A Shark Party

Edison is five--FIVE! In our family, when our kids turn five, we offer them a choice between $100 or a party. If they choose the party, they have to stay within the $100 budget and plan it themselves (With mom's help. Mom also has to follow the $100 budget which is very hard to do.)

 For his invitations, we used these shark squirters we found on Amazon. We rolled up the invitation and put them in its mouth. Here's what the invite said:

"Edison is turning FIVE, (we hope you survive...)

It's YOU we invite to stay for a BITE.

(Hold the shark close to your eyes and SQUEEZE tight for a surprise.)

There were two little guys that legitimately squirted themselves directly in the face, to Edison's delight.

Most of what we used for the party we found on Amazon. Love that Amazon.

Edison chose red velvet cake because it looked like BLOOOOOD. 

I used a new vanilla buttercream recipe I found from Cake by Courtney that made my husband want to marry me TWICE. It was so good.
Little Lottie helped me decorate with the blue and white beads.

 My lovely mother-in-law came to my rescue and made this watermelon shark that was a hit. Also, there was only ONE Ken doll in all of Walmart and he now belongs to Edison. He didn't care much about that.

 Fish 'n' chips. Ha!

 Gummy sharks. Simply irresistible for both old and young.

 Goodie bags were pretty simple and the kids LOVED the shark tooth necklaces.

 I had my older girls hide these leftover sharks all over our backyard over at our house so we could walk the kids over and play outside. Did I mention that this entire party was taking place in our 3rd floor 800 square foot apartment? 

 It felt so good outside, I just kept making up more games to keep us outside. I put Hazel on the spot and asked her to work her hula hoop magic.

 Little bit of "Fish, fish, shark..." Then charades, then Shark freeze tag...

 His sister ended up blowing it out for him just before he did. She said she was only trying to help.

 Proof that you can still throw a big party in a tiny space. I love these parties and over the years I've really learned a lot. I've learned to not take everything out on my husband when things go wrong, I've learned to relax and take less pictures and play more. I've bought more and made less, and today I found myself at the bottom of a dog pile of all these little boys and thought, "THIS. This is why it's worth the work."

A special thank you to Vicki, for helping out in countless ways and just for being there.

Happy Birthday sweet boy of mine.

I love you forever.

Toddler Activities for the Letter S

I found this book at the library called "Measuring Size" and decided that would be a fun topic to study for the letter S. For this activity, we made our own rulers and "Book of Size."



Materials:
cardboard
markers
string
hole punch
scissors
measuring tape
construction paper
staples


I cannot get this photo to stay rotated for the life of me. It's never been a problem before! Ah well.

Step One:
Measure and cut your piece of cardboard about 2" in width and, of course, 12" in length.


Step Two:
Cut out your ruler and mark each inch along the top. I held the measuring tape in place while my preschooler marked the inches. If you're doing this activity with a toddler, you'll have to do most of the work on this part.






Step Three:
Punch a hole in the ruler and thread your string through the hole. Tie it so that it hangs from their neck, long enough to hold it out and measure things.






Step Four:
Staple a few pieces of paper together for their "book of size." We went outside to find some items to measure such as a flower and our car. I followed her and helped her to hold the ruler and mark the end of it with her finger and hold it up again in the proper place.









I also showed her how to write the marking for inches and feet. We measured our trash can and one of our lovely little chickens.


This activity is geared more towards 3-5 year olds, but there's a way to adapt it to younger toddlers. You make a ruler that they can color and show them how you measure simple things on their body like their nose or finger or feet. They can measure things on your face or your hands or a favorite toy. Focus on words such as "big" and "small" and which things are smaller or bigger than one another.

Have fun with this!

Toddler Activities for the Letter S

Here are some toddler or preschooler activity ideas for the letter S. I thought I'd share my usual routine with teaching our letter of the week since some of these letter have endless options:

I typically introduce the letter on Monday. I write both uppercase and lowercase on our white board and have my four year old write her own uppercase/lowercase next to mine. Then I help my two year old trace over my letters. We sing "The S says SSSS, the S says SSSS, every letter makes a sound the S says SSSS." We typically sing the "Days of the Week" song and the "Months of the Year" song at the beginning of our Activity Time, so I have them JUMP or YELL out loud any day or month that starts with our letter (September!). We also sing the alphabet and listen for our letter.

Sometimes I grab 6-8 toys out of our toy box that represent things that start with our letter. I write the letter on a paper bag and put those toys into the bag. As they pull them out one at a time, we talk about those words and the sound of the letter they start with.

The Letter G

It is also helpful to write the letter on a piece of construction paper and have your toddler glue something that starts with that sound (such as Glitter for the Letter G) along the lines and curves of the letter. You could do sea shells or "soft" cotton balls for the Letter S.

Tuesday is our library day and that's when I pick up our books for that week. I find as much as I can on the letter of the week, trying to find one fairy tale, one science topic, one animal, and one or two books that talk about the sounds and uses of the letter we're studying.

And then I choose some crafts and activities that coincide with our letter as well. This is the part I love best about doing preschool at home with my kids; the options are endless and it leaves me a lot of room for creativity. I can also cater to the areas where I feel my kids need some more practice.

Here's our first activity for the Letter S:

We found some great books about the solar system and talked about how our Earth is spinning in a circular orbit around the sun. All of these words were new to my kids, so we just kept it simple. I wanted an activity that showed them what we learned, so this is what we came up with.

We used construction paper and sticky felt to make a sun and earth. I stuck the earth onto a pipe cleaner and poked the opposite end of the pipe cleaner into the middle of the sun.


We practiced rotating the earth around the sun. My daughter had a lot of questions about how the earth is always spinning and why we don't feel it. We talked a little bit about gravity.
I had a book about stars that talked about how the sun is a star. We used our star cutter from the 4th of July to cut out some stars for our mini "solar system."

There's so much you can do with the solar system!

Here's another favorite about stars:

Winter Activities for Toddlers and Preschoolers: Snowflakes

This year I wanted to do something a little different than the typical paper snowflake. Here's some fun and "unique" ideas for snowflakes:

# 1"Fan-tastic" Snowflakes:

Materials:
Construction paper
hole punch
string
stapler or tape

Fold your paper in half lengthwise and then cut it in half. Fan-fold your paper in half-inch folds and staple it in the middle. Trim the ends so they come to a point and then punch holes wherever you want (your toddler can help you with this part).






Have your toddler open up the fan and help them tape (or you can staple) the ends together to create a snowflake!

See original here

#2 Beaded Snowflakes

Materials:
white pipe cleaners
small/med. clear beads
clear or sparkly thread
needle
Christmas pom-poms

Step One: Cut six pipe cleaners in half and wrap one of them tightly around the other eleven.




Step Two: Have your toddler spread out the pipe cleaners until it looks like a snowflake.


Step Three: String your beads onto each pipe cleaner. The beads I had were pretty large, so I only put 2-3 beads on each pipe cleaner. If you get smaller beads, you can obviously put more without weighing it down too much. (Bigger is easier for little fingers though!)






Step Four: With your needle and thread (I used gold thread), sew on three Christmas pom-poms and hang your snowflake for display! They could of course work as ornaments as well.

See original here.

Here's some other great ideas I found:
Glittery Snowflake Window Clings
*I'm planning on doing this one this week; I'll let you know how it goes
as long as baby doesn't come before I get to it!



Pasta Snowflake
Clothespin Snowflake

Beaded Snowflake

Martha Stewart's Pipe Cleaner Snowflake


Have fun with these!