Michelles Charm World

Salt Dough Jewelry!

2012-02-17T15:55:00.000-08:00

As we prepared all of February for Valentine's Day there was something that I definitely wanted to attempt with the kids! We decided to attack Salt Dough Jewelry to give away! This was definitely fun for everyone involved. Take the ingredients below and mix it all together in 1 bowl. I like to set it all out in measuring cups and let them put it in and follow the recipe themselves.

Ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup salt
1 1/2 cups warm water

Roll out all the dough and after that I let them play with it so for as long as they wanted, just like play dough! This helped smooth it out and turned this simple project into something that lasted much longer.

The Littles love play dough and this was even more fun, since they knew it was going to be made into something else afterwards!

Now it was time to shape them! We made jumbo buttons in round and heart shapes, for lacing fun, then we made plain hearts and circles for the jewelry we would be making. This part was fun, because they loved taking the cookie cutters and toothpicks to the dough.

Now they are ready for baking!

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
Mix flour and salt well. Gradually add water, stirring with a large spoon. Finish mixing with hands. Knead until soft and pliable.
Roll out on floured surface about 1/8 inch thick. Cut shapes with cookie cutters. Place on cookie sheets. With a toothpick make a hole in the top of the ornament for threading string. Bake at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) until hard, about 30 minutes (keep checking on them as ovens vary). Decorate with paint and varnish to preserve.

The painting process made this a 3-in-1 project!

We added glitter to the paint and our necklaces were shimmery!

Almost Wordless...

2012-02-15T06:48:00.000-08:00

The playground was empty, so Mommy played with her little guy!

We put change all over town on vending machines!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2012-02-14T17:21:00.000-08:00

Wow! It is 7pm and I am JUST NOW getting home! What a busy and yet super fun day it has been! We have had so much fun at all the parties we went to and giving out goodies everywhere we hit! We made Bubble Necklaces with cute little 'Bubbly' tags!

The chocolate and sprinkles heart shaped lollipops were a total hit and chocolate covered strawberries for the teachers were absolutely perfect!

Rose-Scented-Sparkle Dough was perfect for the Littles and when I added in cookie cutters in a variety of shapes, they were perfect!

I brought fruit for the pre-k classroom and a straw makes the perfect skewer! Top it off with a foam heart sticker!

My husband even got fruit and choco covered fruit!

The kids absolutely delighted in drinking their milk from plastic drink flutes! We even had some donuts left over after taking some over to daddy's work for his employees!

We had fun making coasters for the school parties!

Did you know a little chef in the kitchen always makes it all go faster?!

Cutting Hearts out of felt to go with our Valentine Stories that we read at night!

Place Setting at the K-6 Party!!!
Iced Sugar Cookies, Place mat & crayons, bubble necklace, choco lollipop!

How was your day???

Menu Plan Monday!

2012-02-13T15:05:00.000-08:00

7 Days of Love Breakfast for my Husband!

Happy Day my friends! How was your weekend? I hope it treated you well and that you had a lot of fun. we kept busy as always, and even managed to squeeze in a family movie at the end of the night yesterday! I apologize for my menu planning post being so late, but I had no time at all this weekend to get 1 done, so I had to wake up extra early and plan it out then hit the grocery store after the kids were off to school!

Homemade Chocolate Pudding for After School Snacks!

Our Menu:

Monday: Pork Chops & Steamed Green Beans

Tuesday: Grilled Chicken Wraps with Hummus & Carrots

Wednesday: Split Pea Soup with Fresh Bread

Thursday: Cheese Quesadillas with toppings bar & black beans

Friday: Swedish Meatballs over Noodles

Random Thoughts....

2012-02-10T15:43:00.000-08:00

So very, very true...I have a Nook, bookshelves in EVERY room of my house that are FULL and yet I still left the library with 10 books today!

Psst...it's National Umbrella Day today!

Meeting Fun!

2012-02-09T11:22:00.000-08:00

Whenever the kids hear that I have a meeting to go to, they get excited! They love hanging out with other children at the meetings while the parents chat & best of all they love getting stuff together to play with! I like to get creative with what we bring and make sure that whatever it is, it can be played with and enjoyed by multiple children without having to worry about it.

Yesterday was just that day! We had gotten several large packages in and while the boxes made fun cars and boats for a bit of time, they were ready for a new life! We did not have much time until the meeting, so I couldn't make the road as we are used to (black tape & white crayon) and this cardboard was pretty warped. We decided to be quick about it and cut up everything in to strips and Roman did the dotted road lines. We made different shapes and parking lots and houses, garages and train track too. A little village formed and with the added felt water the town was ready to be played with and enjoyed!

7 days of Love...

2012-02-08T11:00:00.000-08:00

I LOVE YOU is a phrase heard often in our house, we all say it to each other as much as possible. This is a house oozing with love, but sometimes I find myself taking a lot for granted. My husband works hard and long hours, it's easy to get annoyed or frustrated when I am overwhelmed with housework and homework and want to take it out on him, but I know that he is excellent at what he does and wants to take care of his family. (Private school tuition for 3 isn't cheap!) While my husband knows that I love him, I wanted to show it more in my actions & decided to do 7 Days of Love leading up to Valentine's Day. On these days I will do little things that may not seem like much, but actually do add. I'm hoping to turn it into a habit that will continue to go on long after these 7 days have passed.

Day 1 was going to be a batch of fresh baked cookies, but I didn't have any flour on hand after a week of bread baking frenzy! I made up some chocolate colored strawberries instead and nestled one in a bed of fresh berries. A sweet treat for my sweetie when he got home at 2 this morning, I also added a love note to let him know exactly how much I love, admire and respect him.

What are you doing for your significant other?

Be Mine, Valentine!

2012-02-07T10:48:00.000-08:00

Roman's class is exchanging Valentine's & I knew just the ones we would work on, when I came across these travel packs of crayons at Joann for .50 EACH! We cleared out 2 stores worth and set out to create the cutest Valentines on a budget!

He is all about rainbows right now, so we snagged a rainbow image & added some fun wording. I was going to print them out on sticker labels, to make it easy to peel & stick on the packages but Roman had other plans! He wanted to cut them out and use TAPE! Is tape as popular in your house as it is over here??

Last year the kids decorated cardboard bookmarks with glitter and paint to give out as Valentine's & we had plenty left over! We paired them with the box of crayons and added a yarn 'tassel'! PERFECT PAIRING! When Roman got home from school today, we started to work on his MAIL BOX. He was sure to save his cereal box and knew that he wanted to paint it.

We used paper bags to create a plain surface for his creativity and then he set to work with stickers and markers before hunger took him over! After a short break, he plans on painting and gluing and adding some glitter as well!

What are you up to today??

Menu Plan Monday!

2012-02-06T11:45:00.000-08:00

Lunches are so Fun to Eat when you have a place for everything!

Happy Monday! It's time for another week to begin & we are ready for it! We have a full plan of fun foods brought to you by every member of our family. This week everyone chose their favorite meal & that person will assist in making dinner!

Tea Party & Go Fish for the afternoon!

Our Menu This Week & Who Suggested It!

Monday by Mom: Meatball Sandwiches & Garden Salad

Tuesday by Roman (age 4): Chicken & Pea Pods served over Steamed Rice

Wednesday by Autumn (age 7): Ravioli & Fresh Baked Bread with Minnestrone Soup

Thursday by Gabriel (age 6): Beef Sandwiches & Green Beans

Friday by Mom: Shrimp over Angel Hair Pasta tossed in Fresh Pesto

Saturday by Dad: Burgers, Egg Salad & Grilled Veggies

Sunday by the Family: Lasagna & Salad with fresh bread

We just went to see Big Miracle on Friday & the kids LOVED IT! I figured I would share my favorite movie tip with you! In order to avoid popcorn fighting in the theatre (and the RIDICULOUS prices), we buy 1 bag and bring ziploc bags! I give everyone their share when we sit down & then Daddy & I share the big bag! Enjoy!

Happy Sunday...

2012-02-05T20:40:00.000-08:00

Happy Sunday friends! I am watching movies with my husband and enjoying some awesomely wonderful tea! We started out watching FIREPROOF and are now on to SOUL SURFER. No Super Bowl for us!

Did you know it is National Nutella Day today??

We're celebrating tomorrow as we spent the entire day out and about!

Enjoy your week!

Make The Day!

2012-02-03T14:24:00.000-08:00

A fun way to get your children learning about money is to MAKE THE DAY in change. We put the date card (Today is the 3rd) in one pocket on the chart & then have to make that day with the amount of money needed. The beginning of the month is easy enough for our youngest to do and as he watches the older kids for the other days, he is familiarizing himself with the money as well!

As the days get more difficult, each child gets a chance to make the date in their own row. The youngest even gets a turn and then we inform him on how much he put in to his pocket & what he would need to do to correct it. It's all about learning what the different coins equal! Try it with some index cards and real change!

DIY Pictionary!

2012-02-02T16:31:00.000-08:00

Happy Groundhog Day! We came upon an AWESOME sale at TARGET yesterday and got Dry Erase Markers, Crayons and Boards for 2.50 on clearance! I bought 1 pack of markers and crayons, but lost out on the boards, when we went back today to another store to pick up an order I had placed they had more of everything! I quickly put 1 set of crayons, markers and 3 boards in the car for car trips! New car toys always bring excitement.

We paired the markers with some homemade flash cards (spelling words, easily drawn words and anything we could think of off the top of our heads) and our larger wipe board and we were ready to play! I pulled an hourglass from our misc. game piece box and we had ourselves a fun game to play! The kids LOVED it and we lasted almost 2 hours taking turns and not even keeping score!

After the family game was long over, the boys kept playing! Everyone seemed to be having so much fun with this concept that I was tempted to go back and buy out all the TARGETs in my area and save these to give as gifts!

Head on over to your TARGET for this STEAL!

In These Moments....

2012-02-01T18:17:00.000-08:00

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Moments we treasure & always remember

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A relaxing Sunday with Daddy not working...

A Stolen Nap...

Search & Find Math and Dots!

2012-01-31T05:31:00.000-08:00

Search & Find!

I have a 20 sided die & then 1 that has the numbers 1-10 on it. My little guy rolls them both & then we add them up and mark off the answer with a DO-a-Dot marker!

My big kids play this game with multiple dies and they roll and add to get the answers!

Menu Plan Monday!

2012-01-30T06:38:00.000-08:00

Serve it up colorful and with tongs & your kids will LOVE it!

Wow, we're headed up to the 50s in the Midwest in January?! What is happening? We've had to pretend it was Winter lately and you know what? I don't mind!! I truly hope that all of you readers had a fantastic weekend, mine couldn't have been better! We helped out at a school we love & then got to spend time with those people that we love on Sunday. Amazing! Share what you did this weekend!!

Fresh Fruit will be eaten rapidly, if it's cleaned and put in to small containers!

Our Menu is taking on an International Flair this week we've had the opportunity to hit up some ethnic grocers, which open us up to an entire world of spices, produce and the like. I'm excited to try new foods and the kids are excited to taste whatever concoction I can come up with!

Baking Bread is one way to keep the house smelling wonderfully!

Weekday Menu:

Monday: Steamed Bok Choy with Jumbo Shrimp & Fried Rice

Tuesday: Curry Chicken & Vegetables in a yogurt sauce

Wednesday: Vegetable Lasagna served with a side salad

Thursday: Steak Fajitas served with beans
Friday: Bratwurst with Potato Salad

Rainbow Pancakes will have your children talking all day about them!

Weekend Menu:

Saturday: Shrimp Dumplings & Egg Drop Soup

Sunday: Meat Loaf & Green Beans served with a side salad

Octopus Hot Dogs are a way to make your little ones smile!

Do you plan your menu ahead of time, or do you just like to go with the flow as dinner time approaches? For us personally, I find that a menu works best, so that I have everything I need on hand, can prep things the night before and we are eating a good meal. Our schedule does not allow for much down time, so if I know what I am making and everything is chopped ahead of time and ready to go, I know that I won't have to come up with something at the last minute or at a time when my brain is completely dead!

Add in fun shapes to a normal veggie platter & the kids will eat it all up!

What's on your menu?

Friday Fun Indoors

2012-01-27T06:04:00.000-08:00

Happy FRIDAY!!! After this week, I was pretty sure that Friday would never come. We've spent a lot of time outdoors this Winter, but sometimes the indoors are just easier. Before I left to pick up the kids from school, I grabbed some felt squares from the art bin and set up a hopscotch game. This turned out to be the most fun of all. They took turns switching up the pattern of jumping, adding and removing squares and making up new games all together. This is something that they have all asked to do again after school today!

Did you know how fun and easy it is to make bangle bracelets from the tape roll ends? This is something my daughter loves to do the most and I think that's why she seems to go through tape so quickly! Hahaha

After I picked up these awesome cookie cutters in the TARGET dollar spot I was thrilled to introduce them into our play dough time! It went perfect with out SPARKLE DOUGH and with the added scent of essence of rose, this playtime not only looked cute, it smelled awesome!

We had so much fun building a marble run that was so tall, they needed stools to reach the tops. Designing & Creating seems to be the most fun, because they usually only dropped the marbles a few times each before it was time for tear down and rebuild!

What have you been up to???

Shaving Cream Fun!

2012-01-26T09:08:00.000-08:00

As we were preparing for an afternoon of fun, I had a fun thought that Shaving Cream could be just the answer to an indoor fun and 'clean' activity!! I grabbed a deep red bin (TARGET DOLLAR SPOT) and filled it up! It smelled so nice and looked very inviting, Roman wanted to jump right in of course!

It became a portable birthday cake for everyone in the house as he went from person to person and sang!

A carwash for his many cars & once they were all 'clean', it became a giant snowstorm they drove through.

A sudsy bath for rubber ducky friends seemed to have been the best part of the playtime.

Which of course led to an idea to give himself a bath! In he went and the tray came too YAY IT FLOATS!

How was your day?

Studying for Spelling Tests can be Fun!

2012-01-25T07:04:00.000-08:00

My children have weekly spelling tests and I like to keep the daily studying fun. There are only so many times a child will want to look at words and write them down or verbally spell them out. I know that if you give them the list to look at more than a few times, they will eventually space out and forget it all. I came up with a super fun routine that makes them CHEER for new words on Monday! I follow the same process for all of my children, even though each one is at a different level and gets different words. We work at the same time at the HOMEWORK CENTER with a little back and forth from Mom & it works well!

MONDAY: First we take our list and read the words. We write down the words on flashcards and bind them with a book ring to make them easy to flip through. As they write each word, the SAY the word before they begin. Next, they SPELL the word as they write each letter and finally they SAY the word in a sentence. Our flashcards are sometimes just white index cards, colored cardstock, old greeting cards that have been cut up or even paper trimmed in pinking shears! We like to vary it up. Next, we look up the definition of EACH word and write it down in our SPELLING WORD DICTIONARY that I told you all about before!

TUESDAY:

We turn our cards over and STAMP the words on the back or even right on the same side as the writing if there is enough room. This helps them remember the letters, as they have to search for each individual one in the stamp box & then say the letter aloud as they stamp it. When the word is through being stamped they must SAY the word, Spell the word & SAY the word in a sentence before moving on to the next word.

WEDNESDAY:

Today we take our words and spell them out in clay! This day is the most fun and is often requested earlier in the week hahah. They form each letter with their own hands to spell the words. Each child gets a cookie sheet and takes their flashcard ring to begin. They do 1 word at a time and as they form the letter they say it out loud. Once each letter has been created they SAY the word. They then SPELL the word and of course they finally SAY the word in a sentence. We constantly work on the basics of spelling, with a little fun and a lot of memorization worked in.

Thursday is practice test before the big day on Friday! On this day, they each get a stencil (upper case & lower case) and with each word that I ask them to spell, they seek out each letter and begin to stencil it. This way, they are taking the time to THINK about each letter they need and not just rush & guess. They have a lot of fun with the stencils and I am also squeezing in proper letter formation here as well! With Friday being test day in school, our spelling study ends on Thursday! My children both hold A's in Spelling the youngest is not graded, since I give him words from home, not in preschool and they have all come to LOVE the learning process.

How do you study for tests??

Chinese New Year Snack

2012-01-24T12:12:00.000-08:00

For the Chinese New Year, I sent personalized snacks to the school!

Menu Plan Monday!

2012-01-23T00:02:00.000-08:00

Fruit Rainbow served with yogurt 'clouds' as dipping sauce

Happy Monday! I'm ready with a week chock full of yummy foods. We hit an International Market this weekend and picked up some delicious goodies. I hope that your weekend was wonderful, ours was full of snow and fun family memories and that's all I can truly ask for.

Alphabet Cookies make the best lesson manipulatives!

MENU:

Monday: Garden Vegetable Calzone

Tuesday: Italian Baked Pork Chops

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese Dippers and Tomato Soup

Thursday: Cajun Chicken Pasta

Friday: Caribbean Black Bean Soup

It's always best to wash, cut& store fruits & veggies as soon as they enter the house

This upcoming weekend is bound to be busy as my husband is working and I have volunteer hours at the school where the big kids go and I am doing BINGO NIGHT! I have so much fun volunteering, I get to know that other parents and spend some time helping out others. My children go to a small Catholic School and every little bit of parental involvement helps. As is the same with any school of course.

Tea & Fruit is usually how I like to close out my night

Weekend Menu Plans:

Saturday: Baked Macaroni & Cheese with Broccoli

Sunday: Mini Chicken Empanadas

The Desserts I worked on this weekend to last through the week were:

Fruit Salad, Chocolate Pudding & Fruit jell-o ring

Waffle Sandwiches & Fruit for breakfast with syrup for dipping

What is on your Menu this week? Please share!

Weekend Musings...

2012-01-22T21:02:00.000-08:00

As I settle in for the evening with the IKEA catalogue, some tea and fruit, I think about what a wonderful weekend we had. For the first time in a long time and the last time in a while, my husband did not have to work this weekend & I selfishly kept him all to ourselves! We spent so much time together that the kids smiled ear to ear all weekend, I laughed so hard that I think I pulled something and I finally got to see my husband leave his job behind for a little bit! Yes, we could have seen family, caught up with friends or even gone to a birthday party but instead we stuck together and we are all the better for it.

We were going to play 'snowed in' all weekend and decided to stock up our pantry on a variety of goodies, the Littles enjoyed their time picking out stuff to make meals with and sampling the goodies on display!

We started putting together our homework center and rearranged other portions of our abode. Life had us giggling all weekend long. Another weekend that has me feeling very Blessed...

Bucket of Monkeys

2012-01-20T07:35:00.000-08:00

Friday Fun Time! I've mentioned our Word Wall before & my kids love it. the new readers love to see what they can identify on the wall & the seasoned readers love to help out. I decided to make this wall do more than just sit there (surprise, surprise) and we have turned it in to a game! I picked up a pack of cardstock Monkeys at the teacher store and wrote letters on their belly. I bought 2 packs so that there were a lot of letters! This game can be played many ways:

1. Pick a sight word. Spell it out with the monkeys.

2. Everyone gets 6 cards and you take turns spelling words from the hand you have. (keeping 6 cards in

your hands at the start of each turn).

3. Spell a word with the monkeys (big kids) and have the little guy find it on the word wall.

There are so many more ways to play, but you get the idea!

Have a wonderful weekend friends!!

Crafty Storage Tip!

2012-01-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! I'm pretty sure I'm in good company here, when I talk about LOVING to repurpose things. I really enjoy breathing a new life into anything and everything that I come in to contact with. Today's change up comes in the form a baby bottle dishwasher basket. After purchasing a 50 count marker package from Crayola, I quickly learned that the little plastic sleeve was NOT going to work for storage and I racked my brain to see what we could use. I had a couple of these baskets in the Science Lab holding Test Tubes (see, another use!!) and decided to see if that would work! Autumn cut out a piece of cardboard to stick on the bottom of the basket, so that they markers would not fall through the holes. This basket is PERFECT!

Done coloring? 50 markers stash perfectly inside with the lid clasped tight. If you want, you can even put in a decorative paper all around the interior of the basket, so that the markers do not slip out the side holes. With 50 markers, they are pretty tight, so no worries of falling!

Our markers are decorating a rocket ship!

Snow Play!

2012-01-18T09:03:00.000-08:00

Do your Littles want to play out in the snow, but you dread the thought of getting them all bundled up, only to have them freeze within 5 minutes and want to come inside? It often takes my little guys longer to get ready to go out, than we actually spend outside. I decided to bring the outdoors in, by filling a plastic drawer with SNOW & Fun Upcycled Toys and some other odds and ends from the kitchen.

When he got home from school, little Roman was SOOOO surprised he dove right in! There was a lot of filling, scooping and packing. He had so much fun, I had to remind him to put his gloves on.

He remembered that seals eat penguins, so he grabbed some critters from our Safari Toob Animal bin and made up a fun play scene. There was a lot of action and even some stories being told. I really liked how much creative play was coming out of this.

He made ice cream for everyone, snowballs, igloos, forts and the like. Together we had so much fun exploring snow while staying warm! I think if Daddy hadn't been sick, he may have joined us too!

Using the cups we built snowmen, towers and castles. We figured out different ways to use the cups and decided which made the best 'bricks'. Yogurt cups seem to be the overall winner hands down!

Next time your yard looks like this, it's time to bring the snow INDOORS!!

Get Outside....and PAINT!

2012-01-17T12:38:00.000-08:00

It's SNOWING OUTSIDE! What's the 1st thing all kids want to do when it snows?? PLAY OF COURSE! Let's take it one step further, with Water + Tempera Paint + Recycled Bottles! Now head outside and squeeze, squirt, spray and dot!

You can mist the snow or drench it, draw photos or make blobs, get creative and most important? Put down the camera and parents play too!!! Sorry I couldn't take too many photos, we were having too much fun!

Menu Plan Monday!

2012-01-16T08:37:00.000-08:00

I honestly believe that Monday seems to come all too quickly every week!

Monday: Vegetable Soup with Fresh Croissants

Tuesday: Mini Burgers & Salad

Wednesday: Vegetable Lasagna with Bruschetta

Thursday: Stuffed Chicken Breasts served with Steamed Broccoli

Friday: Steak Kabobs served over Brown Rice

Saturday: Chicken Pot Pie Served with French Bread

Sunday: Dinner with Family!

Valentine Fun!

2012-01-15T08:43:00.000-08:00

As soon as Christmas was out of the way, Valentine's entered my mind! TARGET dollar spot pulled out all kinds of cute stuff and I had to pick up. The heart shaped ice cube trays were going to be perfect for some fun recycled crayons!

We made Christmas Crayons last month and we were ready to make Valentine's Crayons! I love how they put them on this round card, like I found on PINTEREST!

My youngest wanted Veggie Tales Cards, so when I came across some mini crayons at Joann on clearance last week, I knew I could wrap the Veggies cards around the boxes! So cute and so fun!

What are you making for Valentine's Day?

Stamping Fun!

2012-01-13T08:09:00.000-08:00

Hello all! We woke up to less snow than was expected today, the kids were a bit disappointed of course! When we made the attempt to head outdoors to play in the snow the kids quickly realized what 1 degree outside meant! LOL! It seriously took us longer to bundle up than it did to play outside.

As I made up some hot chocolate, we set up a basket of stamps and let the kids have fun stamping randomly with no idea in mind at all. They had so much fun.

Don't have any stamps at home?? Use pencil erasers! They make some of the best stamps and can make flowers, balloons anything you can think of! Don't have any ink? Color the pencil erasers with washable markers! In between colors wipe them clean with a wet wipe. There is always a way to have fun!

Make A Sorting Tray!

2012-01-12T06:47:00.000-08:00

Sorting activities are some of the most fun for little ones! Do you know how easy it is to create your own sorting tray? I picked up a handful of these Chip & Dip servers from the TARGET Dollar spot and we were ready to roll! Taking a used math worksheet with pictures of coins on them, I cut them out and taped them down. Small Letter Stickers allowed me to spell out SORT in the center and then I added a large pair of gripping tweezers. Fine Motor Skills at work here along with working on their sorting! LOVE IT!

I made a coin sorting tray, because my daughter got a bank for Christmas that keeps track of how much she is putting in & the kids love to see if it's accurate! About once a week they like to dump it and count it & now this makes it easier for them and the youngest starts to learn the difference in coins and such!

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Twitter: @MichellesCharmW

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Water Play...

2012-01-11T12:21:00.000-08:00

It's no secret, kids love water! They love to squirt and splash and pour and spill! Knowing this, I quickly put an activity together that kept my little guy quite occupied for a long time! When the big kids came home from school, they too wanted in on the fun! I pulled out an ice cube tray (Dollar Spot at TARGET) and added water into each of the spots (half full), then I added food coloring into some of the spots and let it sit. I handed my little guy some eye droppers and let him play to his hearts content! There was squirting, squeezing and mixing and a lot of exclaiming! "MOM! A NEW COLOR!" "MOM LOOK AT THIS!" "OOPS, I spilled, BUT I SLURPED IT UP WITH THIS!" You get the idea!

He was having so much fun doing just this, I thought he would never tire of it, but eventually it was lunch time and he knew we were baking cookies, so he was able to leave it behind. As he headed to the kitchen, I grabbed the tray and tossed it into the freezer for part 2!

After eating and baking and cleaning up after our mess, I pulled out the ice tray and YAY! Colored ice cube play. I handed him a large set of Science Tweezers and he had a blast; playing, melting and even scooping them back in to the tray!

As the ice melted another activity was set in motion! He took his bowl to the Science Lab and began pouring, mixing and playing! He added some more colors, some fresh water and used cups, spoons, funnels and test tubes! He used tubing and eye droppers and beakers.

When he was done, big sister Autumn decided that she wanted to keep this liquid in hopes of using it in another future Science project! She poured the liquid in to a test tube and labeled it very scientifically "Red Stuff"! What fun we had with 1 little project that just kept multiplying!

Menu Plan Monday...errr Tuesday!

2012-01-10T14:15:00.000-08:00

What a crazy week it has been readers, ughh what a crazy Month so far! Ooo I can even say YEAR! LOL! We've been sick for what seems like forever and even I of the incredible never dying energy is feeling quite lethargic lately! Not to worry, my vitamins, IV drip of constant Tea and fresh fruit seems to help me keep staying up late and getting things accomplished, I just seem to be smiling half as much! LOL! Hopefully this virus is on its way out the door, for the first time in a long while I have sent all 3 kids off to school today and now just Mama stays behind a bit sick! Oh well, it should leave me soon!

Fresh baked cookies are our After School Snack Today!

Our Menu:

Monday: Chipotle Lime Chicken Sandwiches with homemade vegetable soup.

Tuesday: Pork Stir Fry served over Rice

Wednesday: Egg Salad Sandwiches served with a veggie tray (PTO meeting, have to keep it simple!)

Thursday: Turkey Burgers with Garden Salad

Friday: Kids are off of school, may take out to eat and to see a movie!

Saturday: Meatloaf & Glazed Carrots

Sunday: Spaghetti with Italian Sausage & homemade bread

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Twitter: @MichellesCharmW

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Cloud Dough Fun!

2012-01-10T06:53:00.000-08:00

What are you making today? We made cloud dough! After reading Tinkerlab's post about this awesome stuff, I just knew it was something we had to try. When crafts are made from the most basic ingredients that are already in your shelves, it's a MUST DO! For a small amount, all you need is 4 cups of four and 1/2 cup of baby oil that's it!! Mix it up and you have some very loose play dough, but it still sticks together wonderfully.

This was the perfect activity for 3 little ones that didn't want to do too much being sick. Bringing smiles to their faces was so much fun and great to watch. They loved testing out different methods, containers and other goodies from the kitchen.

We tested out what would happen when we colored it and noticed that the food coloring made little blobs of color. We had so much fun experimenting with different things and seeing the reaction we would get with the dough.

Autumn decided that she wanted to make it all in to a volcano, so they grabbed a beaker and put it right in the center of the tray and covered it up with the dough.

A funnel inserted in to the beaker allowed for easy pouring of vinegar and baking soda. We had a FABULOUS volcano, I just wish we had dyed the vinegar, so that we would be able to see the reaction that we had in color! Definitely try this activity if you get a chance!

It's National Semi Sweet Chocolate Day!

Join us in making up a batch of cookies for your loved ones to share and chat over.

These are a few of my favorite things...

2012-01-09T06:43:00.000-08:00

Happy Monday friends! I hope you all are faring well that the weekend treated you with nothing but kindness and warmth! I have a sick little at home with a fever today so although the weekend was nice and relaxing, today should be crazy. I would like to share a few of my favorite things with you today! This first one is easy, Marshmallows are a favorite among the Littles here and I like getting creative with the ones I do find. When I found these jumbo swirly ones, they looked like lollipop tops, so I turned them into one with a stick!

I absolutely ADORE these frame paper by Melissa & Doug! Each and every picture instantly becomes a masterpiece when finished!

Using things in multiple ways has always been a passion of mine! Finding these heart-shaped erasers was great, when I turned them into Seasonal Counters at our 100 Chart Center!

Self Check-Out at the Library has me SWOONING! Each child steps up with their own books and their CARD. Taking turns they learn about what books they are checking out and it helps them be more responsible since THEY checked them out.

Reading Centres make me smile! My daughter is developing a nasty cough, so our outdoor time has been limited today. Since she was getting a bit bummed, I put together a little Reading Nook for her with an old tent she hasn't used since she was about 3!

Science Stores have always become a favorite place of ours, but lately our daughter has been getting more and more in to it! With the installation of her SCIENCE LAB, she only wants to purchase Science things for her room. I Love the educational goodies she picked up this weekend with her gift card. I was quite amazed that she could fill up a cart and blow through a large amount of money in no time, she went in knowing what she wanted!

I love thrifty finds and this book is right up there on my list of great finds! .50 was an awesome price for a book that is offering us so much fun! What are some of your favorite things??

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These Moments...

2012-01-08T09:18:00.000-08:00

A Collection of Moments that Make me Smile...

The smile of accomplishment! 100 pieces.

Earned my Wings on a Scavenger Hunt!

Look Mom! We did it by ourselves!

Yes, I found Daddy's hat!

We are at the top!!

Welcome to my happy place new friends and old ones!

Coupon Chief Review

2012-01-07T18:22:00.000-08:00

Hello Friends! Today I am taking a moment to tell you about a fabulous site that should be your go-to stop BEFORE you start shopping online OR head out to the stores. Coupon Chief is a fantastic source of coupons and discount codes. They carry printable coupons and online use codes. There are thousands of places to choose from.

As many of you know, making the decision to be a stay at home mom is a big one and usually comes at the loss of some income. I try and save where I can to help out anywhere possible, saving money with coupons really does go a long way. Coupon Chief allows me to help out my family in a way that my husband loves.

The Coupon Chief website is super easy to navigate, with their awesome way of tagging coupons. You can search by popular tags as shown above or even use their search bar if you are looking for one site in particular. I'm sure you all know by now that I am at the craft stores...A LOT! I always check for printable coupons before I head out and just used one from Hobby Lobby today. It's so easy to go to one place to print out multiple coupons instead of having to hunt them down one at a time.

Spread the word! Did you know that Coupon Chief will donate 20% of your purchase to your favorite charity if you use their coupons?! Take a look at their charities and causes, if you don't see yours there, email them and they will add it on! Add your school or church and then spread the word in your community! This is such a major PLUS for us, as my children go to an INCREDIBLY tiny private school that can use all the money they can get!

I am absolutely loving that COUPON CHIEF is willing to help online businesses spread the word! You can sign up with them and add a coupon for your site and you can boost hits and purchases! This is an awesome opportunity to gain exposure for your shop and help you get your business off the ground.

Head on over and check out Coupon Chief when you get a chance and save some money! That's a good thing!

Disclosure: I have been compensated for the time I spent reviewing this website. However, all opinions are my own and have not been influenced by the compensation received.

Ocean in a Bottle

2012-01-07T08:37:00.000-08:00

We have been having so much fun in the LAB lately! Together we all mix crazy potions, create new colors and even planting some new plants! This is definitely going to be a well loved part of the house!

We took some empty test tubes in to the kitchen and filled them with all kind of good things! Corn Syrup, Oil, Salt, Sugar, etc.

*NOTE**

TARGET DOLLAR SPOT HAS SCIENCE STUFF IN IT, LIKE THE TEST TUBES, Beakers, goggles etc.!!

Now it was time for some serious work! She wanted to do something with the baby oil we had found in the bathroom clean out! Since we have no babies in the house anymore it was all hers! I asked her if she wanted to make a little part of the ocean, so that she could keep it on her desk and she was all for it. I typed out all she would need and and the instructions and let her have at it!

She popped on her goggles (you never know if mixing things together could form something that would fizz a bit high!) and got quickly to work! She was absolutely stunned with the outcome. The boys were excited to make their own as well.

I absolutely adore fun, educational things that we can all work on together! We laughed, learned and best of all spent time together!

What You Need:

Water, Clear Bottle, Blue Food Coloring, Baby or Vegetable Oil (I liked the clarity of baby oil better).

WHAT TO DO:
Fill bottle 1/3 of the way with water.
Add in 3-4 drops of food coloring (or whatever coloring you want).
Fill rest of the way with oil.

**OPTIONAL**
Add in Shells, Sand, alphabet beads or miniatures for an eye-spy bottle!

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Sparkle Your Dough!

2012-01-06T07:53:00.000-08:00

We are having an absolute blast with all the play dough we made over Christmas Break! Coming up with new creations, playing with the accessories and of course add in some of our own has been just as much fun. After seeing a post on Facebook about making Glitter Dough, I was hooked! I knew we were not in need of making any more dough, but that it would be super easy to make our current stuff sparkle with the addition of glitter!!

Take your dough and flatten it out, add in a large helping of glitter.

Roll the glitter up and begin to work it as best as you can, take turns rolling it, squeezing it and making sure that the glitter spreads out. Do all of this in a tray, because some will try and escape! If it does, just roll the ball of dough over it to collect the spills.

You are Ready To PLAY!

Little hands love the sparkles!

We made pie, our family, a bowl and even played Tic-Tac-Toe!

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Snow Table Play!

2012-01-05T19:28:00.000-08:00

When we got word that our first snow (and only) of the season was on its way, I ran outdoors and lifted the lids of the small water table! We had emptied it of water at the end of the Summer and were ready to see what we could capture this Winter! The kids awoke to a table full of snow and they could not wait to play. All the water table toys came out and new fun was had. What a neat idea this had been. By the end of the day, all the snow had ended up on them and on the ground, the table was nearly empty and the children were exhausted! What more could a mommy ask for? Before night fall, I asked them to fill several of the water tub containers with water and leaves and other outdoor goodness and let them sit outdoors...

The next morning we brought the containers in for them to see and play with! They noticed that they had frozen over and were left to explore on their own. Here they sit over the heating vent to see how long it would take them to melt for a bit! Later they chiseled away at the ice, banged on it and even tried putting it in the microwave for a bit. We all had a lot of fun coming up with different things to do with the ice blocks.

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Happy Birthday...

2012-01-05T06:56:00.000-08:00

WOW! Another year?! Happiest of Happy Birthdays to my oldest daughter, Autumn! She turns 7 today. I would also like to include a Happy Birthday to my Son, Gabriel who turned 6 last week! Due to all the insanity that is Christmas Break, I didn't get a chance to post about his birthday, so I will combine the two today. I certainly do not know where the year went, but it flew for sure. They are 2 children that continue to grow and amaze me with how bright they are! They bring home report cards that would make any mother proud, but what does me in? Their manners! They are well mannered children that get complimented at every turn. These 2 kids are children that bring tears to my eyes with pride when I talk about them, their accomplishments, their hobbies...anything. I am a proud mother that wishes nothing but the best for them today and always. I have been very Blessed with 3 amazing children and a wonderful husband, sometimes I wonder how in the WORLD I got so lucky!

This is Autumn & Gabriel in church last month when Autumn made her first Reconciliation. He was so proud of her, that he gave her the first hug! the love that they share is so intense that it makes my heart soar! The 11 month age difference often has them confused as twins, which only makes them laugh. She says that they were born best friends and you know what? I think she's right! Happy Birthday you 2 wonderful children, you really do make parents and grandparents proud with all you do! May all your dreams come true; today, tomorrow and always...

Treasure It ALWAYS!

Delightful December On and On! Day 14 Christmas Crayons

2012-01-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

As Christmas break approached the crafts got more plentiful, but the posts got spared! I had zero time with travel for the Holidays and then having my babies at home full time! We had so much fun that I didn't want to waste a minute of it! One of our favorite crafts was making Christmas Crayons! We keep a large bin of old crayons that have been broken or lost their paper. Using silicone trays from K-Mart, I first cut the paper off using an exacto knife (NO KIDS ALLOWED!). I passed them to the kids and they broke them up and stuffed the containers about 75% full. Pre-heat the oven to 325*

I left them in the oven for 10 minutes, but just keep checking to make sure it's all melted! I stirred the cups around with a wooden toothpick to make sure all was smooth and melty. You can let them cool on the counter, but I like the EASY and QUICK way, so I popped them in the freezer for 45 minutes.

They were perfectly ready for kids to handle and shake out! The kids thought this project was so cool, that they wanted to make a stash for themselves. These were going to be for all the children we would come across during the Holiday Season, but we quickly ran out at our FIRST STOP!!!! I couldn't believe it myself, but even the teenagers were wanting their own set!

We packaged them up 2 to a bag and then handed them out with several sheets of large gingerbread paper! They were so cute and so much fun that even I wanted a set! LOL.

Science and Little Ones

2012-01-03T11:46:00.000-08:00

My children absolutely love Science, everything about it makes them excited and happy. This Christmas my daughter asked for all Science items and unbelievably enough, so got almost all that she wished for. Her room is home to 4 different microscopes a laptop and various other items. When she began to unpack her goodies, she asked for 1 additional thing. "Can we turn her room into a Science Lab so that she doesn't have to keep putting it all away?" CHALLENGE ACCEPTED! My husband and I got to work first with the things we had on hand and plan to add more once we make it to IKEA this weekend!

1 white coffee table offered the best sized table for her to still be able to sit and work. Her various test tubes, tubing, scale and 3 of the 4 microscopes are on constant display. The 4th is considerably larger and needs a separate table. Her favorite piece is the pocket sized travel microscope that she takes with her everywhere. The 3 kids love to sit side by side (with big sisters permission) and work together creating concoctions and testing out new mixtures.

We needed to stop quickly and get some hooks for a few things, so we ran to TARGET. While there, we noticed that their DOLLAR SPOT had a few Science Goodies on hand! We were so excited that we just grabbed the things that looked cool, but of course now I realize we should have just scooped it all up! (We're headed back there after the school pick ups.)

We plan on putting up a large shelf along with some small framed photos of her Science Experiments (her request) and then a small file cabinet next to the table that will hold the larger microscope and her notebooks with her drawings and such in them. Hanging on the hooks she has:

Rag, Active notebook, goggles, measuring tape, measuring spoons, thermometer. On the hook on the other side of the table (not shown) is her lab coat.

TARGET carries several science kits in their dollar spot as well. We are in the process of growing crystals. We also purchased multiples of the kits, so that we could keep the chemicals and other goodies that they came with. We have labeled everything and she knows the importance of keeping everything in the proper area. She is in Science Club and is also in the process of taking another Science Class put on by local scientists. This truly is her passion, that she loves to share with her brothers and together they have the best time!

We added a few fun books to her laboratory and she has had so much fun laying under her bed (she has a castle loft bed) in her clubhouse and marking exactly what she plans on doing and trying out!

After lunch one day, my daughter had saved her apple seeds in her lunchbox and brought them home to be planted! I had to perfect pot on hand! It's a cleaned out KEURIG coffee pod! Coffee grounds are already good for plants, so the remnants left inside are perfect for this! She is keeping a notebook with notes of her daily watering schedule and any observations she has!

A project my youngest and I have going in the lab is a potato plant! The boys wanted in on the Science Lab too, so I told them that WITH PERMISSION from Autumn & Mom or Dad, they can do some things. They wanted to try and grow something like the Apple Tree, so we are trying a potato plant! They say that this can take a few weeks, so they are having fun keeping the water level high and taking notes like big sister!

She has her little experiment corner with her celery, our potato and her apple tree working there! During the day before going to school she takes them to the window sill and then removes them for observation when she gets home at the end of the day! How cool is that?!

We have new storage containers and loads of lab equipment, now we just need to get a label maker for her, so that she can label her own goodies and get a few shelves going up. She is having so much fun and we are loving watching her!

update 1/5/12

We added in 2 storage containers to hold vials and tubing and small specimen containers, slides and prep stuff, mixers, spoons, knives etc. With that move, we moved in a small book case that holds ONLY Science related books for easy reference (have to organize that better!) and moved her microscopes and scale set over there. I had an extra shelf in my studio and I gave her that temporarily until we can make it to the store to get the shelves we really want in here. I added a couple more Command hooks to hold some beakers that have handles and keep them out of the way for now! A trip to the Science Store this weekend should get our hands on a periodic table of elements and some other goodies! Hmm...who is having more fun with this??? I LOVE projects!

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Menu Plan Monday!

2012-01-02T21:00:00.000-08:00

Use cookie cutters to make fun food trays!

Happy New Year! Wow, how quickly did Christmas Break go? My children were supposed to head back today, but everyone was still sick. Yup, we spent most of break sick off and on with a nasty flu. Passing it back and forth was just insane!! Well we are hopefully getting ready to get back in to the swing of things, but only time will tell!!

A Yogurt Bar Snack Tray for Movie Night!

Our Menu:

Monday: Burgers with a Garden Salad

Tuesday: Homemade Veggie Soup & Sandwich day (Soup is perfect for the sick!)

Wednesday: (It's National Spaghetti Day!) Spaghetti & Meatballs with Fresh Bread

Thursday: Out to Dinner (It's my Daughter's Birthday!!!)

Friday: Steak Tacos served with Rice & Beans (It's National Bean Day!)

Saturday: Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Green Beans

Sunday: Quesadillas served with guacamole and chips with salsa

We LOVE fruit and yogurt over here! I try to serve it up in many different ways so that it always looks new!

Cookie Cutters can breathe new life into a fun cheese and cracker snack!

Popcorn Trail Mix, Fruit Platters, Cookies and Cakes along with mini yogurt cups, means that everyone at the movie playdate should find SOMETHING they like!!

Thrifty Thursday!

2011-12-29T10:58:00.000-08:00

While out on a coffee run, we stopped at a local charity shop and got quite lucky! We found this COMPLETE set of Melissa & Doug Dino Stamps set for .99! The original colored pencils were missing, but were replaced with a FULL set of CRAYOLA colored pencils! Of course the children all grabbed for those first when we sat down to work!

Combined with our Dinosaur coloring and informational books that they got for Christmas, it was a few hours of time well spent. As they stamped, they would ask what kind of dinosaur it was and someone else would look it up.

The 2 big kids would take turns reading about that dinosaur and then they would draw appropriate surroundings!

Anything that keeps them playing together quietly and learning something new is something that gets an A+ from Mom, add in the simple fact that it was only .99 & we helped out a charity shop at the same time makes this 1.00 well spent! How are you spending thrifty thursday?

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File Folder Fun!

2011-12-27T19:54:00.000-08:00

One thing we love are File Folders! I like to trim them down and then slip them in to a page protector. Once in the protector, they can then be put in our Busy Binder!

1. I took a bulletin board border and cut out the cars.

2. I put random numbers on the cars to look like race cars.

3. I wrote out matching numbers onto the file folder to look like parking spaces.

Now the kids can park the cars all while learning numerical and spelled out numbers.

The front page of the file folder holds an envelope where all the cars are permanently parked and stored! Simple and fun and a very quiet activity!

Delightful December Day 11! Box Fun??

2011-12-22T16:53:00.000-08:00

Kids are born naturally AWESOME, don't you agree? They have ideas and thoughts and the best of intentions, it's us adults that get in the way by telling them this way and that. Sometimes I have to remind myself to step back and let them be! With the Holiday season in full swing and the kids home 24 hours a day + the husband on vacation, it was time to get SERIOUS and hit SAM'S Club!

As many of you know, a trip to Sam's always results in a plethora of boxes! Boxes for everything that anyone can think of, sizes, shapes, colors etc. We grab the largest ones without thought at all, but the kids had something else in mind. They told us that they would be in charge of the boxes and quickly ran to grab what we needed. When we got home and my husband was tossing the boxes to the recycle bin, they STOPPED HIM! No DADDDDDDYYYY!!! Don't throw those away we can DO SOMETHING WITH THEM! They opted to skip Mom's craft of the day and create on their own!

Isn't it amazing how a simple and ordinary cardboard box can turn in to a rocket ship with nothing done to it at all? It can become a playhouse complete with santa stickers, as you can see in the background left there! It became a boat, race car (where they played Wii Mario Kart from!), shopping cart, stroller, toy carrier and on and on the play went for hours.

Near the end of the evening, I noticed that the youngest snagged this oddly shaped box and created a village backdrop on it! He glued blue paper, strung some lights and taped down green paper to the floor. He dres flowers and snowmen and had the best time playing on his own! I love when kids are left to their own devices and come up with some pretty amazing stuff!

Almost Wordless...

2011-12-21T12:32:00.000-08:00

Go Cowboy!

Yay, we can check out our own books!

Playing together!

ACTUAL display in our neighborhood for Christmas

Make it Shimmer with your own Glitter!

2011-12-20T08:02:00.000-08:00

Over at our house, creating in the kitchen is an awesome experience, no matter what's cooking. Yesterday, we decided to try our hand at making our own glitter. We were excited at the prospect of having many different colors of dinner, on hand at a moments notice! Pre-Heat your oven to 325*. First you pour salt in to a bowl (however much glitter you want). Add a few drops of food coloring and mix it all up. Make sure that the color takes over all of the salt you use. Pour onto a baking sheet in a THIN layer.

Bake your salt on TINFOIL in the oven for 8 minutes and then let cool. If you see larger clumps of salt, use the back of a spoon to break it all down. I let it all cool for about 5 minutes, so that I could pour it into smaller containers that stack for storage.

Overall, I was quite let down with how dull it all turned out. It's basically colored salt and NOT glitter. The shine that my pink glitter has taken, came from a mixture of the colored salts and a TINY sprinkling os silver glitter. The purple seems a bit shiny, because instead of ordinary table salt like on the left, I used Sea Salt. That helped a little bit more and also seems to adhere better with glue.

We used the glitter to decorate our Mr. Potato heads! All in all I was the most disappointed. I was hoping for a miracle way of making glitter, but in the end all we got was colored salt. The kids? THRILLED beyond words that they could play in the kitchen and create something so fun. They almost used everything we made and are already begging to make more so that they can bring some to their art teacher!

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Menu Plan Monday! Let's talk about Kids and Food...

2011-12-19T08:25:00.000-08:00

Christmas break has already thrown me off! I cannot believe how quickly the weekend flew on in to Monday. My lucky kids are all on break this week, so we enjoyed sunday by staying out very late at the movies and not getting home until midnight! YIKES!! I hope your weekend was just as enjoyable.

Do you ever notice that a few cupcake picks and child sized portions can change a child's attitude toward eating? I chop things up tiny and put them in portion sized containers, add in some decorative flair and I never have a problem with my kids eating!

How about produce? Ever notice that it will sit and mold if you leave it in your fridge as it came from the Market? The minute I slice it up and put it into small, serving sized containers it's all gone. The very second I sit with a plate of fresh fruit salad, little hands reach in to take it all away piece by piece!

Moving on to the Menu! I'm attempting to keep all the meals kid-helper friendly, so that the littles can help me in the kitchen! Usually they are doing homework while I cook, but we are planning on changing it up a bit this week and doing homework in the morning.

Monday: Chicken Alfredo with a Garden Salad

Tuesday: Vegetable Alphabet Soup & Sandwich Bar

Wednesday: Chicken Pot Pie with Fresh Baked Bread

Thursday: Cheese Enchiladas with Rice & Beans

Friday-Sunday: We are out for the Holidays eating with Family & Friends!

Enjoy your week my friends!

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Delightful December day 10! New Park and 1st day of break!

2011-12-17T09:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas break is officially here and we couldn't be happier! Why not start off our break with a visit to the new neighborhood park! This is a climbing park, which offers the BEST work out for mom and dad and burns off so much energy for children!! This climbing park also offers a couple of the standard park features like slides and some swings, but it is primarily geared towards things children can climb! (That's even the only way to get up to the slides!!).

Our favorite features were the climbing rocks! They had them for all abilities and sizes, though that didn't help me out, since I got scared at the top of one mountain and had to have my husband help me down (okay he helped me get halfway down and then just picked up up!!! haha).

The 'helicopter' mom in me, had me terrified of all the climbing, but the kids had so much fun! They had races, challenges and even put together an obstacle course!

With 3 slides, this meant that all 3 kids could race! They started down low and got up to the top in any way they chose. Slid down fast and then back up again and back DOWN again, but NOT using the slides. The 2 boys chose the same way down! Mommy was of course scared, but there was Daddy cheering them on!LOL!

This spinning contraption had EVERYONE wanting to take a turn and having so much fun that no one could even stand up afterwards! I thought for sure someone was going to throw up, but needless to say they all just wanted more and more!

I did say EVERYBODY wanted a turn, right???

Our Princess was the one that really took to the rocks well! She had so much fun going up to the top and then trying to get back down again. Autumn got so confident that she even asked Daddy for a race to the top! All in all an awesome experience that had us all NOT wanting to leave, but the sunset and cold weather also had us glad to be close to home!

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Delightful December Day 9! The Kindness Tree...

2011-12-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

Wow, where has this month gone? We are over halfway through December and I feel as though it has just begun! The Holiday Season is a time where we share our love with others more than any other time of year. I would like to say that we do this year round and should always be mindful of others, but of course it always gets pushed by the wayside. We are hoping to change that and make ourselves more charitable throughout the year.

I figured a good way of doing this, is by letting the children recognize when another child is being kind or charitable towards one of them or another person. We created our kindness tree. I gave them a large green poster board and colorful card stock and had them cut out a Christmas Tree, Star & Ornaments. It may not be perfect, but I am proud nonetheless that they were able to work together to create something so meaningful.

The idea is that for every good deed or charitable act that a child does or is seen doing they can write it on a piece of paper and stick it on to one of the ornaments.

With each passing week we will count up and read the good deeds to see who has made the biggest impact and that child will get to pick one of the 'present' stickers on the stump of the tree. Each present has a number on it and that number coincides to an activity or special time with a parent that they get to enjoy. We hope this helps the children become more aware of the impact that their actions have on people around them.

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Delightful December day 8! Christmas Card Creations...

2011-12-15T02:00:00.001-08:00

Wow, I cannot believe that Christmas is practically here! I have been trying to keep up with our daily crafting, but I do not like to post more than 1 post a day on my blog. Looks like all of our December crafts may go in to January! Today, I would like to tell you all about our Christmas cards. We joined an awesome Christmas Card Exchange, hosted by THE TOY BOX YEARS! I signed up my children and before I knew it, it was time to get them made up and mailed out! I started by gathering art supplies of all kinds, because I knew we wanted to make our own cards.

I cut down postcards from thick card stock and gave the kids stickers to decorate any way they wish! All 3 of my children had an absolutely wonderful time doing this. Next, it was time to write to all the kids that would be getting our postcards. We sat and wrote down what we wanted to say, but since everyone's handwriting (including Mommy's) was too big, we typed it up and printed it out! The children LOVED getting to glue down the notes and addresses as well.

The best part was still to come! The letters began to trickle in as the days passed and everyone was THRILLED to be getting mail. My husband even mentioned that in ONE day, he thought the kids got more Christmas cards than he had gotten in his entire life!

With each card that would arrive, we would map out where that card arrived from. We have received cards from AUSTRALIA and ASIA! How amazing is that?! Marking on our USA and WORLD maps has been such an experience for the little ones and for Mommy too. We love learning all about kids around the World and in different states around the Country.

After mapping out where these cards all traveled from, we would punch a hole in the top of the cards and slip them on a binder ring. All our cards can now be flipped through and kept in one place neatly! If the card had a return address on it, we snip it out and glue it to the back of the card, so that we always know where it came from! This has been an awesome experience all around!

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Wordless...

2011-12-14T11:49:00.001-08:00

It's one of those days!

Welcome to all my new followers!

Delightful December day 7! Gingerbread House Fun!

2011-12-13T10:31:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Season has always meant gingerbread houses! I love the simplicity of this project and how much family time it seems to bring about. As my children get older, I try to make this 1 activity last a few days, with multiple related activities! LOL! We start by coloring a gingerbread house page. It always starts as a 'map' of what their houses will look like, but of course never really seems to work out! Hahaha!

I like to serve the candies in kid sized cups and portions, this way little mouths don't get too full of candy during the project! If more is needed, no big deal to grab more! We use marshmallow fluff and frosting. They both make a glue like bond when they harden. The Fluff is more soft and snow-like and the frosting hardens like a rock.

A Milk carton base is a MUST, little kids LOVE to load on the candy and the weight is just too much on the graham cracker house alone. This also give the children something sturdy to push down on as they SHOVE the candy into the sides of the house! We learned this trick 3 years ago at a school decorating event!!

My daughter loved making small houses for the gingerbread pets! She had a lot of fun using the fluff and then decorating them, but her fun was stopped short when her little brother began to slowly sneak 1 candy at a time away from her houses!

I'm wondering at what point our Gingerbread House, became a candy mountain?! There are no doors, windows or even a chimney! They all seemed have just went crazy with the frosting and candy!!

Our next project is making gingerbread men cookies to line up around the house in 'snow'! First we will color our own gingerbread men and see what we would ideally want our cookies to look like.

As I began to clean up the leftovers, I noticed that both boys had of course made graham cracker, frosting and candy sandwiches! They were unlucky that I noticed, but lucky enough to have already eaten 1 each! All in all, we are having fun times together creating memories that will last many years to come, even if the candy doesn't last long at all!

ENTER TO WIN THIS!!!!

Our friends at THE TOY BOX YEARS are giving away this awesome art pack!!

Menu Plan Monday...errr Tuesday!

2011-12-13T00:04:00.000-08:00

Did you know how easy it was to make popcorn in a brown paper bag?! I couldn't believe it myself when I had first wondered if it was possible. All you need is popcorn kernels, a paper bag and any toppings you would like!

Take 1/2 a cup of popcorn and pour it into the bag. Fold the bag over twice (NO STAPLES!) and crease with each fold. Put it in the microwave at POPCORN setting and you are all set!

We made ours with cinnamon sugar, but you could use butter or any number of spices, but the popcorn comes out soooooo light and fluffy that you wouldn't need to add anything at all!!

Now, on to our menu this week!

Monday: Lentil Soup and Biscuits

Tuesday: Steak Taco Bar with Chips & Guacamole

Wednesday: Pesto Shrimp over Angel Hair Pasta with a garden salad

Thursday: Christmas Program at School, out to dinner afterwards!

Friday: Burgers with Chips to celebrate the start of Christmas Break!

This is how I feel about my family!

Delightful December day 6! Caps Caps Caps

2011-12-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

Hello friends! I trust your weekend went well. It was busy as always but still fun. I cannot believe how chilly the weather is getting here in the midwest, I just may have to break out my Winter coat soon! After our Thanksgiving getaway, we put up our Christmas decorations and got ourselves into the Holiday Spirit! The children each have their own Christmas tree and we decided to let them make their own this year! We have quite the cap collection from all of our crafts, that i decided we would create ornaments with caps!

We gathered stickers, glitter, markers, mod podge, my hand drill, paper clips or pipe cleaners (for the ornament hook) and covered our work spaces with mats (I bought several packs of flexible cutting boards at the dollar store!)

Drill a hole at the top and then place your pipe cleaner or paper clip at the top for your hook and get ready to decorate! Use markers to draw your design, stickers as the centerpiece and then mod podge over them! Add the glitter into the mod podge to make your ornaments sparkly!

They dry super fast and are so much fun!!! Enjoy your week everyone!

Sunday Tips!

2011-12-11T00:04:00.000-08:00

Before your kids come home from school or wake up, pull out a long neglected toy and put it somewhere it will be noticed straight away! Watch your children delight in playing with this 'new' toy for hours!

Make even fast food last longer than a a quick eat! I always have some kind of card game or small board game in my tote in the car. This allows us to still play a family game, no matter where we end up at the end of a long day!

Happy Sunday my Friends...

Lunar Eclipse!

2011-12-10T06:09:00.000-08:00

This morning my oldest son and I were able to get up early and catch the Lunar Eclipse! We are lucky that the house sits on a hill and were able to catch most of it, but due to the moon setting, we of course could not see the entire show.

Yesterday, in preparation for this event, we read information from THIS SITE so that he could understand what all he was seeing. We loved doing the research together and though I invited my other 2 children to join us, it seemed that he was the only one truly interested!

After the moon set in our area, we went online HERE to see the entire eclipse live so that we could catch up on any parts that we missed due to living in the Midwest. It was an amazing sight that brought up a lot of questions!

A hot chocolate bar awaited us as we discussed what we had seen and researched even more. I love when I get to teach my little ones new things and together we go on to learn even more! Happy Saturday everyone!!! I feel like we already accomplished so much :)

Charlie our Elf! 2011

2011-12-09T00:59:00.000-08:00

The time has almost come to say goodbye to Charlie and the people most saddened by this little fact? Mom & Dad! With ~~3 days and 13 hours until 2 days and 14 hours~~ a whole year until Christmas, we know we will miss our little friend ~~when he heads~~ Now that he is back to the North Pole. We have had an absolutely delightful year and are thinking of binding Charlie's adventures into a book for the children to enjoy year round!

Charlie is our Elf on the Shelf! He has come to our family to report his findings to Santa! I've mentioned him before, but figured I would try and keep 1 post where I will just post all of his mischief! I will add new photos to the top of this post! Remember to check back daily! The photo of Charlie over on the left sidebar of this <-------blog will take you right to this post!

Christmas Eve arrived and we found Charlie Bungee Jumping with Garland from the loft! He is so silly, but he really knows how to make us all laugh! Charlie knew that we would all be sad, so he was found with a note left to our family and a picture of himself so that we don't forget him!

Charlie was found on the photo table, clutching the countdown clock that said only ONE MORE DAY! He also happened to toilet paper the living room! That sneaky elf certainly loves toilet paper! We found an entire roll pooled in the floor of the bathroom!

Charlie is a serious racer! He gets in to Mario Kart just as much as the boys do here! I think this was an all out challenge!

SNOWBALL FIGHT!!!!!!!

This morning we found that Charlie had raided the Marshmallows and rounded up some friends for an epic

snowball fight! Of course he made sure his friends lacked the fort protection that he had! We certainly are

going to miss all of Charlie's antics when the he heads back to the North Pole for the final time on the 24th!

As we rounded the corner into our kitchen this morning, we were welcomed by the sight of Charlie sitting on the counter with small footprints into some spilled flour. OOPS! Mommy had baked some bread in the breadmaker overnight and I had completely forgotten to put it away. Charlie of course could not help himself! Silly little elf.

As I turned around to begin serving the breakfast dishes, I almost slipped in THIS! That silly Charlie had made 'snow' angels out of flour on the floor of my kitchen!! The kids were stunned into silence and then slowly let out a giggle, but then they wondered who would clean up this mess??? Oh Charlie, how truly mischievous you are!!

Charlie was found at our kitchen table today! The children are over the moon wit the fact that he brought us a gingerbread village to decorate. It came with 5 houses, which means 1 for each of us!! We have a chance to see if these turn in to real houses and NOT a GINGERBREAD MOUNTAIN! Looks like we have our activity of the day!

Oh no! We caught him toilet papering our tree!!! The tree was covered in toilet paper and he managed to knock down a few of our prized ornaments! Good thing nothing was broken!

Looks like Charlie was hanging from Daddy's RC Helicopter and he had a crash landing! The kids thought this was absolutely hilarious and are planning to stay up late tonight and see if they will catch him doing it again!

Uh-Oh! Charlie is starting to discover other areas of our home! Today he was spotted on Mommy's Bike in the garage! Was he sneaking out for a ride??

Cookie Capture! We found Charlie this morning munching on gingerbread men inside of the cookie jar!

Charlie Loves to read! He was caught reading The Polar Express and even spelled out a message to the children, using their oversized letter tiles! He gave them each a Bell that would only ring for those who believe!

That sneaky elf was spotted in our tree! He had brought the kids some fun posters to color all the way from the North Pole!

We collect Walt Disney World pins and keep them in a glass shadow box style case. This morning we noticed that Charlie was hiding inside!

Here we found that Charlie had gathered his buddies and started up a game of Scrabble! The best part was that the children had so much fun reading the words that their favorite stuffed animals had put together!

Charlie found his way into the office and was nestled on one of the tables with a picture book and vocabulary cards! Even elves love to read!

Charlie took my camera off it's charger and took photos of himself! He then replaced all the photos of the children with ones of himself!!

Oh Charlie what have you done?! We caught him building a tower of cups from the chandelier!

One morning, we had found that he papered the Kiddie Bathroom!

He ziplined from the dining room into the family room! This was one of our favorites to see him do! The children said he had the idea to move from one room to the other too late and he heard the front door open, so he had to freeze in place and didn't make it to the other side!!

Charlie had a blast emptying out our entire Advent Calendar of candies! The kids counted them all and concluded that Charlie ate quite a few!!

One morning, we found that he had built himself a castle that created a bridge over our race track that goes around the tree! The kids liked this home so much that they left it up, just in case he needs a place to rest!

This sneaky elf went to town on all of the photos in the Family Room! He drew silly doodles all over the faces and we even caught him red handed! (Marker Handed??)

Delightful December day 5! Wordy Ornaments

2011-12-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

Another day in December is here and we are having so much fun exploring our craftiness together as a family. As many of you all know, I love to make even the smallest of activities a lesson in learning! There are so many ways to have fun and still educate yourself all at the same time! This small ornamental project was going to be a lesson in spelling! I wrote lists of Christmas Words on index cards and gave 1 to each child. They also had bowls of Scrabble Tiles on their tray.

The idea was to spell out each word on your index card and place them on your tray in any order you would like, so long as it still spelled the word properly. This part seemed the most fun to them as they explored their letter bowls, matched up tiles and then went on to spell words that were not on their cards.

They then searched my charm collection to match up charms for their ornaments and we glued away happily! We listened to Christmas Music and talked all about what the CHRISTmas Season means to us and how excited we are for our Lord's birth! We made many ornaments that can double as gift tags and even some that will be given to teachers and coaches!

Delightful December Day 4!

2011-12-07T12:45:00.000-08:00

If there is one thing I love to collect, it's BUTTONS! I love buttons of all kinds, colors and shapes and sizes...With our crafting bug in full swing, I decided to show the kids how to make cute, colorful and fun gifts for their teachers, friends and family members using buttons! Today we attacked jewelry with a vengeance!

All you need to make simple button rings is a sturdy adhesive (We use E600) and buttons and your ring pad or even a brooch back! All can be found at your local craft shoppe. The most favorite thing for all of us to do was to sort the buttons! We laughed as we looked, chatted as we sorted and even tried to sneak away some of our favorites so that they wouldn't be used (okay, only i did that!!). The kids were then told to stack the buttons 2 or 3 high with the larger one on the bottom to form a steady Christmas tree of sorts! It's that simple.

Sort, Stack, Glue, Dry, Wear!

Some of our Creations!

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Menu Plan Monday...errr Tuesday!

2011-12-06T06:49:00.000-08:00

Make a fruit basket out of a cantaloupe

Is it seriously only 18 days and 15 hours until Christmas?! I honestly think that the entire year of 2011 has flown by! Is this how it is once you become a parent? Do the years just begin smashing in to one another and sailing past? Goodness, I don't know if I am ready for this all.

This Week's Menu:

Monday: Chicken Pot Pie (WOW, this was delicious!!!!)

Tuesday: Steak and Potatoes with Green Beans (Can you tell Daddy is joining us for dinner on these 2 days! That's why they have to be so hearty!)

Wednesday: Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

Thursday: Pork Chops and Stuffing with a Garden Salad

Friday: Cheese Enchiladas & Black Beans

Saturday: Make your own pizzas and Garden Salad

Sunday: (Dinner with Nana & Grandpa to pick up the last of the raffle tickets they sold for us!)

Get those Holiday Cookie Cutters out! It's time to start making your food Fun and Festive!

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Delightful December Day 3 & A Creative Challenge!

2011-12-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Friends!! What a super busy weekend, I will touch on that in another post, for now I share with you what we created with our Magazine Challenge from Tinker Lab! This being a child centered activity, I set out the above supplies and asked my kids what they wanted to do with what they saw. Many ideas floated around including BUTTON SNAKES, which are always popular. I told them to try and use the magazines in a fun way! Tearing out pages was number 1 of course and then my daughter emptied the jars and decided she wanted a pencil cup holder and the boys were happy to join in!

Let's get started on this super fun and crazy easy project! Gather your materials:

1. Jars

2. Mod Podge & Brush for application

3. Buttons & Bells

4. Scissors

5. MAGAZINES!!!

6. Pipe Cleaners

Have your little ones start cutting! Tell them to cut out anything that they want as long as the images are fairly small. My kids started out with a bang and had fun, but eventually started getting silly when they couldn't find enough to suit their theme. The boys thought that was the end of the project and made an executive decision to just decorate 1 jar together. (Grandpa had just bought them an awesome new train set and they were determined to go and check it out!)

Time to spread mod podge all over your jar. My daughter is 6 and has no problems doing this alone. She ended up a bit sticky, but it was fun and it dries quickly and easy enough to just rub off.

She wanted to make a 'necklace' for the jar, so she strung buttons and bells, using a pattern. The boys came back this pattern play and then off they went, wearing their new 'bracelets' I could tell by the loud jingling where they were all day!

Autumn came to me to tie the necklace around the jar, but we decided to make it a tad bit bigger, so that it would slip on and off without being tied! This made it much easier for her to use it as a tambourine! hahah!!

Here you can see the jar completely empty and she plans on using it as a pencil holder on her desk when it's empty and the boys decided on a change jar.

For the Holiday Season, it sits with a Christmas Tree scented candle and now look close! It LIGHTS UP the magazine paper like a lantern! Of course, once they saw this, the boys were ready to get to work on theirs! Do you have fun with magazines?? Link up with us!

Check out everyone joining this Creative Challenge!

Child Central Station , kids in the studio, Teach Mama, The Imagination Tree,Childhood101, Teach Preschool, hands on as we grow, Artful Parent, Paint Cut Paste, A Mom With A Lesson Plan, Toddler Approved, Kiwi Crate, Art 4 Little Hands, Red Ted Art, The Chocolate Muffin Tree, Imagination Soup,Michelles Charm World, Messy Preschoolers, Tinker Lab, Mommy Labs, Putti Prapancha

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Delightful December day 2!

2011-12-02T08:52:00.000-08:00

Our next day of crafting was so much fun! We are a big fan of sensory tubs in this house, but they usually end up with extra pieces added in from around the house or missing pieces! My children are older, so they often times like to change up the theme on their own and do it often! YIKES!

When I came in to a large supply of these at the thrift store the other day, I knew I would use many for snacks, but then I had another idea all together! A fun series of mini sensory containers!! This way they cana easily be changed and still be so much fun!

We decided to go with a Winter theme, as I had some left over snow from a previous project! We dumped it in and then my little guy selected some miniatures from my container of fun little treasures!

We popped on the lid and SHOOK IT UP! Then he was free to see what he could spy! I covered his eyes after he looked at everything then SHOOK IT UP again! This time I had him pick out 1 item at a time and guess what it was! When the big kids came home from school, he asked them to play and he covered their eyes.

25 Days of December Delights!

2011-12-01T07:38:00.000-08:00

HAPPY DECEMBER! Can you believe that it's the end of the year already? I could have sworn that I was just writing about Back To School Insanity! I have decided to attempt to do 25 days of crafts with my little ones. Ideally I will post them all in a row, but just in case I have 6 more days in the month after the 25th! HAHA! Care to join me? Link me to your Blog Post in the comments and I will post your button in this post and a link to your crafty goodness.

We are all about counting down in this house! Tonight, we start this AWESOME countdown idea from Honey Bee Books AND Charlie, our Elf on the Shelf, brought this great countdown ornament for the kids!

We have a regular Advent Calendar too! Sneak Charlie got his hands on it and emptied it all out! Countdown Calendars, Clocks, Books etc. are all GREAT ways for little ones to get counting without knowing it and especially counting backwards! Now, on to today's craft!

We are making a SNOW themed Eye-Spy Bag for our Quiet Binder! This little pouch is SO fun and SO easy to make that you will want to do one STRAIGHT AWAY!

You Will Need:

2 sheet protectors, Strong Packing Tape (The generic kind peels too easily and loses it's stick!), Fake Snow

(MAKE IT CHRISTMAS brand from Hobby Lobby for 2.49) and an assortment of charms that you want

them to find.
Once you get your assortment of charms that you plan on putting in there (I used 15 pieces), type them up on

1 sheet of cardstock and slip them in to one of the sheet protectors. (This way, the children can cross off what

they have found and it can be erased over and over again!).

Next, pop in the entire bag of snow into the 2nd sheet protector and add in the charms.

Now take your tape and tape up the open side of the sheet protector. (I did it 3 times! hahaa!) and then run

one strip of tape onto the other 2 sides that are not going into the binder rings, just to reinforce the edges.

Let the Spying and Quiet Fun BEGIN!

Nearly Wordless...

2011-11-30T10:11:00.000-08:00

Giant Stuffed Animals are NOT practical, but SO cute and comforting.

Yes, they do get along 99.9 percent of the time!

I want to be this outrageous with my decorations, but I fear the Electric Bill too much!

Sometimes you are too tired to go on and you pass out anywhere.

What would YOU make with a coffee can?

Write in Books!

2011-11-29T07:11:00.000-08:00

Do your children love books? Do they love to color? Sometimes my kids have a tendency to combine these 2 loves into a book that was not meant for writing in :) I decided to remedy that problem and turn every book into a write in book for them!

All you need is a sheet protector and a pair of scissors! Cut the long side of the sheet protector, so that your page is now only held together by the bottom side.

Slip it right over any page they want to use and it's ready for action! These are most popular in seek-and-find books! They can check off what they find and circle where they are! In regular books, they can search for sight words or draw their own pictures. They can make funny pictures on the normal photos as well!

Another popular use for these sheet protectors are on workbooks, they last longer OR allow 3 kids to do the popular pages!!

Little hands have loved this project so much that they often ask for more and more pages! Hope you enjoy it!

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Menu Plan Monday!

2011-11-28T08:07:00.000-08:00

The Holiday Season is here and it's time for so many traditions to begin! Our Elf has returned, the decorations are up and we have a week full of warm weather foods ready to go!

Our Menu:

Monday: Beef Stew served with fresh baked bread

Tuesday: Vegetable Lasagna served with a garden salad

Wednesday: Chicken Parmesan served with Sliced tomatoes and Cucumbers

Thursday: Split Pea Soup served with fresh baked bread

Friday: Chicken Pot Pie served with a garden salad

Saturday & Sunday: My husbands Holiday Party and we will be gone for the weekend!

Please link up to your menu plan if you have one in the comments! Thank you so much for stopping in to read my blog.

Happy Thanksgiving...

2011-11-23T13:54:00.000-08:00

As I browsed my wine cooler, I found this little friend inside and it made me laugh! That laughter led me to believe that more friends of mine would find such an encounter just as amusing. I share him with you as I also send my wishes to you and your families! Happy Thanksgiving friends! May we all be Blessed and continue to be happy!

Brown Bag Fun!

2011-11-22T12:22:00.000-08:00

I am all about 100% reusable lunches, but when it's time for a field trip I make exceptions. I don't like my kids having to lug their lunch boxes, containers and thermoses around afterwards, so I try to make the lunch disposable, but still cute! Stickers, Scrapbooking Scissors, Ribbon, Crayons and the like make things so much cuter and the kids have fun creating them too!

I even love to stick them on the plastic bags!

Letter Fun!

2011-11-20T20:27:00.000-08:00

Do you have little ones learning their letters? I have A fun and super easy game that involves pieces that you probably already have at home! Grab a pack of clothespins and label each one with a letter (A-Z) and then grab a pack of alphabet flashcards! Dump them all into 1 bin and have your children start to match them up!

A great seek and find game, that then turns into matching! Try writing the upper case letter on one side and the lower case letters on the other side! Super easy and so much fun!!

2011-11-17T15:54:00.000-08:00

Happy Thursday everyone! Can you believe it is ONE WEEK until Thanksgiving?! Where on earth did the time go? It's time for my final installment of Thankful Thursdays in November. I wish you all a wonderful day and know that I am always thankful for each one of you that takes a minute to read what I have to say in this little neck of the woods!

1. The ability to send my children to a private school. This is something we saved for the minute our first was born and I am so happy that we are able to do this for them.

2. My best friend. Her and I have taken different paths in life and I am so happy that when we get together everything is as good as it ever was. We may not be able to talk often, but it's still a friendship that I hold dear.

3. Disney World. This sounds very crazy, I'm sure but Disney World is the one place that we can vacation to constantly and the minute we pass through that archway everything in the real world disappears!

4. My education. My parents did all they could to send me to a private school and on to college and I appreciate every single thing that they did.

5. People that work in retail. It's not an easy job, but many of you all handle it with such awesomeness that I often leave a store smiling because 1 small comment can change the outlook of an entire day!

6. Having a youngest in preschool. He goes to school for 2.5 hours daily and my husband works second shift. For those 2.5 hours, we have an awesome time getting to know eachother all over again without children around. We have quiet breakfasts, mornings at the library, coffee dates, catch a movie, grocery shopping, read together etc.

7. Our Soldiers. Thank you to those amazing men and women that risk their lives every single day to keep my family and I safe. There are not enough words in the dictionary to express how thankful I am to all of you and to your families that also sacrifice so much for you to protect us.

8. The Library. Nothing can bring about a sense of peace on a hectic day than walking though the oak doors of the library. It's an oasis to me that will forever remind me of long afternoons as a young girl. Picking out a book is always an adventure.

9. My Grandparents. I have 2 left, but as a child, I had all 4 and they were the most amazing people that had an incredible influence on who I have become. Their love for each other became a shining example of marriage for me.

10. Who I am today. I thank the good Lord, my parents and grandparents for creating who I have grown up to be. I am happy with the person that I see in the mirror and that's all anyone could ever ask for.

Happy Thanksgiving my Friends, may it be Magical and full of so much Love and Blessings...

Wordless...

2011-11-16T07:48:00.000-08:00

Field Trip Day! Off to a vintage Airplane museum!

Scavenger hunt in the hangars!

We saw a plane take off!!

We earned our wings!