Arts & Crafts Fun

I have a huge craft shelf with tons and tons of craft materials that never get used anymore. (Anyone else like me and used to scrapbook years ago, and now we just say we're going to scrapbook that later?) Most of my craft supplies are from my scrapbooking days, but there are also random things that have been mixed in over the years.  I decided to go through all of this and make a craft box for Marshall, with lots of things that he can use to do whatever he wants with. I had to pick up a few things like glue, more pompom balls and googly eyes, etc., but 95% of these materials were things I already had.  It's all in a box that he can easily go through himself now, and I love hearing him tell me daily that he wants to do crafts 😊

His favorite thing to do is simply glue things on a piece of scrapbook paper. Anything from those googly eyes and pompoms to other pieces of paper.  Because I said it so many times to him when we first started, he always says "tiny dots" every time he uses the glue 😂 

Here are some of his creations:

 

Yesterday, we started adding googly eyes and glitter to rocks, as well.

Another fun activity he enjoyed was Ice Painting. This was super simple to put together and actually lots of fun!

You mix 1 tsp of paint with 1 tsp of water and put a popsicle stick in it to create a handle.

Freeze for a couple hours and they pop out very easily.

Marshall painting "Mr. Sun" and the Christmas tree he asked me to paint.

He is definitely my child. 🎄 

Books + Snacks

We took a break from our books + coordinating crafts and switched to books + coordinating SNACKS! 

Last week, we read If You Give a Moose a Muffin and I'm sure you know what we made. 😉  Marshall chose to make blueberry muffins, and seeing as they are one of his favorite foods, he loved this! He did such a good job helping mix up the batter and then anxiously waited while they baked.

Today, we read The Cat in the Hat, and I found this super cute snack idea on Pinterest.  I think it came together well, but it is definitely harder to draw a cat face on a marshmallow than it looks. 😂

Fun at the Library

Marshall and I (Mace, too 😊) have become regulars at the library this summer. He has always loved books and reading, and now he loves going to pick out his own new books to read.  Last week, we got him a library card and I showed him how to check books out.  This week, I showed him how to return his books in the book return slot, and he helped me check books out again. He loves to help with anything, and these tasks were no exception!

On Wednesday, we went to the Bobby Cadabra Magic Show at the Sandston Library to kick off Summer Reading. We have done so much already for Marshall's reading log, and he's really enjoying it!

Y'all, when he started this next trick, I was preparing to be embarrassed. haha. 

For those that don't know, Marshall could live off of PBJ sandwiches and waffles if we let him. It's his favorite thing. Well, Bobby Cadabra said he was going to make a PBJ sandwich for lunch, and I'm sitting in the back thinking, "oh my gosh, Marshall is going to ask for a sandwich for himself." 😂 Thankfully, he didn't, but then, they played the song, "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" and I just KNEW Marshall would get up and dance. (We have dance parties to this song at home, haha). Again, thankfully, he didn't get up, but even if he had, it would've made for a good story!

Last night, we went to see Zeke the dog at the Varina library! We heard about him from mom (she works in an elementary school library).  Zeke visits libraries and hangs out listening to kids read to him.  Marshall didn't read to Zeke, but I watched from a distance as a couple kids did read to him.  The Varina library is still really new, and the entire building is beautifully designed, but the children's area is amazing! Marshall LOVED playing at this library, and didn't pick out as many books because he wanted to play with the groceries. 😂

 

This picture cracks me up!

Dad and Marshall were lining these monkeys up in the shape of a "C." Dad kept adding more to make it into a circle. Marshall looked at it and said, "Oh no! My C!" 😂

 

Checking out and heading home.

Book + Planting Seeds

While looking through Marshall's books last week, I found this book that we'd never even read before. As soon as I saw it, I remembered some flower seeds I've been meaning to plant, and I knew I had a pot ready to use! 🌻🌷🌼 Last Spring, Marshall enjoyed helping me plant flowers, so I knew this would be an activity he would love. Sure enough, he did 😊

Now's the real test: we wait to see if anything actually grows! If not, no big deal. I know he'd love to see the flowers grow, but I know he loved planting the seeds just as much 😀

Book + Butterfly Craft

Last week was Marshall's first week home for the summer, and we've already had so much fun! I'd already been brainstorming some activities for us to do, and the Type A in me has printed out calendars of June, July and August, and for each week day, I've written down what activity we'll do that day.

Our very first activity was a craft to go along with The Very Hungry Caterpillar.  When I went to find this book in his room, I found the second book as well, so we had two books for this activity 😊 After reading both books, we made a coffee filter butterfly 🦋

Supplies needed:

• 2 coffee filters
• markers
• pipe cleaner (not pictured below)
• tape
• cookie sheet
• water dropped/syringe (I used one from Marshall's medicine stash)

Flatten out the coffee filters, lay one of top of the other and tape down to the cookie sheet.

Color any kind of design (random scribbles and a yellow "circle" worked out just fine 😂).

Use the dropped/syringe to soak the coffee filters and allow the colors to bleed. You could probably just slowly pour water over it, but the syringe was easy enough for Marshall to help me with.

Once the coffee filters were completely wet, I put our cookie sheet on the back deck in the sun so it could dry quicker.

 

Once dry, fold each of the filters accordion style.  

I forgot to take a picture of this in between step.

Once you've folded both filters, place one on top of the other (one end of each "accordion" should be touching). I sure hope that makes sense, haha.

Bend the pipe cleaner in half, and twist it around the middle of your coffee filters. Shape the ends to make the butterfly's antenna.

  Finally, spread out the coffee filters to make the butterfly's wings! This took me a couple minutes and some adjusting the pipe cleaner to get a shape that actually looked like wings.

Voila!

 

Disney Day 2!

We headed to Epcot for our second day! First thing on the agenda: character breakfast with Farmer Mickey, Pluto, Chip & Dale.  The characters from our first character breakfast (see this post!) aren't regulars in the Nolte household, but we are very familiar with today's characters! Marshall was SO excited, and I think his excitement made all of us even more excited 😀

Mom, Dad and Farmer Mickey!

 

Marshall's favorite: Pluto!!

 

Chippy!

 

Dale loved Dad's shirt that said, "I'm just here to pay for everything."

He took Dad to two other tables, sat him down with those families, and pointed out Dad's shirt. 😂

Abby's shirt said, "I'm just here for the selfies," and Mickey made her take a selfie with him.

Another visit from Chippy!  He read Marshall's shirt, "I'm just here for the Mickey Waffles," and this is him saying, "me too!"

 

Walking around the world! 

Looking at the trains...

 

Since Marshall didn't have a meal plan (kids under 3 eat for free!), he enjoyed sharing snacks with everyone. I should've gone back for another slushie, since he enjoyed so much of mine! 😄

 

Coco was one of Marshall's favorite movies at the time we went, so he loved this Coco display.

 

Time for Turtle talk with Crush. 🐢

 

Checking out all the aquariums after the show.

 

Lots of Nemos!

 

Finding Nemo and Finding Dory were also two of Marshall's favorite movies while we went (so we have several Nemo-related fast passes), and it worked in my favor to get some pictures to display at his Nemo/Dory birthday party after we got back.

 

 

The next Disney post will be our day in Magic Kingdom!