Felt Food Week 2

This week's felt food creations:

4 Popsicles
4 Tea Bags
5 Chocolate Chip Cookies: made so Izzie can count the chips. I had wanted to make ten, but my "chips" were too large.

The basket is getting full...

Here is a look back:
Felt Food Week 0
Felt Food Week 1

I Spy Board

Izzie really likes playing I Spy. I made this very simple I Spy Board out of a cereal box, pictures from magazines, and a few stickers and buttons.

I've seen several different "I Spy" games and curious to know if any are worth buying. I would love to know if you have one and your thoughts...thanks!

I Heart Faces: Beach

This week's theme is "beach"...perfect, since we just got back from the beach!

Izzie running on the beach, while the breeze blows her wet hair in her face.

If you want to take a short vacation, dive into I Heart Faces to see more beach pictures!

Crayon Roll-Up

Another project completed...

I've seen these cute crayon roll-ups on several blogs and etsy stores, so I decided to make one too! Very easy for the beginner sewer like myself. I found a very easy to follow tutorial here.
However, I did not do the stitch detail on the crayon pouches like it suggested. I simply did straight stitches from bottom of the purple fabric to top of the purple fabric.

I Spy Quilt

I just completed my first project, I Spy Quilt, on my long list of things that I want to make. I am quiet satisfied with the way it turned out, especially since it's my first completed project using the sewing machine. I got my inspiration from here.

Front of quilt: The squares aren't perfectly lined up and the binding corners were a little tricky.

Back of quilt: I Spy a purple ball...

Felt Food Week 1

Awhile back, I decided to try to make some felt food for Izzie. She has had so much fun playing with the eggs, so I've decided to try to fill a basket of felt food before her birthday.

Week 0: 2 eggs and 1 strawberry


Week 1: 2 pancakes, 3 slices of bacon, spaghetti noddles with sauce and meatballs, 3 pieces of lettuce, 1 tomato

Birthday Gift Suggestions

Izzie is turning 3 years old in 6 weeks, so the birthday party planning has begun! I'm trying to make Izzie's birthday wish list for grandparents and would love to know what your little ones enjoy playing with the best. Please leave some suggestions, thanks!

I love hosting theme parties...

Her first birthday party was a Princess Party (of course!).


Izzie's second birthday was a Puppy theme...

She's really into Diego, so this year we're planning a Jungle Safari party. Any suggestions for a cake would also be appreciated! Thanks!

Slippery Fish Felt Board

I found this cute "Slippery Fish" felt board activity (templates and words) here.

The Slippery Fish, the Slippery Fish,
Was swimming through the water.
The Slippery Fish, the Slippery Fish,
Was swimming through the water.
Oh no…(put your hands to your mouth)
He was eaten by….

Change underlined words to
Octopus
Tuna Fish
Great Big Shark
Big Fat Whale

Last line…
Oh no….I have a terrible tummy ache. (BURP) Ooops, Excuse Me!

In addition, I found an amazing website, Songs for Teaching, which has the song, "Slippery Fish", to sing along too! I highly recommend EVERYONE to check out "Songs for Teaching", it's a wonderful resource website!!

I Heart Faces: Feet

This week's theme over at I Heart Faces is feet!

Kid Entry: Izzie at 4 months old.

Adult Entry: Enjoying a morning at the beach.

Check out more feet at I Heart Faces!

Secret Seahorse Memory Game

Secret Seahorse was Izzie's favorite beach book. She loves the I Spy concept and in this book, on every page, the seahorse is hiding. She had so much fun finding the seahorse and enjoyed finding him over and over...all week!

We found some shells that sorta looked similar...

And made a memory game for Izzie.

Rainbow Fish ABC and 123 Activities

Izzie is obsessed with identifying letters and counting to ten. As many of you know, Izzie has a speech disorder, Apraxia, so hearing her say the alphabet and counting to ten is music to my ears! She really enjoyed the Rainbow fish books...very simple, but great graphics.

Izzie can identify all her letters and pronoucing most by name and a few by sound, such as "S" is "sss" and "M" is "mmm".

I've seen a version of this activity on several different blogs. Unfortunately, I don't remember where I found the fish template. I printed off 26 fish, outlined each with marker, and wrote a letter on each, then attached a paper clip. For the fishing pole: wooden spoon, yarn, and a magnet.

When Izzie caught a fish, she had to identify the letter before she could keep the fish. If she didn't identify the letter correctly, she had to throw the fish back into the ocean. She thought this was great fun; therefore, began purposely misidentifying letters.

Now that Izzie can count to ten, she counts everything! She really enjoyed counting and identifying the colors in this book.

I found the templates here for this activity. I had the numbers in a small bag and the fish on the outside of the fish bowl. Izzie randomly drew a number from the bag, then counted the correct number of fish to put into the fish bowl.

Beach Patterns and What's Different?

More beach activities...

Izzie really enjoys watching the short shows in between the cartoons on Noggin. Her favorites are the ones where she has to complete the pattern and the ones where she can pick out which object is different from the rest. Going off these concepts, I created the following using Word's clipart.

Izzie had a difficult time completing these patterns. I think next time I will have the pattern repeat twice, then have her only fill in the last blank, instead of three.

Izzie was able to complete the What's Different cards without any hesitiation. I even tried making the black and white ones more difficult. Any suggestions on how to make this game more challenging?

Beach Theme Activities

We're back from vacation! We had a great time at the beach. I decided to take Izzie a few beach theme activities to keep her occupied during the 7 hour trip and for the down time at the beach house. I'll be posting the activities over the next several days.

The first was a color matching activity. I found the cards here and made the color clothespins by gluing paint samples on each. Izzie is a master at matching colors, but she still has trouble manipulating the clothespins, so this activity is great to practice her fine motor skills.