Shaving Cream Fun

Joshua LOVES playing with shaving cream, after I push his hands into it first (he doesn't like his hands messy at all, so he won't willingly touch it, but if I put his hands into it he's ok until he's ready to be done)

Joshua told me when I first squirted the shaving cream onto the table that it looked like an alligator-I thought it looked like a snake myself :) But here is Joshua signing ALLIGATOR

Here Joshua is a little hesitant of it, and was concerned when I said it was a snake. His reply "Oh it bite me". He was trying to figure out HOW to pick up the snake without it biting him :)

Now the fun begins!! Joshua is now having a blast!!

I love that last one, such a sweet face!! But in case you didn't know, shaving cream is an AWESOME cleaner of pencil, markers and sometime pen marks off of tables. It also provides a ton of sensory fun!!

So...if you have some time, and don't mind a little mess, go steal your husband's shaving cream and pile it on the table. Let your kids spread it out and create! It also is a great idea for letter tracing.

For Madelynn, I don't trust that she won't eat the shaving cream so her sensory play was some yogurt...talk about a mess! I didn't get any pictures of her at play because she was more interested in eating it and using it as shampoo :) I"ll blog her soon!!

Snowman Footprints

For today's art project I copied the idea from another blogger but we put our own twist on it.

Yesterday it rained ALL DAY and was BITTER cold and BLUSTERY!! Then overnight the rain turned to ice, then snow and we woke up to 3" of the wet, sloppy white stuff and it is suppose to keep snowing until 7pm tonight. So what is more appropriate then making snowmen on a day like today?!?!

What you need:

*White paint

*Construction Paper
*Markers
*Buttons
*Google Eyes
*Glue

Here is what we did

1. I had Joshua pick out 6 eyes and 6 buttons to glue onto his snowman.

2. Next, giving verbal direction, I reminded Joshua that eyes go on the face and to put 2 dots of glue on the snowman's face and apply the eyes

3.) Then I told Joshua that each snowman needs 2 buttons for his tummy and gave verbal instruction to put 2 bigger dots of glue on the tummy and press on the buttons

4.) Every snowman needs a hat, so again with verbal direction, I asked Joshua where a hat goes and to put glue on the paper. Joshua knew that a hat goes on your head so he put glue above the snowman's head and pressed on a hat to each snowman

5.) Next comes a scarf. Joshua drew a line with the glue at the neck of the snowman and put a paper scarf on the glue.

6.) And every snowman needs a noes and a mouth

7.) and don't forget arms

8.) take a photo of your child holding their artwork and hang to dry and admire

I always love to take a picture of Joshua's finished art projects so I can put them into his scrapbook. He was SO proud of his 3 snowmen because he IS three now, you know

Rainbow Making

Today is a rainy, stay in your jammies, eat homemade chicken noodle soup and talk about the story of Noah's Ark and God's Promise. Joshua LOVES to do art, and when I say LOVES that is actually an understatement. Every morning and multiple times a day I get asked if he can do art. He wants to paint, glue, color, cut-you name it he wants it. Now with 3 kids under age 2 and an early preschooler begging to do art, it doesn't always happen when he wants it but today I couldn't take the whining any longer (Joshua has been very emotional today) so we broke out supplies to make a rainbow!

What you need:

*Paper Plate cut in half and a notch cut out-to make a shape of a rainbow

*Tissue Paper cut into squares-red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple

*Glue (we found that a glue bottle and a foam brush worked better than a glue stick)

*Optional-Markers (to draw an arch of each color in rainbow order)

Directions: Take pictures each step of the way if desired but FOR SURE at the end :)

1. I drew a line in each color of the rainbow in order so Joshua could trace the line with glue.

2. Use foam brush to smear the glue around

3. Starting with red, have the child crumble up each square of tissue paper and press it onto the glue. Continue until the whole row of color is filled.

4. Move to the next color (orange, yellow, green, blue, purple) and repeat steps 1-3.

5. Take final picture and hang your rainbow for your child to admire :)

Genesis 6:9-Genesis 9:16

Johnson House

We got to spend Saturday night out at my sister's house for dinner and games. The weather here has finally reached nice temps with highs in the upper 40's-50's and my kids and I love it!! After dinner the kids went out on the deck to play in Amanda's "giant play pen". Amanda's deck is huge and it has a gate (with lock) at the top of the stairs so the little ones can go out and play without much fear that they will fall down the stairs. MY kids were in heaven and it was actually a struggle to get Madelynn back into the house. That girl is so much like her mama!!

Joshua was a total ham for the camera while he played at Auntie Amanda's house
I love this picture, below, he was asking God to make it rain on his face :)And here are the girls!!
Sarah cheesing it up for me-she is my little cuddle bug!

Beautiful Hannah-Boo

I'll end with this...it was so funny!! This is the actual order of events. Madelynn was not aware that the Cozy Coupe A.) had a door B.) the door could be opened and you could climb out. So how did she get out of the Cozy Coupe?? She climbed under the steering wheel and out the front...makes perfect sense right??
She makes me laugh so much, she is determined to do everything herself, even if it takes longer and isn't right, as long as she gets the end result it is all that matters...again she's so much like her mother!!

Playdoh Lovers

Today was Madelynn's first experience with playdoh. At first she was a little hesitant of the texture, but it didn't take long for her to warm up. And by the time we removed her from the table (1.5hrs after we began) she was loving it so much and she did want to stop and we had so many tears. But she loved it, never ate it. Looks like we will be doing more playdoh in the near future, even though mama isn't a big fan.

We poked the playdough

More poking from a distance
I just love this face as Joshua was telling daddy how the 'fry fry maker' works (he thinks this toy makes french fries)

Once Madelynn got comfortable with touching the playdoh she spent the rest of the time riping the playdoh into little pieces and creating a pile next to her.

When the clump of dough in her hands were gone, she'd squish the little pieces together into a ball and start again. She did this for over an hour
Such a sad, sweet face from the Moo
And this is the only smile I got from Joshua as he was 'too busy playing playdoh to take pictures"

So, now that it has taken me nearly 2 hours this morning to write this blog post, and it isn't want I had intended, I'm going to post it before one of my children hits the back button and deletes all my hard work.

LOVE---ME

So...today is one of my friend's birthday and in honor of her birthday I am going to blog using a few photos that she has taken of my kids. I know that she LOVES it when I use her photos, but the truth is *I* love that she takes so many while we are together. She captures things during parties that I miss in all the clean up and entertainment, and when we go out, she captures priceless interactions between her children and mine...LOVE IT!

So, Happy Birthday Shelley-I love you! Hope you enjoy today's blog :)

Madelynn SOAKED at the Children's Museum

Joshua laughing as he played in the maze at the Gibbs Museum
Joshua climbing trees at the U of M Landscape Arboretum
Madelynn chiling at the Mississippi Mile
Daddy and Joshua playing at the Mississippi Mile
Madelynn at Color Me Mine paint studio in Maple Grove

Madelynn in a bucket, worn out from Joshua's 3rd birthday party

and one of my all time FAVORITES...Madelynn and daddy reading stories before bed
Happy Birthday Shelley, you are a blessing and I love you to pieces! Thank you for all that you have taught me as a mother, wife, teacher and friend. I look forward to many more years of friendship and fun!!