Just Add Stickers

Welcome to my annual advent calendar post! Advent calendars and fairy gardens are probably my two favorite things to post about. Even though my kids like the store bought ones now and I don't make them like I used to I still love our family tradition of opening the advent calendar doors all together after supper.  This year Little Miss chose a Barbie advent calendar. The fun thing about this calendar is that the first day you open a Barbie doll and an accessory. Every day you open a new accessory. Little Man chose a Star Wars Lego calendar, again he is on a mission to collect as many Star Wars figures as possible.  This year I get my very own advent calendar. My mom bought it for me for my birthday and I can't wait to open it,  it's been staring at me for a month. This one is a 12 day advent calendar but I decided that I would just open it every second day to make it last 24 days.  I also filled my reusable advent calendar houses w...

Canadian Thanksgiving was in October but I thought that I would share this Bingo activity for our American friends. I'm always tempted to celebrate Thanksgiving a second time once November comes around, because honestly who couldn't use more time to be Thankful (or more turkey and pie!)  I bought these Bingo cards from Hobby Lobby back on Labour Day. I modified them a little to be relevant to Canadian Thanksgiving, changing Christmas decorations to Halloween decorations and the reference to the parade but other than that all the rest of the clues were relevant. I bought these mostly to give the kids an activity to do but i was happy when everyone got involved. Instead of sitting down and playing a regular Bingo game (which you can do with this pack of cards.) I gave everyone a card and made it more like a scavenger hunt, anytime you see or hear something on the card you can cross it off  of your card. To make it interesting I put together a jar of mini ...

I love this time of year and, the possibilities for DIYS are endless between the costumes and decorations. There are so many fun things to make this time of year.  I especially love when my kids ask me to make their costumes. The other day I asked Little Man if he remembered the year I dressed him up like a lion. He said no, the only costumes that stood out to him were the ones I made for him, or bought ones that I enhanced to make the character that he wanted. This year Little Man wanted to be cousin It from the Adam's Family, to match his friends costumes.  Little Miss wanted to be Gabby from Gabby's Dollhouse, specifically the Halloween Gabby, dressed in a rainbow dress complete with cat tail.  Little Man's costume was fun to make. My initial idea was to use a grass hula skirt but I couldn't find a grass one, I found lots of plastic ones in green, blue and pink but no brown or grass ones. Pivoting slightly, we wandered the isles of the Dollar ...

Beware of the Zombie Gnome! This is the newest addition to our Haunted Fairy Garden. This gnome was in a paint your own garden gnome set that Little Man painted years ago.  The paint was wearing off so we decided to give him a new (after) life, and paint him as a zombie gnome. I love how weathered and beaten up he looks. I also gave my  welcome to our gnome  sign a spooky upgrade by painting the flip side to day 'beware of gnome.' Our Haunted Fairy Garden grows spookier every year. This year in addition to the zombie gnome and sign, I also repainted my fairy as a ghost fairy and we added a haunted tree house.  Happy Halloween!

A friend gave me these cute Mason  jar ornaments and little wood shapes one year for my birthday. They reminded me of catching bugs on a summer day. I decided to used them to make this counting activity that I played with Little Miss. I made this a few years ago before she started kindergarten. Back then we used this activity to practice counting but we've used it again recently to practice addition. This is another activity that is easy to throw into your bag and pull out at a restaurant or coffee shop.  What you need: ● Mason Jar shapes ● Small wood shapes, I had flowers, butterflies and birds ●Paint pens or markers ●Drawstring bag  What to do:  There are two sides to this activity.  Activity 1: Read the number written above the shape, pick out that many shapes from the bag.  How to make it: Write a number then trace the outline of one of the shapes beneath it.  Activity 2: Choose a Mason jar ornament then pick out the same number of shapes as traced...

This color association game is an activity that I made for Little Miss when she was a toddler, I recently came accross these pictures and thought that I would share this activity. This felt activity has an envelope on the back to keep all the peices together which makes it perfect to bring along to keep little ones occupied at a coffee shop or restaurant.  What you need: ● Felt 4 colours, 2 peices of each ● Peice of cardboard  ● Envelope  ● Glue gun and white glue  What to do: 1. Cut the felt into 4 equal squares 2. Cut the cardboard to the size of all four felt squares placed in a larger square. 3.Glue the felt onto the cardboard to make the game board.  4. Cut shapes out of the other peices of felt. I cut out hearts, triangles, circles and squares. Using white glue, glue the envelope to the cardboard side of the game board.  To use: Have the kids match the shapes with their colours on the gameboard or match the shapes together. Store the shapes in the env...

Fall! It's here, it's finally here! Cooler weather, comfy sweaters and pumpkin and apple everything.  I have been waiting for this all month. When the kids go back to school it always feels like a reset for me, almost like a new year, I start a new calendar and we get ourselves back on a schedule. This year I have some great Blog Posts planned. In September I have two learning activities for toddlers. I came across the pictures when I was going through my computer. I found some activities I made when Little Miss was younger that I never shared. I thought that this would be a good time to share them, I always liked having a little pre-school schedule for the kids when they were younger and these are the types of activities I would prepare for them. For October I am going to share some pictures of our Spooky Fairy Garden. We add new things to it every year and I am looking forward to making our fairy garden spooky again this year. I hope you all enjoy the spooky season! Happy Cra...