sports themed garland.

one of emery's favorite buddies turned 1 the other day. we absolutely love him and his family and were super excited to celebrate such a big occasion with them! 

when his mom, kim, told me what she had in mind for his party, i was even more excited! she took the idea from the sewn garland post and gave it a sports twist! i love everything about this party!

she made a sewn garland with his 
name and little footballs!

she created all the circles into different
sports balls before sewing them together!

she used a few extra balls as
labels around the drink table

 

she filled this with
ice and water bottles

one of my favorite tricks i
learned from my aunt -
draw different pictures
on the caps of water bottles
so you can tell drinks apart!
with 40+ people at a party,
this comes in handy!

 

the birthday boy!

kim made tommy this super cute sports shirt!

time for cake!

 

love and first birthdays,
amber.

balloon sensory matching.

i wouldn't change my job title for anything. being a wife and mom is the BEST! emery's curiosity is my daily reward for staying home - we have the best adventures and she makes everything so much fun. yesterday wasn't any different...

toddler activity: balloon sensory matching

when i worked at the preschool, one of my all time favorite themes was the week devoted to the 5 senses. one of the center time activities was a matching game. I filled balloons with various things and created cards with pictures of each thing. the kids got to squish, poke, and prod and then lay the balloons on the card they thought was the right match.

i know emery isn't there yet, but i keep seeing sensory balloons on pinterest and thought i'd make them again! i still have the cards, so for the sake of the post, i thought i'd fill them with what's in the pictures, even though it wont matter for her right now!

all you need is a funnel {for some things},
the balloons, and various items
that are different sizes and textures.

feeling the rice balloon!
she loved watching mommy 
use the funnel to fill it!

things got a little messy...

corn through our
funnel was a no go.

so we put them in ourselves.

 

she wanted in that flour bag so bad!

funneling the sand.
we also did shampoo and marbles.

honestly, i was surprised
how much she loved these -
i didn't think they would
last that long, but she
loved picking them up
one by one and squishing them!

in a few years, i'll add in the cards and i wont let her help me fill them so she wont know what's in what!

i just found the pictures on google images, printed them off, traced a balloon image, and laminated them {which definitely isn't necessary, i just had access to one at the preschool and with 12 new kids every year, i needed them to last!}

{marbles, corn, rice.}

{flour, shampoo, sand.}

love and guessing games,
amber.

PS - Creative Christian Mama  and One Creative Mommy featured this post in their weekly linky parties! check out their blogs!