Mama

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities!   Thank you for stopping by!  Wow - this week has gone by so quickly! With my husband working a later shift and some beautiful Minnesota weather (finally!) we have spent most of our time out and about. It has been so wonderful to take advantage of the warm and sunny days, we will leave in the morning, stop back home for nap, and then head back out when Skyler wakes up. It has, unfortunately, not left much time for crafting or activities at home, but with rain in the forecast next week, I am sure we will be doing more of that! Here are some pictures from a few of our favorite outdoorsy things this week. Monday rained off and on, so we braved some sprinkles and checked out a new-to-us park that is near our house. We have gone to the little bucket swings on the other side of the beach, but this was our first time at the big playground, and we had it all to ourselves! We were given this small ba...

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities!   Thank you for stopping by!  I am excited to be contributing to fellow Minnesota blogger Oakland Avenue's series on New Mom Confessions today. This was so much fun to come up with! Click here to check out some of my parenting confessions on her wonderful site!

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities!   Thank you for stopping by!  I have mentioned our favorite children's band, the Minnesota based Okee Dokee Brothers on more than one occasion. Skyler received their Grammy winning CD/DVD Can You Canoe? for Christmas last year, when he was just six months old. I've never been into bluegrass, and was especially skeptical of a children's bluegrass band (working in childcare and teaching for years, I have heard my share of awful children's music). I have always been a ska/punk music kind of person, but after getting that CD, we went from my music and the occasional Baby Einstein lullaby CD, to bluegrass music every day. It was the perfect CD for when we were playing in Skyler's room and was calming enough that I remember walking around his room, bouncing him before sleep to The Bullfrog Opera and Small and Simple . It was a bonding experience for us and I still love listeni...

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities!   Thank you for stopping by!  While cleaning out a closet awhile back, I saw this bag of empty smoothie containers. I started trying to think of a good use for them. I counted six and the first idea that came into my head was a bowling game for Skyler. He has played with the cute animal versions at various classes we have been at, and was very intrigued by them. I knew he would have a blast. This could not have been more simple to set up. I forgot to grab the tape before I left Skyler's room at nap time, so I quickly decorated the bottles after he woke up, right at the changing table. He patiently waited for me to finish and we talked about the colors of tape and what I was making. I got creative with the two stripes of red at the top of traditional bowling bins, by putting two stripes of pretty tape across each bottle. When I finished them, I set them up in a triangle shape for Skyler, t...

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities!   Thank you for stopping by! We had a busy and fun weekend. Saturday my husband went for a long run, and instead of turning around at his halfway point, he ran to Lake Harriet, our favorite place to walk, where Skyler and I met him. We got our first cold press coffee of the year from their food stand, Bread and Pickle, and walked around, then we went to Sebastian Joe's for ice cream before heading out to dinner. It was a fun afternoon with my boys. Yesterday for Mother's Day, we had a very low-key, food focused day :) I meant to post these last night, but ended up falling asleep while reading right after putting Skyler to bed! The busy weekend caught up to me. Here are some pictures of our day.  Skyler painted some egg carton flowers earlier this week to make these beautiful spring wreaths . We also made some simple hand print flower cards for my mom, step mom, mother-in-law, and gra...

Minne-Mama is on Facebook! 'Like' us to stay updated on our fun crafts and activities!   Thank you for stopping by! One of Skyler's favorite things to do when we walk around our neighborhood is find pinecones . He collects all the ones sitting on the sidewalk and throws them around. The other day we had his recycling truck with us, so all the pinecones ended up getting recycled and dumped throughout our walk. We ended up with several when we got home, so I wanted to let him explore with them.  Skyler's only experience painting with natural materials as a tool was when we did flower paintings . I thought that using the pinecones as a tool to paint with would be a fun way for him to use the pinecones that he enjoys collecting so much. Skyler really enjoyed this. He used his little pincer grasp to create lines with the small pinecones, and also liked to roll them around in the paint. Of course he did some finger painting as well! :) Having him use the pinecones as a tool w...