100th post! (and extra stuff)

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Just thought I would hit on the fact that this is my 100th post. Wow! In 19 months I've done alot of writing and alot of livin'. Everything from Hayden's birth, to moving, building,cooking, projects and everything in between these past 19 months have flown. Thanks to everyone that's joined us on this journey and for all the comments and love you've shown me! For my 100th post today, I thought I would share what I started working on last week. As you can probably tell from my last several posts, I have been working to find projects and fun things to do with Ella. I've been really convicted that if I'm going to be a "Stay-at-Home Mom" then I need to live up to the job title. I don't believe anywhere in that title says, maid, cook, yard girl or anything else other than "Mom", even though those things are implied and I take care of those things, the most important thing that I need to remember is the reason I am staying at home. To be with my kiddos. Since we've not put the kids in Mother's Day Out this year I felt like I really needed to use my time on atleast 2 days of the week where I really work with Ella on some neat things that she may otherwise have gotten to do if she were at "school". Last week after the kids had gone to bed I got caught up in several Montessori websites. Not that we are following the Montessori Method, but they really do have some fun learning activities that Ella would love to do. I stayed up until 2am that night and was buzzing with ideas by morning. I made Ella a bookcase that we could turn around for school time and then turn it back around for hanging up her artwork. We're going to do this twice a week so to keep it fun, but to keep her involved in some learning activity. Below are some of the things I've made and her doing some of her activities. Ella really enjoys playing with the water, beans, wooden beads, sewing and of course painting. I got the majority of my ideas from here, Chasing Cheerios, and she has a ton of links that helped me find some other Mom's that had great ideas too! I promise not to make any more big posts about this but I'm just wanting to share what we've been working on lately.

The back side of the bookcase, made with peg board so I can hang stuff on the inside and out.

The inside of her bookcase. I'm working on getting it organized so she can find stuff easily. The top shelf holds paint, paper, hole puncher, brushes and other art material that I hand out to her. The second shelf has her cleaning supplies, placemat, measuring cups and spoons, bead, beans, funnels, and bowls. Yes, I did say cleaning supplies. One of the ideas behind some of the Montesorri is to teach the kids some useful/helpful things, a.k.a cleaning, dressing self, setting the table. I bought some kid friendly cleaner and a sponge and Ella loves to spray down her table to clean it. I'm taking advantage of this while I can as I know later she will not want to do such a thing as clean. I also sewed her a placemat that has the shape of a plate, fork, spoon and cup so she can be reminded of how to set the table. We haven't worked on this one yet, but hopefully soon she'll have interest in it. Moving on...the bottom shelf has her mystery bags, dressing squares, latch board, bolt board, puzzles and wooden food tray.

Ella sewing like her Momma!
Painting away!
We ended up using her artwork to wrap her Mur's birthday present. It really turned out pretty!
I decopaged the top of her table so that beans wouldn't get stuck in the cracks anymore.

Using her eye dropper, funnels and big measuring bowl to transfer water.
The latch board I made to help her build finger coordination.
These are dressing squares. I made one with buckles, zipper, snaps, overall hooks and eye and hooks. Some are still a little hard for her to do, but she likes the buckles the best!
When you open up the fabric it is a frame inside. I want to find some fun pictures of things or of her so she will want to look and play with them more. Also to change it up a bit every now and then. Right now Ella unzips the fabric and says EVERY time, "wook, there's de baby."I find it humerous.
This idea I also got from a Montessori website. You can buy these things, but I made it myself. You use different size bolts with wing nuts to help once again with the childs finger strength, movement, etc. I think this is suppose to help with holding a pencil for writing. Using their index and thumb fingers.

I'm sure you are all wanting to know what Hayden is doing during our hour to hour and a half of work. He joins in on several things. He really enjoys playing with the beans and scooping them up with the measuring cups and spoons and then dumping them back into the bowl. He also plays with the wooden beads as well and water. I just have to sit right next to him so that he doesn't bother Ella. Since his room is right there too, I have a gate on his door so when Ella gets to painting he can't touch the wet paint and make a mess. So he gets to play with toys in his room while Ella works. The past two times he's ended up laying down on the ground with his toys and falls asleep. It is hilarious. Why he doesn't just crawl up the steps to his bed is beyond me. He just starts singing away and I look back in his room and he's out on the floor. Crazy kiddo! Here's Hayden playing too.