Sensory Activity

These pictures don't have anything to do with the Sensory Activity but they were cute. Anna was painting a sculpture she made at Keiki Steps and felt she needed some color on her face.

The other day, through Keiki Steps, we had a woman come in and show us how to make various sensory activities for our keikis. She showed us some things she likes to get from a website called Steve Spangler. One is called insta-snow. It's a powder that you add water to and it fluffs up and feels a lot like powdery snow. She actually made it in my hands and it felt so strange when it fluffed up. The other thing she had is called jelly marbles. They are small little clear balls that you add to water and they plump up to the size of a large marble. They feel really cool and are very fun to play with. You can add color to the water and they look great as the base of a flower arrangement.

We also talked about things we can make like play dough and flubber (recipes at the end). Some good tips they had for the play dough is you can add smells like spices or extracts to add a new dimension. Through the year at Keiki Steps we have had lemon play dough, pumpkin pie and chocolate. The flubber has been one of Anna's favorite things this year. It's kind of like a more firm slime. We were able to take some home but it's a bit hard to get out of things like carpets and clothes so I haven't been brave enough to play with it much.

She had some fun ideas for bubbles. She had a recipe for making your own at home but I didn't get it. One idea she had was to take a string, pass it through two straws and tie them together so they make a loop. Then you can put it in a big thing of bubbles and make really big bubbles.

Lastly, we made home made sugar shrub. It reminded me of the stuff that my sister, Kristen, likes to get from Bath and Body Works. We got a bowl and mixed in white sugar, raw sugar, grape seed oil and honey (nothing was measured, we just went until it seemed right - it took a decent amount of the oil and honey). To make it smell nice, we added some body wash which also added moisture and helped it be more like the scrub I've used before. I haven't had a chance to use it yet but it should be good.

It was a really fun activity that gave us a lot of new ideas for things to do at home. Then we ended it with a yummy cream cheese dessert. The recipe will be on my food blog.

Playdoh

2 cups water

1/2 cup salt

2 Tablespoons oil

2 Tablespoons cream of tartar

3 cups flour

Bring water and salt to a boil. Stir in remaining ingredients. Allow to cool slightly. Knead until smooth.

Variations:

Chocolate - mix in 1/3 cup cocoa with the flour

Lemon - mix lemon juice with the water, use yellow food coloring to correspond with the lemon smell

Pumpkin Pie - mix in pumpkin pie spice when kneading it smooth, color it orange to go with the pumpkin pie motif

You can use just about any smell, color it to match.

Flubber

In one bowl mix together 1 cup Elmer's glue (about two bottles), 3/4 cup warm water and food coloring. In a second bowl, mix together 3/4 teaspoon Borax and 3/4 cup warm water.

Slowly pour the Borax and water into the bowl with the glue and water, stirring constantly until all liquid is dissolved. Knead and store in a covered container. If it seems too runny, it will harden a little bit as it cools.

Funky Tree Friday

Now that we are done with the things that I love (I toyed with the idea of having the second half of the month be things I hate but it didn't really seem like the right sentiment) we can get back to our Funky Tree Fridays.

This tree at the temple is funny to me. It seems like a cousin to these trees from a few weeks ago. I laugh at the way the fronds all grow in a line.

Anna's Birthday

We had a fun birthday with Anna. On her birthday, we took cupcakes to her Keiki Steps class. Anna called them muffins. That night we let her choose dinner and she chose pizza. She was very decisive about wanting to go out to dinner (not just order it in) so we went to a Pizza Hut that has a buffet. It was a huge hit. After we got home, we stuck some candles into the left over cupcakes.

Enjoying our cupcakes with presents waiting.

Then on Wednesday we had a party with our friends at the beach. I made my first (and probably not last) princess cake. Or in this case, a fairy princess cake.

I went with the way of making it by using a bowl to cook the cake batter in and just buying a Barbie to put in for the princess. Unfortunately, after I had made the cake, it only came up to the Barbie's knees. So Jason had the idea to just taking the legs off of the Barbie and making it look like she was sitting. Anna added the mini Barbie in the front. I thought it turned out really cute. In retrospect, I wasn't too thrilled with the writing but oh well.

To go on a tangent, I was cleaning some icing out of one of the tips and it kind of exploded on me. I was impressed with the height.

Back to the birthday. The beach was a hit. I was worried about the weather because it had been rainy and cold (at least, coldish). It was even rainy that morning but it stayed clear at the beach. Our friends all came and it was quite a few kids - three families totaling 11 kids. Jason stayed in the water and watched the kids and I got to stay seated up by the tables and chat with the moms.

Singing.

Blowing out the candles. You can tell how I made the ruffles look like she was sitting.

They were even so excited about going back in the water that Anna left behind presents after we had cake. She found them later when they came back for a snack.

Anna's boys all playing in the water together. They are all either three or four and Anna loves playing with all of them. We heard their giggling all the way up at the table. It was a great birthday and fun was had by all.

#14 Jason

Of course Jason had to be my Valentine's Day choice. We've been together for 12 Valentine's Days and he's still my choice. I won't go into all the reasons I love him (it might get a bit gushy) but I will say this, I can be me with him. I'm comfortable enough to sing in the car without worrying about being off key, sob uncontrollably, tell him what I'm thinking about (even when it could come across as not nice) or even just sit next to each other reading our books. The man in wonderful.

#13 The Gospel of Jesus Christ

I love the gospel. I love that Jesus died for me personally and gave me a chance to repent and live with Him again. I love that I can progress and learn and become better. It would be pretty depressing if I was just the way I am and there was nothing I could do about it.

I love how simple it all is. The Plan of Salvation can be drawn with a series of circles and arrows and understood in a short amount of time. Yet it has a depth that allows it to never get old.

I love that we have the scriptures. Words from prophets long ago that can help us today because, while some things are very different, the plan and the gospel have not changed. What was true and important to know then is true and important to know now. I love that we have prophets today, just like they did in the scriptures, to guide us and warn is of things to come and let us know how to prepare ourselves for what is coming so that we don't have to be scared.

I love personal revelation. I love that I can pray and receive my own witness that all of this is true. I love that if a church leader tells me to do something or warns me against something I can pray about it and know for myself that he is telling the will of God and I better follow it. I love that if I don't know which job to take (hypothetically) or where to live or even who to marry I can pray about it and God will let me know if my decision is the right one for me.

I love that God knows me personally; my feelings, my needs and my wants and that He wants me to be happy. Knowing that helps me to be happy.

#12 Blood

Let me explain, before Anna was born, I worked in the blood bank of a hospital laboratory for about two and a half years. My job was to do all of the testing that went along with a blood transfusion: typing the patient, checking the unit from the Red Cross and cross matching them to make sure they were compatible. I love the little clump you get with a positive reaction. I love having no idea what type a person is and then having the little clumps tell you. It was even kind of fun when it didn't work out right and we had to look into the patient's history to try to explain why. So the testing was fun.


I also like the actual units of blood. They are all different sizes and colors (within the red spectrum) and it's fun to just kind of poke the bag. I love donating blood because I know I have a relatively rare blood type (A negative) that hospitals often need. Sometimes the Red Cross even calls me and asks me to donate if they are running low of my type. I look at my perpetual donation scar as a bit of a badge of courage and feel like I should go in again.

While I don't work now (and have no desire to) I love that I know how to and can intelligently join a conversation or explain it to someone who hasn't had my training.

#11 New Recipes

Food is a big part of my life. It makes me happy (see other blog Yummy Food Dance). I especially like trying new foods: new styles, new recipes. There have been weeks where I realize everything I have planned is something new. If I make something and it doesn't turn out, I want to try again to make it better. I almost can't go to the Food Network website because I end up emailing a ton of new recipes to myself. I've even made a folder in my email for recipes. My Allrecipes.com account had 123 recipes in it and many of them I have not tried yet. Fortunately, Jason is very patient with me and likes trying new things too.

#10 Opera

When I was in high school I saw La Boheme with my family and I loved it. In college I bought an opera compilation cd for my parents for Christmas. To make sure it was good, I listened to it while studying for finals and fell in love. Now I own my own copy of it. I love how so much emotion can be conveyed without even knowing what they are saying. I love listening to it in the car (the only place where I have surround sound) and turning it up really loud and just feeling the music. Anna likes it too. She will sometimes choose to listen to it in the car. I think Puccini is my favorite composer and here are a couple of my favorite songs:

#9 Movies

I love movies. A friend asked me my favorite movie and I had no answer. I love so many for various reasons. Sense and Sensibility with Emma Thompson is my favorite big studio Jane Austen movie. Clue may be one of my favorite goofy comedies. The Muppet Christmas Carol is my favorite Christmas movie. Moonstruck is wonderful (I can't think of what category it would go into). To name just a few.

I used to feel bad about how many movies I watch but then I realized, movies are my hobby so that makes it ok. I like to keep track of who's in what and what else people have been in. I love the awards shows in theory but not always to watch (the speeches can get a bit boring). I like tracking what people wear and who ends up winning.

# 8 Mascara

I have blond eyelashes so mascara is very important to me. I like to get it as close to the root of my lashes as I can. Because of this, I sometimes get mascara on my lids. To clean it off I like to dip a q-tip into my eye makeup remover and use it to get rid of the smudge. I found a brand of mascara that is amazing. I can wear it to the beach and then take a shower and it won't smudge or anything. It's CoverGirl Lash Blast Volume waterproof. The downside is that it takes a bit of effort to take it off at night but it's great the rest of the time.

#7 Anna

You gotta love that face!

Today is Anna's birthday so, naturally, I have to say her. As a friend of mine said to me, "how did you get so lucky?" Seriously, I don't know. She just came this way. I won't go into it all because then you'll all be jealous. Suffice it to say, she is wonderful and makes me happy.

#6 The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

I love my church. I love that it's organized so that I can go anywhere in the world and have the same lessons on Sunday. I love that when I move somewhere new there are a whole bunch of people who know the area and can tell me about where things are and what there is to do in the area. It was great knowing that when I had Anna, I didn't have to worry about cooking dinner because people signed up to bring me and my family dinner for two weeks and they will again should I have another baby. I love that I can meet families who have the same values as us and kids that my kids can play with. There's nothing like a built-in support group no matter where we go.

#5 Budgets

I know a lot of people don't like budgets because they feel trapped somehow. Personally, I find them very freeing. I'm the type of person who will just buy nothing if I feel like I don't have the money for it. If I have a budget though, I know how much I can spend for different things and feel more free at the store or even to go to the store.

#4 Psych

The tv show. There are a bunch of shows I quite like (Castle, NCIS, As Time Goes By, Dancing With the Stars, Cake Boss to name a few) but I thought I would focus on this one. For those of you who haven't seen it (and you should) it's about a guy, Shawn, who pretends to be a psychic and works with the police. His partner, Gus, knows he isn't really psychic and his dad does too but that's it. Shawn has just the right amount of sarcasm without getting mean. To top it all off, I love the theme song.

#3 Salad Spinner

I've wanted a salad spinner for a while but never seemed to get one. Then at church we had a Relief Society swap meet and someone brought one so I took it. Just as I had thought, I love it. I have fun spinning it and listening to it go. I like that I can see it's working because I can see the water coming out of the bottom. The dryish (they don't generally get completely dry) lettuce coming out of it makes me happy. I can even use the basket for a colander. All in all, it's at cool as I thought it would be.

#2 Books

I have been an avid reader pretty much since I could read. I remember when I was little there were whole summers that I spent inside reading book after book. I would even get annoyed when the neighborhood kids tried to get me to play outside. In college I was not allowed to read during the semester, my classes would have been totally neglected. These days when I get really into a book, I've been known to stay up really late (into the wee small hours of the morning, generally not past 2). It's nice to be able to read when there isn't anything else I'm supposed to be doing (other than sleep but I can talk myself out of that by saying I don't feel tired).

I've noticed that the books I read kind of go in shifts. For a while I was reading a lot of British chick lit. At another time, I kept reading books about women who got out of bad marriages and had adventures. Once I even had a system where I would read a modern book, then an old/classic book followed by nonfiction and back again. Lately, I've been reading mysteries almost exclusively.

What I love about books is the ability to be in another world and leave mine for a while. Then, once I'm hooked, I have to know what happens next. I've even been known to finish a book I didn't really like all that much just to find out what happens.

Things I Love

This year for the month of February leading up to Valentine's Day, I thought I would post about the things I love that make me happy (as opposed to things I love that make me miserable). In no particular order, here they are.

#1 NPR podcasts

I listen to these while I run and they are so much fun. I have four shows that I listen to: This American Life, The Splendid Table, Car Talk and Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me. It's interesting listening to the last two while I run because they make me laugh and laughing while running is an interesting experience. People give me funny looks when as they pass, or think I'm just really friendly.

I think Wait Wait Don't Tell Me might be my favorite. I've heard that there is a decent amount of young adults who get their news from the Daily Show, I get mine from that show.