More updates

I just wanted to point out, that I'm slowly making some changes to my blog. I'm sort of learning as I go. But if you check out the top of my blog, you can see I added some pages.

I'm not going to explain them because I think they are pretty much self explanatory. If you have a link up that I didn't include, please feel free to send me your link party and I will happily add it. 


Also, if you take a little look see at the side of my blog, I have included a way to get in contact with me by email. I'd love to hear from you if you have a question for me, or if you have a activity that you think I would be interested in. Heck, I'd love to hear from you even if you want to talk Mob Wives and Pretty Little Liars. (I know my television choices are questionable to say the least, but they make me happy). Basically, feel free to contact me! 

Fourth of July Fireworks

Fourth of July. It makes me think of barbecues, sparklers, watermelon, swimming, and of course, fireworks. Last year was the first year that Logan stood awake for the fireworks. And he loved them. Here he is last year watching them:

Our town doesn't have their annual fireworks display until the week following the fourth, but I figured now was a great time to attempt a firework craft. I pulled out our art bin and Logan picked out markers, bingo markers, and paint brushes.

Logan and I may or may not have sung Katy Perry's "Firework," while doing this activity. *cough* A couple of times. *cough*

I had him color with the markers or bingo daubers onto coffee filters and cupcake liners. He then painted with water over his drawings to give them a softer more blended look. Once they were dry he used a glue stick and sprinkled them with glitter.

Excuse the cat tail, please. That's just my cat, Scout, trying to investigate all of Logan's artwork.

Tomorrow when they are completely dry, we are going to hang them in a window and the sun will shine through so the fireworks are visible from both inside and outside.

We're baaaaaaaaaack!

We are back from our vacation! We took a couple of days to head out of town with my family and my bestie's family. We had a great time! Maine was beautiful and relaxing. It is the first actual vacation we have had in years. By years, I mean since our honeymoon FIVE years ago. It was long overdue.

Our trip started out with a mandatory trip for breakfast since we left VERY early in the morning.

I never let him eat in the car, so this was a treat in itself. 

Our drive took approximately five hours, and during that time I had packed lots of stuff to keep Logan busy. We read our library books, watched Beverley Hills Chihuahua 2 (his fav), colored, and played on the Ipad. We took a couple of breaks to let the little guy stretch his legs. Even then, we still arrived at the house before my friend and her family. 

Once we got there, I let the little guy run around and enjoy nature.

When he was tired of running, we went inside where Logan played for a while, and the husband looked up  info about Maine.

He also got to spend some time with his favorite older buddy. Here they are both hard at work on their masterpieces:

We searched and searched for moose, but to no avail. We also were able to hit up some antique stores and in the afternoon, we tried a little bit of fishing. 

There was a lot of time to just spend together, laughing, and having fun.

Since we had two little boys in tow, we decided to stop at a transportation museum. Logan would have loved it......

if he had not slept through the whole entire thing!

It was just the little break that we needed! 

Sorry for the temporary blog silence. We have been on vacation, but now we are back! Lots of new post coming your way!

Outdoor Play (Week of 6/19- 6/25)

The nicer weather has left us wanting to soak up every minute outdoors that we can. Our week started with an outdoor party for Logan's cousin. He was able to enjoy some good old fashioned jumping in a bounce house. I added the beach balls and mayhem ensued.

I have to admit, I was a bit jealous. I wish it had been a giant one, because I love joining in on the fun and jumping around too.

As the sun rose in the sky, so did the temperature. So my little honey bee put on his bathing suit and was able to cool off in a water table and the pool. 

He discovered goggles and decided that they were fun to wear. He sure did look cute in them.

Pretending to play drums

Later on in the week, the little guy was able to play in some soapy water and wash some seashells that we had found at the beach.

Once they were dry he added them to his sand castles in his sand table.

Much to his dismay, this made the shells sandy again. It only made sense for him to rewash them......

and then repeat.

Wordless Wednesday

Summer Bucket List: Strawberry Picking

We kicked off our bucket list last week. I took my cousin, her boyfriend, and Logan strawberry picking. When I finally sorted out the directions (after getting lost), they gave us a container at the stand and we went to work.

Unlike the blueberries, last year, Logan didn't try to eat these. I think because they were close to the ground and the dirt, it acted as a deterrent.  He did like hunting for the red ones and the small ones he called "cute baby strawberries."

In a short amount of time, we had picked ten pounds of strawberries. Logan ate a mass quantities of them as soon as we got home. He is a huge fan of all fruit, but he was particularly proud that he had found these berries all by himself. Plus, these berries were so sweet and still a little warm from sitting out in the sunny field.

I'm not quite sure why he's making a funny face, but after 2,000 attempts at trying to make him smile, this is the best I was able to take. 

Pure deliciousness, I tell you. I'm thinking once we exhaust these strawberries, we will head back for some more. Have you ever been berry picking?

BINGO..............markers

Today I was scouring the dollar store for inexpensive items for outside water toys and I happened upon a huge container holding BINGO markers. I have seen other websites tell about getting these markers at their local dollar stores, but here? No such luck. At least not until today. I was so excited that I grabbed handfuls and threw them into my shopping cart.

When we arrived home, Logan wanted to try these babies out. I grabbed a huge piece of paper and he started experimenting.

He was thoroughly impressed. The only way these could have been better was if I had a pink one.

We can do lots of things with these bingo markers. We can make patterns, or use them instead of fingerprints to make fingerprint art. Since I have very little drawing skills, I have a huge love for Ed Emberley. It's pretty foolproof for me, but still majorly impressive to a two year old.

Or I can print out Do-A-Dot papers, and let the little guy go to town.

For now, he's having a blast just trying out his newest art supply.

Out takes

Did you see one of my Father's Day gifts for the husband? Well, I don't have one of those fancy DSLR cameras. (Although I sooooo wish I did)! So needless to say, there were a lot of out takes. I figured I share just some of them with you!

I know the last one didn't spell anything, but we photographed the letter A last. Needless to say, there were far more out takes for that one, since the novelty wore off a bit! 

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there. A special happy father's day to my husband, my dad, and father-in-law. Here is a sneak peek of one of Logan's gifts to my husband this father's day:

Summer Bucket List: Walk by the water

Yesterday the weather was gorgeous. We were lucky to have family visiting, and we decided to go for a walk by the water.

Logan's favorite part of our walk was when he discovered some wildflowers. He spent some time picking his "bouquet." He carried it around for the remainder of the walk.

He met some fishermen and looked at all the sculptures. His was especially fond of this pig.

Logan took some time to explore. This old tree provided a perfect chance to practice balancing.

He saw our summer home (It's not really ours, I just wish it was) and dubbed it a castle. He claimed to be afraid of the dragon that had the princess. I guess that's what you get from watching Shrek the night before. Only once I promised that there was no dragons around did he go and explore the "castle" and "rescue the princess," who was actually his cousin.

This was a perfect way to start our bucket list. We were able to enjoy our family, the outdoors, and our town.  I can't wait to do more!

Wordless Wednesday

Caterpillar name craft

Every so often, Logan and I work on a new sign for his door. Since it is spring and we are learning about caterpillars, DLTK's caterpillar craft was a perfect activity! I cut out the shapes and wrote the letters. Logan picked out the colors and did the gluing.

It makes a lovely addition to his door!

Reintroducing letter of the week themes

Yesterday when Logan was playing with his foam letters, he held up a couple of letters and correctly told me the sounds for them. It was just the push I needed to get off my bottom and reinstate our letter of the week theme. I stopped for a while and we have just been learning about other things through our play. I'm not going to go in alphabetic order, I will just go by whatever theme is relevant at that time. Stay tuned.... I just need to pay off our library fines first!

Photobooth

Mix a new iPad for Mother's Day with one little boy who can't get enough pictures of himself, and this is what you get: