Sorting game

This game has been years in the making.  Yes, years.  I've been saving caps here and there.  Caps from milk cartons, caps from those pouch baby foods and caps from apple cider.  I started when Katie was about 18 months.  So yes, about 2 years in the making...I should have a lot more collected, but I didn't want to have too much!  Anyway, I also saved a cylindrical container to keep all the caps.

Now that Katie won't try to eat the caps, I've actually busted out this "game".  The muffin tin is well, just the muffin tin we use to make our muffins, nothing special there!  I let Katie sort the caps however she wanted.  She first sorted by color. Then I made some suggestions, like to sort by size or shape.  Katie had so much fun and asked to play again the next day!

Here is my girl, so proud of her hard work.

Ok, so this wasn't really a game.  Katie even caught on to that pretty quickly.  I did end up turning this into a game.  Here's how.  I would place one cap in half of the spots and Katie had to find a match to put in the other side.  So, orange cap would get a matching orange cap.  See that lonely yellow cap in the photo above.  Katie was confused how to find a match for that.  I suggested she look at the shape, not just the color.  We talked about different ways to sort. Well needless to say, I felt like I had a good educational game moment and had to share it!

Have you had any of those moments recently? Had any in the past you want to share?  I'd love to hear it!

Valentine's Day

I'm not that crazy about this holiday, but with kids it is so much more fun. Katie has been counting down to Valentine's day since I decorated our mantle about two weeks ago. 

My next step was to decorate the kids' bedroom door.  After writing down different reasons I love my children on hearts (sorta look like conversation hearts, no?), I laminated them (thank you Danielle), then taped them up on the door.

Another fun thing we did in preparation for Valentine's Day were some fun crafts.  Thanks to Pinterest we had plenty of ideas!

Now the actual day had come.  Here is Katie's valentine. It was waiting for her on the kitchen table. She was so excited when she saw it. We had to immediately open the lip balm and then she had to trace the letters.

This was our valentine breakfast.  The heart shaped bacon I'd say was a Pinterest fail but still delicious!

Last thing, my little valentines

Snow experiment

Have you asked yourself this question: "What do I do with my kids while stuck inside with all that snow coming down around us?"

Here is one thing we've done.  A snow experiment.  Katie was so excited to be "playing" with the snow in the house.

I (mom) scooped up some snow from near our front door to fill a container. Once I came back in, Katie and I had the following conversation:

Mom: "What do you think is going to happen to the snow Katie?"
Katie: "Its going to melt."

Mom: What is it going to turn into when it melts?"

Katie: "A car."

Mom: "Ok.  Let's see what happens."

After a few hours we checked on the snow to see what was happening.

"It's shrinking!"

After nap time we checked the snow again.

"It turned into water mommy!"

Katie thought it was so neat that the snow turned into water.  She then asked, "Can I drink it mommy?"  Well, why not.

When asked what she thought of it, Katie said, "It's good, but it's COLD."

(yes, we stayed in PJs for the whole day)
What activities are you doing to keep the kiddos entertained during our multiple snow storms?