Early Morning Treat

Greek yogurt + blackberries + blueberries + bananas + carrots (yes, that's right, I said carrots) + a splash of whole milk= a delicious (and healthy) early morning treat!

Our Family. . . in miniature

This will be one of C's homemade Christmas gifts this year. (I made one extra little girl, just so there's no confusion!) I thought she could be one of C's cousins or a friend. I really enjoyed making these and I will eventually make more to represent our extended family. She will love playing with these in her little wooden dollhouse. The house came with a little family but, in my opinion, they are not very cute. So I thought these wooden figures would be more fun and a little more personal as well.

Scissor Time

One of C's "tivities" for the week is using her toddler scissors to cut strips of paper. I used thick card stock instead of regular paper so it wouldn't be as likely to bend while C is trying to cut.

It is quite a feat for a 2 1/2 year old to get everything coordinated and working just right to accomplish a fine motor skill such as cutting. It has taken C some time to learn the proper way to hold the scissors and the paper, but she is very persistent and highly focused with this activity. (I can't say that for most things at this age, but this seems to be the exception.)
She absolutely loves using her scissors! Every time I go to cut something with my scissors, she runs to get hers and generously offers her assistance.

And she snuck away to cut some more. . .

Our Jesse Tree

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. -Isaiah 11:1

I am finally finished! As my Uncle Kenneth would say, "Praise God!" I am thrilled that I was able to complete the ornaments before the start of Advent and I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed making them. I LOVE crafting and painting, so this was a perfect combination of the two. I found each image online (based on the scripture passages that we are using for our tree) and used graphite transfer paper to trace the images onto the wooden ornaments. Then I hand painted each one using acrylic paint (and a very tiny brush) and finished them off by outlining each image in black. I also painted the backs of each ornament black so I could easily write on them (see below). Here are days 1 through 10:

Days 11 through 20:

And days 21 through 27:

My husband and I are determined and having been praying for God's grace and guidance to instill in our daughter a biblical focus on Christmas rather than the secular perspective that our society is so easily caught up in these days. It is important to us that we teach C the true significance of the Christmas season. I researched family Advent traditions and the Jesse Tree seems to do a beautiful job of spotlighting the major events/ figures in the Bible leading up to Jesus' birth. The Jesse Tree is a way of telling the story of Jesus' genealogy and the history of God's plan for salvation. It starts with the story of creation and ends with the birth of Jesus on Christmas day, with such important stories as the fall of man, the flood, the chosen prophets, and the lineage from Jesse to Jesus in between. There is an ornament and Scripture reading for each day of Advent. We will use this tradition (along with others) to teach C the Old Testament lineage of Jesus and it will also serve as our count down to Christmas and the celebration of Christ's birth here on earth.

We will start on the very first day of Advent, November 29th, which makes 27 ornaments total.
On the back of each ornament I wrote the central figure in each scripture story, the scripture passage(s), and the order in which they will be read. For the next several years, until C is able to fully grasp scripture from the Bible, we will use her child's version of the Bible.

I am still in search of the perfect Jesse "tree" to hang our ornaments from. What I have in mind is very specific and it may be that I don't find what I'm looking for this year. Not a problem! I will continue to look for what I want (or make it myself) and we will just hang each ornament on our Christmas tree for now.

Here is the handmade Advent "box" that C will open each evening at the dinner table.

We will light our Advent wreath candle(s) and C will open the Advent box to find the Jesse Tree ornament for the day, an Advent prayer, her Bible (to read the coordinating scripture), and a sweet little treat to help count down the days until Christmas.

And here is the wooden box I made to store all of our ornaments in from year to year.
I am so excited and feel God blessing us in our effort to teach our precious child in His ways. My hope is that someday C will look back on our time during Advent with fond memories and appreciate the time we spent together as a family in anticipation of the birth of Christ.

Today I am Thankful for. . .

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!

Worship the Lord with gladness.

Come into his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord is God!

It is he that made us, and we are his;

we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,

and his courts with praise!

Give thanks to him, bless his name!

For the Lord is good; his mercy endures forever,

and his faithfulness to all generations.

-Psalm 100

New Owners!

We are proud new owners of two Schwinn Sport Mountain bikes! We were very proud of ourselves for installing the child seat without too much stress on our marriage. We are now enjoying the family time together as we try to get a ride in at least twice during the week and once on the weekends. C and I go out during the day as well for short rides or to get to play dates in the neighborhood. It's awesome! No car keys or car seat to fiddle with. I remember the feeling I had riding bikes as a child, so I can only imagine the exhilaration C must feel with the wind in her hair and not a care in the world. I love how children teach us so beautifully how to truly live in the moment.

Happy Riding!

Harvest Tub

Here is C playing with her harvest/ Thanksgiving sensory tub. . .

This tub includes popcorn kernels, pipe cleaners, scarecrow and leaf beads, silk leaves, various wooden boxes, paper quarter rolls, and a scooper.
And here she is enjoying a rubber stamping "tivity." Ah, the joys of being two!
And, yes, this ink is washable!!!!

And this picture is for you, Mom and Dad! Here is our BEAUTIFUL Hibiscus plant! We get blooms just about every other day. C reminded me that it needed to be watered yesterday. Every morning she looks out the back door and gives me an update. We usually end up having to go outside to check out the new blooms, buds, and withered flowers from the day before. She is in love with this plant! And it serves as a beautiful reminder to me of your love for C and of God's amazing creation.

Muffin Tin Monday with Patterns

Well, today's Muffin Tin Monday wasn't exactly in a muffin tin, but it did include a muffin. Does that count? I've been working with C on patterns and recognizing her numbers lately, so I wanted to do something related to this theme.

Our pattern-themed, "wanna be" muffin meal from today included: an ABCB pattern with pomegranate seeds, cheese stick slices, and blueberries; a carrot and black olive AB pattern, a one and a two shaped almond butter and honey sandwich on organic multi-grain bread; and a homemade gluten-free blueberry and honey muffin.
C was very interested in the patterns and even told me what would come next in each one! Daddy has recently been working from home (yay!), so she had to run into the office and show off her lunch to him as well.

Happy Muffin Tin Monday!

Here Comes Grasshopper C!

When I asked C several weeks ago what she would like to be for Halloween, she replied, "A grasshopper, Mommy." I asked her again a few days later (thinking surely she had just said the first thing on her mind and that her mind would be changed by now) but, again she replied, "A grasshopper, Mommy." Sooooo. . . A grasshopper it is for my sweet C! (We have really large grasshoppers that jump onto our kitchen windows and C loves to sit and watch them from inside so she can see them up close.) Grasshopper costumes aren't readily available as a common choice in the stores and online, so I got my creative juices flowing and this is what I came up with. Everything is handmade except for the wings and the hat.

I used a very simple, no-sew pattern to make the tutu and the shirt pattern is made from felt and rhinestones. I just love this picture of her with the hat covering her eyes. C was playing peek-a-boo with the photographer so she was able to snap this picture before C lifted the hat back up! So fun!
Hope your Halloween is as festive and fun as ours! We are spending the evening eating and trick-or-treating with some good friends.

Halloween Sorting and Transferring Tivities

Here is a sorting activity on C's Montessori shelf right now. I used Halloween themed erasers that I bought in the dollar bin at Wal-Mart and the tray came from this fabulous website. This was very simple for C, so next time I create a sorting activity it will be a little more involved.

She really enjoyed playing with the little erasers though and she had fun teaching baby how to complete the activity. Her world revolves around "baby" these days, so anything she can do that involves baby is wonderful and exciting in her book.

And here is a transfer activity using Halloween colored pom-poms and a tong. This activity works on fine motor skills (pre-cutting and pre-writing skills) as C has to transfer each pom-pom from the bowl to a circle on the paint pallet using the tongs.
And finally here is an ordering activity using various sized apples. C is learning to order items from smallest to biggest and vice versa. Everywhere we go we question C about the size of things, so I printed various sized apples and C set to work ordering them from smallest to biggest. She really enjoys doing this and I will continue to put this type of activity on her shelf until she really has mastery of it.

So here is a picture of her work shelf for the week. . .

Happy Learning!

Pumpkin Carving

We carved our pumpkin on Sunday and C wanted absolutely nothing to do with getting her hands slimy and sticky with pumpkin seeds and guts. She was content to sit on the table and watch me while Daddy took pictures.
It was so easy to carve since I bought a pumpkin carving kit and I even designed the face myself. Unfortunately, as I was scraping a few last pieces of the guts from the inside, I knocked out one eyeball and a tooth so it ended up looking a little... oh, how should I say this... dull.
C loved it though and that's all that matters. When I was finished she said, "I love my jack-o-lantern!"

And I love this time of year!

Number Sorting Tivity

My next several posts will be a series of Montessori-based activities that I currently have on C's "Montessori shelf." The first one is a number sorting activity with orange pom-poms (Halloween themed, of course). C has to use the tongs to place the correct amount of pom-poms in each numbered container.
We've only done numbers 1 through 3, but will eventually work our way up to 10. This activity addresses number recognition, counting, associating quantity with a number symbol in their proper sequence, as well as fine motor skills.

In other news, no Muffin Tin Monday today. We had our small church community meeting tonight so I didn't have time to "be creative" (a.k.a. "not thinking ahead"). I made a stuffed Delicata Squash with ground turkey, yellow bell pepper, asparagus, and cheese for dinner. It was delish and fairly simple to throw together! C wasn't too fond of the squash itself, but she ate everything else along with some carrots and applesause (with some pomegranate seeds mixed in). This type of squash has a sweet, corn-like flavor to it and is an ideal stuffing squash.

This past Saturday, we went with some dear friends to the Arboretum and had a fabulous fall day together! We enjoyed the beautiful blooms, the pumpkin patch, and all the storybook houses throughout the park.

I just love this time of year! Happy Harvesting!

"Novice Crafter"

Okay, so in my "About Me" blurb, one of the ways I described myself was as a "novice crafter." I have always loved crafting (thanks to my Mom), I'm just not so sure how good I am at it. I tend to perseverate on one thing for a period of time, get burnt out, and move on to something else. My biggest (and most expensive) crafting hobby by far is scrapbooking, but since C was born I have not had a whole lot of time to dedicate to this craft. I tend to make the online books for documentation and as gifts since it is a whole lot faster than traditional scrapbooking. But, I keep all of my supplies, materials, and photos in hopes that one day I will have time to "catch up." Ha! In the meantime, I really enjoy finding quick projects that I can make with materials I already have at home and that only take a day or two to complete. I rely on my blog hopping to find these fun little projects and tutorials. So without further ado, I will unveil my first "mini craft" that I found on this fun and fabulous blog. It was so simple to make and looks great on our mantel as a Halloween decoration. Of course, I like to involve C as much as possible and this was a great project for her to get involved with. She enjoyed "helping" me. Her help consisted mostly of tearing up tissue paper, but hey, she had tons of fun and that's all that matters. By the way, after I was finished, C said to me, "I really like your pumpkin faces Mommy, but I really only like that orange one, and that orange one, and that purple one. The white one and green one are scary." So honest!

Happy Crafting!

Bathing Baby

This is the scene I witnessed this morning when I walked into the bathroom looking for C. . . .

So cute! She is such a little mommy. She picked out two of her own bath toys and a washcloth to bathe baby. . . "Wal-Mart baby," that is. Let me introduce you to all seven of C's babies: there's Abbey, Daisy (she has daisy bows in her hair), Bennett (one of my old Cabbage Patch dolls), Nana's baby (that's right, a gift from Nana), Baby Boy (yes, a baby that is a boy), Huge Baby (my childhood baby doll that is apparently huge), and Wal-Mart baby. If you haven't guessed it by now, this baby is from Wal-Mart. C proudly uses these names with her babies and we just chuckle to ourselves at her sincerity.

It didn't take long for C to become so wet that we had to change her shirt and then she continued to bathe and brush baby's teeth for quite a while. At one point she was using her electric toothbrush as a mixer to make pancakes (in the sink). I love her imagination!

"Wishy washy, wishy washy, wishy washy, weeeeee!"