Dress Up

Pull up a seat. It's story time!

I had just finished some light house cleaning and snack time was approaching as I decided to check in on Kailynn in her play room. She was playing quietly and making a mess of toys as usual, so I set off to prepare her snack. As I'm cutting the grapes in half, I hear Kailynn singing the clean up song followed by the sounds of her rummaging through her toy bins. I was walking out of the kitchen and into the hallway when I noticed a trail of plastic bracelets and beaded necklaces. I followed the trail of jewelry into the play room and noticed that Kailynn had decided to play dress up. She looked at me with a big smile and said, "pretty." I ran to grab my camera and the smile disappeared as soon as she saw it. I had to take a picture regardless just to remember this moment.

This is how I found her dressed...

A is for Apple

As promised, we continued on our alphabet challenge. A few weeks ago, I decided to start doing arts and crafts with Kailynn revolving around the alphabets; focusing on one letter each week. A few days after we began, we went on a last minute vacation. Now that we are back to our normal schedule, it is time to continue what we started.

This weeks' project was a construction paper mosaic. Since the letter of the week was "A", we made an apple mosaic.  Follow these simple steps so you and your little one can create your own mosaic.


For starters, you will need:

• Construction paper
• Scissors
• Glue
• Pen or marker

Now that you have your materials, follow these simple steps:

1. Draw an apple on a piece of construction paper
   
2. Cut small pieces of your preferred color of construction paper
   
3. Place glue inside the drawing of the apple
4. Place your pre-cut pieces of construction paper onto the glued areas
5. Continue steps 3 and 4 until the drawing is covered with pieces construction paper 

I had full control of the glue because I was pretty sure Kailynn would have squirted the whole bottle all over the place if it was in her hands. I would place a few dabs of glue onto the paper while she stuck on the pre-cut pieces of construction paper. I must say we make a pretty good team. Here is Kailynn showing off the finished product!

Travel Packs

In my last post, I mentioned travel packs that I made to keep Kailynn entertained on our trip. Now that we are in season, back-to-school sales are everywhere and these items will be fairly easy to find. I had a few items at home and I found what ever else I needed in the back-to-school and dollar sections at Target. I used clear pencil cases to hold the items in so it would be easier to identify which bag held what.

Bag number one contains a small coloring book and pack of crayons (Kailynn's favorite). The second bag holds finger puppets. Even at home these little buddies keep her entertained for hours! The third bag is home to miniature safari animals. Last but not least, I attached velcro pieces to the ends of colored popsicle sticks. The sticks serve dual purposes. One activity is to attach the ends of the sticks to form shapes. Another activity is color matching or sorting since there are two sticks of each color. 

As simple as they may seem, these were life savers! Kailynn loves these bags so much that they now stay in her diaper bag. They come in handy for trips to the grocery store and restaurants. 

Vacation

I've had people ask if I have already abandoned the blog. I am still here! I have not disappeared. Our first week of creative alphabets has taken a break and we will continue now that we are back. This past week, Kailynn and I went on a last minute vacation while daddy was on a business trip. Although it rained almost every day, we still had a blast! We saw dolphins and sharks at Gulfarium, had fun in the sun in Panama City, saw giraffes and tigers at Wild Adventures, and splashed around in Splash Island. Kailynn and I enjoyed every bit of our spur-of-the-moment vacation and it went a little something like this...

(Don't forget to check back soon for simple activity travel pack ideas that I used on our trip)

Do-a-dot Art

Kailynn has been showing interest in letters lately so I have been working on making letter print outs for the past week or so. I was running low on our arts and crafts supplies so we made a trip to the dollar store. (Yes, the dollar store.) I came across the do-a-dot paint markers and thought it would be perfect for our next project! The plan is to focus on one letter a week. This week our letter is, you guessed it, the letter "A".

To make the print outs, I simply opened Microsoft Word and created a "word art" for each letter in upper and lower case then printed them as needed. I set up the table and Kailynn was ready to start learning her ABC's. I did a few dots myself to show Kailynn how to use the markers and she simply immitated my actions. I told her to stay inside the lines and trace the shape of the letter "A" and she did just that. Here is her first alphabet craft challenge. Not too bad for a first timer.

4th of July

I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July weekend! I enjoyed every bit of it except for the tons of mosquito bites I have. I seem to have been the only one they attacked. Anyways, these past few days have been quite busy for us. Aside from celebrating 2 birthdays, we spent our 4th of July at Kennedy Space Center visiting Atlantis. It was quite a site! Every time Kailynn saw a rocket or shuttle, she would shout, "Pat, pat, pat, BLASTOFF!" (The fact that you know where this quote comes from just makes you a fun Mom!)

Of everything there was to do and see, Kailynn seemed to have enjoyed pushing all of the buttons on the simulators the most. Being able to see such an important part of history in person is simply breathtaking! I most definitely recommend visiting Kennedy Space Center to anyone who has never been there before.

Here are a few photo's from our 4th of July Adventures at Kennedy Space Center.

Say Cheese!

The first and probably the most important tip I have when it comes to photographing children would be to let them be themselves. How many times have you pulled out your camera and told your little one to “say cheese?” Most of the time, they will pose awkwardly and force a smile onto their face. Ideally, a big smile and looking directly into the camera would be a perfect shot. If you have ever tried to get a toddler to sit still for more than just a few seconds, you know how difficult it is to get that “perfect photo.” Well, I have good news for you! They don’t have to be smiling or even looking at the camera for it to be a good photo. Let them run around and have fun. Who knows? They just may cooperate with you if you make it seem like a game and not a task. Just be sure to have your camera at hand and be ready to take a ton of photos.

Just the other day, I took Kailynn outside to play before it started to rain. I sat in the middle of the yard and started snapping away with my camera while she simply played on her tricycle. I took nearly 50 photos. Of those 50, these are my 4 favorites. Notice how she isn’t smiling in any of the photos.

I hope this tip helps you the next time you have your camera out! Be sure to check back for more photography tips!