Easter Treasure Hunt

Instead of hiding lots of eggs filled with candy each year, our family does an Easter treasure hunt. It's basically the same as our Valentine's Day tresure hunt. Ruben and I write clues on slips of paper and put them inside plastic eggs. We hand the first one to one of the kids and inside it has a clue to where the next egg is hidden. They follow all the clues to find where their Easter baskets are hidden (they know the baskets are from us, we don't do the Easter bunny). This year Buzz and Boo each got candy, a book and an amber necklace. Plus Buzz got a Lego Hero Factory guy and Mary got a purse (with new earrings inside). Bean got a book and a toy.

I've resigned myself to the fact that with three young kids, I'm never going to get a perfect shot of all three of them, so this is as close as I got :)



St. Patrick's Day Fun

Our theme for this week was St. Patrick's Day. We used my St. Patrick's Day printables. We also used some of the activities from Musing of Me and 2 Teaching Mommies.

I didn't go all out this week. Actually the only thing that I bought was a bag of foam shamrocks from Michael's (which were on sale 40% off because I'm a slacker who bought them less than a week before the holiday). We used the shamrocks for a few different activities for Boo. One was sorting (by size and color) and one was making patterns.

I also took a large egg carton (for 30 eggs) and wrote the numbers 1-30 on the shamrocks and had Boo put one in each spot in order. She loved it!

We talked about the colors of the rainbow and Buzz and Boo learned ROY G BIV, then they made a little craft. They each drew a rainbow and a leprechaun and glued on a black pot. Then they used a single hole punch with yellow construction paper. I emptied the little circles out for them to glue on the pot as gold. Then they glued on foam shamrocks. They turned out pretty cute!

We made a cake and decorated it with a pretzel m&m rainbow. The actual cake was rainbow too, but I didn't get a picture of it.

We read Jack and the Leprechaun, Leprechauns Never Lie and Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland and we watched Sumo of the Opera, which includes the story of St. Patrick.

Linked to Preschool Corner

St. Patrick's Day Printables

I hadn't planned on doing any St. Patrick's Day activities, but Buzz informed me that we are supposed to do crafts, activities and printables for every holiday (who knew?) so I made up some printables and I'm planning a few crafts and activities for next week.

My kids love spot the difference activities! Just circle the things that are different in the picture on the right from the one on the left. I print just about everything that I can on cardstock and laminate it to use with dry erase markers. That way I can just store it for Bean to use in the future.

This addition printable is for Buzz. The idea is to solve each addition problem and put it in on the right color on the rainbow (for example 3+4=7 so he would write 3+4 in one of the circles on the yellow stripe). 



Linked to Preschool Corner

Family Traditions: Valentine's Day

Every year for Valentine's Day we have a treasure hunt for the kids. After breakfast on Valentine's Day one of the kids will find a paper heart somewhere near by (this year it was sitting under Ruben's phone when we asked Buzz to go grab it). Each paper heart has a clue about where to look for the next heart.

This year's treasure hunt was especially fun because it's the first year the Buzz is reading independently, so they didn't need any help from us to figure out the clues.

In the end the treasure is always books and candy. They were SO excited that they received The Doll People trilogy! They love love love these books and if you haven't read them to your kids, I highly recommend them.

We're all about making memories for our kids and the special little ones like these seem to be some of their favorites.

Valentine's Trays

I made up a few trays with Valentine's Day themed activities for this month. Most of these activities are geared toward Boo but Buzz enjoys them too!

Matching heart cards. I got this idea from Counting Coconuts.

Put the little guys with the balloons in size order, from Musings of Me.

Heart addition puzzles. This one is for Buzz.

Cards and counters. Cards are from Musings of Me.

Tracing pages. Also from Musings of Me.

Transferring beads with spoon.

Button snake. I've seen this idea in a few different places, but I first saw it at Counting Coconuts.

Transferring pony beads with tongs.

Clipping clothespins around the edge of a ramekin.

A Valentine's coloring craft I picked up at Michael's.

Lacing beads onto the matching pipe cleaner. This idea comes from Counting Coconuts too!

Sorting beads.

Our sensory tub is also getting a lot use!

And we have a book basket filled with Valentine's Day books:

The Story of Valentine's Day by Nancy J. Skarmeas

The Valentine Bears by Eve Bunting

If You'll Be My Valentine by Cynthia Rylant

Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink by Diane deGroat

I Lost My Kisses by Trudie Trewin

Love, Splat by Rob Scotton

Valentine Mice! by Bethany Roberts

Amelia Bedelia's First Valentine by Herman Parish

I linked this to Preschool Corner



Valentine's Sensory Tub

My kiddos are loving this month's sensory tub!

Great northern beans

Small pail (Target)

Glittery foam hearts (Dollar Tree)

Erasers (Dollar Tree)

Heart bracelets (Target)

Spiky balls (Wal-Mart)

Heart gems (Michael's)

Heart boxes (Michael's)

Duckies (Michael's)

Boo has played with this pretty much non-stop since I brought it out. She especially loves filling the little boxes and giving them as "presents" to everyone.

Buzz likes using tongs to transfer things into the pail.

New Year's Eve

I heard about a fun activity to do as a family over on the FIAR message board: New Year's Eve Bags. We decided to give it a try! Basically it's a way to count down to midnight (although my kids didn't stay up that late, we celebrated a pretend midnight around 7:30).

I used one paper lunch bag for each hour that we counted down (we started at 2:00) and attached a paper clock face telling which hour to open each bag. On the back of each bag I attached a rhyme that gave a clue to the activity we would be doing that hour.

So the kids would look at each bag to find the one that said the correct hour, read the clue and try to guess what the activity would be. Inside the bag was something we would be using for the activity. I borrowed some of the rhymes from the lovely FIAR ladies, tweaked to fit my needs, and made some up myself. And, yes, they are corny but that's ok :)

2:00 Shuffle the cards and deal them out. Game time is what this hour's about!
In the bag: Uno (a new game for them)
Activity: Play card games

3:00 2011 is almost here. Time to reflect and think back on the year
In the bag: 2010 questionnaire
Activity: Answer questions such as favorite memory of the year and what you are most thankful for this year. We sealed these in an envelope to be opened next New Year's Eve.

4:00 Bowling, golf, sword fighting too! Grab a controller, you know what to do!
In the bag: Wii controller
Activity: Play Wii

5:00 Crust and sauce, add some cheese. Let's make a dinner that's sure to please. While we're at it, it wouldn't hurt to mix up something for dessert
In the bag: Can of tomato paste (to make sauce) and bottle of hot fudge.

Activity: Make homemade mini pizzas and blondies for dessert

6:00 Has this been fun? Has this been groovy? Let's change into jammies and watch a movie!
In the bag: DVD
Activity: Watch The Tale of Despereaux and enjoy blondie sundaes

Final Bag (when the movie was over) It's almost midnight, almost a new year! Let's make some noise! Let's shout and cheer!
In the bag: Noise makers
Activity: Count down to "midnight", blow noise makers and throw balloons in the air while shouting "Happy New Year"!

We had a lot of fun and we might have to make this a New Year's Eve tradition!

Halloween

We had A LOT of Halloween this year. I know some people don't celebrate Halloween, but we see no problem with dressing up (though we don't allow any scary or gross costumes, and no witches, ghosts, vampires, etc.) and enjoying some candy.

First Ruben's work hosted a Halloween party. Buzz and Boo always look forward to going and playing all the games and getting their faces painted. Ruben also took Buzz and Boo to a party at Buzz's karate studio.

The night before Halloween we went to an open house hosted by a good friend (with LOTS of great food) and then headed around the corner for the Halloween parade. The kids had a blast watching the parade and of course collecting all of the candy that was given out.

The following night was trick-or-treating with friends. Buzz was Batman, Boo was a karate girl (she wore a different costume for each event), and Bean was a kitten.