Puzzles for Jaden

After spending a week with his grandma and grandpa Parsons while Jake and I were on our cruise, my 4 year old son Jaden found out how much he enjoys doing puzzles. He spends hours doing puzzles and his grandparents house and i wanted to get him some him at home. Unfortunately puzzles aren't exactly the cheapest things in the world, so i decided, heck i'll make them myself. After hours of experimenting, i finally came up with this. I found a cute picture on the internet, printed it out on card stock, pasted it onto some foam board and cut out the pieces. The base is just cardboard with an extra thick layer of foam board on the edge so it is easier for jaden to put the puzzle together. It hasn't turned out the way i wanted it to, but it will do for now until i can figure out something better.

Projects from a while ago...

I had a blank wall in my bathroom that has been staring in me in face for a year now, so i finally took an old hideous picture frame, painted it and painted this saying to put inside it. I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out (the free-hand lettering part), but it will have to do for now.

I have a plant shelf in my living room with a vaulted ceiling and after i moved in i was super excited but also so overwhelmed with how to decorate it. This is finally what i have come up with for right now. Its still a work in progress, (like all decorating right?).


This is something i made to help organize all of my little girls hair clips etc. i have yet to decorate the picture frame part. I think i will put my little girls names in it or something. I may need to add longer ribbons, as i accumulate more hair accessories.

Craft work station

I have had no way to organize all of my craft supplies all these years, and one day i was fed up with it. I took scraps of wood, a glue gun, some hooks, and some paint and whipped this up to help me organize all of my craft supplies.

There is a shelf to hold taller things like paint and a smaller cup/shelf to hold pens, rulers, scissors etc., a peg-board type thing to hold string, tape, etc., hooks to hold bags with things in them, and a place to hold ribbon which is actually made from a plastic hanger.

ABC book

What started out as a basic alphabet book quickly evolved into an elaborate project. I just kept thinking of new ways to make it better and more fun. This is what it ended up as.

Each letter of the alphabet has a few pictures that start with that letter. I tried to do things that represented all of the different kinds of sounds that each letter can make, ie: O makes the Oh, and the ah sound: Orange, Octopus etc.

Each picture and letter has velcro on the backs so you can take them off and match them to their correct picture/letter.

It was a lot of fun to make. We will see if Jaden enjoys playing with it. :)

Topiary

I have been wanting to add a couple of topiaries in front of my house for a long time, so when I found these two evergreen trees at home depot for only $2.50 each, I grabbed them. They originally didn't have the spiral cut into them, I did that myself, which i am quite pleased with. :)

Growth Chart

My sister in law and I came up with this cute growth chart for our kids. Just cut a poster board in half, stacked it above the other and taped it together. Then we decorated it with stickers and marked it foot by foot.

Flannel Board

As a kid i remember my parents had a flannel board that we used to play with. I remember it being lots of fun, so i decided to make a flannel board for my kids. It entertains Jaden for a long time.

I cut out a piece of flannel and attached it to a bulletin board that i wasn't using anymore. I used little decorative brads to poke through the flannel and into the bulletin board. I then printed out fun animals, cars, letters, numbers, shapes, book of Mormon/ Bible stories, laminated them and cut them out. Velcro and felt on the backs of the pieces didn't work very well so i used the velcro tabs on diapers to glue onto the backs of the laminated pieces. It works really well.