Creative Ideas to Ring in the New Year....

Just a few ideas that I thought were awesome on Pinterest! 

First Night Hats
Family Fun

Kid's New Year Party Craft
Paper and Cake

Countdown Goodie Bags
Hoosier Homemade
 
 
 
 
 
Unfortunately, I work this evening, so won't be able to do too much with the kiddos.  Party hats may happen before I go to work- we'll see how the day goes! I'd love to hear about any fun you may be having with your little ones today.
 
Enjoy your New Year's Eve and many blessings into the New Year.  I'm hoping to make it home in time for my midnight kiss! 
 
Jen

Christmas Memories...

Hello. I'm back!  I took a little break from blogging to enjoy the Christmas season and to plan for festivities, such as little man's birthday party.  He turned 2 this week!  I thought I'd post a few of our Christmas pics and then later this week, I'll share little man's cookie monster party! 

Cookie baking.....

Aunt Patty's- Christmas Eve

 

Twas the night before Christmas.......

Girls enjoying MP3 players from Santa!

                                  "Wow, Buzz!"

You know that you've been married a long time
when you buy each other Sesame pajamas for Christmas!

Happy New Year and many blessings,

Jen

December Happenings....





A Lyrical Christmas Carol

Sunshine danced and sang her heart out!

Little man

He's been busy taking ornaments off of the tree,

knocking over our tree, and getting his
finger stuck in an ornament. Yikes!
Luckily, no one is injured.

Peanut building at a Lowe's trip
Tour and workshop

Christmas Tree pics!

Lots and lots to do..Doing my best to enjoy this lovely month,
 to focus on the true meaning, and enjoy family!

Merry Christmas!

Jen





Wordless Wednesday: Christmas Charades

Just a quick round of Christmas Charades!  Take a guess...... (answers at bottom of post).  

Okay, Let's see how you did! 

Photo #1-a Christmas tree with and angel on top

Photo #2-Rudolph (only in my house. lol)

Photo #3- another reindeer (in camo)

Just a peek into my silly and creative household!  For more ideas for Christmas Charades, be sure to check out this post.

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

For more W.W., be sure to visit...

5 Minutes for Mom

Merry Christmas,

Jen

The 12 Days of Fitness....

The kids and I had a blast doing these exercises to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas.  I found it on a nutrition site.  Be sure to check it out below. 

It's fun and it gets your heart rate going for sure! 

The Twelve Days of Fitness




....5 Hula Hoops!!!!

Enjoy your day!
Jen

The Nightengale by Amy Short

Isn't this illustration just beautiful?  It was created by a friend of mine who also is a talented artist.  I just love it!  Although it could be for any time of year, it reminded me of Christmas, so I wanted to share. To find our more information about Amy's work or to make a purchase, be sure to stop by her site.

http://www.amyshortart.com/

Christmas Blessings,
Jen

Christmas Exploration Box


I couldn't wait to put this together for my little man!  It was so simple, too.  I used items around the house and some thrifty dollar store finds.  Gotta love the Dollar Tree! 

Contents: pom poms, snow flakes, bows, jingle bells, mini garland(cut),
wrapped toilet paper roll, mini stocking, Christmas gift box

Embrace this beautiful season,

Jen

Curious about Turkeys?

Shared these fun turkey vocabulary words with my kiddos!  Even quizzed the turkey hunter in the family and he didn't know all of them.

Caruncle - brightly colored growths on the throat region. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship.

Gizzard - a part of a bird's stomach that contains tiny stones. It helps them grind up food for digestion.

Hen - a female turkey.

Poult - a baby turkey. A chick.

Snood - the flap of skin that hangs over the turkey's beak. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship.

Tom - a male turkey. Also known as a gobbler.

Wattle - the flap of skin under the turkey's chin. Turns bright red when the turkey is upset or during courtship.


Scientific genus and species: Meleagris gallopavo


Info. Source: http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/turkey.htm


Photo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_turkey

Pretty cool, huh?

More fun resources:

Enchanted learning
turkey printout 



National Geographic
Hear a wild turkey here!
Gobble, gobble.........


Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!


Jen



Write a Turkey Tale!



image- source


As you stuff the turkey and prepare the Thanksgiving goodies, why not give your kids a fun activity to keep them entertained?  Here are 10 creative story starters for your kiddos or they can create their own ideas!



1. The turkeys were restless the week before Thanksgiving

2. Once upon a time, there was a turkey who never...

3. On Thanksgiving, my family...

4. There were turkeys feathers everywhere, but no turkey in the barn...

5. My favorite Thanksgiving memory is..

6. On the first Thanksgiving, the children were playing in the woods when..

7. My grandmother was cooking the turkey when all of a sudden..

8. The turkey dressed as a pilgrim and cleverly fooled the people.

9.  Thanksgiving morning, I looked out the window and saw...

10. The Thanksgiving parade was so much fun, we saw....

Enjoy your Thanksgiving with your families!
Many blessings,
Jen

Ee is for elephant....

Little man had a little bit too much fun creating this elephant puppet!  How much fun?  Well, enough that he decided to paint himself as well.  This is the danger of leaving the room for a couple of minutes to check on the older kids' school work.  Also, he dumped the water on his lap- yeesh. 

So after his painting - you know where little man went...

straight to the bath tub!! 

Literature:


The Saggy Baggy Elephant
by K. Jackson & B. Jackson





Music/Pretend Play

Can you stomp around the room like an elephant??  The things we do to make our kids happy! 

Jen

Wordless Wednesday: Predator and Prey?

The spider and the fly... Sunshine girl must be the spider and Peanut her prey.  Eeeek!

We had a really good time recently at our local zoo.  It was such a beautiful day- this is the play area that they have for the kids. 

I can't help but share a cute pic of little man, too!  So here goes.........

Awe- look at him on the mushroom!- my little guy.

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

For more W.W., be sure to visit..

5 Minutes for Mom

Pinke Post

Jen

Turkey Fun Past and Present...

Annual Turkey Fashion Show

Gratitude Turkey

Pink and Green Mama: Turkey with Marker and Crayon Resist

We made these yesterday- the one pictured is from Pink and Green Mama- so pretty!

Gobble, Gobble..

Jen

Little Angels- Giveaway!

It's not too late to enter!  There are many chances to win.  I actually have extra copies, so I now have 6 videos to give away.  3 on this site and 3 on my other blog.  Be sure to enter at both blogs for more chances to win. 

Enter here and here.

I am going to give this giveaway one more week- deadline- November 21st. 

Good Luck!! 

Jen

Goodnight Gorilla

I've heard of this book before, but have never read it.  This morning little man and I came across it on youtube- adorable! 

I recommend this story for little ones.  I love the humor in the story and it was perfect timing for this video, because we just visited the zoo a couple of days ago and little man just adored the gorillas.  Yesterday, he had fun making a gorilla stick puppet.  He can even say "gorilla"- well sort of- he says - "orilla, orilla"  He made me play the video over and over.  "more, more!"

More fun...

Goodnight Gorilla printables

Enjoy your day!

Jen

The Letter Oo

Little man loves the letter Oo.  I decided to skip to Oo and do some fun activities with him, being he likes this letter for some reason.  I love the way he says it- Ooooooooo.  Here are a few ideas for the letter Oo..

Bingo Dabber Oo

Oo is for ORANGE

Oo is for Octopus: Color Match



At first Little man put the blue on the pink octopus, but he found it on his second guess!    

  

These adorable octopi can be found at ....www.spelloutloud.com



Octopus coloring sheet- fun with markers!

You can find this coloring page here!

More Oo ideas..

-Cheerio fun- scoop, count, eat

-Oo with movement- make big shape with arms above head and sing O, oh, O, oh, O

-Put paint or pudding on wax paper and fingerpaint Oo

Jen :)

November Sensory Bin and Leaf Play!

I just love the dollar store.  I found these silk leaves there, as well as the fake gourds/pumpkins.  It was very easy to change over my Spooky bin from October to our November fall bin.  Little man loves the silk leaves and really has been enjoying the sensory bins that I've been making for him.  Often, I catch the older girls playing in the bins as well- which is pretty cool.

Here are a few or more ideas for silk leaves....

*Toss them around the room for indoor fall play.

*Counting

*Sorting- green and orange.

*Create math problems.  (Sally picked up 5 leaves, but 2 blew away in the wind.  How many does she have now?)  Use the leaves as manipulatives to solve the math problem.

*Beginning multiplication.  3 groups of 4 leaves= 4x3=12  Use the leaves as manipulatives to count groups.

*I think I've seen letters written on the leaves with permanent marker.  This would be fun during the fall months for ABC practice or spelling practice. (if you have extra leaves for more letters)

*Create a thankful tree.  After sharing what you are thankful for, add a leaf to the tree each day. 

Okay, your turn!  What are your ideas for these wonderful $ tree leaves??

And for more sensory play ideas, be sure to visit...


Take Care,
Jen