Little Dipper

For our upcoming space week, I saw a cool shirt that I thought Daredevil would like. 

Exhibit A: 

If you'd like to buy one: https://www.etsy.com/listing/220804229/big-dipper-little-dipper-tshirt-set

I decided to give my bleach pen a workout and make one on my own. 

You'll need:

Shirt

Bleach pen

Cardboard piece 

Put the cardboard inside the shirt, shake the pen and design your shirt. Let it dry a bit and then wash and dry your shirt. 

Viola. Exhibit B:

Here and there

Benton celebrated a birthday. 

Daredevil got the stomach flu..

Then he got 3+ inches chopped off his hair. 

We made it to our first and second stops of many on our tour of Indiana. 

It's been a busy few days. Welcome to Indiana. Please send paddles. 

Summer Theme Weeks

This summer, we are having theme weeks! Each week Daredevil will be given a theme. This theme will be used throughout all of his ABA shifts and we will incorporate things about the theme during downtime, too.

Each week, I'll share what we did for each week. We are hoping to be sure that we hit the following things every week:
-Field Trip
-Library Trip to pick out books about the theme
-Sensory Bin
-Snack
-Art Projects
-Game/Activity

His weekly themes are:
June 22 - Gardening
June 29 - Weather
July 6 - Camping
July 13 - Animals
July 20 - Water
July 27 - Dinosaurs/Fossils
August 3 - Outer Space
August 10 - Bugs/Insects
August 17 - All About Me

I'm really looking forward to the fun and all the cool, new stuff Daredevil will learn and experience this summer. What do you think we have to incorporate into his weeks?

Questions, questions, questions

Daredevil started asking questions on his own a few months ago, but it became part of our May 1st treatment plan. This means that his therapists built off of what he was doing on his own and helped him flourish.

But let me tell you, flourish he did. He is so inquisitive. He wants to know everything about everything. It's interesting to hear where he takes the conversations and what he is curious about. I just love him and his inquisitive and adventurous heart!

Here's a sampling of a recent conversation:

O: Where's Switzerland?
M: It's in Europe.
O: I want to go to Europe. I want to go there.
M: You want to go to Switzerland, in Europe?
O: Yes, Switzerland. How far is away is Switzerland?

Oh boy. Add another place to his must visit list. It currently includes returning to Costa Rica and Disney World/Land, going to Thomas Land in Boston once it opens and going to Switzerland to go on the giant jungle gym/bouncy house.

Everything right now is what is that? What is that called? When is that? Can I go to August? Can we go there? What do they do? What is the road made of? What is in cement? What state is Seattle in? Where is Arizona? What's an island? Where is Hawaii? What is our state called?

I just love where his mind goes! He's really into geography right now and one of his favorite things to do is look at the Atlas in UJ's car. Another addition to the Christmas list, too.

Event Picture Frame on the Cheap

Ya'll know I'm crafty but I'm also a cheapskate and I'll do whatever I can to do something nicely, but be frugal about it.

For Daredevil's preschool end of the year pot-luck, we thought it'd be fun to do a picture frame for parents, kiddos and friends to take pictures. I wanted it to be lightweight so the kids could hold it, but sturdy so it wouldn't flap around. Here's what I came up with..

Things you'll need:

Sharpie

Exacto knife

Paint & brush

Heavy poster size foam board (can get for 40-50% off at Hobby Lobby, depending on the sale)

Any embellishments you want to use (we used his school's letters) 

Hot glue gun/gorilla glue/heavy duty tape

We traced the shape we wanted onto the poster board and then we used the exacto knife to cut it out. 

Then we painted it!

Once it was all dry, we affixed the embellishments- or in our case, the letters. We used hot glue but anything should work to hold the embellishments in place. 

It was used for the school potluck and on the last day of school. It was a quick, fun project that had super cute results - and by quick I mean that we had it drying all within a half hour!

Thomas and Friends Minis

I come from a long line of collectors. My mom collected baskets and pottery (especially the Longaberger variety). My dad collects all things golf related. I think he'd collect music instruments if my mom would let him. I like to collect things, too. If I have a shirt I love in one color, I have to fight the urge to buy it in every color. If I have one in a series, I want to have them all - think American Girls and Precious Moments.

Now I have a little guy who likes to collect. Daredevil also likes to collect, but I definitely encourage it.

Daredevil likes to collect in this way... "I have wooden Belle, I need take-n-play and trackmaster Belle." I like to collect this way.. get all the wooden trains and then move on. Since we differ and they are actually his toys, he gets his way. However, we both agree on this Thomas Minis and they are releasing them in waves so we just scoop them up when we find one we don't have yet. Rumor has it the next wave hits US stores in late June/early July! We have our laminated "map" all ready for the next wave with our current Minis marked off.

In an effort to collect them all, I've been known to stand in the toy aisle at WalMart and try to peek at every mini in the mystery pack in an effort to spy what they are. I can almost always tell by pushing the train around the package and looking closely through the package. After weeks of this, my brilliant husband realized that the numbers on the outsides of the packages actually are codes for the trains inside.

If you're a Thomas Mini collector, here's what you need to know about the mystery packs that have been released in the US so far.

The number is about a fourth of the way down on the left side of the package. It has a batch code first followed by a slash and then the two digit code which tells you who is inside.

01 - Classics Thomas
02 - Spooky Percy
03 - Metallic James
04 - Racers Gordon
05 - Classics Edward
06 - Spooky Salty
07 - Neon Toby
08 - Classics Henry
09 - Old School Diesel
10 - Spooky Emily
11 - Classics Dash
12 - Classics Diesel 10 "D-10"
13 - Chillin' Paxton
14 - Classics Stephen
15 - Heroes Victor
16 - Classics Scruff
17 - Racers Bill
18 - Classics Bert

We are eagerly awaiting the next wave of Minis in this house! There's also a guy on YouTube who says you can disassemble them and create new combos, so we may have to do a little of that, too. Seems fun to make some custom trains with our duplicates. 

Seattle, Friday Harbor and the PNW

A few months ago while dropping Daredevil off at school, my friend from South Carolina texted me information about a workshop being held in Washington. We would get to have an awesome adventure and meet two of our most favorite blogger moms ever! I booked my ticket before I left preschool.

Fast forward to last week and we headed out on our adventure to the PNW. We met in Seattle and had the dreamiest time. The PNW pulled out all the stops as far as weather goes. It was perfect, sunny, breezy, warm(ish) and beautiful!

Without further adieu, please enjoy this photo dump of epic proportions.

And, Garrett's... the perfect Chicago indulgence to cap off the trip!