Apothecary Awesomeness

I think my husband may be building me something like this...I'm completely psyched...

Ellie & Fern Boutique Sale!

Ellie & Fern Boutique Sale
Come check it out!
Lots of fun handcrafted items!

THIS SATURDAY
MARCH 12 2011
8:00am - 12:00pm


Some of the items:
toddler boy ties
headbands
rings
receiving blankets
nursing covers
tote bags (shoulder, hand, and repurposed)
ring slings
pillows
&more!

Stand For The Right

My Primary Presidency asked me to teach the children to sign this song for our Sacrament Program in the fall. I taught it to them in 20 minutes. They LOVED it! It's easy and fast and best of all fun. So I thought I would share for any other Primary chorister's out there. The asl version of this song is not on lds.org (they have an asl page for the songbook...cool right? unfortunately, they don't have ALL the songs...that would totally rock my world)

(Pardon my late night raccoon eyes)

Disclaimer: I do not know sign language...(except for baby signing time...) BUT I did run all the signs past my cousin who is fluent...so she says they are good...and that's good for me. If it's not good for you, run it past someone else and make adjustments. You can sign "words" differently but I liked the "W" association so that's why I stuck with that one...
enjoy!

don't wake the giraffe

plsd
(precious little snicker doodle)

March in Room 4

I don't know if I'll be doing this that often but I'm on a kick so either enjoy...or just skip it. These are my March Practical Life Shelves. For the first 2 weeks we are doing St. Patrick's Day and Rainbows. I haven't decided for sure what I'll be doing between Spring Break (yeah!) and Easter. My children really need the shelves changed every 2 weeks or so..I wish they would last longer...but they don't. I always know when I let it go a little too long - they get a little crazy. (I usually try to blame it on the weather or something but usually it's all my fault).

Top: (from L to R) clover spooning, coin tonging, clover tonging (this one is tricky because they have to hold the tongs farther up in order to grasp the clovers in the jar).
Middle: Tree lacing, ball stringing, Dr. Suess match and lace
Bottom: Rainbow weaving, Rainbow Buttoning

Top: St. Patrick pouring, Share Pouring, Pouring and spooning
Middle: water bottle squirting (They LOVE this one - the goal is to fill the bowl with water from the squirt bottle...it's actually really challenging...even for the adults). Straining with a hand strainer, straining with a colander.
Bottom: Barrel of Monkeys, spring puzzle, building box (connector pieces are inside)

Some closeups:
Rainbow weaving. The rack is from the $.99 store and the ribbon is just hot glued (I singed the ends with a match so they wouldn't get gross.)

I made this buttoning pillow. Felt, ribbon, buttons, and a little fluff. The red one is sewed with the ribbon on the front of the flower to show that it goes first.

One of my student's doing the Barrel of Monkeys. I've done this in the past the traditional way (pour in out on to the table (we poured them onto our tray) and pick up the monkeys from there) but for my age group it's a little too challenging and frustrating. The bowl solves all the problems. First they hang the monkeys on the side of the bowl then collect them one by one to see how long they can make their chain. He's doing a pretty good job, right!?

I wish I had gotten a better picture of my sensorial bowl...but this is the best I've got. The children love digging under all the pipe cleaners for the rocks and gems. There are 10 Celtic shapes to collect. But most of the time they spend scooping the rocks out of the bottom.

In case you're wondering what's in the bowl:
white, gold, and green pom poms
green and gold pipe cleaners
2 different kinds of green gems
Celtic shapes
Shamrock confetti

Happy March Everyone!

Eye Candy

Do you ever feel like squealing because your kids are so dang cute? I do this daily.
A little eye candy for you. Enjoy!

A little bit of randomness

We can't seem to get better at our house...for the past 2 months it's been a constant cycle of ear infections...pink eye...bronchitis...unknown viruses, and now...flu. GAH! We are so over being sick! Right now it's Matt and Emmie (and possibly prime...he's one cranky kid) But even in the midst of boogers, puke, eye goop, and poop there have been some cute moments. These are 2 from yesterday.

Emmie wrote "her name"!

Now you may be looking at this and thinking..."um, Elyse, you need to check your eyes because this does not spell her name." yes, yes, this is true BUT they are LETTERS!!! how huge is that?! AWESOME!


I love them