Shutterfly Book

My sister had a free 8X8 Photobook coupon from Shutterfly. I've been anxious to try it out, so she gave it to me. I wanted to design all my own pages, but because of the coupon's deadline, I used one of their pre-made books. It was so fast and easy and the book amazes me. It's like I published a book. Something about holding a hardbound book... it's just so cool. I included just pictures of my boys interacting with each other.  I am going to give it to them on Valentine's Day. I hope they think it's just as cool to be inside a "real" book as I do!

 

Children's Bookshelf

This post is for my friend Christina. She wrote about wanting one of those bookshelves that Preschools use so you can see the front of books. They cost a surprising amount of money, so 7 years ago, when I taught Preschool for my first son, my fabulous husband made me one- and it wasn't that hard!

He cut three pieces of wood- two sides and a bottom. Then he screwed them together. I sewed fabric for the book slots (instead of wood shelves like most of the commercial bookcases). It was cheap muslin. It is in one long strip and every so often I sewed a pocket for a dowel to go through (5 pockets).  I don't know the measurements anymore- its been too long- I just made something up anyway. The further apart the pockets for the dowels are- the deeper the book pocket will be. I actually made different size book pockets (some books are taller than others). Then  slide the dowels through their pockets and screw into the frame.

I really like the book shelf for 2-3 year olds. My children sometimes climb on it like its a ladder though- but it hasn't broken.

Here's another idea I use and I didn't have to make anything for this one!

This was a bookshelf I found at a garage sale for 25 cents. I put a basket on each shelf. It doubles as a bookend and as a way to display books so you can see the covers. Sometimes I sort the books in the baskets by a series they are interested in, or with books I want to encourage them to pick. We keep our library books on top so they don't get mixed in.

Happy reading!!

He's Walking... well trying!

We convinced Steven to take his first step on Feb. 6th. He loves to cruise around furniture and he is very good at walking when he holds one of my hands, but he won't let go! Rob and I sit a couple feet apart and try to get him to walk to each other, but he just stands there and laughs until he falls! Yesterday, he took 2 steps. Tonight he took three steps! He was very proud of himself. We all clapped for him, so he stopped and clapped too- and then fell over! Each of his brothers is so excited to help. They try to get him to walk to them... so many people to walk to! And they walk around with him. Here's a video Andrew took (The best part is the very beginning. You can stop watching after that. I couldn't figure out how to cut the movie! Sorry about the quality!!)

Watching him walk reminds me of something someone wrote about cheering for our children. We get so excited watching our babies attempt to walk. We cheer even when they "fail". We need to remember that our older children are still learning new things all the time. We should cheer for them in the attempts that they make- even if at first they fail.

Gotta Catch Them All!

Happy Birthday David! Right now David is VERY interested in Pokemon and wants to "Catch Them All". He amazes me with how much he knows about each Pokemon without being able to read the cards! I've been learning more than I need to know about Pokemon lately too.

For his birthday we celebrated by becoming Pokemon Masters. We played eight games and after each game, we won Pokemon cards and a badge (Ash collects badges too). After we had all 8 badges (just circles of paper I made to match Ash's badges), we were awarded a Pokemon certificate, and a Pokedex (really just a coloring book I made).

Here's my attempt at a Pikachu cake... (it's a round cake pan on bottom and top with two circle cakes in the middle. At the point I assembled it- I thought uh oh- it's an egg! The ears are tips of sugar cones. I used Twinkies for the tail, feet, and hands. Oreo eyes, and fruit-by-the-foot cut for cheeks and mouth)

Here's the games we played:

Pokemon Bingo (Everyone loved it! I gave information about each Pokemon after I drew it. So glad I found http://www.dltk-cards.com/bingo/ - it has lots of different Bingo cards you can print.)

Pokemon walk (like cake walk, but Pokemon pictures instead of numbers, and you win cards instead of cake)

Hungry, hungry Munchlax (throw beanbags into Munchlax's mouth- the Pokemon that eats everything)

 

Pin the tail on Pikachu

Catch a Pokemon (Fishing)

Ash, Ash, Pikachu (Duck, Duck, Goose I was surprised how much they liked this one!)

Pass the Pokemon (Hot Potato)

David had a lot of fun- I hope his friends did too!

This book is Great for FHE!

We have had a few lessons out of this book for Family Home Evening. It teaches in fun and easy to understand ways the Standards that are in the For the Strength of Youth booklet- such as Gratitude, Agency and Accountability, Honesty, Service... I love all its great ideas- they even keep my boys attention! We've gone on treasure hunts, played silly games (like crawling around trying to get each other's socks off), done object lessons (It really surprised my kids that they could not pick up the word "choice" without having "consequence" come with it. And of course they had to think of tricky ways to try to do it!). It has yummy treat ideas too.

If anyone has great FHE ideas- let me know!