Apple books

I've got apples on my mind and decided to share some books we've read lately:

What books do you read about apples?  Whats your favorite apple treat?

Upcycled pillows

So we just moved into a new house and I wanted to make some throw pillows to spice up our couch.  I had made a bunch of curtains for our old apartment and decided to use that material to make into pillow forms. 

Heres what I started with:

 Then I sewed them into whatever size pillows I wanted and stuffed them with poly fill; btw I bought a box to fill all my pillows at Joanns for $10

I bought some fabric I liked for about $30 (keeping track...$40 for the whole project) then I made up the pillowcases however I wanted.

 Heres the finished product, I decided to add buttons on the side of the yellow one, it needed a little something.

Applesauce

I bought a whole box of apples  this last week at the farmers market and decided to break out the Victorio strainer and make some applesauce.  I turned out delicious!  Baby bug "helped", she mostly played around when I wasn't using the strainer and ate a lot of applesauce!

Never made applesauce?  Its easy!  First wash the apples

 Cut them in quarters and boil them (you don't need to remove skin or seeds)

 Stick them in the strainer and turn it.  Don't have a strainer?  Find one on amazon for $40, I inherited this one from my Grandma...they last for years!

After pureeing the apples you can eat it right then or can it in a hot water bath. Enjoy!

Finger painting

I decided to try a new recipe I found on pinterest for finger paint.  It can be found here:   http://easiepeasie.blogspot.com/2010/07/homemade-finger-paints.html  

The paint turned out a little thick, next time I'll add more water.  I made a red, yellow and blue then mixed the colors to make other colors.  I rough sketched a picture of a barn for baby bug to paint.  She loved it!  This is a girl that hates getting her hands dirty, but she was in those paints!  She even asked for more the next day.

Sensory tub

Sensory tubs are always fun for toddlers...a little messy but they love to play with new textures.  A couple years ago I got these little farm animals from the Target dollar section so I threw them in with some wheat kernels.  The intention was to have baby bug spoon out the animals into a bowl, but it didn't end up like that :)...she just spooned everything out onto the floor...just go with the flow.

Ole

Today is rainy, we're stuck inside so what to do....um how about a fiesta!  I got out this book to read and we made some salsa to go with it...I'm surprised baby bug ate it because it was a little spicy but she devoured it.  Recipe to follow....

 So the farm animals in this book get sick of their regular food and decide to go Mexican, they make salsa, guacamole and nachos...oh ps all the recipes are included in the book!

No picture of the salsa, it wasn't very photogenic  :(

5 tomatoes- blanch them in water peel off the skin
1/2 bunch of cilantro
1 jalepeno (or less)
1 Tablespoon vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

Put all the ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree!  Done, Ole

Farm books

Here are two books that I've broken out that we love to read together

 So David Shannon- author of "Duck on a Bike" is one of my favorite authors so I thought I would highlight some of the pages of the book because his illustrations are fabulous! 

 Other "non-Farm" books by David Shannon:

By far one of my favorite books ever- it has a great message of staying true to yourself even if everyone may think you are weird.

 

This book you will see reappear around Christmas time at our house...stay tuned

 

Classic- I'm thinking if you have ever read a David Shannon book, it would be this one if not, go to your library today and get it!

Down on the farm

Time to giddyup cowboys and cowgirls our first theme has launched!  I made some little flannel board animals and baby bug Loves to play with them, I find them all over the house, she pulls them out and makes each of their sounds, she knows all of the sounds except the pig and the chicken--thats what we're working on.  Here's some pics (don't judge...I have never made anything like this before)

 Pig in mud and cow

Barn- the doors open, sheep, duck in a lake (aka puddle) and a horse with hay

Monthly themes

So I have this idea of having a monthly learning themes.  My little girl (baby bug) is only 2 years but I still believe that she can learn.  I have chosen activities, books and field trips for each of the monthly themes.  I'll go into greater detail and offer pictures in later posts but I wanted to give an overview of what I've come up with so far.

September:  Farm, harvest, apples
October:  Pumpkins, Halloween
November:   Fall leaves, Thanksgiving
October:  Christmas
January:  Snow, Arctic animals
February:  Valentines day, baking
March:  St. Patricks day, colors
April: Weather, rainbows
May:  Butterflies, bugs

When do I give up?

I have her legs strapped under mine, I'm trying to hold on to her shoulders while wrestling her into her diaper...at what point to I say forget it and let her run around naked?

What am I doing here?

Every mom has asked this question at least once...how did I get to this point?  Here I am wrestling a toddler, or going to bed at 8 pm because I'm exhausted or cleaning up applesauce from every crevice in the kitchen.  How did this happen?  It may be a struggle to be a mom, but it is something that I love and no matter how many times I may ask how I got here and what I'm doing here or how many times I may want to quit, if I step back and think that it is such a privilege to be a mom. 

I am a mom to a toddler and am also pregnant with #2.  Before being a mom I taught first grade, so in our house education comes first (even if I am only educating babies).  I wanted to start a blog to share tips, musings and ideas on how to teach your own kids.  I also wanted to start a blog to get feedback for hard to deal with situations that every mom encounters.