I forget how much i love dollar tree

I always forget how much I love the Dollar Tree! I go months and months not stepping into the place then think I need a couple things from there, go and realize how much I love it. 

Yes, some of it is junky. But I'm not talking about that stuff. I'm talking gift bags, craft items and even sunglasses.

I popped in there last week to pick up a frame to frame a craft the girls made for Mother's Day. I knew they'd have the frame I'd need and for only $1, of course. But then I started cruising the aisles. I'd forgotten how great some of their stuff could be. It's hit or miss, for sure, but you can find some great stuff and at a great price. 

Here's the loot I came home with:

2 pack of white glue for crafting (usually $2 at other places)

2- 8.5x11 inch frames (for the girls craft to their "Cookie" and "Gigi" for Mother's Day)

1-5x7 frame for our wedding invitation (I've only wanted to frame it and hang it in our room for 5 years)

20 pack of foam for crafting

2-24 pack cupcake tins with cute little American flags (I'm forever baking and taking it with me somewhere)

2 reusable shopping bags to put our Mother's Day gifts in

2 Mother's Day cards that are super cute (they'd be $3.50 anywhere else)

1 pair of sunglasses (I'm forever losing or breaking mine, why pay more than a buck for them?)

I came home with more than I wanted. But a lot of it is leaving our home and the others will be used by the girls to make their craft items. And the sunglasses stay in the car. So there you have it!

Have you checked out a local Dollar Tree or other dollar store lately?

Mother's Day Gift (Craft)

As we all know, hopefully that is, Sunday is Mother's Day. Since our mother's don't need anything but love anything from the girls, I decided to make a craft for them. It took me less than 10 minutes to do three of these and the girls cooperated really well.

Gather your supplies:

construction paper or a heavier weight paper

paint (I used acrylic b/c I had it and it washes easily)

paint brushes (foam and a small brush)

paper plate(s)

sharpie marker

document frame from the Dollar Tree (holds an 8.5 x 11 paper)

wet washcloth and a nearby sink for quick and easy cleanup

Ready, set, go:

Squirt some paint on a paper plate. (I used purple for Naomi and pink for Nyla, the flowers that is)

Using paint brush, paint your child's hand and press firmly onto paper. Repeat process if doing more than one picture. We did one hand at a time and one foot at a time.  I kept Naomi in her booster seat while I worked with Nyla.

After completing the hand and foot prints, run to the sink and wash hands and feet quickly. I kept a wet washcloth to wipe off the feet until we could get to the kitchen sink. 

Using a smaller paint brush I painted on the stem of the flower, creating the handprint flower and footprint leaves look. 

Let dry overnight. (Acrylic paint dries quickly but I didn't want it sticking to the inside of the glass is it wasn't completely dry).

Write a note on the paper in a sharpie pen, if desired. Make sure and date it!

Once dry, frame it!

Enjoy seeing the smiles on the mother's or grandmother's face. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Shhh... don't tell I did these because our mom's haven't gotten them yet. ;)

One of the finished products: Naomi's hand and foot is on the left and Nyla's is on the right.
It's hard to tell who is who, they're about the same size!
I did make one for myself. :)

Advent Crafts

photo credit

Tis the season of decorations, family activities, gifts and so much more.

Around here we are beginning to come into our own traditions with our girls. Now that Nyla is two she's becoming more interested in Christmas trees, lights and the season itself. We've begun talking about baby Jesus and what He means to this season. I'm so excited to enter into this stage with her. I love crafting and haven't had much time for it but now she's really into it. She wakes up some days and says, "I need to do something." As in, she needs to do a craft. It's very funny that she loves diving into new things like that. I'm having the best time looking for fun things to engage her mind and motor skills. She's getting good with glitter glue, I'll tell you that!

Since Nyla is only two this Christmas and Naomi is only one we can still keep things minimal, but special, around here. I've been chatting with a friend I went to high school with about Advent crafts. She has a 4-year old boy (and another boy who's under 1) whom she's been doing fun, crafty things with for the last couple of years. A couple weeks ago she posted on Facebook that she was getting her list together for Advent activities for her boys and I commented that I'd love to see her list. I was looking for some ideas and a little structure on the holiday season. I want to do more with Nyla but I like to have some sort of guide to help lead me. Her list was exactly what I needed to help get me started! Thanks Kim!

As soon as I got her email I printed off what she had and began taking away and adding what I wanted, to personalize it for Nyla's needs. And wouldn't you know she had a Pinterest board specifically for the Advent crafts she wanted to do?! I loved I was able to pop over and see what she had and see if some of them would work for us. And some of them did.

My next order of business was to complete my list and get everything typed up for our Advent crafts. I started with Dec 1st and ended with Dec 25th. Not everyday includes a craft. Some days include going to look at Christmas lights in our jammies, baking for volunteers and neighbors, cleaning out toys to prepare for new ones, etc. Once it gets closer to Christmas and we have places to go and family to spend time with, that becomes the "to-do" of the day. I tried to make everything fit into our two year olds needs but I know that some days won't be a hit and that's okay. I'm not looking for perfection, I'm looking for extra opportunities to talk about Jesus and what this season means to us as Christians.

Here is a link to my plans for Advent crafts. If you scroll down the page a little you can follow me on Pinterest and see my "Christmas Crafts" board to see what we'll be doing this year and maybe just give you some ideas. I hope you find inspiration for making this Christmas season special for your little one(s).

Do you do anything special events or activities with your little one(s) during the Christmas season?

Sensory Box: Water

In the past couple of weeks I've found one of my new favorite sites, No Time For Flash Cards. It's packed full of craft ideas for babies, toddlers and older kids, sensory boxes, book recommendations and much more. I doubt I've even scratched the surface of this incredible site! Since I found it we've been crafting everyday. 

Last week Naomi and I went to Hobby Lobby and Target and picked up a bunch of craft supplies. I now have a giant box of craft supplies that is getting opened 2 to 3 times a day. Nyla climbs up in her chair at 6:30 in the morning and says, "Need to do something." Haha! She'll settle for markers or paint until I can get my craft supplies together for a specific project I have planned. She's my little craft girl and I love it!

I haven't been brave enough to give Naomi more than a crayon. She tends to eat those, still, and I haven't wanted to do much more. There are lots of crafty things for babies her age to do (she just turned 1 last week) but I'm nervous about paint and such. I guess I need to get over that. :)

Sensory boxes are something I see a lot of online these days. Because we have limited funds I'm trying to be super creative in the way we play and learn. These girls LOVE water so I thought our first sensory box could be water with bubbles, along with cups to pour and squirt toys. It's similar to their bath but I figured I'd see how they do with the water but not sitting in it.

My supplies for this sensory box are a storage bin filled with a couple inches of cold water, some shampoo for bubbles, a cup, little cups and squirt toys. Oh and beach towels to cover the floor. 

I laid the beach towels down, filled up the bin, mixed in some bubbles and threw in the toys. We rolled up sleeves and got to playing. I found their differences in how they played to be very funny and interesting. They're 15 months apart and while that won't be much later in life it's HUGE right now.

Naomi splashed and stuck in hands and arms in frequently. She also made a mess with her cups.

 Nyla is obsessed with bottles and tops so she went right for the empty shampoo bottle to open it, fill it, close it and squirt it.

You can see here that I've taken Nyla's clothes off because she was getting soaked. It didn't take long for them to both start splashing, a lot. I tried to keep that to a minimum since this isn't the bathtub.

Nyla started rubbing the bubbles all over her hands and arms, as you can somewhat see in this picture.

Naomi's little arms were getting drenched so now she's without a shirt. She's my splashy girl!

Okay, so I went to grab another towel, literally 15 steps away and when I got back they were both in the tub. Naomi still had her pants and diaper on and Nyla was in her panties. As you can see in this picture Naomi is without pants as I took them off immediately!

Since they were soaked from all the fun we just headed to the bath to rinse all the soap off of them. They're so silly!

Overall, I think they'll end up enjoying sensory boxes we do. While this one didn't last as long as I would've liked, they were too busy splashing and climbing in, they thought it was just like the bath so I'm not surprised. If I do water next time I may put in different toys from their bath toys to show them this is play and not bath time.

Do you have any sensory box ideas?

Seriously, check out No Time For Flash Cards. It's an awesome site with loads of craft ideas. I'm in craft heaven! And since I have a hard time coming up with crafty things, this is a great site for guidance.