Friday Favorites

Happy Friday, friends!

I am so glad the weekend is finally here! There are so many good things in life right now, but this week has just been a series of unfortunate events.

My husband's brand new car was the victim of a hit and run. (Thank goodness for a vanishing deductible.) I rolled my ankle while coming down the steps and could barely walk for 2 days. Now it's just a dull ache. Our water heater is starting to go and it heats up the water to approximately 5000 degrees (or so). It feels about as lovely as it sounds. Grant is putting in long hours at the office due to an increased workload. I had a work issue today that left me in tears. And to top off the week, my parents had to put their dog down tonight. It was a dog they got when I was still living at home so now I'm just feeling sad and old and pathetic. Oh, and did I mention that I have 4 blog posts and 2 photoshoots due by Sunday night and 2 weeks to find a new SUV to lease? I really could use a vacation from everyday life right now!

I hate to complain. I really do. But sometimes I just need to vent! Now that I got it out of my system...

Here are the Friday Favorites that I'm loving this week!

{ONE}

Weekly visits with our horse!

The kids and I head to the stable every weekend for a visit with our horse. Notice I left out my husband? Grant and Cherokee have not been friends since Cherokee nearly bucked Grant off while he was riding! The kids, however, love him and I am so thankful that one of my four children is a natural on horseback!

On Friday, Lily told me she wanted a saddle and a helmet for her upcoming birthday and wants me to teach her how to ride the real way. I was unbelievably proud!

{TWO}

A new show addiction on Netflix!

Is anybody else watching Stranger Things? Grant convinced me to start watching it and we're hooked! We only have 2 more episodes left! #StreamTeam

{THREE}

Liam's new water table!

The kids use our water table almost every day all year round and after a decade of use, it was time to replace it. We bought Liam the Step 2 Cascading Cove Sand & Water Table as an early birthday present and he loves it!

{FOUR}

A gorgeous birthday gift for my husband!

Grant's birthday is on Sunday and he's going to absolutely love his gift. He has been jealous of my beautiful JORD watch since I got it, so he's going to be thrilled to have one of his own!

{FIVE}

Summer days spent with my four sweet kids!

Summer is my favorite time of the year and I'm savoring all these moments with my kids at home. Do we really have to go back to school?!?

{SIX}

This super easy, super cute puffy paint craft! It was one of our Camp Mom activities this past week. My kids love puffy paint and this craft turned out to be one of my favorite keepsakes so far! (You can read more HERE.)

{SEVEN}

 $150 Minted Giveaway and these awesome personalized name labels!

I'm labeling everything to prepare for the school year ahead and I love these stick on labels. There's a $150 Minted credit up for grabs on my blog HERE!

{EIGHT}

An awesome new photoshoot location!

On Tuesday, we headed to a nearby conservancy for Liam's Down syndrome awareness photoshoot.  My friend took the pictures for the calendar, but I snapped a few of her taking their pictures. We went to a wedding at this conservancy 4 years ago but I forgot how gorgeous it was AND that it's not too far from our house! I'm definitely going to start heading there for photoshoots because there are so many photo perfect backgrounds, including this one!  (And, well, these four are my absolute favorite things!)

What are you loving this week?

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Frozen Sensory Table

Like most of the world, Frozen is a big deal in our home. Lily fell in love with Frozen when she was 2, and her obsession is still going strong.  I'm not quite sure she will ever let it go!

Over a year ago, we bought tickets to Disney on Ice Frozen.  FINALLY, the big day is here!  Lexie, Lily and I will be heading into Pittsburgh later with some of our best friends for the show.  Lily is incredibly excited!

In honor of the big day, I put together a Frozen Sensory Table for Lily to play with yesterday. We  made homemade snow before, but the kids really enjoyed playing with a snow filled water table at birthday party last summer. I combined that idea with another sensory table filler.

Much to Liam's dismay, I dumped out the bird seed, took the table outside, and got it ready for Lily. This idea has been on my editorial calendar for many months, but I wasn't counting on the fact that it would be a nearly 75 degree winter day yesterday! 

Lily was still able to play for an hour before things became, ahem, a little less Frozen!

To make the Frozen Sensory Table, all you need is a recipe for homemade snow, some ice cubes and a few toys.

Everybody has a different recipe for homemade snow (some use shaving cream and baking soda), but we like to use 3 boxes of baking soda, a container of glitter, and a bottle of inexpensive (white) conditioner.

Pour the baking soda and the glitter into the bin, then add a little bit of conditioner at a time until you can mold it.  It should appear to be crumbly, but it can be molded as well.  (I used the entire bottle.)

For the ice, I dumped 4 trays of ice cubes into the other side of the water table. If you are brave, you can dye the ice cubes blue, purple, or even a rainbow of colors, but I didn't want to deal with dyed fingers this week!

 

Finally, it was all ready for play!

I told Lily to put on her Elsa dress and get ready for some fun.  She had no idea, so she was so excited when she walked outside!

She wasted NO time digging in and it kept her occupied for an hour!

 You can even build a snowman (HA) and stack up those ice cubes to make an ice castle!

After an hour, the ice was nearly melted and Lily was ready to run around. We put the snow into a storage container so the kids could play with it for a few days, and dumped out the ice. Unlike some of our other sensory bin fillers that can stay in the water table for days, this one does need cleaned up, but clean up is easy!

Lily had so much fun with her Frozen-inspired Sensory Table and said she can't wait to play again! 

Do your kids like Frozen or enjoy sensory play? 

You might also like:

Mermaid Water Table Play



 A Water Table Fit for Fall

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Seeds and Scoops Sensory Table + Feed the Birds

The winter weather is upon us, which means cabin fever is rapidly setting in! 

Anyone who has kids knows this isn't a good thing.  Being trapped indoors with four bored children is NOT my idea of fun! I reached the point of desperation this afternoon while watching Lily and Liam race through the house.  We HAD to go outside before we all went crazy!

Liam is not a fan of the cold (as in anything below 50), so I had to get creative and find something that would keep his mind off the temperature.

I really can't blame him.  His typical reaction to the cold is the same as mine.

 

I scanned my trusty list of activities for kids, and settled on one of Lily's favorite winter activities. It involves our water table, a 10 pound bag of wild bird seed, some scoops and funnels, and bird seed thrown all over the backyard!

The concept for the Seeds and Scoops Sensory Table is really simple and inexpensive. Clean out that water table, collect some kitchen utensils, and buy a cheap bag of wild bird seed that will last for weeks!  Water tables are NOT just for water! We use ours for sensory play year-round.

With the exception of summer, we keep our water table on our sun porch.  Most of our sensory table play is done there. Even though I can easily sweep the mess out the back door, I like to take the messier activities outdoors. This is definitely classified as messy. (Trust me. I attempted corn kernel play inside our house once and the result was not pretty.)

The BEST part of this activity is that the mess makes everyone happy! The kids don't have to worry about being neat, the wild birds are extremely grateful, and I don't have to clean up the mess because the birds do it for me! It's a win-win situation for everyone involved!

So fill up that table (I use a 10 pound bag of wild bird seed), arm the kids with some tools, and let them play.  An added bonus is that they're working on building their OT skills with all that scooping and pouring! (Liam's occupational therapist definitely approves!)

Lily was so excited to "feed the birds" so she immediately dug in.  After initially squealing about the 35 degree weather, Liam spotted the table and rushed over.  Although Lily (and my older kids) have done this many times, Liam was too young last winter. It definitely captured his attention!

 

Lily ran back and forth, but for 25 glorious minutes, Liam scooped and poured and touched and tasted (he decided it wasn't very tasty).

When they were done playing, bird seed was scattered all around the table.  Just like she did last year, my sweet Lily still had to take the time to feed the birds just a bit more!

Our backyard birds are very grateful!

As for the cleanup, it is so easy!  I just toss the kitchen utensils into a sensory play storage container and carry the water table back into the sunporch. It's all ready to go the next time we go outside, and the bird seed usually lasts us a few weeks! (Although I did leave the seed in the table this time, I do have a container on my porch to store bird seed/corn kernels/etc in case I need to use the table for something else.)

Lily loves to scoop the seeds and feed the birds, and it was a hit with Liam, too. I am constantly looking for ways to engage him from a therapy standpoint, and this was a great activity for him! Later, we were able to watch the birds clean up the mess from our kitchen table!

The Seeds and Scoops Sensory Table is a fun sensory activity that helps build essential OT skills, plus it attracts those backyard birds.  It's perfect for outdoor play in the winter AND it's a great boredom buster!

Are your children into sensory play or do you shy away from the mess? 

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Water Table Play fit for Fall

HAPPY FALL!!!

Although I'm a bit sad to see Summer come to an end, I do love Fall!

We packed away most of our outdoor summer toys already, but one item stays out year round: the water table! Yesterday, we dumped out the water, and readied it for Fall!

Dylan, Lexie, and Lily always loved it when I filled the water table with corn!  For some reason, it makes it more exciting.  I debated putting it off this year, due to Liam putting everything into his mouth, but I decided to give it a try.  I'm so glad I did!

Our Fall-themed water table is quick to set up and all the items are inexpensive.  Plus, if the corn ends up everywhere (and it will!) all those outdoor critters will eat it up!

Items Needed:

• Water Table
• Bag of whole corn (A 25 lb bag is under $5 and you will have enough for all season)
• Mini pumpkins and pinecones vase fillers (found at Walmart or the dollar store)
• Fall leaves (torn off a dollar store garland)
• Rake, shovel, and basket
• Miscellaneous scoops, spoons, cups, bowls, and funnels

I removed a few items before letting Liam play, but he didn't seem to notice.  He dug right in!

Surprisingly, he only tried to eat the corn once, then realized it was gross!  He decided scooping, dumping and throwing the corn was a better idea!





The water table filled with corn and leaves captured his attention and kept him focused.  All that scooping, filling, and pouring was so much fun that he didn't even realize he was building those fine motor skills! He LOVED it!

But it wasn't just Liam who loved it.  Lexie spotted it as soon as she got off the bus, and ran straight to it.  Even Dylan, who is too cool to play with baby toys, found himself sifting through the corn!

After Liam was finished playing, he went inside for a snack. Lily woke up from her nap and I took her out to play.  The moment she spotted the table, her eyes lit up! 

Lexie joined Lily and they ended up playing together for over an hour!

Our Fall-Themed Water Table was a HUGE hit!

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If you have kids, do you use your water table year round?

For another water table play idea, check out THIS POST.

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