ink pen. That way I didn't have to print out a pattern.

They are not even close to perfect, but I think Ty will still learn his numbers with them! The ink also goes away with in a few hours.

I sewed the numbers on with white thread. See how you can't see the ink on the 1 anymore! I also sewed on shapes. I put the numbers on top of the shapes and hole punched them. I used a regular paper hole punch and punched through the felt. It worked fine but had to do one layer at a time. Then I pinned them together and sewed around the edges.

Put a ring through the holes and it makes a cute little flashcard book! I wanted to make more. I think a second set would be fun so he can also use them as matching cards but I ran out of the cream felt. Maybe I will have to go to JoAnns shopping (dang it!! Lol). As for right now at least we can work on our numbers, shapes and colors.

One of the very best parts about making you kids things rather than buying them all is when they say "Mommy made it!" So sweet!

Even if you don't have all the supplies on hand this project would still be really cheap to make. Also if your making them for little hands like I am you don't have to worry about your flashcards ripping... My kids are little and pretty rough on things...Paper doesn't last long in this house.

We have been doing really good at "Home-PreK." I had the good idea from a friend who also has a husband in Pharmacy school. She has a daughter who is just older than Ty and when her husband has to study or do homework...(Something Jayson does a lot of) they also have homework or study time. So now in the morning we all eat breakfast together and get ready. Then when daddy is off to school we start school. We do about a half hour (as much as Ty can take) of learning. Then we try to have singing time, snack time and then back to learning time. He thinks its pretty cool when I tell him daddy is at school learning too....even though I am pretty sure Jayson isn't having singing time.  

Ember isn't really learning her numbers, shapes or colors....but she does like to flip through the pages... She is still learning though...just like looking at a book. Seeing new shapes and colors is good for her little brain. It also keeps her entertained for awhile!

scrub with love tutorial

My obsession with the dollar store has begun to get a little out of hand. I absolutely love to find things I would spend three times as much or more anywhere else. I really like this post about things worth buying and things to avoid at the dollar store.  My most favorite thing though is to see what crafts I can make. Its no secrete if you follow along that I am pretty cheap. Jayson will be starting graduate school in a few months while I stay at home with our two littles. So it goes with out being said that we try to watch our money. That doesn't mean a girl can't get crafty!

My mom actually received one of these towels for Christmas from a friend. It was a red towel with a green sponge. The possibilities are endless. You could buy some pretty cute towels and make them to fit your personality or theme of your kitchen. Today I will just be doing basic white towels with multicolored sponges. 

Get your sharp scissors and cut out any shape you would like. 

I did hearts because they are easy for me. Plus they are cute!

Once you start sewing you really don't need the pins. The sponge is so stiff and heavy it wont move but I always like to pin and make sure its in the exact right spot.

I used a basic zig-zag stitch. I also used white thread for all towels. I debated on using thread to match the different colors but thought it would look tacky on the white towels. I ended up really liking the look of the white thread on the hearts. I think it looks fun :)

I love mine. Its nice to be able to wash the dishes with a towel and have a scrubber end to get off tough spots or hardened food. They are perfect for neighbor gifts at Christmas or a friends birthday or a housewarming gift...Like I said possibilities are endless. Hope you enjoy!!