Fun at Luke's Great Aunt's House

My husband's aunt lives out in the country and is about an hour and a half away from us. Luke loves to visit her and so do I. She is like a grandmother to Luke and me. All of my grandparents passed away before Lee and  I were married, and spending time with my husband's aunt brings back memories of my grandmothers.  Her cooking isn't too shabby either. Good, wholesome, country cooking.  Yum, yum.  

Andy, our cousin's kitten

Luke loves our cousin's two kittens. Our cat is older and has never liked children, so Luke doesn't get to interact with her.

  

Day Out with Thomas the Train

Last month we took Luke down to Calera, AL to see Thomas in person. Luke loves trains, and he watches Thomas videos on Netflix and on my tablet.  He has two different Thomas and Friends track sets, and he says "Toot Toot" several times each day.

It was not a great day for it. It was a bit cool, and then it rained really hard. Luke was not in the best of moods, either. He was "that kid" that day.  You know, the one who has tantrum after tantrum and generally causes distress for everyone around him. Poor fella didn't have a real good night's sleep the night before. By the time we were scheduled to ride the train, he was exhausted. He almost fell asleep on the train.

He really enjoyed playing with the Thomas tracks that were set up for the kiddos. He wouldn't share his table with anyone, though.

Played putt putt golf for the first time. Was going fine at first, then Luke began taking balls from other children's greens. Then he started taking clubs. One of those kicking and screaming til we got him out of there moments.

Luke was scared of Sir Topham Hat.

Not to fond of the train "engineer" either.

We will have to return to the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum next year when Luke is older. I think he might enjoy it better then. I hear they have a nice Polar Express-themed outing around Christmas time.

Two-year Vintage Train Photo Shoot

For Luke's two-year photos, I decided to go with a vintage-style shoot. My photographer (Amanda Campbell of Chasing Daylight Photography) suggested this great train station, and I couldn't be more thrilled with the results. We did a vintage-style little man birthday party for him too (sneak peek coming soon), so I was able to use some of the clothing and props for the shoot and the party.

I inherited this valet from my paternal grandfather.

I love shopping at thrift store and antique stores, so I had a blast gathering up the clothing for the shoot. Luke's little green outfit was found at a thrift store for $5. I found the shoes at a consignment sale for $2. I bought the cute black hat new at The Children's Place. My husband's outfit, save for the shoes, which he already owned, came from a thrift store. He is a little embarrassed by the whole ensemble, but I think he looks amazing and sexy. I think I did good with the sizing. Those pants fit him so well. He is embarrassed by the hat too, but I think ya'll will agree it looks great on him.

 

I found my dress at our local Dillard's clearance store (I go there first for dresses) for under $20. It was originally $155. I found the hat at a thrift store, the tights at Target, and I splurged on the shoes. They were $50 at TJ Maxx (but hey, I can wear those with lots of things, right?).

Cloud Gazing with Daddy

Pointing up at the clouds

I had to share these great pictures of my two handsome men. My husband came home early from work today, and he and Luke spent some time together outside playing. Luke thought laying beside Daddy outside was really something. He kept laughing and looking up at Lee and smiling.

You might notice the red on Luke's shirt. That is paint from our apple printing project (see previous post). Luke had a very fun-filled day today.

Apple Fun for Toddlers

Apple lacing card

Apple activities and units have been popping up on my Pinterest home page in the last couple of weeks, so I decided to create some materials and do some activities with Luke.  Luke had a play date with three other toddlers today (ages 22 mos., 2 years, and 3 years), so I threw a few apple activities into the mix. They had fun, and I felt like Supermom. Haven't felt like Supermom in a while, so that was very nice.  The mom who hosted the play date made some homemade applesauce, and that was a big hit with everyone and a wonderful way to end our apple-themed morning.  In a not-so-related-note, she also had homemade ketchup from her own homegrown tomatoes (maybe I don't feel like Supermom).  The ketchup was awesome. I must get the recipe and make some.  I'll be sure to share when I do.

I started by making a large felt tree and a felt board as the support.  For the felt board, I simply wrapped white felt around one of my old canvasses and attached it to the back of the canvas with a staple gun. Amazingly, Hancock fabrics had a sale on felt when I went to buy it. Yay!

To make the tree, I just went to cutting.  I didn't make a template or draw my design on the felt (although I have used chalk on darker felt once before to draw objects before cutting them out). As this project was meant for young ones, I tried not to worry too much about perfection.  I'm amazed that everything is still in good condition after its first use with four toddlers.

Tree in progress

I cut out the tree trunk, and then I began cutting cloud-like shapes out of dark green felt for the top of the tree.  I cut one large piece for the top as well, but I liked the idea of the kiddos being able to create the tree themselves and make it different each time. I am quite pleased with the results.  This tree can be an apple tree, pear tree, orange tree, etc...

Completed felt tree

Then I needed some apples.  I found an apple image online and created red, yellow, and green apples for the tree.  I printed them, cut them out, laminated them, and then I attached  Velcro stickers to the backs so they would stick to the felt tree.  I also created a cute little apple basket.

Apple tree
(large piece of green felt used here instead of the smaller pieces)

This morning I let the kiddos help me put the tree on the felt board and attach the apples.  I did some songs and chants about apples as they played.  We worked on color recognition as we put all of the red apples in the basket. We talked about how some apples are sweet and some apples are sour. We also did some counting with the apples.  Here are some of the songs and chants I used:


I'm a Little Apple
(to the tune of I'm a Little Teapot)

I'm a little apple, short and round.
I make a munchy, crunchy sound.
If you bite into me you will see...
I'm delicious as can be!

I sang the above song to the kiddos as we began our "lesson". I showed them a real apple as I sang the song. It can be found here along with some other activities.

Here are two chants that I threw in as they were building the tree:

Apples Juicy

Apples juicy, apples round.
On the tree or on the ground.
Apples yellow, apples red.
Apple pie and juice and bread.
Apples crunchy, apples sweet.
Apples are so good to eat!

As I said the above chant, I pointed to the apples "on the tree" and those "on the ground".  I also pointed to the "apples yellow" and "apples red." This chant, along with some other apple activities, can be found here.

This next chant can be found here along with some printables.

Apples, Apples

Apples, apples, one, two, three.
Apples for you, apples for me.
Apples big, apples small.
Apple trees tiny, apple trees tall.
Apples sour, apples sweet.
Apples, apples are nice to eat!

As I sang this next song, I placed apples one at a time onto the tree.

Ten Little Apples

One little, two little, three little apples,
Four little, five little, six little apples,
Seven little, eight little, nine little apples, 
Ten little apples in an apple tree.

Apple prints

This afternoon once we got home, Luke and I made some apple prints. I cut open the apple and showed him the seeds inside, and then we painted them and stamped them on white poster board. This activity was a big hit with Luke. He is really into painting right now. We used washable kid paint, so I just got out the garden house and washed us and everything around us down a bit when we were finished.

Luke also got his first lacing card today. I don't know if it will be noticeable to anyone else, but he has such a look of concentration on his face in the picture below. Today is the first time I have seen that look on his face.

Concentrating really hard on his apple lacing card

As part of our apple fun today, the kiddos also got to play with a real basket and some large, red pom poms.  I threw these in with Luke's John Deer tractor/farm set and just let the kids play. Luke had fun with this once we were home as well.

He loves his vehicles

Below are some free printables that I created in case you want to do some of these activities with your little ones.

Apples for the tree and a basket ( I cut mine out, laminated them, and then I attached Velcro stickers to the backs):

And an apple for a lacing card (I cut mine out, laminated it, and then I used a hole puncher to add holes around the outside edge of the apple):

The original apple image I used can be found here.

Shutterfly Album in the Making

 If I get this done and place my order before next Wednesday, I can get half off a 12x12 album. At least this time I have almost a week. I just love how Shutterfly sends me notifications about a sale that is ending on the day I get the e-mail. But thank you Shutterfly, I love your coupons and free photo book campaigns.

I really love the outfit Luke is wearing in these photos, and I love how the colors we all wore worked so well together. We had a lovely afternoon that day exploring downtown Huntsville before, during, and after the photo shoot. Luke found some rocks, we all enjoyed people and animal watching at Big Spring Park, and we had a delicious dinner at 3 Skillets. I ate quail for the first time. It wasn't my favorite meat. Perhaps it was a bit too gamey for me, but it was stuffed with chorizo and served on top of a waffle and drizzled with honey. A delicious apple slaw accompanied it. Yum, yum.

 I am using kits and elements from several different designers to make this album, but here are a few I have used thus far for the cover (top photo) and the Rock Collector page:

Valorie Brown Designs
Designs by Megan Turnidge
Lie Fhung of Ztampf 
Sahlin Studio

The Rock Collector page was created using a free template I got from Sahlin Studio. I am going to feature little banner pieces throughout the album.