It's better than a real hammer and nails...

Such an awesome post title, don't ya think?

But seriously, golf tees, foam, and a toy hammer are wayyyyy better than a real hammer and nails. At least when it comes to my little guy...and this is coming from the person who lets her child play with just about anything in the house (with supervision of course). 

And it is at the very least 45 minutes of fun, with only 2 simple steps:

(1) Poke the golf tees in the foam

(2) Hammer them in 

Another plus...you don't have to worry about your little one whacking a finger with the hammer because the tee will stand up on it's own thanks to the foam. 

I helped Bubba make this (what is supposed to be a) fish design. We were doing activities related to fish/sea animals that week, so it seemed fitting. 

(Check out Rainbow Fish CD Suncatcher and Ocean in a bag for more fishy fun.) 

Then he just did his own thing, and proceeded to cover the entire piece of foam in golf tees. 

Whatever floats your boat, dude.

-Karla

Dot Sticker Art

We watched 101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure recently. And by recently, I mean, when we did this project we had just watched it for the 4th time, and since I've been a slacker with posting, we have since watched it, 10 more times. 

I don't know if you can tell by that picture, but a lot of the movie revolves around this artist painting black dots {which reminds Cruella de Ville of the puppies, of course}.

Since we were working on the letter D, and I had found these black dot stickers at a yard sale, we naturally decided to make some dot art inspired by the dalmatians. 

He actually, surprisingly, really enjoyed doing this project. And it was simple, and mess free, so a BIG plus in my book {not that I don't enjoy getting messy with the little guy}. 

I intended on having him just use the black dots, and really after he had finished putting on the ones above, he was kind of done. 

I thought it looked kind of dull with just the black ones, so I left all of the stickers out during the day, and he would come back to every so often and add more stickers. 

This is what we ended up with......two days later. 

Small Objects A-Z

I hope ya'll have had a great week! With Bubba slowly giving up his afternoon nap (grrrrr), I have been falling behind in writing. Plus I have been so exhausted lately, that when he does nap, I am laying down with him. It's just been one of those weeks.....

Since naps are coming to an end, I've tried to find things to entertain this little guy. I did a busy bag swap with a friend...but those activities don't seem to hold his attention for very long. 

So I put together a bag of small trinkets. 

Most of the items I found around the house, and I tried to find something to represent each letter of the alphabet. Why we have "junk" like this hanging around the house? I do not know; but it has certainly come in handy. 

Some letters have multiple objects, and I'm still trying to find things for O, Q, U, and V {but I can just add those later}.

He absolutely loves his bag of trinkets. I love that he will play with the things for hours...WITHOUT ME. 

When I am playing with him, I'll ask him to find me things that are all the same color. Or start with a certain letter, which is still a bit advanced for him, but he does surprisingly well for the most part.

It's fun to see how he plays with everything. 

He made a little sensory box with water beads, a few of the sea creatures, and a pirate {of course}. 

 He walked into my room the other day with the wand and tiara saying, "I'm a princess." 

Whoopsies....we've been watching too much Cinderella; and maybe I shouldn't have included those objects. 

He also tried to fly like a bird and flapped the feathers around like they were his wings. It was pretty hilarious...I wish I had video of it. 

The Case of the Muddy Footprints

Bubba picked out a mini magnifying glass while at Lakeshore Learning, and was quite obsessed with it for a solid week. We also, coincidentally, had randomly picked out Berenstein Bears and the Missing Dinosaur Bone book, the day before. So naturally he wanted to be a detective too. 

{Side-note: I sometimes randomly pick up books while at the library. It's hard to take time to look for a book, when this little guy is running in all directions. He hasn't mastered library behavior yet; at least he has the quite voice down though.}

While he was sleeping, I mixed up some mud, and made footprints on a couple extra-large sheets of construction paper. 

I used a couple different shoes, some dinosaurs, and a baby doll. I even threw on my own footprint. 


{Warning, this is mud, so it will, of course, get messy. Do this outside if you are that concerned. I conveniently did this project the night before kitchen cleaning day, so I knew my floors would get cleaned the next day, and I was not worried about the mess.} 

The next morning, Bubba woke up with his magnifying glass ready in hand - that's right, he slept with it. 

He studied the prints for a minute, then matched the items with  their print.

Then he got to make muddy footprints of his very own. 

Shaving Cream Fun

We've been experimenting with different uses for shaving cream lately.

Shaving Cream Snow Art

Mix shaving cream with white glue.

Super fun! 

He started out with a paint brush, and ended up just using his hands and getting it all over the paper and his body.

I love the way it dries! The picture doesn't even do it justice. It dries puffy...Bubba loved touching it after the "snow" dried.

Shaving Cream Paint

Okay, so this seemed like a brilliant idea, until it stained the shower tile grout and caused Bubba to have a reaction {from the food coloring; we follow the Feingold program, and silly me forgot that he can't use products which will be absorbed through the skin that contain artificial coloring}.

But he sure did have a blast painting in the tub, and for the most part is washed away clean. I'm still working on a solution for the dyed grout though - I'm not to fond of red and blue spots in the guest shower.

*Update: While I try not to use a lot of chemicals to clean, I ended up using 409 and a toothbrush to scrub the grout clean, and all of the color came off!

Shaving Cream and {Packing} Peanuts

I saw this idea on Earth's Kids, and thought Bubba would really enjoy it.

We set up bowls filled with different combinations of materials {like the directions suggest}.

- Shaving cream/peanuts/cold water
- Shaving cream/peanuts/warm water
- Shaving cream/peanuts
- Shaving cream/water
- Peanuts/water

By that face, you would think that he loved this activity.

Alas, the enthusiasm was short lived. 

For a kid who normally doesn't mind getting his hands dirty, he sure did not like the way the shaving cream, peanuts, and water mixed together felt on his hands. 

You can find more shaving cream fun activities at ABC Home Preschool.

Toddler Tuesday

This is totally late due to our crazy valentine's celebrating today. We left the house at 9:15 AM and didn't return until almost 5 PM - just in time for dinner, bath and bed time. Needless to say, I didn't get a whole lot done at home. 

But here it is...a sampling of the fun things Bubba gets into each week, here at Country Farm Place.

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This guy is going to be a future baby wearer {he calls his elephant his baby}.

Bubba's new favorite activity is printing pictures on the little photo printer {thanks Mimi - I bet you didn't even know we still had this}.

I made Bubs his own personal magazine. Now, he doesn't have to destroy mine while he's "reading."

Having fun with water beads. 

{Side-note: I have found another good use for my old year books}

And, of course, the requisite self-portrait.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Toddler Tuesday

We started doing Valentine's crafts this weekend.

 I cut out hearts from cardboard, and Bubba painted them.

Over at The Imagination Tree, they wrapped the hearts with yarn and made a mobile. I offered the yarn to Bubba, but he wanted nothing to do with it. 


He nicely told me, "No, Mommy do it."

The baking sensory box is still all over the kitchen. This either means (A) I'm really lazy, or (B) Bubba really likes cooking.

I hate to admit it, but it's probably more (A) than (B).

Bubba watched his first Disney movie the other day .... Cinderella {on VHS}. Yes. You read that correctly. VHS. We like to keep it old school here on Country Farm Place.

Then he tried to watch his Signing Time DVD. That didn't work out too well.

Never leave a 2 year old alone with stickers. This is what happens.

Finally, this week's self portrait ....

"What up, homie."