Thursday, October 21, 2010

Indoor camp out!

A week or so ago I had an indoor camp out for the mom's group.  We held it at the local library in one of the large conference rooms.  I set up an indoor play tent, we had a fake fire, "roasted" marshmallows, made smores, sang songs, read stories, and ate trail mix.  The kids had a blast!  Adam made the fire for me out of paper towel rolls, and construction paper.  The marshmallows that we "roasted" were squares of white paper glued together only on 3 sides, and then had a large popsicle stick inserted.  That way the kids could remove the "marshmallow" and put them on top of the graham crackers and chocolate we had ready for them.  The crackers were just simply squares of cardboard, and the chocolate was squares of brown or black construction paper.  The crafts were very simple but the kids enjoyed every second of it!

The stories we read were:  Scare a Bear by Kathy-jo Wargin 


and Just me and my Dad by Mercer B. Mayer



camp fire
marshmallow ready for roasting

smores ready to go!

Monday, October 11, 2010

Fall craft time

I organize a local mom's group, and we try to do at least one craft and story day for each holiday, or season.  Sometimes these are difficult to come up with, and others and so easy there are too many to choose from.  We have many ways of finding these, but the web is the easiest way to do it.  In September is Grandparent's day, and let me tell you, there are not many craft ideas out there for little ones to do.  Last year we did the typical popsicle stick picture frames.  I didn't want to do that again, so I was determined to find something else.  Well I came up with one on my own.  I cut out a capital G from some cardstock (1 per child), I then punched a few holes in the center of the letter G, place a piece of tape over those holes, and press onto a sheet of construction paper.  I bought a package of kitchen sponges from Dollar Tree, cut them in half, wrapped a rubber band around the top (to make a handle), and then cut a bunch of "legs".  I poured some washable paint on a paper plate, and let the kids dip the sponges into the paint, and then on the paper.  Once the paint is dry you can easily pull up the letter G and write a sweet message to the grandparents in there.  The kids had a blast!  They turned out great.

We also did leaf rubbings at home.  Our friend gave us a large roll of plain white paper, so I cut a large sheet for each child, headed outside to find some different leaves, and sat us down on the kitchen floor.  I really think using the larger size paper made it easier, and more fun for the kids to do.

Another craft we did, I borrowed from the Frugal Family Fun Blog.  She has amazing cheap ideas for crafts with the kids.  You NEED to check it out!!  For this one, you cut a toilet paper tube in half and squeeze it into a leaf shape.  I squeezed the paint onto paper plates for the kids, and they dipped the tubes in the paint, and then onto the piece of paper.  Again, another hit!  I really think the kids LOVE to paint.

 Letter G for Grandparent's Day
toilet paper tube leaf prints
Fall leaf rubbings

Apple Picking 2010

It's hard to believe that this is our 3rd year apple picking now.  Boy the kids grow up quickly!  This was a last min. choice to go.  If it was up to Adam, we would have passed on it this year.  But it means a lot to me to go, so we went.  We always go to Garwood Orchard, they have the most amazing produce, tons of U-pick options, and perfect prices!  The kids just LOVE to pick anything for us to eat.  I never have to worry about them not wanting to eat it, thank goodness!  We headed out on a tractor drawn wagon to the orchard.  We brought with 2 large reusable bags, and I'm happy that we didn't bring more.  We ended up picking over 51 lbs. of apples within 10 min.  Both kids had fun, but L was all over it this year!  He would go to a tree, have 3 in his hand, and one he was eating each time he went.  I think the boy ate at least 4 apples while we were just picking!  But thanks to his enthusiasm we were done before you knew it.  He was also entertainment for anyone out there with us.  The best was when a pretty college aged girl walked past with her mother, L offered to help them and go with them.  Adam packed us a lunch, so we paid for our bounty, headed back to the car, and had some lunch.  I have already made a GIANT batch of apple sauce, an cherry apple crisp, and we have eaten a number of apples, but there are still so many left.  I think it's time for some pies....






Adam wanted to pick them both up on his shoulders and take a picture, they were not cooperating, and this was the end result!

2010 Open Book Festival

Every year our local library puts on an amazing event called the open book festival.  They invite children's musicians, authors, illustrators, and puppeteers to come and talk and perform.  There are related kids crafts upstairs in the story room, and the best part is that the entire thing is free!  There are books given away and story book characters to meet.  And each year there are new ones brought in.  My kids love it, but I think I love it more than they do.  This year was great.  They go to meet Curious George, Peter Rabbit, Max from Max and Ruby, Martha from Martha Speaks, the Cat in the Hat, oh and the Mouse from If you give a mouse a cookie!  What a fantastic time.  Thank you library!!!









Baked goodies!

I have been a busy bee over here baking now that the weather has cooled off.  I don't have a/c and it just gets WAY too hot in the house during the summer.  So now I'm on like overload.  There are just way too many things that I want to bake.  I did have a few orders that I included here for you.  I also made some pumpkin whoopie pies, but can't seem to find the picture.  Those I got from a great little blog I found called  Bake at 350!  I used her recipe for the cookies, and then the America's Test Kitchen recipe for the cream.



A first birthday giant and smash cupcake set.
 We did a clock play date and I made these for a healthy snack.  It's a whole grain English muffin, lowfat cream cheese, pretzels, and raisins. 
 I had some leftover cupcakes, so I decorated them for just the 4 of us.  That is leftover icing, and Necco waffers.

A pool set for my mom's husband for his birthday.  I found this in the book, Hello Cupcake!

Some snickerdoodle cupcakes for my brother's birthday.  These are from good old Martha!


And this was an order for a 4 year old's 50's themed party.  The picture was taken before I pulled the parchment out from under it.  I think it turned out pretty fun.  Got the idea from here.

Last ball game of the season.

At the beginning of September we noticed that it was the last home game of the season for the South Bend SilverHawks.  We had tried to go once a month throughout the entire season, but missed the month of August.  They have amazing deals where they have dollar Mondays.  Adam noticed that the last game was also going to have fireworks.  He felt bad that we missed fireworks on the 4th of July due to car trouble coming home, so he jumped right on it.  Lo and behold, he got us tickets directly behind home plate, first row!  We got there and found out even better news, they were doing $1 pop, hot dogs, popcorn, candy!  So we loaded up on junk and set out to watch the game.  L loved it because we were right next to the tunnel where everyone comes out to the field.  He got to see the Cardinal Fitness bird, broccoli, carrot, and pea, and he got to see the kids that went out and raced on the field.  They did a pretty good job of sitting there throughout the entire game, and even entertained the people sitting in our section.  Then came the fireworks.  It was a great show!  After all that fun, they let the kids come out on the field and run the bases.  L and D were so thrilled, L actually ran around them twice!  They were given a Chipotle kids meal coupon when they came in.  What a fantastic family night, for very little money.  We can't wait for next baseball season!




 A shot from our seats
 Happy family!



L was hot and tired, but so happy he was on the field

That is one excited girl!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Even more letters

Once again, these all come from the Totally Tot website.  As you can see, the kids sometimes have their own take on how these will look, like the letter f for example.  Oh well, they are just expressing their creativity, right?


e is for egg
f is for fish
g is for goose
h is for horse

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