Playing with Playdoh

I love finding new things that keep Luke busy!

I’ve never really let Luke play with playdoh before—mostly because I always imagine it to be this huge mess!  However, lately, I don’t really care about the mess as long as it keeps him busy and happy!!

I made him some Kool-Aid playdoh using a recipe I found {here}—it was quick and easy and smells really really good!!

I bought Kool-Aid packets of all the different colors, but then I decided that as cool as it would be to have a rainbow of playdoh colors it wasn’t really necessary.  Luke would be happy with just one color and it would take up less space in my fridge!  So I made orange for now.

I had entirely too much fun taking pictures of Luke playing with it!!  Good shots for the scrapbook I guess!

Try it! It’s tons of fun and really is easy!!

Expressions

Over the last few months I’ve been teaching Luke expressions—starting with “happy” and “sad” and slowly adding more complicated emotions to the mix. The other day we were waiting for our food to come while we were out and I decided to snap some of this expressions to pass the time!

Happy (but being a goof-ball won’t look at the camera)

Sad

Angry! (notice how he has trouble keeping a straight face!)

Sad (again)

Goofy!!

He also knows “surprised” and “scared” but I forgot to snap those expressions!

And I just wanted to throw this picture in because I am in with love his eyes lately! He has such big eyes with super long, full lashes! He’s growing up so fast!

Family Fun Day

For President’s day on Monday we wanted to do something fun!  We actually tried to go to the Living Planet Aquarium, but apparently so did all of the rest of the state!! It was totally PACKED!  So we left. 

We grabbed some lunch and then headed over to the bowling alley near where we live.  It turned out to be perfect!  We didn’t have to wait to get a lane and Luke had a total blast!  We’ve never taken him bowling before but he was having so much fun carrying the ball over and rolling it down the ramp!  He was totally dancing the whole time and was happy all the way home. 

Scott & I realized it has actually been a pretty long time since we’ve been bowling, too!  We used to go pretty often when we were dating. 

Not the best scores in the world, but we were ok with them—Luke beat me by one point (not that he even knew or cared!)

Looking forward to more family fun days this spring & summer.

And one of them will be the Aquarium for sure!

The Second Car

My hubby and I have been married 5 years this July.  We have been living with just one car for that entire time! 

It’s been easier than you would think—thanks to things like carpooling and switching to a job closer to home—but I can honestly say it’s such a stress reliever to have a vehicle sitting in my driveway for me to use any time I need it! 

I no longer have to see if I can cram every errand into the one day of the week I have the car.  This is especially good since I now have a little babe who is only good for so long before he needs to eat again, and I can’t seem to get out of the house before 11 anymore (which means more time-consuming traffic and lines at the stores). 

We saved up for this car for the last 3-4 years and it’s so nice to finally have it!  The process of finding and buying a used car is NOT easy; my hubby is very glad to be done with the task!  It’s a 2004 Dodge Durango, and it in good shape.  It’s super spacious which is what we both wanted (for hauling larger purchases home) and needed (for when we have more kids in the future!!)

Now we just need to clear out the garage so we can park it in there with the other car!  It’s a good thing we haven’t gotten much snow or I would be complaining about having to go shovel snow off it before I drive it!!

tummy time, bath time

Sam is such a good baby!  He barely puts up a fuss during tummy time.  I was able to capture some great shots today because of it.  I love having such a cute model to practice my photo skills on!

Then, I decided to try a bath in the baby tub today with Sam.  He was pretty much frozen with this expression the entire time:

Love those chubby arms! He really didn’t mind being in the water at all.  I washed him up and it wasn’t until I took him out of the warm water he began to complain—but don’t we all? It’s cold!

Soon after both events he conked out on my lap—apparently tummy time and bath time makes a baby sleeeeepy. 

My Craft Space

For those of you that missed my craft space being featured on Organized Mom a few weeks ago, I'm re-posting it here today!

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Over the last year or two I've become somewhat of a craft-supply hoarder! You can bet I was in that nice long line when Roberts Crafts Store closed earlier this month. I can't pass up cute fabric from the remnants bin, and I have a hard time not buying cute ribbon when it's 50% off at Hobby Lobby! This little habit of mine has forced me to organize my stash and evolve the space!

Since I dabble in so many different things—sewing, painting, jewelry, paper crafting, crocheting, (the list goes on and on!)--I have to keep it all organized! It’s hard to sit down and get creative when everything is cluttered and messy! This space needed a huge overhaul when I started crafting! Here's what it looked like before:

EEK!
What. a. Mess.
It makes me stressed out just looking at it!!

This is what the space looked like after we first painted and built up the units and shelving last April:

This is what it looks like today:

Baskets on the left hold computer software and the baskets on the right hold sewing supplies and things like glue guns and my Cricut accessories.

In the drawers of the desk are pads of stationary, scrap pieces of paper to write little notes, scissors and markers, cables and headphones, as well as extra toner for the printer. The bottom two drawers hold fabric scraps and project leftovers.

These clipboards, hanging near the computer, are perfect for clipping up to-do lists or project ideas ripped out of magazines.

Everything stored on the shelves or in the desk are things that need to be within arms reach at any given moment because I use them the most.

Everything else goes in my craft closet which is just a mere 15 feet away and easily accessible.

Just like I told you before—lots and lots of ribbon!

and way too much scrapbook paper for someone who does digital scrapbooking!

Labeled bins help keep all the different smaller items separated but easy to find.

My favorite thing about this closet is how perfectly the fabric shelves fit in the awkward space between the wall and the door! It makes me happy to open the door and see a rainbow of fabric stacked up! I have bigger bin at the bottom of this closet for more bulky fabric.

There's also a bin for unfinished projects, so whenever I am bored I can go grab something out of that bin and actually finish it.

Going back to the desk area, I have this extra set of bin drawers that are on my craft side of the desk. It's only there because it was the best place for it. These items would normally go in the craft closet, but that's getting a bit full lately!

This desk and shelving system was designed to not only make it easy to get creative and dive into projects, but also for our family to spend time together even when we are doing separate things. My hubby can read his favorite geek sites on the computer while I am working on the current project and our 3 year old just plays behind us! Here’s the other side of the room where he plays:

This is definitely an area of the house we spend a lot of time in and I look forward to working in this space every day! I’m so glad I was able to share it with you! I hope it inspires you to get organized and get creative!

Learning to love the abc’s

Luke went through a long stretch of many months where he didn’t want to have anything to do with learning anything!  He was struggling with his abc’s and numbers and did NOT want to work with me to learn them!  He was also struggling with handwriting and learning how to hold a pencil—he never really liked to color until just recently, so he was behind with drawing and tracing skills. I was getting pretty discouraged and worried that he was falling behind the other kids his age—especially the other kids in his preschool.  So for Christmas, I made sure to find some items that would help get him back on track!

First, on my hunt, I read hundreds of raving reviews for the LeapFrog Letter Factory DVD.  Tons of people were saying how quickly their children learned not just the letters, but also what sounds they made!  I found it for less than $10 on Amazon, so I went ahead and added it to the list!  Luke watched it 3 times on Christmas day and several times over the next 2 weeks.  He was instantly interested his learning his abc’s again!  He was quickly recognizing letters and also telling me what sounds they made—which completely blew me away!  I am looking into the other DVDs to help him with colors and numbers too!

Because he loved the DVD so much, I pulled out his old LeapFrog Fridge Phonics Magnetic Alphabet Set that I’d long put away since he’d lost interest and I was tired of finding the magnets everywhere!  We keep all the magnets in a basket (instead of on the fridge) and use it on the table or sitting on the couch.  It reinforces the “every letter makes a sound” song that they sing in the DVD.  He loves sitting there and switching out the letters. 

Lastly, another Christmas present I insisted getting Luke was something to help him learn to hold a pencil and trace/draw better.  I found the LeapFrog Scribble and Write when I found the Letter Factory DVD.  It also got really good reviews, and since it was also reasonably priced I decided to go ahead and give it a try.  It took some practice before Luke got the hang of using it on his own, but now he loves to sit and trace the letters.  It teaches uppercase and lowercase letters, shapes and has a few little tracing and guessing games, too.

Luke know knows nearly all of his letters (he mixes up a few like p & d) as well as the sounds they make.  He’s also come so far in his ability to trace lines and letters!  I am one happy mama!!  If you have a toddler struggling with these things I would highly recommend these learning toys!

 

*Disclosure* all opinions are mine and I was not asked by Leapfrog to promote any of these items nor was I sponsored or paid in any way for writing this post!  I just love what they have done for my 3 year old and wanted to share!