Sensory Sunday Funday: Chalk it up!

Miss Mel got Lady M chalk for her birthday and we just couldn't wait to try it out!

The best way to create a masterpiece is shirtless, while in a deep squat position. 

At first she was mostly interested in hoarding the chalk. I showed her how to drag the chalk along the ground so that color "magically appears." She seemed impressed, but when she initially tried on her own she didn't put enough strength into it so the poor girl didn't see any color. Sad!

At that point she figured maybe chalk wasn't for coloring the patio, maybe it was for eating.  

Red and blue tasted the best. 

I encouraged her to rinse off her hands in her water table and she got the brilliant idea to drop a piece of chalk into the water. It fizzled. She laughed. I retired the blue chalk and brought out the green. 

She took a liking to that green chalk and wanted to get back to business, and what do you know she got it! She figured out how to color!!

Way to go Mak Baby!

So proud of our little Picasso and her masterpiece :)

Sensory Sunday Funday: Toilet Paper Roll Turned Ball Chute

Lately, Makaela has been all about putting things in containers and taking them out. She has a couple toys where she has to put a ball into hole, and basically it's the most exciting thing in the world to her.

She gets VERY proud of herself when she does it, and so do we :)

Earlier this week, I decided to make a lil somethin' somethin' with that concept in mind. 

All I did was take one of the toilet paper rolls I've been hanging onto and covered it in the left over felt I had from her sensory station. I just used the hot glue gun to make sure it was on there good (enough). 

Then I bought a bag of pom-poms in assorted colors and sizes. I picked out a few that were small enough to fit through the toilet paper roll and just grabbed a plastic container to store them in. 

The idea is that Makaela can drop them through the "chute" and into the container, or wherever. 

I can't get over the look of concentration on her face. Too. Adorable. 

She loves dropping the pom-pom down the chute and watching it fall out the other end. 

Sometimes it gets stuck mid-chute and she has to flip it around and check out the other end, or give it a little shake.

It's a great quiet time activity or a good game to play when she is getting restless with whatever else she is doing. This really seems to capture her attention and calm her down. 

Sometimes if we're feeling ambitious we even "practice" our colors. In other words, I say the color of the pom-pom and she looks at me like I'm interrupting her concentration :)

I don't store this game with the rest of her toys because I'm worried she'll stuff a pom-pom or two in those chipmunk cheeks of hers, or that the dogs will eat one and ain't nobody got time to be sitting in the ER or at the vet for a silly pom-pom related incident. 

Sensory Sunday Funday: Valentine Heart Felt Magnets!

It's no secret that around here we love a quick and easy project. Bonus points when it's super inexpensive. Double bonus points when it is Valentine's Day related, because even though I could care less about the holiday, for some reason I love crafts related to it.

We made magnets again!

I understand that you are insanely jealous of my high-end white refrigerator. I get it. Really I do. Please try and control your envy so you can focus on the craft at hand. 

I picked up a package of felt hearts that also came with a bunch of felt lovey-dovey themed cut outs. I think the package had something like 12-16 hearts, but 4 seemed like the right number for our fridge. 

I used my hot glue gun to attach the cut-outs to the front of the heart, and the magnet to the back. I used the same magnet roll from the snowflake craft we did, and just cut the pieces to a reasonable size. 

Even though the magnet is fairly large, we all know kids are cray and fit the most bizarre things in their mouths so it is still a "supervised play" kind of thing. 

This is definitely an easy, inexpensive project that provides lots of entertainment. Makaela plays at the refrigerator for a decent chunk of time daily. Happy baby = happy mama.

She loves sliding them around on the fridge...

And pulling them off and putting them back on....

And stacking them and passing them out to Mama, Daddy and of course Rocky and Ginger :)

Excuse the blurriness of the above action shots. For some reason, Makaela doesn't stop and pose for photos when I ask her to. Hmm. Weird ;-)

Sensory Sunday Funday: Felt Snowflake Magnets!

We worked on this project a couple weekends ago but I didn't get a chance to post about it until now. Now that Makaela is on the move and standing up against any and every surface, I figured it was time to turn the refrigerator into a fun spot.

I had some felt snowflake coasters laying around that I had picked up last Christmas at the Dollar Store. I decided to turn a few of them into magnets for the little lady.

It was superrrrr easy. I snagged some magnets for $2.50 at Hobby Lobby. I opted to get the roll because I could cut them to whatever size I wanted and I felt like that would make it less of a choking hazard than the little round ones. The self adhesive wasn't very adhesive-y so I glued the cut magnet to the snowflake. 

Ba-da-bing, Ba-da-bang. Done and done. 

Makaela LOVES them. The magnet is strong enough to stick to the fridge but weak enough for Makaela to easily move them around on the fridge or pull them down. 

She's not big on putting them back on the fridge yet. Perhaps, I should get used to that....the whole not liking to put away toys thing ;-) 

Sensory Sunday Funday: Contact Paper Window Craft

For over a month now, Makaela has been FASCINATED with playing at the window. She loves looking out it, banging on in, resting her head against it, talking to the dogs through it....you name it.

I knew a project that involved extra time at the ol' window would be a hit. I ordered contact paper, feathers, ribbon and felt buttons from Amazon Prime and gathered some pink and purple post-its that I had on hand. 

For this Sunday Funday activity, I cut a small piece of contact paper and taped it to the window so that the sticky side was facing us, and gave Makaela goodies to create a collage!

Her favorites were definitely the feathers. She must have liked the way they felt because she played with them in her hands for quite some time. The fact that everything was brightly colored probably didn't hurt either.

I demonstrated sticking items to the contact paper first, and then she caught on, although I have to say, she was more interested in taking items OFF the contact paper instead of adding stuff ONTO it. 

The items we used were small and could pose a choking hazard, but since I was doing the project WITH her I wasn't worried about her sneaking any feathers or ribbons into her mouth. 

Currently, the artist's masterpiece is hanging on the window more at mommy and daddy's eye level so we can admire it, but the plan is to get a frame or shadow box for it. I love the idea of framing kid's artwork for display. I can totally tell I'm going to be that mom that doesn't want to get rid of ANYTHING her kid brings home from school!!

This was a fun and easy project that we will surely try again at different ages. I hope she enjoys craft time together as much as I do <3

Sensory Sunday Funday: First time Pumpkin Painting

Last Halloween I had a lil pumpkin in my belly...

And we put out our official gender reveal picture....

Now our lil pumpkin is here. On the outside. 

Oh the difference a year can make. One halloween she's on lockdown in the ol' belly, hiding behind a pumpkin shirt, and the next halloween she's sitting up wearing a spooky shirt of her own and finger painting her pumpkins. 

This was a super quick activity. Seriously, she got right to business. I think this masterpiece was created in 3 minutes flat. Talk about efficient. 

We got our pumpkins last weekend and then just picked up some Non-toxic Washable Finger Paint and we were good to go. We didn't want to use the edible paint we've made in the past because we worried it would attract critters outside. It is awfully tasty after all.  

I set out her don't-care-if-it-gets-messy blanket as usual, put small dabs of paint on a paper plate, made a painter's tape "M" and let the artist go to work. 

She was a big fan of mixing colors, so it looks mostly black, but there is a little red section to the left center to spice things up. I love how you can see her little baby finger prints all over.

After the paint dried, I covered it with Mod Podge to protect the washable color from any potential rain.

She was pretty excited about the pumpkin, and getting her fingers messy, but was even more excited about the stem. Rumor has it, it was pretty tasty.

Mommy and Daddy haven't tackled their pumpkins yet, but we might paint them this year too. Carving always seems more fun than it really is. You know it's true.

Sensory Sunday Funday: Edible Scented Summer Mess

According to the ol' calendar summer is over, and even though I don't think summer ever ends in Alabama we decided to do a summer themed project.

We decided to get dirty in the "dirt," "mud," and "sand."

It was the most delicious smelling and tasting mess I've ever played with. We used chocolate pudding for the mud, cookie crumbs for the dirt and brown sugar for the sand. 

It was definitely sticky and messy but oh so fun. And don't worry I took on the awful task of eating the oreo creme to free up the cookies to be smushed into dirt. 

Makaela loved smelling the delicious scents (who wouldn't?!) and had fun feeling the different textures. We even pretended to exfoliate our hands with the course brown sugar and cookie crumbs. Girls rule.

The brown sugar was similar to the texture of perfect sand castle building sand. At first the coldness of the pudding took her by surprise but she got over that in a hurry. And of course, she immediately dumped the cookie crumb dirt....just on the blanket, not on her head. Victory. 

I like doing these projects and making them edible because she is very much in the everything-goes-immediately-to-the-mouth stage. I wouldn't let her eat gob-fuls but I may have encouraged her to get a little pudding in that mouth of hers. 

After this adventure she just went straight in the bath and got hosed down, which she thought was great. Thank goodness the girl loves water. 

Did I mention that I reserved some pudding and cookie crumbs beforehand so I could indulge in a delicious dirt cup later? Yes, that happened. I stand by my judgement that dirt cups are NOT just for kids. 

Edible Scented Summer Mess

Chocolate pudding

Chocolate cookie crumbs

Brown Sugar

At least containers or bowls

A don't-care-if-it-gets-messy-blanket, or something similar to cover the area you are playing on.

I like using clear containers because it is easier for the little one to see into and I also prefer shallow containers so she doesn't have to reach to deep!