Fish Food

You might say that we've been playing with our food around here, and it sure makes life more fun :)
Here is what we call "Fish Food." The little ice fish are made with the ice tray from IKEA
We make them with various kinds/colors of juice so that our fish come out looking like different species.  Orange juice works well for gold fish.
{Little Project Tip:} When you are serving these it's best to put the fish in RIGHT before you serve them.  The juice melts faster than regular water ice cubes.  It also helps the fish last longer if your beverage is already quite cold.  

Also, If you make juice fish ice you may want to serve them in juice, otherwise if you add them to just water it tastes like really watered down juice with the fish ice in it :)

Since we are not allowed to have pets where we live, this will have to do!  Enjoy This Little Project!

Lunch Puzzles

Get ready for a Yummy Little Project that is sooo easy and fun!  We call these Lunch Puzzles.  You can vary the difficulty level for older and younger kids to make lunch time even more fun!

I have been blessed to have easy eaters at my house (knock on wood) so I never wanted to ruin that by using the cut outs you can buy that remove the crust...because what if they decided they didn't want to eat the crust anymore after that?  

To make Lunch Puzzles all you need is a sandwich (or toast) and a cookie cutter of your choice.  Just cut through the sandwich with your cookie cutter and mix up the pieces to see if your child can put it together. For more puzzle fun, you can do cut outs of fruit too!

 

To play the Lunch Puzzle Game: You mix up the pieces on the plate when you serve it and see who can put their lunch puzzle together the fastest. 

This Lunch Puzzle is on the EASY level. It is just the cut out and the side pieces (mix them up before serving.)

To make the Lunch Puzzle more challenging for older children: cut the side pieces into smaller pieces and/or cut the original cut-out into more pieces too.  If you have trouble getting your kids to sit and eat lunch, this should be a fun game to play.  Take it to the next level by having a contest for who can FINISH eating all of their lunch puzzle.  If you offer a small prize for winning the game it's not bribery, right? ;)

Enjoy This Yummy Little Project!

On Vacation...

We've been to 5 states in the past few days.  Oh what fun it is to travel when the kiddos sleep and aren't crying.  No computer means no blogging, but don't worry it doesn't mean no Little Projects.  Now we are at my sisters house on the east coast...so stay tuned for more fun Little Projects...and happy weekend to YOU!

Organizing: The Books

I've blogged before about how I love the library. We currently have 51 items checked out. We were there three times this past week. I love it. My kiddos love it. AND we have an awesome library. 

But...

That is a lot of stuff to keep track of. So I have established a new system. It works like this:
There are 2 Big baskets to hold the checked out items.

There are certain times when we get them out so that they don't get mixed in with home stuff.

We keep this library bag next to the baskets. {I LOVE these bags and they are so affordable!!!} 

When we are done with a library item it goes into the library bag and then it is ready to go the next time we go back. This way I don't have to try to remember to take a bag with us to carry checked-out items in.  I used to always forget!  Kay will run around the library if I let her down and trying to hold onto her with a pile of books in my arms was...impossible...but it's easy with my favorite bag!

We're loosing fewer things and returning more as soon as we are done with them. That is the kind of Little Project I should do more of around here ;)

Children's Book Week

You have every excuse to take time out and read to a child this week (FUN!) This week is Children's Book Week. In honor of that I will share one of our favorite books and some lesson ideas to go along with it to add to the Book Nook (you will find a link to our Book Nook on your left sidebar too).

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was one of our first "favorites" because Jay could read it by himself. It's a charming story with animals and colors. It also rhymes and is fun to read aloud because there is a rhythm to the words that is fun to say.

We have been having fun with some learning activities that go along with this book.  Reading together is fun and it leads to lots of other learning when you take it to the next level.

To see what I mean, check out these learning activities that coordinate with this book:

Heads and Tails (from this awesome blog)

Lacing Cards of animals

Shadow Matching Game

Play dough mats for an activity with animals and colors

Tracing activities for fine motor skills

Coloring pages with coordinating animals

Size Sequencing with Brown Bear

Have fun reading and learning with This Little Project. Check back for other fun book projects this week :)

Mother's Day Projects

If you are like me and haven't quite put the finishing touches on your Mother's Day projects, you may enjoy some inspiration. For our Grandma's I am sending some silhouettes of the kids. I was inspired by some sweet silhouettes I saw around the web. Search Silhouette Portriat on Etsy (photo above from Etsy link at left) and you will see what I mean. I'm totally inspired! 

I just took photos of the kids at profile, cut them out...and put them on black.  I am also doing some on fabric to put on a pillow. It's one way to do a long distance hug.  Happily, mine are almost done for our Grandmas because I want to make some of the kids for my house too :)

If that isn't your style, here are some more ideas:
Messages in a handmade box

There are some darling free printables for Mom: a card and bookmard as well as tags from Living Locurto.
Many Moms I know love chocolate, so this chocolate painting idea seems like a fun way to personalize the chocolate giving.
For the kids, this MACARONI PORTRAIT idea caught my attention.

This Photo Project from our archives would also be a nice personalized I love you.

Happy Mother's Day to all you FABULOUS MOMS! Thanks for stopping by :)