If my man were the type to squeal, he totally would have when we opened our package from Passive Juice Motel. I mean, a shirt with Ira Glass on it? His dream come true.

And I’m pretty sure the Einstein t-shirt they sent my kids is going to make them smarter. But seriously, if you’ve ever wanted a quirky tote or an awesome t-shirt or plush Mona Lisa or Bill Murray or Earnest Hemingway (and who hasn’t!), this is the shop for you.

Thanks, Passive Juice Motel!

By Heather

Cole has been completely enamored with drawing and coloring lately. He walks around all day with his notepad and writing utensil, “jotting” down his ideas and scribbling the pictures in his mind. It’s darling.

The other night he was asking about the journals that Matt and I have, and expressed that he wanted a journal of his own to write in when he goes to bed at night. The only slight problem is that he can’t spell, let alone write a journal entry. And that’s when it hit me. He can DRAW a journal entry! I asked him if he’d like a nighttime drawing journal of his very own. His face lit up and was very excited about the idea!

The next day I went to the dollar store and purchased a simple composition book. I covered it in old fabric that I had, and voila! It was done in about 4 minutes! The fun thing is that you can decorate it however you want, or even have your child decorate it. I also got a $5 container (this one’s really cute!) and put a few boxes of crayons inside.

So the journal and crayons sit on Cole’s nightstand so we never forget to use it each night. Before he goes to sleep, we’ll ask him what his favorite thing was about the day. Then he draws it, and we write the date and translate the picture in a little caption on the page. Sunday he was asked to give a prayer in church. He was pretty excited about it, so he drew a little podium with a microphone. He drew himself, and all of the chairs his classmates sit in, and a picture of his teacher (that’s what he tells me the picture is about, at least ).

Have fun with this activity! I only let Cole use this journal (notebook) at night so it’s special and doesn’t get old. During the day he has a different notebook to color in that can be tossed about.

By Millie

I’ve been wanting to do another project that my two year old could get in to. I find I usually pull out a project when she is sleeping, but sometimes I feel a little more ambitious. Collage seemed like the perfect foolproof activity for this age.

I started out by slightly watering down a quarter sized blob of white glue, then pulled out some tissue paper scraps, brushes, and we were off. I demonstrated tearing the tissue paper and we each made a small pile. After playing around a bit, we found that painting the paper with the glue water first, then place the tissue paper, and then paint a little more glue water on top worked best for us.

You can’t mess this up!