Easy Valentine's (or not) activity for your toddler!

We woke up to straight up ice everywhere this morning.  All the schools are closed so even if I hadn't taken Blakely out of MDO this week she wouldn't be able to go today.  Juanet usually comes to clean on Tuesdays but the roads are bad so she's not coming either.

So me and B are stuck in the house again.  I wanted to come up with a fun way to entertain her.  I saw this idea on a blog (I can't remember where!) a while ago and it came to my mind this morning.  A super easy and not too messy toddler activity!  

As you all may know I have a craft closet and am somewhat of a craft supplies hoarder.  I had some leftover foam (I have no idea from what) so I cut out a bunch of different sized hearts.  I had heart cookie cutters so I pressed them into the foam and then cut on the indented line.  Very easy and it took me all of 10 minutes to cut these hearts out.  Honestly, I don't think you even need the the cookie cutters...  You can buy a large package of different color foam at your local craft store for pretty darn cheap.  (Hob Lob online sells this package for $6.  For comparison, I used 6 sheets to cut out all of these hearts.  If you don't want to cut stuff out they sell foam cut outs for a little more money)

Anyway.  I put a little bit of water in a sturdy bowl and laid some towels down just in case.  You really don't need that much water.  I only used enough to cover the bottom of this bowl.    

First dip the foam heart in the water.  

Then it will stick to the window.  Blakely was obviously amazed.  

She played with these for over an hour.  Unheard of.  Once they were all on the window she took them off, dried them on the towels and started over.  Then she put them all in the bowl and told me that they were swimming.  

I dried them off when we were finished playing and I think we will play with them again later in the bubble bath.  The foam doesn't really get that wet, it sort of repels the water so they dry out really easily.  Although if we play with them in the bath I will probably throw them out after that.  

I am already planning the next time I do this activity with her.  I am going to cut out different sized shapes and have her match them up and count them.  I have a lot of foam ;)

Countdown update!

Since we have marked a few things off of the countdown I thought it was time to do a little catch up.  

I posted the full countdown list here but I also added it to the bottom of this post as well with some of the activities marked off.   

We sent a shoebox for O.peration Chr.istmas Child.  Blakely went with me to pick out all of the toys to put in our shoebox.  I explained to her that we were going to send some toys to a little girl who didn't have any toys.  She said "me sad" and did really well picking things out.  When we got home and started packing up the shoebox, well, that was another story.  She wanted to play with everything and was saying "me new toy"!  So yeah, we are working on that.  But all in all it went well and I am glad we did it.  I think we will do something else similar this month too.  And I have no pictures of this one...I was too busy making sure she did tear open all of the stuff!  

We decorated Blakely's Christmas tree.  2 things come to mind when I see these pictures.  One is that this child has grown up so much in a year!  

And two is that she needs a bigger/better Christmas tree.  After Christmas I will be hitting up Hob Lob to get a new one for her!  

We also painted some ornaments to give to family members.  I don't think I have mentioned this but my girl is obsessed with painting.  OBSESSED.  They paint occasionally at school and now that is all she talks about.  I swear she would have sat in her chair and painted all day long.  You should have seen the struggle it was to get her to go take a bubble bath....her second favorite thing to do.

During her nap one day I decided to make her a felt Christmas tree.  I was going to have her cut out snowflakes and decorate the windows with them but I quickly found out that she can't be trusted with scissors juuuuust yet.  Also, I have a ton of felt in my craft closet so it was easy peasy to whip this right up.  She thinks it is awesome and plays with it every day.  I highly recommend doing this with your littles!  

We have also made pine cone birdfeeders.  She wasn't all that interested in this but I think it was because I had it all set up for when she woke up from her nap.  She was still a bit cranky and only wanted to eat the peanut butter!  She really loves checking to see if we have any birds though.  So far we don't but my mom said it can take up to a week for the birds to find new feeders.  We shall see.  

sneaky grin...

She is really enjoying the Christmas activities.  I have a bunch set up for this week.  I don't do one a day I just do one when we can.  Lonnie is off next week so I am saving quite a few things so we can do them as a family.  This time of year is just magical and I can't help but walk around with a smile on my face.  I am so lucky.  

1.  Go to a Christmas Parade.

2.  Go to Garvan Gardens and see the lights.

3.  Make some treats for some special people.  (Can't be too specific!)

4.  Fill a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child

5.  Open an early Christmas present

6.  Make a pallet on the living room floor and watch Christmas movies. 

7.  Make hot chocolate (with lots of marshmallows) and sit by the fire.  (NO TV)

8.  Make a Christmas craft for family.

9.  Decorate Blakely's Christmas tree.  

10.  Go to the Arlington and see the life size gingerbread house. 

11.  Color another page in her Christmas coloring book and date it. (same book from last year)

12.  Daddy/daughter date night.  

13.  Spend the night with Gran Di. (because we all know she will have fun Christmas stuff for      B to do!)

14.  Get pictures made with Santa. 

15.  Decorate cookies and leave them out for Santa

16.  Read 'Twas The Night Before Christmas.

17. Do three random acts of kindness

18. Make a red and green lunch or dinner.  

19. Cut out snowflakes and decorate the windows with them.  Changed to make felt tree

20. Decorate a gingerbread house.  

21. Make a pine cone bird feeder.  

22. Make apple cider and read Christmas books before bed

23. Drive around to see Christmas lights.  

24. Make or pick out gifts for her teachers.  

25. Go to a Christmas event (Santa story time or Christmas craft) at the library.

Best dreary day toddler activity...ever.

I had the absolute best idea this morning.  I have no idea why I didn't think of it sooner.  Blakely and I were playing with her new "pet" animal figurines.  She was picking out the ones that she knew (dog, cat, frog, turtle, bird, etc) when it dawned on me.  TAKE THIS CHILD TO THE PET STORE!  

The second it came to my mind I scooped her up, got her dressed and out the door we went. I was that excited.  Lonnie and I have been talking about how we want so bad to take her to the zoo when the weather warms up.  I even mentioned to him about looking for a farm to take her to so she could see the farm animals.  She looooooves animals.

We actually have 2 pet stores in town.  Which is weird because why would we need 2?  I picked the one I had never been to before.  At first B was just so excited that I let her walk in by herself instead of carrying her.  She looked at me like "are you sure?".  The first thing we saw when we walked in was the birds.  It is so great because most of the animals are on toddler level.  Genius.  Then we walked around and saw the fish.  We stayed there a while because she was intrigued.  After the fish she started getting brave.  She was running up and down the aisles like a crazy girl.  I stayed close but really let her explore wherever she wanted to go.  Next up were the cats.  Oh my goodness.  She loooooved the cats.  We don't have cats (I'm allergic and my nose was itching just looking at the cats!) so she has never seen one in real life.  She kept coming back to them over and over.  I wish she would have gotten to pet one....maybe next time.  We also saw turtles, lizards, hamsters, and mice.  

Buhs

Ish

I love this video so much.  She was stomping around and just so happy to be there.  At one point when the cat rolls over onto his back she steps back and says UH OH.  She also tries to kiss the cat at the end!  

Then she found the toys.  We didn't play with these much because I just kept imagining dogs peeing on them.  

I seriously can't believe I didn't think to take her there sooner.  Free toddler fun!  It was perfect for this awful rainy day we are having today.  She had so much fun and it completely wore her out.  We came home and she cleaned her plate for lunch and took an amazing nap.  I have a feeling we will be spending a lot of time there until the weather gets nicer.  TAKE YOUR TODDLER TO THE PET STORE!