What We Gonna Do Today?

Each morning for Carter begins quite similarly: she wakes up around 8 and eagerly calls my name; for some reason she has never thought of getting out of her bed or leaving her room herself. Murphy and I burst into her room and greet her with a cheerful made-up song, 'Good morning to you, my sweet little Pooks!' Immediately, she asks, 'What we gonna do today? Pymnastics? Aspen Academy? Chick-fil-a with Pierce?'
As her little schedule has gotten a bit busier, I've been trying to think of a fun way to show her what each day will entail. I did a bit of online searching for ideas and couldn't find much beyond typical calendars. Since Carter's only three and a half, I wanted something that would be fun, interactive, and not require reading.
Since Hubby is traveling for work, tonight was the perfect time to get busy on my project. Several folks responded with interest and positive comments on my Little Things Project, so I thought I'd share details of how this one came together, too.
Once I had a fairly clear mental idea of what I wanted to do, I made the only logical first stop: The Container Store. Here I picked up several necessary pieces to begin my project: a white magnetic tabletop dry erase board, a magnetic bin to hold the activity cards, dry erase pens, adhesive magnetic squares, and a magnetic dry eraser.

Then I ran by Target for some photo paper to use on my home printer and some self-sealing laminating paper. The last item I needed was some card-stock, and at home I had some nifty, glittery pad left over from a project I did last fall. 

Once I had compiled all the necessary supplies, I tucked my girls in bed and got busy. I went through my digital photos to find ones that best depicted various activities. (I had to do a little bit of Google Image searching for a couple pictures.) I then printed them out, glued them to the card stock (which I had cut to exactly 4"x6" so that the laminating process would be simple), and wrote the name of the activity on the card. 

Rather than making 'playdate' cards for each

of her friends, I used a group shot from her birthday.

It's funny that flying is such a 

pertinent part of her young life.

Here's a look at all of the completed activity cards; each has a two magnetic squares attached to the back.

I love the way I turned what's essentially just a daily calendar into something much more fun, and I can't wait to show it to Carter in the morning! 

(Of course, I've already thought of lots activities I missed when making the cards... holidays, special treat days, snow days, throwing pennies in the fountain days, splashing in puddles days... But, since it's nearly midnight, and  I have not even begun to think about packing or writing sitter instructions for a weekend trip Hubby and I are taking tomorrow, I suppose the completion of this project will have to wait till another day.)