St. Patrick's Day

For $8.00 I bought the following items: 3 bags green gems(different shapes), a 4 pack of candles, 3 glass vases, a 9 square shelf. I also used some scrap wood from another project.


TIC TAC TOE


I removed the hangers off of the shelf, my daughter and I painted it white and added 2 different color gems. Let the games begin, once dry of course!

St. Patricks Day Centerpiece


I painted the board white(2 coats) and once dry I hot glued on the gems to look like clovers on the edges(I first intended it to be a sign of some sort but I like it like this and at a later date it could become a sign). With the remaining gems Julianna distributed them evenly between the vases and then added candles. Put the finished vases in the center and tada all ready for the table!

Movie Night

Most of our Friday nights are Pizza and Movie nights. When each child's room is clean they will receive one of these:



Now how many of these tickets in their bag is determined by behavior all week:



There are free options:



but really this is what they look forward to the most(using their admission bag to put their treats in):


(popcorn containers Michaels for $1.00)

Kids Say:

Jensen you are too cute...his response, "No I am just a little too cute"


We went out to build a burger night at the club and when we were ordering we were helping all the kids order the burgers doneness and they were ordering them medium well....as we are eating one of the kids said, "I should have ordered a small instead of a medium!" (the burgers were as big as their little faces)

I was picking up the kids from school after the 1st really warm day and apperently the sewer couldn't take all the melting snow(the smell was horrific). As Julianna exited the classroom to the wonderful outdoors she says, "Mom you smell like a farm!" Oh how fun to explain it wasn't myself but the playground that smelled like a farm!

Just Say No to Drugs and Yes to This Book!

If you want to open the door to you children about a tough topic(drugs) do I have a book for you. What makes it even more amazing is the author is 17.

A New Favorite

This new product from Crayola is a gem!!! No more worrying about spilt water or mucky paint trays!!!

Reduce, Reuse, Inspire!!!

I washed and saved container lids....


......went through old Friend magazines and found pictures of Jesus....


......cut out the pictures in shapes of circles(I found a circle shape object that fit in the inside circle of the lids and used that as a template) and glued them in the lid. I then took a hole punch and went around the edges.....

Great Sunday lacing fun for your little ones!!!

Super Snugglers

These 2 from the minute they were born were my little snugglers. I am so glad they have each other and that I have the opportunity to be their mom, I love my snuggle bugs!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!!!

First let's start off with Wacky Wednesday...were all the kids dressed well wacky!!!!
Here he is all wacky...the pants had a hole in the knee and they were perfect for cutting off, then I cut the sleeve off his shirt, he even wore one short sock and one long one(not pictured), and I parted his hair on the opposite side I normally do to give on side a shorter look and the other longer(I tried to convince him to let me shave it but that was a no go).


Due to fever David missed the rest of Dr. Seuss week including tomorrow but I decided I would still bring in these for his classmates:



Needed:
Oreo
Marshmallows
White frosting
Cherry Twizzler Pull and Peel

Frost the top of the oreo
Pull a strand of the Twizzler off and set one end on top
Place a marshmallow on the top
Put frosting on top of it and add another marshmallow
Wrap the twizzler around the hat and adhere with frosting

Tada Cat in the Hat hats!!!!!

WIRES-need I say more

This is the amount of wires coming down from the top of my desk (this doesn't include my printer or computer wires and the wires are already taped together). I would have loved to show you the craziness on the floor under my desk before but I didn't think about posting it until after it was done and to redo this was not going to happen!


I had been looking for a basket to put all of my wires in and was not finding what I was looking for. I had 2 requirments- a lid and handle openings on the sides. I happend to going into our local Salvation Army just browsing around and found this box which met both of my requirments. It was a little beat up but it was going to hold wires under a desk and for under $2 I was not going to argue and it was the perfect size and structurally sound.


You fed the wires through the hole and hide all the unsightly wires and other electronic stuff inthe box.


No more getting my foot or chair leg tangled in wires and as an added bonus my priner fits perfectly onthe top!

"Toothy" Fun

I love this book!!! It is perfect for young children when you are talking about issues of teeth.


At our local school store I picked up a pad of teeth shapes, teeth stickers, and 10 tooth erasers. I took 10 of them and put the numbers 1-10 and then another ten and put stickers on them 1 on 1, 2 on another and continue through the number ten. This is great on so many levels and this what I use these for:
1. Taking the teeth with numbers on them and practicing number recognition and then putting them in proper order.
2. Taking the teeth with numbers and the one with stickers and play a matching game
3. Use the teeth erasers as counters and the numbered teeth to practice counting.


I found these pictures of mouthes on line and I printed them off and cut them out and programmed them. One says "t at the beginning" and the other says "t at the end". I then took several pictures of different items. Now we are ready to play this game. I put the mouthes side by side with a space in the middle of them and put the pictures face down. Each child takes a turn picking up a picture and deciding which mouth it belongs to. To make it a little trickier I have some pictures that don't go on either and one that goes on both(tent).


These teeth definately need some brushing! With the same tooth shapes from above I took the left overs and laminated them. I then took a dry erase marker and drew sugar bugs all over them. Now with all the children armed with a sugar bug laden tooth and tooth brush they get busy brushing those sugar bugs away(be prepared to keep readding sugar bugs to the teeth, in my experience 15 minutes or more)

I also take the oppurtunity to teach the "t" sound and the "th" sound and tooth is the perfect word to teach the difference.


What makes out teeth happy and sad? I programmed 2 teeth shapes one with a sad face and one with a happy face. Then cut out some pictures of different foods. I place the teeth next to each other and put the pictures face down and the kids take turns deciding what makes our teeeth happpy or sad!!!

Stories from the Bag

This is what happens when you get 6 3-5 year olds together and have them use the story bag:

Once upon a time... there was a treasure chest on a big boat and a pink flamingo took the treasure to an underground mountain where the flamingo played football. The flamingo flew in a rocket ship to space over a rainbow to the planet Saturn to hide the treasure forever. The End


Once upon a time... there was a tree on a hill with a lion waiting for his friend the monkey. They looked up into the sky from earth and a robot came from space and said, “I am going to eat you!” An airplane landed nearby and out hopped a frog and he ate everything in sight except the airplane and he flew far away.

The End

These crack me up!!!!

Once Upon a Time....

I made a story bag and this is how I did it:

I picked up this bag at Michaels for $1 and



these for .59 each(I bought around 15 of them)


Our story always begins with Once upon a time and then we draw a piece (without looking)and we start to tell our story. Every person adding to it as we draw new pieces. My children loved it and could have done it for hours, literally!

Activity Bags

Life gets busy as we all know and I was feeling like I wasn't giving my children enough. That is the only way I can describe it as...just not enough. In particular the educational practice they need and in the case of my children, want. I knew there was an easier and more efficient way and in 1 hour for my three younger children I came up with these:

Preschoolers:

Practicing counting 1-10 and patterns. Also by putting the beads on the pipe cleaners-fine motor skills.


Upper case and lower case puzzles. I also have him practice the sounds when he is doing this activity.


Name Practice. He loves putting the magnetic letters in order and then practicing writing his name. Okay okay not totally true he loves putting the letters in the correct order and singing the little song I taught him to practice his name. He could do without needing to practice writing it!


Fine Motor Skills by taking pop poms from one container to the other.

Kindergarteners:


Reading and words, words, words! Practice, Practice, Practice!!!


She absolutely loves these we practice counting and patterns with these and they are great for fine motor skills as well.


Practicing words again and this time she is writing them too!


Yes these are rose petals and as you know my girl is a girly girl and lets be honest what better way to pracice counting to 1-100 and learning all the numbers in between than by using rose petals...maybe chocolate!


First Graders:

He loves to pracitce making words and writing them out. We also use themt o practice his word wall words(not pictured)


Time to learn time and he loves that he can check it himself when I am busy making dinner!


Show me the money, another concept they work on in first grade and he loves this too!


This is for him and I to do together and he loves to play these fun games while learning his addition and subtraction!

These little activity bags have done a number of things for me. 1. If you are going to a meeting or doctors they can grab a bag or two 2. It has given them something to do while I make dinner, that I have chosen but they get to choose too 3. I feel like I am giving them more of an opportunity to learn and have fun at the same time and really what can be better than that! Oh yeah chocolate!

A New Member of the Family

Oh yes how crazy silly he is but my kids have loved him from the minute they saw him and we are so happy to have him in our home. I think pictures speak louder than words so here he is:


He was a display at a store and my kids loved him. Every time we were there they would hug him. Well a few monthes later he was raffled off. You had to buy 3 bags of M&M's per ticket so I bought 12 bags of them and actually forgot all about it until the call came that we had won. With every new season he has a new costume(Rudolph for Christmas not pictured)and he even passed out candy at Halloween. Yes it is ridiculous but my children love our new addition and he makes me smile whne I see him standing there greeting the kids into the family room!!!

Menu Board

I wanted it to be magnetic so I required an old tray from my Grandma.
I accidently erased the picture of the before but as you can see from the final product it was bad. I am going to need to redo this project someday because it was bad to begin with but for now it will do and the endless what is for dinner has ended.