Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!

My husband is probably gagging at the title of this as we speak. Wait a minute, he doesn't even read the blog, so never mind!

Yesterday was the second day of spring break, and we were lucky enough to go to the aquatic center the first day. We had plans with some friends but they got sick. =(  So, I pulled out my box of containers, cereal boxes, lids, baby food cups, syrup bottles, etc. First (sorry no pictures) I gave the kids all the see-through containers I had. Lots of different shapes and sizes! I sent them on the deck with a giant pitcher of water and 5 different colors of food coloring. Throw in a few funnels, and they had a great time! They played for almost 2 hours with that. For my kids, that's record-breaking!



Then we played with a lizzard that was found in our yard! It was so fun! We named him 'Raichu'. Yes, we have Pokemon fans at our house. Cameron got out his field journal and drew a picture of him and wrote down facts that we observed. He also found the lizard in his 'Reptiles' book.

Finally, we made a marble run. I have seen these on the web for a while and wanted to build one with the kids. But school and homework and chores and dinner always get in the way of fun!!! We (again) pulled out our box of 'trash' and went to work designing! We used a t.p. roll, 2 liter soda bottle, a paper towel roll, Alexis' cheerleading yeller-into-thingy (yeah, I hated cheerleaders so why would I know what that's called?) a corn-dog box, an egg carton, a hot chocolate canister, and lots of masking tape! I loved the idea of taping it all to the wall. It was so easy and so fun to use trial and error to get it just how we wanted! It took some work getting the angle right so the marble would spin around the 2 liter bottle. I especially love our ending. Having the marbles drop into different egg slots instead of just plopping into a cup!

Charity never faileth

While checking my favorite blogs, I came across this! It is an awesome cookbook that can either be downloaded as an ebook or purchased as a regular cookbook. All proceeds benefit this sweet family, whos 2 daughters suffer from a autoimmune disease. Please check it out!


http://www.lemonpoppycake.com/2012/03/blogging-for-fishes-buy-now.html

Nice to meet ya!

Yesterday, we woke up to this! Crazy since 2 days before the kids were playing outside in the water!!! Because it was such a blah day (and because school was cancelled) we decided it was time to meet our neighbors! (After all, we’ve been here for 2 months now and don’t know any of them!) We don’t have too many that live here year-round, but we’ve seen some cars recently at houses close by. We all got bundled up and went to deliver some cheer on such a gloomy day!





Amelia was a good sport until we got home. Then she decided she’d had enough! Such a cute little snow bunny! We only made it to 2 houses, but got to know one neighbor really well! They were sooooo nice and welcoming and we look forward to getting to know them better, as well as meet more neighbors! While we had a great time, we also froze to death!!! Maybe we’ll meet the rest of the neighbors on a nicer day. =)

Saint Patrick’s Day!!!

Well, here are lots and lots of pictures! Hopefully the pictures will tell 1,000 words since I don’t really want to write a lot!

 

 

St. Patty's Day! VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

New look!

Inspired by Blue Skies Ahead, and my current obsession with banners, I decided to freshen up the look of my blog! My dear friend Shanna helped me create my old layout, and I LOVE it still. But it was so dark that I felt it detracted from the pictures. I can't wait to do a post about St. Patrick's Day but my pictures aren't posting the way I want. So hopefully tomorrow!

Shamrock cupcakes

Cameron is this week's student of the week! So today he got to bring in a small snack or treat for a 'taste test'. I decided to make mini cupcakes, as they eat plenty of sweets. And honestly? What kid actually FINISHES their cupcake?! I just used white candy coating to make the shamrock shape onto wax paper. Then I used green sprinkles!

Hello, Roy G. Biv!

Today we talked about the colors of the rainbow and did this super easy, no mess art project!

I am just LOVING those white color coding stickers!!!! Btw, according to Alexis, 'there is no room for Violet' ;)

Shamrock game!

I first saw this idea on Alphamom.com. (If you can't tell, that's a link back there!) We've made about 3 of these games so far. I've made one, and the kids have made 2! I thought it would be fun to do a St. Patrick's day version. I asked my mom (who's a teacher) to send me about 100 die cut shamrocks, and this is one of the activities we are using them for! You could always use squares of green paper instead of the shamrocks. You write activities on most of the shamrocks (we leave a few blank spaces!) You flip a coin and heads=2 spaces, tails=1 space. We usually use game pieces from another game, but this time we'll be using a green M&M or Mike & Ike. Here are a list of the silly things written on our shamrock game.

-Name 5 things that are green

-Make a pipe cleaner clover

-Name all the colors of the rainbow

-Hop 3 times (4 if you are feeling lucky!)

-Juggle some gold

-Eat your game piece and get a new one!

-(softly)Pinch the person to your left!

-Do an irish jig

-What would you do if you found a pot of gold?

Fool's Gold

Want some fake gold this Saint Patrick's day? I've had a HECK of a time finding any gold coins this year!!! So I said, 'forget it' and made some gold nuggets myself! I used tin foil, toothpicks, and gold paint.

Crumble the tin foil up, stick a toothpick in it, and dip it in the gold paint. (I felt like I was dipping truffles!) I set them on wax paper in hopes that they would not stick and not rip off any paint. I WAS RIGHT! Sorry the pictures suck, but honestly they look really great!

Put them in a Halloween cauldron for some Leprechaun gold! (Hopefully my kids won't notice a black outline of fire on said pot! haha)

Go Green!

Only 4 more days until Saint Patrick's Day!!!!!! I'm so excited! Here's a sneak peak of one of our games. Don't eat Pete, clover-style!!!

Here, ducky ducky ducky!

This is a pond with ducks and geese that is pretty much right behind our house! We have only been there a few times because it is SOOOO windy here! Almost as bad as Eagle Mountain! Hopefully we can go there MUCH more often in the spring/summer. Anyways, it is beautiful and the kids had fun feeding the ducks. Then me and Alexis did an art project to remember the fun!

"What! We're using REAL rocks?!?!?!" Yeah, that was a hit!

3 leaf clovers! (and a green bath)

I remember seeing heart stamps made from toilet paper rolls for Valentine's day on Pinterest. Well, lets just turn those into St. Patty's day clovers!!!

Okay, the kids honestly could care less about this. They were impressed at first that we were painting with toilet paper rolls, but after that, they were pretty bored! So... I've learned to just go with it! I can't make them enjoy it! Luckily, I had another trick up my sleeve!

Oh look, it's a potato!!!

Okay, this a little cooler...

I love how Cameron put his potato print inside his t.p. roll print! Unfortunately, I had already told the kids they could have a colored bubble bath. As SOON as they heard the water running, both of them said, 'We're done!' haha

Easy Alphabet Stickers

I know that it's not always easy to find alphabet stickers. So... let's make our own! Super easy and probably a lot cheaper, too! Remember these stickers? 525 of them for $1 at Walmart!

These were $1 too! I originally bought these with the intent of using them for some kind of robot project, but look how great they are for alphabet letters, too!!!

For added learning, have your child write the letters on the stickers themselves! Mine is still asleep, so ya know... Although, it probably looks like a 4 year old's writing. I have terrible penmanship!!!!

St. Patrick's Day!

I'm getting so excited for this seemingly unimportant holiday! Ever since I decorated 'the wall' for Valentine's day... I realized I should do that for EVERY holiday! Let me start off by saying, I don't LOVE this. I did do it for only $1 though! I think I could be a better decorator, given I had the money, supplies, and so on. BUT (any kid history fans out there? come on!) I don't have money for holiday decorating! I'd rather spend it on food and games for the holidays. I bought a wreath at the dollar store (and it was supposed to be WAY thicker! oh well) I used the only color green scrapbook paper I had, the last of my black construction paper, brads that I already had, and I had to print out the letters using a bold font (oh how I wish I had a cricut!) Anyways, with all that being said, here is my attempt at being holiday-ish! That's a word, right?

Pretend Play- Hairdresser

This was not planned at all, and was probably one of the funnest things we've ever done! I recently bought some detangler for Alexis hair (I didn't realize her hair was getting so long!). She was excited to use it on her hair. After I used it on her hair (and wow, does it work!) I remembered something I saw on Pinterest about using it on dolls hair. You are supposed to use a wig brush, but why would we have a wig brush? A regular brush still worked wonders! Okay, onto the fun part. Then she wanted to spray and brush my hair. Since it was already a frizzy mess anyways, I let her use as much spray as she wanted. Then I had an idea! Why not make her a professional hairstylist? At first she was confused with how I dressed her and some of the tools I gave her, but then she ran with it!

My blue shirt was her smock (is that what it's called?!) The scarf is her belt to hold all of her tools. The clothespin was pretend scissors so she could cut my hair!

We used lots and lots of spray!!!

"Hm... what should I use now?!"

When my hair was nice and 'detangled' she used an UNPLUGGED curling iron and straightening iron. I had a heck of a time getting pictures! hahaha

Ew, look at my nasty hair! Can I tell you how EXCITED I am to get it straightened in 3 weeks!!!!

She was very professional about it. We were not mother/daughter. We were hairstylist/client. I asked her lots of quesions about how she got into hairdressing.

How much do I pay?

-$15

How many people's hair have you cut?

-15

How long have you been cutting hair?

-13 hours

How many people's hair have you detangled? (apparently that's a popular thing at salons nowadays!)

-13

How many people's hair have you curled?

-Like 13

Where did you learn to cut hair?

-At preschool

What was your teacher's name?

-Mrs. Montheath (Cameron's old 2nd grade teacher!)

It was cute to hear her answers, but most of all, she does a character voice during pretend play. So fun!!! When was the last time you had your hair styled by a 4 year old? I highly recommend it! (Wait, don't plan on going anywhere after though!)

Learning is fun!!!

I guess I'm lucky. My kids have always enjoyed learning. They never complain about homework (well, not yet anyways!). This activity is really fun because it doesn't require my assistance other than being in the room. My mom gave me these left-over stickers from school. I've seen other alphabet stickers in the dollar section at Target though.

Then I tell Alexis a word to spell. She just peels off the stickers and builds a word on another piece of paper! When we practice writing words, she'll get stuck on a letter and ask for my help. This way, I can be doing the dishes, sweeping, laundry, etc. and all I have to do is dictate the word! I also do not correct her spelling. She is a very phonetic speller and I allow her to spell it as it sounds. She has years ahead of working on her spelling! But, if she asks me what makes the 'oo' sound, I tell her. But if she doesn't ask and creates it a different way, I never let her know it's wrong. Here are some of her words from last week!

Grass, feel, trick =)

Have fun learning!!!

Sweet Sunday

Alexis bore her testimony for the first time today!

"I'd like to bear my testimony. I know this Church is true. I know Heavenly Father loves me. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen'

In our old ward, there were too many people and way too many kids so the Bishop asked that only kids who've been baptized share their testimonies. My kids have loved this opportunity and I'm so proud of them!

More fun crafty stuff to come tomorrow!

Zingo!!!

Ever heard of Zingo? It is without a doubt my favorite kids game. It's made by a company called 'ThinkFun'. Seriously, check it out. We play it every time the kids have friends over and everyone LOVES it!!!

Colorful dots!

Thanks to Inner Child, I have REALLY enjoyed doing art projects with color coding stickers! I honestly thought my kids would think it was boring, and every activity we've done has been super fun for everyone! So easy, no mess, just lovely all the way around! I have a difficult time finding the $1 pack (they are always out at Walmart). So yesterday I happened to see a pack (of 525 by the way!) of white dots. Hmmm. Kinda boring. Enter markers! Now we have ALL sorts of colors to use for projects! Love it!

Don't ask me why that picture is sideways. It won't let me fix it! hahaha

So colorful! Just in time for spring!

Who's ready to get messy? And then clean?!

This was so fun! It kept Alexis busy for probably an hour. (Which is quite a feat!) Granted, I did it with her so maybe that's party why she stuck with it as long as she did. But I had a good time! I got this idea from Frugal Family Fun Blog. I've wanted to do this for a while now. I didn't think Alexis would be too impressed with just cars though. So I thought, "What other things need to be washed?" I came up with a shirt, teeth, a cat, hands, and a hot chocolate mug! And a car, just for the heck of it. I cut said shapes out of craft foam and then I drew details on most with permanent marker. Then it's time to get things dirty! We used crayola washable markers and drew 'dirt' on our foam items. Well, dirt and mud on the kitty, spilled hot chocolate and dried marshmallows on the mug, paint on the hands, lemonade on the shirt, and the best... food in the teeth!!! It was fun to see what Alexis came up with to dirty the foam with. One dish with soapy water, one dish with clean water and a towel to dry after the washing proccess. We added some sponges and a kitchen brush for extra washing fun!