Freckle Foot's Happy Place

We went to the beach, not Freckle Foots favorite place. However we did find her happy place.  She loved the Carousel. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself, she leaned over and hugged me and told me she loved me all the while giggling and shaking with excitement.

Now all she talks about is riding the horses. I think we are going to make some trips to local Carousels. I have never seen Freckle Foot so happy before. It brought up tears for me to see her so happy.

Travel Activities for toddlers

We are off to the ocean again. The first family vacation since Freckle Foot was 11 months old. I am excited and a little nervous. If you have read our blog you know Freckle Foot is not too fond of the beach. We think it is the wind but since she is 3 she can't quite tell us all the details. So in preparation for the long car ride here are the pictures of all the activities I crammed into a gallon size zip lock bag.

 These are a bunch of cutting cards that I made out of copy paper, stickers and a marker. Freckle Foot is just starting to get the hang of cutting. The Melissa and Doug sissors can cut paper but she won't be able to cut anything else in the car. I hope she likes them.

The book on the left Sponge Bob water pen activity, the pen makes all the colors show up so it looks like she is coloring. The Dora explorer book on the right you scratch the page with the wood pencil and the color shows up. I tried this one out at dinner one night and there was one problem. If you leave the Dora pages in a hot car it is heat sensitive too and all the color shows up.

 From Left to right. We have long balloons to make balloon animals. Coloring pages cut into 5x4 to fit the mini clip board. I also picked up some mini colored pencils that are not pictured.  Water color pictures. I used water color pencils to outline the pictures then I cut sponges into small squares and soaked them in water. Freckle Foot can rub the pictures with the wet sponge to "color" the pictures. There are a few pipe cleaners. Kids always love pipe cleaners.

Top left we have a word search. Although Freckle Foot can't do a word search she can search for letters A, B, and C and circle them. Pom poms are always fun. Fruit loops to make necklaces I forgot to picture the string. It's a little hard to see but I made a snake out pipe cleaner and he can be bent into the shapes on the foam sheets. Freckle Foot can also cut up the foam sheets. Freckle Foot can make a lollipop last for a hour. Clothes pins can be hours of fun for Little Loaf. And last but not least painter tape. Tape like pom poms is fun. 

Well that should keep the kids entertained. I have a few more activity bags packed with toys but I have run out of time to take pictures. We are off to the beach.

The Ocean

Grandma G, Grandma M and Auntie and all four kids packed into two cars and headed to the Ocean for 4 days. We had a great time. Freckle Foot and Little Loaf had a blast with their cousins. We all worked on Father's day gifts. Here are a few pictures from our trip.

Grandma G was narrating a Peter Rabbit paper doll story to the kids.


Freckle Foot has melt down every time we go to the beach. I haven't figured out why she is so overwhelmed at the beach. Auntie and Grandma M were trying to help Freckle Foot out of the water in the middle of a meltdown. Of course mom had to take a few pictures.
Freckle Foot did finally enjoy the beach. She liked using all the logs as balance beams.

Little Loaf might be a chess player when he gets older. Tiger to E4? We all had such a good time we are going to go next year too.