2012 Annual T-Shirt

As in past summers, Anna made a T-shirt one day.  It is interesting to compare each one with the year prior.  Here are some photos of her handiwork.

She kept putting huge globs of puffy pant in one spot and then spreading it around, which was a little difficult.

 I came up with this idea and it worked much better!

 Each year I write "Anna" on her shirt.  This year she wanted her full name!

 Her beautiful masterpiece!

Christmas Craft

As always the Christmas season passed ridiculously fast and we tried to do as many things as we possibly could. One thing that Anna enjoyed (and concentrated on) more than in the past was helping to put together items from a craft kit.

I guess I never took a picture of the finished product but they were door hangers that we hung on the closet doors in her bedroom.

Making a T-Shirt

One thing that Annalise got in her Easter basket this year was a pack of Glitter Pens to write on fabric.  A few weeks ago we finally opened them up and she decorated a t-shirt. 

 LIke she does with glue, Anna just squeezed the bottle until the paint came out in a huge glob!

 I would then make the glob into some shapes....that is if she would let me!

 As you can see, she allowed me to make the sun and the heart, but the green blob stayed a green blob.  Anna did at least smear it around a little!

The finished product!  She was quite proud of it!

Snow Day Craft

Trying to fulfill Anna's love of gluing, I came up with a craft to incorporate a little more than just her pulling apart paper and gluing it down.  We read each of her glow-in-the-dark bug books and then made the bug from each book.  I drew and cut each part out and Annalise and I worked together gluing them.  When we were finished she kept telling me that they needed to dry for hours afterward.

A Valentine Craft

When Annalise and I were at the dollar store a few weeks ago I saw this kit for making Valentine magnets.  Knowing how much my daughter likes loves to glue, I knew she would be into them.  I don't think we are going to use them as magnets thought, I think I am going to punch holes in them and hang them from fishing line in her room.   I any event, here is our craft.  Did I mention how much she loves glue and really loves to squeeze the life out of the glue bottle?

 Checking it out

 We started with the bear

 Punching out the pieces

 Gluing......

 And more gluing......

 And more gluing....

 Following directions pretty well about where to place the parts

The finished product!

Play Doh

On my second snow day this week, I was trying to think of new things to keep Annalise occupied so I decided to make play doh with her.  I had never made it before but except for the color, it really turned out like real play doh.  At first she was apprehensive to touch it.  Once I convinced her to touch it I had to convince her to squeeze it.  Once she did though she loved it and played with it for quite a long time!

 A little squeeze

 and a little poke

 Smash!

 Adding food coloring

 She pulled this stick thing out of the pantry (I have no idea what it is for or where it came from), stuck it in the Play Doh and called it a candle

Fingerpaints!

Annalise got washable finger paints for Christmas so when I had my 2nd consecutive snow day the other day, I decided to get them out.  I was kinda uncertain how she would like them since at times she doesn't like things to be messy, but she dove right in. When she was finished though, she was in a hurry to wash her hands!

Annalise's final masterpiece!

Gobble! Gooble! Gooooooooo!

Since the weather has started getting cooler and we have not been able to play outside as much at night, I have started trying to do little crafts with Anna.  I am very quickly running out of ideas since I have absolutely no creativity so I am going to have to purchase a book soon to get some new ideas.  Anna is pretty into it and especially likes anything that involves glue sticks.  She also currently LOVES to have her hands traced for some reason.  So, the other night, we made the classic "turkeys made out of traced hands" that adorn the houses of small children across the country at this time of the year.  While we were at it we also made a Native American headband for her to wear.  Obviously I did the cutting but Anna helped with color selecting (hence the blue and orange turkeys) and almost couldn't contain her excitement when helping with the gluing.  Here are our lovely masterpieces:

 Anna was flying her turkeys around the house saying "Gobble, Gobble, Goooooo!"

 I wanted her to show me both of them but she dropped the blue one and did this with the other one.  As almost all of you who read this know, such is picture taking with an almost 2 year old!

 "Hmmmm, needs a little adjusting...."

 "Ahhh, fits great!"

 More Native American turkey flying

This we made another night.  I asked her what she wanted to make and she said a "Halloween Pumpkin".  So, I cut out the pieces and had her glue it together.  I thought she did pretty good!