Paint with Bouncy Balls

It's been a pretty busy week this past week, which has meant not a lot of time to either create or post. But we've still had a few fun things up our sleeves. This bouncy ball painting activity was something I'd been wanting to try for a while. Now that the sun and warm weather are back, it made for a great deck activity.

Somehow it feels like every time the boys get to pull a prize from a "treasure box" somewhere else (think dentist office, school, game prizes) they wind up picking a bouncy ball. We now have lots of these little bouncy balls hanging around, which lead to me thinking of how to use them. 

May Day Tissue Flower Wreath

It's been so amazing to have some green color pop up in our world this week, it truly and finally feels like spring. And while the green has come, we're still awaiting those colorful May flowers. But as we probably have a small wait still (although really, I think it's only small) we put together these May Day Tissue Flower Wreaths.

We enjoyed making paper plate wreaths at St. Patrick's Day, so these were a great spin off for a new season. 

Mini Golf Birthday Party

About a year ago Big Brother discovered the fun of mini-golfing and he loved going several times over the summer months. He was pretty excited to discover that because there was less snow and frost this winter, our local mini golf place was already open for his birthday.

He quickly asked to have a handful of kindergarten friends join him for a birthday party at the mini-golf center.  I was excited, as it meant an easy location with not a lot of set up or clean up, although it did take thinking through logistics a little.

7 Tips for Lego Storage & Organization

I've known for years that when we had kids I wanted them to be Lego lovers. I have so many memories of playing and building Legos with my brother as a kid. And Legos have only gotten better with even more themes, kits, ideas, and pieces. Yet they've held on to their classic appeal for fostering some amazing creativity.

I was so determined to have a Lego loving kid in the house that when Big Brother was only 3 months old I couldn't pass up an amazing deal on a GIANT tub of Legos at a yard sale . . . much to my husband's surprise.

Flash forward 6 years . . . and while I'm still really excited about how much he loves his Legos I'm also a little surprised at how much our collection has grown. In addition to the original tub I bought he's been given many sets over the last two years for birthday and Christmas presents, purchased a few of his own sets, and been given hand me downs from neighbors and older friends.

About 6 months ago I knew we had to get our Lego collection better organized, they were everywhere! After several months of tweaking our system, we've reached a great place with how they're organized.

Word Family Bean Sort

This spring Big Brother has been making amazing progress as a reader, and it's been so exciting for the both of us. As always, I want to look for ways to support his learning but without making our time at home feel like more school. With that in mind, I always try to make his learning at home very hands on.

Lately I've been noticing that he could use some word family practice, which inspired me to create this Word Family Bean Sort.

Banana Split Dippers

For the most part on weeknights we try to have fruit for dessert. But every once in a while we like to switch it up with something a little fun. This quick and easy dessert was still mostly fruit based . . . with some extra yumminess thrown in.

In fact, this dessert had all the makings of a banana split . . .  without the ice cream. Perfect for the fact that "Banana Day" is coming up on April 20th! We're pretty excited that Witty Hoots decided to host a "Quirky and Unusual" Blog Hop to celebrate the upcoming day.

Dinosaur Egg Sensory Play

Some of our activities I plan out and some of our activities just happen. On the days they turn into something that's tons of fun, and I know we might want to do again, I try to grab the camera. That's exactly how this Dinosaur Egg Sensory Play evolved.

Recently we were given a tub of "Delta" sand by my Dad. As far as I can tell, it's pretty similar to Kinetic Sand (although maybe not quite as fluid.) Online I had seen a cool video posted by Hallecake to use kinetic sand with plastic eggs. 

Wax Paper Flower Garden

When you were a kid did you ever do the project in the summer time where you pressed flower petals between two pieces of waxed paper? I can remember loving getting help using the iron to press two sheets of wax paper together with pretty petals in between. I was reminded of that craft this winter through a school project. As we don't have any flowers to gather and press, we made our own flowers with tissue paper scraps.

Our desire for something colorful came with a return to the very wintery weather we've had this week. As it snowed again the other day, we realized we needed to see some color as we looked through our windows.

10 Classic Ways to Enjoy Spring (April 2016 Monthly Goals)

Whether it's the unusual winter we just had, the sporadic temps we're still experiencing, or just a touch of late cabin fever - I am so ready for spring, a real spring, to arrive!

Something about this spring also has me thinking about those classic activities that families and kids get to experience during the warming spring months and I find myself just wanting to slow down and enjoy those experiences as much as we can. I'm sure some of this comes from the fact Big Brother turns 6 this month and officially is in the world of BIG KID. A time is going to come when we're more focused on sports, school, and friends and have even less time for these family focused moments.

So for my April Monthly Goals I've come up with 10 classic ways we can enjoy spring as a family. (Although of course I'm still chipping away at my January goals of organizing household clutter, my February Goals of using the crockpot more, and my March Goals of fitting in more exercise for myself.)