-Cut the sandwich on a diagonal
-Add almonds as the teeth and a raisin or dried cherry as the eye
Monday, April 26, 2010
A Sandwich That Just Might Eat You
How can kids resist a sandwich that could bite them?!? At my house they can't! The other great thing is they can't resist what the "shark" might eat either! Sometimes they call it a shark others a alligator or even a crocodile what ever they call it I don't really care the fact is they get so excited that they eat without complaint and that makes me one happy mommy!!!
-Cut the sandwich on a diagonal
-Add almonds as the teeth and a raisin or dried cherry as the eye
-Cut the sandwich on a diagonal
-Add almonds as the teeth and a raisin or dried cherry as the eye
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
My Earth Day Projects
I took these items and made the following:
I saw the most fun looking game called Find It. I unfortunately didn't like the price tag so I created these:
FIND IT BOTTLES
1. I have a son who runs track and drinks several powerades a week. I took the powerade bottles and cleaned them out, removed the label and let them dry.
2. Once dry I reused the rice from the water table and filled the bottles almost full. Leaving an inch of space near the top.
3. I found different buttons at Micheals and added them to the bottle.
4. Print up clues to find each button in the bottle, laminate, and attach with ribbon or yarn
5.. Hot glue lid closed or don't and you can guess what could happen!
"STUFF" CANS
I love how these turned out. They are for in my laundry room for all the "stuff", you know change, box tops for the kids schools, the button without a home, the screw that goes somewhere, etc.... I debated painting them and opted not to and if I change my mind I can paint them someday.
1. I have a can opener that cuts on the side of the can and make the perfect lid so I had been saving the lids and cans.
2. I cleaned, delabeled, and goo goned the cans
3. I hot glued wood balls on top of the lids and the letters on the cans.
How many of these do we use a week? If you pack lunches like I do more than I care to admit. Why do we use them because the fit so nicely into the lunch boxes. So I began to searcha nd for roughly $7 a pop I found some reusable bags agin I didn't like the price tag. I even started rationalizing if I only bought 1 I could figure out how they were made and make more and then inspiration struck. And now we have the following:
SNACK BAGS
1. Carefully cut the bag open, right under were it is sealed, making sure not to cut all the way through.
2. Clean the our and remove the plastic strip behind the straw, and let dry.
3. Take a piece of sticky back velcro and and cut both sides in half length wise and then cut to width of drink pouch.
4. On the top of the drink pouch adhere the velcro and then attach the other side of the velcro to it. Peel the backing off and then fold it over making hte cutest little reusable bags for next to nothing!
Going Green
Last year we made some changes in our family to help the environment so I am reposting the post from last year and have continued this year.
We started out not really intending to be greener it just happend with little changes along the way but what I discovered was not only were we being kinder to the planet we saved a lot of money over the year!
Thank you to my friend for loaning me a book that opened my eyes a lot, a class that taught my son about global warming, and Curious George(the cartoon)for going to the recycling center. It truly has been a family effort and I am grateful for their efforts. I thought it would be a huge sacrifice for us but it was little changes all year that made a huge difference.
We have accomplished a lot this year. We have more we can do as I look around and every light is on in the house as we speak but we will work on that this year!
Take a look and see how we went Green!
1. The Gas Tank
I used to fill my tank every 10 days now every 21 days.
What I did not to drive around so much...I used to run an errand everyday. Now if I am in one spot of town anything I have to do there gets done. If I were needing to go to return something to the library I would also take the kids to The Center fo the Arts or send it with my husband when he went to Young Men's or if I needed to run to go to Lowes or Home Depot I would grocery shop at Meijers, stop at Micheals, and Target. The funny thing was not only did I save money on gas because I was getting things done in one area, I also saved money because I was trying to get the things done before the kids errand timer ran out and there was no time to browse. It was here's my list, get the stuff, get out, go to the next place, next store.
We got netflix so no more running back and forth to the movie store. This movie is due the next day, this one in five days, this one is a 2 day rental you get the picture we would run to the movie store 4 days a week and not to mention the late fees that would sometimes happen.
No more shopping out of town- which is a big one. If I really needed something from a specific store not in our town I usually could just find it at their on line site and the sites always have a clearance section(guess what I never ordered a thing all year, there was never anything so special that I had to leave this town to go get it or have it shipped to me either). I started going to Sam's quarterly instead of monthly and now I go bi-annually and to the cannery once a year or whenever my can of carrots runs out then I know it is time to go!
Just staying home-we have a ton of fun stuff to do just at home and my kids love being here. We have movie nights at home complete with popcorn,pop,and movie candy. We have game nights. We color and paint and we love playdough. We sing and dance around the house. We have adventures..did you know the tree outside our house is a troll and there are goblins in our yard, thank goodness we have the safety of our tree house. We sidewalk chalk and blow bubbles. Honestly what more could we ask for than our kids loving Fun at Home!
This is how I quit driving so much and went GREEN!
2. Reusable Shopping Bags
The hardest part about this one was remembering to bring them. I finally hung one of the 3M hooks(that come off without leaving a mark)on my back door and hung them there so I wouldn't forget them when I left. I still do sometimes but not as much! I found ones I love at Target for $1.00 and a large on at Ikea for .79.
1. Fill up less
3. Fluorescent lights
They are more expensive than regular bulbs but it is true they last longer. We bought 1 or 2 packs every couple of weeks until our house was converted as much as it could be. I have not changed 1 of my fluorescent bulbs since we put them in over a year ago and before I was changing them about every 3 months. They certainly have paid for them self!
4. Buy Local-within a hundred miles
This has truly been the hardest. What I found: local bakeries, Country Fresh is based in MI so is Kellogs I know they are not within a 100 miles but they are in MI, some grocery stores carry local(Krogers) and their are graineries within 20 minutes. The biggest thing I did do was utilize the local farms and the Farmers Market. The kids loved going and they also loved helping prep the fruits and veggies for canning and freezing. I have a bushel of potatoes in a closet and I have used them all winter and they were fine all winter it was one of my experiements that I was a bit nervous about. I even made and froze my own pesto. I don't know if I have saved a dime on this endeavor but I do know we saved our Earths natural resources.
* did you know that if every US citizen ate one meal a week organically and locally grown or raised (with in 100 miles) we would reduce our country's oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels of oil a week! Think for a moment how much it cost to ship bananas to the local grocery store. They are harvested, trucked, flown, shipped, and trucked before they get to our local grocery store all using oil!
5. Recycling
This we love we started out slow and worked up to full blown recycling right down to the tags on clothes. We use our roadside program but they only come every other week and we are a family of 6 so we visit the local recycling center at least once a week and the kids love it! The love sorting the recycling and learning more and more about it everytime we go. We have went from 2 heaping garbage cans a week to one partly full one. It makes wish we had been doing it all along!
6. Buying used clothes
This is not my favorite event in my life but I truly have found some great basic pieces for a steal-a jean skirt for .50 and silk PJ's for a 1.00 I am not great at this one but I will continue to buy more and more used clothing. I even know some people that trade clothes amongst themselves and that works for them I however am not that organized enough and will not pick up that habit in the near future.
7. Shorter showers and Shallower bathes
This was hard for some in our home. The shallower bathes came easier and shorter showers were harder but we have one that could take a 30 minute shower no problem and now is down to 10 minutes. We all shave at the sink now and we turn the water off when we are brushing our teeth. I researched a little bit and it takes less water to run our particular dishwasher which I will add I was grateful for because I don't know if I could make that sacrifice. All in all we cut our water bill down over $10 a month.
8. No more water bottles
I used to be a huge consumer of water bottles(did you know it takes oil to make plastic). Those days are gone. We started with cute Dora, Spiderman, and Diego water bottles in Easter baskets. Then added to the grown up collection some we found at Walgreen's for .99(they were full of emergency stuff so they really were a steal, because we took the stuff out and added them to our 72 hour kits-extra bonus for you they still have them). I found myself be short a few water bottles more so in the summer my kids use them everyday. I was at a local dollar store one day and quickly added Nemo, Cars, and Princesses to our water bottle collection. We have a spot for them in our cupboard just like plates and every other thing and my kids now fill them up for themselves every morning and they find their spot lined on the back of the counter.
9. Greener Cleaners
There are a lot of these out there. Some of my favorites are Method at Target, Seventh Generation(if you have child with exzema this laundry detergent is for you) at Walgrrens, and Simple Green has a naturals line I love. Vinegar is great too and baking soda works well too. Do I still use bleach and lysol? Of course I do just not as much and all the time in the winter. I just use them less.
We started out not really intending to be greener it just happend with little changes along the way but what I discovered was not only were we being kinder to the planet we saved a lot of money over the year!
Thank you to my friend for loaning me a book that opened my eyes a lot, a class that taught my son about global warming, and Curious George(the cartoon)for going to the recycling center. It truly has been a family effort and I am grateful for their efforts. I thought it would be a huge sacrifice for us but it was little changes all year that made a huge difference.
We have accomplished a lot this year. We have more we can do as I look around and every light is on in the house as we speak but we will work on that this year!
Take a look and see how we went Green!
1. The Gas Tank
I used to fill my tank every 10 days now every 21 days.
What I did not to drive around so much...I used to run an errand everyday. Now if I am in one spot of town anything I have to do there gets done. If I were needing to go to return something to the library I would also take the kids to The Center fo the Arts or send it with my husband when he went to Young Men's or if I needed to run to go to Lowes or Home Depot I would grocery shop at Meijers, stop at Micheals, and Target. The funny thing was not only did I save money on gas because I was getting things done in one area, I also saved money because I was trying to get the things done before the kids errand timer ran out and there was no time to browse. It was here's my list, get the stuff, get out, go to the next place, next store.
We got netflix so no more running back and forth to the movie store. This movie is due the next day, this one in five days, this one is a 2 day rental you get the picture we would run to the movie store 4 days a week and not to mention the late fees that would sometimes happen.
No more shopping out of town- which is a big one. If I really needed something from a specific store not in our town I usually could just find it at their on line site and the sites always have a clearance section(guess what I never ordered a thing all year, there was never anything so special that I had to leave this town to go get it or have it shipped to me either). I started going to Sam's quarterly instead of monthly and now I go bi-annually and to the cannery once a year or whenever my can of carrots runs out then I know it is time to go!
Just staying home-we have a ton of fun stuff to do just at home and my kids love being here. We have movie nights at home complete with popcorn,pop,and movie candy. We have game nights. We color and paint and we love playdough. We sing and dance around the house. We have adventures..did you know the tree outside our house is a troll and there are goblins in our yard, thank goodness we have the safety of our tree house. We sidewalk chalk and blow bubbles. Honestly what more could we ask for than our kids loving Fun at Home!
This is how I quit driving so much and went GREEN!
2. Reusable Shopping Bags
The hardest part about this one was remembering to bring them. I finally hung one of the 3M hooks(that come off without leaving a mark)on my back door and hung them there so I wouldn't forget them when I left. I still do sometimes but not as much! I found ones I love at Target for $1.00 and a large on at Ikea for .79.
1. Fill up less
3. Fluorescent lights
They are more expensive than regular bulbs but it is true they last longer. We bought 1 or 2 packs every couple of weeks until our house was converted as much as it could be. I have not changed 1 of my fluorescent bulbs since we put them in over a year ago and before I was changing them about every 3 months. They certainly have paid for them self!
4. Buy Local-within a hundred miles
This has truly been the hardest. What I found: local bakeries, Country Fresh is based in MI so is Kellogs I know they are not within a 100 miles but they are in MI, some grocery stores carry local(Krogers) and their are graineries within 20 minutes. The biggest thing I did do was utilize the local farms and the Farmers Market. The kids loved going and they also loved helping prep the fruits and veggies for canning and freezing. I have a bushel of potatoes in a closet and I have used them all winter and they were fine all winter it was one of my experiements that I was a bit nervous about. I even made and froze my own pesto. I don't know if I have saved a dime on this endeavor but I do know we saved our Earths natural resources.
* did you know that if every US citizen ate one meal a week organically and locally grown or raised (with in 100 miles) we would reduce our country's oil consumption by 1.1 million barrels of oil a week! Think for a moment how much it cost to ship bananas to the local grocery store. They are harvested, trucked, flown, shipped, and trucked before they get to our local grocery store all using oil!
5. Recycling
This we love we started out slow and worked up to full blown recycling right down to the tags on clothes. We use our roadside program but they only come every other week and we are a family of 6 so we visit the local recycling center at least once a week and the kids love it! The love sorting the recycling and learning more and more about it everytime we go. We have went from 2 heaping garbage cans a week to one partly full one. It makes wish we had been doing it all along!
6. Buying used clothes
This is not my favorite event in my life but I truly have found some great basic pieces for a steal-a jean skirt for .50 and silk PJ's for a 1.00 I am not great at this one but I will continue to buy more and more used clothing. I even know some people that trade clothes amongst themselves and that works for them I however am not that organized enough and will not pick up that habit in the near future.
7. Shorter showers and Shallower bathes
This was hard for some in our home. The shallower bathes came easier and shorter showers were harder but we have one that could take a 30 minute shower no problem and now is down to 10 minutes. We all shave at the sink now and we turn the water off when we are brushing our teeth. I researched a little bit and it takes less water to run our particular dishwasher which I will add I was grateful for because I don't know if I could make that sacrifice. All in all we cut our water bill down over $10 a month.
8. No more water bottles
I used to be a huge consumer of water bottles(did you know it takes oil to make plastic). Those days are gone. We started with cute Dora, Spiderman, and Diego water bottles in Easter baskets. Then added to the grown up collection some we found at Walgreen's for .99(they were full of emergency stuff so they really were a steal, because we took the stuff out and added them to our 72 hour kits-extra bonus for you they still have them). I found myself be short a few water bottles more so in the summer my kids use them everyday. I was at a local dollar store one day and quickly added Nemo, Cars, and Princesses to our water bottle collection. We have a spot for them in our cupboard just like plates and every other thing and my kids now fill them up for themselves every morning and they find their spot lined on the back of the counter.
9. Greener Cleaners
There are a lot of these out there. Some of my favorites are Method at Target, Seventh Generation(if you have child with exzema this laundry detergent is for you) at Walgrrens, and Simple Green has a naturals line I love. Vinegar is great too and baking soda works well too. Do I still use bleach and lysol? Of course I do just not as much and all the time in the winter. I just use them less.
10. Task Lighting
This started a few years ago and we weren't even thinking about saving energy it was just more of a convenience and had under cabinet lighting installed. We have added lamps in key places and we still have more to add. I don't know if this really saves energy but it makes me feel better.
This started a few years ago and we weren't even thinking about saving energy it was just more of a convenience and had under cabinet lighting installed. We have added lamps in key places and we still have more to add. I don't know if this really saves energy but it makes me feel better.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Boxes and a Bookshelf
A few monthes ago I posted about actvity bags for the kids and now their home is complete. I have a book shelf right near our kitchen and I had these great black boxes that I bought years ago to fit on these shelves(I have 4 other book shelves just like this one)and I had 2 boxes on each book shelf. Stealing a shelf from one of the other book shelves, bringing all the boxes together and adding the numbers did the trick.
Toast for the Picky!!!!
I set out little bowls of healthy toppings(except chocolate chips-I only let them pick 5) and a bowl of peanutbutter with cheese spreaders. Then I let them create their own faces.
Even the pickiest of eaters can't resist making this funny faced HEALTHY whole wheat toast!
Even the pickiest of eaters can't resist making this funny faced HEALTHY whole wheat toast!
Got Picky Eaters?
I have 2 of the Picky Eater sort around here and it is every other child... so to all the articles and experts that say it is the parents that make picky eaters I say Bah Humbug!!!!!
To help cope with the pickiness around here I have found these items of great worth:
Different shaped plates and bowls, dipping cups of different shapes, skewers, frilly toothpicks, kid friendly chopsticks, and not pictured cookie cutters of different shapes great for cutting sandwiches or slices of cheese(muenster anyone-cut in the shape of a dinosaur they will eat it) into different shapes!
To help cope with the pickiness around here I have found these items of great worth:
Different shaped plates and bowls, dipping cups of different shapes, skewers, frilly toothpicks, kid friendly chopsticks, and not pictured cookie cutters of different shapes great for cutting sandwiches or slices of cheese(muenster anyone-cut in the shape of a dinosaur they will eat it) into different shapes!
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Laundry Room Makeover
BEFORE:
Obviously this was not working for us!
I found this at the local Restore:
We painted and added a counter top. The shelf from above was cut down painted and rehung and I reused the baskets.
AFTER:
I LOVE how it turned out!!!!
Obviously this was not working for us!
I found this at the local Restore:
We painted and added a counter top. The shelf from above was cut down painted and rehung and I reused the baskets.
AFTER:
I LOVE how it turned out!!!!
Sunday, April 11, 2010
You Might Not Want to Read This But I Have to Write It!!!!
Why I have a Fabulous Hubby...because he happily runs out the door to get me MORE tampons after I have used all of them. When I am saying all of them I mean ALL. My 6 month back up supply, my box in my 72 hour kit plus the 2 boxes I keep in my linen closet!!! Thank you honey!!!!
Friday, April 9, 2010
GO APE
I am thinking my 10 years of playing Go Fish might have come to an end. We are a game playing family and they all have loved Go Fish(it is one of those do you want to play a game and you ask really already knowing the answer). I have played I am sure 100's of games of Go Fish and they love to play it over and over but sometimes even the best of moms need to do something different. I think I have it with game:
It is the same concept of matching(taking turns) as Go Fish but instead of asking for a color of card you "ape" what is on the card to ask for it!!! HILARIOUS!!! We giggle the whole game!
It is the same concept of matching(taking turns) as Go Fish but instead of asking for a color of card you "ape" what is on the card to ask for it!!! HILARIOUS!!! We giggle the whole game!
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Would you like some silicon with that?
Yes Yes Pam has silicon in it along with other cooking sprays..no wonder nothing sticks!!!!!
The alternative I have used for several years is this lovely invention:
You add your own oil to it and you pump it and it works just as great as a spray can minus the silicon!!!!
The alternative I have used for several years is this lovely invention:
You add your own oil to it and you pump it and it works just as great as a spray can minus the silicon!!!!
Saturday, April 3, 2010
SPRING BREAK 2010
Not one picture....I am usually the picture taking queen but I decided this Spring Break not to take any pictures and instead just enjoy the moments with my children instead of being the one trying to capture the moments of my children on film.
We indeed had fun starting on Monday with we are doing nothing today and that is just what we did nothing..we didn't dress, cook, clean. We hung out and just existed amongst each other and it was fabulous!
Tuesday was our spring cleaning day and if all helped in this they were rewarded with a movie they love to watch and its sequel(which had not been seen before) and with wonderful attitudes spring cleaning of their rooms was completed quickly!!!
Wednesday was shopping and Chuckie Cheese day and that is all that needs to be said except WE HAD A BLAST!!!
Thursday was visiting the butterflies with Granny(and Christian worked at Grandma's) lunch out, followed by dentist appts( a quick note *never schedule appts without your planner thus the dentisit visits over Spring Break)and for Dinner Macaroni Madness-Yes it is Thursday no cooking for me!!!!
Friday we were off to Tawas to spend the day with my sister and her family and all had such a good time-and I got to hold a baby all day!!! We then left there and went to Turtle Cove for pizza, boating, and other lakeside fun!
I am grateful for the week with my children and sad to see it come to an end, but we are closer to summer vacation than ever and am so glad it is right around the corner!!!
We indeed had fun starting on Monday with we are doing nothing today and that is just what we did nothing..we didn't dress, cook, clean. We hung out and just existed amongst each other and it was fabulous!
Tuesday was our spring cleaning day and if all helped in this they were rewarded with a movie they love to watch and its sequel(which had not been seen before) and with wonderful attitudes spring cleaning of their rooms was completed quickly!!!
Wednesday was shopping and Chuckie Cheese day and that is all that needs to be said except WE HAD A BLAST!!!
Thursday was visiting the butterflies with Granny(and Christian worked at Grandma's) lunch out, followed by dentist appts( a quick note *never schedule appts without your planner thus the dentisit visits over Spring Break)and for Dinner Macaroni Madness-Yes it is Thursday no cooking for me!!!!
Friday we were off to Tawas to spend the day with my sister and her family and all had such a good time-and I got to hold a baby all day!!! We then left there and went to Turtle Cove for pizza, boating, and other lakeside fun!
I am grateful for the week with my children and sad to see it come to an end, but we are closer to summer vacation than ever and am so glad it is right around the corner!!!
Thursday, March 25, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
WACKY HAIR DAY 2010
I will say there were a few tears at the new do but by the time it was going to school time he realized it would be fun and it was only for the day! He is definately a clean cut boy and this is not him at all but I think he is going to have a fun day with is "wacky" hair!
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Water Table Fun
The water table(you can also use dishpans) has been my most favorite purchase since deciding to do preschool at home. It has so many uses and I use it all year. Here are a couple of the ideas so far this year:
SNOW
I found this fake snow and added some polar animals and a bucket and scoop for some snow fun!
What is at the end of rainbow?
I found these 2 buckets at Michaels last year(75% off) and the 2 different colored coins as well. My preschoolers find the coins in the rainbow colored rice and sort them between the 2 buckets using tongs. They can also count the coins too! I reuse the rice throughout spring time so I will share more ideas later!
To make the rice you take 2 cups rice, 1 tsp rubbing alcohol(this makes it dry fast and not sticky), and 5 drops food coloring. Mix it together and let it dry on newspaper. Repeat for as many colors as you like. HINT: Once dry the colors don't rub off on anything
For more of my preschool ideas you can go to my preschool blog at jewelspreschool.blogspot.com
SNOW
I found this fake snow and added some polar animals and a bucket and scoop for some snow fun!
What is at the end of rainbow?
I found these 2 buckets at Michaels last year(75% off) and the 2 different colored coins as well. My preschoolers find the coins in the rainbow colored rice and sort them between the 2 buckets using tongs. They can also count the coins too! I reuse the rice throughout spring time so I will share more ideas later!
To make the rice you take 2 cups rice, 1 tsp rubbing alcohol(this makes it dry fast and not sticky), and 5 drops food coloring. Mix it together and let it dry on newspaper. Repeat for as many colors as you like. HINT: Once dry the colors don't rub off on anything
For more of my preschool ideas you can go to my preschool blog at jewelspreschool.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
