Monster Fun!

We have been doing a lot of arts and crafts lately. I think it is great how much little kids love creating things! Lately Lyla has watched a little bit of Monsters Inc. At first I really regretted it because she was waking me up at 3am saying there were monitors in her closet. As a result, I have really tried to stress that monsters are nice.

One night I cut out a bunch of colorful monsters for Lyla to decorate. The best toy for toddlers is a stack of construction paper. You can do so many things!

Then I found these awesome eyeballs and mustaches at Target. They have these adorable pumpkin decorating kits.

I pulled out some glitter and stickers and we were set!

We had a great time and I think they turned out super cute. I thought it would be fun this Halloween season for Lyla to decorate her room with the things she creates. The Monsters were a great addition to her wall.

Happy Monday!

-BreAnne

Making Cardboard Castles

Oh last week was just sad. Sometimes I feel like my 2 year old acts like a teenager. Seriously. She talks back to me or when I call for her in the house she irritably yells back "what!?!" We needed to work on our attitude a little. It didn't help that Dad had to work very late all week. Well, one late afternoon, when the park just didn't sound fun, I gathered all the cardboard boxes we recently got from Amazon and grandma packages. I took all of them apart, got a big roll of duct tape, and started forming a castle.

I got out all of Lyla's finger paint and set out a mat so we could paint it in the garage. My favorite was my make shift apron I made her out of a garbage sack!

She and I had so much fun doing this. We laughed, talked, and painted for hours (the teenager in her disappeared). I would recommend this activity for everyone! It is funny in the end I thought some might consider our castle a "pinterest fail." It isn't very cute and kind of looks like a mess, but I let my child tape it up with me and paint it however she wanted it. So to me its a big win!

Look at that smile! It is so hard to catch it on camera, but when I do it melts me. This was such a fun day.

-Bre

Fall Toddler Activities

 

 Something I like to do at night is watch TV. What? Did I just admit that? Yes I did. But here is the thing. I feel guilty watching TV if I am not doing something productive. SO I try to come up with creative games for Lyla, sew,  or write blogs! Let me just admit that is my crafting time. 

Last week I looked at a bunch of different fall games on pinterest. Does anyone else find some those blogs overwhelming?  It is like 50 different activities and the pages have just a bunch of different links to other blogs. Nevertheless, there are some good ideas. So I pulled out my scissors and construction paper and starting cutting. I put these two activities in ziplock bags and pulled them out on a day we needed a fun activity. 

 )Yeah I know the pictures are kind of blurry. But I have a 2 year old... and she moves around a lot. Oh how I love her!)

I left them on the wall for Lyla to play with through out the week. She also loves to share her art with her Daddy when he gets home. 

Happy Fall!

-Bre

THE Cucumber Tomato Sandwich

 My father is an amazing gardener. Seriously the man has more than a green thumb! Growing up one of my favorite things about summer was my Dad's garden. Vegetables and fruits from the garden taste a thousand times better than the store. All summer long for lunch and sometime dinner we would eat one thing, cucumber tomato sandwiches. It is a recipe my father has developed and refined over many years till it has reached ultimate perfection. I have seriously thought of opening up a food stand in the summers to just sell this one sandwich... because nobody would want to eat anything else because it is THAT GOOD.

This summer my awesome Dad came to virginia and helped me start our new garden in our rental house. Sadly, the stupid bugs and fungus ate the cucumbers, but my tomatoes survived! We have been enjoying these awesome sandwiches all summer. I thought I would share this top secret family recipe with you to enjoy! ( It still taste good with store bought ingredients.)

Step 1: Toast yourself some yummy bread and spread some mayonnaise on top (or you can put miracle whip if your weird.) This is an open face sandwich so you will spread it over both slices.

Step 2: Thinly slice cucumbers and tomatoes and put them on the bread.

Step 3: Season with Salt and Italian Dressing. My favorite is the Olive garden dressing.

Eat it all up and enjoy!

Did I just change your life? Your Welcome!

-Bre

Creating Glitter Crowns

Las week my husband was gone every night until 9pm. It was awful. I'm pretty sure I have mentioned  that my daughter doesn't nap so finding entertainment is hard. But usually at 6pm her wonderful father will come home, eat dinner and play with her until she goes to bed. Everyday I am grateful for  husband who loves to play. Well, it was 7:30pm on Thursday night and Tyler still wasn't home so I opened the craft closet and came up with a brilliant plan to make princess crowns. 

 Step 1: Get Glue. Any glue will work... ok I lied glue sticks don't really work. But all others are just fine! Draw the design of your crown with the glue and spread it around.

Step 2: Pour glitter onto the glue. Then carefully pour the glitter back into each bottle to conserve glitter. 

 Step 3: Add as many jewels to the crowns as you desire and viola! I suppose if you had a boy you could do a sword because swords are cool and have jewels.

 This activity lasted for a full hour! We had so much fun naming the different crowns for each princess. In fact, the next day Lyla got up and wanted to make crowns again. Oh the power of glitter and glue... it makes you wonder why you ever buy toys.

 Ok maybe my 2 year old did not make this crown... Yes I had fun doing it too! 

Well it was a fun evening, but hopefully this week will not have so many long nights!

-Bre

Book Review: Princess Furball

I am so excited to share another one of my favorite children's book from when I was a kid! It is called Princess Furball.

Brief Synopsis
Princess Furball lives happily in her castle until her father arranges her marriage to an Ogre in exchange for money. The Princess agrees only if her father can makes her a coat of 1,000 different animal skins, and dresses like the sun, moon, and stars. When the gifts are complete Furball takes them and runs away. She is captured in the woods and forced to work in the kitchen of another castle. Her cleverness and talent allow her to make a new life for herself and marry the man she chooses.

Lessons
Great lessons in independence and courage.

Audience 
This story is very well written and engaging. It is not your typical princess fairytale. I think kids of all ages will love it! My three year old requests it every night. The artwork is pretty unique and the storyline is very clever.

Happy Weekend!

Bre

Spider Tape Webs

Sometimes I look at different children's blog and think wow that activity looks incredible, but really intense. I have a confession to make... I hate cleaning, but I do every day (all day) because the only thing I hate more than cleaning up messes is a messy house. Messy houses are hard to sleep in and breathe in and it invites bugs. Oh I think I could write a whole book about my hatred of bugs. There is no shortage of them in the South or my backyard... but I digress. The point of my babbling is that I LOVE GAMES THAT ARE SIMPLE, FUN, and EASY TO CLEAN UP!

This game is one of my favorites and all it will cost you in a roll of scotch tape. First begin by finding a variety of tall objects different heights and place them in a circle. Then help your child to create their own spider web.

I remember once when I little we made one of these with my mother's benches on the front entryway. It was epic and people really struggled to get to the front door. Oh the memories!

Next take some action figures (or in our case princesses and their pets) and place them in the spider web. It is a fun afternoon activity that can last a while.

Enjoy!

BreAnne