Quiet Toy: Animals in a Blanket

I'm always on the look out for good quiet toys for my kids. I especially like something I can throw in my bag for church, doctor's visits or long car trips. I decided to make my own quiet toy during a few nap times this week. A simple little toy that will be perfect for my activity bag.

Just tie and toss.

I went a little overboard on creating the animals for my little pouch. So, now the kids can choose which three they'd like to play with.
They can go with farm animals:

Forest animals:

Or a mixture of the two. Jellybean was pretty excited when I finished these today and promptly introduced herself to each one of the animals. She decided that the fox isn't a very nice animal, so she's letting Buddy play with it. I think I'm going to have to make another pouch for the extra three just so that Buddy and Jellybean can each have their own.

So would you like to make one? Here's the tutorial:

Animals in Blanket Quiet Toy:

Time to completion: approx. 3-4 nap times

Materials:

Pouch:
1/4 yard duck cloth
1/4 yard soft flannel, or other fabric for liner
1 package double folded bias tape
Thread, pins, scissors
Protractor
Air erasable pen
Ribbon

Animals:
Scrap fabric in several different patterns
Felt in several different colors (depending on what animals you'd like to create)
Floss (in coordinating colors)
Soft batting

Start with a 10X11 inch piece of your duck cloth and flannel (wrong sides together). You can pin them together if you wish. On one end, pin and sew a piece of bias tape. Before I made this, I had no idea how to sew on bias tape. I used this tutorial on Dana Made It in order to figure it out.

 Fold the bias tape edge up 4 inches. Use your protractor and pen to get a nicely rounded edge on both sides.

 Pin and sew your final length of bias tape along the outside edge. Sew three equal pockets. Each of mine measures 3 inches. Now, stitch your ribbon to the back of your pouch and it's done, wasn't that easy?

I spent one of my precious nap times sketching out the animal faces that I wanted to use. Then I took my sketches and cut them all out in felt.

Using floss, I stitched the little faces together and then attached them to the bodies. I used an oval pattern that was 5X3 inches for the bodies of my little animals. Then I used a 1/4 inch seam. Make sure when sewing the bodies that you leave at least an inch un-sewn for turning the fabric and stuffing.

Six sweet little animals, now ready for travel. Can't wait to take them for a test run.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Barnyard Boo

My kids and I took a trip to Farm Country for the annual Barnyard Boo this last week. We thought opening day would be majorly crowded. It turned out that we were first in line.
Here's Buddy and Jellybean, don't they look excited?

We got the pony rides out of the way at the beginning. Look at my cowgirl and cowboy:

Jellybean is riding Chief and Buddy is riding Erica. They were good ponies. This was the first time in a saddle for both of my kids. They were a bit nervous about it.

We were at a barnyard, there were a lot of animals to look at, but there were also tons of games set up for the kids. So, the poor animals didn't get much love. Buddy and Jellybean enjoyed a game of croquet and an obstacle course instead.

They both had fantastic technique (we had to let all of the other kids play through while they figured things out).

The hurdles were a bit tricky, but look at that form.

My sister-in-law joined us with her two girls. Buddy's cousin, A, is his best friend.  We enjoyed some more games and a horse-drawn cart ride with them.

Then we decided it was time to put the kids in jail:

Only A was properly contrite.

It was a good time, one that Buddy has been waiting all year for. Looks like we'll be first in line next year as well.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Book Review: My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss

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Occasionally, I like to highlight one of our favorite books.  I ran across My Many Colored Days at the library and my kids and I enjoyed it so much that we decided to add it to our library. I'm not always in love with Dr. Seuss. I like many of his books, but the language can get a little annoying after multiple readings (am I the only one?). This book is such an exception. The text is much more mature, but still appealing to my toddler and preschooler. I love reading it over and over to my children.

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The text is about feelings and moods and connects them to the colors around us. I love how it moves through so many different emotions: happy and sad, mad and silly. It is a wonderful starting point for talking about feelings. I also like how it deals with emotions in such a natural way.

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The illustrations are beautiful with bright, vivid colors and each page brings with it a new animal to help illustrate the colors and moods. Today, I used the book to work on color recognition with Jellybean. I asked her to find something in her room that matched the color on each page. It was so fun watching her run around the room looking for something blue, yellow or red.  I actually think we made some progress as well.
It feels rare to me to find a children's book with such depth. If you haven't checked this Dr. Seuss out, definitely do.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Sharing on:

Cozy Book Hop
Kid Lit Blog Hop

Play and Eat with Oatmeal

Occasionally, I'll be working on the computer and Jellybean will come sit with me. Because I'm often looking at craft and activity ideas to do with her, she likes to point at the screen and tell me what she'd like me to make or what activity looks fun to her.  Last week, she saw this post on Play Through The Day for an oatmeal sensory bin.  Jellybean wanted to do this activity so badly, that I couldn't turn her down.

This is actually my first bonafide sensory bin and an easy one to put together at that.  I had an old container of oatmeal that was expired, so I dumped that in and then grabbed my daughter's Fisher Price farm animals and tossed those in as well.  I also grabbed a couple of cans so that they could dig and pour.

Both Jellybean and Buddy enjoyed digging their hands in the bin and playing together with the animals. It's so fun to see them work so creatively with something simple.

I left them to their own devices until I noticed that the oatmeal was being thrown around the room.  That was my cue that the activity was over and it was time for snacks.  Guess what they wanted to eat? Oatmeal. No, we did not eat the oatmeal they played with. Just in case you were wondering.

Yum!

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Sharing on:

Animal Mix-up Puzzle

I got this fun and easy idea from one of my new favorite blogs, I Can Teach My Child. She has so many great activity ideas for small children, I decided I needed to try her Animal Mix-Up Legos.

This was designed for the Duplo Lego blocks, but would probably work for any pre-school construction blocks in this size with a little adjustment.  I went on an image search and found the animal pictures, but you can also go here for the photos she used and her sizing directions.

Print photos, cut out, tape to blocks. Easy Peasy.

After assembly, just scatter the blocks on the floor and let the fun commence.

Jellybean is two. It took a little bit for her to figure this out. Once she did, she loved finding the correct pieces and putting them together. I'm thinking I may print a few more photos and cut them in quarters for the smaller square blocks. That should make it just a little trickier for my four year old.

Such a simple idea and so much fun. Jellybean has been carrying her puzzle around with her and even taking it to bed at night. She's kind of attached.

I also have some good news! I'll be guest posting this morning about my Read With Me Book Bags over at The Practically Perfect Princess. Go check it out! 

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ

Trip to the Zoo

 Some of our friends invited us to the zoo yesterday. It was chilly out and fortunately I was prepared with hats and jackets. Thank goodness for that. It looked so beautiful outside, I nearly left without them. It's Spring Break here so the zoo was, well a "zoo." Not only were the hats warm, but they helped me keep track of my little ones in the crowds.
 
Here they are. Each of them refusing to look at the camera.

studying the map

My children would not pose for photos, but some sweet baby animals did.  We got to see the baby elephant

baby and mama

and we got to see the baby giraffe as well. 

I love that you can see how tall this little one is from the numbers on the wall.

There is something so sweet about those ginormous babies.

Buddy and Jellybean had a great time running around and making me push an empty stroller.

They completely wore themselves out. I had to tickle Jellybean all the way home to keep her awake in the car. To keep Buddy awake, we sang Old McDonald's Spooky Farm (i.e. and on that farm he had a ghost...) and The Wheels on the Haunted Bus (i.e. the zombies on the bus say "Brains"). We don't do sleeping in the car right before nap time. So, I'll do whatever it takes.

I love these trips out.  Hopefully, this will be a fun memory for them in the coming years.

Have a Happy Day!

~MJ