Father's Day

Running late....as usual....
But just in case you're right there with me and need a last minute Father's Day gift idea........

The kids have been enjoying some Shel Silverstein poem books that they found on our bookshelf.  Recently, they mentioned this poem to me and I thought it was perfect for Father's Day.  I dressed it up a bit to print off for the D-A-D in our house. 

Remote-a-Dad

by: Shel Silverstein

 

 

And since I'm short on time, I am planning on having Dad take part in the kids' craft to "create" their own remote controls for Dad.  Nothing too fancy.  I'm just pulling out some cardboard and other various craft supplies and letting them use their awesome creativeness to build these special remotes.  Looking forward to lots of laughs as the kids use this poem as a little inspiration for playing with their Dad on Father's Day! 

Hoping this free download is a blessing to anyone else that is running late this year!

The Jellybean Prayer for Easter

This is a repost of an Easter project we did last year.  With Easter quickly approaching - only about 3 more weeks! - I thought it was a great time to revisit this great activity.

 

Original Post: 3/27/12

Our first Easter project finally took place.  And it's definitely one of my favorites!  The fact that jellybeans are involved might sway me a bit toward this project.  However, it's really how the jellybeans are used to share the message of Easter. 

Rudolph, the Rootbeer Reindeer!

Check out these adorable gifts that we made up for our neighbors!

I can't take credit for the idea, though.  I got it from Jenn, The Purposeful Mom (thanks, Jenn!), who got the idea from Kim, Life of a Modern Mom. 

All you need is: Root beer bottles, brown chenille stems, wiggly eyes, and red pom-poms (I used 1/2 inch size pom-poms).

Gifts for the Mailman, Etc.

Each Christmas I like to give a gift to the mailman, garbage man, and recycling man.  This year we decide to for-go the sweets and give the gift of warmth - with a pair of thick warm socks for each of them.

And what better way to wrap them, than to create a beautiful box from scrapbook paper!  I found this idea years ago on a craft show (back when I had time to watch craft shows - and sorry, I can't remember which one).

The directions are fairly easy.

Gingerbread Boys and Girls

I found these great Gingerbread cutouts in my old teacher stash.  And of course, 'tis the season to decorate!  So, I grabbed my bin full of sequins, wiggly eyes, pompoms, buttons, etc.  and I laid it all out for them. 

I encouraged them to be creative and do their own Gingerbread their own way.  Here, my Little Squirt is giggling like crazy because he used a holly leaf for the mouth of his Gingerbread Boy!

I am so, so, so impressed with their creativeness.  Just look at these!  Curly Girlie made hers a "Cookie Baking Gingerbread Girl".  Little Buddy made his a "Caroling Gingerbread Boy w/ a candle in hand (I love the singing mouth).  And Little Squirt wanted his to wear a scarf and hold a candy cane . . . and of course, his silly holly leaf mouth. 

It was a fun time of creating!  I had a ball working with each of them and watching their ideas spark!

Advent Ideas

We have a few advent traditions at our house, and it seems to be growing each year.

A few years ago we did these candy ribbons.  There is a cute poem attached to the

ribbons, along with 24 candy kisses (we used 2-sided foam tape to attach the kisses).  A large jingle bell is attached to the bottom.  And there is a binder clip at the top for hanging.  The poem goes like this:  December 1st till Chirstmas is the longest time of year.  Seems as though this special day never will appear.  How many days till Christmas?  It's mighty hard to count.  So this little candy ribbon will tell you the amount.  Remove a Kiss every night, before your bedtime prayer.  And you will reach the bell when Christmas Eve is there.

This year we decided to make some alterations from the the candy ribbon countdown - and now we have Candy Countdown Jars! 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is my very favorite holiday!  I love the family getting all together, the yummy food, the closeness, the football games, the fall weather, and just the spirit of the day.  No gifts to distract us.  Just the beautiful spirit of THANKFULNESS!

In the days prior to Thanksgiving, I had so many marvelous ideas to post about.  But time was not on my side.  So I thought I would just do the highlights of those ideas in a few pics.

Here are a few of our Thanksgiving crafts:

And here's a craft project I did a few years ago.  I had seen a similar place mat in a Pottery Barn catalog, but not wanting to pay Potter Barn prices, I decided to try to make my own.  To say I am pleased with how they came out, would be

Navajo Sand Painting

I have to admit, I tend to shy away from "messy" art projects.  It's not that I'm extraordinarily neat - it's more that I just don't want to have to clean one more thing!  (I am really not fond of cleaning.)

But every once in awhile I take a leap of faith for the sake of my kiddos not being "art project unsocialized".  And this one turned out so well.  Not sure if I was more pleased with their projects or the fact that I stayed calm - even if I did chant, "it can all be cleaned up", a few times.  And clean up didn't turn out to be that bad anyway - no disasters - yay!

We did Navajo Sand Painting.  We looked at some images on the computer to get an idea for our paintings.  The detail was amazing!  So I really encouraged the kids to go simple with their drawings for our first time sand painting.  It took

Letter C Lapbook

I finally tried my hand at lapbooks!  I was toying with the idea of doing a lapbook with my kids, but unsure of what I wanted to do.  Unsure of when to do it, sense we can't keep up with our work as it is.  And just plain unsure of how to do a lapbook.   Well, at the same time I was fumbling with all of my Little Squirts letter activities; trying to figure out a better way to manage the papers.  Then it dawned on me to make him a letter lapbook!   So, I started right where we were, on letter C. 

Kool-Aid Play Dough

As an incentive for my toddler to get dressed (we're trying to teach him to do it on his own) I promised play dough, but of course we have none.   I pulled down our play dough box and all we found were crumbles and hard pieces.  So I pulled out our favorite play dough recipe and the fun started!