tea wreath

kojo designs made an easy & most lovely tea wreath!

how convenient to unclip a tea bag that is so easily visible.

this would make a fantastic teacher's gift next Christmas.

i can't wait to make one!

http://kojodesigns.blogspot.com/2010/03/kojotutorial-tea-tea-tea-kitchen-wreath.html

toddler house painting

My little guy loves to paint, so I thought of a great mess-free way for him to artisticly express. He loved getting a bowl of water on a warm sunny day to "paint" the brick walls of the house.

mealtime fun

Here are 2 dinner games that will keep your children... if they are anything like mine, hysterically amused from beginning to end!

The "what's for dinner?" game

I found these satin-sleep masks on sale at Walgreens for $1.75 today. They are adult masks but have an adjustable strap fitting my boys perfectly. We talked about the smells and tastes of food, as I blindfolded them and placed the plates on the dinner table. I fed each food from their plate as they described its smell and taste. They then had to tell me what they thought the food was using their sensory processes. What a great way to build excitement during an ordinary meal.

Don't Eat Pete!

We played this game as a dessert game.

I placed a chunk of apple on the game board I slid into a plastic sleeve. Don't Eat Pete is commonly used as an M&M game, but I found this cute-hand drawn version at

http://candacetodd.blogspot.com/2008/12/dont-eat-pete-free-download.html

I had one boy put on a blindfold, and the other brother had to choose a character on the board to be "Pete". Then the player had to eat one apple chunk at a time until eating the one on "Pete". As soon as they picked up the apple on "Pete" we yelled "Don't eat Pete!" They thought this was intensely hilarious! It was very funny to watch them play! Oh and my oldest somehow forgot that he didn't like apples as he gobbled them up one by one! Brilliant!

duct tape to the rescue

Do your child's mittens ever fall off while playing in the snow...leading to cries of mommy my hands are FREEZING? Here's a great tip I got from a brilliant mother of 4 (thanks Kate!).
S-I-M-P-L-E fix...duct tape them on!!! It worked perfectly on our trip to Northern Michigan this weekend. Try it...you'll be hooked on duct tape for winter play.