DUD!!

I hate kid's commericals! Cameron sees them and the toy is never as good as the commerical shows. Gadzillion 3,2,1 Bubble Blast-off was the toy that Cameron thought was gonna be great!! Boy was he wrong!! We were at Target and he saw it so we bought it. I did tell him that if its a dud that we were going to return it. Guess what!?! It was a dud!! Cameron couldn't even get it to go up in the air and when I tried I could get it to go up 7 feet and it produced about 3-5 bubbles and its going back to the store. I think we'll just stick with regular bubbles!

Easter Swap

We participated in an Easter Swap sponsored by Wee Pereas. This is our first swap so Cameron doesn't exactly understand what will happen even though I've tried explaining it to him. When we were looking for things for our swap partner, he wanted everything we were picking out. He thought it was for him. Hopefully when he gets his package he'll understand a little more.

Here's what we got our swap partner, Greyson. He is 3 1/2 years old and I hope he likes what we got him.

We had to include something for the mom too. This was harder for me because I wasn't sure what to get for her. I can't figure out how to turn this picture, sorry!!

Cameron loves to open up presents so I wrapped the swap items up in colorful tissue paper. I hope Greyson likes to also.

Felt Buttons

While Cameron was taking a nap today, I made him this shape felt buttoner. I'm not sure if that is really the name of it but I can't think of a better name.

I found these great big buttons at Walmart (sorry Amanda! ;) and had to find something to do with them. I have SO MUCH felt at home and decided that I would cut out shapes and make a felt board that Cameron could practice buttoning. I really want him to practice buttoning but all of this dress shirts have such little buttons that he can't do them yet so I thought this would be good practice for him.

I didn't think of taking pictures of it while I was making it but I think you can figure out how to make it. I just sewed the buttons on a stiff piece of felt and cut out different pieces of felt and slit a hole in the shape felt.

I haven't had him try it yet so I'll have to let you know if he liked it or not. Anthony's birthday party is on Sunday so I'll have to see if my little cousins (they are 4 and 5) like it. It's nice when they come over and I can experiment on them too. (:

Firestation

We went to the firestation for preschool on Thursday. We had a great time!! Right when we got there, the firefighters had a call so we watched a movie for the first 20 minutes and had snack. Luckily they weren't needed so they came back pretty quick.

Cameron got to spray the hose.

He got to climb in the fire truck too! They brought the trucks outside and put the ladder up and one of the firefighters climbed the ladder and took a picture with the camera. I bet you can't find us! The firefighters were GREAT and the kids really seemed interested and (I think) some of it sunk in.

Birds, Birds

We were home all day today (ahhhhhh)!! I love days like these! There is always something to do and lately I have forgotten to just slow down and enjoy. Since we were home today, we made a birdfeeder. We used an empty Motts for Tots bottle. I cut two holes in the sides using a x-acto knife and two holes up top to knot a rope in to hang it.

I let Cameron paint it. He picked the colors out. He is so into pink (its his favorite color right now). I would probably be a little worried about that if he was my first boy but I remember that Anthony use to like to wear Kait's Jane dress (from Tarzan and Jane), white gloves and the parisal and he's turned out GREAT!! It's something that he's just roll his eyes at me when I tell the story when he gets older. I LOVE teenagers!!!!!!!

He started out using a paintbrush but asked if he could fingerpaint the rest. I know it's messy but its fun!!
Here's our birdfeeder done. I hope the bright colors don't keep the birds away!
We also made multigrain cheerios birdfeeders. We used multigrain cheerios (obviously) and a pipe cleaner! This was great fine motor for Cameron but in the beginning he would string one and eat one, string one and eat one. Here's how they ended up looking like and by the next morning all the cheerios were gone. Hmmm, I hope it was the birds that ate them and not something else!!

Easter Mazes

We made some mazes for St. Patricks Day and the kids really liked them so we made Easter ones too! They are laminated and the kids use a crayon to follow the maze and a piece of felt to wipe them off.

St. Patrick's Day Craft

I know St. Patrick's Day is over but if I don't put this on here I'll forget what I did by next year! (:

This was so easy to make and Cameron enjoyed glueing and snipping. We even brought this to school and the kids enjoyed it too. We used strips of green paper and I let Cameron color the shamrock first. Then he snipped the paper and glued it on the shamrock.

I think it turned out cute!We also made a shamrock counting game. I made a bag out of St. Patricks Day fabric to keep the numbers in. You could also use dice and shake the dice to see which number you would mark off. If you were using a dice you would only put numbers 1-6 on the shamrocks. Cameron would pick a number out of the bag and make it to one of the numbers on the paper. He would then mark it off by putting a dot on the shamrock. This was great because not only did he work on his numbers but he also had to be extra careful to get the dot on the shamrock number. I think I'm going to try to make one of these for easter too! Here's the bag I made for it! This was fun to make! I've got a couple of other sewing projects that I need to get working on too. I'm still such a beginner! (:

Bella's tutu

Wow! It's been a while! This is sad to say but Cam and I haven't been working on a lot lately. I've been working on some stuff for preschool but Cameron really hasn't been interested in doing big crafts.

I have to show you the tutu we made for my niece's 2nd birthday!

We bought tulle from Joann Fabrics. We were suppose to make this for Christmas but I never got around to finishing it so she got it for her birthday. You can make this any color you want. We made Bella's pink and yellow. I used two strips of pink for one yellow.
I folded the tulle in half and cut it 3 inches by 14 inches using my rotary cutter. I don't know how many I cut because I used as many that would make it look full.

We used a stretchy headband for the waist. I used Cameron to see if it was big enough for Bella and it would be a perfect size for any child 1 1/2-5 years old. I know that sounds like a big difference but its nice because it stretches if you need it to.

Next I sat down on the floor in the family room, turned on soap operas (it was a great excuse to watch soaps!!) and put the elastic around my leg like a garter. Take one piece of the cut tulle and slip it under the elastic and make sure the tulle has even ends and tie a double knot.

Just keep taking the tulle one by one and tie it on the elastic using a double knot until its all filled up.

Make sure you keep the knot part towards the bottom so it lays nicely. I was going to wrap a pink ribbon around the top part but it looked fine without. I wish I had a picture of Bella wearing it. My mom says she wears it everyday, all day!

Letters=Words

Here's something quick we are working on and its something that you probably have. We use magnetic letters with a cookie sheet. Cameron likes using the magnets but he's not ready to make words with them yet. With him, we practice finding the letters of his name. This is a child at school that was trying to spell different words so we gave him some picture cards with words and had him "write" the word. After he did that, he could have drawn a picture of the word and written the word. This child wasn't ready for that yet but that is what I love about montessori!! You can have a child that doesn't really know the letters but is still being exposed to them by "playing" with them and when they are ready, they find letters to make words and finally they can start to write the words on paper!

Bird Feeders

We made bird feeders today! I didn't realize that Cam liked peanut butter but when we were trying to make them, he kept eating the peanut butter! First we let a bagel sit out overnight to let it harden a little.
Cameron spread the peanut butter on the bagel. He's using the plastic knife we got at IKEA. I know, I know I shouldn't have let him lick the knife but I did!

I put some birdseed in a little bowl to let him sprinkle the birdseed on the peanut butter bagel. If you do this, put the bagel on a cookie sheet before you start. It keeps everything contained nicely! We didn't even have to vacuum after; anything that fell off the bagel stayed on the tray.

Try to remember to put your yarn or string on before you put the peanut butter and birdseed on. I didn't do that and it wasn't bad but it was a little messier doing it after (:Here's our birdseed bagels hanging outside! Hopefully we'll get to see some birds eating our seeds. When we were outside Cameron kept saying, "Come on birdie-birdies! I have some delicious food for you!!"