kid and baby

It’s been a while since I shared a pretend play prompt for my girls (see our hot cocoa and ice cream shop here) and with Valentine’s Day around the corner I gave them a box to set up a romantic restaurant date. They LOVED this! Basically all I did for this was use an empty […]

If you’re new around here maybe you haven’t heard about my activity boxes, so here’s the deal! I started doing them a few years ago with my toddlers as a way to set up our activities for the week. When my girls were young (12-18 months) I found I most needed them to be entertained […]

Have you heard of ‘calm down bottles’ ? They are a great sensory activity for your child to play with when they need a break, a quiet time or to….calm down! We’ve been using them for a while with the girls – I would say optimal age would be 18 months – 4 years. I […]

If you’ve been reading The Mama Notes for a while you know we are big fans of the pom pom drop over here! Now that Flora’s a bit older I had to give it a fun seasonal twist for the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday! I’m also sharing some adaptations and ideas for playing with it […]

Can’t believe we are diving into the world of potty training again next week!! It’s time. But I’m still not looking forward to it! I’ll be sharing a lot about our process potty training Flora (who is 25 months old) but wanted to start by sharing all of the gear we are using to potty […]

Ohhhh, I am SO happy to finally be sharing this post! I’ve been working on these ideas since November and finally manage to get everything photographed and ready to share! If you’re new around here, activity boxes are my favorite thing to put together to entertain my girls while I get work done, clean, cook […]

My girls had sooo much fun with their play ice cream shop that I had to make a holiday version for them!! This pretend hot cocoa shop could not be easier and we’ve had so much fun with it the last few weeks. While the girls love to set up ‘shop’ they also use the […]

This sensory play dough activity is so fun for the holiday season or special occasions like birthdays – but really your kids would enjoy it any time of the year and most likely you already have everything you need on hand! We scented the play dough with essential oils to make it smell like sugar […]

As a blogger, I share a LOT about my life as a mom and naturally get a lot of questions – but one of the most frequent and unexpected questions I get asked is about Flora’s bedding, specifically what size pillow she has and what we use for blankets and when we started using them. […]

This post is sponsored by Farm Rich™. Thank you for supporting the brands that allow us to create content for you!  One of Piper’s most beloved after school activities is a ‘treasure hunt snack’. Growing up I have the best memories of my mom doing the same for us, and I always feel guilty for not doing them […]

Last year I was in a major lunch-packing rut and turned to Pinterest for some ideas. BAD IDEA. I don’t know who has time for elaborate lunches during the week but I sure don’t. I just want something relatively healthy that is quick and easy to throw together that Piper will actually EAT! So I […]

Morning activity boxes have been a game changer in our routine! I did a version of this with Piper when she was younger and I was trying to juggle the work-from-home mom routine. So a few weeks ago I started making boxes for Flora to use when she needs an activity (i.e. she wants my […]