At the Fire Station

I love our MOPS group.  The women are amazing and so encouraging to be around... and we go on fun field trips :).

Baby in a Basket

Who needs toys when you can dump all of Mom's stuff out and use her baskets?!

Apple Picking Fun

We are part of a local MOPS (Moms of Preschoolers) group, and occasionally we do play dates.  We were praying and hoping that it didn't rain when we were supposed to tour a nearby farm... the rain held off until right when we were planning on leaving anyway!

The boys had a blast taste-testing different varieties of apples, sipping on apple cider, learning about bee hives, wagon-riding, and apple picking.  We went home and made homemade applesauce.  It was amazing!!!

Jack's New Trick (or) My Boys Have Pretty Eyes

"Uh" - "Dtu" - "Dsee" (Translation: "One" - "Two" - "Three")

Our first Kiwi Crate came! (The Antarctic Adventure)

I've been loving the concept of Kiwi Crate, and our first crate arrived last week.  Lucas and I had so much fun, and I can't believe the quality of the supplies they sent to a 3-year-old.  In this box, we got all of the supplies needed for the craft (I didn't have to search my house for any of it), including a pair of child-sized Fiskars scissors, a box of oil pastels, a tray of watercolors, and a silicone penguin-shaped ice cube tray.

I was so excited that I didn't have to think up any of this :).  There were 2 complete projects in the box, with educational lessons, project instructions, and multiple alternate crafts to do with your supplies.  I was thinking that Lucas would get bored with one project, work on the second one, then get bored altogether and ask to do something else.

He didn't.  He kept jumping back and forth between the projects, and wasn't very happy when we finally put the box away...  I think we worked on it for a little over an hour (naptime for the baby), and all we did were the main projects.  We didn't even touch the alternates.  The ideas in this crate could easily last us the whole month until our next crate!

Scissors weren't needed for any of these crafts, but Kiwi Crate sent them as a welcome gift.  The watercolors were the first thing Lucas wanted to play with.

Penguin Bowling!!  Lucas decorated the penguins with the included stickers and drew faces on them (with the also-included marker).  This penguin sees him with the ball (also included :) and is saying, "Oh no!!"  This craft also came with loads of information about penguins and other activities we could do with the ball and penguins.

Aurora Australis (The Southern Lights).  There were several postcards for Lucas to color with the pastels (the Lights) and then go over again with the watercolors.  As I'm reading the information about the Lights, Lucas is saying, "Ooooh! Wooooow!"  It's been forever since I've used pastels... I almost stole his postcards and made one of my own :)

I love how each activity first warns about the project's messiness, how much the child can do my himself, and what skills it uses/develops.

Have you used Kiwi Crate before?  What was your favorite activity?  I can't wait to see what's in the next one!

Gift Crates are available as monthly, 3-month, 6-month, or 12-month gift subscriptions.  Be sure to order before noon PST December 19th to ensure Christmas delivery!

This post contains affiliate links (read more here).  I was not paid for this post, and all opinions are mine (and Lucas').

Slime!

Okay... so we watch way too much Sid the Science Kid :).  But they just have the coolest science projects on that show!  This was a Halloween episode, and they made mad scientist slime.  It looked pretty cool, so we gave it a go...

First, you need an adorable small helper...

Sid the Science Kid says to use 1 cup cornstarch and 1 cup water... that was too watery for us, so we increased the corn starch to 2 cups.

We mixed the cornstarch and water together, then added some food coloring to make it more fun.

Note:  it's very hard to mix!

This stuff is so cool!  When you first pick it up, it's a solid that you can almost break in half...

Wait a few seconds, and it will liquefy, running quickly out between your fingers!  This is a great project if you want to teach your kids about different states of matter.  Lucas just wanted to touch and play for now.  That's okay!  He's experiencing and learning without even knowing it.

Be careful punching or poking the slime! It gets hard when just sitting in the bowl and not being manipulated!

Yes, it is messy. Don't worry, warm water wipes this right up! ...the food coloring might stay on the small helper's fingers, though... :)

Linking up to: The NY Melrose Family | Whipperberry | Sun Scholars | Cheerios and Lattes

Our Airport!

I had so many diaper boxes saved up for projects that I wanted to do.  A few days ago, Lucas was in tears because he couldn't go to Daddy's work and tell airplanes to "go this way and that way!"

...so we made an airport :)

Of course, every airport must have a terminal.

This is Lucas waiting to board

The ticket counter

Lucas insisted that there be an airplane garage :) I added in the baggage handler...

"Airplanes!  Go this way and go that way!"

Depending on what he wanted the airplanes to do, he could lift a flap to tell them to take off...

...or land.

Have you made something out of cardboard recently?

Linking tUp To

Red Ted Art | I Gotta Create! | Adorned From Above | Suzy's Sitcom | Cheerios and Lattes | i should be mopping the floor

Fun with Crayon Rubbings

The weather around here has gotten sooo beautiful!  65-70 degrees and sunny!!  Ahh... Dear, Fall... How I have missed you!

This project could have been done inside, but we decided to take advantage of the sunshine.  I know I've mentioned Sid the Science kid multiple times, but it really is Lucas' favorite PBS show. Sid's teacher classifies all of their learning (engineering, estimation, measurement, etc.).  Lucas seems to like the subject labeling (maybe that's how kids his age learn... I don't know), so I try to do that when I'm teaching him something new.  Lucas and I played around with crayon rubbings, while I attempted to explain textures to him.

Seeing the texture of the cement patio... while Jack tries to eat the paper...

Seeing the textures and shapes of different leaves we found in our yard...

Seeing the difference in texture between one type of tree...

...and another.

...How about this water cover thingy?

...and then Jack finally gets to eat the paper :)

And Lucas gets to play in the tree!

Linking Up To:

Sun Scholars | Cheerios and Lattes | Raising Memories | Jellibean Journals | Rainy Day Mum