PinFTW: Easy Toddler Activities!

Well hello there Wednesday friends! I’ve decided to link up to Pin for the Wednesdays at its new home, Daily Ups and Pounds AGAIN today. Mostly because I’m soooo pleased with myself and my pinteresty-ness this week.

Over the weekend I started looking in earnest for activities to do with Jonah. Preferably those that don’t involve TV or a screen of any kind, and can be done with things I already have laying around the house. Fortunately, Pinterest did not let me down! I didn’t replicate any idea exactly, but I got most of my pinspiration from these two pins here and here.

Here’s what Jonah and I have been up to this week! Making messes and having FUN! And hopefully learning something. 🙂

This one’s kind of hard to see in the picture, but what I did here was just give him a bunch of small colored pom poms and have him put them in an empty spice jar. He loved it and it kept him busy for  over 30 minutes! We talked about the colors of the pom poms, too. He can say blue, green, red, and orange. This activity is also good for fine motor skills.

Next, we got out something most everyone has laying around, a kitchen colander. First, I had him poke pipe cleaners through the slats in it, but he didn’t like that. Then I got the bright idea of using popsicle sticks, and he loooooved this one. I strapped him into the booster seat for this activity and he did it for-EV-er. Over an hour! He was excited to try it the next day, too.

Finally, we made a big fun mess with a sensory bin. For this activity I just took a 9 x 13 pan and filled it with rice, rotini, spaghetti, feathers, and pom poms. He had fun messing around with all the things in the bin and eventually started taking stuff out of it, so I got him another dish and he started putting stuff into that dish. He went back and forth like that for awhile and made a big mess! It was fun and easy to clean up with the hose on our vacuum.

Well, those are my winning pins for today! Please leave me a comment telling me what a fabulous mother I am. Oh, and don’t forget to check out all the winning pins and link up over at Daily Ups and Pounds!

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We did it!

This weekend my friends and I took part in the Susan G. Komen 3-Day Walk in Philadelphia. It was an amazing experience, and the event raised more than $4.9 million to fund breast cancer research. My feet are slightly worse for the wear and my shoes are in the trash can, but we lived to tell about it… and we’re already planning for next year.

Thanks to everyone who supported me on this journey!

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Jonah’s First Pro Photos. (Yes, I’m a SLACKER.)

My darling Jonah boy is now almost 22 months old and…I finally just got the kid’s photos done professionally! Oh my poor, neglected third child! Of course I had to throw my big kids in for a session, too! They hadn’t had theirs done in over two years.  Ooops.

So, anyway! The cure for my photographic slackerdom was my friend Cyrissa of Immerse Photography. Last weekend we headed over to a beautiful arboretum in our area for an outdoor photo session. Jonah was ready to RUN in all that beautiful wide-open space, so I was worried Cyrissa wouldn’t be able to get any good shots. He was being a total booger and just wanted to be on the move.  But, as you can see, she worked her magic well. Look at my baby!

And my big boy:

And my pretty girl:

I cannot tell you how much I ADORE all these photos! What’s not to love?

If you are in the Dayton area, I really recommend you contact Immerse for your family portraits. Cyrissa is professional, fun, and as you can see, extremely talented, You can see the flyer below for her contact info – tell her I sent you and you’ll get 10% off your print orders.  Wheee! You know I loves me a coupon!

To see more of Immerse Photography’s great work, check out their Facebook page.

Thanks Cyrissa, for these beautiful portraits!

{Please insert comments below about how beautiful my children are!}

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Immerse Photography provided me with a portrait session free of charge to facilitate this review.

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