st patty's day fun

i just found the crafting chicks and have been all over the site. so many great ideas. for st. patty's day, jamie posted a treause hunt with these adorable for personal use printable clues. check out their site here. 

jessekate designs also has a fun treasure hunt with a twist. check out her site here.

the crafting shicks also featured these cool printables for an awesome teacher. they also have a notecard that you can fill in 'Lucky to have you because...' i think this would be a totally unexpected surprise for a neighbor left on their doorstep with a treat.

can't wait to surprise my two littles with the sneaky little guy that has been turning things green all over town. he got the donuts at the supermarket already and the neighbors front door with a st. patty's day sign. i wonder where he will strike again!

she passed!

my little girl....boo hoo boo hoo. she had passed preschool. before having kids, i always though i would not be ready to be the mum of a child in school and then i got pregnant and a arrived. i couldn't imagine anything sweeter in my life but, i also cannot believe how fast the years pass.

 we made this adorable tote for a's teacher. she drew a picture of herself and yor teacher, mrs. craker and then together we stitched the image onto fabric and then stitched it onto denium and the upcycled bag from a fair. fyi...a is the bigger person!

 a was so excited to share her classroom with her brother and h was so excited to actually touch the toys instead of eyeing them from the door.

 he was never going to want to leave.

 so proud!

 truly, can you believe how cool this classroom is.

and, how cool this teacher is! thank you. thank you, for loving my child! you rock!

i know an old lady who swallowed a pie

happy turkey day, dear friends!!! i hope that your pants still fit after all of the festivities. let's be honest the day is all about FOOD!! yummy food and pies and bars!

i wanted to share this video of an awesome 4 year old sharing the book 'i know an old lady who swallowed a pie' by alison jackson. watch the video and do the activity with your child. have them retell it to your thanksgiving guests.

if you cannot get the images to print please email me and i will send the files your way.

crayon melts

with little kids always scribbling, we were starting to accumulate quite a few broken crayon bits and pieces around here and remaking them into muffin shaped composite crayons seems like a fun way of giving them a useful second life. and, well. who doesn't love a little chemistry in the lab!

so, we set right to work sorting out colors. i took the lid to a container and traced circles on a sheet of paper in all the different colors and had a and h scribble away.  then we filled our mini muffin tin with our mixes. and, popped them in the oven at 200 degrees for about 10 minutes. keep your eye on them though. have your children set a timer and record the progress.

picture www.kiddley.com



there you go. mini crayon cookies! next up...creating new names for all your colors. ava had a princess pink cupcake and i am pretty sure that hudson would love to name the one grampa green as he loves to ride in his john deere tractor. but, seriously who gets that job. i think i would like to sign up.
just a few tips:
•use only one brand/kind of crayon. the batch we made of only regular crayolas melted more evenly. washable ones (very hard to melt) and all the freebies from dining establishments, differential melting becomes a problem as some melt to water-like consistency while other are rock hard.

•2-3 highly contrasting colors gave the best scribble. the all-shades-of-blue cookie looked great, but was a little underwhelming when it came to performance testing.


•3 full crayons are about all that you'll want in a mini-muffin tin. it looks like it will hold more, but you don't want them coming over the edge and spilling in your oven. use a pan underneath while the Cookies are in the oven.


if you try this yourself, i would love to see your rainbow of colors and hear the interesting names they are given.



little junebugs

and then there is just the essence of summer....i am drinking in summer like a thristy toddler sipping water from the hose or the kid trying to catch the drops of water on their tongue from the sprinkler. it's refreshing. it's calming. i don't know whether i am in a new place this summer and am able to enjoy more or if this summer simply has more to offer. obviously hudson is at a totally different stage....he is a walking/running mobile this year and ava is at a totally different stage as well with her miss independent, i can play mama stage.

it is such a virbant world out there....i'm finding myself ..... happy. my kids are a rich blessing making me so entirely happy.

in summer, we make lists. we make lists of all the things we want to do or plan on doing....not that we actually do everything .....but the talking and process of writing a list is exciting. just like talking about the vacation i dream of. envisioning islands that seem so far away where there are colors and sunshine and clouds that stand out against vibrant skies so amazingly, just talking about it makes me crazy.

so, now that june is ending, paul and i did one of our dreamy let's do more chit chats.....let's have more barbecues. let's chase fireflies at night and watch the stars come out. let's make lemon-lime mojitos with friends while the kids dance around the yard playing hide and seek. let's take the kids on a duck ride ....you have to live in wisconsin to get this one....

i can feel it. that peek of childhood wonder that brews within and gets stirred up now and then to release a storm of happiness. Like the waves of the ocean swirling, rising and crashing awakening an adventurous spirit.

that's what summer does. frees me. inspires me. to relive childhood happinesses and somehow strive to create some magical land of never-ending happy days and colorful memories for my kids.

so, the list goes on.

spend the day with friends at the lake...Check.

blow bubbles in the summer heat and throw water balloons....maybe a giant one...

visit the beach often and watch my summer sprites take on the waves and sand.

let's go mini-golfing.

splash in the puddles with my children. check.

 

dance in the rain. check.

 

catch this kid. he is out that door as fast as can be. give him lots of hugs and kisses. check.

play outside. color outside. have picnics in the shade. everything is better when you are outdoors. check.

make an after dinner trip to get ice cream in our pajamas. why not.

"the aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely, aware." henry miller

i am living my happies. to sidle up next to little bodies and kiss tiny feet, hold tiny fingers, wisp away blonde curls from sun-drenched checks and tell stories of summer adventures. like barbecues. and trips to the beach and diving into pool waters for late night swims.


so far, we have had one delicious june. and i'm loving my little junebugs.

colour my world

look at these awesome rainbow cookies from the cookie blog. another way cool site i recently found is belinda moon's blog and i am so in love with her everyday creativity. she offered up her playdough recipe to me and my kids wanted all the colours of the rainbow as well. i hope you will try this in your home. i am now on the hunt to find alphabet cookie cutters....a great homeschool activity, don't you think?

2 cups plain flour

4 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 tablespoons cooking oil

1 cup salt

2 cups of water

mix in a saucepan until congeals and is hard to stir. you can add food colouring during cooking or make it plain and then mix it in by kneading with your hands.

photo from moonmum

here's hoping you have a sunny weekend full of bright cheery colours.

growing up with veggies

jamie oliver’s food revolution and the time for lunch campaign has really inspired me to get my kids growing their own veggies this spring. it’s rewarding on so many levels and may even help soothe and relax us as some days are a little too busy. we'll get to spend time together, and we can then prepare and eat all the goodness that we grow. so, they’ll taste new things. all we need to do is make a plan, keep it simple and give them a little know-how they’ll use forever.

make a plan

get a seed catalog or visit a local nursery with your kids and have them pick out the vegetables they want to plant either from seeds or seedlings.

i like choosing a few unusual vegetables like multi-colored cauliflower or carrots (sometimes these will get very curly if planted too close) and prehistoric looking broccoli.

if you feel unsure about what to plant, kits specifically for kids and novices make it a bit easier to grow a selection of everything from herbs to tomatoes or even a “rainbow of vegetables”

sit with your little one to draw a garden plan on paper so they can start visualizing what it will look like and the things they wish to grow....maybe a cookie tree.

get planting

find a nice sunny spot in your garden or a container for your patio or balcony, and there are many options available (window boxes, planters, raised beds, etc).
i have noticed that a lot of our garbage is actually stuff that would be very beneficial to a garden. we might try an odor-free countertop composter.

to add to the lesson of how stuff grows, have the kids plant a few seeds in a transparent container so they can watch what happens under the soil (like an ant farm for veggies)

having kid-sized garden tools or at least more than 1 of each is key to a peaceful experience....i haven't quite figured out how many of each we need because hudson always seems to find a way to carry more and more all at once!!! but, this guarantees they can get into the work too and they may just have a lot of energy to burn. nuchi (a wisconsin based toy company) offers this colorful set.

a mini wheelbarrow holds your equipment, dirt and plants and is lightweight enough for the kids to be able to transport everything on their own.

books to help

plant a rainbow  and growing vegetable soup by lois elhert
tops and bottoms by janet stevens "ONCE upon a time there lived a very lazy bear who had lots of money and lots of land."
the ugly vegetables by grace lin

family treat

you have spent all day digging in the dirt now try this yummy dessert. give your kids a small bowl of chocolate pudding, sprinkle some crushed oreos on top and have them mix their "soil". once the dirt is ready have them plant their own lollipop flower.