Fun Fall Activity for a Toddler

We went on a leaf hunt. Although, at the time there weren't many leaves on the ground, now there are a lot. Just waiting for the rain to clear up so we can make a big pile and jump in!! On our leaf hunt we collected leaves, Mackenzie loved this job! Once we collected them I scratched my head for what to do with them. Well, I brought them inside and washed them to save for another day!  I finally decided to make a leaf garland. It was super easy.

I took some plastic straws and cut them in about 1/2" sections.

I then taped those sections to the back of the leaves. I used scotch tape but, they have slowly started to fall down as they dried. So, I would recommend something stronger.

We then took kite string and laced them on. Lacing is a great activity for toddlers, perfect for hand- eye coordination. Mackenzie has some lacing cards and hasn't shown a lot of interest. Needless to say I ended up lacing.

Hang up and all done.

I love how it turned out, I plan on making another but, again I need to wait for the rain to go away.

Next fun fall activity for a rainy day. 

Super easy to make cloud dough. I have actually never used the baby oil we got at our baby shower for Mackenzie. I don't know what to use it for? Is that weird? So, I finally opened it and used it to make cloud dough. This is super easy just 4 cups flour and 1/2 cup plus 2 Tablespoons baby oil. I used a whisk to stir mine and even though it was clumpy as we played with it, it smoothed out.

To make this a fall activity I found fall cookie cutters to play with.

During play time I put it in a cookie sheet on the table above a wood floor. Warning this is messy, clean up is a breeze though. If you don't have an easy to sweep floor it might be nice to do it on a shower curtain (get a cheap one at the dollar store) or I am sure it will vacuum easily. Just expect a mess!!

Both these activities Mackenzie loved and it was nice to do something fun with out a lot of work! Next month I am starting our at home preschool, I will share my ideas with that. November is the color Yellow and the shape is a square. Do you have any activity ideas to share?

Talk to you next time.

Dorinda

Mackenzie Update/ Friday Favorites

I wasn't sure how I wanted to write this update. Although, knowing I did want/need to, since I haven't updated on her in awhile. I did not want to do it how I used to because all favorites would be toys and I thought that would be boring. I love reading the blog Snappy Casual and she does updates in a list fashion, I thought of doing that and Little Baby Garvin (another favorite) does a Friday favorites list. So I have decided to try and combine the two. Let's see how this goes....

Mackenzie at her 2 year checkup was 24 lbs, and 34" tall. She is definitely growing but is still a tiny little girl.

Mackenzie

True size probably 18 months although I put her in/ and buy 2T

Diaper size 4 might be able to still fit in 3

Shoe size 5

• talks like crazy and everyday surprises me with new words, says 3 to 4 word sentences
• loves football
•  terrorizing  loves her animals (although Leela and her are best friends when outside)
• Loves to help in the kitchen
• Lives outside, once out you can never come back in!!
• Loves taking selfies

Some of our favorite activities are:

Going to the library

Swinging (which she hated until about 4 months ago)

Going to the gym daycare bonus if we take her swimming afterwards

Slides including the super scary waterslide at our gym

threading pipe cleaners in a colander (spends like 20min at time doing this)

Favorites in general

football

mickey mouse (bickey bouse)

coloring

balloons (bouys)

Favorite toys

baby stroller and babies

Melissa and Doug birthday cake (happy birfday)

doc mcstuffins doctor set

Favortie foods

pizza (asked for daily at each meal)

(she recently asked for a pizza party after seeing a Chucky Cheese commercial)

Mac and Cheese

Smoothies

She also sleeps in a "big" girl bed, is in the potty training process and I am trying to get away from pacifier but, break down after I hear "bink please". Can get out of tub by herself (not so great), daily has to watch Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Loves to head bang to any and all music but boy bands are her favorite. 

There is my Mackenzie update. I hope you enjoyed, should I do more in this style? Maybe every couple of months?

Dorinda

Minnesota: A new Experience for Mackenzie

This last week we went to Minnesota to watch our niece graduate! It was a surprise for her that we came, so I didn't want to blog about it until afterwards. With that said first time flying with a toddler was a little nerve wracking and consuming all my thoughts. Creating a void in my innovative brain and blocking all ideas on what else to blog about. I also didn't want to do just filler posts to fill the empty spaces, I want to make sure each of my blogs are something I actually want to share. So, sorry for the lack of posts lately. Here is review of our trip to Minnesota and how I survived flying with a toddler!

Before we left I had grand ideas of things to buy to pack and take to make flying for Mackenzie as smooth as possible. Then the week before a fellow employee got injured and my hours went from 28 to 44. Leaving me no time to pack, clean or shop until Friday the day before we left. This also added to lack of pictures which I have now had to go back and re set up to take to make it look like I was on top of my game and took these pics. Blogger fail! Another blogger fail while we were there I hardly got in pics  because I was enjoying watching Mackenzie experience it all for the first time,  or I was chasing Mackenzie around and trying to keep my sanity. Overall the trip was great,  too short, but great.

So it all started with Friday, working in the morning, meeting with the house sitter, cleaning and packing. Which I had not done any of that the week leading up. Mackenzie didn't nap great which made dealing with a cranky baby. Finally, she passed out around 5pm on the couch and I was able to move my butt and finish cleaning house. She woke up at 6pm still crabby but wanted to paint, I got her painting and started gathering clothes to pack. 8 o'clock was the time I was hoping to put her to bed but due to earlier nap she was not tired. So, she got a bath and I sat. 9pm I put her to bed then really started packing.

In my personal bag I do this whenever I travel I packed a large bag and then inside the large bag I put a small crossbody purse to double as my wallet. This way when we go shopping I don't have to carry the large bag I can just use the crossbody. Mondo also always brings a back pack. In the large bag I had 3 magazines (I never looked at them and they were heavy. I should have just done one), Mackenzie's change of clothes, 3 board books, a little bag with Minnie, stuffed Minnie, stuffed fox, Coloring book, crayons, headphones for me and her, and 3 binkies. Mondo's backpack contained Ipad, diapers, wipes and all of his other goodies.

Not everything is pictured. Extra's not mentioned are Minnie dress up, extra clothes, scarf, busy wallet for Mackenzie

So our plane was supposed to leave Spokane at 6am, which means we had to be at the airport at 430am, my parent's house, since my dad was driving us, at 4am, leave our house by 330am, up at 3 am. Max joined our bed at 11pm, I think, which is the same time I finally crawled into bed. My alarm scheduled for 245am, was on vibrate and I didn't fell it! Oops! Mondo set his for 3am and him and I both slept through for 10min. Double oops! We finally got out of the house and to my parent's only 10 min late. All good. All the commotion woke Mackenzie up, and she decided to stay awake. Which worked out Ok she slept the whole first flight! Until we touched down in Denver and the pilot slammed on the brakes. She didn't like that but, no crying just frowning. First flight down and all good! Denver we ate breakfast and got doughnuts. Then waited until we boarded. This is where Minnie (Minnie online) came in handy I was afraid of losing pieces and almost didn't bring it but, it worked great for the layover. 2nd plane we watched t.v. I think there was a glitch and we got it for free! Whoo hoo! We colored and played with the Ipad, which we also watched an episode of bubble guppies on. When it came to landing there was quite a bit of tuberlance and she decided to sit with daddy. Again, no crying all good. Minnesota airport had a Chik-fil-a. We needed that for lunch, it was far from baggage claim. So Mondo went for bags and Amy, Max and I for chicken! Mackenzie loved the moving sidewalk but she also loves escalators. Only problem no stroller and after we got food, toddler no longer wanted to walk. So I carried the food, Amy carried Mackenzie and it was was a long awkward walk to baggage claim. We got our rental car and rented a car seat. Surprisingly it was in great condition, although due to a mix up and miss reading of fine print we thought we were getting it for free. Nope, $12 a day. Next time we will gate check ours for free.

passed out first flight!

Finally, Minnesota. Surprise went great, graduation went great. I wore cute outfits. I will blog on this later. Let's keep this post under a 2 hour read. This post is strictly for flying.

Trip home: great news Sister in Minnesota had a spare umbrella stroller she let us have! After calling to make sure I can gate check it for free we headed to the Mall of America. Mackenzie loved the umbrella stroller and would not get out of it! Except when we got to the disney store and Lego store. Minnesota airport chicken for lunch again! How is that place so good? Gosh, it was so nice pushing Mackenzie in the stroller. We were there early so she got to play in the play zone for a while. Then we loaded the plane and gate checked the stroller. I do want to say I read about having one person load early while person 2 stays out and plays with toddler until last minute. This plan did not work for us. It was better to load earlier. Our seats for 3 out of 4 flights were in the back row. Actually all babies were in the back. I found out that this is because they keep the infant life vests in back. Makes sense,  just is an uncomfortable flight. So it was better to load early with families then try to explain to a toddler we can't push people out of our way and why they take a long time to put their carry on in the overhead compartment. So family load in our seats and no lines was the way to go. OK back to the flight. This time she stayed awake. So we colored and read board books over, over, over, over and over. I think I might have fell asleep and she was in daddy's lap. I think he mentioned Ipad and looking out the window too. Landing was smooth no problems.

Mackenzie waving bye

Playing in the MAC train at MSP

Denver at first we thought "we have 1 hr 30 min layover, no prob." Then double check, no only 45 mins. Then get to the gate. 2 hour almost 3 hour delay. Ugh! This was already 7pm Denver time. Flight not supposed to leave until 11pm, which means no Spokane until 12 am, Washington time. Yuck! So we ate, had ice cream. I wasn't feeling good so we sat at a darkened gate a let Mackenzie play. Minnie mouse again and colored some. Then she wanted to run around, which would have been ok, except she was tired and was no longer willing to listen. So we took her closer to our actual gate and let her walk around in a more contained area and look out the window at airplanes. This made her happy. Finally with 30 min left to go she was restless, who could blame her. I also knew she had to be tired since she hardly napped. So mondo and I switched turns pushing her in the stroller around the terminal. Thank you God and Brenda for this stroller!  While pushing the stroller around a bunch of people had flights cancelled and were sleeping at the airport. I was so thankful this wasn't us but, also it broke my heart when I saw a few families and even a few with infants. How yucky would that be! Finally we load. Since we were seated near the front we actually waited to seat with our section. This wasn't too bad. It was late so, I knew we would all sleep. Yucky, thing about this flight I don't think one mommy thought about the ear pressure thing. Her little one cried the whole flight and I noticed baby would cry louder whenever I felt more pressure in my ears. I was glad we choose to let Mackenzie have her binky the whole time we were flying. Of course she fell right to sleep.  We landed again he slammed on the brakes. Seriously! She woke up, dad was there to pick us up got her in the car and she fell back asleep 45 min later. Got home transferred her to her bed she stayed asleep and slept in until 8am.

Overall flying was great! I was so proud of Mackenzie she handled the whole thing like a trooper! I am so excited to fly with her more often. Hopefully next time to Disneyland! I love that place!

So this week Mackenzie turns 2! I plan on posting about her party, including a special surprise!  I also will blog later about the outfits worn in Minnesota. And in July my family moves in with my mom (temporarily), so my mom and I have a few photo sesh planned for so new blog posts. Oh and also coming up weight loss update!

Thank for reading,

Dorinda

The Day I Lost the Easter Dress

Okay so you have seen the title and know what happened, I lost Mackenzie's Easter dress. It all started shortly after I found out Old Navy had jellies! Yes, jellie shoes!! I started to think I needed to pull out Mackenzie's Easter dress and find shoes to match, potentially jellies. So, I went to her closet sure that I had washed it and hung it up. Apparently not, this was a Friday! I searched went to work, came home searched some more. Saturday searched again, including obscure places like the office, guest bedroom, the garage. Sunday, searched, Monday searched including towels, plastic bags, our clothes among other ridiculous locations. Tuesday searched more and texted a friend who I had recently gave clothes to, maybe they got put in there, she responded "No". Daily I cried (added I was on my menses, so extra hormonal). Wednesday decided I needed to hand this to God, mind you I had been praying for Him to bring hidden things to light. This time I decided to completely cast it off to Him, I also prayed to take my blinders off. Thursday went on a walk with a friend, came home and cleaned the office which included going through packed boxes prepared for our move end of June. After no luck in the office I decided to go in the guest room and check in my craft stuff again for the millionth time. Suddenly my blinders were off, the dress was in a bag folded in such a way I probably casted it off other times as fabric or ribbon. I cried tears of joy for finally finding this dress!!

My mom found this dress at Custer's craft fair beginning of March. I love it!! Not a traditional Easter dress, this one is bright and fun!! I loved this dress so much I decided to look them up and show you some other cute pieces they have. 

Here is a link to their facebook page Peeper's Children's Clothing.

I was hoping they had some boy stuff but, I didn't see any.

Now I need your help! Please help me pick out shoes and a hair bow to go with Mackenzie's dress!

Here are my top 5 picks, please vote in the comments below.

top left: old navy top right: gymboree middle: payless
bottom left: h&m bottom right: old navy

curly clips; ruffle white flower; daisy headband; silver bow; pink felt

Also I thought I would show what I plan on wearing Easter morning. My mom bought me this cute dress from Old Navy during their dress sale.

Dress: Old navy similar, Vest: DIY similar, shoes: Steve Madden similar

I am helping in the Children's class for one service and attending one service. So, I decided to pair it with a denim jacket to give it a little more casual look while I am in assisting.

Oh and since I really wanted to add some boy stuff, one of the esty shops I like for bows does bow ties. Here are my top 5 favorite bow ties!

brown felt:  gray polka dot; turquoise; green printed; black felt

Don't forget to vote, I need help!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Chambers! Make today memorable!

Another addicting easy snack/ kids can cook!

OMG! What is with me and easy snacks did you see my Thanksgiving day one? Have you tried it? This one I found on a blog completely randomly not even on Pinterest! Although I am sure it's on there! This one is 5 ingredients but could be 3! So, easy make these with your toddler. Heck! I made it with 2 toddlers! I made these while Mackenzie's friend Camryn was visiting. 

No Bake Peppermint Sugar Cookie Bites

1 cup room softened butter (that's 2 stick BTW)

1 1/2 cup brown sugar

2 cups flour

8...ish candy canes crushed

1 tsp vanilla

According to the blog you can switch our flour and sugar with cake mix. I haven't made it that way yet.

Step one: crush candy canes (the girl's loved to help do this. I used a pan and a baggie!)

Step two: cream sugar and butter (girl's added those and I worked the blender)

Step three: add vanilla and flour (girl's helped)

Step four: mix (it was pretty crumbly and I didn't think they would work but they did! )

Step five: stir in peppermint candy canes (girl's helped)

Step six: roll into balls

Viola! Best snack ever! Every time I started to make a ball Mackenzie would squeal and sign more. I had to cut her off, is there an A.aA meeting for toddlers?  Pretty sure she needs it after these!

Up next on blog this year's Christmas decor! Look at last year's here!

Easy treat, happy me,

Dorinda

Experiencing Sunday

At a Children's Ministers Conference I attended the main speaker said not to call Children's Church, "Sunday School". Kids don't like Monday thru Friday school, why would they want to attend Sunday School. That really stuck with me. I think a lot of times we take the fun out of Jesus and try to just teach the kids. Another quote that often stands out is "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime." It was important to me as a Children's Director to make Sunday an experience for the kids! A place they can meet Jesus and experience His love. They weren't just hearing the bible stories, or learning how to pray, or listening to stories of what God can do. They instead got to experience Jesus and His love, they got to talk to God and know their prayers were heard, they could pray over each other and see the miracles take place. I called this the "movie"experience.

Every Sunday at our kid's Ministry, I called it kid's ministry because the kid's were in charge of our ministry, not really ran by them but, they were why we had a ministry. Back to what I was saying; every Sunday at our kid's ministry was a, "Movie Experience". Movie theaters are a common place to attend but, still are a fun experience. The smell, anticipation, larger than life screen, decorations, friends and family, and so much more.

This is how we created the Movie experience.

Smell/Look: Clean classrooms with no funky smells! At a movie theater the decorations are simple, they change the poster for new movies coming out but other than that they are constant. We went with an industrial theme with neon accents. I liked that theme because you could easily decorate it for any special theme lesson. Example, a Christmas tree for Holidays, bales of hay for farms, or a large fruit tree for fruits of the spirit, etc. Movie theaters smell of popcorn, our goal was to have no funky smells.

Larger than Life: The movie screens are so big it's hard to get distracted. So our goal ... to make sure your attention is drawn up front. Using object lesson, big personalities, large graphics, and fun.

Friends and Family: Of course encouraging kids to bring their friends but, also encouraging friendships in class with small groups. Another lesson I learned from Kids on the Move is to have leaders that are "who they want to be now" and leaders that are "who they want to be when they grow up". Who they want to be now are "cool"/younger leaders that love God. Who they want to be when they grow up fun, "older" that love God and lead a Godly lifestyle. 

Characters: A lot of times we choose our movie by who is starring in it. I wanted kids I come on Sunday's excited to see their favorite "character". Whether that be a favorite teacher/volunteer or a puppet, or a character in a skit.

Music: Soundtracks of movies are always a hit. So Sunday's I would incorporate music in every way possible. Before service, after, games, transitions, and praise and worship. I would not always use "christian" music. Sometimes using "secular" stuff with good message. i.e. Selena Gomez "Who says", Victoria Justice "Freak the Freak Out", Miley Cyrus "Ice Cream Freeze". Side note; if we were doing a new Praise song I would play it a lot before and during service, so when it came time for that song in praise and worship the kids got excited, thinking they already knew it. 

One of my favorite transition songs; by Kids on the Move

Transitions: Good movies have smooth transitions from one scene to the next. It is a must to practice transitions. Somethings you can use is music, videos, jokes, skits. These take practice, and still can go wrong. Just keep working at it!!

Fast pace: Nobody likes a slow movie that just keeps getting slower. Keep the service moving (my fool proof service schedules coming in a blog soon). Keep up the excitement level, anticipation and keep moving.

Teasers: Keep them coming back with cliff hangers or sneak peeks of the upcoming weeks. 

One place I got my inspiration for making Sunday's an experience was from Kid's on the Move, this will help inspire you to have a great Sunday experience!!

I hope this helps encourage you to make every Sunday an experience. Every 4 -6 months we would have a Super Sunday. I will blog more on that later. What are some ways you make Sundays an experience?