I can’t believe we made it until February 11 before having any snow we can play in…pretty unusual for southwest Ohio.  It’s still not much, maybe an inch or so, but you better believe the kids were out in it!  (Heck, we were out right after breakfast because I was afraid it would melt in the sun if we waited too long.)

The kids had a few turns down the hill on the sled… Then the toddler wanted to build a snowman.

We gave it a shot, but the snow was just too powdery soft; it just wouldn’t make a snowball.  Of course, being 2, he didn’t understand that.  Thankfully he was happy with the 2 inch tall snowman I was able to build by huffing and puffing warm air on the mini snowballs to get them to stick.  He held that little snowman all around the yard while being pulled on the sled, and then he wanted to bring it inside, too. 

We watched it turn into a little puddle on the kitchen table while we had our hot chocolate.

And after lunch we made marshmallow snowmen – little guy actually got 2/3 of his finished before eating it this time!

What about you?  Have you had much snow where you live this year?

And if you’re looking for some crafts to go with the snow theme, check out this cute cotton ball snowman and our snowflake crafts!

The post Snow at Last first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Several months ago, on a rainy day,  I tried doing a scavenger hunt inside with the kids.  I drew pictures of where they had to look for clues and there was a small prize at the end.  They had fun doing the hunt, but I decided to tweak the idea a bit to make it a little simpler the next time.

With Dora the Explorer in mind, and the fact that my little preschooler LOVES maps, I drew out a “map” of what they were looking for:

This time around I kept the list of items to things I knew they’d find easily and fairly quickly.

Peanut found something yellow right away…

A few minutes later she also found a stick; little brother was chillin’ in his car…

I didn’t think  he even knew what we were doing until he pointed out these flowers:They found all 6 items on our walk to visit Mamaw next door, and they had lots of fun!  They couldn’t wait to tell Mamaw what they had seen.

Since fall is in the air now, I’m thinking another scavenger hunt is in the near future.  We can look for leaves in different colors, grasshoppers, and as the leaves fall, maybe we’ll spot a bird’s nest!

Have you tried a scavenger hunt with your kids?  What did you do differently?

The post We’re Going on a Hunt! first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

Here’s what I’m thankful for today:

1.  I’m thankful for my little girl’s bravery.

She desperately wanted to ride this water slide:

and Mommy wasn’t allowed to go down with her.  (Mommy really didn’t want to ride it, truth be told, b/c Mommy has a little fear of heights….)  When I told her she would have to climb the ladder all by herself (Grandpa climbed up after her – thank you!), she STILL wanted to do it.  I told her she would have to go down the slide by herself and would go under water at the end – she STILL wanted to do it….  Bless her little heart, she climbed up and got right on that slide and down she went, at super fast speed!  And she didn’t cry about the water in her nose at the end when the lifeguard grabbed her up, either.  Brave.

2.  I’m thankful for swim diapers.  Boy, the heat does horrible things to my son’s tummy!  Enough said.

3.  I’m thankful that my husband was home when we got back from our swimming adventure so he could watch the kids sleeping in the car (a/c running, of course) while I took a quick shower.  (See #2)

4.  I’m thankful for what my daughter said to me at bedtime tonight, “Mommy, you’re the best mommy ever.”  Can I get that recorded to play back to her when she’s a teenager?

5.  I’m thankful that tomorrow is Friday, and my husband isn’t working this weekend.

What are you thankful for this week?

The post Thankful Thursday first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

My daughter has been really getting into her baby dolls lately, and I’m glad. It’s one of the  reasons I’ve been shying away from Barbie dolls or other “older” dolls; I wanted her to have this time in her childhood to play baby dolls.  Little girls grow up way too fast now a days.

One of her favorites is one she got from her Mamaw’s house.  It has a hospital bracelet on its wrist, so she calls it her “hospital baby”.  All day long she says, “Here’s my born baby.”  (Pretty sure she means newborn baby here…)

This morning, though, she was using her pink stuffed tiger as a baby.  She was carrying it around, singing it lullabies, while I emptied the dishwasher.

That’s when she asked me something I wasn’t really prepared for:

“How does the baby get out of Mommy’s tummy?”

“Well, how do you think they get out?”  I asked.  (Yes, I was stalling for time here…)

“Through your belly button?” she said, kind of in a questioning voice.

Okay, she was asking, and I couldn’t just say yes to that and let it go.  Right?  I mean, I want her to come to me in the future and believe I’ll give her the right answers.

“Do you think the baby could fit through your belly button?” I asked.

Okay, I knew I couldn’t let her believe they did, but I was still stalling for time, praying for the right words so I wouldn’t scare her, or give her more information than she was ready for, but I also didn’t want to lie to her…

“No,” she said. “It’s too small.”  Giggle, giggle.

“When Mommy had babies I went to the hospital and the doctor helped get the baby out,” I said.

Maybe she’d let it go at that?

“Mommy, I have a baby in my tummy.  I need to go to the hospital,” she said, her pink tiger held behind her back.

She took my hand and guided me to her play kitchen area.  “Here’s the hospital,” she said.  “I need a doctor to get my baby out.”

I reached behind her back and handed her the pink stuffed tiger.  “Congratulations,” I said, “you have a little girl tiger.”

“Oh, thank you!  Now, how did you get the tiger out from my tummy?”

Guess she wasn’t going to let it go…

“Well, you were right before, you’re belly button would be too small for a baby to fit through,” I started.  “The baby comes out of your privates. (She hasn’t asked for the proper names, yet.)  You know how boys and girls have different privates?”  I asked.  “That’s because girls have babies and boys don’t.”

She let that register and then she went about taking care of her pink stuffed tiger.  Thankfully she didn’t ask how babies got there in the first place today, although I”m sure it will happen long before I’m ready!

The post Questions OneMommy Isn’t Ready For… first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

I think I’m glad their buckets had more little trinkets and less candy, now… After a day full of candy, little gifts, playing hard, and no naps for either of them, I’m hoping they go off to dreamland a little early tonight…

I hope you all enjoyed your day, too!

The post Happy Easter! first appeared on There's Just One Mommy.

When kids are young it’s important for them to have a space of their own to play in.  Our kids have taken over the living room… But when one of my very generous family members noticed what a climber my daughter is (she seriously would climb the walls if she could…) and gave us a Little Tykes climber to put in our basement, I thought, why not make a play area in the basement?

The problem, of course, is that our basement is unfinished and there is TONS of stuff down there that kids should not get into…

So just what do you do when you want a play area, but can’t afford to build walls to help keep the kids in their allowed space?

Get creative!
We had tons of big boxes just kind of sitting downstairs. We had both boxes from the kids’ car seats, a box from the new grill we got last summer, some boxes just from ordering things online… If real walls weren’t going to happen to keep kids out of Daddy’s area, then there were going to be walls around the play area!
Most of the boxes I chose were taller than our oldest child, eliminating the ability to climb over them. I opened up each of the boxes and decorated them with permanent markers at night after the kids were asleep.  I picked a jungle theme since at the time both of their rooms were in that theme and they love animals.  I raided the gift bag collection and found some metallic ones to use as mirrors.  I also cut peek-a-boo flaps into my “walls” and taped gift bag pictures on the back for the kids to find when they lifted the flaps.

When I thought I had enough “walls”, I stood them up and ran duct tape along the box flaps that I had left at the bottom of each wall. I also used duct tape to tape the sections together, angling them back and forth instead of making them perfectly straight to keep them from tipping over too easily.  My husband helped get some of our heavier boxes of stored items and put one behind every other section to give it a little more stability, in case of a charging toddler.  For a “door” we used a large piece of extra thick cardboard and just leaned it against the bottom step and the closest cardboard wall section. It’s easy to move when Mommy or Daddy needs to, and still slows down a 3 or 1 ½ year old, should they plan an escape.

The kids loved it when they came down the next day.  One of the sections I am most proud of is the rotating wheel with Sesame Street character bodies that you match to the heads on the wall.  I just used a double sided button poked through a hole in the wheel and one in the wall to hold it on to the cardboard wall. I also used a very strong cardboard tube that a poster had come in to make a “ball drop”. My son loves to drop balls down it over and over.  A simple piece of felt hot glued to the wall provided a quick and easy felt board.  (Looking for a felt board for traveling?  Look here.)

So, not only do they have a walled in play area now, but the wall is also functional as a way to entertain them a little further. Not only that, but it is easy to change with their interests…
And the best part? Unlike hiring a contractor to build a room, or trying to do it ourselves, it was all pretty much free, and it was done in just a few days. We had the boxes. We had duct tape and markers. All we’ve spent money on are some additional foam mats to cover the rest of the play area floor, since concrete isn’t forgiving of toddlers who are just learning to walk, nor is it really comfortable to sit on.

The bouncy Fisher Price zebra with the loud music, the rocking airplane I had bought at Once Upon a Child, the ball you sit and jump on, and the ball pit we put together for our son’s birthday… All those energetic, noisy types of toys have gone downstairs, out of my living room…

I’ve made several updates to our walls since this post.  We’ve gone through a Dora phase and most recently and Octonauts phase.  And, it is still all holding up, 2 years later.

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