Teaching Two

My youngest daughter Emily has become very interested in drawing and writing in the past week.  Every night after I read her a story she wants to draw on her white board that is in her room.  Here is a picture she drew tonight.

I am the big headed one and she is the little one.  In the picture she said she is trying on my high heeled shoes.  She wrote her name and Mommy too!  Not bad for just turning 3. 

I took the girls to Michaels the other to pick up a few things. I hit the jackpot.  They have tons of craft kits for $1.00!  I bought a few for those days when I hear “Mommy, I want to make something.” or “Mommy, there’s nothing to do!”  I’m going to go back and get more for birthday gifts too.  Here are a few that I got. 

• Mosaic Butterfly Kit- Emily picked this one out.  It includes 975 foam square stickers with a butterfly template to follow.  We only used about half of them so now I am trying to figure out a fun project to do with the others.  This was great to work on her fine motor skills and following directions.  Plus it was fun!
• Foam Notebook Kit- It includes 10 sheets of paper, foam and lots of fun things to decorate the notebook. Perfect for Ashlyn to decorate and write in. 
• Fun Fusion Beads.  It comes with 225 beads and a pegboard.  You follow a pattern and then use an iron to melt the beads together.  Ashlyn was so proud of her bee creation!

I can’t wait to go back and shop some more!  

Here is a fun website for you and your little ones to do together.

I found this cute craft here and wanted to try it with my girls.  I didn’t have the camera while they were doing it bbut got an after picture.  All you need is:

• cupcake liners
• markers
• scissors
• glitter (optional)
• blue or black construction paper

Ashlyn colored the liners with markers.  Then she folded them in half and then in half again and cut slits in them.  She glued them to the blue construction paper ( I think black would have looked better but we didn’t have any) and then she added glitter to make the fireworks sparkle.  Happy 4th of July!

Our family went on our first camping trip last Friday with some friends.  I’m not sure why we decided to do this in June while living in Florida but we did and overall it was lots of fun. The girls and husband loved sleeping in a tent outside, me…not so much.   Sleeping on roots and rocks while listening to animal noises all around me is not my idea of a good night sleep.  Not to mention the fact that our tent was close to a very active set of train tracks.  I counted at least 4 trains while I was “sleeping”.  All that to say it was something different to do as a family and we created many great memories together. 

Ashlyn brushing her teeth in the “bathroom”.

Our awesome friends who went with us.

The girls had fun playing outside, making smores, and swimming in the springs.  They were great and have already told me they want to go again.  I promised my friends that I would try it one more time in the Fall before giving up on camping.

Now we are off to the Keys with some friends who rented a house right on the water.  We will be gone 5 days swimming, snorkeling, relaxing, and boating.  Now that is my kind of vacation.