24Apr
This past weekend while I was in Atlanta with my sister, I noticed a sticker on her front windshield that made me gasp, “That’s BRILLIANT!”
I can’t count how many times during one of my pregnancies I’d come out to my car, only to find someone had parked so close to me that I couldn’t fit between the cars to get in! It’s embarrassing and frustrating and downright rude! Which begs the question, WHY HAS NO ONE DONE THIS SOONER?!?!
As I was squealing and shrieking about the sticker in Ginny’s driveway, she did me one better and handed me two stickers to put on my own car.
Again, BRILLIANT! How many times have I had to squish between two cars to try to get one of my kids into the backseat?!?! I came home and slapped those puppies on the backseat windows right away. Then I tried to take a picture and realized that it wasn’t smart to try to take a picture of a window as the sun was setting. Sorry, guys.
These cute little stickers are called Mommy Stickers from a company called Bud to Bloom and come in a set of three (one pregnancy and two kiddos) or a set of two (two kiddos) and are so reasonably priced at $6 and $5 per set. What a fun little something to send a pregnant friend! Or throw into a shower gift bag! Or enclose in a new mommy card! Such a great, thoughtful, practical gift idea!
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Be sure to check out the Eric Carle lacing cards post for the winner announcement!
** WINNER!! WINNER!! #88: Maryellen – Congratulations! Contact me at katie@marriageconfessions.com to claim your prize! Thanks to everyone for entering! **
I debated whether to review this product because I’ve already reviewed an Eric Carle product recently, but it’s too darn good not to share. For Gracie’s birthday, my mother-in-law, Jackie, brought Bean a few little goodies, too. One of them were these fabulous Eric Carle lacing cards.
The box set comes with 10 cardboard lacing cards, each with a Eric Carle drawing on it, and 10 different colored strings. (Only 6 are pictured here because the other four were up in Bean’s room and I was too lazy to go get them…)
Like the Eric Carle flashcards, these lacing cards are beautiful. The colors are vivid and rich, and the animals are just unique enough to not be the standard animals in all kids toys.
Not only are these beautiful, but the activity is perfect right now for Bean’s age. He is getting more patient and has a much longer attention span, so I’ve been looking for more activities for him that require some more thought. These lacing cards keep him busy for 20-30 minutes at a time right now.
I also like them because they promote fine motor skills. It requires excellent eye/hand coordination. But I like it most because it helps Bean practice PATIENCE! As a two-and-a-half year old, patience is in short order in Bean’s world. Surprisingly though, Bean is very patient when he is engaged in this activity.
I keep this set in my diaper bag (or Bean’s backpack, whatever we have with us) and pull it out when I need him to sit quietly for a while. I used them last week at the doctors office when we had to sit and wait for 15 minutes while Bean had a breathing treatment. He sat there the whole time working on his cards while he got his treatment. I also pulled them out yesterday when I took both kids to the grocery store with me (I was desperate!). I gave Gracie two strings to wave around, and Bean sat next to her and laced the cards while I shopped.
I can’t recommend this activity enough for toddler/preschool aged kids. It’s educational, creative, and engaging. What more could you want from an activity?
Today I’m giving away a set of the Eric Carle flashcards TO YOU! To be entered to win, leave a comment below telling me what your favorite activity or game was as a child. What did YOU like to do? For me, it was playing pretend with my sister. We’d pretend to be fairies, dogs, monkeys, adults, teachers, ballerinas…pretty much anything you can imagine. I can’t ever remember playing inside or watching TV. I just remember being up in trees or in creeks or in our cul-de-sac, pretending to be something and bossing my sister around. We may not have worked our eye/hand coordination necessarily, but we KILLED the creativity skills!
Good luck!
** UPDATED: So, I’m about two weeks late posting the winner of this giveaway. Sorry, guys. The winner is commenter #1: Betty!! Congratulations, Betty! Email me at katie@marriageconfessions.com to claim your prize. Thanks for playing everyone!**
I have been meaning to post about these flash cards since Bean got them for Christmas (or maybe his birthday?) last year. Chris’s mom gave them to him. She is always finding the most educational and creative gifts for Bean and Gracie. Jackie gives things that most people don’t find and so her gifts always have something unique and memorable about them. These Eric Carle Animal Flashcards are the perfect example.
First of all, I am a sucker for Eric Carle. I love his art work. I think it is beautiful and whimsical and bright and vibrant, which is everything I think art should be. His baby books are big hits around my house, but these flashcards might be an even bigger hit, actually.
You can’t really tell from these pictures, but they are a nice sized, sturdy flashcard on board-like material in a gift-quality display box. They hold up really well to a toddler’s rowdy learning style, or a baby’s gummy slobbers.
The letters are large, colorful, and easy to read for Bean. And I like that they show the upper and lower case letters for each.
And what would Eric Carle flashcards be without beautiful artwork?
Each card has a vibrant drawing of an animal or sea creature on the back that corresponds with the letter on the front. Unlike other flashcards, these are large pictures since the flashcards themselves are the size of a medium-sized board book. It makes them easy to see and easy for tiny toddler hands to manipulate.
Another thing I really like about these flashcards are that some of the animals and sea creatures are non-traditional. For example, everyone has bunnies on B flashcards, but this set has a buffalo instead. It gives Bean a chance to learn other animals that he might now normally see, such as a yak, a quetzal, or a narwhal.
I really can’t recommend these flashcards enough. They are so nice that they would make a lovely baby shower or first, second, or third birthday gift for a child. I was thinking about giving a set away to you all and was a little worried about how much they were going to cost. I easily thought these were $25 or more, given their high quality, but I was pleasantly surprised to find that they were only $10 on Amazon! So – I’m giving away TWO sets!
To enter to win, leave a comment below telling me what word you always have trouble pronouncing or spelling. What word would you need a flashcard for??? The giveaway will be open until 8:00pm EST on Friday, 2/3. I’ll announce two winners on Monday.
Good luck!
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This giveaway is sponsored by Bean. Because he loves these flashcards. And he’s nice.
01Jan
Hi, I’m Katie and I’m a Pinterest addict.
But, at least I don’t Pinterest alone. I am here to share with you what I find, whether you want to hear about it or not. You are supporting my Pinterest habit. Thank you for your contribution to my non-existent social life. (My user name is MarriageConfess, by the way…)
Anyway, the other day I was browsing through the household goods pins (I have become so good at my addiction that I can now hone in on what I’m looking for by using the “Search” box at the top of the website…) and I came across this brilliant idea for storing cleaning products.
We have been contemplating our cleaning products lately. Odd, yes. But it’s been a problem. We store them under our kitchen sink, but with two little ones running around, we’ve been wanting to move them somewhere else. But where? And then I found this…
It’s a shoe hanger for your closet door that you put your cleaning supplies in! BRILLIANT! I immediately went out and bought a shoe hanger for $6 from Target and hung it on our closet door in our foyer. It hangs over the door and is so inconspicuous that you would never even know it was there.
I love this for the obvious storage reasons, but I love it even more because not only does it lift everything away from the kids (that closet door has a child latch on it, so they couldn’t get in there anyway), but it makes it so much easier to see what cleaning supplies I have. I am always on my hands and knees, digging around to find the 409 or to see if we need more Windex. But now, one look at my door will tell me what I need and what I have. So simple! I even used the bottom two rows of pockets to hold things like our trash bags, plastic grocery bags, dust cloths and rags, and plastic cleaning gloves.
I have found so many things I love on Pinterest, but this might be at the top of my list for 2011. Such a great, practical, cheap, simple idea for making life easier!
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I wanted to link to the actual blog post that originally posted this idea to give the girl credit, but I couldn’t find the post on her blog. So, here’s the link to her homepage instead. Go visit her and tell her how brilliant she is!
