Preserve Memories with a Travel Journal

I love to scrapbook and create pretty things. I have started making travel journals where I write down things like where we ate and take a lot of photos. I love to design the pages and add all the cute things I can find. Sometimes I just add shells I found to the pages.  I wish I would have started doing this earlier in life. I also scrapbook old photos from trips too.

Noah loves to make his own travel journals. He loves to write notes and reminders. He is a pretty good photographer once he stopped taking pictures of the tv screen. He is learning a lot. He has quite the talent for writing and photography. He already makes fish journals and space journals. He is a great illustrator too. I can't wait to see what he creates for our next trip. It's also a great way for him to remember trips we have been on.  My grandma Rose used to write down everything. We still have her travel journals. That's where it really started for me. They used to go cross country in my aunt and uncle's RV. My Grandma Rose's journals were so detailed  it felt like you were there. She didn't skip a beat. I love to read them even now. I can imagine my grandchildren looking at my travel journals some day, imagining they are off with me on one of my adventures.

Check out my post on how to create your own travel journal.

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

Once upon a time

Every night before Noah goes to bed he asks for a story and a song or two. I love telling him stories and singing him songs. It is a special time we share together. I love how excited he gets when I tell him things and I like to build up the anticipation for him. I think that is his favorite part of wondering what comes next. That is also one of his favorite questions to ask is What comes next?

The stories are almost always about a little boy named Noah. I will start the story Once upon a time there was little boy named….. then Noah will chime in and say Noah! I mainly tell the story but I like when he fills in the blanks for me. It is fun to see what he comes up with and watch him form ideas in his mind. The stories are usually about our lives like going to the store or the zoo and things like that.

I have been telling him a story about Noah going to a farm. He has a love for animals and he loves to look at them and talk about them so I thought he would like that. I thought I would share mine and Noah’s story we told tonight with you.

Once upon a time there was a little boy named NOAH. Who lives in his HOUSE with his MOMMY. Noah and Mommy went to a farm and met a cow named CHICKEN. Noah and the cow named chicken were playing in the field. Then Noah and the cow named Chicken met a pig named HORSE. They played together and then saw a chicken named ROM and a goat named SHEEP. They had a lot of fun playing together until it was time to go home. So mommy and Noah got in the car and went home and watched CAILLOU SHOO SHOO and ate dinner and played together until it was time for bed. The End.

The caps are obviously my son’s responses. I thought it was a great silly story. I encourage you to tell stories to your children and let them fill in the blanks. It’s fun and educational. When we were telling the story we were both laughing really hard and I thought of doing Mad Libs when I was little.
It is so much fun to laugh with my son. He is pure joy and I love him.