Crayon Valentines

Loving Pinterest these days!  We made those crayon hearts that have been floating around the Pinterest boards and they came out so cute!!!  They were so simple to make and definitely worth the time.  Zayit had fun filling up the little heart molds with broken crayons and watching them melt in the oven.  It took a bit longer than his attention span could handle (20 minutes at 200 degrees) but he was super excited to pop them out of the mold after they cooled.  (I popped them out first and then put them back in just to make sure that they wouldn't break when he did it).

After all the hearts were made, I printed up little 4x4 cards on cardstock and hot glued the crayon hearts to the cards.  I'm excited that he has such cute little Valentines to hand out at school this week and there isn't any candy involved!

No More Teeth Marks!

A couple of weeks ago, Ziva took to gnawing on her crib rail.  Ugh!  She only has 2 teeth on the bottom, but those suckers are sharp.  I didn't like the idea of her chewing away on a plastic crib rail protector, so I had to come up with something different.  A couple days later I was shopping at Old Navy and they had tons of fleece scarves on sale for $3.  Perfect!

It took me about 5 minutes to cut slits along the scarf and tie it around the rail.  I couldn't be happier!  Looks adorable and now Ziva is gnawing on fleece instead of wood or plastic.  Crib rail is saved.  

Ziva's 1st Birthday Bash

Ziva had a birthday!  Exciting times.  I can't believe how fast she has grown!  We had a little celebration to mark the occasion.  I had fun learning to decorate cupcakes and made a separate smashcake for the little lady.  Of course, I had all sorts of ideas for a photo shoot, thanks to Pinterest, but she had other ideas.  Only my kid would not want to stick her hand right into a cake!  Oh well.  We had fun and got a couple of awesome pics.

Some pics from the party...

Thanks to JSPhotography for hanging out with us and capturing the moment!  

Shaving Cream Painting

We have had many days recently when indoor activities have been a must.  The temps here are just way too cold to go outside.  One of our recent "quickies" is a commonly seen activity on Pinterest.  I've found that it is helpful to have some supplies on hand... always.  One of these items is shaving cream.  I never run out.  We will go months without using it, but when it's needed, it's always a hit.

We needed an after school craft to change the mood.  Zayit was getting a little crazy and getting ready to bounce off the walls.  Shaving cream to the rescue!  It took all of 2 minutes to set up, lasted about 15 minutes, another 2 minutes to clean up and all was good.  The energy in the house quickly changed and it was the 'reset' we needed.

If you notice, there is an entire roll of paper towels very close to Zayit.  This is key!  Shaving cream painting is MESSY.  This is the only time I can get him to wear an apron and we go through a ton of paper towels in a short period of time.  Also, make sure you have thick paper - we use either watercolor paper or finger paint paper.  The moisture of shaving cream soaks right through regular paper.

Cupcake Trials

We have been busy in our house.  I am getting ready to celebrate my little lady's first birthday!  So exciting!  I can't believe she is going to be a year old in a couple weeks.  I'm on a mission to make the perfect cupcake for her little celebration.  I anticipate a lovely smashcake just for her and cupcakes for everyone else.

Zayit is loving the fact that I keep making cupcakes.  On my days home, he asks if we can "make a recipe", AKA mix things with the KitchenAid.  Last week I used a traditional box mix for the cake part of the cupcake and was extremely disappointed.  So, off to Pinterest Land I went.  I found an awesome recipe for cupcakes from scratch.  Even Daddy likes them!  (link here)  Zayit has helped me make 2 batches this week, trying out different icings and perfecting the icing application process (which still needs a lot of perfecting!)  If tomorrow goes as planned, we will be making another batch, this time substituting applesauce for some of the oil.  Wish us luck!!!

Sticky Paper Play

It's been cold here and we are getting a little stir crazy in the house.  In addition to it being a bit chilly outside for extended play, we have eliminated Zayit's nap!  Ugh.  It was so nice when he would sleep for 2 hours in the afternoon, but it was becoming very unpleasant when he wouldn't go to sleep until after 9pm.  So, nappy is gone... enter high-intensity, cranky afternoons with a 3 year old and a 11 month old!  Oh, joy.  (and did I mention that Ziva has gone from 2 naps a day to 1 nap a day at the same time???)

Time to be creative with what we have.  Out comes the sticky paper, AKA contact paper.  This stuff is great.  We have used it to create art with paper shapes, explore the sense of touch, make hand/foot prints and see how many different toys we can make stick to the wall.  I initially had a good size piece taped to the kids' table, but Zayit immediately wanted it moved to the window.  He had a little bucket of cut shapes in different colors and sizes.  He spent a lovely 20 independent minutes designing his masterpiece.  

 The bucket of paper shapes...

Using a hand...

How about an elbow?

 Lots and lots of colors and shapes...

I left the paper up on the window for a couple of days.  He would periodically add shapes to it, touch it, stick his whole hand on it and put toys on it.  We had Elmo hanging for a bit.  It was kinda funny to watch him reposition Elmo's arms and legs over and over.  Zayit asked me for a new piece and I was happy to oblige.  The second piece is still on the window, although has not had as much play as the first.  I'll be taking it down tomorrow and saving more sticky play for another day in the future.

Giving Elmo a hug...

  

Indoor Snow Play

It's been just under a month since I posted.  I took some time off of blogging to get caught up at work, enjoy the holidays, and most importantly, put my camera down and play with my Littles.  I enjoyed the hectic holidays and all the festivities and loved the quality time I had to do all sorts of crafts and adventures.  But I've missed being here.  Time to get back to blogging!

We recently had a pretty good snow storm - got about a foot in our yard.  Zayit LOVES the snow this year.  He is actually excited to put all his gear on.  The process of getting both he and I geared up for snow play takes about 15 minutes from start to finish and is so worth it.  I've mastered getting the gloves, snow bibs, boots, hat and jacket on Dude so that he stays completely dry and warm even after being out there for 2 hours of hard core snow play.  Sometimes, it is just too cold to go out, or Ziva isn't in the mood to get all bundled up, so what are we to do?  I have a 3 year old boy who is chomping at the bit to play in the snow and an 11 month old girl who is enjoying pulling her socks off and playing with her toes.  Hmmm.  Bring the snow inside!  Yes, I know.  Crazy and messy.  But hey... you only live once!

Zayit was SO excited to see the set up.  He said "ooooh, cool!  This is good!"  I used an under-the-bed plastic storage box and filled it with fresh snow, a couple of cups of colored water (I used food coloring so it was edible), a bunch of paint brushes and some plastic ice cream cones.  Zayit had a blast.

The set up...

Checking out the goods...

Tasting the snow...

Painting...

Since we were having so much fun bringing the snow in, we decided to keep up the fun and have a pizza picnic in the playroom.  We had never done an indoor picnic before so this was very cool.  I see many more impromptu playroom picnics in our future!