water tracing

This is an activity stolen from first grade but one M likes a lot. We use our easel quite a bit and one side of it is a chalkboard.  I write letters on the chalkboard side and M traces/erases them with a foam paintbrush dipped in water.  M is pretty good at attempting a few tracings then he ends up washing the board but it's a fun activity for him with pretty simple set-up/clean-up if you have a chalkboard. 

easter art

I am very behind on this blog and I know there were some things I missed over the past few months.  Truth is, I'm happy to get this post up before Easter is actually over.  M and I have done a few little projects to get in the Easter spirit, which seemed to be a little overshadowed getting ready for G's baptism.

I love this bunny project because M loved it so much.  Of everything we've ever done, he was so proud of this bunny and asked me to take his picture with it when we were done.  The bunny head is a paper plate, covered in cotton balls.  M loved it because he spread the glue and stuck the cotton on with no help.  The ears are footprints and his bow tie is handprints.  Ideally we would have used googly eyes but drawn on did the trick this year -

Our second bunny is made out of a baby food jar, which we currently have a surplus of (any good baby food jar craft ideas?).  M filled it with cotton and we hot glued on some ears made of felt and pipe cleaners.  M has perched this guy up on our entertainment center so he can watch him.  

All M needs now are some colored eggs and he'll be ready for the real bunny...

butterfly baptism

We recently celebrated G's baptism and had a get together for family and friends after the mass.  Party planning is one of my guilty pleasures and Pinterest has only added to that.  I am aware that I am one of those mothers who is made fun of in e-cards.  I love a party theme.

G's baptism party had a butterfly theme.  When M was baptized the favor was a footprint ornament that everyone loved.  I was tempted to recreate it but wanted to do something different.  G's favor was a bookmark that featured a butterfly made of her thumbprints and an Irish blessing.  Like most 5 month olds, G is not a fan of recreating prints x30 so we made one good butterfly, scanned it, and printed out the bookmarks.  Much easier on everyone...

I had an idea of getting a little tree and hanging the bookmarks on it for people to take.  The tree we ended up with was adorable but was too small to fit them all so we hung some and the rest were in a basket next to it along with this thumbprint poem in a frame.

The boxes on the left were our favors for the under 5 crowd.  Clearance boxes from Target decorated by M with butterfly stickers.  We also added some butterflies to the tree.  

We used G's tutu photo for table numbers and found the perfect little tree card holders at Michael's to hold them.