Keepin' Busy Alphabet Style

When I decided that I was going to stay at home, I wanted to make sure we had enough crafts, activities, and outings planned to keep the kiddos (and me) busy. I researched and came up with a lesson plan for each day with busy activities, educational activities, and even messy activities... I found a lot of these ideas off of a great website: Hands On As We Grow

Day 1:

- Solo cups are your toddlers best friend! Stack 'em, knock 'em over, kick 'em!! Let them go crazy!

- Pipe cleaners plus a colander...Nuff said.

#sahm

Day 2:

Bees are for 'B'!

-Fly Swatter painting! My favorite activity so far! Got the swatters from the dollar store and let them go to town swatting bee stickers on butcher paper with paint! All washable paint of course.

Day 3:

Buh buh buh B for Balloons!

- Just blowing up balloons provided hours of entertainment! We played 'don't let it touch the floor'...clever name I know. 

- Fingerprint Balloons. My 19 mos old wont touch the paint, so he had fun just playing with the yarn and the glue. My 3 year old went to town on the fingerprints, but had a hard time gluing down the yarn for the balloon string.

BALLOONS!

Day 4:
'C' is for Cupcake.
- Not sure if you know, or if this was just news to me, but Barnes and Noble does a great weekly storytime!  Kingston loves it, and Kace enjoyed hanging out on stage...always has to be the center of attention!
- I had Kingston help me make cupcakes.  He counted the eggs, helped me stir, and of course devoured them.

Day 5:
Ribbon Painting and 'C' Review
- take some old ribbon lying around, and dip it in washable paint, and have them throw it at the paper.  Kingston only did this about twice before he asked for the fly swatters again!

Ribbon Painting

Day 6:
'D' is for Digging for Dinosaurs
-I bought some dollar store dinosaur toys and froze them in tupperware.  The kiddos had a really hard time digging out the dino, but enjoyed gradually watching it melt in our 108 degree weather.  Next time, less ice, more dino...

Dino Excavation

Day 7:
'E' is for Elephant
- Had an outing at the zoo to go see some live elephants.

Baby Shower Time...Bird Style...

We found out about five months ago that our dear friend, Emily, and I were both due to have our babies within days of each other; my third, her first. Our husbands have been best friends since grade school, and I couldn't be happier for the couple to embark on the hilarious, exhausting, and oh so fulfilling world of parenthood.

This past weekend I co-hosted her baby shower with her MIL and my MIL. I, of course, wanted to make her a Joey Handbag diaper bag, but it had to be special. Since I normally like to personalize with the Mama's favorite lullaby or theme, I asked her Hubby for some advice on the matter... Not much of a help there (go figure) besides telling me that they are doing birds for the nursery and no special songs came to mind. So I embarked on my journey to find the perfect fabric; when I saw this fabric on spoonflower from DianeF, I knew I had found it. It just screamed 'Emily'!

If you'd like this diaper bag for your own, please see the listing here:

Back View

Side View

Booties for sale here

Front View

Isn't she just the cutest preggo ever!

Obsessed with Booties!

Emily and I touching babies...

Back at it...

I recently made the jump to being a stay at home Mama.  With my last job (which I loved very dearly and hope to go back to someday) I had to travel a lot, and I hated to be away from my little bears so often.  Missing major and even minor milestones in their life began to get to me.  With a three year old, an 18 month old, and one on the way this November, working just didn't seem to be in the cards (or my heart) for me anymore.  I worked basically straight through the last two pregnancies and births, and am looking forward to getting to know this newbie from the start.

Any-who, back before I had the baby bears (hence why I have posts from 2008), I spent a lot of my free time sewing handbags and diaper bags.  I only sold a few and gave many many away as gifts, but I've always had a great response from the receiver/customer.  So now that I have about 2 hours a day of free time (during nap time, of course) I have decided to actually try and do this as a little business.  Please follow me along this adventure!

I plan to not just post about my shop, but also about my life as a stay at home Mommy, and to connect with other Mamas out there that are perhaps in the same boat as I am...

My Bears.  My Heart.