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Capturing Parenthood

A Bag A Day While I’m Away

in Life + Motherhood, Parenting on August 29, 2017

Last month, I did something I had yet to do since my daughter was born…be away from her for more than one night. I ventured on a girls trip to San Francisco with my best friend, and we had the most amazing time! But, if I’m being honest, I had some serious anxiety about leaving my little nugget for four (almost five) days. Before I left, I decided that I wanted to put something special together for her to enjoy while I was away…something that would help if she started missing me…something that would show her that I was thinking about her, missing her, and loving her from afar…and something that might give her daddy a few minutes of peace each day. And that’s when I came across the brilliant idea for A Bag A Day While I’m Away!

A Bag A Day While I'm Away Β© Capturing Parenthood

I happened to be browsing through Instagram one evening (a few nights prior to my departure) when I came across a post from @mamapapabubba, where Jen shared this amazing idea of putting together little bags for her daughter to open, for each of the days that they would be apart. It’s a tradition she started when her daughter was 2-1/2, and one that her daughter still requests – how awesome is that? You can find Jen’s post about activity bags (from the very first time she made them) over on Mama Papa Bubba (http://mamapapabubba.com/2013/07/15/an-activity-bag-a-day-while-mamas-away/).

A Bag A Day While I'm Away Β© Capturing Parenthood

After reading Jen’s Instagram post, I was inspired to create a bag a day, for my little nugget too! I started by grabbing five small paper bags, and my pack of Sharpie markers. I wrote the days that I was going to be absent on the bags, and then decorated each bag with something fun and colorful – polka dots, hearts, stars, smiley faces, and a rainbow.

Next, I dropped by my favorite store (Target) to peruse their dollar bin section for some fun items that my little nugget would enjoy.

A Bag A Day While I'm Away Β© Capturing Parenthood

And then I put my bags together. I departed after my little nugget went to school on Monday, but I still wanted her to have a little something when she got home, so I put the Minnie Mouse Window Cling in the first bag. We were chatting on FaceTime later that day, when she opened the bag, and while she was super excited about her present, she managed to tear the window decal apart in less than a minute (before she ever had a chance to stick it to the window). πŸ™ Oh well, at least it was only $1.

She is usually home with me on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so I placed the Alphabet Puzzle Cards in the Tuesday bag (since she would have ample time to play with them). The Slinky was in Wednesday’s bag – also a big hit, though it may, or may not, be completely knotted up now. On Thursday she got to open up the snacks – Cookie Monster’s Letter of the Day Cookies, and Nutella & Go! A fun way to practice her letters with her favorite Sesame Street character, and later enjoy her absolute favorite on-the-go snack. πŸ™‚ Friday was our last day apart and I wanted to make it a little more special than all of the other days, so I hopped over to the toy section in Target and found this adorable little Care Bear (Cheer Bear, to be exact). It was the icing on the cake…the perfect present to end our week apart. Cheer Bear now has a permanent spot in a corner of her new big girl bed!

A Bag A Day While I'm Away Β© Capturing Parenthood

I’m so incredibly happy that I was lucky enough to come across this idea just in time for my trip. I couldn’t think of a better way to show my little nugget that I was thinking about her, and missing her while I was away. And the best part was getting sent the occasional photo of her enjoying her little gifts!

I look forward to continuing this tradition the next time we have to be apart…though I have no idea when that will be. My girls trip to San Francisco was so incredible, and rejuvenating in so many ways, perhaps I will have to make it an annual event! Stay tuned…on Thursday, I will be sharing all about my adventure to the City by the Bay!

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My First Girls Trip (Post Motherhood) »

Hello! Nice to meet you!

Welcome to the Capturing Parenthood blog! I'm Stacey...wife and first-time parent, former full-time working mom, turned stay-at-home mom. Join me as I capture and share my thoughts and experiences on this crazy adventure we call parenthood! Click here to learn more about me!

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Ok...@artwithmrs.e Haunted House project is hands- Ok...@artwithmrs.e Haunted House project is hands-down the best Halloween-themed art project out there! πŸ™ŒπŸ™ŒπŸ™Œ
We had a blast creating haunted houses for homeschool art this month! 🧑
...
We followed Kaitlyn's extremely helpful Haunted House Drawing Guide (you can find it over on her Teachers Pay Teachers account) and completed the project over the course of 3 lessons.
...
During our first lesson, we sketched our houses in pencil, and added some eerie exterior landscaping. πŸͺ¦πŸ¦‡
We popped in a few spooky characters (ghosts, spiders, pumpkins, and a vampire). πŸ‘»πŸ•·πŸŽƒπŸ§›
And then we traced over our pencil lines with black Sharpie.
...
During our next lesson, we used a coloring technique that we learned from Kristian @friendsartlab ❀️ We colored our pictures with oil pastels...and then painted over the top of the oil pastels with baby oil...it causes the oil pastels to bleed and blend together! 🀩
...
During our final lesson...we added more spooky characters to the inside of our house...that can peek out behind the doors and windows. πŸ’€πŸ§™β€β™€οΈπŸ‘»
To do this...I used an X-acto knife and carefully cut around the outside edges of the doors/windows (leaving the hinge sides intact so that they could fold open and closed).
We placed yellow construction paper in the background...and added witches, ghosts, skeletons, a mummy, and a Frankenstein! 😍
This step made our haunted houses really come to life...and we just can't thank Kaitlyn @artwithmrs.e enough for sharing this awesome lesson and drawing guide! THE ABSOLUTE BEST! ❀️❀️❀️
...
It was very evident how much our daughter loved this project...as we worked through each step...but the thing that solidified just how much she enjoyed it was - one weekend morning I walked downstairs to find her and her dad sitting at the table - and she was very excitedly teaching him how to draw his own haunted house - while she drew a few more herself (scroll to the last picture in the carousel)! πŸ₯°
...
#hauntedhouse #hauntedhouses #hauntedhousedrawing #directeddrawing #spookyart #halloween #happyhalloween #halloweenart #halloweenfun #elementaryart #homeschoolart #homeschool #homeschoolfun #capturingparenthood
I decided that these six little pumpkins needed a I decided that these six little pumpkins needed a permanent place on our feed...because WE GREW THEM OURSELVES!!! πŸŽƒ
That's right...first-time pumpkin-growers over here...and it was all actually a bit of a surprise. πŸ˜ƒ
...
You see, when we went to prep our garden beds this spring, we noticed a plant that had already started growing. We assumed it was a cucumber plant, since it was in the same place we had cucumbers last year.
We left it alone and planted a couple of other cucumber plants nearby. πŸ₯’
At first, the leaves on our mystery plant looked very similar to the leaves on our other cucumber plants.
But a couple of weeks later the plant had grown A LOT bigger. It was now obvious that it was not a cucumber plant. But what was it? πŸ€·β€β™€οΈ
...
And that's when it suddenly dawned on these exhausted parents, that our daughter had spontaneously tossed seeds from her pumpkin (last Halloween), into the garden bed. πŸ€¦β€β™€οΈ The mystery was finally solved...and by the looks of the large golden flowers that were emerging all over the vines...we figured we might have a few pumpkins come fall! πŸ™ŒπŸŽƒπŸ™Œ
...
It was so much fun to watch the pumpkin plant grow! 🀩 We had to cut down the wire on one side of our garden bed to let the vines out...and they ended up growing 6-10 feet long in both directions! 😳 It was crazy!
They put out the most gorgeous flowers...that the bees absolutely loved! 🧑 And soon enough, we spotted a few round gourds growing at the base of some of the flowers. They grew quickly...and then turned a beautiful shade of orange! 😍
...
Needless to say, we are now officially pumpkin-growing people! πŸ˜‚ My husband can't wait to plant more next year...and he's already looking in to different varieties - hoping to grow some larger jack-o-lantern style ones next season! πŸŽƒ
…
#pumpkins #growingpumpkins #ourpumpkinpatch #homegrownpumpkins #homegrown #homegarden #pumpkingrowing #gardening #fallharvest #happyhalloween #timetocarvesomepumpkins #gardensurprises #gardenfun #capturingparenthood
Free the Frankensteins from the Frozen Rainbow Bra Free the Frankensteins from the Frozen Rainbow Brain! 😬🌈🧠
…
Yesterday, we shared how we made this colorful, frozen rainbow brain - full of Frankenstein mini erasers…and today we wanted to show you what became of our beautiful brain! πŸ˜ƒ
…
We popped it out onto a tray, grabbed a shaker of salt, a bottle of warm water (colored red for added effect), and some tongs.
And then it was time to Free the Frankensteins (our daughter coined the phrase)! πŸ˜‰
…
This spooky activity provides chilly sensory play, motor skills practice, and scientific exploration (salt and warm water speed-up the melting process)! πŸ™ŒπŸ™ŒπŸ™Œ
As an added bonus…you also get some color-mixing! And the addition of the salt makes it extra sparkly too! 😍🀩😍
…
Eventually, all you’re left with is some mini erasers floating in a pool of colorful water…and a happy kid! ❀️❀️❀️
…
#frozenbrain #rainbowbrain #frozenrainbowbrain #brains #freethefrankensteins #halloween #happyhalloween #halloweenactivities #halloweenactivitiesforkids #halloweensensoryplay #sensoryplay #sensoryexploration #motorskills #motorskillsdevelopment #scienceforkids #kidscience #funactivities #funactivitiesforkids #halloweenfun #capturingparenthood
We are definitely getting into the fall and Hallow We are definitely getting into the fall and Halloween spirit...so during a recent homeschool art session, we decided to make some air-dry clay pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns! πŸŽƒπŸŽƒπŸŽƒ
...
Back in 2019, Lauralee @2art.chambers shared several colorful, air-dry clay pumpkins that her students made...and after rediscovering the saved post, I decided that it would be a perfect October art lesson for us too! 🧑
...
We used various colors of air-dry clay, and rolled each color into whatever pumpkin shape we wanted...and then we added our lines/indentations using the side of a credit card. πŸ’³ The stems are just small, broken pieces of old crayons (another genius idea from Lauralee). πŸ– And we topped our stems with pieces of pipe cleaner, to create the little curly cues. 😍
...
Once we had our pumpkins...we decided to change things up a bit, and grabbed our stash of googly eyes. πŸ‘€ (Most of) our fall pumpkins then transformed into Halloween jack-o-lanterns! πŸŽƒ
We pressed the googly eyes into the clay, and we used a few small tools (that came with our box of air-dry clay) to add their mouths. πŸ˜ƒ
...
And now we have a cute and colorful crew of clay pumpkins adorning our mantle! πŸŽƒπŸ§‘πŸŽƒ
...
#pumpkins #jackolanterns #claypumpkins #airdryclay #airdryclaycreation #airdryclayart #airdryclaypumpkins #elementaryart #fallartprojects #fallartprojectsforkids #halloweenart #halloweenartprojects #halloweenartprojectsforkids #homeschool #homeschoolart #homeschoolfun #halloween #happyhalloween #capturingparenthood
Andrew from @elementaryarts shared a patterned, bl Andrew from @elementaryarts shared a patterned, block letter name project a couple of weeks ago (I'll share the post in stories today), and I immediately added it to our list of art projects to do this year! 😍
But we decided to switch things up a little bit! Instead of using our names, we each picked a color that we like...wrote the name of the color in block letters on our paper...and created our color patterns using at least two different shades of our chosen color. πŸ–
...
This colorful project ended up being a lot of fun, and also very relaxing...as we all quietly focused, and zoned in on adding the color patterns around all of our letters. It was actually a bit hypnotizing! 🀩
...
Needless to say, we are really happy with the way our block letter color project turned out! πŸ™Œ We even had a special guest who wanted to join in on this art project! ❀️
...
P.S. We also used Andrew’s free TPT handout on how to make block letters! The bundle includes bubble letters, cursive letters, graffiti letters, and more! πŸ‘
…
#blockletters #blocklettering #colors #color #colorful #artproject #artforkids #kidart #elementaryart #artactivity #artactivities #artactivitiesforkids #colorfun #homeschool #homeschoolart #homeschoolfun #capturingparenthood
We created self-portraits for our first art projec We created self-portraits for our first art project of our homeschool year...and we are pretty obsessed with them! 🀩✏️🀩
...
I love the idea of doing a self-portrait project at the beginning of the year, and then again at the end of the year...so that we can see how much we've grown and changed.
...
We used Kaitlyn's @artwithmrs.e Simple Self-Portrait Drawing Guide and it was so incredibly helpful (especially for this new homeschool teacher who wouldn't necessarily list drawing as one of her stronger suits). πŸ˜‰
We actually purchased her entire Guided Drawing Bundle (over on Teachers Pay Teachers) and we highly recommend it! πŸ™ŒπŸ™ŒπŸ™Œ
...
We looked through the self-portrait drawing guide to get different ideas for our eyes, nose, mouth, and hair. πŸ‘€πŸ‘ƒπŸ‘„
...
Now...if you caught our stories earlier this week, you know that our daughter recently made a pretty big change to her hair (that included a partial side-shave and bob-length cut - she also dyed it blue). πŸ’‡β€β™€οΈ
She was used to drawing pictures of herself with her long, blonde locks...and her new hairstyle proved rather difficult. But she persevered, and ended up with a self-portrait that she was truly proud of! πŸ₯°
...
When we were finished drawing our likenesses, we decided to cut them out and create a special background to glue them onto. I went with random black and white designs...and our nugget decided to draw various things that she loves (her family, winter, candy, books, dolphins...and more)! ❀️
...
It was such a fun project...and I can't wait to see what our self-portraits look like at the end of our school year! πŸ˜ƒ
...
#selfportrait #selfportraits #homeschool #homeschoolart #elementaryart #artactivities #artactivitiesforkids #artforkids #kidart #homeschoolfun #capturingparenthood
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Ok...@artwithmrs.e Haunted House project is hands- Ok...@artwithmrs.e Haunted House project is hands-down the best Halloween-themed art project out there! πŸ™ŒπŸ™ŒπŸ™Œ
We had a blast creating haunted houses for homeschool art this month! 🧑
...
We followed Kaitlyn's extremely helpful Haunted House Drawing Guide (you can find it over on her Teachers Pay Teachers account) and completed the project over the course of 3 lessons.
...
During our first lesson, we sketched our houses in pencil, and added some eerie exterior landscaping. πŸͺ¦πŸ¦‡
We popped in a few spooky characters (ghosts, spiders, pumpkins, and a vampire). πŸ‘»πŸ•·πŸŽƒπŸ§›
And then we traced over our pencil lines with black Sharpie.
...
During our next lesson, we used a coloring technique that we learned from Kristian @friendsartlab ❀️ We colored our pictures with oil pastels...and then painted over the top of the oil pastels with baby oil...it causes the oil pastels to bleed and blend together! 🀩
...
During our final lesson...we added more spooky characters to the inside of our house...that can peek out behind the doors and windows. πŸ’€πŸ§™β€β™€οΈπŸ‘»
To do this...I used an X-acto knife and carefully cut around the outside edges of the doors/windows (leaving the hinge sides intact so that they could fold open and closed).
We placed yellow construction paper in the background...and added witches, ghosts, skeletons, a mummy, and a Frankenstein! 😍
This step made our haunted houses really come to life...and we just can't thank Kaitlyn @artwithmrs.e enough for sharing this awesome lesson and drawing guide! THE ABSOLUTE BEST! ❀️❀️❀️
...
It was very evident how much our daughter loved this project...as we worked through each step...but the thing that solidified just how much she enjoyed it was - one weekend morning I walked downstairs to find her and her dad sitting at the table - and she was very excitedly teaching him how to draw his own haunted house - while she drew a few more herself (scroll to the last picture in the carousel)! πŸ₯°
...
#hauntedhouse #hauntedhouses #hauntedhousedrawing #directeddrawing #spookyart #halloween #happyhalloween #halloweenart #halloweenfun #elementaryart #homeschoolart #homeschool #homeschoolfun #capturingparenthood
I decided that these six little pumpkins needed a I decided that these six little pumpkins needed a permanent place on our feed...because WE GREW THEM OURSELVES!!! πŸŽƒ
That's right...first-time pumpkin-growers over here...and it was all actually a bit of a surprise. πŸ˜ƒ
...
You see, when we went to prep our garden beds this spring, we noticed a plant that had already started growing. We assumed it was a cucumber plant, since it was in the same place we had cucumbers last year.
We left it alone and planted a couple of other cucumber plants nearby. πŸ₯’
At first, the leaves on our mystery plant looked very similar to the leaves on our other cucumber plants.
But a couple of weeks later the plant had grown A LOT bigger. It was now obvious that it was not a cucumber plant. But what was it? πŸ€·β€β™€οΈ
...
And that's when it suddenly dawned on these exhausted parents, that our daughter had spontaneously tossed seeds from her pumpkin (last Halloween), into the garden bed. πŸ€¦β€β™€οΈ The mystery was finally solved...and by the looks of the large golden flowers that were emerging all over the vines...we figured we might have a few pumpkins come fall! πŸ™ŒπŸŽƒπŸ™Œ
...
It was so much fun to watch the pumpkin plant grow! 🀩 We had to cut down the wire on one side of our garden bed to let the vines out...and they ended up growing 6-10 feet long in both directions! 😳 It was crazy!
They put out the most gorgeous flowers...that the bees absolutely loved! 🧑 And soon enough, we spotted a few round gourds growing at the base of some of the flowers. They grew quickly...and then turned a beautiful shade of orange! 😍
...
Needless to say, we are now officially pumpkin-growing people! πŸ˜‚ My husband can't wait to plant more next year...and he's already looking in to different varieties - hoping to grow some larger jack-o-lantern style ones next season! πŸŽƒ
…
#pumpkins #growingpumpkins #ourpumpkinpatch #homegrownpumpkins #homegrown #homegarden #pumpkingrowing #gardening #fallharvest #happyhalloween #timetocarvesomepumpkins #gardensurprises #gardenfun #capturingparenthood
Free the Frankensteins from the Frozen Rainbow Bra Free the Frankensteins from the Frozen Rainbow Brain! 😬🌈🧠
…
Yesterday, we shared how we made this colorful, frozen rainbow brain - full of Frankenstein mini erasers…and today we wanted to show you what became of our beautiful brain! πŸ˜ƒ
…
We popped it out onto a tray, grabbed a shaker of salt, a bottle of warm water (colored red for added effect), and some tongs.
And then it was time to Free the Frankensteins (our daughter coined the phrase)! πŸ˜‰
…
This spooky activity provides chilly sensory play, motor skills practice, and scientific exploration (salt and warm water speed-up the melting process)! πŸ™ŒπŸ™ŒπŸ™Œ
As an added bonus…you also get some color-mixing! And the addition of the salt makes it extra sparkly too! 😍🀩😍
…
Eventually, all you’re left with is some mini erasers floating in a pool of colorful water…and a happy kid! ❀️❀️❀️
…
#frozenbrain #rainbowbrain #frozenrainbowbrain #brains #freethefrankensteins #halloween #happyhalloween #halloweenactivities #halloweenactivitiesforkids #halloweensensoryplay #sensoryplay #sensoryexploration #motorskills #motorskillsdevelopment #scienceforkids #kidscience #funactivities #funactivitiesforkids #halloweenfun #capturingparenthood
We are definitely getting into the fall and Hallow We are definitely getting into the fall and Halloween spirit...so during a recent homeschool art session, we decided to make some air-dry clay pumpkins and jack-o-lanterns! πŸŽƒπŸŽƒπŸŽƒ
...
Back in 2019, Lauralee @2art.chambers shared several colorful, air-dry clay pumpkins that her students made...and after rediscovering the saved post, I decided that it would be a perfect October art lesson for us too! 🧑
...
We used various colors of air-dry clay, and rolled each color into whatever pumpkin shape we wanted...and then we added our lines/indentations using the side of a credit card. πŸ’³ The stems are just small, broken pieces of old crayons (another genius idea from Lauralee). πŸ– And we topped our stems with pieces of pipe cleaner, to create the little curly cues. 😍
...
Once we had our pumpkins...we decided to change things up a bit, and grabbed our stash of googly eyes. πŸ‘€ (Most of) our fall pumpkins then transformed into Halloween jack-o-lanterns! πŸŽƒ
We pressed the googly eyes into the clay, and we used a few small tools (that came with our box of air-dry clay) to add their mouths. πŸ˜ƒ
...
And now we have a cute and colorful crew of clay pumpkins adorning our mantle! πŸŽƒπŸ§‘πŸŽƒ
...
#pumpkins #jackolanterns #claypumpkins #airdryclay #airdryclaycreation #airdryclayart #airdryclaypumpkins #elementaryart #fallartprojects #fallartprojectsforkids #halloweenart #halloweenartprojects #halloweenartprojectsforkids #homeschool #homeschoolart #homeschoolfun #halloween #happyhalloween #capturingparenthood
Andrew from @elementaryarts shared a patterned, bl Andrew from @elementaryarts shared a patterned, block letter name project a couple of weeks ago (I'll share the post in stories today), and I immediately added it to our list of art projects to do this year! 😍
But we decided to switch things up a little bit! Instead of using our names, we each picked a color that we like...wrote the name of the color in block letters on our paper...and created our color patterns using at least two different shades of our chosen color. πŸ–
...
This colorful project ended up being a lot of fun, and also very relaxing...as we all quietly focused, and zoned in on adding the color patterns around all of our letters. It was actually a bit hypnotizing! 🀩
...
Needless to say, we are really happy with the way our block letter color project turned out! πŸ™Œ We even had a special guest who wanted to join in on this art project! ❀️
...
P.S. We also used Andrew’s free TPT handout on how to make block letters! The bundle includes bubble letters, cursive letters, graffiti letters, and more! πŸ‘
…
#blockletters #blocklettering #colors #color #colorful #artproject #artforkids #kidart #elementaryart #artactivity #artactivities #artactivitiesforkids #colorfun #homeschool #homeschoolart #homeschoolfun #capturingparenthood
We created self-portraits for our first art projec We created self-portraits for our first art project of our homeschool year...and we are pretty obsessed with them! 🀩✏️🀩
...
I love the idea of doing a self-portrait project at the beginning of the year, and then again at the end of the year...so that we can see how much we've grown and changed.
...
We used Kaitlyn's @artwithmrs.e Simple Self-Portrait Drawing Guide and it was so incredibly helpful (especially for this new homeschool teacher who wouldn't necessarily list drawing as one of her stronger suits). πŸ˜‰
We actually purchased her entire Guided Drawing Bundle (over on Teachers Pay Teachers) and we highly recommend it! πŸ™ŒπŸ™ŒπŸ™Œ
...
We looked through the self-portrait drawing guide to get different ideas for our eyes, nose, mouth, and hair. πŸ‘€πŸ‘ƒπŸ‘„
...
Now...if you caught our stories earlier this week, you know that our daughter recently made a pretty big change to her hair (that included a partial side-shave and bob-length cut - she also dyed it blue). πŸ’‡β€β™€οΈ
She was used to drawing pictures of herself with her long, blonde locks...and her new hairstyle proved rather difficult. But she persevered, and ended up with a self-portrait that she was truly proud of! πŸ₯°
...
When we were finished drawing our likenesses, we decided to cut them out and create a special background to glue them onto. I went with random black and white designs...and our nugget decided to draw various things that she loves (her family, winter, candy, books, dolphins...and more)! ❀️
...
It was such a fun project...and I can't wait to see what our self-portraits look like at the end of our school year! πŸ˜ƒ
...
#selfportrait #selfportraits #homeschool #homeschoolart #elementaryart #artactivities #artactivitiesforkids #artforkids #kidart #homeschoolfun #capturingparenthood
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