Samuel Art

Since turning 3 in the fall, Samuel is suddenly very into creating. He loves to color and paint and do art projects like his big brother and sisters. :) Here are a few of his recent creations.

His Adorable Penguins...

And he wants to do everything himself now, which makes for a big mess most of the time, but it's always worth it!

His heart tree...

All I did was trace his hand and cut out some hearts for him. They had to be green, not red, he insisted. :)

Stamping hearts with a squished paper towel roll cut to a small enough piece for him to easily hang on to.

And another Valentine craft with lots of glue and yarn...he was pleased with himself. :)

Popcorn Sensory!

We've had a bean bucket for years that the kids love to dig and play in, and we've done rice buckets for play and many other things, but this week we tried a new one...POPCORN!

I filled two bowls full for each of the little ones to play with during school time, but even the big kids were asking to play with them after they were all done with their work! 

There is something strangely therapeutic about running your hands through popcorn kernels (seriously, you should try it)...Mommy enjoyed playing in it too!  :)

Yes, it makes a mess, but we just sweep it up when we're all done...and like most fun things...The mess is usually worth it.  :)

Buttons With the Baby

My 'baby' is finally big enough to play in the button box and not put them in his mouth. He probably has been for awhile, but we haven't played in the buttons recently. Until today, and he loved them. :)

We did some filling and dumping...

...and started naming some shapes and colors together. 'Star' was the first one he was able to name on his own so he was excited to find some star shapes in the button box. :) 

A Homemade Tunnel for the Hot Wheels

I've been saving this large cardboard tube for a LONG time...I don't even remember where it came from! But it was one of those things that I thought might be good for something someday.

Today...it was! The tube was telescoping so we taped it so it would stay open and extended and then taped it onto another toy so it would stay at an angle. It made for the perfect tunnel for the hot wheels cars and hours of fun throughout the day! :) Who knew, a piece of trash could be this fun?!

Sweet Baby Feet

I have so much to be thankful for everyday...and some days I feel overwhelmed when I think of how blessed I am. Today it was these sweet baby feet that got me choked up...

These sweet baby feet that are growing too fast, that can run away from me all on their own without any help. These feet that are now the tiniest ones in our house....and they're not so tiny anymore. I saw them and smiled, and thanked God for these beautiful little feet, so full of spunk and life... and for the 6 other little feet God has blessed me with that were once this cute.  :)

A Wipes Bin For Play!

All my kids have at one point during their baby/toddler years, pulled all of the wipes out of the wipe bin. There's something just wonderfully fun about pulling them out one after the next and they are so thrilled with themselves as they do it but it doesn't make Mama very happy when it happens. :) So why didn't I think of making something like this long before the 4th child? I have been keeping my scraps as I sew in an empty wipes container and Samuel got ahold of it one day and I realized that it was great entertainment for him! So I made some more 'scrap' size pieces, some long ones, some of them I sewed multiple little ones together so there would be different patterns all strung together as he pulled them out...and he LOVED it! :)

He did this over and over again many times and even kept putting them back in all by himself!

It was so simple and quick to make and was such a hit...I'm definitely going to pull this one out during school time with the big kids when Samuel needs something to do without Mommy's help. :)

Apples, Apples, Apples!

September is over...and sure flew by fast for us over here in the Adams house! September always makes me think of apples, so our month was full of lots of apple fun woven through our other activities and school time. We made some yummy apple treats and some adorable apple crafts, it was a great way to usher in my favorite season...I love the fall!

Of course we had to do the classic apple printing...

Faithy was REALLY intense about her project, LOL!

Samuel decided he just wanted to eat an apple while everyone else dipped theirs in the paint...

I'm sure it tasted great mixed with the paint from his fingers.  :)

I was just going to do this with Faith and Samuel since the big kids have done it several times before and I thought they wouldn't be very interested anymore. I was wrong. Joshua asked where his paper was as soon as we started and then said "Of COURSE I want to do apple printing Mom!" when I asked him if he wanted to join us. It wasn't long before Joy came in saying, "I want to make one!"

So while we were doing this Joy tells me she's lucky to have little brothers and a little sister. She has said this before, but I decided to inquire why she was saying it at this particular time and she answered me, "Because I get to keep doing preschool every year!" She's 7 now and homeschooling through 2nd grade this year, but she LOVES to do what the younger kids are doing, even if it's something she's done MANY times already! :) She's right, we are pretty blessed to get to do all this fun stuff year after year! I'm so glad she enjoys it still.

Faithy made us several yummy apple themed snacks throughout the month including sliced apples dipped in carmel, apple crisp, cinnamon apples and these great apple rings smothered in peanut butter! She was a great helper.  :)

We also made some biscuits that looked like apples...we spread them with red strawberry jam and added a piece of apple on the top for a stem. (and yes, they are gluten free and VERY yummy!)  :)

Bend-a-roo apples...super cute! (We LOVE Bendaroos in our house)

I love how our yarn apples turned out!

We wrapped tons and tons of yarn around a piece of cardboard, then pushed a brown pipe cleaner through the bundle, slid it off and kind of rolled it around itself till it was round and apple shaped.  :)

The kids were trying to see who could make theirs bigger...

Faithy gave up early on, so her apple is much smaller and looser than the other kids', but it's still really cute!

Joshua had the great idea to make a worm to live in his...and then Joy had to make a worm for hers too.  :)

They are cute for fall decoration but we also played lots of games with them the day we made them. We did a lot of 'following directions games' like...inside, outside, under and on top.  :) We played some apple catch and we also balanced them on our heads...cause balancing anything on your head when you're 3 years old is always tons of fun.  :)

Which then made us want to read our Ten Apples Up On Top book...that's a great one. :) And we read it probably 10 times this month along with some of our other favorite apple themed books.

The kids made a beautiful tissue paper apple banner for our wall....

We glued the tissue and then cut out the apple shapes so we got a nice smooth edge.

One of our most favorite apple things we did though was making homemade apple juice with the juicer. It's actually something we do often, but we've done it a lot this month with all the yummy apples that have been available here recently.

Samuel and Faith Elaina helped with the juicing most of the time. They love sticking the apples in the top and pressing them down to make the yummy juice run out. 

This juicer is amazing by the way! I got it for my birthday a couple of years ago from my Mama...it's wonderful! I love it!  :)

Our regular blend that we do most of the time is apple carrot juice... delicious! But this day we just did good ole' apple juice...YUM! 

It never lasts long in our house...

Samuel was really excited about having his own 'big boy cup' full and getting to drink it with a straw. I love that the simplest things can make the little ones so happy!  :)