Snuggle Bunnies

(25 Months)

Look what I found in my Draft folder!

Please don't get me wrong I like the Easter Bunny, but I LOVE my Snuggle Bunny!

Happy (almost) Easter!  I love how happy and giddy my kidabunks are.

Spring Flower Arranging & Stringing Beads

(25 Months)

I saw these felt tulips in the dollar bin at the craft store and couldn't resist.  We can do flower arraigning with just a few more supplies- stryofoam blocks and the little metal pails that are always in the dollar section at craft stores and Target.  Fun, easy and super inexpensive - that's my kind of project.

Once again, Little Miss impressed her mommy.  I didn't even get a chance to tell her what to do with the flowers and pail, when she picked up a felt tulip and stuck it deep into the styrofoam.  She then proceeded to arrange her flowers, making sure that some of the pastel blooms were pushed deep into the foam, while others were inserted just slightly (to give different heights).  Where did she learn this?  Wild One used his brute force to puncture the styrofoam with the stems and raced through the project, saying, "all done" and then moving onto playing with his trains.

 

I found these adorable Easter egg picks at the Dollar store.  We used them to string pony beads onto them.  We'll also use them to carefully guide through the holes in a large spice container (once I have an empty one - I thought they would fit through the holes in a salt shaker, but the sticks are just a bit too big).  

In true Wild One fashion, once he was finished working
with stringing beads he tackled Grandma.

Easter Egg Colored Rice (Rainbow Rice)

 

(25 Months)

Little Miss and Wild One ask to play with their rice bucket almost everyday.  I've seen countless blogs of brave moms who will let their little ones play with their rice buckets inside the house, and those same moms have these amazing toddlers who are so careful about not spilling the rice or making a mess (you know who you are Montessori mommas- I envy you).  I haven't put enough time into teaching my kidabunks to carefully transfer the rice from one container to another without spilling (I need to start working on that, I'll add it to my growing list of things to try next week  - it's seems to be always next week).

After seeing a beautiful post from Pink and Green Mama about Rainbow Rice, I decided it was time to add some color to our boring white rice.  While the kiddos were playing with one of their Thomas the Train sets (they really like this one), I began following her instructions (while thinking to myself, ok this should take about half hour, then I'll start dinner).  40 minutes later, I'm still dying the rice.  60 minutes later, I'm still dying rice.  It took me almost an hour and a half to dye the rice (I dyed about eight pounds- which fills our rice bucket about 1/2 way).

The finished product is beautiful, isn't it?  Look at that gorgeous rainbow.  It looks like waves of color.

As you can see we play with our rice bucket outside on an old sheet (to help catch some of the mountains of spilled rice).  My husband was impressed with the finished product, but warned me that the rice will probably only stay separated for about three seconds before the four tiny hands start swirling the rice together.  It happened so fast!  One second the colors were separated and just a few seconds later...

Little MIss kept saying, "Pink!  Pink!"  Then when the rainbow turned into a jumble of color, she started asking, "Where did the pink go?"   Wild One excitedly said, "yellow, colors, look colors!"

This is what it looks like now.  I have to admit, the colored rice does look more fun.  Everything is more fun in a rainbow of color. 

Easter Egg Fun (matching & sun catcher)

(25 Months)

While searching the internet for fun learning activities, I came across this awesome letter matching activity from Joyfully Weary.   Since we buy 18-packs of eggs, I decided we would use two packs and make the remaining ten spots for the numbers 1-10.  I love how quick this project comes together.  Instead of matching lower case to lower case, I decided to match upper case on the egg to lower case in the carton (sine we already have a lower case to lower case puzzle- another easy peasy one to make).  Also to help my kidabunks distinguish between numbers and letters (some of the numbers and letters look alike: the number 1 and lower case l, the number 0 and letter O, the number 9 and lower case q), I used black scrapbook stickers for the letters and pink sparkly stickers for the numbers .  

This was a bit more challenging than I expected.  It took a little longer for them to find the correct match between all of the empty spots.  We'll definitely be working on this one for awhile.  

EASTER EGG SUN CATCHERS
I was so excited to work on this art project!  The first time we made a sun catcher we made them clover-shaped for St. Patrick's Day and they came out fantastic!  I forgot to take pictures and post (ooops).  This is another inexpensive, fun and beautiful project.

Materials- To make one sun catcher you will need to:  Cut out a pair (one for the front and one for the back) of Easter egg shapes out of pastel construction paper.  Next, you need to cut out small 1 or 2 inch strips of pastel tissue paper (we used lavender, pink, light blue and pale yellow) - you will need enough to fill the inside of your cutout, with plenty of extra for overlapping.  Then, you will need to cut two pieces (one for the front, one for the back) of contact paper large enough to cover your Easter egg.  Before inviting your little one (or big one) to the table, tape down the underside of the contact paper to your work table, peel back the paper protecting the contact paper and stick on the Easter egg.  Then let the fun begin!

 

Little Miss ran out of pink slips .  When I told her that there weren't any more,
Wild One said "here you go."  I love that boy!

Wild One decided to go a bit overboard with overlapping his strips.  

Counting and Stamping

(25 Months)

TOT SCHOOL

I went to the arts and crafts store this weekend and bought a set of number and letter stickers for an Easter/Spring learning project for later on in the week.  Wild One has been "working" on the muffin tin numbers every day since we first introduced them.  I love hearing him say, "count count".

While he was having his smoothie and playing with Grandpa in the lanai, I had an idea - I should add number stickers to the bottom of the muffin tin to go along with the numbers on the red balls.  I quickly added the stickers and then brought them to Wild One.  His response was "oooohh numbers".  He got right to work pulling a red ball from the basket and looking for the corresponding number on the muffin tin.

Then Little Miss wanted a turn.  I'm amazed at how much they enjoy this activity!  We finally added it to their learning shelves, and so far Wild One hasn't thrown the balls around the room (I know I just jinxed myself).

 

We decided to do a little stamping activity.  Nothing too messy, no markers, no paint, no dot markers- just stamping.

   

Or so I thought.  Wild One pressed the pink ink pad against his cheek and then smeared the ink across his face.  I'm so glad it's bath night, because he's going to need to soak for a little while.