He's Got the Whole Wide World in His Hands

Since Earth Day was this past weekend, I wanted to find a fun project to do with the kids. As I searched some of my favorite blogs for ideas, I came across this "Stained Glass Earth" on www.icanteachmychild.com

that seemed pretty simple to make. She gives you step by step instructions on how to make it. I also liked the idea of explaining to the boys how God created the earth and everything in it. We sang the old bible song "He's Got the Whole Wide World in His Hands, He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" and the boys just loved it.

We hung it up in our window by the front door and the boys just love looking at it everyday. It's so cool when the light shines through and gives it that stained glass look. This is definitely one of their favorite projects so far!

Getting an Early Start for Valentine's Day

Can you guess what we are doing with all these crayon pieces?

The kids and I are making heart shaped crayons.

The boys loved how the crayons turned out being multicolored. It's neat to see how different each one turns out.

We were getting a head start on making gifts for Valentine's Day. Jeremiah is excited to take these for all his Puggles friends at church.

We made soap dispensers last year for Valentine's Day and this was one of my kids favorite projects. I had my daycare kids make them this week so they can enjoy using it before Valentine's Day. The girls had so much fun and they loved it! We have some friends coming at the end of this week to make more soap dispensers and my boys will decorate one for their Nana & Great Grandma too. These make the perfect gifts for family! :-)'

Footprint Ghost

Here are the art projects the kids made today. They are ghost's made out of their footprints sprinkled with cinnamon for a delightful smelling aroma. Not only are these super simple, but the kids had alot of fun making them.

Wordless Wednesday

Best little buddies sharing the love! :)

Finger Puppets & Felt Stories

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a workshop held by an inspirational teacher named Nora Sanchez. She is dedicated to educating & teaching not only just children, but daycare providers as well and showing us the passion we should have towards teaching our children. She has such a LOVE for children and it totally shines through her personality. Through all of this, she has created her own felt stories & finger puppets that she sells and I ended up buying some. Here is a couple I wanted to share:






Birds (Here is the song you sing with this felt story)

There was one little bird in one little tree, He was so all alone, and he didn't want to be. So he flew far away, over the sea, and brought back a friend to live in the tree.

(Substitute two, three and four for one as you finish the verse, adding one more bird each time to the tree)

Now there are five little birds in one little tree, they are not alone they made a family. They don't fly far away, over the sea, and live very happily in the tree.



The Itsy Bitsy Spider (This is one of my kids favorites)

The itsy, bitsy spider went up the water spout.
Down came the rain and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain.
And the itsy, bitsy spider went up the spout again.

(You can repeat this again with the mama spider and say it in a different voice to make it fun for the kids)

Happy 1st Birthday Spencer!

Today is Spencer's 1st Birthday! Spencer is one of my daycare kids that I have been taking care of since he was 2 months old. He is a part of our family and my boys think of him as being another brother. It's so cute to see that bond my kids have with him. He is Jeremiah's best little buddy and I can't wait to see them grow-up together. It's almost like having twins since they are so close in age (only 4 weeks apart from each other). Boys are so much fun! :)

The boys! Noah, Preston, Spencer & Jeremiah. Preston & Noah were having fun singing "Happy Birthday" to Spencer.

Preston, Spencer & Jeremiah. Look at those cute smiles!

Here are the cupcakes I made today. I didn't have time to go to the store, so I used what I had on hand. The babies had the cupcakes with sprinkles & the older boys got the ones with shark gummies & mini m&m's.

Preston was so excited to get his cupcake. He was looking forward to them all day!

Noah making a silly face as usual. He is my little character!

They were just starting to dig into their cupcake. Jeremiah got excited when he took his first bite. This was the first time Jeremiah has ever had a cupcake.

Spencer enjoyed his cupcake.

Jeremiah just loved his cupcake. He was smiling so much, it was absolutely adorable!

Look at those cute little guys. ADORABLE!!!

Mmmmmm.........good!

This was Spencer saying "he wanted some more"!

What a Happy Birthday Boy..........Happy Birthday Spencer!

We Love You! :)

(Note: I was given permission by Spencer's mom to post pictures on my blog)

Mini Valentine's Day Photo Albums & Cookie Jars

These are the mini heart photo albums my kids made and my daycare parents got to take home as a special keepsake (I'm missing one, the parent got it before we took pictures). The kids always love seeing their pictures with all the different craft projects we do here at my house. They had so much fun making these!

Here is a look at a few pictures on the inside. Nothing fancy, I just cut the pictures with a decorative scissor. This was when the kids got to practice writing with chocolate pudding. They enjoyed it, but it sure was messy with my littlest one!



I also made these really cute Chocolate Chip Cookie jars for the parents for a little "love gift"! :) I think they turned out adorable with the heart cookie cutters attached.

A close-up pic. I punched the whole on the wrong side of the card, but oh well, it doesn't look too bad. :)

Look how cute they all look once they were all finished. The kids did a great job on their photo albums!

Dough Handprint Ornaments

The kids and I had fun making Salt Dough Hand print Ornaments for Christmas as a special keepsake for their parents. We started them on Tuesday and I finished painting them on Wednesday. I was happy the way they turned out.......very cute!




Close up picture........look how tiny his hands are! :)

All of them are completed and painted. I can't wait to hang my boys hand prints on our Christmas tree now.

Salt Dough Hand print Ornaments:

4 cups flour

1 cup salt

1 1/2 cups warm water

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

Directions: Combine flour and salt in a bowl. Add warm water until the dough becomes elastic-y and will get to be formed into smaller balls. Then add oil. Add a little more flour or water as needed to make the dough easy to handle.

Form into balls so that when rolled out, they are large enough for your child's hand print. Roll dough about 1/8"-1/4" thick. Have your child make their hand print in the dough. Press the ends of each finger to be sure the print is impressed well into the dough. Use a drinking straw to make a small hole in the dough so that it can be used as an ornament.

Bake at 200 degrees for at least 30 minutes, until dough becomes hard. Remove from oven and cool on a cooling rack.

Once cooked, the ornament can be painted with acrylic paints, written on with a marker or covered with glitter glue. The possibilities are endless!

Note: I made my ornaments a little too thick, so I cooked them longer and the backs are still not hard enough. I know they will eventually dry out, but make sure you don't make them any thicker than noted! :)

Christmas Crafts

The kids have been so excited with Christmas being around the corner, so I thought it would be fun to do some Christmas decorating. The boys had a blast creating their very own stockings and soap dispensers yesterday. My little daycare boy was very excited to get to take his soap dispenser home. He always enjoys using the boys when he is at our house!


My sweet little Noah was being such a character with all his silly faces he was making. He keeps us entertained..........he's our little comedian! :)


Preston wanted to take a picture with his soap dispenser when he was finished. I took the picture in between him smiling so this picture turned out funny!


Here's the boys cute stockings they made all on their own. They wanted to decorate every inch of open space on the stocking. Too cute!

This is a close up picture of Preston's soap dispenser he made. They put clear snowflakes & shiny red beads inside. They used Christmas foam stickers to stick on the outside along with a cute snowman bow. He now has it sitting on his bathroom counter to use everyday.

Fun Thanksgiving Crafts

The kids and I had fun making Thanksgiving day crafts today. We made turkey's made out of their hands & feet and we also made a Thanksgiving Tree painted with their hands and forearms. I posted pictures below for you to see. :)

After painting the tree with their hands & forearms, I had them tear small pieces of construction paper and glue them on as part of the tree. The kids had fun ripping the paper and giggling. I then asked the kids what they are Thankful for and this is what they came up with!

Preston with his finished Turkey.

My little Noah excited he got to finally finish his Turkey. He was the last one!

Festivity Fun: Day 3

Today, we finished our projects that the kids started on Tuesday. They turned out so cute! I think the parents are going to love them. The kids had fun making their own delicious treat to take home and enjoy. You will have to wait to find out what that might be?!?! :)

Here is a picture of their finished treat bags they decorated. (I'm not sure why this picture is sideways). The photo books fit perfectly inside!

These photo books turned out adorable. The kids had fun picking out all their own decorations and stickers to make them. Inside this photo book, are many pictures I have taken during daycare hours of all the crafts and fun we have had throughout the year with each individual kid.

Noah helped decorate the photo book for baby Spencer, since he is too young to do it himself. He was proud of helping out.

Preston made this photo book especially for his Nana to surprise her! She will be so excited when she opens it up and See's all the photos of her grand kids. She has been asking me for pictures of the kids for a long time, so she can start scrapbooking.

Can you guess what we will be making?!?!

That's right! Caramel Apples. Tis the season for sugar overload and yummy treats.

Preston had fun decorating his own Caramel Apple with M&M's. He just couldn't wait to take a bite out of it. :)

The kids decorated theirs with M&M's and we left the other 2 plain. Since they are so big, Preston & Noah are sharing one and the other is going home with my daycare kid. The two plain ones are for my Mom and I. My hubby isn't a fan of Caramel Apples, so I thought Nana would be happy to get one. She loves these!

This is Jeremiah's best little buddy Spencer. They looked so cute in their costumes together, but unfortunately, Spencer wasn't liking his costume. He was happy to get out of it!