Storytime Activity- Parrot fun!

Today at storytime we met three parrots and read a story called "If You Were a Parrot" and walks through the daily life of a pet parrot.  

We decided to talk about parrots at home and I found this great balancing parrot craft.  

Side 1 Printable PDF here!  

Side 2 Printable PDF here!

First I let Evin do the coloring.  He's got a pretty short attention span...so we didn't get very far.  Then I cut it out and glued in to a cardboard box.  I cut it out again and then glued the other half of the parrot to the other side.  Took me about 15 minutes.  

This is what it looked like when it was done!  Pretty cool!  I was pretty excited to show Evin!

 He promptly threw down the parrot and tried to put the ring on his tractor......

and his head.......

Then I helped him put the parrot back on and he ran to show his dad.  

 Then he taught his parrot to hang upside down from the ring too.....while riding a sea turtle I might add!

We also practiced color sorting with feathers that we got at hobby lobby. 

 He did a great job putting the feathers in the right color cups and even practiced saying his colors too.  

This activity came out of the book we read today!  We haven't tried this one but check this out!

Parrot Beak craft

Hope you enjoy the activities!  See you at next week's storytime!

Mail!

Watch your mailboxes all you people who helped us out with M Week!!!!

Had a fun time at the post office picking out stamps and learning how to put the letter in the slot.  We had a not so fun time putting the "stickers" on the envelopes!

Dinosaur Week

Monday: We decorated the house with our dinosaur footprints.  We tried playing the bigger or smaller game and that lasted all of two seconds, then we tried hopping and stepping on the footprints.  I had a lot of fun but Evin was off playing with some cars or something.....It's okay not every plan is brilliant.....

Tuesday: I made some of our favorite Jello Playdough, and made dinosaur tracks through it....We had to watch Mudflap, he had his eye on the dough!

We also made our dinosaur sensory box, we used our left over moon sand.  This was his least favorite sensory box....though I still have no idea why.  I think maybe if the sand wouldn't have been hardened he would have loved making a mess with that.  

I got this cool excavation kit at Hobby Lobby for $8.99 (40% off with the mobile coupon).  He didn't get it at first we had to do a lot of work to get it started, but he got in to it!

He learned how the tools worked. 

We put the triceratops together and he's still together today!  WHAT!?!

We also found out today that the bank made a major error and put us in to a loan product that we didn't actually qualify for since we were using gift funds for our down payment.  I spent the day yelling at three different people to stop talking to me about my "FILE" and start talking to me about my money, my life, my home, and the place where my baby was going to sleep.  I may have even threatened letting a tiger loose in someone's office......We got no where......

Wednesday: We got a giant piece of poster board and cut out a dinosaur foot.  First Nicole and Evin just spent time deciding who's foot was bigger and smaller.....not that fun.  

Then they went outside to make some footprints.  Putting your foot in paint is very UN-FUN.  You have to scream about it a lot.  However making footprints....not terrible.  

There might even be a smile here.  

Today the bank decided that I could liquidate my retirement Roth IRA account, use that money for the down payment and then take the money (same amount) that is currently in my checking account (this was a gift) and put that back in to my Roth IRA account to use as my "reserves and assets".  Thank you government for making sure banks don't do stupid things anymore.  These new regulations are really helping the people that need it.......

Thursday: Volcano day!  Super simple old school volcano, baking soda with food coloring.   

This was pretty awesome!  We did a lot of oh yeah!  Woohoo! Yee yee! 

We used two bottles of vinegar and found out that apple cider vinegar works too!

We also got our play dough back out and hid the dinosaurs inside....apparently you have to be very quiet when you are excavating dinosaurs.  

Auntie Nicole had a very fun idea for his bath and she used a jello egg mold from easter to freeze dinosaur eggs.  He had a great time picking them out of the nest and lining them up on the ledge of the tub.  

It was even more fun to line them up after they "hatched" in the warm water.  We really wanted to go to the Museum of nature and Science or Dinosaur Ridge this week but it was pretty much the most hectic week....EVER.  On this day our landlord stopped by to take pictures of the house to post on the internet.  

We haven't had the best relationship with her so we were pretty nervous, we spent quite a bit of time cleaning and then re-cleaning.  We also found out 70% good news about our house after the bank's error but at this point until we have keys in hand, none of use are eating or sleeping much.  She also seemed as if she wasn't going to be very kind if it came down to the deal with the house falling through....I reassured that family that if we were living in a box on the side of the street, it would be the coolest box fort ever!

Friday: Today we made fossils.  Great idea from I can teach my child!  Our favorite part was dumping at pouring the ingredients in.  

1 cup used coffee grounds 

1/2 cup coffee

1/2 cup salt

1 cup flour

Mix and then press your dinosaurs in to them to make impressions.  Let them dry overnight or bake them on low heat until hardened.  

Now we get to wait three more days....thank you Martin Luther King Day, to find out what our next house hurdle is going to be!  URGH!!!!

Links to files: 

(There's a lot of activities we didn't do, you'll notice there will start to be less crafts on this blog.....tired of doing them myself....)

Dinosaur Activity List

Clothespin Stegosaurus from No time for flash cards

D is for Dinosaur craft from meet the Dubiens

Dinosaur foot measure from I can teach my child

dinosaur feet craft from Activity Village

M Week!

Sunday:  Every since jungle week and painting with animals we have been REALLY into painting with things.  So on Sunday Evin went in to the kitchen, pointed at the table where all of our funtime goodies are stored and said, "paint".  

I freaked out with excitement!  He communicated without grunts!  YAY!!!  So we painted and we painted with motorcycles!   

Monday:  We started receiving some of the mail that I had requested a few days before by putting a post on Facebook and by emailing the grandparents.  We also enjoyed some macaroni and milk!

Evin had a great time reading his mail.  His Gram Cracker sent him some Money in his Mail and Amy made him an M collage.  

I thought I'd share a picture of what our binder looks like so you can see how I lay out the activities easily for me and for Karl and Nicole.  

Each section starts with the list of activities, then there are recipes, materials, pictures, examples, etc though out the rest of the pages.  

Tuesday was a busy day.  We started off with story time at the library and checking out some M books.

Since I was off we made moonsand 4 cups of sand, 2 cups of cornstarch, and 1 cup of water.

We also made our monster feet, Evin had a fun time for about 1 minutes gluing on the tissue paper, then a terrible 2 tantrum where he didn't want to have anything to do with any of it.  

We eventually came around and decided the Moonsand was actually fun.  

We played with moonsand while our monster feet dried.  

Then we decided the monster feet might be fun too.  

We broke all the toes off but had a great time stomping and jumping and laughing a lot!

Wednesday: Some more great mail from some very creative people!  Christine put together the most M's I've ever seen in one little story.  

 I gave Evin some M&M's just for a snack and when I came back he was color sorting them all on his own.  Now we have tried this activity NUMEROUS times with pom poms, cars, and other items and I was starting to think he might be color blind because he refused.  Now I'm sure he's not......scarier though is how everything has to be on his terms.  

We also made our letter animal a MOUSE!

Thursday:  We started out the day building a marble maze on the fridge, we used tape and poster tacky but you could probably use magnets too!

He had a good time putting the marbles in different places, trying to make them go backwards in the tubes and of course retrieving them from across the room when they missed the basket.  We went back to this activity throughout the day.

 The stock show is in town and we went to see the "moo cows" in the kick off parade and came home to find our Mailbox stuffed!  There was a lot of great things:

- confetti that we shape sorted, color sorted, and lined up on our M from Aunt Sheryl

- some art and a Mini M book from our friend Jordan

- a few letters from our grandma and grandpa

- a postcard from San Diego from our dolphin trainer aunt

- M stickers, M&M's, and a motorcycle from our grandpa

While I made dinner I also made Monster Slime!  Again we got this idea from Growing a Jeweled Rose!  Her recipe worked GREAT

2 teaspoons borax

1 1/3 cup warm water

(combine together in bowl)

2 cups white elmers glue

1 1/2 cups VERY warm water

food coloring

(combine in large bowl)

slowly mix together until you reach desired consistency....see below!

We moved our shower curtain down and back a little bit, decorated some baskets to look like M Monsters and then put the slime in the baskets.  

Evin was terrified at first and huddled in the back corner, whimpering.....but once mom started playing with it, he realized it was pretty cool!  

He hates to have his hair washed and then stuff sticks to clothes and hair hard core.  A quick wash and lots of screaming like it was the end of the world helped him get past it!

Friday:  Nicole and Karl helped him make a motorcycle out of a cracker box.  He had a great time playing with his handlebars and then his auntie came up with a flying motorcycle game.....way cooler!  

We also got MORE great MAIL....this and the monster slime was definitely the highlight of the week.  He got mail from California, Oregon, Florida, Colorado, and Kansas.  

In the mail he got M collages, M stories, a manatee, a motorcycle, M&M's, confetti, foam letters, tattoos, stickers, letters, postcards, and MORE!  Very fun!

Then we packaged up all his motorcycle paintings, made envelopes out of maps, and put them in the mail back to everyone he's gotten mail from!  

Next week......DINOSAURS!!!!!

Activity List

Pictures of Activities

Motorcycle Dashboard

Motorcycle Handlebar craft on one page

M is for Mouse craft