{Canvas Photo Frames}

I cannot take credit for these Canvas Photo Frames. My local Scrapbooking Store had made a similar canvas for Halloween and I have been wanting to make one ever since (wanna give credit where credit is due!)

I thought it would be an adorable gift for Valentines Day for the Grandparents. I just need to add a picture onto the glitter paper part. We're not quite finished with their Valentine shirts. Once they are done, we'll get those pictures taken and mounted onto these.

I bought a pack of 2 small canvas' from Michael's. $5 can't beat that!

Simply paint around the sides of the canvas with your chosen color. I did a couple of layers to get it darker around.

Next, I cut a piece of tulle and layed it on top of the canvas. I trimmed it up to the size that it needed to be. Just eye-ball what you want. We all have different tastes!

Cut a piece of black cardstock the size of the canvas. With the tulle underneath (I kind of bunched mine up in some places) staple the cardstock on to the four corners. I used a staple gun, my weapon of choice! I then painted over the staples with black paint.

This glitter paper is a little pricey, but gorgeous. 1 paper is enough for 2 canvas'. I think my size was 8 by 8. I mounted the paper with the hot glue gun. You can use any kind of adhesive really, I just wanted this thick paper to stay put.

The last step always the most fun step, is the accents! Again, I hot glued it all on to the paper. Click here for instructions to the fabric flowers. You can also use felt to make them. Since I started making those from fabric scraps, I think almost everything in my house has a flower accent! They are so stinkin cute!

I super recommend an eyelet hole punch if you do tons of crafts (that's how I put the brad in the flower.)

I just need the to add the kid's Valentine picture.
I really want one of these. Do you ever feel like that when you make something for people? Maybe in the girls room? We're re-doing it hot pink and black, since they think they are Rock Stars!

100th Day Of School

Today was the kids 100th Day of School.

We celebrated here at the house doing a few fun things.

This was their 100th Day Breakfast!

They made necklaces that say "100 Days Smarter!"

We also made hats/crowns that are BookWorms.
I was going to draw Brains and write "Brainiac" but the girls kept saying "EWWW...GROSS!"

They painted with dot rollers.

We read a story together and counted to 100...!

For snack, we had 10 groups of 10 things. 100 pieces of food in all.

 Don't they look so smart?!

Random Dancing!!!!

If you've ever watched the show iCarly, you might have noticed during their show they do something called "Random Dancing." It's where Freddie starts playing the music and they just start dancing out of the blue.

We started "Random Dancing" when we do our chores.

I usually always play music while we clean up everyday. My stereo has mostly kids music, if I'm lucky one of my cd's will be in there. The preschoolers have their toddler music and then we have teeny bop music for the older kids like Wizards of Waverly Place, Jonas, Hannah Montana. BTW....the Hannah Montana movie soundtrack is really great. I totally recommend it. It's a good cd to clean up to as well. I taught Maelyn's friends how to do the Hoedown Throwdown (haha it's true.)

The kids have to clean up their playroom then clean their bedrooms and other chores. So, in between chores they come into the living room and we all do "Random Dancing." It makes it really fun and then we're off to clean (and sing while we clean) and then meet to Random Dance again.

Chores can be fun!

Groundhog's Day Treat

(Repost 2008)

February 2nd is Groundhog's Day. It's right around the corner. This is a yummy treat that we make almost every year.

We look up pictures on the internet of Groundhog's and print them out. They glue them onto popsicle sticks. The treat is just chocolate pudding, whipped cream and crushed Oreo cookies in layers....make sure the Oreo layer ends up on top to resemble dirt. Put the Groundhog in the cup to make it look like he's coming out of the ground.

My son already requested it, so I thought I would make a post out of it.

Letter Qq Week

Last week the preschoolers studied the Letter Qq.
These Queens are from No Time For Flashcards.
They turned out Quite adorable!

They also did Quarter Rubbings with Daddy.

The girls made Quilts out of construction paper.
I read the Josefina Story Quilt. In the story, she made a square for each memory she had on the road. So, Patience wanted to draw lots and lots of memories on her Quilt. The inside was stuffed with tissues. It usually turns out better, but this time my stapler broke. I had to use tape, so they don't look as uniform and plump like I like.

  The kids all painted snow pictures using Q-Tips.

They also stamped Question Marks and Qq's onto a piece of construction paper.

These were the books we read last week with the exemption of our Martin Luther King Jr. books.

{My Week}

Make a Smilebox collage

{Brightened the house with the light gray paint. Niece turned 2. Martin Luther King Jr lesson. New bookshelves. Snowman Cookies. Snowman Projects. Baby Luke's Dedication. Nurse called- Maelyn slipped and fell at school on muddy playground. 2 School Meetings. Cousin's Basketball Game. Mama's Crafts. Church. Home Cooked Meals. Rearranged Furniture. Noe stenciled awesome Sailor Moon shirt. Watched Twilight and Cuddled with Noe. Pokemon Card Tournament. Special Treat- Cinnabuns. }

{Valentines}

You know the Valentines Cards that come in a box that are in every character possible? Kids love those things right? When my older kids were really little, preschool age, we would buy them for friends and family. They would do a little scribble or try to write their name and we were good to go.

When Noah started Kindergarten, he picked out his favorite Super Hero cards to take to his class and Maelyn wanted to hand out Princess Valentines. Well, by the time February came around he knew how to read. So when he read the Valentine cards as he signed his name, he got so embarrassed. Most of the cards said stuff like Be Mine Valentine. He used the little bunch that actually used the word "friend" and I had to convince him that he needed to give out the rest. Maelyn wanted to know what her cards said. She blushed when I told her.

Needless to say, we haven't bought those cards since. We make them homemade every year. They can put whatever they want them to say!

We love the whole Rock Star theme.

We have conservative Christian ideals, nerdy hobbies with a Rock Star twist.

These are library envelopes that I used. They are like .10 cents at the teaching supply store. You can also cut an envelope in half to make some. I added scrapbook paper to the front. I used distress ink for the sides. With my Cricut I cut out the guitar and the skull. I just printed the words using the computer. For this guitar one, I added a flower for a girlie accent.

Pop Rocks are awesome!

I wanted to cut this cassette out smaller with my Cricut and put it on some as well. My kids didn't even know what a cassette is! Geez! I need a cartridge with a cd. (The cartridge I used, my favorite so far, is the Indie cartridge.....so Rockstarish)

We have some more to do before Valentines but we're off to a good start!

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Since I'm in a lovey dovey mood, I just wanted to tell you all thanks for all the emails and kind words you always have to say.

I feel like I haven't been able to get to talk to you lately just been busy....had a computer virus (again).....had sick kids.....painting our home.

I still appreciate you all!

{ChOrE ChARt..!}

Have you ever embarked on a craft with a vision and discovered that it wasn't possible? The whole process ends up frustrating and discouraging. Ok....so I felt like kicking this Chore Chart at one point!

Noe came in from the garage and said we had a couple of magnetic boards (from Ikea) that we should do something with. He suggested doing our Chore Chart on one of them. Great idea! I never go into the garage because it's so disorganized. Everytime I do go in there, all I can think about for days are different ways to organize it in my head. It's my husband's chore to do the garage, so I leave it alone and just don't bother or close my eyes! For the sake of my marriage.

This is the end product of my madness.......

Originally, I thought with the metal board we would paint black lines on it with different sections or the chores. As Noe used the acrylic paint on it and masking tape, the paint peeled off with the tape.

Then.....he thought using black spray paint would work. Doing the board the opposite way with the tape, leaving only the lines exposed. Noe did a couple coats and peeled off the tape slowly and the paint peeled off too! So, he spray paint more coats....and the same thing happened.

We couldn't get the paint to stay onto the magnetic board.

Instead of heading to Lowe's again to ask about our dilema, I decided to scrap the whole metal board and black lines look.
Scrapbooking was the way to go. It is more of my element (not to say that I'm an expert at it) just more comfortable with making things work.
By the way if you don't have IKEA near you, I have seen metal boards at most stores. At home improvement stores they also sell metal sheets cut down to any size. Really affordable!

A little Mod Podge to make the Scrapbook paper stick onto the metal. A little bit of ribbon here and there.

A few stickers for the words. Doing the vinyl on my Cricut was difficult to get the letters this small and to not have any of them mess up. After a few tries, stickers were my last sane resort.

A few flowers hot glued together with a button and ribbon accents.

A few clothespins Mod Podged with scrapbook paper to hold pictures of my kids.

A little paint around the edges for the finished look.
I'm not sure about the magnets yet. I made mine really small because I have 4 children that I had to fit onto here. I might end up making some Chores out of Clip Art for my youngest two that can't read. I'll give it some time to see how it works out.

I must say that I'm rather fond of it. I experienced a vast ray of emotions while making this.

I'm glad in the end, I'm content!
*

My children have always done chores. I think they just learn to help as they see me cleaning up. As young as 1 year old, they start helping putting laundry in the dirty clothes. We have tried lots and lots of Chore Charts and ways to give out allowances. My son is almost 10, so since he was little we have done the Chore system.

At this moment, each child has many of the same chores. With this chart, I wanted to be able to rotate chores more often such as setting the dinner table and feeding the guinea pig. My kids actually argue over the chores that only 1 person gets to do.

I do not do their chores for them. If there is a special occasion like a birthday...they don't have to do their chores. Either Noe and I might be in the room with the little ones to make sure they get it done. Helping them fold a blanket, and so forth.

They don't get an "allowance" for chores. They have to do their chores. We don't say "if you do your chores you get your allowance." They do their chores, otherwise who has to do them? Me!

Since they are so young they don't really need money. However, every Sunday after church we take them to the store and they get to buy one thing that is around $1. It's their treat. If they choose to save their allowance, we hand them $1. I know this may not sound like alot, but my kids really have everything that they need. Plus, if they are saving for something special like my son was saving for a video game.....we tend to give them money for grades or Student of the Month in order for them to achieve their goals.

Trust me, we have tried so many ways. I have alot of parenting books. This is just what works for us. We all have to work together in order for our home to be successful. I think we all know this and actually have a good time serving each other.

Read Aloud Presentation

When a teacher writes a lesson plan some of the things she/he keep in mind when planning what to teach is how to get the most out of the lesson and what will the children learn from the lesson. Reading to your child at home can be approached in the same way. We want our children to get the most out of the book, out of our time reading to them. So many lessons can be taught from a book.

In the book "If You Give A Cat A Cupcake," I can teach my children about the letter Cc throughout the book. I can also show them about the sequence of events that take place. They can also learn about repetition in the story.

This particular time I chose to teach them how to sequence events.

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Engagement Activity (opener): I asked the kids to tell me every step of making a cupcake. Props can be used or a dry erase board to draw and write the steps out. Another idea is to have a child who is older write the steps onto paper and draw a cupcake when finished.

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Anticipatory Set: Reinterate the cupcake idea. What are your favorite types of cupcakes? Do you use sprinkles on them? Have you ever fed your cat a cupcake? If you have a cat, where have you taken the cat before? At this time I usually ask.... where the cover page is, where the author's name appears, what is an author, what is an illustrator, where is the back cover of the book?

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Vocabulary: I try to go over the words ahead of time or while reading so they know the defintions.

Science Museum

Rowing

Treadmill

Mane

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Active Listening Strategy: When there is repetition, have the children say the words out loud.

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Assessment: This part is important to gain an understanding of what the children learned. You can simply ask the questions, or do more complex assessments. We went through the book one more time to talk about the sequence of events that took place. We also wrote them down. "Where did the cat go?" "What did the cat look at in the Science Museum?" "What exercises did cat do at the gym?"

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Closing Activity: Since we were studying event sequences, I had the kids tell me how they get ready in the morning. They went through all the events in order.

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Tying a book into activities and lessons for the week helps them to learn. While teaching math, I can cut cupcakes out and have the children count them. For art, we can make a cat out of a paper plate or a puppet. For science, I could talk about the Science Museum in the book and the Dinosaurs or the Beach. Of course, baking cupcakes is always a fun project!

Sleepover...!

My daughter Maelyn turned 7 this week. Wow, 7...!

We decided to let her have her very first Sleepover Party. I'm still exhausted from it. The girls had so much fun!

We handed out these invitations that I made out of some scrapbook paper.

Super girly and fun!

The tablecloth is fabric that I had lying around, which is why it's so wrinkled! My husband surprised me with those flowers the other day. They looked perfect as a centerpiece. He also bought my daughter a plant on her birthday. She loved it. Those teal and pink frames were at Michaels $1. We sprinkled some Valentine Hershey Kisses on the table and added some plates. The Walmart I went to, ran out of plain girly color plates. I grabbed these Hannah Montana ones because I didn't want to go anywhere else. They worked because she got a few Hannah Montana things. We also layed candy necklaces on the top of the plates.

We're on a budget here..!

For the favors, I bought all this from the Michaels $1 section. Eye masks {which they adored}, lotion and nail kit. My mom also made them kits from her work {Dentist Office} with toothbrushes, toothpaste, Hannah Montana stickers- all in glittery pink and teal cases.

The banner that says Maelyn was all made on my Cricut. For the accents I used the Home Decor Cartridge. Of course, we needed pictures of the birthday girl.

We put pictures of the guests on the wall as well. They loved seeing themselves. I let them take their pictures home. The girls from her class that she invited, when I took treats to Maelyn's class on her actual birthday...I was able to snap a picture of them.


Maelyn's Sleepover Birthday Cake that I made. I found this idea on the web. The original idea used fondant for the blanket, which would have been easier to drape. My kids don't really like fondant though, so I used buttercream. Twinkies are used for the body and Vanilla Wafer heads.


"Happy Birthday To You!"


They wanted to put their faces in their cake.


Before bed, they made pillowcases with fabric paint.


Time to style each others hair!


{Beautiful Patience}


One of her gifts was a Hannah Montana bracelet making kit. So they wanted to make bracelets.


{Sleeping Bag Races}


Time to paint each others nails.


Daddy painting my little Carm's nails.

{Gorgeous Girls}

They were still in high spirits in the morning!
I needed a BIG cup of coffee.