Toddler Decorated Care Package

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Care package two was successfully shipped and received! We found out that Joe got approved for leave and will be home for Thanksgiving before returning to his stateside training. I chose to do a Thanksgiving theme and had a lot of fun making this package.

I wanted to include Skyler in the decorating of the package as much as possible. We had a lot of fun making sticker turkeys, hand print turkeys, and a big feathered turkey to decorate the inside, flaps, and top of Joe's care package. Skyler loved feeling involved not only in making the care package, but helping me pick out the things that went inside of it. 

Similar to our last package, I mostly just sent snacks for Joe (with plenty to share!) since he didn't really need anything yet. I also included a letter, and on the morning I was going to send it, Joe asked me to send the arm band for his phone, so luckily I was able to send it to him that day!

My main goal with this care package was trying out mason jar pies. Joe's dad has a recipe he loves at Thanksgiving for sweet potato pecan pie. Following their recipe for the pie filling and modifying the cooking temp and time using a canned pie recipe I looked up, I ended up with three little pies that can be shipped safely because of the canning process! The recipe usually has the nuts on top, but I found a candied pecan recipe and sent them separately instead. Joe said they were amazing and I can't wait to try this method out for all sorts of baked goods!

I included tons of snacks and treats like jelly cranberries (Joe loves them - sticking with the Thanksgiving theme), almonds and trail mix, granola bars, chips and salsa, candy corn and M&M's, beef jerky, and flavored pretzels. We'll see if they can actually finish it all before Thanksgiving - I went a little overboard!

Skyler's favorite part was decorating this feathered turkey for Joe. Skyler put on the eyes, beak, and feet of the turkey on his own, colored the turkey a little bit and then we turned it over and added the feathers. I handed Skyler pieces of tape and we worked together to fill the back of the turkey. He talked about sending daddy that turkey for days and was excited to find out that Joe has it hanging by his bed.

The final product - so much fun to put together and send! Now time to prepare his next package :) 

Care Packages and Coping

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Going into this month, I didn't know if I would write about this, but I started Minne-Mama not just for the crafts and activities I do with Skyler, but as a place to show what we do as a family. The military has been, and especially right now is, a huge part of who we are and how we live. We had to say goodbye to my amazing husband this month in preparation for his deployment. It was a hard week away from home as we went to going away ceremonies, and in the week he has been gone, we have just been trying to get into our new routine for the next several months. He is gone a lot, so Skyler and I are used to being at home just the two of us, but I am trying hard to make life feel normal for us before the baby arrives and our lives change drastically again. 

My husband is my best friend, and has been for over ten years since we met in high school. I like to think of myself as pretty independent, but being without my person still sucks. We were apart for four months when he went to basic training, but that was before we were married, before we had Skyler. Not only will this be a longer time away, but now Skyler and baby E are a part of the mix. I have been using most of my extra energy to prepare myself and our children for Joe to be away.

...and then I started looking up care packages, how to best send them, packaging baked goods...and I stumbled across care packages on Pinterest and realized how fun they can be! People decorate the inside of the boxes and do all sorts of amazing things with them. It has become my biggest distraction and is the one thing I feel like I can control with the deployment. I can send Joe a piece of home and show him how much we miss him in the care packages I send him. I am hooked!! Even though he just left, I made sure he had a package to open when he first got to his stateside training.

Since I knew he wouldn't need a lot for his stateside training, the majority of the box space was stuffing the Halloween-themed box with his favorite candy. I also bought him a calendar to use as a countdown and journal, and I had a lot of fun going through and leaving him messages on important days or just at random.

For my first care package, I went simple with the inside of the box - just using black, orange, and striped paper to write out "Boo! We miss you!" and "Happy Halloween" for him to find on the bottom when all of the contents of the box are emptied (I sent a lot of candy, knowing that Joe will not be the only one eating it!) On top of the candy went the calendar and Little Pumpkin Craft Skyler made for him, and I covered the top with spider web and plastic spiders (and used the leftover to make our spider web sensory bin). 

I have already started working on the next care package, and will probably create a side tab for them in the future, not keeping them in the main part of the blog.

Other ways I have been preparing for the deployment have been mostly for Skyler. The night we got home after watching Joe head to the airport by bus, I set up Skyler's deployment wall that I have been piecing together for months. 

His little red table has become our deployment zone and other than the lettering of "We Love Daddy" that I made, it includes two clocks for our time and daddy's time (more for me when the time different is greater, but Skyler is always saying "I like my clocks!") and "Army Bear" which was a gift that Joe brought back after a recent training.

The bin includes a variety of books on deployment and separation that I researched for months. We have read a few and I may do a later post of our favorites. The specifically deployment book we read the most is "Over There" which was given out at a family briefing I went to and it is great for a toddler! Skyler  loves the version of "Guess How Much I Love You" which is a recordable book from Hallmark that Joe did before he left (I also took some videos of Joe reading some of Skyler's favorite books for him to watch when he wants to hear a book from daddy).

The little book in the front that says "Skyler and Daddy" is filled with pictures of the two of them and is Skyler's favorite part of the deployment table! He is always carrying his picture book around and talking about what him and daddy are doing together in the pictures.

The shelf above Skyler's table has calendars (that I made and decorated the backgrounds of) for all of the months Joe will be gone. I planned on putting them all up on the wall to the left of his table, but am not ready to see the empty calendars yet. When we fill a few, I will probably put them up. Skyler puts a sticker on every night. This picture was taken a week ago, we are caught up :)

We are also sticking with our countdown tradition, with a monthly countdown. The only change I am making is when I take off a link I write the date and a note to Joe on the back. I am going to save all of them and give them to him when he comes home. The little picture of him sticking out of the cup is a "flat daddy" that Skyler made at one of the going away meetings. He is on a little Popsicle stick and we are supposed to bring him with us and take pictures with him. Skyler and I are already talking about all the places we want to take flat daddy while Joe is away!

The biggest way that Skyler has coped with Joe being gone is with "Bear." We went to build-a-bear a few weeks before Joe left and he recorded his voice for both Skyler and baby E and Skyler made the bears. He talks about putting in the hearts and stepping on the pedal ALL the time! Skyler takes Bear with him almost everywhere and sleeps with him. It has been so helpful since Skyler hasn't been able to talk to Joe at all since he left. He loves to press the foot and hear daddy talk about how much he loves and misses him. Skyler will be bringing the camouflage bear that he made for his brother to the hospital when he meets him!

I swear the camo shirt was completely accidental!

I am hoping these coping techniques will help Skyler through this time, but honestly I have no idea how to help a two year old understand how long it will be before his daddy comes home. We are just going to take it one day at a time.

Toddler Decorated Pumpkins

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We enjoyed a very full and fun family weekend starting off Saturday morning with this trip to Sever's Corn Maze. While we didn't actually do the corn maze, there were so many amazing activities at this spot - I can't believe it was a first time for all of us! Growing up in our hometown, my husband and I have gone to many local pumpkin patches and apple orchards, but not this nearby gem. We cannot wait to go back next year! Here are some of my favorite pictures from the morning. 

 

Vintage tractors were all over at the corn maze, and Skyler had to drive each one at least once!

A vintage fire truck was open for children to explore as well! We made a few stops and Skyler loved standing inside and looking up the ladder. Even though we didn't do the corn maze, we did try out the much smaller hay maze which was perfect for a toddler! 

The little wooden train was one of Skyler's favorite parts of our trip. There were several tunnels to crawl through, windows for peek-a-boo, and a great bell to ring.

My favorite was the corn pit. It was surprisingly hard to move around in the deep corn (especially at 30+ weeks pregnant!) and the corn was really cold. We had so much fun running it through our fingers, listening to the corn rain down, and walking as fast as we could before falling down. Of course there were several round of leg burying with the corn, which I found so much more enjoyable than being covered with sand!

The animals (kangaroos, lemurs, capybaras, and ostriches among the most interesting) and a ton of wooden signs with face cut-outs were other favorites for this little guy!

The purpose of our trip was to pick out some pumpkins to decorate, so we couldn't forget to stop at the pumpkin patch on our way out. After the longest nap ever (Thank you, Sever's!) we spent the afternoon decorating Skyler's three pumpkins. Skyler had a blast decorating his pumpkins almost entirely on his own! We started off by opening up one of the pumpkins to have a little sensory play.

I knew I wanted to have Skyler try the cookie cutter and rubber mallet method, so I went in search of cookie cutters that he would love and ended up with an assortment of vehicles. He was so excited to get started with this pumpkin!

This was so much fun to do and Skyler loved it! I thought we would be able to fit more cutouts, but we ended up with one of each before Skyler started to lose interest.

Up next we did a simple painted pumpkin which was Skyler's favorite to do! Last year for his pumpkin we did finger paints (with a tape resist S) that he covered with stickers once dry. Whether it was the age difference, or using the brush instead of his fingers, he had so much more fun decorating with these methods this year! He sat and carefully painted his pumpkin until every side was filled, politely asking for more paint whenever he ran out.

Similar to last year, we did a simple sticker pumpkin for the third and final decoration. These were actually the leftover stickers from last year. Again, this was a completely independent pumpkin for Skyler to decorate since he can easily remove the foam stickers from the backing. He did this pumpkin very quickly.

Skyler's foam sticker decorated pumpkin turned out so fun and glittery. I was kind of surprised all of his stickers stayed on one side!

The cut out pumpkin turned out pretty cute, but I am excited to see it lit up when it gets dark out! We haven't had a chance to try it out the past two nights, but Skyler will be so excited to see the glowing vehicles tomorrow night!

Skyler's beautifully painted pumpkin is my favorite one. He worked so hard on it and I think it turned out so cute! We have an owl shaped pumpkin holder that I am excited to put out on our front step to hold this pumpkin.

These three simple decorating techniques were great for a very independent toddler! Each one was a lot of fun on its own, and you definitely do not need three pumpkins to do all of these. Last year we had fun painting and (once dry) placing stickers on one pumpkin. Painting and cookie cutouts would be another easy one to combine on one pumpkin.

Little Pumpkin Craft

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This fun craft was one of the ways Skyler and I dealt with Joe being away for the past week and a half. I posted on Instagram the last paper "chain" of our most recent daddy countdown. I had fun making the candy corn countdown and Skyler loved taking off a candy for every night daddy was gone! We have since taken off the last candy and can't wait to see him tomorrow!

A few weeks ago we went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum (one of our favorite places - where Joe and I got married and the location of more than one family photo shoot!) While we were there, Skyler found this "pumpkin house" and loved playing inside of it. The idea for this craft we made for daddy came from this picture as well as the most common nickname I use for Skyler. I call him "pumpkin" all the time (or some variation of it!)

My little pumpkin with some little pumpkins!

After an accidental similar picture was taken two years in a row, we had to get a third! (9/28/12, 9/21/13, 9/29/14)

To make this little pumpkin craft for daddy, I cut two pieces of contact paper, one for Skyler to decorate with tissue paper and one to cover his craft and a picture to be framed! I cut two orange pumpkin shapes and made one into a frame by just trimming near the edges. We added a green stem and leaf using green paper, white paper, and green paint. 

Skyler loves using contact paper in any way. For his little pumpkin frame, I gave him two shades of orange tissue paper and he carefully filled all of the sticky contact paper!

Once he was done, I placed the picture of him in the middle. 

I put the other piece of contact paper down over both the tissue and picture. This step isn't really necessary, but I liked how it held the tissue paper down. You could just glue the picture on top. 

I glued the pumpkin shaped "frame" on top of the contact paper and cut it out.

At this point, add the stem (and leaf which we made later) and it would make a really cute suncatcher! I actually preferred it as a suncatcher, but wanted it to be more durable for Joe, so I added the other pumpkin shape to the back. 

We made the leaf with one sweet green hand print. Skyler made enough hand prints to make a little pumpkin for our entire family, the boy loves to make hand prints! I wrote on the back, and we are ready to give it to daddy when he gets home!

This little pumpkin craft was a lot of fun for both of us to make, and it could be used for a home decoration/keepsake or given to another family member or teacher!