places to pick apples

we were just talking this weekend about where to go to pick apples and then today i saw this!!   http://chesterfield.patch.com/articles/five-places-to-pick-apples-in-and-around-st-louis-099cbe4e

here is a list of 5 places to pick yummy apples!

gianna the big helper

i am going to start watching 2 little babies so all the newborn stuff has come back upstairs!  gianna is loving being able to rock her babies to sleep, change her babies and play with her babies!  she has been doing this for over an hour! fantastic!  if you notice she has books in the swing and with the baby on the floor!  pretend play is so much fun and so important!  i must admit hearing the swing on makes me sad for the days of my real babies in it, wipe away a tear!

halloween bath time fun

Gianna is having a Monster Bash Birthday Party!!! She is so excited and so ready for the big day, poor girl has 2 months to wait!! To help with the excitement we had a pumpkin themed bath time!

I found these foam Jack-o-lantern cut outs at the dollar store!  When you get these wet they stick to the bathtub wall!

So much fun!

We also made the bath water orange to celebrate the fun fall season that is approaching!  Yay!

My cute little man had fun as well! 

Sticking them all on the tub wall!

Gianna was so excited with herself, she made a pumpkin patch!

Happy Fall everyone!

pancake muffins

I have been seeing this idea on pinterest for awhile and have always wanted to try.  Today was the perfect day!  I did not take a picture but you guys don't really need one.  I made pancake batter according to the box (nothing special here) then poured it into greased muffin tins a little more than half way. Oh and we were out of fruit so Gianna added chocolate chips, that is the same as fruit, right?!?  We baked our pancake muffins at 400 for 10-13 mins and then it was yum time!!  We may not be buying the frozen pancakes anymore!


I don't know which pinterest post I saw this first so I don't know who to link this post to.

Bath Finger Paint

This morning Gianna needed something to do while her brother took a nap!  So we made bath finger paints!  Hey 2 birds with 1 stone and bath and play time!! 

I got the idea off Pinterest and it is so easy here is the blog that posted about it: http://teamdischinger.blogspot.com/2012/01/bathtub-paint.html 

The easy directions:
1 tbsp cornstarch, 4-6 pumps baby shampoo, 2-3 drops food coloring, 1-2 tsp water = voila! bathtub paint

Gianna had a blast and is now smelling so clean!  ;)

The Olympics!

We have been having so much fun watching the Olympics!  I think this time has been the most fun because we have been acting out each sport!  This morning it was the Equestrian events!  The rolled up blankets are the jumps!  HAHA!!  She was jumping over them!  Cracks me up!

Then everyone needed an Olympic snack!  Toast with applesauce painted on it and Gold Medal Pineapple rings! ;) 

Flour paint

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to babysit a lovely little angel.  She is a friend's little girl and Glenn is in love!  He spent the 2 days hugging and kissing her! So sweet! 

 One of the activities we did was to paint with Flour Paint.  This paint is awesome because the little guys can do it and if they put some in their mouths it is okay, let me just say I did not let them eat it but if they were doing like Glenn was in this picture I did not have to scream and jump into super hero mode to stop him.  It was more calm than that!  ;)

 http://www.icanteachmychild.com/2011/06/squeezable-homemade-finger-paint/  Here is the link for the blog that I found the recipe

Recipe for Homemade Finger Paint


1 cup flour

2 tablespoons salt

1 1/2 cups cold water

1 1/2 cups hot water

Coloring: food coloring, tempera paint, or powdered tempera will work

I wish I would have taken a picture of the masterpieces these artists made but I did  not!


I have also done just flour and water and mix together until it becomes a paint consistancy.  Just another idea!

Enjoy!

A special walk!

I found this great 3 section organizer thing in the dollar section at Target!  I was excited because I knew it would be a great way to work with colors!  (I only bought 1 now I wish I would have bought another one for the little man in a couple of months!)  So this walk we looked for Brown, Black and Pink!!  The cool thing is each walk we can look for different colors just by switching out the squares!About to head out on the walk!

Searching without using to much energy...

Now the excitement was too much, she is off!

"Look mama something brown!" A nut!

Gianna also worked on fine motor skills by opening the container!

By the end of the walk we found something in each color!  YAY!! I was not sure if we could pull pink off but we found a wild flower!  So cool!!!

We will be doing this walk again soon!  So cool!  Check out your dollar section at Target!!!

question

Does anyone else have a husband that thinks it is a coincidence that both kids wake up at the time he is getting ready in the morning.......mine cannot put two and two together that he wakes them up when he is loudly closing doors and jumping down the stairs!  HAHA!!!  REALLY!?!?!  Aw the spouses!

Side walk chalk

We have made side walk chalk in the past but we made it again today! 
1 cup corn starch
 1 cup water
food coloring!
EASY!!  We had so much fun making our street a colorful beautiful masterpiece! 

We talked a lot about what colors mix to create other colors!

The colors are still bright!

She was mixing all the colors together!  We painted not only the street but also leaves!

"Mama how about if I paint with this stick!"  Why not give it a try! 

crib safety for babies under 1

The today show this morning did a spot about crib safety for babies under 1. More information about how you should not put anything in the baby's crib because there is an increase risk of SIDS.  Check it out...

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/47414692/ns/today-today_rossen_reports/t/rossen-reports-crib-products-may-be-deadly-experts-say/

Ice skating in the living room!

http://oneperfectdayblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/08/ice-skating-in-the-living-room/

This smart mama (not me the mama at One Perfect Day Blog) put bags on her kid's feet and let him skate around!  SO MUCH FUN I WANT TO DO IT MYSELF!!!! 

All you need is carpet, bags cut into rectangles and tape!  TA DAA!!!  FUN! 

Painting with mud!

One of the activities I am planning on doing when we are at the lake next week is to paint with mud! I found the idea in the Xplor Adventures in Nature magazine! If you live in Missouri it is free! Go to xplormo.org/node/2618

Make a Dirt Shirt: You will need a clean white shirt Vinegar and MUD!!!!


Find some thick mud, scoop it into a cup , and pour in vinegar until the mud feels like pudding. Use the mud to paint a design on your shirt. To make the design permanent, let the shirt sit in the sun for at least four hours, rinse the shirt in cold water, clean it in a washing machine, and run it through a hot dryer!



SO MUCH FUN!!! I can't wait to see what we create!! YAY MUD!

Puffy Paint!

I just found this recipe for puffy paint on Pinterest and I can't wait to try it!!  It seems super easy and it is edible so my little man can create as well!  YAY!!

puffy paint!


set aside one cup refined flour in a big bowl. Mixed three tea-spoons

baking powder and one tea-spoon salt. To this add enough water so as to get

a thick pouring consistency.




20 - 30 secs in the microwave after painting is done!


http://www.mommy-labs.com/creative-kids/art_craft_projects_kids/enjoying-the-art-and-science-of-microwave-puffy-paint/
 Here is the blogger's pictures

breakfast

Let me start off by saying I don't have any pictures to share since my little speed racer Gianna took off with my camera and dropped it!  RIP camera!

For breakfast this morning I needed to get a lot of the dishes done and do a wipe down of the kitchen; I have seen idea floating around pinterst about using pancakes and painting them with colored syrup or butter.  Well I love the thought of that but did not want to use butter or syrup for a variety of reasons.  So we colored applesauce as our paint!  She loved painting her pancake with the applesauce and in turn ate a huge breakfast!  YAY!!!  We will do this again and maybe by then I will have a new camera!  ;)

My photo wall!

This is my photo wall in my house!  It is made up of photos Sungazing photos has taken every 3 months of my kiddos' life!  That is why there is a gap the bottom right corner.  Glenn is only 9 months!  I will post how I did the words tomorrow!

photo wall

I am finally hanging the pictures I had professionally taken of the kiddos every 3 months for the first yr of life!  There needs to be some words added in so here are the ones I am going to put.....

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure, a year in the life?

I am going to use the idea of letters on the wall from the blog, This Thrifty House: http://thisthriftyhouse.blogspot.com/2010/09/iron-on-wall-art.html

I'll post pictures when it is finished!!!!!  Hope to do it today but like most of you it depends on a 2 year old and a 9 month old and since it is Spring Break and hubby as well!  ;)

another use for the kitchen table!

I keep seeing ideas for place mats that kids can draw on floating around the Internet and I love the idea.  When I thought about adding it to the To Do list I kind of giggled because I knew I would not get it done.  So I started thinking......we have a glass top table......we have window markers.......we can draw on our table!  YAY!!!  Well I think I love drawing on the table more than Gianna does!  Our favorite thing to do is draw pictures together and work on 1 masterpiece! 

It can smear when the ink is still wet but once it dries it does not wipe off unless wet.  To clean just use a wipe or window cleaner.  Whatever you normally use.  Gianna is cleaning it off in this picture so we can start over!  Have fun everyone!

how to extend the life of pants that are too short!

http://mypoppet.blogspot.com/2012/03/how-to-make-cute-knickerbockers.html#more

Check out how this creative blogger made her daughter's pants into stylish "knickerbockers" 



Gianna has a few pants that will get this special treatment really soon!!!

make your own water colors!

http://happyhooligans.wordpress.com/2012/03/07/home-made-water-colour-paints/

This wonderful blog shares how to make your own watercolor paints!  HOW MUCH FUN!!  Plus, I have everything I need to make it!!!  Check it out!

■4 tbsp baking soda


■2 tbsp white vinegar

■1/2 tsp light corn syrup (I think this known as Kayro syrup in some parts. I didn’t have “light” so I used “golden” syrup)

■2 tbsp corn starch (known as corn flour in the UK)

■Food colouring (liquid or gels)

■container to keep your paints in – I used a mini muffin tin, but you could use an ice-cube tray, small plastic cups, plastic egg carton etc.

ART BOX

I have posted about the art box before but it was during last summer.  We have started using it a lot again so I thought I would post again!  The art box is a big cardboard box we received when Gianna got a sand table for the backyard.  I did not want to waste the box and we love doing messy art so the art box was born!  To paint, stickers, playdoh, crayons, whatever art can be done in the art box without interference for me.  she can get as messy as she wants as long as it stays in the box!  We both love it!

a movie kind of morning

So I am not feeling well at all so I was grateful when Gianna said she wanted to watch Beauty and the Beast!  YAY!!  So I thought I would make her something really quick to play with while watching.  I made felt "paper" dolls with some crude clothing and gave her markers.  She played and watched for the first part of the movie.  Not to shabby!  Now if the other one would take a nap I could rest... haha!  He is busy standing up and cruising around using the couch!  The little buddy just started crawling last week!  Changing too quickly!

Can you see his sister on the couch.  He would stand up and bug her!  HAHA!

The felt "paper" dolls and some of the clothing (if you want to call them that)  Imagination is needed!

diet coke brownies?!?! WHAT!?!?!

So I have seen this idea all over pinterest so I have been wanting to try it!  I will admit ever since I had my son I want sweets!  Before him it was always salty food now bring on desserts!  So for this recipe you need a box of brownie mix and 12oz diet coke!!  Bake at 350 for about 20 min (keep checking it I left mine a little gooey because hey no raw eggs so I could!)  The pin on pinterest said it was like a 140 cal. per serving!  YAY AND YUM!  Here is the link to the blog I got the idea from!  http://auntpegsrecipebox.blogspot.com/2011/02/diet-coke-brownies.html

We added powdered sugar!

"mmmm mama!"

Transportation kind of day!

This morning turned out to be a transportation morning!  FUN!!! 

A garage made out of a little box and cardboard roads!  Perfect for the smaller cars to drive on!

"This is fun mama!"

He really liked the big truck!  It honks and flashes its lights!

We had a flash with the transportation so we could see in the garage!  Why not!?!  ;)

Playing with the cars!

HAHA!  Her hair!

Driving to Papa's house!

A little art mixed in...I found this in the $1 section at Target and thought it would be fun to add to the Transportation play!