Beach Week!

Welcome to BEACH WEEK!

We are on day 3 of beach week over here! We've had fun reading, exploring and creating some pretty art. I thought I would show you some of what we have been up to so far. Some were fun and some didn't turn out as planned! hahahah

I searched our book collection for beach themed books and only found two! We read them of course! I might go to the library with the little miss today to see if we can find some more! I also created a basket of beach related items for her to explore! She loved it!

P.S I think it's kind of funny she is wearing long sleeves and pants for beach week...it got pretty cool here the last few days! Mornings and evenings have been chilly!

 Even though she has played with and wore a lot of the items in the basket she still took each one out and studied them! She took them from hand to hand, flipped them over and put them in her mouth!

I included beach toys, a hat, bathing suit, flip flops, shells, etc. 

 can't you just picture her little toys in the sand?

I added some shells to the basket, the biggest ones I had. She had never seen a shell before..she studied the shells for about five minutes! We talked about how they felt and where they came from. Of course she tried putting them in her mouth twice but didn't try again after that.

 For her first basket I thought it went over very well!

We have also attempted some art....

The first one I attempted was art she has done before....putting paint in a bag and letting her push the paint around. That worked out fine. She pushed it around and eventually threw it on the floor...do you think I could get one clear photo of her?! Allllll blurry! This is the best I could do:

 After it dried it looked like this:

 I love the gold in there!

Then I cut it into a cute sand castle!

I thought it turned out pretty cute!

The second was my first try at finger paints. Of course I knew they had to be edible, since Adalyn puts everything in her mouth. I made the recipe I found here out of cornstarch, water and a drop each of red and blue colouring. It didn't go over very well...

it started well...then she started trying to eat all of the paint. Like.. lick it off the plate...I finally had to take it away from her and she started screaming!

Look at that unhappy baby!

Here is what our paper plates looked like:

 and here is what I did with them...shells.

I am not as happy with these as I am with the sandcastle...they don't really look like shells....ha

I am planning on putting all of our crafts on our gallery wall! I will show you how the wall looks at the end of the week!

I am hoping our next activity will go a bit more smoothly...I don't know how those ladies make it look so easy! lol

Wish me luck!

Ashley

My new plan..

Hey guys! Hope you all had a great weekend! Recently I have started following a few blogs that focus on baby/child activities! I found them when I was searching for art ideas (babies could do) on PINTEREST! I love how the moms are so interactive and hands on with their children! I would like to become better at this! I would love Adalyn to explore more, get messy more, and experience more sensory activities! Adalyn is really good at exploring but I would like to give her new things to explore...just like at our infant discovery class. Each child got a basket of different objects they could explore.They included toys, household items, fabric scraps etc. They were different colours, textures etc . She loved it! I would like to provide her with a new sensory basket each week, with stuff from around the house!

The one blog I follow, House of Burke, has a different theme each week! I love this idea. All of her activities have to do with that theme! I think I am going to try this as well! Maybe one theme for every two weeks though, because I am fairly busy and work two afternoons a week! She just did a beach week. The activities were adorable! She incorporated sand and shells in a lot of her activities! I think that is going to be my first theme!! I am not trying to copy her with every activity but a few will be the same ;) I am only planning on spending $5-$10 on each theme, if that. I don't think I will spend near $10. I plan to use as much as I can that I already have. I am on a very tight budget!!

I'm not sure if I will post after each day we do an activity or after the week is up. I will have to see how busy we are and how many activities we get done! I hope you follow along with us and enjoy seeing my babe exploring and getting a little messy! I am excited!!

Ashley

"Stuff"

Hi!

This isn't going to be a cool craft or picture post..I am just going to write a little on what I have been thinking about! STUFF! We have so much stuff! How did we accumulate so much? When we moved into this house 6 years ago we had nothing! We only had a few things from our rooms (We were 21 and 22) and now we have SO MUCH! How did this happen?

We have made a plan to de-clutter and organize the entire house! We have bins of stuff in the basement, junk drawers, junk cupboards..STUFF everywhere! It is going to take some time...because there is so much and because we have been enjoying our summer...but it has to be done! We don't need it!

We are planning on trying to sell some of the stuff we have, donating some and throwing out the rest. It will feel amazing when we are done and hopefully our house will be more organized! We are also going to really think about the things we plan to buy before we buy them from now on! I really have to work on this! Maybe even get rid of something when we bring something new to the house!?

You may ask why I am thinking about this now??! Well, I am sick of seeing stuff everywhere and also sick of saying we have no room! We live in a big house! There should be lots of room! Part of the problem is that we have no closets in the house, or a basement that you can store stuff...but we have so much stuff that isn't being used so why not get rid of it!

I will probably be posting as I go along..if I am not too embarrassed by the before pictures! hahah. I will let you know how it goes! We are going to go room by room...and de-clutter our life....I am very excited about it!

The first thing we started to organize were these two cupboards:

(I unfortunately didn't get a before picture! But just picture stuff falling on your head when you opened the cupboard! lol)

These cupboards are above the second sink in our kitchen and have always had lots of junk in them! We would throw everything that didn't have a spot in there! Well, I couldn't handle it anymore! I decided to buy baskets from the dollar store! These baskets were 2 for $1.50 and I went to town giving everything a spot! Here is what it looks like today:

Much better don't you think? The books on the left still need to be organized, so don't mind them! Now everything has a spot! There is a basket for batteries, flashlights, sunscreen, medicine, band aids etc. I am going to attach labels and organize the books! I just thought I would show you what we are going to be up to so you get some sort of an idea!!

I am really not looking forward to De-cluttering the pantry..eeeeee...that is going to be a big job!!

Wish me luck!! I will keep you posted!

Ashley

Bows, bows, bows!

You know when you have an idea in your head and you decide to make it...and it doesn't quite turn out the way you thought?! That happened to me with something I made for Adalyn's bows and flowers!

I wanted someway to display them, to get them out of the jar I had them in! I also wanted to make it look like art! 

I had this frame hanging in our room and thought I could use it to hold her bows! This was just an empty frame..I cheated and painted a piece of bristol board with chalkboard  paint and stapled it on. 

I ripped out the Bristol board and attached ribbon to the frame with staples.

Some of the staples came through so I gave it a new coat of paint, which it needed anyway!

Then I attached the bows and flowers....here it is...

It just isn't what I had in mind...

I think the frame is too big, or there aren't enough flowers. I'm not too sure. Also I think it needs a back so the ribbon doesn't hang...it needs to be tight against the back! 

I have a big canvas sitting here so I might try that...wrapping the ribbon around the back and stapling it..so it would be flat against the back, and also smaller! What do you think?

I should try and put it in her room as well...that might make a difference. I might fall in love with it...who knows!

Until next time..

Ashley

8 month Favourites

Ummmmm I have an eight month old! When did that happen!? Seriously! It feels like yesterday she was a tiny, squishy little babe. Not anymore. She is becoming a big girl, with a little personality! I can't believe how fast she is growing!!! 

Here are some 8 month stats:

* She is crawling all over the place and is walking around the coffee table. She will pull herself up on different things and just let go! Her balance is getting much better and her legs are getting stronger! You see her little feet trying to lift off the ground to move but they aren't quite there yet! She has taken one step while standing on her own...but fell right away!!! She is VERY busy! (and a little too brave if you ask me!)
* She still LOVES to eat! She doesn't like the purees as much anymore! I mean she will eat them...but really prefers the finger foods! We have given her different kinds of fresh fruit, cooked veggies, rice and fish! Some chicken too. It is really funny to watch her try to eat the rice!
* I put her in her pillow and let her feed herself her bottle. She has done this for a while but is really good at it now! Although I don't her her do this for every feed...I still like to hold and cuddle her since she won't let me anymore!
* She shakes her head no and has started waving...but hasn't figured out the right time to do either. She just does both randomly hahah.
 * She has a little attitude! When she doesn't get what she wants she lets you know she is unhappy about it...she screams! Apparently she is stubborn like her mommy was!

Here are a few of our favourites right now:

1/2/3/4/5

1- Addy is obsessed with this book at the moment. It has lots of different pictures and lots of colour so I'm sure that's why! It was a steal at under $5 at Chapters!

2- Mushies! We discovered these a few weeks ago and she loves them! It's just nice to have another snack option for the little miss! And there is kale and spinach in them!

3- Formula dispenser! We actually have two! One for formula and one for snack...Puffs, Cheerios and Mushies all in one container! We love it!
4- Organic food pouches! We just tried these recently and we love them for when we are on the go! Addy has loved every one so far...and they are so easy just to grab and go!
5- Speaking of the pouches I grabbed some spoons for them too. They aren't these exact ones but these are pretty cool! The ones I have are in a traveling case so they are always in my diaper bag!! So convenient!

I wonder what will be happening at nine months...can't wait to see!!


Ashley

Babies can do crafts too!!

So I think everyone knows by now I love to craft!! I loved when Adalyn got to help me for the Father's Day craft found HERE! I went to PINTEREST to see if I could find any other craft ideas babies can do. I came up with one and found another one I could do for the baby! When Chrissy and Zachary came up I thought we could do both! We started with the baby craft first.

It was so easy. I just added food colouring to water in an ice cube tray and made some pretty ice! I put a piece of card stock in a large freezer bag and added the ice. The babies moved the ice around and as the ice melted it made a pretty piece of art!

Here are the cute babes making some art:

 And here are their masterpieces....The top is Adalyn's, the bottom is Zachary's

 And here is Adalyn's art hanging in her new playroom gallery wall. Along with her other art at the top.

 I can't wait until she is old enough to colour and make pictures!!!

I am soooo very close to getting everything finished in the playroom! I will hopefully be showing you very soon! We love the room, finished or not and spend most of our day in there. I can't wait to show you!

The other craft involved baby onesies and Sharpies!! The tutorial I first saw, I found HERE...but after searching there are lots around! We added the dots with the markers, used the dropper to add the rubbing alcohol and watched the magic happen! :)   

Here we are hard at work!

 And here are the finished onesies!

(Zachary's on the top and Adalyn's on the bottom)

She hasn't worn hers yet but I'm sure she will look cute in it when she does! :)

It was a nice craft day...cheap and easy...my two favourite things!

Ashley

Thrifting!

Who goes thrift shopping!? Who loves it as much as me? Who ends up buying way too much stuff for their daughter?! Anyone else or is it just me!? lol

I went thrifting a few weeks ago with my sister (in-law)! We had a great day and I ended up getting lots of stuff for Addy! Here is some of the stuff we got!

 cute jean skirt, leggings with gold hearts and camo pants..even though they are fleece Lauren made me get them...for those cold summer nights...(Lauren and I are obsessed with camo at the moment!) I think all of these were $1.99 but I don't quite remember! The jean skirt might have been $2.99!

 Here are some things from Once Upon A Child! The gold shoes and sandals were .75!!! I don't remember the cost of the other things but they were cheap! Everything I bought from there was on sale! (this is why you should blog about it right away instead of weeks later! ahha)

 $2.99 each.

 This was Adalyn's favourite purchase!! $2.99

It's always a gamble whether or not the musical toys work but we had good luck that day!

 The toys that were 50% off were buy one, get one free! So I bought this farm for $5 and got the Little People farm set for free! Great deal or what?!

I am not allowed to buy anymore toys! I haven't really bought that many but she just has so much stuff! Mostly from my friend Sharon which has been amazing! You should see her playroom! She is one lucky girl! I still have some finishing touches on the room before I blog about it! But it will be soon, I hope!!!

Ashley

Happy Canada Day!!

Happy Canada Day to all of my Canadian friends!!!

Hope you have a great day!!

Ashley  (and Adalyn!)