Saturday, October 29, 2011
Fall Fun Links
Here are a few fun activities we have done this week to celebrate fall and Halloween!
Friday, October 28, 2011
Preschool Corner: O is for Octopus
Today is my first time to link up to Preschool Corner over at Homeschool Creations. This website has been an AWESOME resource for me for getting started with homeschooling. And, it has some great preschool resources (that are FREE!) for the little man.
Our theme this week was mostly Octopus from our LOTW curriculum.
Oh my word ... how cute is that face. Octopus puzzle.
Octopus letter matching. This is the first time I've included this activity (because I had not make the letter discs yet) but he did great.
Is that a smile I see while coloring? David is normally not a huge fan of all the coloring. I try to break up his schedule so we only color one thing per day.
Playdough is always a big hit with this little guy. He got a little silly with the LC "o". You can find these great playdough mat printables (that you can laminate or slide into a page protector) here.
We also pulled in a few "Ocean" activities for our O week. (It just so happens that we went to the beach at the end of this week too. That was handy planning on my part ... or just lucky I guess.)
We did this measuring with goldfish activity that I found here and we made a fun ocean tot book that I apparently did not take any pictures of us using. He really does love looking through the tot books everyday and it helps us review basics like numbers (1-10), shapes and colors.
Writing the letter O.
Craft time. We made an Octopus and a gold glitter Owl, both of which were found here. We added a little impromptu glitter to the owl because (1) he looked a little plain without it and (2) David loves the glitter glue. It is definitely his favorite crafting item.
Our O board for the week (which also includes some crafts from church and mother's day out.) We got back on track learning our RRSP verse this week, which was "Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good." David still enjoys doing all of the activities for our bible verse each week as you can see them on the board.
(David is 3Y, 6M old.)
Our theme this week was mostly Octopus from our LOTW curriculum.
Oh my word ... how cute is that face. Octopus puzzle.
Octopus letter matching. This is the first time I've included this activity (because I had not make the letter discs yet) but he did great.
Is that a smile I see while coloring? David is normally not a huge fan of all the coloring. I try to break up his schedule so we only color one thing per day.
Playdough is always a big hit with this little guy. He got a little silly with the LC "o". You can find these great playdough mat printables (that you can laminate or slide into a page protector) here.
We also pulled in a few "Ocean" activities for our O week. (It just so happens that we went to the beach at the end of this week too. That was handy planning on my part ... or just lucky I guess.)
We did this measuring with goldfish activity that I found here and we made a fun ocean tot book that I apparently did not take any pictures of us using. He really does love looking through the tot books everyday and it helps us review basics like numbers (1-10), shapes and colors.
Writing the letter O.
Craft time. We made an Octopus and a gold glitter Owl, both of which were found here. We added a little impromptu glitter to the owl because (1) he looked a little plain without it and (2) David loves the glitter glue. It is definitely his favorite crafting item.
Our O board for the week (which also includes some crafts from church and mother's day out.) We got back on track learning our RRSP verse this week, which was "Oh, give thanks to the Lord for He is good." David still enjoys doing all of the activities for our bible verse each week as you can see them on the board.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Photobooks ... my new memory-keeping love!
I have been faithfully reading The Mom Creative's 31 days of memory-keeping posts during the month of October. She is a full-time working mother of two who loves to read, craft and SCRAPBOOK! (I think we were separated at birth. Ha!)
Scrapbooking will always be my first crafting love, but I just don't have time for traditional paper scrapbooking at this time in my life. Right now, this blog is my main form of memory keeping, but I like to have current things to hold and look at in real life (i.e., not on a computer screen).
My first photo book was of our most recent trip to Disneyworld. I think I purchased a $10 Shutterfly Groupon and then paid about $8-10 for shipping. So my total cost was about $20 for a $30 book.
Thanks to The Mom Creative's series, I've made two other photo books (for great deals) and a journal over the last few weeks.
The first photo book was another Shutterfly book for 40% off. I think I ended up paying $20 for the $30 book plus shipping. (If I had spent $30, I could have gotten free shipping but I didn't have it in me to make another book and the coupon expiration was fast approaching!) I made a book of Luke's first birthday party.
I am posting this book since I never posted any pics of Luke's birthday party. (FYI ... the first page is blank because it was the invitation, which I've already posted here, and I didn't want all of our personal info on the Internet.)
The second photo book and journal were FREE thanks to special coupon codes from The Mom Creative and they were from a new website called Paper Coterie. (These coupon codes have expired but she currently has a code for a free memory keeper, which is a super nice box for storing mementos.) I received the journal yesterday and I am impressed with the quality. I should receive my photobook today. (This photo book was made of Luke's professional photos at Newborn, 4M, 8M and 12M for a first year sort of book.)
I know the photobooks are pricey, but if you watch for great deals on Snapfish, Shutterfly and other photo sites, you can make them whenever and order them on sale!
Happy memory-keeping!
Scrapbooking will always be my first crafting love, but I just don't have time for traditional paper scrapbooking at this time in my life. Right now, this blog is my main form of memory keeping, but I like to have current things to hold and look at in real life (i.e., not on a computer screen).
My first photo book was of our most recent trip to Disneyworld. I think I purchased a $10 Shutterfly Groupon and then paid about $8-10 for shipping. So my total cost was about $20 for a $30 book.
Thanks to The Mom Creative's series, I've made two other photo books (for great deals) and a journal over the last few weeks.
The first photo book was another Shutterfly book for 40% off. I think I ended up paying $20 for the $30 book plus shipping. (If I had spent $30, I could have gotten free shipping but I didn't have it in me to make another book and the coupon expiration was fast approaching!) I made a book of Luke's first birthday party.
I am posting this book since I never posted any pics of Luke's birthday party. (FYI ... the first page is blank because it was the invitation, which I've already posted here, and I didn't want all of our personal info on the Internet.)
Click here to view this photo book larger
The second photo book and journal were FREE thanks to special coupon codes from The Mom Creative and they were from a new website called Paper Coterie. (These coupon codes have expired but she currently has a code for a free memory keeper, which is a super nice box for storing mementos.) I received the journal yesterday and I am impressed with the quality. I should receive my photobook today. (This photo book was made of Luke's professional photos at Newborn, 4M, 8M and 12M for a first year sort of book.)
I know the photobooks are pricey, but if you watch for great deals on Snapfish, Shutterfly and other photo sites, you can make them whenever and order them on sale!
Happy memory-keeping!
Monday, October 24, 2011
Menu Plan Monday: October 24
Here is our menu plan for the week:
Breakfast treat: French toast casserole & bacon
Monday: Creamy baked flautas, mexicorn, salad
Tuesday: Chicken puffs, green beans, mandarin orange salad
Wednesday: Slow-cooked chicken & vegetables, bread machine wheat rolls
Thursday: Lime cilantro steak, mashed sweet potatoes (I am going to pick a recipe from Pinterest), salad
Friday: pepperoni pizza puffs, salad, campfire cookies
Saturday: caramel apple muffins (breakfast); I think we are having friends over for dinner so our menu is still up in the air for now.
Sunday: Leftover buffet
Check out Laura's blog for more Menu Plan Monday.
Friday, October 21, 2011
I is for Igloo and Ice Cream and Inchworm!
We had a fun "I" week. Who doesn't love ice cream in August?
Making playdough I's.
David was not in the mood to have his picture taken this particular day.
Inchworm puzzle. All of our LOTW curriculum for the Letter I was inchworm themed.
Inchworm counting.
Ice painting. We made the ice cube paints the day before and got lots of color mixing practice in. We found that the darker/brighter colors painted the best. Also, cover with foil to hold the toothpicks in place.
Claire joined us the next day for painting our ice cream cones. This was really pretty mess free.
Inchworm craft from toilet paper rolls. David played with this thing a long time.
Marshmallow igloo. David ate marshmallows and pretty much watched me make this craft.
Our "I" board for the week (including a butterfly Claire made at church.)
Our Bible curriculum came from RRSP. David had a hard time with our verse ... "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I did find this fun song to go along with our verse.
Our igloo printables came from here and here. Our ice cream printables and activities came from here and here.
Making playdough I's.
David was not in the mood to have his picture taken this particular day.
Inchworm puzzle. All of our LOTW curriculum for the Letter I was inchworm themed.
Inchworm counting.
Ice painting. We made the ice cube paints the day before and got lots of color mixing practice in. We found that the darker/brighter colors painted the best. Also, cover with foil to hold the toothpicks in place.
Claire joined us the next day for painting our ice cream cones. This was really pretty mess free.
Inchworm craft from toilet paper rolls. David played with this thing a long time.
Marshmallow igloo. David ate marshmallows and pretty much watched me make this craft.
Our "I" board for the week (including a butterfly Claire made at church.)
Our Bible curriculum came from RRSP. David had a hard time with our verse ... "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I did find this fun song to go along with our verse.
Our igloo printables came from here and here. Our ice cream printables and activities came from here and here.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Do you Pin?
By now, lots of people are hearing about Pinterest. You can follow me here.
It's really just another social networking site (you can invite friends, follow friends, etc.). But I love how it organizes all of the great ideas I find on the internet in one neat organized spot.
What it really means is that I no longer have piles and piles of recipes that I printed off that I want to try someday. Now they are all neatly store in cyper-space and I can just pull up my Pinterest account when I am ready to make them.
I call it crack for crafters.
Well, what fun is just looking on Pinterest? Although it is pretty darn fun, I needed to get my booty into action and make something.
My friend Kaisha kick-started me when we had our Saturday scrapbooking day a few weeks ago. Except for she didn't scrapbook. She made crafts she had found on Pinterest.
Exhibit #1. Yard lollipops (for her sweet Emma's 2nd birthday).
Exhibit #2. These canisters will hold seasonal candy. "Boo" for Halloween and "Joy" for Christmas. (You can change out the lettering.) This was a birthday gift for her sister.
Exhibit #3: ribbon storage. I love me some organizational containers. Will says I just like to buy containers to put stuff in. This is an awesome way to organize ribbon. I came straight home and made this myself. I already had the containers, purchased some pre-cut dowel rods from Hobby Lobby and voila. 3 containers full of easily accessible ribbon.
So on to my own first real Pinterest project ... covering the kids' bathroom stool. (These stools came from Target and run $12-14 I think.) We've had these a while and the tops were starting to look ragged and dirty.
Supplies needed:
stool
Mod Podge (I used matte)
Clear acrylic spray (this was $5 at HL)
scrapbook paper
foam paint brush
Time
(1) I traced the top of my stools onto my scrapbook paper. I actually ended up having to cut it a little smaller to fit the top. You can figure out what works best for you.
{Cute helper is not required.}
(2) Clean stool. (3) Brush modpodge onto stool and put paper on top. You might want to use something flat (like a Pampered Chef stoneware scraper) to smooth out the wrinkles. (4) Dry. If you don't, your paper will wrinkle up from being too wet when you apply the top coat of modpodge. (5) Apply top coat of modpodge. (If you've never used modpodge before, it will be clear when it dries.) (6) Dry.
(7) Spray entire top with clear acrylic spray. This will water-proof the paper, a necessity since these will be near the bathroom sink.
The finished product. You can see the tutorial I used here.
It's really just another social networking site (you can invite friends, follow friends, etc.). But I love how it organizes all of the great ideas I find on the internet in one neat organized spot.
What it really means is that I no longer have piles and piles of recipes that I printed off that I want to try someday. Now they are all neatly store in cyper-space and I can just pull up my Pinterest account when I am ready to make them.
I call it crack for crafters.
Well, what fun is just looking on Pinterest? Although it is pretty darn fun, I needed to get my booty into action and make something.
My friend Kaisha kick-started me when we had our Saturday scrapbooking day a few weeks ago. Except for she didn't scrapbook. She made crafts she had found on Pinterest.
Exhibit #1. Yard lollipops (for her sweet Emma's 2nd birthday).
Exhibit #2. These canisters will hold seasonal candy. "Boo" for Halloween and "Joy" for Christmas. (You can change out the lettering.) This was a birthday gift for her sister.
Exhibit #3: ribbon storage. I love me some organizational containers. Will says I just like to buy containers to put stuff in. This is an awesome way to organize ribbon. I came straight home and made this myself. I already had the containers, purchased some pre-cut dowel rods from Hobby Lobby and voila. 3 containers full of easily accessible ribbon.
So on to my own first real Pinterest project ... covering the kids' bathroom stool. (These stools came from Target and run $12-14 I think.) We've had these a while and the tops were starting to look ragged and dirty.
Supplies needed:
stool
Mod Podge (I used matte)
Clear acrylic spray (this was $5 at HL)
scrapbook paper
foam paint brush
Time
(1) I traced the top of my stools onto my scrapbook paper. I actually ended up having to cut it a little smaller to fit the top. You can figure out what works best for you.
{Cute helper is not required.}
(2) Clean stool. (3) Brush modpodge onto stool and put paper on top. You might want to use something flat (like a Pampered Chef stoneware scraper) to smooth out the wrinkles. (4) Dry. If you don't, your paper will wrinkle up from being too wet when you apply the top coat of modpodge. (5) Apply top coat of modpodge. (If you've never used modpodge before, it will be clear when it dries.) (6) Dry.
(7) Spray entire top with clear acrylic spray. This will water-proof the paper, a necessity since these will be near the bathroom sink.
The finished product. You can see the tutorial I used here.
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Fall Cuteness
I spent a Thursday night and Friday afternoon at my mom's house on her embroidery machine.
Here are the fruits of my labor.
Two cute Halloween shirts for Claire. These shirts are plenty big and long so she should be able to wear them again next year.
3 pumpkin shirts for the kids to wear on our annual pumpkin patch trip. I love how the trucks turned out.
It wouldn't be fall without football season. We took the big kids to their first Alabama football game and they had to have cute outfits to wear. (I made Luke a shirt too even though he stayed home with Meme.)
I still need to make the boys some pants out of the gray polka dot fabric. They are wearing jeans with them for now, but I had to whip up this cute skirt for Claire. It literally took me 30 minutes to make this skirt from start to finish. (I made it while Will was putting the kids to bed.) It is this pattern.
Next up ... Christmas and snowmen. (I debate making turkey shirts for the kids every year, but I typically just let them wear their pumpkins for Thanksgiving.)
Here are the fruits of my labor.
Two cute Halloween shirts for Claire. These shirts are plenty big and long so she should be able to wear them again next year.
3 pumpkin shirts for the kids to wear on our annual pumpkin patch trip. I love how the trucks turned out.
It wouldn't be fall without football season. We took the big kids to their first Alabama football game and they had to have cute outfits to wear. (I made Luke a shirt too even though he stayed home with Meme.)
I still need to make the boys some pants out of the gray polka dot fabric. They are wearing jeans with them for now, but I had to whip up this cute skirt for Claire. It literally took me 30 minutes to make this skirt from start to finish. (I made it while Will was putting the kids to bed.) It is this pattern.
Next up ... Christmas and snowmen. (I debate making turkey shirts for the kids every year, but I typically just let them wear their pumpkins for Thanksgiving.)
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