All tagged Babies
A paper plate flower is a cute and easy craft that you can do for the spring or summer, or even as a gift for a parent or grandparent. All you need is a paper plate, some paint, scissors, glue, a popsicle stick, and green construction paper (or white paper colored green!). And if you are missing any supplies, you can easily improvise!
A few weeks ago we started a new chore chart with Melody to earn an allowance (we had one two years ago, but it was for learning not money). Brad and I sat down and determined 5 chores that she can currently do but may also need help with learning to perfect. These are not chores we expect her to do daily (for the most part), but we do expect her to do them when we ask her too. If she does them, she gets to put a magnet on her chart for that chore on that day. If she does not do what we ask, I placed a “X” on that slot. This helps us keep track of how well she did throughout the week.
Melody loves using her dot markers. She actually will use them in place of paint in a lot of our crafts because they are less messy and she has more fun with them. Well during the early quarantine days when we first started crafting and schooling at home, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut and draw a bunch of different dot sheets. This lasted two days, but she enjoyed it. Using the Cameo was likely overkill, but at the time we didn’t have enough ink in our printer to print our own. Now I just print them!
Melody has been in desperate need for a haircut for quite sometime. I sort of thought about doing it at Disney back in February last year, but it wasn’t quite long enough for me to part with. We thought we would have a trip to Disney in September, but with COVID that is looking more and more like it will not happen. So we decided to just go ahead and find somewhere local to get her hair cut. It was becoming to hard to brush and full of tangles.
Back before COVID-19 ruined a lot of our plans, I intended to sign Melody up for gymnastics this summer, and we were going to skip dance this summer. I know she loves dance, but we have struggled to get her to enjoy gymnastics. My assumption from the last two years of summer gymnastics is that she didn’t enjoy it because it was a mommy and me style class. This summer was the chance for her to do it alone. But we just didn’t feel entirely comfortable sending her with COVID still prevalent. Also, dance lasted through a good portion of June. So we actually figured we would not join anything this summer. Dance starts back early August. Then I read about a tumbling camp offered by her dance studio. It was a 3 day camp lasting 3 hours a day. I loved the idea of it being a longer day, and it offered tumbling and fun. And I really trusted their attention to detail when it came to COVID. So I jumped at the chance to sign her up!
During all of our homeschooling due to COVID-19, we had to get creative with our crafts. Crafts are Melody’s favorite. I found this one on Crayola’s website. It was a really easy craft to make, and we continue to play with it even today. Melody doesn’t follow instructions 100%, but your child may, ha!
June was filled with lots of popsicles, yearly checkups, a visit to the dentist, Melody’s first trip back to Publix, pool time, visits with Nana and Grandpa, birthday parties, baking, and lots of playtime!
Back in March when school was closed, and we had to start homeschooling due to COVID-19, we had to get creative about learning at home. One of the things I wanted to continue while at home was calendar time. I decided to make my own calendar at home. I laminated everything so that I could use a dry erase marker on it and reuse it throughout the year.
Melody’s second dance recital was last weekend. This year it was slightly different due to COVID-19, but honestly I loved it! First, the recital was moved from May to June. We were assigned a day similar to how it would have happened in May. However we did not have a rehearsal this year. Instead we came just for our single performance. They did a rehearsal, then immediately performed again for video purposes. Because of this, there were maybe 40 people in the audience at a time, and we only had to stay for just her performance. Then we were free to go! I think things went perfectly, and we felt really safe. Melody did so good, and I was afraid with the lack of in-room dance classes she would not know the dance. Overall it was such a sweet performance, and I would be ok if this was the new norm for recitals at her age, ha!
So unfortunately I didn’t get many pictures from Father’s Day as we just spent time enjoying life. We had a lot of Brad’s favorites throughout the day. We started with cinnamon rolls, lunch were just leftovers (nothing fancy), we went and grabbed coffee from Starbucks as an afternoon pick me up, then we finished the night with dinner and dessert from Freddy’s. I think Brad had a really good day. We ended the day playing outside with Melody which is always fun!
I always find Father’s Day crafts just a bit harder than any other craft. I don’t really know why. This year I found the perfect crafts for our dad’s, but Brad was the hardest one of all. I eventually found something online I liked and went with it. I ideally wanted things that involved her footprint, but she is awful when it comes to putting paint on her feet. This means I need Brad’s help which would ruin the surprise. So we went another route.
So I found this activity on Oriental Trading’s website. So if you want to do it too, that is where you can find a printable (or you can draw up your own in Microsoft Office or Pixelmator). So this gave us a new activity to do during school days with all the homeschooling we did this spring. We are also trying to continue to do school 1-2 days a week this summer.
So this spring was an interesting one when it came to dance. March 13 we received the news that schools would be temporarily closing for COVID 19, and since our dance studio follows the school calendar dance too was postponed. We spent the first week assuming it was spring break. Then our dance studio put together online classes for the month of April and a few weeks of March. Once (sometimes twice) a week we would do dance in our living room. Melody would do a Frozen dance from youtube along with her recital dance and dance instruction for her class. We have spent the last 4 weeks getting back to in studio dance classes but in a new setup. We have to drop off and pick up the kids via carline instead of going instead. They also have encouraged the kids to wear masks too. And it is recital weekend! So while dance was different, we adjusted and overcame it all. And we are thankful we did get to go back to class and have a recital!
So May was a busy and fast month for us! It is always a super busy time because of all the birthdays, anniversaries, dance events, school events, etc. While we didn’t have quite as much, it was still a lot when we have done no real socializing in many weeks, ha! Check out all the fun we had below!
During this quarantine, we have been doing a lot of walks throughout our neighborhood. It has also ironically helped us connect and meet a lot of our neighbors since everyone is out walking. Anyhow, Melody gets bored sometimes during our walks, so I decided to make a scavenger hunt for her to do during our walks. She finished it pretty quick, so I am going to have to make another one that is a bit harder, ha. But I wanted to share it with you. You can find it below if you want to print it too!
A while back Melody wanted to play restaurant. Well I was in the process of laminating bookmarks for Mother’s Day, so I thought, why not make menus for her and laminate them. I took pictures of her most commonly used play food and made menus for them all. I did 4 for each group since that is how many people can sit at her table in the playroom. Then I laminated them so people can write on them what they want. Check them all out below!
On Monday, Melody turned FOUR! It’s so hard to believe how fast four came. She is the sweetest, kindest, most caring little girl. She is growing into the most precious little girl. For her actual birthday, she wanted everything unicorn. She picked out a unicorn cake from Publix, and we bought unicorn plates, napkins, banners, hats and balloon. We kept her actual birthday small. It was just us and my parents. We plan to have a small birthday party this weekend for immediate family. She had the best day full of all of her favorite things (donuts, Animal Crossing, and pizza!). She was spoiled with lots of fun gifts, and she played until her little heart was content. Happy Birthday, Melody!
Luckily we were able to get in dance pictures prior to having to do dance at home due to COVID-19. We just recently were able to go through and get our pictures from the dance studio, so I wanted to share them! Melody promised me she smiled, but here we are again with no smiles. Oh well! She did smile when I was taking pictures before so there is that!
So while the school year was cut short about two months, we still took last day of preschool pictures. Just like last year, I dressed her in her same outfit she wore the first day of school. She was much happier this time, ha! I picked this particular day because we were able to go to her preschool to collect all of her things through a drive up system. It was so nice to have that closure, and I don’t think I even shed a tear! I am trying to remain hopeful that we will see those teachers again next year for her last year of preschool!
So obviously teacher gifts were a little harder this year. We did get to see Melody’s teachers briefly during a pickup of their things this week. So I wanted to do something small along with a gift card. So I opted to make bookmarks just like I made our moms for Mother’s Day. I won’t go into much detail since it’s exactly the same, but I did leave a blank copy below if you want to make your own!
