1st of June

Tomorrow is the first of June and I'm so excited!  I have been thinking all day what to do as our first thing off the list.  I wanted to do some ice painting, but it's going to be cold and rainy.  So we'll probably do an indoor craft or something.  I'm also having a garage sale this weekend so we won't have much time.  But I've got Brock talking about Dairy Week and the Dairy Farm! 

We got our first package of Flat Stanley stuff back.  I'm waiting for Brock to get up from his nap so he can open it and see what Flat Stanley did at his Grandpa and Grandma's house.  They sent Flat Stanley back a little early without his belongings so I could get him sent out again.  We are still waiting for Flat Stanley to come back from North Dakota though.

I'll give you a better Flat Stanley update later.  I'm just trying to fill in some time until Brock and Emma get up.  Although it's almost 6...I should probably go wake them up.

Get Set...

Kicking off our Summer list (even though we've already crossed a few off the list), is Dairy Week!  Starting June 3rd, we'll do things that have to do with dairy and a few extras too.  When I started this blog, I stated that I have a few weeks planned out around events, but there are also a lot of other things we'll do too that are just random and don't relate to the planned week at all.  Like on very hot days we'll do something fun outside with water and on rainy days we have craft projects to do.  Anyway, back to Dairy Week.  I will try to give the set up in the following format before we kick each week off, but sometimes I might be a little late. 

Dairy Week

Books:

§        John Deere ABC Farm

§        Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?--Dr. Seuss

§        Farmer Mickey

§        Big Red Barn--Margaret Wise Brown

Stuff to Do:

§        Make Butter

§        Make Ice Cream

§        Visit the Dairy Farm

§        Make Homemade Pizza

Shopping List:

§        Heavy Cream x2

§        Glazed Doughnuts

§        Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk (14 oz)

§        Pizza Toppings

§        Pizza Crust

§        Pizza Sauce

§        Cheese

Extra Needed Items:

§        Marbles

§        Jar/Container for butter mixing

Tutorials and Links to follow as we do each thing :)

Brock's Summer Shirt

I have a feeling that this will be Brock's favorite summer shirt!

He was begging to wear it before I even had it done.  You can get your little guy or girl a cute summer shirt like this here

It's getting closer to time to start.  I wonder what I'll do on June 1st to officially start???

On Your Mark...

This weekend we celebrated Brock's birthday.  One thing on our list of 100 things is to break a pinata.  I figured what better time to do it than at Brock's party?

So silly me, I didn't get a good picture of the pinata, just the kids pulling the strings...oops!  Anyway, this was one of the coolest pinatas I've ever seen.  I don't know about you, but a bunch of 3 years olds, blindfolded, swinging a bat while dizzy doesn't sound like a very good idea to me.  Someone is bound to get a black eye.  But this pinata was a pull string pinata!  I thought it was pretty cool and the kids got a kick out of it too.

Crazy enough, the last ribbon pulled just so happened to be the trap door string.  What luck!

A few tips for pull string pinats:

1. Hang the pinata from a very sturdy string.  When we got to the last ribbon to pull, the trap door didn't come open very easy and the ended up pulling the whole pinata  down.
2. Get smaller candy.  My lovely assistant Ashley had to help me shake out the candy.

Happy 3rd Birthday Little Man

Friday and Saturday (June 1st and 2nd) we'll probably do a few small things, but starting June 3rd, we kick of with Dairy Week!  I'll do a post later this week on our plans!

Off to the Zoo!

Nothing too exciting.  We make it a point to go to the zoo every year for my son's birthday.  He turned 3 yesterday so we took him.  My husband got off work early and we went.  It was pretty fun.

I'll share a few pictures:

Every year since Brock's first birthday I've taken a picture of him in his carseat on the way to the zoo.

Petting Sting Rays

The bear just hanging out

The otter was sleeping and that made me a little sad.  He's my favorite!

But then I saw these cute baby ducks!!! Awww!

Miss Emma hung out in the stroller and had a good time :)

Brock being grumpy...It's hard to feel bad for someone that is this cute when he's grumpy!

You should be able to use this site to find zoos in your area
Flat Stanley Update:  Got him back from Grandma and Grandpa's and now he's on his way to North Dakota!

Quick Update

June 1st is going to kick off our adventures.  We've got at least one thing to do from the list before then and June 1st we'll probably just do a small thing or two to get us to June 3rd when we kick off with Dairy Week! I'm really excited!

I also added 2 new things to the list. 
*Donate books to the local children's hospital
*Star Gaze (I forget about the stars until I go back to my mom or mother in law's house...very sad)

Flat Stanley just left for his first destination.  Brock wanted to send it to his Grandma and Grandma with tractors first. 

Our Flat Stanley Map

Yes that is a mini Flat Stanley.  We'll place him on the state that he is visiting, and we'll also draw a line from point a to point b.

And I forgot to post the next picture.  It is our follow up from The Butterfly Gardens.  One of Brock's favorite books is The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  So we made pieces for the refrigerator and we tell the story without the book.

I think that is it!  I think I'll write one more time, after Brock's birthday and then it will be kick off time!  I hope you've subscribed to us and are getting our updates in your email. 



Mother's Day Tutorials

Brock is just starting to get to the age that he enjoys making things for others.  So I wanted to make Mother's Day special this year by giving handmade gifts.  I found this great tutorial on pinterest.  You can link to the original tutorial here.  Here is our tutorial:

You will need:

*White Tissue Paper

*Permanent Markers

*White Candles

*Blow Dryer or Heat Gun

*Wax Paper (not pictured)

*Two Cute Helpers (Optional)

First, cut tissue paper into strips a little shorter than your candle height.  You can make the wrap all the way around or just do the front...whatever you choose.  Then tape them to a piece of paper because the marker will bleed through the tissue paper.

Next have your cute helper color on the strips of tissue paper.  I wrote We Love You! Love, Brock and Emma.  Brock drew what he was calling butterflies.

Cut out the drawing as close to the drawing as possible.  You want to eliminate as much of the tissue paper as you can.

Place the drawing on the candle and wrap wax paper over the drawing.  This helps hold the drawing in place.

Now use your blow dryer or a heat gun to melt the tissue paper onto the candle.  The length of time this will take depends on how hot your heating device is.  My blow dryer doesn't get super hot, but hot enough for this to work.  Please watch your fingers!  Take the wax paper off and if the tissue paper is still obvious, wrap the wax paper back around your candle and blast it again.

When you are done, you shouldn't be able to see much if any of the tissue paper. 

My gift to my Moms is Vanilla and Brown Sugar Sugar Scrub.  I let Brock help me though.

Supplies Needed:

*1 Cup of Sugar

*2 Cups of Brown Sugar

*1/2 Cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

*1 Tablespoon of Honey

*1 Tablespoon of Vanilla

And of course the optional cute helper!

Mix together the two sugars until well blended.  Then add your EVOO.  Mix that in until the sugar is wet.  Lastly, mix in your honey and vanilla.  I don't have any step by step pictures...sorry.  I think it's pretty easy though.

Here is a picture of it being mixed.

Tie a pretty bow around it and you've got a great Mother's Day present.  Great to help your mom or grandma relax on her special day.

Ta-Da! Easy Mother's Day presents.



A Tale of Two Stanleys

Brock is really interested in getting mail.  He has a magazine subscription that he gets every 2 months I think and every now and then someone sends him a card for a random holiday.  But everyday when I get the mail, I hope there is some sort of junk mail so that Brock can open it.  I've been trying to think of ways Brock could get more mail for himself.  That's where Stanley comes in.

The first Flat Stanley project was presented to me by a friend in my online mommy group.  We worked together to work out a schedule and a route for Flat Stanley.  This Stanley is starting in Georgia and traveling all over the United States and some of Canada and then back to his starting point in Georgia.  Blog followers probably won't hear much about this Stanley...he a private group kind of thing.  You'll hear about him when we get him and probably again at the end when he's made his travels to all his stops.

The second Stanley is Brock's. 



He colored him all by himself!  This Stanley is going to go out to friends and family and then come right back.  That way Brock gets mail a little more frequently and we can talk about each of his destinations individually.

Stanley will be placed in an envelope, sent to all different destinations with a letter explaining what to do with him and then sent back to us. We'll update you on his whereabouts as he travels.  Brock is very excited!

If you want to know more about Flat Stanley, a Google search will bring up tons of information.  Or you can read the book Flat Stanley: His Original Adventure by Jeff Brown.  

Two More Additions

Just added two more fun things to The List

I'm doing two different Flat Stanley Projects--More details later

And I want to take Brock to go paint pottery. 

I can't wait!  I'll update about the Flat Stanley Projects later.  The munchkins just woke up from nap.

Additions to the List

I can't remember which ones I already posted...I need to go update the list on here.  Anyway, we added go to Daddy's Graduation, Make a Terrarium, and a little early one--Make Mother's Day Gifts for Grandmas.

I'm having a hard time with the ones we chose to do early.  Like should they really count?  But they couldn't be done at a different time, they had to be done now but I wanted them to be part of the challenge.  I'm obviously including them, but I just struggle with accepting it (ha ha).

Pictures to come soon of Mother's Day Gift Making...I'll probably have to wait until after we give them to Grandmas though so we don't ruin the suprise.  There will also be tutorials for the gifts!

Summer Essentials

I'm getting around a list of things I know that I'm going to want on hand at all times this summer.  There isn't much on the list yet...basically just sunscreen and snacks and plenty of water.  But another thing is Popsicles!  If I let him, Brock could probably eat 10 of the sugary frozen Popsicles every single day (of course I don't).  But the problem was, his little fingers get cold really fast.  So he was going through my kitchen towels quickly.  So I found a solution:

It's a Popsicle sleeve!  It was super easy to make.  If I make more, I'll do a picture tutorial. I'd also be more than willing to do some by custom order through my shop (www.facebook.com/thesensoryemporium).  Brock is super excited about his Popsicle sleeve and no more cold fingers!!!