Ocean lesson

We woke up to snow on the ground and Florida on our mind today. It's a little early to do an ocean lesson, I know, but we're beach bound in 15 days so why not?!




We started the day by talking about all of the things you find in the ocean. This book was given to us by our sweet neighbors and complimented the lesson perfectly. It is a pop up book that makes sounds of the ocean, dolphins, divers, etc. Super Cool!

The littles LOVE to finger paint, and I LOVE crafts using handprints, footprints, or anything to remember their tini-ness. This handprint crab craft was a 'win-win'

Gotta love a good snack-time activity! I found this and other ocean printables here We used our snack (shark, whale and starfish crackers- I know!) to measure how long some of our favorite ocean animals are. Blake LOVES to count and Emma LOVES to eat so another win-win!

I had printed a world map to color here. We used our 'world crayons' we had made on Valentine's day (still need to blog that on) to color our map. And a picture isn't complete until you've added stickers to it so we added some fish stickers in the ocean (and some on land) ;)

We brought the beach inside with a little sand and some sea shells. I layed a beach towel underneath to catch some sand which made for easy clean-up and a nice beach feel (until you look out the window). I had some beach tunes going because music is just necessary during play time :)

This kept little hands busy for a good 30 minutes. Eventually Buzz Lightyear and other toys were getting added and it was time to call it quits though.

A pre/post lunch activity: Alphabet fishing

We are ready to hit the beach!!

Dental Health Lesson

Today we talked about dental health. My kids love to brush their teeth, but brushing for them usually consists of them sucking the toothpaste off and then asking for more. Today I thought I'd teach them about why we brush our teeth

I first did an egg experiment with them. The egg had been hard boiled (well, boiled...I have yet to be able to hard boil an egg perfectly) and then soaked in a glass of pop for about an hour. The pop made the egg turn brown just as it does our teeth. You can also use coffee or colored fruit juice to get this effect.

I showed them the now brown egg and explained that one of the reasons we brush our teeth is so our teeth stay nice and white. We put toothpaste on a toothbrush and brushed our egg. You can see in the picture the white spot on the egg which is where we brushed ;)

Next, we took a laminated tooth cutout which I previously drew brown spots on using a dry erase marker. Using toothbrushes, the kids brushed away the brown spots.

I then gave them a little toothpaste (shaving cream) to brush all over their tooth to make it clean and white. They loved getting a great big glob of 'toothpaste' on their toothbush!

Next, we were on to flossing. I saw this idea online somewhere. Using giant legos we practiced flossing (yarn) the food (playdoh) out of lego teeth

I've always wanted to this snack idea I've seen everywhere. Apple smiles using apple slices, peanut butter and marshmallows for the teeth

CHEESE!

Teaching for the glory of God:

To include God in the lesson, we talked about who gave us our teeth and why (also had to include "did God give us teeth to bite our brother?" just for Emma). haha. I also incorporated that we are to take care of the things God gives us. The way we take care of our teeth are to eat foods that are good for our teeth and to brush twice a day.

Pee Wee All Sports

We signed Blake up for Pee Wee All Sports this winter and it has been wonderful. Last week was picture day which gave me the opportunity to bring my big ol' camera in without looking like a total crazy mom. It was also track and field day. Before class I thought, how on earth are they going to teach 3 yr olds shot-put, discus and hurdles? As always, they know what they are doing and it made for some great memories.

Shot put using wiffle balls

Discuss using frisbees

Long jump :)

Lastly, the hurdles. By far all the kids favorite thing to do was jumping over these foam hurdles

It's hard to tell in this small picture, but typically every time he jumped over the hurdle, the hurdle came with him. He smiled and laughed everytime he knocked them over nonetheless. :)

Snow Day!

Blake LOVES the snow (or "no" as he calls it)! He looks out the window everyday to see the "no" and loves to touch the snow that gets dragged in the house from our shoes. It's been a rough winter in our house for colds, so we haven't had the greatest opportunity to get him outside. BUT we finally did it......bundled him in his snowsuit and "boos" (aka- "boots") and took him out. Here's a peak at our "no" adventure......

It was an adventure getting him all bundled up. And HILARIOUS to see him walk in his snow boots and snow suit.

Walking in the snow was not so easy!

This is Blake's FAVORITE snowman that our neighbors built. He said hi and bye to it everyday.....until it's head fell off and melted :( Now he says "uh-oh" and points to his own head everytime he sees that last bit of formed snow in its place.

First Haircut!

The past few days Blake has been in to wearing hats:

And putting things on his head:

It's true, his hair was getting extremely shaggy. Maybe he was embarrassed?

Time for your first hair cut!!

He actually sat really well through it! And the results:

Maybe a few touch-ups here and there, but overall not too bad.

This is Blake pointing to his new hair.

B is for Birthday

Blake turned ONE and to celebrate we threw him a big birthday bash. The theme.......letter "B" I know it's not that clever, but it was fun and a bit of a challenge to coordinate an entire party, food and all, around a single letter. Here's a peak at our birthday bash.

Ball pit.....full of cousins

Birthday gifts

Birthday cake

Blake's cake (clearly homemade :)

The winners of the Balloon contest.....Dylan and Sophie

4 generations of Steffens.......and if you look behind them, there's the banner I worked on for the past month that I didn't get a picture of!

and of course, destruction of the cake.

All in all, the party was a sucess.......except I was busy running around and did not get enough pictures. I have no pictures of party favors, food, decorations, family, etc. I should have hired a photographer! If you took pictures, please send them to me!

He Can Walk!!

Blake has been getting better and better on his feet recently. He usually only takes 2 or 3 steps at a time, but suddenly today he has been walking across the room! Just in time, as his birthday in only 1 week from today (and he's nearing 23 pounds....way too heavy to carry!) I was lucky enough to catch it on camera too! Sorry the video is sideways.........no clue how to rotate it!