Faces.

Faces.

All of a sudden, out of the blue (at least it appeared that way to me), my 3-year-old started drawing faces.

I never showed her how to draw one and no one had (to my knowledge), so I was pretty blown away when she drew this one day, a few weeks ago....

Bodies and arms and recognizable faces. Pretty cool. Yesterday, she drew these faces with some pastels I got out for her.

She made sure to point out the eyelashes.

Breakfast. This Week.

Over the last year, I have insisted that we all sit down and eat Breakfast together. It's been a really nice way to start off our Mornings. 

Don't get me wrong, many days it takes every ounce of strength I have to drag my exhausted body downstairs and make some food. Nye-Nye is usually whiny and only wants to cuddle. Anala Bears is always getting into something. (Or locking me outside like she did yesterday). 

And, Papa Bear has merrily taken himself downstairs for a leisurely shower. I try not to get too resentful.

It's not easy. But, it's totally worth it.

This week I felt particularly Creative, so we had some extra-nice meals. On the Menu?

Cheesy Eggs with Black Beans, Bell Peppers and Sorrel topped with Crab Meat.

Cheesy Eggs with Thyme, Sorrel and Crab Meat.

Labneh, Cucumber Tartine with Mint and Basil (and eggs).

Rice Cake topped with Sunflower Butter and Dark Chocolate with a side of Melon and homemade Farmer's Cheese with Mint, Honey and Chia Seeds.

Most days it's just Soaked Oatmeal or Poached Eggs with some Fruit and Yogurt. 

Nothing like an itty-bitty Garden right outside your Kitchen window to bring a little Inspiration to your cooking!

Nye-Nye LOVED making the Tartine. The photo is of her own Tartine that she made herself using our own Cucumbers, Basil, Mint and ONE Cherry Tomato. Can't wait to make it again!

Hope this inspires you to make some yummy Breakfast this Weekend. 

Enjoy your Weekend!

Activities for Babies: Painting with Colored Potato Flakes

My 13-month-old is in THAT STAGE. You know the "Everything-In-The-Mouth" one.

It's meant that I haven't been able to do many Art Projects with the 3-year-old for the last few months (unless the baby is sleeping).

I finally decide to try out a simple, edible paint that BOTH girls can use.

Enter Instant Potato Flakes.

All you do is add water to some instant potatoes and some food dye.

The first batch turned out to be more of a play-dough material than paint.  Honestly, the 13-month-old only played with it for about 5 minutes. But, she was very engaged for those few minutes.

It was a MUCH big hit with the 3-year-old. She spent at least 3 hours enraptured with this new material.

I would definitely call that a hit! It's nice finding an activity that they can both to together. (The peace may only last 5 minutes....but....boy is it golden.)

An Easy Birthday Banner.

This Birthday Banner took about an hour to make.

I used some twine and strung up the #3 flag I had made out of Kraft Paper. Then I just started tying ribbon to the twine. I alternated lengths and tried to have a variety of thicknesses.

I already had about half of the ribbon from another project. I hung all those ribbon and then I was able to judge what other colors I needed.

I spent about $10 on new ribbon. I couldn't resist adding those fun pom-poms!

I love this project because it didn't take forever. Plus, I can reuse all the ribbon by either untying the ribbons or cutting them off the twine.

Simple, right?

The Simplicity Month. Gardening with Milk Crates.

I really want to grow some veggies this Summer. But, we are moving in June. What to do?

Container Gardening.

Most of our pots are already inhabited by some Herbs. Buying lots of pots can get expensive very quickly. So, I decided to use what we already have...

Milk Crates.

My Mother found 8 crates along side the road, last year. She gave them to us, but I hadn't found a really good use for them.

Enter Landscaping Fabric.

I bought a 50 foot roll that is suppose to last 15 years (so I can reuse the crates for several years). The Landscaping Fabric keeps all that precious soil INSIDE of the crate. 

I cut a large piece of the fabric for each crate and put it inside. Some people staple or sew the fabric around the crates. I was out of staples, so I didn't bother.

I had originally thought of drilling some holes in some extra tubs we have laying around. But, the crates completely eliminated the need to drill any holes for drainage. Wahoo...less work for me.

After I put the Landscaping Fabric in the crates, I filled each one with a mixture of Potting Soil and Compost. I bought the bags at the family-run Hardware Store, down the street. These are the bags I bought....

I mixed all the Potting Soil and Compost one of those blue tarps. Each time, I dumped half a bag of Potting Soil and half a bag of Compost and mixed in a 1/4 of the Lobster Compost.

I planted (from seed) Arugula, Radishes, Turnips, Cabbage and a Basic Salad Mix. The seeds were left over from our failed Microgreens Experiment.

I'll add some Tomato and Pepper plants soon.

I love the fact the crates have handles, so they will be easy to move to our new home. Crossing my fingers that this works!

I'll keep you updated.

Cost

Crates. Free.

Landscaping Fabric. $11 for 50 feet.

2 Bags of Potting Soil, 2 Bags of Compost and 1 Bag of Lobster Compost. $40.

Seeds. Free.

Babies Discovery Basket: Shells.

Poor second kid. She has totally gotten the shaft.

By the time her Sister was the same age, I had done lots of interesting, fun Activities with her. I carefully rotated out her toys and materials every 2 weeks. She had been to numerous Music Together Classes and even a Yoga Class or two.

Not this time.

The Living Room is starting to starting to feel overwhelming, so it's time for a "Toy Rotation."

Sorting out Toys, prompted me to put together this quick Discovery Basket.

I collected around 10 or so Shells from our various collections. I made sure none were too small. I sat right next to her, after introducing the Discovery Basket and made sure that all the Shells stayed on the Sheepskin Rug. The Living Room has wooden floors and I was concerned that if she started walking around with the Shells, one would drop and shatter.

Each and every one of the Shells went into her mouth (of course). It was fun seeing which ones, she really responded to and kept picking up again and again.

This is such a simple, but beautiful Activity to share with your baby! 

A Simple Lacing Activity. Fruit. Ages 2+ and Up.

Last Halloween, when Nye-Nye got dressed up as a Fruit Fly, I created a Trash Bag Stroller for the Del Ray Halloween Parade.

My Sissy helped me created several Fruit Peels using card stock, Sharpies and watercolors. I drew out the shapes in pencil and then went over them with a Sharpie.

Aunt Mimi cut out the shapes and then I painted them with the watercolors. It took about an hour to make them. 

I liked how they looked, so I didn't want to throw them in the Recycling Bin, after Halloween was over. 

Recently, I figured out a new use for them.

"A Lacing Activity."

All I had to do was use a hole-punch around the edge and then tie a ribbon around one hole.

I say "all I had to do is" but honestly, those little suckers are hard to punch. As you can see, I haven't finished the Banana Peel or the Apple Core. The paper was closer to cardboard weight and hurt my hands to punch through...so spending 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there may be the way to go.

I can't wait until Nye-Nye expresses more interest in lacing. Then, I'll create some more with a different theme.

I think this is such an easy, cheap Activity for Preschoolers.

The possibilities are endless!

Marshmallow Snowmen.

In honor of Northern Virginia's Last Snowfall of 2014 (hopefully), I wanted to share these cute little Marshmallow Snowmen.

Nye-Nye made them way back in December, but I never shared them. My Mama was visiting and had great fun making her own.

All you need is a bag of large marshmallows, tons of tooth-picks, pipe-cleaners, markers and some white glue. Cloves are optional.

We stuck a tooth-pick (or 2) connecting the head to the belly. Then another tooth-pick (or 2) from the bottom up to the belly. 

More tooth-picks became the arms. 

Cloves made nice eyes, noses and nipples (totally my then 2 1/2 year old's idea).

Nye-Nye had a terrific time wrapping the pipe-cleaners into scarves and adding details to each face. 

I twisted pipe-cleaners into a loop and stuck the on top of each head, so we could hang them from our Christmas Tree. 

They kept coming apart when we hung them, so I just added some glue between each marshmallow. Problem solved.

Can't wait to make another set next year!

Belly Cast? Do It.

Making a Belly Cast.

Have you heard of it?

I'm sure you have, if you even the slightest bit crunchy.

Two of my absolute favorite possessions are my Belly Casts. They are reminders of two very special times in my life.

My husband and I made the first one when I was 36 weeks pregnant. He put up a minor fuss during the beginning of the process (using plaster is very messy, if you didn't know) and kept saying "I'm not the artist, you're the artist. I don't want to do this." But, by the time we finished, he had gotten into it and was very glad that we did it.

The second time around was so much easier (except for the fact we were being cheap and using the remains from our first Belly Cast kit).

Some people paint their Belly Casts. I happen to love the stark white of the plaster, so I'm not going to paint either of mine.

Make sure you cover EVERYTHING while working plaster (with newspaper, an old plastic table-cloth, whatever you want to use as your drop-cloth). We accidentally got some plaster in the cracks of the wooden stool I was sitting on and they are still there. We used our Bathroom as our work-space, which was nice because I could then immediately jump into the shower.

It's a nice bonding experience with your partner and I definitely recommend celebrating your pregnancy by making one. It's a fun Date Night! Enjoy!!!

This is the Belly Cast Kit we used. (Disclosure: Affiliate Link).

Office Supplies. The Best Birthday Presents for Kids.

Okay. Maybe this might not be true for all kids. But, most of them LOVE post-its, right?

Pens, note-pads, return address labels, business cards. All cool stuff.

Recently, I created a Mail Center for my soon-to-be three year old. She's really been into envelopes and making cards. So I created a whole box just for her.

It has everything she would need to mail off a card. I had some return address labels made that she puts on EVERYTHING.

She spends probably two hours each day working on her cards. It's definitely worth the headache of organizing all the cards, stickers and pieces of paper strewn around the house every night.

Today, her business cards arrived.

Yes, I ordered business cards for a three year old.

She has spent hours playing with my Mother's business cards. So, I figured a card with her photo on it, would be tons of fun.

I was right.

She refused to let go of them today, when we went to the playground. She ran around, climbing things and sliding down the slides, all the while clutching a stack of business cards.

It's gratifying to see something that cost so little money (and took such little effort) could bring such Joy to my daughter.

There have definitely been several projects that took A LOT of effort and time on my part, which she played with it for a grand total of five minutes.

I am going to bed one Happy Mama.

I wonder how long it would take her to start handing out her cards.