Mail Time

Yesterday was a rainy day and Little M. was itching to go outside. She would look out the window and just say M. outside please. I felt so bad that she was so bored and all she wanted to do was go play. So I put my mom hat on and tried to think of something fun and exciting we could do inside. Little M. loves to go to the mailbox and since it was so cold and rainy outside we couldn't go. Thats when it hit me we could make our own mail box! When I told little M. she was very excited.  I made it look more like a real mail box as opposed to the cut a hole in the top of a shoe box kind of mail box. Here is all of our fun!

I cut the front of a shoe box including the lid so that it can open as door. 

I put tape around the edge and then put on the lid. 

I cut the flag out of cardboard and made sure it worked. I used a push pin because I didn't have a tack a tack would probably look better

Then we painted!!!

Then we took some paper made some mail and played! 

This saved our rainy day Little M. played with this all day and when daddy came home she was so excited to show him!

Chores

So Little M. has had her little chores to do around the house since she was about 1. It is so cute to watch her try to accomplish something and sometimes it takes a lot of patience. No matter how frustrated I get in the end I look at her little face and how proud she is of herself it is worth every frustrating moment. Here are some of the chores little m. loves to do. 

Help with laundry: She helps me put the clothes into the washer and change it to the drier. This takes her at least 5 min to load the washing machine and probably 10 min to switch them to the drier. She gets so excited when we start to sort the laundry! She also helps me fold laundry by handing me things to fold out of the basket. She has done this chore since she was 1. 

Windex a mirror: We have a swinging mirror in our bedroom Little M. helps windex the bottom of this mirror. This is something I try to live with :). She gets more finger prints on the mirror cleaning it then there was on there in the first place. However, When I was at church one week a mom shared a story about how one of her children had told her that he didn't want to do chores because she just went back and fixed everything he did. I decided then that I wouldn't fix the chores that Little M. tried to accomplish.  So this mirror is pretty much always dirty on the bottom but little M. will show daddy her clean mirror when he gets home and she is so proud of herself. 

Dusting: She is in charge of helping mom dust the upstairs. This is just hilarious I love watching her decide what needs to be dusted.  One week my bed spread needed to be dusted she sat there for ten min or more just wiping my bed off. One week it was the mirror lol that just made the dirty mirror worse but it was pretty cute to see her try to help mommy. 

Making mommies bed: This was a chore little M. gave herself. Every time I make the bed Malia brings me all the pillows sometimes she hands them to me and sometimes She puts them on our bed herself.  Some mornings my bed really does look like a 2 year old made it but thats ok because a 2 year old did! 

I think this has helped little M. feel like she is important and usefully in our house and hopefully it will help her build her confidence. 

Have a Happy Mommy day! 

General Conference

This is for all of my moms out there who are always trying to find things for their kids to do during General Conference. 

I love the packets that the people over at Sugar Doodle have! here is a link below to their packets. 

Conference Packets

The church also has some cute coloring pages. 

Church Coloring Pages

Deseret Book also has a free booklet download. 

Deseret Book

It sure helps little M. sit and pay attention at least a little. Have an awesome Conference weekend everyone! 

Painting Time!

So little M. is learning about apples and the color red this week. So we decided to do a little art project incorporating the two. We painted with apple stamps and little M. had so much fun. Here are some picture of our fun. 

We cut the apple up together and looked at the stem and the seeds inside it. Then we cut the apples into different shapes to be stamps. 

  

Ready to go!

Having tons of fun learning about the color red!

The end project became more spread the paint with the apples instead of stamping them but its still pretty. 

Apples are Red

                                                                      

   Apple's are Red! 

  

I am a big believer in starting to do lessons with your little ones early on. Little M has been doing little  lessons since she was 1 and she loves it! I am always trying to find cute simple things to do with her during her lesson time. This week we are learning about the letter A, the number 1, and the color red. Here are some cute little projects I did with little M today. 

1. We just grabbed a picture off of google and put it in a word document and wrote underneath it. Little M. was actually really excited to color this. What 2 year old doesn't love to color. So We talked about the letter A and how Apple starts with A. I had her point out all the A's in the sentence below it and then we colored in with a red crayon. 

2. Next we talked about the number 1 the picture below is funny because it is supposed to be a number one with an owl next to it. She was so excited by our third project that she went back to this one and glued papers to it too. So we counted everything in the room that was only one thing. She got pretty excited then once again colored our paper. 

3. This was little M's favorite project by far. I took red construction paper and cut it into little pieces and let Little M glue (with a glue stick) all of the little pieces of paper to the picture of the Apple. This is when we talked about the color red and named all the things that are red. When I asked little M. what are some things that are red she pointed to the paper pieces and said "right there". 

I know this doesn't seem like that good of a project but if you have a little 2 year old who wants to do everything by herself this is perfect! 

My Self

Here is a list of things that Malia must do " My Self".

1. Get in and out of the car and in and out of her car seat. 

This definitely takes a lot longer to get ready to leave at home and at the store. I have just decided to live with it. She gets such a big smile on her face when she accomplishes it. 

2. Go up and down the stairs. 

This can be so nerve racking! I am always scared she is going to trip and fall. I know she is 2 and I should just relax and let her do her thing. I am working on this one she is really good at doing it and hasn't fallen yet. 

3. Dress her self. 

This one is the most frustrating she can't quite figure out how to take her shirt off or put it on. This means getting ready in the morning and at night time is a lot longer then just a few weeks ago. I let her try but eventually have to insert myself or we would be getting dressed for an hour! 

4. Brush her teeth. 

This one is just adorable she brushes her teeth for like ten minutes every morning. I am sure it is not done very well but it is so dang cute to watch her sit on the floor  and just brush her teeth. Then when she is done she asks for floss! 

No matter how frustrating the "My Self" stage is I LOVE IT! She is so cute and I just can't help but be proud of my big girl and a little sad that she is so big. 

Cute Bag!

If your like me you save most of your scraps from other sewing projects. I have been trying to think of something useful that I could make with these scraps. It came to me today! I decided to make little M. a cute play purse that she could put her toys in.

1. First step was to cut 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 squares 18 squares in all. You can choose which fabric you want more of.

2. Sew the three squares going across together. Make 3 strips.

3. Sew the 3 strips together into a front panel. Repeat steps 1-3 to form another panel and then sew the two panels together fronts inward facing. Leave 1" at the top not sewn together. 

4. Fold the top inch down and sew so that there is a tunnel for a string to go through. 

5. Turn inside out string some ribbon through the top and you have yourself a bag! 

Happy Crafting!!