Spring Sand Sensory Bin

 It’s no secret I absolutely love a good sensory bin.  My 4-year old is no stranger to them and at this point he loves picking out his own accessories to create his own bins.

I put together a garden/spring inspired sensory bin based in kinetic sand. Here’s a step by step I pulled from my Instagram reel:

It was a big hit, I’ve already done another spring sensory bin that…I dare say…was even more of a hit than this one was! I promise to share it soon.

carrot & oat muffins

My two biggest struggles when it comes to feeding my kids is breakfast & packing lunch.

Breakfast is always hit or miss, especially for my little one...and a filling breakfast makes a big difference on how our morning goes!

Lunch is a whole other struggle...luckily my older son is pretty easy-going, but that doesn’t mean I want to send him to school with the same pre-packaged food everyday, either.

That’s why I love these muffins so much.  They’re a (kid) crowd pleaser no matter the age or time of day.  The biggest bonus of these muffins? CARROTS.  A veggie I don’t have to force feed my children?!  SIGN ME UP.

• These are pretty easy to mix together, I use my silicone muffin molds & they pop out beautifully. (They’re amazing and I don’t know what took me so long to get them, so if you don’t have them you need to just pull the trigger and get some!  ...SERIOUSLY)
•  I usually make 12 regular size muffins & about 16 mini muffins.  I like getting both sizes out of one batch of this.
• Don’t over mix your batter once you add in your dry ingredients! Once they’re combined, stop and use a cookie scoop to fill your molds.

Adapted from Yellow Bliss Road

kid’s color sort diy

Did you think I was done with felt balls and color DIYs?!

My last one was geared towards older kids, and this one is perfect for the real little ones. I was able to complete this one with things that I had on hand, and if you don’t have a million pieces of felt in your stash...you’re much more Marie Kondo than I am.

But seriously, this one is easy and if anything, another excuse to buy or put to use those Hello Maypole felt balls!

These 6 count muffin tins were from the Dollar Store, felt was originally from Hobby Lobby & felt balls from my Hello Maypole hoarding bin,  I just pulled out which colors I wanted to use and matched them to my felt.  

You could stick to the basic ROYGBIV rainbow, but I added in a few “in between” colors, as well as black and white.  You can really do whatever you want or have on hand to work with.

Start by creating a pattern, trace the bottom of the tin and cut it out on paper.  Then using that pattern, cut out all your felt.

Here you have the option to glue your felt into the bottom of the tin, or if you’re using your actual baking tins, just pop them in the bottom and let your little one go for it!

Not gluing them in the bottom would also give you the option to change out the colors of your felt or mix them around out of color order to keep their brains firing!

Again, another easy way to incorporate learning and your craft stash.  Fun for EVERYONE!

Toddler Halloween Party

So yesterday...yes actually yesterday...my son had his first ever Halloween party!  It was so much fun to plan and I think the kids had a great time! So here's a realistic, low-budget, toddler Halloween party.

Plates & forks from Target, cups & napkins from Michaels.

At the entry way there were gift bags, foam dollar store grave stones & vinyl on the floor.

The living got a little extra decor like plenty of spider webs, some hanging garland & paper fans, mini pumpkins & we had a game of pin the spider on the web.

So at the party, we decorated cookies, played pin the spider on the web, decorated mini pumpkins with foam stickers, and colored in little canvas Halloween bags.  There were 6 kids (including mine), and I think it was just the right size and by the end of the party I think everyone was best friends!

build your library with kellogg's

 This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #Back2SchoolReady #CollectiveBias

With school starting next week here in Arizona, we're stocking up on school supplies and that includes new books for daily reading! Kellogg's launched an awesome new campaign where you can purchase specially marked Kellogg's products in-store or online through Walmart.com and redeem codes for a free Scholastic book. 1 Kellogg's product = 1 free, full-length Scholastic book, and you can redeem up to 30 books. 

It's easier than you think, to start go to Walmart.com and look for the "Buy Now" button here to see a list of participating products and purchase online. 

I choose some delicious breakfast fuel for my son & I, Kellogg's Rice Krispies®, and Special K® Protein shakes. Added them to my cart and shipped them to my house!

After you get your Kelloggs products there are 3 ways you can upload your receipt- via text, via scanning into your computer or Kellogg's Family Reward app when you purchase Kellogg's products ONLINE between 7/21 - 9/11, just be sure to enter your codes by 3/31/16! Redeem your code for a free Scholastic book within 14 days of purchasing your product.

In order to redeem codes, you must create a Kellogg's Family Rewards account, and in a few minutes you're ready to start adding Scholastic books to your library!  Because I got 2 Kellogg's products this time, we decided we'd keep one book for ourselves and order one to donate to our local library.  You don't have to pay any extra shipping cost after choosing your book.

It only takes a few steps to get your free book, after entering your code, you'll have an option to order a book for yourself or donate a book.  Then we choose the book we wanted, entered our shipping info...

and we were done! You don't enter any payment information and you just wait excitedly for your free Scholastic book to come in the mail! So easy, right?! We're definitely buying more products to to get more books!

Friday Favorites: Kids Books

We (okay, mostly me) picked out our top 4 favorite books right now. My son will be 4 in July and has always loved books & I've loved buying "big kid books".

But they are so expensive! Can I get an amen?! So I often do 2 different things: 1. Ask for them for him for Christmas/Birthday. 2. Find them at a thrift store. I'm always amazed at some of the books I've found there that are new or practically new!
So let's start with 2 Dr Seuss classics...

 "Oh, the Places You'll Go" has always been popular & well-quoted especially for graduations.  I love it's encouragement, but also it's message that sometime, things WON'T go our way and when they don't, we have to push through them and keep working hard.

The second is a Seuss book that's maybe a little lesser-known but equally as good. 

"Did I Ever Tell You How Lucky You Are?" focuses on other character's poor circumstances to remind us that our life is pretty grand and we should never take our situations for granted, because there are others who have it harder.

Not a "classic", (yet) but we're loving "Press Here" by Herve Tullet.

My sister-in-law introduced us to this book & while it doesn't have a "message" it's so interactive and entertaining! Plenty of giggles and excitement always ensue when we read this book together.

Last but not least, is a book I consider a classic because I read it growing up as a child and I was SO excited when my son got it a few years ago and I'm even more excited that he is obsessed with it.

"Chicka Chicka Boom Boom" by Bill Martin Jr & John Archambault is all about the alphabet & goes through the whole thing twice, presenting plenty of opportunity for kids to see the letters.

And our favorite part? On either side of the book is the whole alphabet and my son has loved matching his set of letters to the book! 

 Those are our TOP 4 current favorite books! There are plenty more we have in rotation, but at least on of these is always picked in our bedtime reading session.