Popsicle Stick Farm Animals

We go to our local library every week for story time, and one of my favorite parts about our library is that they include a cute craft each week. A while ago, the theme was “On the Farm” and the craft afterwards was these adorable farm animals from popsicle sticks…
I couldn’t believe how simple these were to make! Just have your little one color the popsicle stick the appropriate colors, glue on some googly eyes, and some shapes for the other facial features:

• Triangles behind the head for ears
• Circles for snouts
• Triangles for beaks
• A rectangle for the horse's mane (just cut a little fringe after it’s glued on)

SO CUTE and so simple!

I’m linking up to Look What We Did, Kids Get Crafty, Mom’s Library, What are Little Boys Made of?

Placing Holds at the Library

I think I've mentioned once or twice how much I love the library and how wonderful the local library can be.

We go to the library about once a week. Not only does it have great resources as far as reading, but there is a big play area for kids, so it's exciting for everyone to go.

Enough about that. My latest reason for proclaiming my obsession with the library is their holds. Sure, holds are great because you get to place a hold on popular items and when it's your turn, the library will hold it for you for however many days. BUT the reason I love placing holds so much is that you can place a hold on any book/movie/whatever whether it's checked in or not, and they will find the item and hold it for you. This has been a lifesaver for me because I cannot spend however long it takes searching for books in the shelves while I'm at the library for fear of my children ripping every book within arms reach off the shelves. Now, I can still get books for myself as well as my kids.

I absolutely love going through the Feed Me Books Friday suggestions and placing them on hold at the library because I know I would lose any list I write out, and it gives K a great variety of books to read each week!

I almost feel like I am abusing the system by doing this, but I think the librarians much prefer finding one or two books instead of helping re-shelve whatever my children do. Not that my children are little tyrants, but you can only expect a one year old and a three year old to behave perfectly for so long, right?

Red Light Green Light

K loves school buses! We drop my husband off at school every morning and there are many mornings that K asks to go to his school, on a school bus.

For this reason I knew that he would love this book I found at the library:

School Bus by Donald Crews

I had a winner! He asks to read this one several times a day. One thing I love about Crews' books is the fact that there aren't tons of words. Not that I hate reading longer books, but the fact that only a few words accompany the pictures allows K to fill in the blanks and tell me his own story, with guidance of the words Crews has provided.

Two of the pages have traffic lights with only the words "Stop" and "Go" so I decided it would be fun to teach K about traffic lights.

After teaching him what each color light meant, I would quiz him while we were out driving around and he picked up on it so quickly. He regularly tells me what color the light is and what it means we should do.
One morning, after reading the book and reviewing what each light meant, I googled a traffic light coloring page and printed out three different lights. K colored each one one color, in the corresponding place. I was pretty impressed with how well he stayed in a certain area.

After we had three lights, we played "Red light green light." This was pretty entertaining with an almost 3 year old. He stood on one end of the room, and when I held up the green light and said go he would run as fast as he could to get me, until I held up a red light and he would run back to the starting position. Finally, after a few rounds of this, he got mad and told me to let him get me, which I did. Obviously this can easily be adapted for any age and it's so easy to do. He had so much fun and wanted to color even more after we were done. He's never colored this much!

I'm linking up to stART at A Mommy's Adventures

Feed Me Books Friday at The Adventures of Motherhood

Friday Follows at One 2 Try, Hearts Make Families, and Midday Escapes.

Follow Me Fridays at Trendy Treehouse

Llama Llama Red Pajama

I'm linking up to Adventure of Motherhood's Feed Me Books Friday where moms can share great children's books.

Last week I checked out Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney at the library and both K and I have enjoyed it qute a bit. It's the bedtime saga so familiar to all parents where baby Llama is tucked in and realizes he needs his mama. When she doesn't come right away, he "jumps and shouts" until mama llama races upstairs frantic.

Her response: "Baby Llama, what a tizzy! Sometimes Mama's very busy...Little Llama don't you know, Mama Llama loves you so?"

I love the rhythm in the book and I can relate so well that the book is enjoyable for me. I also love that K is learning what llamas look like and now insists on reading this book in conjunction with Is Your Mama a Llama by Deborah Guarino.

Llama Llama Red Pajama is $11.04 on Amazon.com, but I am a big fan of the public library system and am sure they have this book as well as others by Dewdney there.

I didn't receive any compensation for this post but feel that reading to children is vital and love learning about other books that kids of all ages enjoy and want to share what we have found.

Visit the Library

Since we moved here, I have been so impressed by our local library. In the kids section there is a huge play area with a great assortment of toys for all ages, including a train table which K is obsessed with.

They also have story time several times a week with each session focused on a specific age group (though it's not forbidden for kids of other ages to come), with puppet shows, songs, and other activities to keep the kids entertained. I know I have seen other libraries with similar programs and they are wonderful for getting kids involved. Several times a year, there is a story time bus which I'm hoping to try out soon.

Our library also has carnivals and open houses on various holidays.

Like I said, I have been so impressed. Women in my church group meet there once a week during winter months for play time.

If you haven't been to your library, now is a great time especially if you're getting cabin fever!

Exercise For Free

There's so many options out there for exercising. The best ones I have found, especially for someone like me who prefers some variation from day to day are:

• The local library...they will often have exercise DVDs to check out with a great variety in the style and focus
• Zumba...check out local churches or recreation centers to see if free Zumba classes are being offered. I know of several churches and even the local library where I live that offer free classes on various days of the week. 
• Go walking. Right now I walk 3-4 times a week to pick my son up from school and get a two mile walk in. I can tell how much stronger I have become just by walking and am grateful for this exercise which is what fits into my life right now.
•  Look on sites such as Hulu or Netflix for free exercise programs.
• Try a program such as onehundredpushups which provides plans for working up your endurance. I have been doing this with my husband and I have gone from 3 push ups to 10 in a few weeks. I don't it doesn't sound huge but I'm excited to see where this program takes me over the next few weeks.

What ever you do, find something you enjoy. Find a reason to exercise not only to improve your life but to improve the lives of your family because a happy mom results in a happier family.