Noah's Tribal Masks!

Noah has come to love making tribal masks. He learned about them in art class.  He was coloring pictures of them and decided he wanted to make his own tribal masks out of paper.  He has done a great job.  He glues them to paper because they are smaller than normal masks you wear. I decided I am going to frame them and hang them on the wall.  He is really cute when he makes them because he makes idea banks and picks out different eyes and noses and mouths he likes before he chooses which one he wants to use. He’s so great it! He has also started making real masks that he can wear. I need to remember to buy some string for him to put them on.  He carefully cuts out the shapes. He is able to cut out eyes without cutting in the paper on the sides. That’s pretty impressive if you ask me. He is such a great artist.  We wanted to share a couple masks Noah made. I helped with the cutting because some of the pieces were really small. They were all drawn out for this left handed mama, who can’t cut very well. I am so proud of all he has learned in art this year. He loves to draw and create things out of clay. He also loves to paint. He has moved on from using crayons which is definitely bittersweet for me. He loves colored pencils though. I have a hard time keeping them all together no matter how hard I try.  He received Citizen of the Month for April and it was so cool they gave him colored pencils as one of his prizes.  I hope you enjoy the masks as much as I do. He worked really hard on them.

Noah's Tribal Giraffe Mask

Noah is Growing Up Fast!

When I found out I was pregnant with Noah, I started making my list of what I would need for him. I remember that I had a check list that was like four pages long. He needed all kinds of things, or so I thought. There were some things on the list that I never ended up using. I knew that he was going to be a boy so I made sure I bought gauze for his circumcision. I never ended up using it though. I was an over prepared mom who had everything that the books recommended short of a bottle warmer, and wipe warmer, which both seemed like something I would not use. The most important thing to have for a baby or a child for that matter is a car seat. We are on car seat number 4. I would suggest cosco car seats for anyone who is looking for a car seat. The one we had lasted a long time. It had gone on my many trips and never had any problems with it. It was a great price too.

Noah has always been a big boy so when he meets the weight requirement he has to move on to another one. I really don’t mind though because that’s just part of being a mom, new car seats, new clothes, and new shoes as he keeps growing. Noah has had a lot of cute clothes and shoes. I wish I would have bought him some toddler rain boots. So, his pants wouldn’t get wet as he jumped in the puddles. Little kid boots are adorable and I was just thinking about buying Noah a pair, so we can jump in puddles together. I would need boots too because my snow boots would look ridiculous in the Spring and Summer. I could probably get away with wearing my beach sandals though.

11 More Movie Quotes I love.

I love to watch movies and quote them too. So I thought I would share 11 more of my favorite movie quotes with you all. Just for fun. These are in no particular order they are all quotes that I love from different movies.

11. Just remember that in every pothole there is hope. Well, you see, pothole is spelled P-O-T-H-O-L-E. So if you take the P, and add it to the H, the O, and the E, and rearrange the letters... or contrariwise, you remove the O, T, and the L, you get "hope". So, just remember, in every pothole there is hope! -Mixed Nuts.

10. Get busy living or Get busy dying. -The Shawshank Redemption

9. If you are gonna spew… Spew in this. –Wayne’s World

8. Oh no We’ve been Cloned- White Chicks

7. What will you give me for a basket of kisses? A basket of kisses? Why, I’ll give you a basket of hugs. – The Bad Seed.

6. You can't right all the wrongs of this world by yourself. – The Hunchback of Notre Dame

5. That is why they elected me.. dun dun dun.. Jury Foreman – Jury Duty

4. You know, for kids- The Hudsucker Proxy

3. Well then... what's orange? If this is red, I wanna know, What's orange?- Requiem For a Dream

2. Ladies and gentleman the perfect meatloaf – Serial Mom

1. You tell them that our lives can change with every breath we take... and tell 'em to hold on like hell to what they've got: each other, and a mother who would die for them and almost did... You tell them we've all got meanness in us, but we've got goodness too. And the only thing worth living for is the good. And that's why we've got to make sure we pass it on. – Where the Heart Is

What are some of your favorite movie quotes?

The Waiting Game: Tips to Keep Kids Busy

MobiStories.com Guest Contributor Wendy Toone shares great tips on how to keep your kids occupied when you've got tons of errands to run!

As a mom of two, I know I'm not alone when I say how challenging it is to keep young kids occupied while doing any sort of waiting. And by challenging, I mean "grit-your-teeth, pull your hair out, I can't believe they're doing that in public" challenging. How many times have you had to stop in to the bank for a quick transaction with a toddler in tow, only to find a line so long you think you made a wrong turn and ended up at the DMV. What to do?? You look at your toddler...at the line...at the very important banking you need to do...at your toddler.... at the line. It may seem like a hopeless situation, but it's not. I'm here to help.

Here are a few of my tried and true tips and ideas to try the next time you find yourself in a queue, a waiting room, on a plane, or any other situation where you may need to keep your little ones quiet and at bay. They've worked for me; I hope they work for you. The basic premise is to keep your child busy. By giving them something specific to do you'll be combating boredom, and may have fun in the process. So, give your toddler a job...Part 1 offers Gross Motor Exercises. In my follow up article I offer some Fine Motor Exercises. And the series will finish with the all-important Cognitive Exercises, to keep your little one thinking all the time.

"Gross" Motor Exercises (exercises for the large muscle groups, not the yucky ones)

Youngsters need to be active. It seems as though they're wired that way. Running, jumping, rolling are all part of everyday life for toddlers - after all, physical and cognitive development is their job. So, since screen time may not be an option, how can we expect them to stand still for any length of time? That doesn't mean you can turn your little one loose in the lobby. But you can encourage the use of large muscle groups, keeping them active but in one spot.

1. Flamingo Stand - have your child extend his/her arms out to the side for balance, then pick up one foot and see how long they can stand on the other foot. Naturally you'll want to make sure you both have a bit of room in case of tips and tumbles. But the goal is not to fall down. The goal is to stay up...counting helps and creates an opportunity for improvement as each time they try they get to higher and higher numbers.

Once your child (and probably you as well) tire of the Flamingo Stand, move on to this one.

2. Little, Big - have your child do basic squats. For those of you who workout, you know how fatiguing it can be to burn those thigh muscles. Your child reaches as tall as she/he can, up on tiptoes, then squats down as little as they can, but staying on their feet. Think duck squat. In fact, you can even give a whispered little "quack, quack" if it helps. You can get big, now get little, as often as you'd like. Be certain not to go too fast.... otherwise you move into jumping, which may require more room than you have at hand.

We adults will probably feel the burning sensation in our legs much sooner than your child; however, you can probably stop at any time and watch your child go, go, go, go.

These are just a couple of gross motor exercises you can do with your child. By the way, why do they call them gross motor exercises? I'm sure you can now think of many others along these same lines. When it comes to waiting on long lines, giving your child something productive to do will make the waiting time pass more quickly. I look for anything to pass the time by. Whether it's Gross Motor, Fine Motor or even just watching digital picture books to exercise your child's brain. You know, whatever it takes. They're only this young once!

Wendy Toone is a child expert having owned and operated a leading franchise children's fitness center and now producing MobiStories, Virtual Books for KidsTM, as well as being a mom to her two children. To experience the world of digital children's picture books, visit MobiStories.com.

To download a free digital book for your PC visit MobiStories.com, click on Summer (in the Ages 2 - 4 category) add it to the cart along with Michelle Obama (Ages 6-10) then enter the code SUM0710 in the Coupon Code Box.

*This advertorial post is sponsored by the Role Mommy Writer's Network.

Let's go camping

One of the things I am looking forward to doing with Noah is going camping when he gets a little bit older. I used to love going to summer camp. Going to camp was one of my favorite things to do during the summer. I made so many friends and I didn’t want to go home. I really enjoyed receiving letters from my family. It is just something about being outside in the wilderness and sitting around a campfire that does a body good. You can have so much fun just sitting around a fire telling stories, singing songs, and of course making S’mores. I also like to fish. I really think that Noah would get a kick out of it and really enjoy camping. We have talked about looking at camping tents and sleeping outdoors in our backyard. We were discussing that the other day. I am not too sure if it would be something that would last all night and if I would get any sleep.

I used to camp out in my back yard with friends or my sister and most of the time we would end up coming inside once it got late. We would hear a noise and get scared. I have always lived in really nice areas but I am kind of a chicken even now. I think a better idea would be to instead of camping out, spend a few hours outside in our tent and doing everything that you would do when you are camping but then come inside after we did all the fun things. I think that would be the best bet until he gets to be older then we can do the full blown out in the woods experience. Do you like to camp with your family? Please share with me some of your stories.

Drawing with Noah

Noah loves to color and draw. We had been drawing in doodle on Yahoo Messenger. I decided to use paint today since he wanted to draw the night sky and I wasn’t going to sit there and color the whole box myself. So, I found some really cool features on paint. Noah told me what to draw and what to put where. He even helped by pushing the button several times. I really like how our picture turned out so I thought I would share it. I took screenshots of the ones we have drawn in the past and those will probably make appearances on my blog at a later date.
Here is Noah and Mommy’s interpretation of the night sky!

Small Talk Six- Puppy Love Edition

Over at Momdot there is a weekly Meme called Small Talk Six
Today’s topic is “6 celebrities you had a crush on when you were a tween or teen.” You can answer this with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, 6 photos, 6 videos, etc . . .

1. Johnathan Taylor Thomas
2. Elijah Wood
3. Jared Leto
4. Mark-Paul Gosselaar
5. George Clooney
6. Leonardo DiCaprio

For more Small Talk Six please visit Momdot and check out the Mr. Linky HERE

Monster Clips!!

I made these a while back and I thought I would do a how to for those who would like to make their own. They are really easy to make and are a lot of fun. They are embellished paper clips for all to enjoy. Just in time for Halloween or for your favorite little monster. You could use then for book marks too!
I decided to vlog while making these



Here are the supplies you will need:

Thin colored foam sheets (I got mine at a dollar store)

Scalloped circle punch – I have one from Stampin Up!

Jumbo Paper clips- not the standard size

Double sided tape

Glue dots

Googly eyes- two for each Monster you want to make.

1.punch out some scalloped circles. Punch out two for each monster you want to make.

2. Using double sided tape carefully tape the paper clip to one of the foam pieces half way down. Make sure the part that you insert paper in is down.

3. Using little pieces of double sided tape on the side where the paperclip is to secure the top of the monster.

4. Press the top foam piece on top

5. Using glue dots put on the googly eyes

And Ta-Dahh! you have Monster clips! I hope you enjoy this craft as much as I do!