An Indiana Mom!

Easy Birdfeeders

2012-01-16T10:13:00.000-05:00

I don't know about you guys, but this is the time of year that our minds wander to our feathered friends in the cold winter months. And if like me, you have tried to do the old peanut butter, birdseed and pine cones. The kids have such a hard time spreading the peanut butter over the pine cones, and it is so messy pouring the birdseed every where. Last year, I tried to make it as mess free as I could think of. We had the kids spread the peanut butter on mini bagels that I had a yarn looped through the hole. We then put it in the snack size and had the kids sprinkle the birdseed into that. While that worked pretty well, when I saw this idea from pinterest I knew I had to try it this year!!!

Supplies needed:
small bowls
pipe cleaners
Cheerios

This was probably the most simple craft we have done so far! I did this in the morning with the kids in the moms group I run, but forgot my camera. Plus, L saw me getting these ready and pleaded that I let him do it after school that day. The first thing that I did was wrap one end of the pipe cleaner around one of my fingers, and then twist it to hold that shape. Pour some of the Cheerios into the bowls, and show the kids how to thread them onto the pipe cleaners. When they get to the end, let them know they need to leave a little space at the bottom, and fold up the pipe cleaner to secure all the Cheerios on the pipe cleaner. That is it! My kids ended up making a ton of these, and we headed out to put them on the trees. Of course it was dark by then, and snowing, but fun none the less!

Look at that pile of pipe cleaners!

Cheesy little D just had to get in the picture!

There are only a few trees short enough for the kids to reach in our apartment complex, so this little tree got the most!

Books we read:
Curious George A Winter's Nap by H.A. Rey
Under and Over the snow by Kate Messner
Hooray for Snow by Kazuo Iwamura
Here Comes Jack Frost by Kazuno Kohara

Penguin Appreciation

2012-01-05T15:37:00.000-05:00

Every Jan. we have a penguin appreciation day, and usually it is frigid temps. This year, the weather is not too bad. Our crafts for this year's play date come from Totally Tots and Crafty-Crafted. Normally I would do a themed snack as well, but ran out of time. I wanted to make some penguin shaped cookies or have goldfish crackers. Oh well, maybe next time.

Supplies needed:
black construction paper
white construction paper
orange construction paper
glue sticks
toilet paper tube
googly eyes

This was one of the easiest crafts to put together. To make it even easier, I put all the pieces the kids would need, along with a glue stick in a plastic sandwich bag. That way, when I pass it all out, each kid got a bag and a white piece of paper. Way easy!!!

L working by himself of the penguins. The hardest part was gluing the black paper to the tube. The other blog uses paint, but we were in the library and that was not an option.

D not needing any help from anyone!

Books we read:
365 Penguins by Jean-Luc Fromental
I am Pangoo the Penguin by Satomi Ichikawa
Penguin Pete by Mark Pfister

I is for Igloo

2012-01-05T15:18:00.000-05:00

The night we did the baked cotton ball experiment, we also did this fun igloo craft from Kimboomu!

Supplies needed:
Blue construction paper
strips of white paper
glue stick
kid scissors
black marker

I started by drawing a simple igloo shape on the blue paper. I gave each kid some strips of white paper and told them to cut it into block like shapes. We then took the white "blocks" and glued them to the igloo shape. L and I took the simple approach of starting at the bottom and working our way up. D on the other hand, placed the glue blocks all over the place with no pattern. Once she saw how ours looked, she tried to start making a better pattern. It was a simple and fun craft to do, while waiting for Daddy to get home!

Cutting the blocks

Making a nice pattern

D and her total chaos!

Baked Cotton Balls

2012-01-05T15:09:00.000-05:00

I thought we should throw in a science experiment this week as well. Once again, a pinterest find! This one comes from Play Create Explore, and she has a great step by step, so I won't repost that one. This one was super easy to pull together, and an added bonus, you probably already have everything you need at your house, and if not, head over to the dollar store for supplies. One thing I will add, maybe put newspaper down, or a wipe-able tablecloth before you begin this project. Also have washcloths wet and at the ready to wipe up any hands. Both kids loved putting the cotton balls into the flour mixture, and totally covering them.

We did make some observations when we were done coating them. When we put them in the oven, will the outside stay soft and mushy or will it get hard and crunchy? Will the inside stay soft and fluffy or will it melt away?

They baked while we ate dinner. After dinner, we had the cooled tray at the table, and we all grabbed some cotton balls to break open. I would say that the cotton balls that were pushed up to the side of the pan or touching each other could have been baked longer. The cotton balls that were by themselves on the baking sheet got nice and crunchy. Both kids and adults had a fun time breaking them open and pulling out all the cotton that was inside.

We HAD to have blue and red. Big shocker!

Dipping the cotton balls in the coating

L wasn't too sure what to think at first.

D was pretty happy, as always.

One of the finished, cracked open cotton balls!

Frosty Pictures

2012-01-05T14:50:00.001-05:00

We did this craft the same day we did the salt watercolor craft. We were just having way too much fun! This was another one I saw on pinterest, but again, had heard about for some time. This time, I found the step by step on Brimful Curiosities.

Supplies needed:
Blue construction paper
crayons
brushes (we used foam ones)
small bowls
Epsom salt
boiling water

Start by measuring 1/4 cup salt and a 1/4 cup boiling water, and mix until salt dissolves. While waiting for that to cool a bit, have the kids draw pictures with the crayons. I told them to pretend this was a window looking outside, and what would you see outside in the winter. When we were done drawing, I poured the salt water into 3 small bowls. I showed the kids how to dip the brush into the water and totally cover the paper. Once the entire paper was coated in salt water, we put them on top of the dryer in the laundry room to dry. When they dry, you should see crystals form, and look like ice on the window. We discovered that my picture, with the least amount of water, just looked slightly icy. While L and D, put more water (puddles in places), had more larger crystals. Our crystals started to show just an hour after we painted on the water. After a few hours, they were mostly dry. The kids really thought it was neat to see all the different looks of the salt crystals on the pages!

D hamming it up for the camera

L, deep in thought about his drawing

My snowman

Starting to brush the salt water over my drawing

D also drew a snowman, and L drew a snowball fight!

Painting away!

The start of the crystals on L's paper

D's frosty looking snowman!

Salt and Watercolor painting

2012-01-05T14:36:00.001-05:00

We finally got a decent snow here in Northern Indiana, and it felt great! So I thought since L is still on break for a little bit longer, why not fit in some crafts! We were way too busy during the month of December to do much, but I think Jan. will be a bit better. This is one of those crafts that has been floating around pinterest, and that I have heard about for sometime now. Now was the perfect time to do it. I found the basic step by step at Housing a Forest.

Supplies needed:
heavier paper (we used sketch pad paper)
Elmer's glue
A can of table salt (found at the dollar store!)
watercolors (either liquid or regular)
small paintbrushes
baking sheet
paper towels
small bowls of water

I set this all up on our kitchen table. I had a sheet of paper, brush, watercolors, paper towel (for drying off brush in between colors), small bowl of water (for cleaning brush in between colors), and glue for each person doing the craft. I showed the kids how to lightly squeeze the glue and to "draw" a picture on the paper. When we were done drawing, we put each paper, one at a time, on the baking sheet. I let the kids shake the salt all over their drawings, and then shake the extra off the page. I made sure to have the watercolors prepared and ready to go. Adam suggested to make it easier, to spoon a good amount of water into each color to make it easier, and it really did! I showed the kids that all they had to do was fill their brush up with paint, and VERY lightly touch it to the salt. The salt then grabbed the paint, and spread it out. I wish I had a picture of their faces when they saw that happen for the first time. There were lots of yells of, "wow", and "oh man"! Now if you are doing this with older kids you can use this as a science experiment as well, and talk about why and how the salt carries the water. But since mine were a little too little for that, we skipped it. When you are all done, find a nice place out of the way to let them dry. In our house it took almost 1 whole day. We now have them hanging on the wall by our back window and it seems to just brighten the whole room!

Drawing out our design

D shaking the salt on her picture

Starting the paint on mine

D loves color, so hers is very rainbow colored!

L was trying to make sure his colors were very true to life. The sky had to be blue, the boy had to be peach. He even mixed his yellow and orange to get the right color.

D's picture. A pumpkin in the grass

L's blue sky

Our finished pages on the wall.

Winter Solstice Party

2012-01-01T16:26:00.000-05:00

We held our annual Winter Solstice Party this week at the library. We thought that after the holidays might be a better time, and more people could join us. This year we did a snowman theme. We had crafts, snacks, a game, and stories. The snack that I brought were baby carrots (noses), pretzel sticks (arms), and mini mint oreos (coal for eyes).

The first craft that we did were snowman masks.

Supplies needed:
paper plates
white cotton balls
black, orange, and red construction paper
elmers glue
popsicle sticks

I started by cutting out all the noses, eyes, and hats out of paper. I then cut the middle out of a paper plate for the base of the mask. Start by gluing the hat in place, that way you have a better idea where to put your cotton balls. Then start gluing the balls down. I used 9, and spread each out a little bit before gluing down. Then add the eyes, nose, and stick to the back!

This next craft I saw on pinterest.com.
Supplies needed:
sheet of blue construction paper
markers
Elmers glue
mini marshmallows

We started by "drawing" the snowman shape on the paper with the glue. The kids then had a blast picking out marshmallows from bowls, and gluing them to the shape. When the glue is all covered, let the kids use the markers to add the snowman's features like hat, eyes, nose, mouth, or arms. Let dry for a few hours!

This game that we played was a BIG hit with all the kids and moms alike. Also spotted on pinterest, we made one to go with our wintery theme. All the supplies were found at Dollar Tree!
Supplies needed:
plastic bowls
tissue paper (in whatever color theme you have, we used white with silver stars and silver)
Elmers glue
prizes (we found gold and silver beaded necklaces, and mini wedding bottles of bubbles)
something to glue the bowls to, and let stand up (we covered a folding table with paper and glued them to the paper.)

Start by laying out your tissue paper. Lay the bowls open side down on top of the tissue, leaving about an inch space between bowls. Place prizes on the inside of the bowls. Now, lift one bowl at a time, put a thin line of glue along the rim of the bowl, and carefully set back down over the prize onto the tissue paper. Let dry for a few hours. Trim off the tissue to however close to the bowl you wish, and let dry totally. Once finished drying, you can glue your bowls to whatever stand you choose. We used a table, but a sturdy cardboard box would works also. I had the kids line up from smallest to tallest. Each kids got to punch open a bowl and grab whatever prize was in there. (I put one of each prize in each bowl)

Books we read:
Perfect Soup by Lisa Moser
Snowmen all Year by Caralyn Buehner
The Snowman Band of Snowboggle Bend by Cheryl Hawkinson

Finished Advent calendar

2012-01-01T15:53:00.000-05:00

Well, Christmas has come and gone. Can you believe how quickly that came up this year? I know I sure can't. Now we get to come off of what I like to call, The Christmas let down. Where we just hang out at home, relax, eat bad foods, and play with our new stuff. It is also a time to reflect on the last month. I know in our house, we have all been super busy. I didn't get pictures of most of our Advent calendar things, but I did want to post the list of things that we tried to do. We didn't get it all done on the day we said, nor did we get all of it done in general, but I think we did a good job trying.

1- Read Christmas books
2-Watch a Christmas movie
3-Cupcakes and cocoa with friends
4-Put up the tree
5-Make coffee filter snowflakes
6-Make peppermint play dough
7- Set up Nativity set
8-Craft day
9-Watch another Christmas movie
10-Make ornaments for the tree
11-Dinner with friends (turned into movie, cookies, and cocoa with friends)
12-Make holiday cards
13-Make gingerbread men
14-Go shopping for each other
15- Bake cookies
16-Decorate a Gingerbread house
17-Go to Chicago
18-Do good deeds
19-Deliver gifts to teachers
20-Make reindeer food
21-Craft day
22-Wrap gifts
23- Drive to see lights
24- Set out cookies and milk for Santa
25- Christmas Day!

Decorating our Gingerbread men

Tree day! Frosting cones and putting candies on them!

D showing me that she was eating more than decorating.

L enjoying his lavish seat in the rented car we took to Chicago

D was too busy coloring with her new crayons to notice much of anything.

Watching the ice rink in Chicago

Our nephew was baptized the week before Christmas and we were the Godparents!

We also got to see all the immediate family members for Christmas, help in L's school for the party, go to an indoor Water park with friends, play in the little snow we got, and ring in the new year with some close friends. What a fantastic way to end the year. Hope you all have a happy, healthy 2012!

2011 Advent calendar

2011-12-07T15:18:00.000-05:00

For the last 3 years I have made a fun advent calendar for the family that includes tons of fun Christmas or holiday activities. So far on the 1st day, we read tons of Christmas books including a new Berenstain Bears book. The 2nd day, we watched Rudolph, ate pizza, pop, and peppermint ice cream. The 3rd day we went to a friend's house and decorated cupcakes and drank hot chocolate. The 4th day we set up the tree. The 5th day we cut snowflakes out of coffee filters. The 6th day we made homemade peppermint play dough. And tonight is the 7th day, we will be setting up the Playmobil nativity scene. We have all had a blast so far, and are looking forward to opening the door on the calendar each morning before school!

So excited to put up the tree

This tree is nearly as old as I am. It is the one my parents bought when I was about 4 or 5 I think from Sears. Adam and I have used it every year for the last 7 years.

Trying so hard to make a snow flake

Every year Adam makes a tree snowflake, but this year he put a new take on it. Do you see the ornament with the star in the middle surrounded by trees and gingerbread men?

D wanted to make a peace sign. Pretty close.

And Adam the show off once again!

Our finished Thankful Tree

2011-12-07T13:57:00.000-05:00

We made it most of the way through November remembering each night to put up our leaves. Here is what our finished tree looked like. I'm not sure why the kids chose to put some leaves on the trunk of the tree, but I think it turned out pretty cute overall. The kids LOVED writing their own ideas and then taping them to the wall. We will have to do this next year again. Now, I'm going to post what we wrote down and some of them are really off the wall. But that was what made it so much fun.

D:                                  L:                                    K:                                         A:
baby pics                       happy                              food                                     Grandma
boots                              money                             music                                   walks in the fall
grandma                        thankfulness                    patience                                friends
leaves                            Amazing Race                warm blankets                      Grandpa
flowers                          leaves                              lazy Saturdays                       warmth
Milo (our cat)                Dad                                 silliness                                 electricity
kitchen set                     D                                     family TV time                       courage
pickles                           Mom                               a cozy bed                             fresh fruit
toys                                education                       coffee                                    peanut butter
glasses                           Thanksgiving                 inside jokes                           job
pictures                          car                                  knitting                                 free time
cows                              TV                                    birthdays                               forgiveness
peacocks                       fun                                  L                                            dinner with friends
pumpkins                      shoes                              God (L told me to put this)    fall walks
games                           tooth                                health                                     honesty
pillows                          clothes                            home
cartoons                        clock                               easy going
                                      family and friends          coupons
                                     Wild Kratts                     turkey
                                      entertainment                 books
                                                                             libraries
                                                                             naps

A day with Daddy!

2011-12-07T13:36:00.000-05:00

Every 3 months for one day, I head up to Chicago with my friends and the kids get to spend the whole day with just daddy. They love it! You see, Dad is fun and does things that Mom does not do. Such as while shaving his beard, he lets them foam their faces up with shaving cream as well.

Or take a walk to the local Meijer just for the fun of it. And draw seasonal pictures for the kids to paint with water colors. They each got a season, and even left one for me to paint when I got home.

But the best is when Daddy tells them it's time to make the donuts for the next days breakfast! This is great fun because they get to crack eggs, mix batter, and use the rolling pin. Then in the morning, you get to mix up the glaze and pour it over the hot doughnuts. YUM!

But the best part of all is that mommy gets to shop at some of her favorite stores that are not at home, with her favorite friend, and be herself instead of mommy.

Kid's 1st Thanksgiving

2011-11-18T17:03:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was the moms group's first Thanksgiving day feast! We had hats to make, they could either make a boy pilgrim, girl pilgrim, or Native American. I thought it was cute that today when I helped in L's school we made all the same hats, I guess great minds do think alike! I also had some fun coloring pages for the kids. There was a simple Thanksgiving one, and a book about the first Thanksgiving for the kids to color and make. We also read a few stories. There are not many available at our local library that were geared toward kids 5 years and under. Everyone brought a dish to share. There was stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, turkey rolls, turkey melts, corn, rolls, deviled eggs, cookies, pumpkin pie, muffins, cranberry juice, and pop. It couldn't have been better!

Books we read:
The Littlest Pilgrim by Brandi Dougherty
10 turkeys in the road by Brenda Reeves Sturgis
This is the turkey by Abby Levine

Thanksgiving crafts:
2010

Fall tree craft take 2

2011-11-18T16:30:00.000-05:00

This is another pinterest craft that I found months ago. I just couldn't wait to do this. I plan on using this method for making a tree for each season and then hang them all up together. This was super easy.
Supplies needed:
paper
brown paint
red paint
yellow paint
orange paint
q-tips
small paint brush
paper plate

I squeezed the paint onto a paper plate for each child. You don't need much paint, and little puddle will do. I used the small paint brush and showed the kids how to paint the trunk and some small branches on the paper. (I did cover the coffee table with newspaper to protect it) We then used 1 q-tip per color. I showed them how to dip it in the paint, and then dab it on the paper. I did draw a shape around the tree and branches to give them a guide on where to put the spots. We even added a few falling off the tree. Both the kids and I had fun doing this, and like I said, I plan on doing this for each season. I figure for winter, use a blue paper and white paint for snow, spring use pink paint for blossoms, and for summer green paint for leaves.

All 3 trees

L's tree

D's tree

My fall tree. Very happy with how it turned out!

My 32nd birthday

2011-11-18T16:20:00.000-05:00

I celebrated my birthday this year on 11-11-11! What a special thing to say. It started earlier that week with dinner out with my dad and brother, lunch out with D and my mom, and then the day of my birthday I woke to the kids excited to give me a present. They almost spilled the beans on numerous occasions, but made it through to the morning. D picked out some new slippers, L picked out some neon mix match socks, and Adam got me new running shoes and a knitting loom. I also got to help out at L's school that morning. That night, the kids went to an Uncle's house, a friends gave us money for a date night so we headed out to eat and then for drinks. Adam made me a cake this year, it was the first time he has gotten to make me one, so that was special too. I had a great birthday this year, and I hope the next year keeps getting better. The best present I did get was L lost his first tooth the very next day. He was so excited, and loved that the tooth fairy came and brought him some coins for his piggy bank. The tooth right next to it is loose too, and he can't wait to loose that one too!

A Festive Fall Wedding

2011-11-18T15:43:00.000-05:00

Like I said in the previous post, Adam's friend since middle school got married on the Friday before Halloween and Adam was the best man. It was a really nice wedding. The entire wedding and reception was small and very festive. The colors were all fall leaf colors, the reception felt rustic yet cozy, and it was very "them".

A rare family photo where we are dressed up!

The kids were honored to carry flowers down the aisle.

L with the bride, I believe taken by D.

A shot of D and the bride taken by L.

Very yummy cupcakes done in 3 different flavors.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-18T15:35:00.000-05:00

I know, I know, this is like really behind! But October was just crazy busy this year. On top of the normal Halloween fun times like a party, trick or treating, carving pumpkins, and zoo boo, we had a wedding. The groom was Adam's friends since middle school and he had the honor of being Best man. So there was tons of fun getting ready for that!

This year the kids did most of the pumpkin carving fun. They did need help cleaning out the pumpkin guts, but they designed them and did most of the cutting. They turned out fantastic!!!

This year L decided to be Clark Kent, and D decided to be Wonder Woman. For L's costume it was so super easy! He already had the pants, shoes, tie, glasses, and long sleeve superman t-shirt. I headed to Goodwill and found the dress shirt and sports coat for only $7 total! Add plus was that he then was able to wear it for the wedding. Score! For D's costume, we were inspired by this post that I found on pinterest.com. She had on jeans under the tutu, the red turtleneck was also purchased from Goodwill, her Hello Kitty rain boots were just simply covered in a red fabric. The tutu was made out of a piece of elastic, blue tulle, and white felt for the stars. The cuffs and headband were made from a shiny gold fabric, and the stars were made of a sticky backed red foam. The "W" on the shirt was just a piece of yellow felt that I drew the symbol on and then stitched on the shirt with red thread. I think they both turned out great! L did get frustrated that most people either called him Harry Potter or just Superman. Oh well.

The moms group held our traditional Halloween party in the library. We did not do any crafts at the party but decorated with the crafts we made earlier in the month. We did play some games found from Parents magazine. Pin the tie on Mr. Bones, and Jack O'lantern toss game. We also read some stories (look at the bottom of the post for links), and had a costume parade all through the library.

The cookies I made inspired from pinterest!

These were yellow cupcakes, with a green vanilla pudding middle. Slimy!

This was the first year the kids got to go trick or treating with a group of friends. It was a blast, and we can't wait to do it like that next year!

Books we read:
Go Away Big Green Monster by Ed Emberley
Ghosts in the House by Kazuno Kohara
If you are a monster and you know it by Rebecca and Ed Emberley

Pumpkin day!

2011-10-25T20:37:00.000-04:00

Today was Pumpkin day at the library! I knew when we were making our calendar this year that I wanted to get a real pumpkin for the kids to dig into and explore. Then I saw this post from The First Grade Parade on pinterest.com. We played a game of will it float or will it sink? Most of the kids thought it would sink. We put it in a big container of water and the kids were thrilled to see it float. We also talked about how the pumpkin is not solid, but hollow and filled with air, and that is why it floats. We also played the game of, "What is heavier than a pumpkin and what is lighter than a pumpkin?" The kids came up with some great ideas. Heavier: me, table, a giant, wood, a log. Lighter: paper, feather, pencil, a small cup of water. I then cut it open and put it on the floor on a towel. The kids had fun digging in. I asked them if it was hot or cold, wet or dry, slimy or smooth? They had fun describing the pumpkin guts, and digging for seeds.

We made paper plate pumpkin pies, and a pumpkin face book found on themailbox.com.
Supplies to make the pie:
paper plate
orange and brown markers
glue stick
cinnamon
cotton ball

Color the inner circle of the plate orange, and the outer rim brown for the crust. Put a nice dab of glue in the middle for the cotton ball (whipped cream), and then coat the orange circle with the glue stick. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Smells just like a real pumpkin pie!

The pumpkin book we made had the kids draw faces on the pumpkin in different moods, and it all ends up in a pumpkin pie. The kids all had fun, and enjoyed a glass of apple cider and pumpkin cookie at the end!

All the supplies ready to go!

cider and cookies!

The kids digging in and getting messy

Hey there are seeds in there

Drawing pumpkin faces

a finished pie

Sprinkling the cinnamon. I had it set out in coffee filters for easy clean up.

The fun books we read.

Pumpkin Day by Nancy Elizabeth Wallace
Pumpkin Shivaree by Rick Agran
The little old lady who was not afraid of anything by Linda D. Williams

Halloween crafts 2011

2011-10-19T21:33:00.000-04:00

So yesterday was our group Halloween craft day! We had 7 stations this year, and it seemed like all the kids had a blast.

This was marble painted spider webs. I was told about this one by L's teacher.

Our finished webs

Egg carton spiders. These we cut the cups of a paper egg carton, punch holes in the bottom, and slide in black pipe cleaners for the legs. Add 2 eyes, and you are done!

A bunch of the kids finished projects.

D working on her witch hat.

Paper plate ghosts. Construction paper eyes, and mouth, and crepe paper streamers.

Recycled Box Mummies. We wrapped white crepe paper around empty boxes and glued giant eyes to them.

Tissue paper pumpkins. Paper plates, with glued on tissue paper. I showed the kids two ways to put the tissue paper on the paper plate. Most did the flat method.

Toilet Paper Tube Bats. Wrap black construction paper around the tube, and glue on bat wings and eyes.

And two gross snacks both found on pinterest. These are bloody band-aids. Graham crackers with colored frosting.

And dirty q-tips. Mini marshmallows on tooth picks, dipped in melted butterscotch chips.

Books we read:
Where's my mummy? by Carolyn Crimi
Corduroy's Best Halloween Ever! by Don Freeman
Boogie Knights by Lisa Wheeler

Apple Picking 2011

2011-10-07T20:56:00.001-04:00

Once again we headed out to Garwood Orchards to do our apple picking this year. It was perfect weather! We are enjoying an Indian summer out here in Indiana. September was a freezing cold month, and we were all prepared for the upcoming season. Well October is throwing us a curve ball. This whole week has been sunny and almost 80 again. But the trees are all a beautiful shade of orange, yellow, and red right now, like they have all been sun-kissed.

We picked around 40lbs. this year and did mostly Honey crisp and Red Delicious. We were a bit disappointed in the Honey crisp this year. There were very few left on the trees, and those that were, had nasty black mushy spots all over. We found more on the ground that were in better shape. After we filled 3 reusable bags full of yummy apples, we headed to the pumpkin patch. The kids were so excited to go pick out a pumpkin, and ended up picking pumpkins close to 25 lbs! Next year the rule will be that they have to carry their own out. We waited for the tractor to come back around to pick us up, and we happily discovered that it was the wagon pulled by 2 horses headed our way. The kids were so pumped, and then the driver asked if they would want to sit up by her. Well, that just totally made their day! Overall, what a fantastic time and the first thing off our fall bucket list.

apple picking 2010
apple picking 2008

Happy apple picking family

Which one will you pick D?

"I see it!!!!!"

I stake a claim on this one!

Waiting for the tractor

WE ARE SITTING BY THE HORSES!!!!!!

Comic Book Day

2011-10-06T08:52:00.000-04:00

I tried to post this last week, but blogger was acting up! The last week of September, the group had a comic book day. The kids got to dress up as their favorite superheros, and join us at the library for a fun craft day. I had homemade comic books for the kids to make, banners to celebrate a superhero, and fun coloring pages. For a snack I made funfetti cupcakes, with funfetti frosting, and then made candy stars in superhero colors with candy melts to top them with.

It was just a half hour before we had to be at the event that I came up with some fun ideas that I just wish I had thought of earlier! One was to build a "brick" wall with these Melissa and Doug blocks for our heroes to punch through! Another one was to draw a building side on a large sheet of paper, lay it on the floor, and tape a rope to the top on the floor. Then take a picture of your hero climbing up the side of a building!

Superhero cupcakes

Super D and Super S coloring pictures

Super B hard at work

Super L very happy with his pictures

Their best superhero poses!

L's comic book that he drew all by himself. He can even tell you a story with it. Very cool!

Books we read:
Charlie's Superhero Underpants by Paul Bright
Super Friends: Flying High by Random House

Fall Bucket List

2011-10-01T14:19:00.000-04:00

We had so much fun with our Summer Bucket List, that we decided to do a fall one as well. We limited the number of activities do to our normally busy calendar, plus with L in school it really limits most things to the weekends. I picked up a few months back some pre-cut fall shapes at Dollar Tree in their school stuff section. There were pumpkins, leaves, and corucopias, so I wrote our list on these, and taped them to the front door. I figured I could whip up a fun title with scrap construction paper. I got this done just in time, since we are planning on going apple picking tomorrow and that is on the list! And since we do these things every year, I can re-use the shapes again next year.

Our Fall Bucket List:
-pick apples
-play in a leaf pile
-go trick or treating
-make a thankful tree
-make pies
-carve pumpkins
-make homemade applesauce
-roast pumpkin seeds
-attend our local zoo boo (2008)
-make leaf rubbings
-attend the local fall festive
-make pumpkin pie playdough
-make a 4 season poster
-drink caramel apple cider
-make fall cookies (found this one and this one that sound great!)

Apple Math

2011-09-26T11:02:00.000-04:00

This was a fun activity that I saw on pinterest once again! It was so simple and I had everything in the house. I cut a tree shape out of construction paper (I figure we can use it for a bunch of learning activities this fall, and maybe again in the spring!). I found a small bag of small red pompoms (the apples), and 2 dice. I had the kids roll both dice, they then had to add the dots, and place that many apples on the tree. They counted out loud while they put the apples on the tree. They both really had fun with this, and kept asking to do it again. I like that we had 2 dice because it made them add up to 12! This was originally posted on Getting Messy with Ms. Jessi!

Fun Fall leaves

2011-09-26T10:44:00.000-04:00

I found this idea on a great blog that I follow. The Chocolate Muffin Tree always has fun kid's art and science projects to try. Now we have done the washable markers on coffee filters before, but this time we made leaves!

I laid out sheets of newspaper on our coffee table, drew leaf shapes on coffee filters, and pulled out some fall colors out of our washable marker bin. I showed the kids what to do, and they were off. They had tons of fun playing around with color combinations, and L discovered that if you just leave the marker on the filter, the ink will expand. This was fun to see because he never really paid attention to that kind of stuff before. But then that also resulted in a fight over the one skinny brown marker because "that is the only one that does it". It didn't matter that I told them all the markers do that. Oh well!

After we colored in our leaves, we sprayed them with a mist of water out of a spray bottle I picked up at Dollar Tree. I had picked it up this summer and kept in full of water in the fridge so we could spray ourselves cooler in the hot weather. Now it will be used for crafts!

We let them dry on the newspaper, with the windows open. Once the filters were dry, each child cut out their own. We put double sided tape on the back and put them up on the back door. It looks great, and really makes the house feel like fall!

Open Book Festival 2011

2011-09-26T10:28:00.001-04:00

It was that time of year again, where we go to one of our favorite events! This is a free event at our local library, and this was our 3rd year going. They have costumed characters from our favorite books, crafts, music, puppets, magic, and authors come to talk. Always a blast! We come home with tons of goodies like pencils, crafts, and books.

Curious George and Clifford were waiting outside for everyone. D ran right up and gave everyone a hug. Big change from past years!

L was a bit more standoffish this year, but I think that is because he realized in the last year that these just have people in them.

Each child gets an "autograph" from each character. D is very good at collecting hers.

As soon as we walked in the door, D was asking where the Cat in the Hat was. Turns out they were waiting just around the corner.

Those are some happy kids!

Mouse from If you give a mouse a cookie, giving L a high five!

Hello Maisy!

This one was new, it was Froggy from the froggy stories. My kids kept thinking he was from the Rubber Dubbers.

They had a ton of new crafts this year. Here D is cutting out a fish bowl, for the fish from Cat in the Hat.

L showing us how his fish pops out of the bowl.

They also had cut outs of Maisy to color, and a pop up background to design. L and D both picked the pirate Maisy. L put a plank, a "seaclops", and the Berrien sea. Not sure why he knows the name of that sea, but cool, we will go with it!

They also colored masks, here D is a pea, and L is doing his best owl impersonation. Can you see he unzipped his coat to make wings? They also made birthday hats, and colored parts to make a mouse paper bag puppet.

Past events:
Open book 2010
Open book 2009

Fall craft day 2011

2011-09-26T09:43:00.000-04:00

We had our annual first day of fall craft in the park this last Friday. Happy Fall everyone! This year we did apple prints, leaf prints, and paper plate apple cores. I think all the kids had a great time. Ages ranged from 7-2 years of age, and they were all able to do all the crafts with just a little help.

I cut the apples in half both ways to give the kids some variety. The older ones got some really nice prints, the little ones just liked smearing the paint around the paper with the apple. But it was all about doing something new, right?

I saw these on pinterest a while back, and new the kids would get a kick out of these. They are just one paper plate, with the leaves cut out of the side. I had the kids color them with markers, and we used glue dots to attach the leaves. Even the littlest ones enjoyed this!

Our finished apple prints, L is on top, and D is on bottom.

Our leaf prints, Mine is on top, and L's is on the bottom. This one did not turn out how I had thought, but was still fun. D and I went for a walk and collected a large bag of different kinds of leaves, flowers, and grasses to use. We found so many neat ones, I saved all the ones that did not get paint on them to do leaf rubbings later this week.

The books we read:
Fall Leaf project by Margaret McNamara
A is for Autumn by Robert Maass
Red Leaf, Yellow Leaf by Lois Ehlert

Past fall craft days:
apple tree
fall craft time 2010

Pinterest Part 2

2011-09-22T11:04:00.001-04:00

I know, this post has TONS of pictures. Sorry about that, but D and I have been having lots of fun, and I wanted to share it all with you guys. As I have said before, pinterest.com has been helping me come up with even more fantastic ideas to do with the kids, and here are two more that we tried! Follow me on pinterest here: http://pinterest.com/kellyheet/

First up was drawing on a white piece of paper with a white crayon, and then going over the pictures with bingo stampers. D got a fun metallic set for her birthday and was very happy to pull them out again. I started by drawing 2 pictures for each of us. She had so much fun doing those, that she asked if she could draw her own. She drew 3 more, but my favorite was the "ballerina".
As seen on Let's Explore!

D's self drawn ballerina

Next up was making our own apple pie play dough. We started with the recipe from Counting Coconuts, and then took the advice from Little Wonders' Days! In the play dough, we added Cinnamon, Nutmeg, and Allspice. I think next time we will add a little vanilla extract, or an apple candy oil for a better scent in addition to the spices. As you can see, D had fun mixing up her own play dough!

It was a fun pie color, but D insisted on coloring it red when we were all done. The color of apples, and her favorite color!

Then I made us some "mats" to play with. I drew an Uppercase and Lowercase A, and wrote the word apple on a sheet of computer paper. I stuck these inside the plastic page protectors. I also wrote out squares with numbers on them, and got out some fall cookie cutters. D pulled out her rolling pin and knife to help out.

First game we played was hide the "apple seeds", this was taken directly from Little wonders'! Loved it! These are just some wooden beads I have had laying around since my "hemp necklace making days". I hide a handful of them in the play dough, pulled the number card out, and told her to find them.

She thought this was great fun, and even wanted to hide them for mommy to find.

Our fall cookie cutters! A turkey, 2 leaves, and an acorn. I think I need some more fall ones.

And lastly I had D roll out snakes and shape them into the letters. I have seen this all over the homeschool blogs for a long time now, but this was our first time doing this. What a fun and easy way to learn letter shapes. She had a good time doing it, and it encouraged her to play more with the play dough in ways she has not done before.

Couscous Casserole

2011-09-21T22:12:00.001-04:00

The picture I took for this turned out just awful, so please don't be mad! ;-) This was a very tasty recipe. Adam and I both agreed that it needed more zucchini, and then maybe still served over pasta. Or leave out the zucchini, and make it into a sloppy joe. Oh, this is another recipe that I am unsure of where I found it. So please if you know, please let me know so that I may properly credit it.

4 tbp oil                             2 med. zucchini, thinly sliced (I would use more next time)
1 med. onion, chopped       1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tbsp garlic, minced          4 cups pasta sauce
1 lb. ground beef                1/2 cup uncooked couscous
salt and black pepper          grated Parmesan

1. Heat oven to 400. Oil a 2 quart baking dish.
2. Put 2 tbsp oil in a skillet over med-high heat. When it is hot, add the onion and garlic; cook about 5 min. Add the meat and stir, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until meat is no longer pink, 8-10 min; set aside.
3. While the meat is cooking, put the zucchini slices on a baking sheer, drizzle with oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast in the oven until tender, 5-8 min. Remove, set aside, and reduce the oven temp to 350.
4. Put the stock and sauce in a pan over medium heat and bring to a boil. Stir in the couscous, cover, and turn off the heat; let sit 10 min.
5. Spoon a thin layer of couscous on the bottom of the pan, top with zucchini and then some meat. Repeat until all ingredients are used; finish with couscous. Sprinkle with cheese, and bake for about 25 min.

Elephant Appreciation Day

2011-09-21T22:01:00.002-04:00

This is one that I can not take credit for! One of the other moms in the group I run, took this on as her own, and boy was it cute! We made this elephant craft. It was a print out, but you could make it yourself. There were two circles for the ears, a circle for the face, 2 ovals for the eyes, 2 tusks, and a long rectangle for the trunk. The kids colored all the pieces, D wanted hers a pink elephant, and then we had them glue the pieces together. Oh and what is that as the back of the elephant, none other than a old, used CD. You know you have some old ones either for computer programs, or horrible music! All of this was then glued onto a large popsicle stick so the kids could use them as puppets.

All the children were also encouraged to bring a stuffed or toy elephant. We listened to a few songs and did the elephant walk around the room with our toys. We also listened to a very nice book. The book we read was Big Little Elephant by Valeri Gorbachev.

Songs we listened to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UG8VJWC6Hm8&feature=fvst
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5ojV1r1XHM

Book we read:
http://www.amazon.com/Big-Little-Elephant-Valeri-Gorbachev/dp/0152051953/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1316656862&sr=8-1

Soups, soups, soups!

2011-09-21T21:47:00.000-04:00

First, let me say I'm sorry these pictures are not the best, nor do I have a picture of the second soup. But the taste was fantastic! I am not sure where I found either of these recipes, so if you know, please let me know of the source so that I can properly acknowledge them. Thanks!

The first soup, pictures above, is the Creamy Beef, mushroom, and Noodle soup. Man, this was amazing!!! I will be making this again, and I will be making a double batch! The kids didn't really even try it, but Adam and I were blown away.

2 tbsp butter                                 1/4 cup ketchup
1 medium onion, chopped              3/4 tsp. salt
2 tsp minced garlic                         1/2 tsp pepper
8 oz. sliced fresh mushrooms         2 cups uncooked egg noodles
6 cups beef broth    8 oz. sour cream
1/2 cup dry sherry or beef broth
1 1/2 lb. boneless beef top sirloin steak, cut into 2"x3/4"x1/4" cubes

1. In a Dutch oven, melt butter over med-high heat. Add onion, garlic, and mushrooms; cook 5-6 min, stirring frequently, until mushrooms are softened.
2. Stir in beef. Cook 5-6 min, stirring frequently, until beef is no longer pink. Stir in remaining ingredients except the noodles and sour cream. Heat to a boil. Reduce heat to med-low; cover and cook for 10 min, stirring occasionally.
3. Stir in noodles. Cover; cook 5-7 min, stirring occasionally, until noodles are tender. Stir in sour cream, and cook 3-5 min; until well blended.

Now for soup number 2. This one is a Chunky Italian Soup. Adam and I both thought this one was a bit bland, and it needed a little bit more spice. So I have updated this recipe with my changes.

1/2 cup small pasta                                2 bay leaves
1 tbsp olive oil                                       5 cups vegetable stock
1 onion, chopped                                   1/2 cup diced tomatoes, drained
2 cloves garlic, sliced                             1 cup chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 celery, chopped
1 carrot, diced
1 tbsp oregano

1. Cook the pasta following package directions; drain and rinse under cold running water.
2. Put oil in a large saucepan and add onion and garlic. Half cover the pan and saute for 7 min, stirring occasionally. Add the rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil; then reduce the heat. Simmer, half covered, 15 min. Remove the bay leaves, and stir in pasta, cook for an additional 5 min.

Both of these soups were a fun new adventure, and I do plan on making them again. As you can see, there were no leftovers!

Pinterest Inspiration

2011-09-18T22:19:00.000-04:00

First I want to say a big Hello to all the people coming to check me out thanks to LittleIndiana.com! Welcome!!
Now on to our normally scheduled posting.... Have you checked out pinterest.com at all? What an amazingly fun site! It basically is a virtual bulletin board for all those recipes, or crafts that you find all over the web. A great place to keep all those fun ideas, plus you get to see things that other people are pinning. I have found so many fun things to make both food and craft, that I had to share two of them. Want to see what I am talking about? Follow me here: http://pinterest.com/kellyheet/

First up is a fun way to get the kids to practice their A-B-C's. If your kids are like my kids, they get bored with the same old "teaching" ways. I am always looking for fun ways to include learning. I pulled out their easel from Ikea (under $20!), and drew the alphabet on the chalkboard side. I then grabbed a small bowl of water, and a cheap paintbrush (I believe the one I grabbed was from a watercolor book the kids had). I showed them what to do, and they loved it. They each had to trace over the letter with water on the paint brush, and wash away the letter. Both kids tried it twice, and then drew the letters back on for each other. This went on for a good half hour. The original idea that I found came from here. But just think, you don't have to stop with just letters. I plan on using this for numbers, and shapes as well. And then work up to words!

Next up is a project that I found almost as soon as I started my pinterest account! Melted crayons on a canvas! Brilliant I shouted! I can do this I thought. Hmmm, where to start. I started to see it everywhere. Finally, other bloggers started to post tutorials. Many said to use a hair dryer. Well, that wouldn't work for me, never really had a need for one of those. Until, pink and green mom said to use the heat gun for scrapbooking. Now that I DO have!!! The canvas is one I have had sitting around for sometime, just looking for a project. Well tonight was the night! I got out my old big box of crayons, hot glue, canvas, and heat gun. I lined up all the colors in order (ROYGBIV) on the canvas to make sure they would all fit. I stuck to the colors in the rainbow, because they are super cool! I headed outside for all the glueing and melting. The kids loved watching from the large window, but I did let them come out to watch me melt them. What fun! And it turned out exactly how I wanted it to. This piece now hangs proudly in my living room right next to the tv. A place of honor! The original idea was found here on etsy.

Oobleck!

2011-09-07T22:03:00.001-04:00

I picked up a Dr. Seuss collection for L at the library last week that included stories we had never read. One of those being Bartholomew and the Oobleck. I had never read this one as a kid myself but it seems to be all over the blogosphere, and I had been noticing recipes for oobleck on pinterest for sometime now. I knew my kids would love it! So we read the story on a Friday night, Saturday headed to the art supply shop and picked up a gallon of Elmer's school glue, and headed home to make it. I found the recipe here at Teach Preschool, and it really was super easy. Just a half cup glue, and a half cup liquid laundry starch. Mix, mix, knead, knead, and get nice and messy. We colored ours green with food coloring just like the story, but you really could use any color. Ours has now been sitting in a airtight container on the counter for 5 days, and it still is neat! I highly recommend doing this with your kids!!!

On the back patio, getting ready to mix!

All ready to mix

D really enjoyed mixing it up

Adam's hand covered in goo

The boys having fun

This was so much fun, we all can't wait to make it again!

D with her new haircut, having fun getting messy!

First Week of School

2011-09-01T18:03:00.000-04:00

Well we made it through the first week of school. Yep, that is right. L is in Kindergarten now. Not half day, but full day. Boy what a change! I can't believe he is that old already.

Some highlights from the week:
L got glasses the day before orientation
He found his classroom with no problem
He wants to make a play date with a boy in class so they can play "Mario"
He was bummed coming home the first full day. He lost the picture of mom and dad from his pocket, and he was not able to check out the book he wanted from the school library.
The next day was better ;-)
He really likes gym class
He was frustrated that he couldn't play games in the computer lab
He asked me to put a note in his lunch everyday
We got a fundraiser on the second day
Today was school picture day
He learned a new song in music class already
I drive him to school and pick him up every day
He came home yesterday, said he bit down on a food pick in his lunch, and now he has 2 loose teeth on the bottom.

Heading to Kindergarten orientation

So L, what do you think of school so far?

The real first day of school

Superhero pose with Daddy

Bye L, Have a good day!

Peach Picking

2011-09-01T16:29:00.000-04:00

D and I went peach picking with a few friends this morning. We discovered this great little u-pick farm up in Michigan. The Springhope farm is a tiny little farm. There is a great farm stand that offers a few veggies, fruit, flowers, jams, and dried fruit. One thing to be aware of, they are cash or check only, so come prepared! I will be going back, especially for cherry season next year. D and I picked 13 1/4 pounds in about 5 min. We found some nice soft ones, and then some firmer ones, in 3 different varieties. As soon as we got home, we planned what to make. Peach applesauce, Peach spice muffins, and I am going to attempt a peach pie. The apartment smells wonderful, and I can't wait for the applesauce to cool down a bit!

The girls found this butterfly in the parking lot.

My little helper.

She was proud of our loot!

The peach applesauce pre-cooked.

Recipes:
applesauce (I added about 13 peaches!):
http://kellyheet.blogspot.com/2010/10/apple-recipes.html
Peach spice muffins (I substituted the pears):
http://mommytoluke2.blogspot.com/2011/08/spiced-pear-muffins.html
Peach pie:
http://www.americastestkitchen.com/recipes/detail.php?docid=5263

Found object painting

2011-08-21T19:20:00.000-04:00

I have noticed this idea on many blogs, and I really can't remember any to link back to, but I have been wanting to do this for the last 2 years. It just never seemed to work out. Well, I put this on our summer bucket list, sort of as a reminder for myself to actually do it. Then we moved to an apartment and I thought it would never happen. Today, I decided that we will do it. I got out our long folding table, and set it on the ground without opening the legs. I think rolled a sheet of newsprint (free from our local newspaper!), and had Adam tuck the paper under the table. I had the kids gather 4 random washable things from around the house, while I gathered the washable paint, wet wipes, paper plates, and a few things that I had thought of using. We headed outside to get started! I squirted a blob of paint, a different color on each plate, and then showed the kids what to do. It started out slow as they experimented with different items, and techniques. After a little while, it really got moving. Hands, paint brushes, and feet got into the action! This was tons of fun, all 4 of us added to it, and we are going to hang it up in the new living room. Clean up was pretty easy, I had the kids put the items in a plastic basket that I use to carry art supplies to different functions. Wet wipes were used to wash up hands, arms, legs, and feet before going inside to really wash up. Paper plates and used wet wipes were thrown away in a plastic bag. And the basket full of painted items came right in and was washed up in the kitchen sink. Easy peasy!

Items that we used were: 2 berry baskets, paint brushes, dust brush, screwdriver, wiffle golf ball, bubble wand, wooden blocks, Barbie hairbrush, play DQ ice cream sandwich, McDonald's canteen from the 80's, a foot door stop, plastic snake, Robin action figure, play cars, play cookie and peti four, and a toy turtle!

Trying new fruits!

2011-08-21T18:16:00.000-04:00

Adam and I started a tradition years ago that every once in awhile, we head to the produce section of our local grocery store, and pick out a fruit or two that we have never tried before. Most times it is met with some, um shall we say, disgust. We rarely find one that we want to try again. This time we included the kids in our adventure. We took them and told them to each pick out one they had never tried. For some reason, they chose a fresh pineapple. We get at least 1 per summer, I guess they forgot. We also picked up a lemon drop melon, tamarillo, and I found 1 lonely starfruit on the discount rack. We had a yummy dinner of salad and bread sticks, and then topped it off with our discovery for dessert. L and I both were not really fans of any of it other than the pineapple. Adam was able to enjoy all of it, but D couldn't stop. She kept asking for more of everything! She is our more adventurous eater out of the two.

Our bounty before cutting

D really enjoying the tamarillo!

L was a bit more hesitant.

L happily trying the star fruit

Yummy star fruit

Tortilla making

2011-08-19T16:23:00.000-04:00

Years ago, Adam and I bought a tortilla press from a little Mexican grocery back in Valpo. Well, many moves, and years later, we have decided to make out own tortillas again. We were making flour ones for the last few months, but went out and bought a bag of masa. We followed the recipe on the bag, and pulled out the old press. We explained to the kids what we were doing, and they got very excited to help. Adam showed them how to roll the dough into a ball, and place it in the press. They quickly got to work. That night we had tacos on our fresh tortillas. We had some left over so a few nights later, we used them to make quesadillas! Fantastic! And what a great fun way to include the kids in dinner time prep.

"Painting" Rocks

2011-08-19T16:04:00.000-04:00

One of the things on our Summer Bucket list was painting rocks. I wasn't sure if I was going to have the kids actually paint the rocks, or if we were going to do something different. Then I remembered seeing somewhere last year this fun idea!

Things you need:
a handful of rocks, cleaned
paper plates/bowls or parchment paper
crayons
oven or very hot day
baking sheet

I prepped these rocks in the oven while I was preheating it for a chicken nugget lunch. I placed my rocks on a baking sheet and popped them in the oven to warm them up. You want to get these nice and toasty. If setting outside, make sure you place them in a spot that is sunny all day. Once they were nice and toasty, I put one on each plate or bowl. I let the kids pick out whatever color they liked, and warned them that the rocks were hot and not to touch. Once you touch the rocks with the crayon it starts to melt and get nice and liquid. Draw pictures, or like D, just "paint" it all one color! Once we were done with the color, we set them aside while we ate lunch. Once the rocks are cooled, they will be coated in wax, colorful, and neat to feel.

Pony Express day/Wild West play date

2011-08-19T15:55:00.000-04:00

It was our 2nd Pony express day/Wild West play date. Both years we had a cowboy cookout of hot dogs, cornbread muffins, and baked beans. Last year we colored western themed bookmarks picked up at Hobby Lobby on clearance, and had a pony express race. We divided the kids in two teams, little kids and big kids, and each group had a hobby horse to ride along with a stack of "mail" to deliver. I made mail pouches out of large grocery paper bags (just scrunch it up and roll down the top), and the mail was just large colorful envelopes I had in my stash with city names written on them along with stickers used as stamps. The kids had to ride the hobby horse and deliver the mail as quickly as they could. The older ones had a great time, but the littler kids had a hard time holding onto the horse and mail.

This year, we still had the cowboy cookout, and colored any of the leftover bookmarks, but we also made cowboy vests out of large paper grocery bags. To make these I just cut a thin block off the front going all the way up the bag, and cut a hole in the bottom of the bag to make a neck hole. I then cut 2 smaller holes in the sides for the arms, and cut the front into corners. The kids got to decorate these however they wished with markers. After we were done making out vests we painted horse tracks. I picked up a package of 10 sponges from Dollar Tree, and cut those into a horse shoe shape. I then mixed brown and black paint in paper bowls for easier clean up. Because we had this at a park, and you always need to factor in wind, I taped a piece of drawing paper in front of each kid. They then dipped the sponge in the paint and pressed it on the paper, leaving tracks all over. They all had a good time. The day was topped off with a run through the splash pad to wash and cool off!

Some of our cowboys and cowgirl!

Horse shoe prints, the website I found these on also suggested sprinkling sand over the paint while still wet.

Coloring the bookmarks last year

Last years pony express races

Way to deliver that mail kids!!!

Books we read:

Banana Blueberry Muffins

2011-07-27T13:41:00.000-04:00

I was busy moving things from the old freezer to the new freezer and realized that we had tons of frozen overly ripe bananas. I remembered this cookbook that my mom had gotten me for mother's day and thought to take a look. Lo and behold there was a recipe for Banana Blueberry Muffins, and I had everything I needed already in the house! The blueberries were the last ones left from blueberry picking a few weeks ago. The cookbook is The Top 100 recipes for a Healthy Lunchbox by Nicola Graimes. Some of the recipes are fantastic, but most of them are things that would either cost way too much to make on my little budget or are things that my kids would not touch with a ten foot pole. But i figured this was a nice safe one to try.

2 cups all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp. baking powder
2/3 cup superfine sugar (I just used powdered sugar this time)
1/3 cup milk
2 eggs
5oz. unsalted butter, melted (this is about 10 tbsp.)
2 bananas, mashed
1 cup blueberries (Next time I make this I plan on using frozen ones.)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Place muffin liners in a muffin pan.

Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a bowl, stir in the sugar, and mix together. Make a well in the center.

Put the milk, eggs, and butter in a pitcher and whisk until combined. Add to the bowl with the bananas, stir just to combine, then fold in the blueberries. Spoon into pan.

Bake 20 min until risen. Cool on a wire rack.

I had one shortly after they came out of the oven and they were fantastic! And then we all had them for breakfast this morning with a big glass of milk, or ice coffee depending on age ;-)

City Bus Ride Adventure

2011-07-27T13:24:00.000-04:00

We have recently moved into a new apartment in the last week, and are still figuring out how to get around to all the places that we normally would go. Well, Adam needed the car today for work, and the kids and I normally go to story time. Lucky for us, the city bus has a stop near our new apartment, and right in front of the library. Added plus, a bus ride was on our summer bucket list. Added plus plus, Notre Dame id holders and children under 4 ride for free! So Adam and I sat down last night to plan the trip I was going to take with the kids. We were going to have a transfer in the middle of the ride. No problem! This morning, I got the kids up and fed, dressed and backpacks packed with snacks, drinks, and our returning library books. And off we went! When we arrived, there was a bus leaving. No worries, the next one is suppose to be here at 9:26, just 20 min from now. While we were waiting, we ate snacks and read some of the stories we were bringing back. 9:35 rolls around and still no bus. Call Adam, and then called the company. The next bus is at 9:55. We should still be able to make it to story time on time. We did get there and made it just as story time was starting. After story time, we had just enough time to find our books and movies for the next week, walk outside and catch the bus going home! I didn't think to take any pictures while on the bus until we were almost home, hence the strange pic of L. I did bring ring pops for the kids and it was a good thing. It kept the whiny talking down on the way home. Plus it was special! I plan on trying this again next week, and now that I know what to expect, it should go smoother.

Things learned today:
-there is no 9:26 bus
-the bus comes to our apartment at the top of the hour
-the bus drivers and most passengers are friendly and helpful
-they all think L is 4 and under, so free!
-D can't sit next to the window, she pulled the stop cord as soon as we sat down. After I told them both repeatedly not to on the inbound trip. Thankfully we had not left the station yet.
-the bus route maps are confusing to read
-my kids will act up as soon as we sit on the bus
-we always have to sit all the way in the back

Overall, an interesting and cheap adventure, and I am willing to try it again!

Blueberry Picking

2011-07-22T09:14:00.001-04:00

One of the things we really wanted to do this year was go blueberry picking. We went 2 years ago, and wanted to go last year but the car broke down right at blueberry season. This time Adam was able to come with. We also opted to go later in the day, around 5, and that worked so much better. The weather had cooled a bit, and we got to pick in the shade. Now normally we would pick tons of fruit, but we were moving the next week and wouldn't have the freezer space that we use to have. So this time around we only picked about 5 1/2 lbs. We have been eating them like crazy! A few times in blueberry pancakes, but mostly straight up fresh blueberries. I wanted to make some muffins, but we will have to wait and see. There is always next year, right?

D dumping her bucket into the bigger one

Summer bucket list

2011-07-14T16:10:00.000-04:00

I was inspired by the many summer bucket lists floating out there in the blogosphere, too many to name really. And there were so many fun ways to display them. I found summery scrapbooking paper in my stash, and punched out a bunch of circles. I wrote all the fun things that I either thought of myself or saw somewhere else on them, and then tapped them around the kid's bedroom door. As we do an activity, we take it down and tape it to their bedroom door.

Our list is:
Put on a puppet show
Paint rocks
Hunt for fossils
Flash light tag
Mini golf
Have a bon fire
Camp out
Go see Cars 2
Play on slip n' slide
Have friends over for pancakes
Make ice cream
Make root beer floats
Go to a fair
Make brownies
Visit science museum
Make sun prints
Write to a pen pal
See a parade
Surprise daddy with a picnic lunch
See a drive-in movie
Visit an art museum and try a new media
Play hopscotch
Go see a baseball game
Superhero day
Discover a new park
Make a colorful rice box
Make s'mores
Pick strawberries
Pretend outdoor laundry
Take a bus ride
Make care packages
Make homemade pickles
Field day with friends
Visit the local greenhouse

Things we did already:
Melt ice cubes
Go letterboxing
Build sandcastles
Have a lemonade stand
Go see fireworks
Go to the beach
Make and play with play-doh
Catch fireflies
Pick blueberries
Water balloon fight
Go to a splash pad
Make plant rubbings
Feed the ducks
See an outdoor concert
Do the Mentos/coke experiment
Visit the Farmer's market

Most of these are free or very cheap! I know that we won't be able to do all these things, especially since we are moving next week. But we hope to do many of them, and I am giving us until the middle of September to get it done by. What is your list?

Color Nature Hunt

2011-06-30T09:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we celebrated the June birthdays in the moms group with a fun color hunt! I totally stole this idea from Frugal Family Fun Blog!!! She has so many fun ideas, that when I saw this one, I knew we needed to do it. So simple too! You just gather paint chips from a home improvement store, and punch holes in them. (We found the large ones at Home Depot!) I happen to have a nice size flower punch that a friend gave me, and figured that would look pretty. And as an added plus, I now have 240 pretty little flowers to use for another project!!! I also found the ring clips to put them together with at Hobby Lobby for very cheap. Look in the office supply area.

When we do the month birthdays with the group, we typically do cupcakes. Well I saw this cake, I think originally on craftgossip.com, but then re-found here at Whisk Kid. She made her cake and frosting from scratch, but I didn't have time for that when I made it. I used 1 cake mix box, and divided that into 6 bowls. It came out to one scoop of 1/2 cup, and then 1 scoop of 1/3 cup per bowl. I'm no good at fractions to tell you total what that may be. The layers were a bit on the thin side, which for a bunch of kids, was just fine. If you want the layers thicker, I say use 2 boxes. I also used canned frosting, I know, gasp! I used 2 cans, put them in the mixer, added a tablespoon of meringue powder and 3 tsp. lemon extract. It was very yummy and refreshing to go with all that cake. My picture is a little too blurry, but you get the idea!

Table ready to go!

The kids off on the hunt. We started with the colors we were wearing.

Then headed over to the play ground.

We checked the dirt, grass, trees, leaves, and whatever else we could find.

hmmm, which color is it?

A bit on the blurry side, but you get the idea. In a perfect setting, I probably should have wiped the knife off after each slice. But there were excited kids!

Books we read:

Eric Carle's Birthday

2011-06-26T15:58:00.000-04:00

I started to celebrate Eric Carle's birthday with our group last year. Last year, I found a link to a color your own Brown Bear, Brown Bear book. And because most of the kids were younger, it was perfect. I also made a Very Hungry Caterpillar out of mini cupcakes last year. I included the pictures from last year, because I guess I never blogged about it. Sorry about that. This year I found a fantastic idea from a great blog I just discovered. It's Meet The Dubins, go check her out. She has great craft ideas, and fun lunches!!

So this year we did a balloon print of the Very Hungry Caterpillar. I was a bit bummed because we got rained out of 2 locations, but we went ahead with it anyway. Follow the blogs directions because she explains it very nicely. I did do one thing differently. Because we were outside at a park, I put about a 1/4 cup of uncooked rice at the bottom of each balloon. This kept it from blowing away!

All the kids had fun making these, and we were all reletavley mess free.

Our balloon caterpillars. Mine is on top, then D's, and then L's on the bottom.

The board greeting the kids from last year.

And the mini cupcake caterpillar from last year.

Books we read:
All were Eric Carle books

My Apron
The Very Busy Spider
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
1, 2, 3 to the Zoo
Does a kangaroo have a mother, too?
Have you seen my cat?
The Secret Birthday Message
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?

Happy Birthday L! You are 5!!

2011-06-26T15:38:00.000-04:00

My little boy turned 5 on the 20th! This is so crazy for me to even think about. He is a big boy now, and will be starting school in the fall. I don't know if I am ready for that. When Adam and I got married back in 2004, we knew we wanted children right away, and we knew that we only wanted 2. It didn't faze us if we had both boys, both girls, or one of each! We also knew that the odds were in favor of both boys, since his family for a few generations now are mostly boys. Well we found out we were pregnant the day after Adam ran his first marathon, and the day we received 2 foreign exchange students that didn't speak 1 word of English. I knew right away, this was going to be interesting. We went through tons while waiting for this sweet boy to make his appearance. Finally it was Father's day 2006. His due date. I had a Dr. appointment on that Friday before, and they said there was no sign of labor yet, then the next day we spent in the hospital because I hadn't felt him move for a few hours. (Paranoid, yes! It was our first baby, and you just don't know things then.) So Sunday we had a cookout for Adam's parents and my dad for father's day. When everyone left, my mother-in-law stopped me and said, "Sometimes you just need some company over to help get things going." Little did we know, but that was the truth. About a half hour later, I started to feel some contractions. Not knowing what they really were, I just thought they were Braxton Hicks. I had never had any of those, so just chalked it up to that. They were really all over the place. But they kept going all through the night, and getting stronger the next day. When Adam got home from work at 5:30 that Monday, he demanded we go to the hospital just to check things out. We didn't even take the overnight bag because we thought it was nothing. Silly us! By 6:00 I was checked into the hospital and told I was in labor. Now the contractions were still all over the place and not really regulating at all. It would be every 45 min, then 4 min, then 30 min, then 17.

We called my brother-in-law Travis to bring the bag for us. The nurses told me that I wasn't leaving until I had this baby. I got a little freaked out when I heard that. I didn't think I was ready for this. But Adam stayed by my side all through the night. The next morning, they gave me pitocin. Yuck! It just made the contractions stronger but not regular. So I broke down and got an epidural. The Dr. that put it in was extremely mean!!!! They made me get up and go to the bathroom before he would give it to me. Well while in there I had the worse contraction yet! Plus I started to freak out about getting it in the first place. The Dr. starts yelling at me saying that if I don't hurry up, then he is leaving. He was screaming at all the nurses too! I come out and sit on the bed. He then yells at me because I had a large mole on my back where he wanted to put the epidural. He says that is he had a knife and time he would have just sliced it right off. I was NOT liking him!!! The epidural ended up not working at all for me. They even came in and upped the dosage, but still nothing. I was feeling everything!

By 1pm, my Dr. came in to check me. I was still making slow progress. She told me to lay on my left side and that if we didn't make any progress by 1:30, they were going to have to do an emergency C-section. That scared me even more. So I made sure I moved to my left. Well within 5 min of that, I felt the need to push, but didn't know that was what it was. The nurse came in, took one look at my face, and called everyone in right away! Within 10 min, L was born to a room full of nurses. I had been there so long that EVERYONE came to cheer me on!

They took him over to clean up right away, and the nurse yelled, "Oh my, who has red hair!!!" We got a nice laugh at that, but then they rushed him out of the room. I was too exhausted to realize what was happening. A min. later, a Dr. called on the room phone. She said that L was having a difficult time breathing, and they needed to take him to NICU to hook him up. I asked if I could hold him before they took him. She agreed because it wasn't too bad. They brought him back just long enough for Adam and I to hold him and take one picture. About 5 min later, the Dr. called again. They said that as soon as they hooked him up, he had a great big cough, and was fine. They kept him there for 3 hours just to make sure. Adam went down to check on him and brought me back a Polaroid picture. All I could see were giant hands and feet on such a little baby!

Baby L in Daddy's glasses


We ran into the Weinermobile on our way for donuts on L's birthday.

They let us inside when I told them it was his birthday and all our plans got rained out.

He was very excited to get a real tool box with real tools in it!

Cute Father/Son time!

L has been asking every day, sometimes twice, if we can make a giant donut ever since my mom brought the pan over!

Happy Birthday D! You are 4!

2011-06-19T23:41:00.000-04:00

My baby turned 4 on the 16th. I was not ready for that. It seems like it was just yesterday (I know, how cliche!) that I gave birth to that spirited little bundle of joy! Quick run down on her birth. We had stayed up late Friday 15th setting up Adam's Myspace account (boy is that dated already!), and right before bed I felt a twinge. Nothing big really. Well, we got up at 7:30 the next morning, and as soon as I got moving around, there were very distinct contractions. Every 10-15 min. Okay, no big deal. 8:30 they were every 8-10 min. Hmmm, better call the in-laws to come get L since they lived 45 min away. Luckily they were already on their way up to visit with my sister-in-law. Okay, 9:30 the contractions are now every 5-7 min. Oh boy, family better get here, and we better be on our way to the hospital!!! Family arrives, they take off, and off we go to the hospital, which thankfully is only about 7 min away. On our way, the contractions are now every 1-3 min, and we get stopped in traffic to allow walkers to cross the busy street to get to an annual art fair, the hospital in sight. Pull in, and head to maternity. They take me to triage to determine if I really am in labor. I'm sure it is routine, but come on!! There I sat for over an hour. They wait to give you an IV and pain meds until they get you in your delivery room. When I finally get in my delivery room, no one could get the IV in. I had been in so much pain, my veins shut down. They even called the IV team, and it took 4 people, multiple sticks all over my arms and hands to finally get the IV in. 2 hours!!!! In the meantime, I find out that my dr. whom I chose when we moved here just months prior was out of town, even though he promised he would be here. I have a bitter strange old woman dr. come to check me. She tells me, "well, we are going to break your water, and you will have a baby in 5 min". She was right! D was born just 5 min later! She has been in a hurry to grow up ever since. This baby was my last, and I was going to enjoy her babyhood. Well, she had other plans. Having a brother not quite a year older can do that I guess, but it is also her personality! She doesn't like taking no for an answer, she is stubborn, fiery, and wants to do it all herself. She will always take care of herself, but as the parent of said child, it can be tricky. But overall, I would not change her one bit!!!!

Happy birthday to my little girl whose name came to me in a dream 6 years before she was born, when I had just started dating her daddy. In my dream, Adam and I were holding hands with a cute little curly red-headed girl that we called D. We always knew you would join our family!

What she woke up to on her special day

The girl just wanted to go bowling for her birthday.

Homemade bubblegum and glitter play-doh. Thanks Counting Coconuts for the recipe!!!

My handsome boys

Fun with water

Here I come!!

Funfetti cake with bubblegum flavored frosting. She was in heaven!

Yummy cake!

Wild Kratts/Mermaid birthday parties!!!

2011-06-19T23:14:00.000-04:00

On the 12th, we celebrated the kid's birthdays. We had a small gathering of family and a few friends. L picked Wild Kratts. Once again, if you are not familiar with this great show, check it out here.When we were discussing what to do for this Wild Kratts party, we decided to stick with his favorite episode, the forest episode. The cake is simple, but exactly what he wanted. We also made creature power suits. They were made of foam, and when the sticky backed foam did not stick to itself on the day of the party, we stapled it together. We also made disks with a magnetic back so the kids could pretend to change their creature powers. We were going to make a pin the Chris squirrel on the Martin Tree, but ran out of time. We did set up a large sheet of paper on a board so the kids could draw their favorite animals in their habitats.

D wanted a mermaid party and was insisting that she have a sandcastle cake with Ariel on the top along with Flounder. Again we kept the cake simple. D's cake was strawberry with vanilla butter cream, the "sand" was just crushed up graham crackers. Perfect! I did also pre-scoop all the ice cream the night before, and placed them in cupcake liners to make it easier at cake cutting time. I believe I saw that tip on Martha Stewart years ago, and let me tell you, it saves a headache! Adam also painted a pretty mermaid tail on a board so the girls could all sit behind it and take a picture as a mermaid. I used the fish and fishing poles I created for this post, and set it up with a little bucket of water. I gotta say, I think it was a HUGE hit! Overall, it was a fantastic party. The weather was about 70 degrees with a cool breeze, sunny, but slightly cloudy. Perfect!!!

Wild Kratts cake. Trees are made from chocolate melts.

D's sandcastle cake

the birthday mermaid girl

the old fishing hole

3 little creature power suits

L is doing the "What if" Kratt pose

Really getting into it now. Notice the olive t-shirt, khaki shorts, and hiking boots. Yep, he dressed just like Chris Kratt!

Happy and tired family

Father's day Craft

2011-06-10T23:19:00.000-04:00

Today I hosted our annual Father's day craft. We kept it simple this year and just made paper ties for all the dads. Super easy! I cut tie shapes out of construction paper, and let the kids go to town decorating with markers and stickers. I think had lengths of string already cut. Each child got to lay the string on the back of the tie, and attach it with a piece of masking tape. My children couldn't wait the week to give their to daddy, and he has already said he will wear them proudly!

Stories We Read:
Me and My Dad! by Alison Ritchie
Daddy Adventure Day by Dave Keane
Day Out With Daddy by Stephen Cook
It's the best Day Ever, Dad! by Brooke Shields

Party Time!

2011-06-10T23:05:00.000-04:00

It is almost time for both of my children to celebrate the start of a new age. Some of you reading this blog already know this, but some of you don't. My children were due the same day a year apart. Planned that way, nope, talented, sure! But both were loved from the beginning. That being said, every year they are the same age for 4 days. Kinda crazy right? So to save money and time, we have one party for the two of them, since their birthday's are typically in the same week. When asked about a month ago, what they would like for a theme, L didn't hesitate at all! WILD KRATTS!!!! Now if you are not familiar with this, it may be because it is a mostly animated show on PBS for kids brought to you by the Kratt brothers. Now you might say, hmmmm...that name does sound a little familiar. That would be because you probably grew up (or a younger sibling did) watching Zoboomafoo! L has become a bit, shall we say, obsessive about this show ever since the first episode back in Jan. He actually cries if we are out and he has to miss it, even though we have watched every episode many many times!

D on the other hand, has changed what her theme would be so many times over the last 3 months, we had to tell her that after that day, she could not change it at all. I tired to get her to have a rainbow, or art party, or maybe even Hello Kitty. But alas, she chose mermaids. No not Little Mermaid, just plain old mermaids. Now, when brought to my children's attention that both of these would be a little difficult to do since there is little to no party stuff for either theme, what I heard back was, "That's okay mom, We can just make it. That's what we do, right?" Okay, so now being crafty is coming back to bite me in the bud....

We had L choose his favorite Wild Kratts episode, which happened to be the forest one where Chris turns into a squirrel and Martin turns into a tree. So we ran with it. We chose a blue and green theme for plates, napkins, and decorations since it will go with both. Now, L insists we need to have Creature Power Suits, and daddy gladly complies. More on that after the party!

For the girls coming to the mermaid party, I found these adorable mermaid dolls. And what luck, I had everything already in the house!!! So easy to whip up! For invites, I found some really nice computer paper at Dollar Tree! I will also be using the same paper to make tags for all the food at the party. I made up the cards very simply, and knew the kids would want to help. L wrote Wild Kratts on each of his cards, and D drew a mermaid on hers. D started by making such pretty mermaids, but I think got tired and just wanted to be done. The end result didn't look so much like a mermaid as it did a blobby monster.

The treat bags themselves were just simple white paper sacks picked up at Hobby Lobby, which we did put each kid's name on along with a fun drawing. The boys will be receiving a glow bracelet, stack able crayons, tree frog pencil, a star straw, and ocean gummy candies. They will each get their own Creature Power Suit at the party as well. The girls are each getting a mermaid doll, glow bracelet, ocean gummy candies, shell necklace, and a glittery pencil. I have tons more to show, but you are going to have to wait until next week. We have tons of party prep left to go. I have one cake done, and the other can't be finished until the morning of the party. So until then....see you on the creature trail!

Pretty little mermaids all painted up

Now with fins!

The hair all ready to go

The finished girls. I was so very happy with how these turned out!

One of the boy treat bags

Girl treat bags

The invites!

Gone Fishing

2011-06-10T09:39:00.000-04:00

My kids LOVE to go fishing for real, but there never seems to be a good time to go. So last month I picked up some donut magnets at a craft store here in town. Adam asked what I wanted to do with them, and I didn't have anything planned right away, but knew they would come in handy. Well, cut to this week. I had all my foam sheets out already because I was making fins for mermaid dolls (more on that next week!). Then it hit me, how about fish shapes out of the foam, and slide paper clips onto their "face" end! I'm sure I had seen this on some other blog before, but can't really remember where. So I sat down, free handed a whole bunch of fish, put paper clips on, and had the kids get dressed. The kiddie pool was still full of water, and was kind of dirty, so I figured it was the perfect location to go fishing in. I was just planning on dumping the water out later that day anyway! The kids and I scouted out 2 nice size sticks to act as fishing poles. Our backyard use to look like a forest, but since last summer had 5 trees removed. Luckily we have had some bad storms lately, and trees around us are loosing sticks like crazy! I have a ball of hemp twine that I used to tie the magnet to the sticks, and sent the kids off to the pool. They had soooo much fun doing this. I think we fished all the fish out about 4 times. By the 4th time they were pretending to be in a competition with Tom and Jerry!

Afterwards we drained the pool of water, and clipped the fish to our art work drying line. This made for a very fun morning, and I think I may add it to the fun games I have ready for L and D's birthday party this weekend!

Sidewalk painting

2011-06-05T14:49:00.000-04:00

The kids woke up today asking to paint again. I started out by taking them to the picnic table with the washable paints and some fun sponge stamps that I picked up on clearance. The excitement quickly faded. So I remembered seeing an easy and cheap way to make sidewalk paint on Frugal Family Fun Blog just recently. And what do you know, I had everything in the house. I had noticed sidewalk paint before on other blogs, but they called for liquid watercolor and stuff that I didn't have on hand. And with all the craft stuff I do have, I think Adam would have finally put his foot down. So I headed in and grabbed the supplies. I didn't tell the kids exactly what we were doing, so they were a little cautious at first. But once I mixed up the paint, they were really into it! The colors were surprisingly bright for food coloring. I figured they would be more of a pastel. We started out with brushes, moved to the plastic spoons used to mix, to just flat out dripping it out of the cups.

Paint all mixed up and ready to go!

look how neat

The supplies:

2 tbsp. corn starch per color

2 tbsp. water per color

4-5 drops of food coloring

I also just used disposable spoons and cups to make it easier.

Thanks Valerie for the idea! We had tons of fun!

Bird Watching Day

2011-06-02T18:25:00.000-04:00

A little while back I had signed my moms group up to participate in a country wide study of urban birds for The Cornall Lab of Ornithology. They sent us great packets for all the kids. We just had to go watch the birds for 10 min. And when I saw a few of my favorite blogs making binoculars, I just had to include that in our fun bird watching day!

To make the binoculars:
2 toilet paper tubes
construction paper
hole puncher
yarn
stickers
glue stick
masking tape

First you are going to cover each tube with colorful paper. Then cut a narrow stripe of paper to secure the two tubes together. We had the kids glue it all together, but found out that a little masking tape did a much better job! After you have the whole thing put together, punch a hole on each side and tie the yarn through the hole. Then let the kids go wild decorating the binoculars with stickers or markers!

The kids had fun making these, but sometimes got frustrated with the glue.

Working very hard!

We did spend our 10 min. looking for birds, but only saw 1. We could hear a ton, just didn't see them.

Books that we read:
Feathers for Lunch by Lois Ehlert
Bird Talk by Ann Jonas

summer crafts

2011-06-02T17:42:00.000-04:00

We had been on a "homework"/craft slump. After I was sick for basically a month, and then our short little vacation, I had no energy for crafts. Now that things are back to normal, we are jumping right in again. Today was the most fantastic weather we have had for a long time. Not too hot or cold, not too sunny or rainy, just perfect. I figured we would grab some paint and head out to the picnic table.

We started with a coloring page of a boy at the beach, I had the kids color his skin with a white crayon (sunscreen) and then color the rest of the page. When they were all done, we washed over his skin with red watercolor. We pretended he was out in the sun way too long. My favorite saying overheard while doing this. L, "That poor kid!"

Next up was a booklet about the seasons. The first page we dipped our pinkies in green paint for the buds on the tree, for summer we crushed up tissue paper for the flowers, fall was our thumb dipped in yellow paint for pears, and winter was a bare branch.

We gathered the finger-painting paper and paints. I mixed up some orange and yellow, and we went at it making fun swirls. We let this dry and then in the afternoon cut suns out of them.

And lastly we made pink flamingos! First we painted a paper plate pink (mixed white and red paint to get the right color). Let those dry all morning. After naps we glued the pieces I had pre-cut for the kids to the plate. I think they are super cute!

All these ideas and print outs came from themailbox.com, a teacher's magazine and website!

Our work drying on the line all morning

Working really hard on coloring

Look at all that pretty work!

L traced and cut his sun out all by himself. He was very proud!

The seasons booklet before stapling.

Making some cute flamingos!

Our living room is starting to look like summer!

Summer time fun

2011-05-24T22:49:00.000-04:00

These last two days finally have been nice, warm days. And looking at the weather forcast, it looks like it may be the only nice days for awhile again. So yesterday morning, the kids and I headed outside for some fun. Our backyard has been a mess this year. Other then the rain constantly this season, we had a giant tree, and 4 mulberry trees taken down. So now the yard is clean of trees, but has mulch and ruts in the yard. Oh well, better then nothing. The kids wanted to play with the sand and water table we bought last year. Then on to the chalk. They drew a trail of hearts leading me to 2 rainbows, one drawn by each child, just for me.

Then today we spent the morning at the park with friends, headed to Target and picked up a new sprinkler. So as soon as we got home, they insisted that we HAD to get the new sprinkler out. After a little while out with that, we came in and got cleaned up. The last part of the day we headed over to our local library to make pinwheels. What a fantastic few days! We can't wait to see what the rest of the summer has to offer.

Proud of the sand castle they made

I planted flowers by the play house so the D could have her very own flower garden. She has taken it very seriously!

The path of hearts!

A rainbow over water, some hearts, a sun, and MOM

New sprinkler!

Family Vacation

2011-05-24T16:43:00.001-04:00

This past weekend we took our first ever family vacation. Yes, it was just a weekend, and yes it was only 2 hours away from home. But we drove a distance, and stayed in a hotel. I think that counts ;-) We headed to Ft. Wayne for a 2 day get away. We have wanted to visit the zoo there for a few years now. We have a local zoo membership that allows us to get in for half price, which for us would be like buy 1 get 1 free. Not bad! Here are some fun things that either happened or were observed over the weekend trip:

While passing a large fake bull, D yells, "Um, that is a fake one!"

2 back country road potty stops, thankfully we have this handy little helper!

When telling the kids that we get free breakfast in the hotel we are staying in, D gets excited about the hot tea.

L and D are both happy about the pull out sofa to sleep on.

I taught D how to do the Hand Jive in the car on our way there.

While eating at a nice Mexican restaurant the first night, L looks around and says, "why does this place look so Mexican?"

We took the kids to see the movie Rio.

We spent the entire second day at the zoo. We got to see a cute baby Gibbon learn how to hang onto the trees.

In the African Adventure, L says, "Wow this place has soooo many habitats!"

During the Sky Safari ride, the kids were more excited to see a deflated blue balloon and someones dropped cell phone on the ground.

D stood by and corrected kids and adults at the zoo on some of the animals:
         sea lion was not a seal
         kangaroo and wallaby are different
         the difference between the peacock and a peahen
         the difference between a lion and a lioness
         and that the sitatunga was NOT a deer!

We stopped and found Johnny Appleseed's grave site. While his actual grave is unmarked and still not found, there is a very nice memorial. Adam had us all eat apples in honor, he left the core behind, and took a cutting from the apple tree there.

Coming home we drove through a very bad thunderstorm, but we had fun watching the lightening.

And on our way home we had to drive through Amish country. I was surprised to see how many buggies were out in the storm. Want to guess how many I counted? Well it was.....26!

The entrance to the zoo. L was doing his best Spider man pose!

Up close with the animals!

One very happy little girl!

L had heard that we could feed the giraffes. He was looking forward to this all day. By the time we got to them, none were near the platform to feed them at. I told L that they must not be hungry right now. He was so upset, "You mean I have waited for this ALL DAY and now they aren't even hungry!!!" Just broke my heart. And just then one of the babies walked up to where we were standing and tried to lick his hand. Needless to say, that made up for it!

Johnny Appleseed Adam!

The soundtrack to our trip:
I took the kids to the library to pick out music for our trip. This is what they came up with!
Rock & Roll Playground-Putumayo Kids
Sunny Days-Elizabeth Mitchell
World Playground-Putumayo Kids
Reggae for Kids- Universal Music Family
Reggae Playground-Putumayo Kids

Mommy and Me tea party

2011-05-16T10:07:00.000-04:00

I started a tradition with D the year she turned 1, that around Mother's day we would have a tea party. Now that first year, she wasn't 1 yet, just 1 short month away from that first year milestone. I normally just take her to a local coffee shop and get her an iced tea and a baked good treat. Well, every year it goes down in flames. I think because I am a stay at home mom, and the kids never really get a break from me, D has been a Daddy's girl. And every year when her and I leave to do our thing, it results in a crying, screaming, meltdown. It makes me feel horrible, and I question why I do it every year. Well this year, all those bad years finally paid off. Adam and I enjoy going to a local pub every once in awhile, and a few months ago I noticed that they do an afternoon tea for adults and kids. The place is a very family friendly place, so I just knew we would have to try it. I put it on the calendar for the moms group that I organize and figured even if no one else could make it, D and I would try it out! I am so glad that we did! I think it helps that she is almost 4 (I still can't believe that!), and that we have been drinking tea and having "tea parties" all winter. I booked a table for the group, 3 moms, and 4 girls. The girls ages were 1, 2, 3, and 4, and this was so much fun! Each person, children included, had their own pot of tea. There were 5-6 teas to choose from most of which were decaf. They then brought out all the yummy food. A giant bowl of fresh fruit, a platter with lemon pound cake and cream puffs, a dish a fresh scones complete with 3 types of jam and clotted cream, and then sandwiches. There were the girl's sandwiches, cheddar cheese, and nutella with strawberries, and then there were the mommy sandwiches, turkey and cucumber. Everything was so tasty, the wait staff was fantastic and totally on top of things, and there was more than enough food. For D and I before the tip, it was only $13! That is a steal! You spend more than that for 2 cups of tea and some pastries at a local coffee shop, and this was so much more. I can't wait to do this with her again next year! And after we got home and told the boys all about it, I think they want to go now too!

Mommy and D ready to go. I love that she HAD to wear her rain boots.

That is one excited girl!

The table was all ready, now to just wait for our friends.

All the girls and one of the moms. We all wore pretty dresses!

So much fun!

Barely any food left at the end.

Rainbow day!

2011-04-30T15:07:00.000-04:00

Sorry that I have not been around lately, but I ended up getting very sick the week before Easter. Needless to say, we didn't get to most of the fun Easter crafts I had planned. So yesterday was the first day I felt better, and we were suppose to have rainbow day with the moms group. Well, everyone but one mom canceled and she had a 6 month old, so I just let the kids play at the park at that time. So we did our own rainbow day at home after nap time. I had the kids do a fun easy craft. And I must say that one pet peeve that I found while looking up books and crafts that talk about rainbows, is that many leave indigo out. If I am going to teach my children the correct info, I wish they would include all the correct info in the books, and crafts out there.

Supplies needed:
paper plate cut in half
tissue paper cut in strips in red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet
crayons in those same colors
glue stick

I went ahead and drew in the lines for the kids, then have them color in the colors of the rainbow in the correct order. You know, ROY G BIV. Remember that from grade school?

Next have the kids glue the strips of tissue paper (I found a large package with most of the colors at Meijer in the card section for $5), onto the back of the paper plate. We did the colors on both ends of the rainbow.

We did go ahead and punch a hole at the top and strung some yarn through. The kids were very excited to hang them in the windows to make the house more colorful!

I also went ahead and made some rainbow cookies. I saw these on this blog back around St. Pat's day and had it bookmarked. I couldn't wait to try them! They turned out so cute, and very yummy!

Books we read:
Minnie's Rainbow by Sheila Sweeny-Higginson
Duckie's Rainbow by Frances Barry

The story of us

2011-04-13T23:07:00.001-04:00

I figured with Adam's birthday coming up and the 10 year anniversary of when we met coming up next month, that I would tell the story of how we met.

I was going through rough stuff at home and school was really getting to me. I had been working as a shift supervisor at Starbucks but needed a not as stressful job. I was still friends with an ex, and he suggested getting me a job with him at this little shop. I jumped at the chance since I had been wanting to work there for ages. It was a little "head shop" or hippie store. Perfect! I worked there for a few months with this ex, K and his best friend, J. They kept telling me about all the fun bashes they were throwing in a city that was about a half hour away, and kept inviting me to come. (Now remember, we were just 21!) After months of hounding me, I gave in. Sure, I will go to your party! It was a Saturday night and I had to work until 9:30, but then head right out. I was probably wearing my homemade bell bottoms and a tank top, but I don't remember for sure. I found the apartment complex and pulled in the lot. This was a college town and the apartment complex in question was built in the shape of a U with a nice grassy area in the middle. College kids were everywhere and always having parties on the weekends. Most living there had just graduated from college, and were having a good time before moving on with life, and growing up!

I found the right door and walked in. I didn't see anyone I knew, but saw an interesting guy sitting on the couch. He had a White Russian in his hand, The Big Lebowski playing on the t.v., and having a discussion about the Beat poets. I thought, "Hey, I know about them,". So I sat down next to him and said, "I have a fish named Kerouac!" and so we got to talking. That was Adam! He eventually made me a drink, a White Russian! We stayed up all night talking while the party kept going all around us. At about 4am, a group of us decided to grill some BBQ chicken on the grill. Well the grill ran out of gas before the chicken ever got done, so instead we sat around talking. When we heard the birds chirping, I knew it was time to go. Throughout the night I had heard him brag that he had gotten numerous phone numbers the night before and all the girl's names were Sarah, so when I was getting ready to leave and he asked for my phone number, I simply told him that my name was not Sarah so no!

I ended up dating the ex's friend, J for a few weeks, but it wasn't anything serious and everywhere we went, Adam was along with us, so it never really felt like I was dating anyone. In July, Adam and I went on our first official date, and as they say in stories...the rest is history!

It is going on 10 years since that first day, and boy has tons happened since then! I never would have thought that 1 day could change my life so much, but it did! I am so thankful for all the events that have taken place in my life that brought me to that day. After we really started dating, we of course talked about our pasts, and realized that we had crossed paths numerous times over the years, but never really noticed each other until that night. I met an amazing artist in paint splattered Eddie Bauer pants, with holey Doc Martin boots, short hair and no facial hair. If you would have asked me if that was my "type", I would have said no! I'm glad that I didn't keep that in mind the day I met the man of my dreams!

Chocolate bunnies and Worm tracks

2011-04-05T17:04:00.000-04:00

I saw this idea for the chocolate bunnies a little bit back in The Mailbox magazine, and have now become obsessed with getting the kids to do it.
Supplies:

bunny cut out on sturdy white paper
brown paint
white glue
chocolate pudding mix
paint brushes
plastic cup/bowls
candy sprinkles
ribbon

First mix the brown paint, white glue, and pudding mix equally in a plastic cup. I use a plastic spoon or knife to mix, less mess to clean up. I also laid down a large sheet of paper on the kitchen floor to catch any mess. Scoop your paint mixture into little bowls for the kids, I use empty egg cartons that I cut apart. I laid down the paint, a brush, and the cut out on the floor for each of us. The paint mixture looked a little like cake batter, and smelled sooooo good! It was very tempting to lick it off of fingers, so if you have one that puts everything in their mouth, maybe hold off on this project. The kids had a blast painting this thick stuff all over the paper. But what came next was their favorite. I let them shake candy sprinkles or jimmies out of the container onto the wet bunnies. We will be letting these dry for now, and when they are finally dry (I'm guessing at least over night), we will tie a little ribbon around it's neck like the ones you get at the store. I'll take a picture of the finished product when they are done, and update.

Worm tracks:

I figured since we already had tons of this brown thick mud looking paint, why not try to make worm tracks.

Supplies:

brown paint mixture from above
lengths of yarn
paper plate
brown sheet of paper

Well this one got a bit messy. Because the paint was so thick, it was difficult to run the yarn through it. I scooped a spoonful onto the paper plate and then spread it out a bit. I gave each kid a piece of yarn, brown paper, and plate. We then dipped the yarn and pushed it into the paint with our fingers. Pull the yarn to coat with the paint, and then drag across the paper. It will look like the worms inched their way across your paper! This was L's favorite of the two projects today, but because well he is a boy, and loves to get messy! D was just not that into this one. She didn't want to get her fingers messy and gave up after just 2 tries. Well you live and learn right?

In like a lion...

2011-03-24T20:06:00.000-04:00

Do you know that old saying? March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb. Well that is pretty true for Northern Indiana, of course we still get snow at the end of March, it's just not as cold and nasty. I believe that I saw both of these crafts at The Mailbox.com, but I can't be sure.

The lion was done in the first weeks of the month. I painted a paper plate yellow for each of us. Normally I don't mind the kids doing this step, but since I wasn't using washable paints, and the kids behavior was questionable, I just went ahead and did it. Then I cut a bunch of strips of paper in brown, yellow and orange. I should the kids how to wrap each strip around a pencil and pull it off. I had them glue these around the outside of the plate. I had pre-cut the whiskers, eyes, nose, and mouth, and just had them glue them on. They had fun with this, but tired of rolling the strips of paper quickly.

Next up was the lamb. I got a giant roll of un-printed newspaper paper from our local newspaper (just ask your local one, they usually give them away for free!), and spread that over the kitchen floor. I poured the white paint on the leftover paper plates from our St. Patrick's day party. I picked up fun bows for the kids to use at the Dollar Tree, and used one of our cut up sponges for myself. We went to work "painting" the blue piece of paper.

We had to let them dry all day, so luckily we did these early in the morning! This evening I cut out a large circle from the pages we painted. We then traced our hands on black paper. The key to this was keep your pointer, middle, and ring finger together, and spread out the thumb and pinkie. The kids glued the face, rectangle legs, and eyes on to finish the project.

Happy Spring everyone!!!

St. Patrick's Day!

2011-03-20T19:35:00.001-04:00

Again, I know I'm a bit behind. The kids and I celebrated ourselves on the actual day, but had a party with our friends the next day. We went as a family to the local parade last Saturday. It was great, but freezing cold. Adam and I were starting to worry that the kids would get frostbite on their little fingers. But they were troopers and insisted on staying to see them dye the river green.

On March 17, the kids and I dressed in our finest green! We had made a leprechaun trap the night before. The kids designed it themselves, and Adam and I helped complete it. Inside we had a small block bed, some gold candy, and a bowl of Lucky Charms. Well that little stinker got in, upturned everything, and got away leaving glittery green tracks behind for the kids to find in the morning. We did some rainbow worksheets, and then headed out for a special lunch. I got a Shamrock shake for the kids to share. They LOVE it, just like I do. And then, because it was unusually warm (70's), I took them to the park to run off some of the winter blues. We also took a trip to our local library because they had a special rainbow mobile craft for the kids to do that day. At home I had corned beef, cabbage, and carrots cooking in the slow cooker. For dessert I made Guinness cupcakes, and shamrock sugar cookies.

For the party, I had the kids make a shamrock out of green hearts. I gave each child a piece of white paper, 3 green hearts, and a small rectangle, and let them glue them down. For the other craft, each child received a half sheet green piece of paper, a black pot cut out, and a bowl of Kix cereal. They glued it all together to make a pot of gold. For snacks we had a fruit rainbow, green jello, kiwi, cookies, Lucky Charms, and green juice. They had a blast and because it was in the late afternoon, was a great way to end the week.

Books we read:
The Luckiest St. Patrick's Day Ever by Teddy Slater
Hooray for St. Patrick's Day! by Joan Holub
It's St. Patrick's Day by Rebecca Gomez
St. Patrick's Day Countdown by Salina Yoon

Johnny Appleseed day!

2011-03-15T17:06:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Johnny Appleseed yesterday. Most people celebrate him in the fall when apples are all around. Not us crazy kids! We actually do it on his death, or supposedly! Morbid, yes, but we don't tell the kids that. We ask that everyone just bring an apple snack. There were sliced apples, applesauce cups, oatmeal applesauce cookies, apple butter with mini bagels, apple jacks cereal, apple juice! Last year Adam made apple seed bean bags for the kids to play with. We had to remake the dirt piles the kids throw the seeds in. L and D cut green stripes of construction paper to make grass for them. I also had the kids make apple trees out of construction paper. Luckily I had found a small apple shaped punch this fall in the dollar section at Target. All the kids (between the ages of 1-4) did a great job of glueing the pieces together.

The books we read were:
Johnny Appleseed: My story by David L. Harrison
Our Apple Tree by Gorel Kristina Naslund
Ten Apples up on Top! by Dr. Suess

All 3 of our trees.

D's tree. She was very proud of the apples falling off the tree, and the on that is going to land on the top. Not sure where it is coming from, but oh well!

Apple seed toss game.

Baking with Kids

2011-03-13T11:46:00.000-04:00

I bake a lot, but I don't always let my kids help. Sometimes it's for an order, but mostly it's my quiet time. It's like my relaxation, and I cherish that. But occasionally I do projects just with the kids. They LOVE to bake and ask all the time. My mom just picked up some kid baking sets that include a mini muffin pan, spatula, measuring spoons, whisk, wooden spoon, and apron. They have just been itching to use them. Well I found a toddler cookbook at the library and found the perfect recipe for them to make. Mini banana muffins! I had them help measure out all the ingredients, mix the batter, and slice the banana to put on top. They even scooped out the batter to put into the muffin cups. They were very proud of the job they did, although if you ask L he will proudly tell you that he "xploded the oil all over the place"! I think you can tell from the pictures they loved doing it.

Mardi Gras!

2011-03-13T11:37:00.000-04:00

I know this is a little late, but we don't have the internetz at our house right now, and that will all change hopefully on Tuesday. I can't wait to be back to the "real" world again. So on Wednesday we had a Mardi Gras play date for the moms group. Unfortunately there are very few books for kids on Mardi gras and our library doesn't carry any of them. So I did pick up some books for slightly older kids and showed them pictures out of it while talking about the fun stuff that happens.

The kids colored poster board masks with markers (to keep clean up a breeze!), and then we made noodle beaded necklaces. My co-organizer colored the noodles for a play date last year, and we were able to us the leftovers. To dye them, she soaked them in a bowl with food coloring and rubbing alcohol. After they soaked for some time, lay them out on paper towel to dry. Repeat until you get the color you like. We also made sure to already have the yarn cut, one end taped with masking tape, and a noodle tied to the other end to make it easier for the kids. They all did such a great job, and seemed to really have fun doing it.

I don't have a picture of the necklaces my kids made because they disappeared as soon as we got home. I'm not sure what happened to them, but I'm guessing I will find them soon when I clean out their room!

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss!

2011-03-02T21:42:00.000-05:00

Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday, and this is the 3rd year that we celebrated it. The kids and I made Thing 1 & 2 painted handprints yesterday. This was a fun idea from themailbox.com! Today was our super fun play date with our mom's group. We met at the library. I had a paper hat for each kid, a sticker, an award, and a bookmark. For this I made Thing 1 & 2 mini cupcakes for the kids inspired by this post, and mini green eggs candy made out of candy melts for the kids to snack on. We also had fish (colored goldfish), pink ink (pink lemonade, and pink yogurt)! Because most of the kids are younger, and the story Cat in the Hat is long, I used another great idea from themailbox.com. I brought with 2 stuffed toy kittens and had the kids pass them around every time they heard the word cat.

For dinner tonight I made green eggs, ham, and Cat in the Hat stacked pancakes. I dyed the scrambled eggs green, and divided the pancake batter in half, and dyed one half red. I made the pancakes on the smaller side, and when they were done, stacked them alternating colors to look like the cat's hat.

The books we read:
Cat in the Hat
Mr. Brown can Moo. Can you?
There's a wocket in my pocket (board book)
and started to read One Fish, Two fish, Red fish, Blue fish, but the kids had had enough. There is always next year!

Mini Thing 1 & 2 cupcakes

Green Eggs candy

D's Things

L's things

My little things

Green eggs, ham, and Cat in the Hat pancakes

President's day

2011-02-22T11:17:00.001-05:00

We celebrated with a fun craft and snack day! We made Lincoln masks, ate flag cookies and pocket apple and cherry pies. I really think all the kids got a kick out of the day. Later that day my kids and I made Lincoln faces out of our handprints. Paint the palm with a peach colored paint (white with a little orange), and then paint their fingers, but not the thumb, black. Press onto a piece of paper and let dry. When dry, draw on a face, and glue a hat made of consruction paper.

The books we read were:
President's day by Ann Rockwell
President's day by Margaret McNamera
Jon, Paul, George,& Ben by Lane Smith

Our hand prints drying

L and mine finished

D's finished Abe!

Some cute kids with their Lincoln masks.

D striking her best Honest Abe face.

Our American flag cookies, and another mom made the mini pies. I know the piping isn't the best on the cookies but that is what happens when you decorate at 12:30 at night. Oh well!

Valentine's Party

2011-02-12T22:12:00.001-05:00

We had our annual Valentine's party yesterday at the library. Last year we had the kids bring in Kleenex boxes to decorate, and then use those to collect all their cards. It worked great! So we decided to do that again this year. We had a bunch of different colors of construction paper, crayons, tons of stickers, and fun stamps for the kids to use. The kids started the party by doing their boxes. They looked fantastic! We then moved to the stories so we could let the glue dry on the boxes. The kids were too antsy and excited to really listen to stories so I cut it down to only 2. We then dove into all the yummy treats that everyone brought to share. There were heart shaped PB&J, jello, cake balls, Rice Krispie treats, brownies, muffins, bananas, string cheese, juice, coffee, and so much more! We could have eaten for days!

After everyone was done eating, we had the kids help us clean up. We then had the kids sit in a line with their boxes, and the moms went down and handed out all the cards. This seems to work really well for us since we have kids from just a few months old, all the way up to almost 5. The kids were all really excited to give out and receive fun cards, crayons, treats, and soaps! What a great way to start the weekend!

I hope everyone has a very Happy Valentine's day! It looks like this will be our first year not going to our normal White Castle meal. Oh well. My little family is actually going to celebrate the day the weekend afterwards. That is when you get all the good stuff on clearance ;-)

The books we read:
My Heart is like a Zoo by Michael Hall
Clifford's First Valentine's day by Norman Bridwell
and the one we didn't get to was
The Biggest Valentine Ever by Stephen Kroll

Groundhog's Day!

2011-02-12T22:03:00.000-05:00

Well, I was going to post pictures of the cute craft and snack we had, but my house was broken into and they took my laptop and camera. So for now, please make do with just the description. Thank you!

The craft we did was a cute groundhog puppet. Adam drew up a little cartoon groundhog waving one hand. Each kid colored him in, glued him to a large popsicle stick. We then took large foam cups with a slit in the bottom. Put the stick through the slit, and you can now make your cute little groundhog pop out to check his shadow!

The snack I made was just "dirt". You take chocolate pudding, and fill a small plastic cup about halfway. Crush up some Oreo cookies to look like dirt and sprinkle over the top. I topped it off with a Nilla wafer cookie that I decorated to look like a groundhog face with black frosting.

The books we read were:
Gretchen Groundhog, It's your day by Abby Levine
Groundhog Day by Margaret McNamara