Planting Flowers

I'm finding that some things on the list will be done more than once, but I want to make sure I photograph them just in case they don't.  I've said before that The List isn't supposed to start until June, but for one, I'm anxious to get started and for another, some things just have to be done earlier.  Like planting flowers.

Brock and I went out and planted some flowers today.  It was one of the first things I added to the list when I adapted the original list.  Brock had a blast, until he got bored.

Things I learned planting flowers with Brock:

• He knows that worms and bugs are good for the flowers.
• He knows that rain is good for the flowers.
• When he gets bored, he'll stomp on my flowers (ugh!).
• He is more scared of bugs than I originally thought.

Please excuse my garden.  It's a mess.  When we moved into this house, it was even worse!  It is filled with thick, thick roots and flowers that I'm not sure if they are weeds or plants.  My thumb is really not green at all!  I'm hoping next year it will be better.  We planted some seeds too. 

Sponge Bomb Tutorial

You can find these tutorials all over, I can't remember where I found the idea to do these at so I can't give thanks.

Materials Needed:

*Sponges without the scrubby side

*Fishing line or embroidery floss

*Scissors

Step One: Cut the sponges in half the long way.

Step Two: Now cut each half in half the long way.  Yes I know my

halves are a little off.

Then you have a bunch of strips of sponge

Step Three: Stack the sponges like this.  Or you could just do one color.

Or you could do two different colors. Just make sure you stack them up 2 high

and 4 wide.

Step Four: Tie your string around the ball in a knot. Pull tight. 

*Note: I do remember the tutorial I found the idea on said to use fishing line.  I don't

have fishing line handy and the only thing I fear with the embroidery floss is that it might break.

But we'll deal with that if it happens this summer.

Ta-da! Sponge Bombs!  Throw them in a bucket of water and have a water fight!

Store in a garment bag for drying.

I got the bright colored sponges at Target (4pk for 1.69) and the primary colored ones at Dollar Tree (10pk for 1.00).  I kind of prefer the Dollar Tree ones but I think the Target ones will hold more water. Again, we will see this summer.

Butterfly Gardens

Okay!  I have pictures from our first thing of The List.  Thank you to my good friend Lindsay or I wouldn't have these pictures. 

Things I learned from this trip:

• Don't forget your memory card!
• I can do things with the kids alone (meaning without my husband)
• I LOVE my homemade baby wrap/carrier
• The big diaper bag doesn't fit in the double stroller basket.
• Brock is like a sponge and learns new things all the time, whether  I'm teaching him it or not.



Brock listening to me remind him about The Very Hungry Caterpillar






Notice the bag not fitting...Ugh!






Brock playing with the boats






Brock and C playing in the sand box.






Brock and C playing a fun game of tag






I LOVE this picture!  It captures Brock perfectly







Brock is a butterfly!





You can just see him soaking up all the knowledge :)



Little Miss Emma...Sorry about the headband little girl ha ha





Forgot the Camera

Ugh! I'm so mad.  The List isn't off to a good start.  I forgot the memory card for my camera!  Good thing the friend I went with had hers.  I told her to make sure she got a couple shots of my kids for me.  I'm so happy she had hers!

Anyway, the trip to the Butterfly Gardens went really well.  The night before we went we read The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and The Crunching Muching Caterpillar by Sheridan Cain.  On the way to the gardens we recited The Very Hungry Caterpillar (one of our favorites) from memory.  It was so neat to hear him talking about caterpillars, cacoons and butterflies because he knew a little more about them.  We go to the gardens every year, but this year Brock had just grown so much.  I look forward to Emma growing too.

Brock in 2010

Brock in 2011

I will post a 2012 picture as soon as my friend gets them to me.  I'm so mad at myself for forgetting it!  

1st Thing on the List

Tomorrow we will be completing the first thing off our list.  We will be going to see Butterflies at a Butterfly Garden!  It's a little early, as I hadn't planned on starting the list till June 1st, but the butterflies are only there until April 30th.  We will read The Very Hungry Caterpillar today (one of our favorites). I promise to share pictures.

Another thing on the list we'll probably do early is the pinata.  I'm going to have one at Brock's birthday party and that is May 26th.

We added a few more things to the list--Give Maci (our chocolate lab) a bath and mail a letter.  I can not wait till June.  I think that I'm going to see my little guy develop so much in all these adventures.  I hope this will be a very memorable summer for him.

Traveling in Style

Our New (to us) Stroller

After much searching and contacting people on Craigslist, I ended up with not one, but two double strollers.  How you might ask?  Well I saw the one pictured first for $50 and I loved it!  I contacted the seller and she said it had sold.  I was really bummed.  So then I found another one that I liked, but definitly not as much as I liked this one, for $40.  I went and picked that one up and the very same day, the seller of the original one said her buyer didn't come through and this one was still available!  So I offered her $40 and she said yes.  So now I have two.  I'm going to sell the other one at our garage sale this summer.

Aside from the fact that this thing is really heavy, I'm very excited to have a double stroller for our adventues this summer. 

My Job

I thought I'd post a little more about me.  I'm trying to keep this blog a little interesting before Summer so I don't lose all my followers :) 

As I've mentioned before, I'm a stay at home mom  and I love it!  I would love to be able to stay home with my kids as long as possible but will probably end up going back to work soon.   I have student loans to pay off and such.   

In the mean time, I'm trying to start a little business.  Check out some of my stuff Here or here.  I do custom orders too.  I love to sew!  I wish I could do it every day for a living.  Every day I try to expand my knowledge of sewing and I'm constantly looking for inexpensive fabric.  My dream would be for this business to just take off and do really well.

I'm starting to do a few local craft shows, so hopefully that will help me get my name out there too.  So I promise not to overwhelm this blog with Sensory Emporium related stuff, but I've got to get my name out there somehow and I'm hoping this blog will reach a lot of people.  But like I said, I promise to keep this mostly focused on my 100 Things List.

Shopping at Dollar Tree

I LOVE Dollar Tree.  It's a place for me to get a bunch of junk for really cheap.  Okay, it's not all junk, in fact I have found some pretty nice stuff there.  So I decided to knock off as much of the shopping list as possible there...I got quite a bit.  Here's what I found at my local Dollar Tree store:

• Poster Board (.50 ea.)
• Water Guns (4pk for $1)
• Ice Cube Tray (2pk for $1)
• Sponges (10pk for $1)
• Food Coloring ($1)
• Jolly Rangers ($1)
• Honey ($1)
• Water colors tray ($1)
• Saving cream ($1)

I'm pretty excited to have knocked this much off my list!  So far my cost for this summer's adventures is about $9.

Planning Pt. 2

After I got some themed weeks planned out, I had a lot of filler activities left over.  I wanted to divide these left over activities into categories such as rainy day, hot day, extra crafts, extra food, extra field trips, extras/anytime and make sure I always have the stuff on hand to do these tasks.  So for example, if it's a really hot day, I will pick from the list of hot day activities and check that one off the list (not to say we won't do it again). 

So just as I did with the weeks post, I will give a brief break down of my extra categories but when we actually do the activity, I'll post more details.  I'll also post my shopping list at the end of this post.  That is a list of stuff I need to get before summer starts in order to do these task (some items may be left out because I already have them on hand).

Rainy Days
Movie Day/Dollar Movies
Barnes and Noble Story Time
Photo Booth
Library
Craft Day
Pillow Fort

Hot Days
Make Popsicles
Ice Treasure Hunt
Ice Cube Sailboats
Ice Painting
Splash Park
Sponge Balls
Water Fight

Outside Art
Pudding Finger Paint
Finger Paints
Sun Prints
Paint Rocks
Plant Flowers
Make Shirts
Hopscotch

Extra Food

Lollipops

Root Beer Floats

Homemade Wendy's Frosties

Cupcakes

Carmel Popcorn 

Extras/Anytime

PVC Pipe Sprinkler

Blow Bubbles

Sidewalk Chalk

Play Dough

Pinata

Shaving Cream Bath Paint

Potato Stamps

Hand Print Art

Art Project

Water Colors

Extra Field Trips

Bowling

Fishing

Farm

Mini Golf

Road Trip

Art Museum

Public Museum

Tractor Show

Race

Children's Museum

Shopping List (Everything I will need except for the recipe ingredients)
Sand
PVC Pipe
Yard of White Fabric
Solid T-shirts
Lollipop sticks
Paint
Watercolors
Food Coloring
Water Hunt Toys
Spray Bottles
Squirt Guns
Ice Cube Trays
Sponges
Poster Board
Finger Paint Containers
Construction Paper
Freezer Paper
Rubber Gloves
Creme of Tarter
Smooth Peanut Butter
Powdered Sugar
Honey
Shaving Cream
Parchment Paper Cornstarch
Jolly Ranchers

The side of my fridge...All my planning printed (Don't mind

the wall, we need to redo our kitchen)



Planning Pt. 1

The first thing I wanted to do was set up some themed weeks and find a few activities, books and field trips that linked with that theme.  From The List I took some like items and came up with these themes:  Dairy Week, Beach Week, Science/Bug Week, 4th of July/Grandparents Week, Fruit Week, Fire Station Week, Zoo Week and Camping/Nature Week.  I am trying to stay as flexible as possible during these theme weeks, because I know things will come up where I can't do all the activities planned because of other plans or the weather.

Planning everything out...

I'll share a brief break down of each of the weeks.  When it actually gets to that week, it'll be a little more detailed. I will also post links to where I got my ideas at that time.  These are books we have in our personal library, if we happen to make a trip to the library during the week, we'll pick up other books for the theme as well.

Dairy Week

Books: John Deere ABC Farm, Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?, Farmer Mickey and Big Red Barn

Activities: Make butter, make ice cream, make homemade pizza, visit a dairy farm

Fire Station Week

Books: Felix the Fire Engine and Fire Bears The Rescue Team

Activities: Tour Fire Station, 2 Liter Bottle Sprinkler, Wash the Car

Fruit Week

Books: The Tiny Seed

Activities: Make lemonade, make apple sauce, picnic at new park, eat watermelon, u-pick farm

Science/Bug Week

Books: Inch by Inch, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Crunching Munching Caterpillar and The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Activities: Science Day, Catch Bugs, Coke and Mentos, Make paper airplanes, visit airport viewing area

Zoo Week

Books: 1, 2, 3 to the Zoo, An Extraordinary Egg, Cuddle for Little Duck, Our Birthday at the Zoo, A Day at the Zoo and The Greedy Python

Activities:  Go to the zoo, feed ducks/geese

Beach Week

Books: Swimmy, Welcome Summer, Oh Say Can You Say Dinosaur

Activities: Build a Sandcastle, Go to the Beach, Swim, Dig for "Fossils", Picnic at the beach

4th of July/Grand Parents Week

Books: Welcome Summer

Activities: Watch a parade, watch fireworks, catch fireflies, craft for grandparents, visit grandparents

Camping/Nature Week

Books: Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog and Chester Books

Activities: Sleep in a tent, make smores, visit nature center, hike, cook out, pine cone bird feeder, eat dinner outside.

The List

I will do my best to post helpful links after completing each task that might make it easier if you want to do these things too.  I plan to do a lot of homemade things.  You could also follow me on pinterest: http://pinterest.com/brookeann316/ I have created a board of my summer challenge and pin there as I find things to do. 

¨    Bowling

¨    Beach

¨    Zoo

¨    Fishing

¨    Blow Bubbles

¨    Make Lemonade

¨    Finger Paints

¨    Water Fight

¨    Make Popsicles

¨    Swim

¨    Piñata

¨    Dollar Movies

¨    Splash Park

¨    Cook Out

¨    Hike

¨    Make Ice Cream

¨    Visit a Farm

¨    Sidewalk Chalk

¨    Photo Booth

¨    Hopscotch

¨    Picnic

¨    Fireworks

¨    Parade

¨    Catch Bugs

¨    Make Shirts

¨    Make Paper Airplanes

¨    Play Dough

¨    Library

¨    Potato Stamps

¨    Science Day

¨    Art Project

¨    Feed Ducks/Geese

¨    Pillow Fort

¨    Caramel Popcorn

¨    Mini Golf

¨    PVC Pipe Sprinkler

¨    Make Applesauce

¨    Build a Sandcastle

¨    Visit Grandparents

¨    Handprint Art

¨    Tour Fire Station

¨    Sleep in a Tent

¨    Make Homemade Pizza

¨    Road Trip

¨    Sponge Balls

¨    Make Smores

¨    Sun Printing

¨    Homemade Wendy’s Frosties

¨    Ice Treasure Hunt

¨    Ice Cube Sailboats

¨    Paint Coffee Mugs for Grandparents

¨    Make Lollipops

¨    Art Museum

¨    Public Museum

¨    Go to a Tractor Show

¨    Go to a Race

¨    Children’s Museum

¨    Gerald R. Ford Museum

¨    Wash the Car

¨    Pudding Finger Paint

¨    Peanut Butter Play Dough

¨    Ice Cube Painting

¨    Paint Rocks

¨    Eat Watermelon

¨    Coke and Mentos

¨    Practice Fire Drill

¨    Fossils

¨    Plant Flowers

¨    Craft Day

¨    Pinecone Bird Feeder

¨    Catch Fireflies

¨    2 Liter Bottle Sprinkler

¨    U-pick Farm

¨    Dairy Farm

¨    Make and Decorate Cupcakes

¨    Story Time at Barnes and Noble

¨    Discover a New Playground

¨    Visit Nature Center

¨    Paint with Watercolors

¨    Make Butter

¨    Shaving Cream Paint

¨    Make Rootbeer Floats

¨    Eat Dinner Outside

¨    Picnic at the Beach

¨    Visit the Airport

¨    Mail a Letter

¨    Give Maci a Bath

¨    Butterfly Gardens

¨    Daddy’s Graduation

¨    Make a Terrarium

¨    Make Mother’s Day Gifts

¨    Star Gaze

¨    Donate books to children’s hospital

¨    Flat Stanley
¨    Make Stepping Stones
¨    Get Ice Cream from an Ice Cream Truck
¨    Make a Butterfly Feeder

List last updated: June 5th, 2012