Every Day Joys Link Up

Hey all I am Mama G.  I also blog over at My Life as Mama, and Flawless Event Planning.  I hope you check out my other blogs as well.  I am so excited about the chance to find some new friends through this super simple, super cute link up.

Click on over to Link Up as Well (The button will not work on my post for some reason).  

1. What blogs do you visit daily? Please list 1-3 of your favorites.

1. The Smelly Life- Love!! Sarcastic, Hilarious, Real mama of one who takes wonderful pictures that make every other mom envious!! 

2. Tammy Fantasy Land- A mom that lives in my area, and could be a IRL (in real life) blog friend.  She has 2 under 2. I have been there so I relate, and I thank God every day that we are past that stage ;).  

3. The Francis Family-An Arkansas blogger (I feel like every blogger is from Arkansas), who has super cute kiddos, and great style!! 

****I read every blog on my side blog roll on My Life as Mama every day (or whenever the bloggers update). ****

2. Are you on Instagram? If so, what is your user name?

Yes! smgardella

3. Can we find you on Pinterest? What's your Pinterest address, and what can we expect to see you pinning most? (recipes, DIY projects, home decor, etc.)

Yes! Obviously this blog is devoted to my Pinterst addiction.  Kids activities, clothes that I wish I had, event ideas, food....basically everything Pinterest has to offer.  

Find me on Pinterest here 

4. What are your favorite blog link-ups to participate in? (weekly link-ups other bloggers have...any number will do...please link us to them!)

I have kind of taken a back seat to the whole link up thing lately, but I am wanting to get back into it.  One I am for sure linking up to this Friday is over at http://pinteresttoldmeto.blogspot.com/. New obsession! 

5. Why do you blog?

I started blogging as a way to record my pregnancy, and keep my family up to date on what new things the kids are doing. It is now their baby book, my outlet, and a way for me to remember my life with them.  

6. Tell us one random fact about yourself.

I once had super glue explode in my face and glue my eyes together.  A trip to the ER and a few days of basically being blind, and I was better.

Early Literacy

So, it has been FOREVER!! Happy New Year all.  I don't know about you, but I have been in a mommy funk since the new year.  The organizing of Christmas toys, early year to do list, and sickness has kept me from planning and executing fun activities for the kiddos to enjoy.  However, today during nap I planned for the week.  I literally copy and pasted pinterest activities that I wanted to try in Microsoft Word, and printed them.  Maybe this will make me remember...?? We shall see.

The activity I am going to talk about today was specifically geared toward my 3 year old.  Any younger and it would have been a fail. To keep little bit busy I gave her a glue stick and some magazine cut outs to place on paper.  It worked.

Here is the original pin

Materials Needed:
1. Scissors
2. Glue
3. Paint
4. Plate
5. Q tip
6. Crayons

Step 1
To begin I let my son attempt to cut out the words. He was not quite advanced enough for this so I gave him a blank piece of paper to cut while I cut out the words.

Step 2
Once I had the words cut out I would place three words out in front of him.  I would point to the word that we were working on and ask him to find that word.  He found the correct one every single time!! So proud.  I then gave him the glue to place a dot and glue the word on.  He loved this part.

Step 3
For the next step I knew that writing the entire word would be too difficult for him.  The space was just too tiny.  Instead I wrote the first letter of each word in the square, and then copied this pins idea for Caleb.

He actually did okay with this.  I think the space was a little too tiny for a three year old to really work, but he seemed to enjoy it.  He especially liked the W for White.  He said "Down, Up, Down, Up".

Step 4
This is where we lost him.  He had zero interest in coloring the boxes with crayons after we had just used paint and glue.

All in all this was a great activity.  He was able to practice a ton of different skills, and I think it is definitely an activity that we will repeat.

Egg Carton

I had a follower request an egg carton activity a few weeks ago.  I had to wait until I finished off a carton of eggs, but I finally have an activity for you.  I have also pinned a bunch more, so you may get sick of hearing about egg carton activities before I'm done.

This activity is via This Pin

Materials:

1. Egg carton
2. Lysol wipes (to clean egg carton just in case there are any left over yuck germs)
3. 12 Easter eggs 
4. Small toys that fit inside eggs (once again we used our sorting bears)

I began by filling all the eggs with one bear and closing them up. I then placed one egg per slot in the egg carton.  Tink was all about opening the eggs, and dumping the bears.  She enjoyed dumping them in the egg carton, and filling an Easter egg with multiple bears.  

Caleb finally joined in the fun.  He personally loved cracking the eggs and then trying to close them back up. He told me he wanted to "play this all day".  Notice the concentration faces :). 

My kids loved this one 

Going Fishing

I am actually surprised that it has taken me this long to try this pin.  I am pretty sure that I saw it my very first week on Pinterest, and thought to myself...."Hey that is a great idea".  Well, I guess it was lost in my world of pins because I had completely forgotten about it until yesterday.

Little man loves to fish, so I thought this would be the perfect stuck inside the house activity.  Thankfully my mother in law had the items I needed laying around the house, because my improve materials were not working out.

Materials needed:

• paper clips
• yarn or string
• Magnet letters or any lightweight toys that are magnetic. 
• A large bowl

I placed all of our magnetic letters in a large bowl.  We used to have the entire alphabet, but over time we have lost most of them.  I made 4 "fishing poles" for the kids, sat down with them, and then demonstrated how to play.  Little man enjoyed fishing for letters and stating what letter he found.  Tink loved picking up the letter, placing it on the paper clip, and then slinging it across the room.  

Even though his face screams miserable he really did have a lot of fun.

He eventually started trying to fish for other objects.  His trains were a big hit, and to my surprise the paper clip could actually lift them.

This is an activity that does not make a huge mess, and can be left out for a while.  It is still out today, and my kids have ventured to play with it on and off. 

All in all I would say they loved it.  

Fine Motor Skills

Little Man is a boy who loves fine motor activities, and he has since he was tiny.  He was the baby that would sit for an hour by himself figuring out all the elements of a toy.  He has always loved detail, and figuring out how things work.  This has carried through into his love for puzzles, and other fine motor activities.

When I saw this activity on Pinterest I immediately thought it would be a hit with little man.  I knew it was too advanced for Tink, but I wanted to try it none the less.

The materials:

• kix cereal (I also put a few cheerios in because I knew they would be easier to pick up)
• tweezers
• 2 cups or bowls 

I filled one cup with the cereal mixture, told little man that I had an activity for him, and I showed him how to pinch the tweezers together.  This activity ended up being a little too advanced for his skills. He was able to pick up a few pieces of cereal with the tweezers correctly, but he mostly found other ways to pick the cereal up.

The two handed approach was a big hit. Hold the tweezers in right hand, pick up cereal with left hand, touch cereal to the tweezers, and then eat it. 

Stacking the cheerios on the tweezers was another big hit.  

All throughout this activity I was showing him how to pinch the tweezers, but every time he would get it he would revert back to his other methods.

Tink eventually ran over to see what we were doing, and the activity was turned into a dumping and pouring activity which eventually became snack time.  

I would say that in terms of fine motor skill improvement this activity was a flop for us. Little Man told me he did not like it and did not want to do it again ;). 

**Please ignore the fact that my children look as though they have not been bathed in a week, have snotty noses, and refuse to wear pants or matching clothes.  Also please excuse the poor quality of photos. I tried a new way to upload and it failed miserably.**

Toilet Paper Rolls

Sorry we have been MIA for the past week.  We have been moving so there has been very little Pin-tiviting. I thought I would stop by and share an activity we tried a few weeks ago.  I like to call this Toilet Paper Roll fun.....catchy right ;).  This activity always makes me think of this....

Before we moved the house was in shambles, and I was having to find creative ways to entertain the kids.  I came across this pin.

Since my husbands bathroom was filled with empty toilet paper rolls...because he never throws them away...I decided to give one of the activities from that pin a try.

Materials Needed:

1. Toilet Paper Rolls
2. Painters Tape
3.  An object that fits through the rolls.  I once again used our counting bears....told ya they get a lot of use.

I taped 5 or six rolls to the wall at various heights.  I then showed the kids how they could drop the bears through the rolls, and I also showed them how they could catch the bears in cups as they came out the bottom.  Instant entertainment!! Can you believe this entertained 3 kids 3 and under for over 30 minutes! Crazy.

So with that being said I would say it was a LOVE.

I guess I will have to stop nagging my husband about him not throwing away his toilet paper rolls.  Pinterest is bound to make me a hoarder......

Driving...Or Parking

So, when I saw this pin I thought that it looked like an amazing idea.  Fun for the kids, relaxation for the parent...Win Win right?

Here is what you need:
1. An old shirt
2. Sharpie Marker
3. Hot wheels
4. Participating toddler

My husbands birthday just passed so we decided to try this idea as a present for him.  I stink at drawing so my husband had to take the reigns on that one.  Little Man insisted that daddy draw parking spots so he did. My hubby put the shirt on, handed little man the car, and laid down for what he thought was going to be a relaxing car massage.....well, those parking spots Little Man requested....he actually wanted to park the cars in them.  So, he drove the cars for a minute, parked them and then walked away.  Hubby and I couldn't help but laugh.

So, with that being said, though the picture of the kids blissfully playing looks nice..it was a Flop in our house.