A Busy Box for Lu

Lucy and independent play have never been very close. She'd much rather be entertained then figure out how to do the entertaining herself. I finally decided to try to help her along. First stop, Pinterest. Of course I hit the mother load of ideas, even some I could handle. One that I kept seeing was a Busy Box. These are little boxes filled with art or activities that the kiddo can do all on their own. I plan to make it a special thing so she feels excited when she gets it out. I found a few of my favorite ideas and some that I thought Lu might like and headed out to the craft store to pick up supplies. I chose a couple from here and found this one on Pinterest too. Now I'm not the craftiest person on the block and you could definitely take a more creative approach but here's what I ended up with.

This one is a Number Wheel. Lucy can definitely count past ten so once she gets the hang of it I'm going to make an 11-20 wheel. The idea is to count the number of dots in each section and then match it with the right numbered clothes pin. Pretty straight forward to make with a wheel printable, card-stock, contact paper, and clothes pins.

Lately Lu has been interested in trying to sound out words so I thought this would be a good one for her. I took some notecards and added small words along with a sticker with the picture of what the word is. I picked up some plastic letter magnets and used contact paper to laminate the cards. Lucy will pick a card and then search for the letters to spell the word.

This one is another number and counting one. I taped the numbers on the end of pipe-cleaners and got some fun beads. For this one Lucy will just read the number and then count out the right number of beads and put them on the pipe-cleaner. Lucy likes beading and pink is her favorite color so hopefully this will be a winner.

I bagged all the activities into their own Ziplocs and added a Coloring/Sticker book and some modeling clay. My plan is to add in new activities every so often to keep it interesting. I am hoping that this will be a hit but you really never know. It could last for a few minutes or best case scenario she will ask for the Busy Box again and again. I will keep you posted!

Date Night Exchange

Newsflash. Date nights aren't just for people who are dating. They're for married people too. They can also get expensive. Especially when you have to add in the cost of a baby-sitter. Enter the Date Night Exchange. Awhile back I talked with a friend (find her here) about setting up a monthly date night exchange. My husband and I go out one night, they go out another night, and we watch each other's kids. I think we've had it going for 6 months or so and I seriously love it. Not only do we all get to have date nights but our kids get to hang which is just the best. We set ours up so the dates are a bit on the earlier side so all of our kids get to sleep in their own beds and go down at a reasonable time. Sometimes scheduling can be a little tricky with random snowstorms or sick kiddos, but we have managed to make it work. It feels really great to be making that time a priority in our marriage and to help our friends have that quality time too. On our last date night we went to Elephants off 23rd and then headed to a coffee shop for some serious Scrabble. We are crazy I know. I will admit that Jordan did win. For maybe the second time in our relationship. Meanwhile, we know that our kids are hanging with a great family having a great time. Seriously people, date night exchanges are where its at.

Girls Night

A little over a week ago some friends and I decided to have a Girls Night. No kids, no husbands, just the ladies. We have all been friends for quite awhile now. They all met in college, but sadly, I had to wait a few more years to meet these lovelies. We met up on a Thursday night at Por Que No. Now crazy enough I am not the hugest fan of Mexican cuisine. I just like things simple. But this place is delicious. We waited in line for a few minutes and looked over the menu while enjoying some delicious juice. We ordered and found some seats. It was so refreshing and so much fun to connect with these friends. We talked, laughed, and ate way too many chips. We topped off our meals with some churros. Seriously yum. Plus they have these really cute temporary taco tattoos. Score.

After that, we weren't quite ready to call it a night so we hopped in the car and headed out to find some coffee. Walking up to a Starbucks, a man outside informed us they were closing in ten minutes. Too bad he jumped out from behind a pillar to do that. Ok maybe not jumped out but he definitely stepped out and I yelled. Realizing coffee was going to be a no go, we scratched that idea and just made our way over to Buffalo Exchange, looked around, and took some selfies to commemorate our evening. We finished up the night with some 90's rap and said our goodbyes. It was a simple night but a great one.

I go to this preschool Mom's group at my church called Sprouts. Last week we had a speaker share about marriage. One of her points was that your husband is not one of your girlfriends...did I really just use the term girlfriends? Ugh. That may seem kind of obvious, but after I really thought about it, I felt like it went deeper than the obvious. Just because you're married doesn't mean you don't need friends. Good, solid, girl friends.  Its a different kind of relationship and its a really special one. I feel so incredibly blessed to have friends I know will be there no matter what. Even if my kids are going nuts, even if my house is messy, and even if life is messy. Especially when life is messy. Thankful for these friends and the other amazing ladies God has put in my life.