We don't really celebrate St. Patrick's Day around here and I know the kids would be freaked out by leprechauns BUT I love an excuse for a new homemade playdough!

I took my original play dough recipe and made it gingerbread scented! I know that everyone is all about peppermint right now, but I am a gingerbread fan through and through. This playdough smells heavenly and is actually the easiest recipe I've made yet!

Now that E has turned three, I have been trying to think of a creative way for her work on being responsible. We typically ask her to do things like clean up her toys or bring her dishes to the sink but I was constantly reminding, nagging and bribing. I finally decided that giving her special, 'jobs' might increase her independence in doing little things around the house! A few of these jobs needed to be taught and we are still practicing doing them together. I am realizing that a lot of the time I can get these things done faster and more efficiently on my own, but I also know how important it is to teach her to be responsible and independent!

My baby is THREE! She is sweet and spunky and was so much fun to celebrate! Between the two kiddos, we have hosted five parties and this was our smallest one yet. We had our parents and siblings over for dinner and dessert with a lot of floral and a little Minnie Mouse on the side ;) I am planning to use all the decorations from the party for E's big girl room makeover!

We have gone through a lot of playdough since E has been old enough to play with it! In an effort save some money we tried to make our own.

My favorite part about our play themes (here, here & here) is switching out our books. I wanted to make some simple shelves that would display our themed books with the covers facing out and be within reach of the kids! I had no idea what to get or where to start so I had my handy husband teach me everything he knows

After Henry's first birthday, we had a lot of new toys to fill our playroom! I wanted to really clean it out with as few things as possible to make our play time more intentional and clean-up easier. This made me want to change our artwork up on a budget of course. When I worked at Giant Steps during college, we would do a similar activity with the amazing art therapist. We would use huge pieces of paper and let the kids paint it with badminton rackets and paint. SO MUCH FUN. This is a scaled down version for my two-year-old but proved to be just as fun!

When we moved into our house almost three years ago, the first thing I wanted to update was the kitchen cabinets. I was seven months pregnant with Miss Emma Grace and my sweet husband still needed some convincing so I decided to focus on other things, like growing a human. Eight months after we moved in and without any home improvement project experience at all, I decided to try and paint them! I sat down with John and his dad and we talked through the process and what I would need. I also spent a lot of time talking with the sweet man who worked at the local hardware store. It wasn't something that came naturally to me at first, but I really got the hang of it after awhile! If you're hesitant to take on a big project like this because you don't have the experience or time, I'm here to tell you that if I can do it...  you can too!

Using the light table was one of my favorite centers as an early childhood teacher. Thought I could throw some things together to recreate the same idea as a light table and it was a success!