Stick Puzzles

Well I couldn't get my pictures to be horizontal. Every time I uploaded them to the blog they got turned for some reason. 

I made these during December for my 3 year old as a "quiet time" activity. 

All you need is popsicle sticks (I got a huge pack from the Dollar Tree), tape, and a marker.

Lay a big piece of tape out on your table, sticky side up, and line the sticks together like in the picture below:

This keeps it steady while you draw a picture on it.

Then draw whatever pictures you want on the sticks, pull the tape off and then you have stick puzzles! 

Super easy and fun! I wrapped little hair rubber bands around them to keep them together :)

Q-tip Activity

This has been a favorite at our house lately. My 3 year old and almost 2 year old both love it! It's great for hand-eye coordination and it's fun!

What you need:

An old container (I used an old formula can)

Hole punch

Q-tips

Stickers to decorate

What you do:

Wash out the can and dry

Use hole punch to make holes in the lid

Let your toddlers decorate the can with stickers

And you're all done!

Hand your toddler a handful of Q-tips and let them at it! Super fun and simple!

Fuzzy Magnets

It's been forever since I posted anything! That doesn't mean we haven't been doing some sweet awesome stuff! I just haven't actually blogged about it.... yet. Maybe some day I'll catch up! If not, I'll just have to start where we are at and go from there. I have all the pics uploaded to my laptop but I just haven't found the time to blog it all. 

Here is an activity we did several months ago: 

Fuzzy Magnets!

This activity was super duper easy and my kids will spend forever at our fridge playing with their fuzzy magnets while I cook dinner. 

What you need:

- Magnets - (I just bought a magnet roll and cut tiny pieces off - it's cheaper that way!) 

- Fuzzy puff balls (also apparently known as fluffy puffs which you can by in the arts/crafts section of any store)

- A glue gun (even though I bought the sticky sided magnets, I still dabbed a tiny bit of hot glue on them to make them stick a bit better)

And there you have it! Fuzzy magnets! My daughter loves making a "caterpillar" out of all the colorful magnets. And my almost 17 month old boy loves taking them off the fridge, putting them back on, and repeating the process endless amounts of times! Have fun :)

Tuesday Treat Day - Cupcake Cones

Ok, we did this like a month ago and I'm just getting around to posting it! The weather in Arizona has finally been SO perfect the last couple of months... finally! So we've been spending a lot of time at the parks, going on walks, at the zoo, and just venturing out and exploring! 

That means I haven't spent as much time keeping up my blog. But we still have been working on stuff! I just have to get it all posted :) Someday that will happen... maybe if my kids will ever nap at the same time. :)

Anyway...... now for the cupcake cones recipe!

These were definitely fun to make but they didn't turn out exactly how I was imagining. I imagined a poofy mixture of cake rising up perfectly out of the cone, covered in frosting, actually resembling an ice cream cone, but with cake....

That was most definitely not the case. But it was still fun for my toddler to help decorate the the cupcake cones and she for sure loved eating them! I guess as long as they taste good, toddlers could care less what it looks like, right? Haha :)

Here is what you need:

Ice cream cones

Cake mix

Frosting

Sprinkles and any other stuff to decorate

What you do:

- Prepare a cake mix according to directions on the package.

- Spoon cake batter into flat-bottom ice-cream cones until they are not quite full.

- Set the cones in a cake pan and bake according to the package directions for cupcakes.

- When the cupcake cones are cooled off, frost and decorate them and enjoy!

See what I mean??? In the pictures they look like super flat ice cream cones... maybe if you used a light, fluffy, whipped frosting it would look a little bit better. Who knows?!

But it was sure delicious! K got it all over her face, shirt, hands... everything. But it was fun and yummy. That's all that matters, right?  :)

Have fun!

Weekly Learning - Basic Shapes

I know I haven't posted in a while. We have been potty training our little toddler.... so I'll just use that as my excuse for not posting anything for a while. Haha :)

We actually did our Weekly Learning: Shapes, a couple of weeks ago but then things got crazy and I didn't have time to post about what we did. So here ya go!

Day 1: Songs

My daughter loved these 2 YouTube songs. The "I'm a Square" one was stuck in my head all week long!!

I'm a Square..."

Shape Song

Day 2: Activity

I used paper and cut out all the basic shapes.

We just spread them all out on the floor and and practiced them. I would point to one and ask her, "What shape?" and we just kept reviewing them each day and she picked it up really quickly!

Day 3: Get Out

We didn't really do a "Get Out" activity during our week about shapes but we did look for different shapes on objects around our house.

 For example, I pointed out how how her cereal bowl had a circle and how the mirror on our wall was a square, etc... Your toddler will start to pick up on how basic shapes are everywhere and even start to point them out to you!

Day 4: Activity

We made Jello Jigglers and cut them into different shapes and used it to practice reviewing the shapes my toddler learned that week. Then after you practice your toddler can eat and play with the Jello!

Day 5: Library Day

Shapes - Magnetic Book: Magnetic Play & Learn - I want this book!

Away We Go by Chieu Anh Urban - I want this book too!! Maybe we'll get them for our kids for Christmas :)

We also did shape puzzles because we had some already. It was really fun for K to say the shape as she put each piece into the puzzle. Have fun with shapes these week!

Tuesday Treat Day- Homemade Cheddar Crackers

We did actually do this on Tuesday but I haven't found the time to post about it until now :) We've been busy! 

I found the recipe for these Homemade Cheddar Crackers HERE.

They are delicious! 

But as a fair word of warning, they aren't the best thing to make with the help of a toddler. I tried to have my little girl help pour ingredients in and all but the rolling and cutting out part wasn't super fantastic to have toddler help with. I would suggest doing that part by yourself.

I definitely want to try these again when I have more time... like maybe if I ever get both of my kids to take naps at the same time. Haha :)

What you need:

- 2 c. sharp cheddar cheese, shredded 

- 4 T. cold butter, cubed

- 1 c. flour

- 3/4 t. salt

- 2T cold water

What you do:

- Pulse everything (except water) together in the food processor until the dough becomes crumbly

- Then add the water, one tablespoon at a time and pulse

- Remove dough from the processor, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill for 20 minutes.

- Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes. 

Roll it pretty thin. The recipe didn't say how thin but I can tell you I didn't get mine thin enough and they turned out a little on the chewy side... but still yummy! And I really want to find mini cookie cutters now... :)

- Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes or until crispy

- Allow to cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

Tuesday Treat Day - Rainbow Jello

I got this idea from my amazing sister-in-law, Stacie. She is the best! And she has 3 of the cutest little kids ever!! When we were visiting them out in Nebraska about 1.5 years ago, she made Rainbow Jello with her little girl.  I thought it was the funnest idea and wanted to try it this week with my little girl! :)

So it's really simple but it takes time. 

You'll need to buy a box of Jello for each color of the rainbow. 

Get a dish of some sort. 

 Make the first box of RED Jello. Pour it into the pan and let it thicken in the fridge.

When it's thickened all the way, make the next box of ORANGE Jello. Pour it over the red layer and put it back in the fridge to thicken.

And then repeat the process with each box of Jello!

YELLOW.

GREEN.

BLUE.

PURPLE 

(for purple I used Black raspberry)

 Like I said, it takes time but is so fun how it turns out! Here is my first layer:



And here is a picture of after all the layers are done:



Also, since I'd never done this before I was wondering if it was even working, since it looked totally black except around the very edges... but don't worry, it works! You just have to cut it to see the colors.

The yellow didn't really show up much but it still looks cool!

Then we cut the Jello into shapes since that's what our "Weekly Learning" topic is for the week. 

I quizzed my toddler on the names of each shape :)  And then she had a ton of fun playing with the Jello with her hands. Yes, after all that work making cool, fun "Rainbow Jello", she spit it out as soon as she tried it. Haha! Oh well, it was still fun.