Calm down bottle

I have seen these bottles all over Pinterest and have had it on my to do list to make for about 7 months or more. Yeah I finally did it. It was so easy and both my little ones love it. Lets be honest here, there are times in the day where I am staring into it too to find my calm spot as a pray for patience. What can I say I like stuff that is shiny! Okay so here is how to do it. get a clear container of your chose. I used a Voss water bottle cause it was a harder plastic and I was not about to use glass around an upset child. Especially since my son thinks you should throw everything that is handed to him. fill it 3/4 of the way with warm water then add 1/2 bottle of glitter glue. Elmers is the best. put the lid on and shake then add more glitter use fine glitter the bigger ones kinda ruin the effect. I learned from experience on that one.:( then fill the rest of the way with water and hot glue the lid. and you are done. Ingredient: *container of your choose *warm water *Elmer's glitter glue *fine glitter NOT big ones *hot glue

1st grade lunches

I love making school lunches! It is so much fun to think about and plan. I found a couple sites that have free printables for lunch box notes on Pinterest. These sites have my favorites. Reasons to skip the housework , Frugal coupon living , and Moritx fine blog designs Here is her first two days of schools lunches. the sandwich and turkey wrap are double stacked

I am back!

I am back! Finally! Since my last post I got pregnant after 15 stressful months of trying. This can be a very sad and frustrating time in a women’s life, if you know anyone going through this please pray for them. Ask God to show them patience in waiting on his plan. In February 2013 I had a beautiful little boy, named J. My sweet little bundle was up every 2 hours for a year. Let’s just say I forgot how old I was this year for my birthday. My 6 year old had to remind me I was 33 not 32! I don’t know how we do it! God sure did design us with that in mine. H just started 1st grade on Monday and I am so proud of her. She is growing into such a wonderful young lady. J is now 18 months old and now that H is back in school and summer is behind us, I am ready to start tot school with J. I am so excited to be spending a lot of one on one time with him this year. It does feel so weird without H playing and singing around the house. I will be honest I am struggling so much more emotionally with her going to 1st grade than I did for kindergarten.

Valentine's day Cinnamon rolls

We made these this morning for breakfast. I had intentions to make these super cute cinnamon rolls. Problem the Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls I bought didn't unroll so I improvised. We added a drop of neon pink food coloring to the frosting and a couple Valentines colored sprinkles. Over all they still tasted the same and H had fun decorating them so it was a win. We made lemonade from our sour lemons:)

My new love thirty one

I love my new thirty one mini organizer!!! If you haven't heard of thirty one it is a Christian organization that sells bags or all kinds they are amazing! I use this one to keep all the little things I need for the car in one place. I have sunscreen, brush, body spray, wet ones, sanitizer, first aid kit, and snacks. I keep this in the car and I can easily grab what ever I need or just grab the whole thing and more it to another car or to the house ect. it is much fun. If you are interested in see more here is the link to the site.

Valentines playdough

I am a huge fan of play dough!! it is such great sensory play and it is open ended creativity. You can make anything with play dough the possibilities for imagination is endless. I like to give some special toys to add interest and fun for holidays. I added several heart cookie cutters to this one for Valentines day and added glitter to it to make if sparkle. She has a small cookie sheet and decided to bring it over to pretend to make cookies and have a cookie shop. Then she made a snowman and a snake I love how open it can be. I love making my own play dough cause it is cheap, easy and I can make it whatever I want. This one is a kool-aid recipe, I used pink lemonade kool-aid for smell and color. However, the pink was not quite pink enough for me so I added a couple drops of neon pink food coloring. I didn't want it to pink because you wouldn't be able to see the pretty red glitter. I make it for the first time in my kitchen aide mixer with the kneading tool wow so much easier than by hand. My daughter measured and poured everything in the recipe except the water. I really think it is important to let kids explore the kitchen with you at a young age. there is so much to learn from math to following directions and the most important thing bonding and have that special one on one time.

Kool aid play dough recipe
1 cup flour
1/2 cup salt
1 pk kool aid any flavor
glitter I used red
3 tbs oil
1 cup boiling water

mix dry add, add wet, knead till all comes together will be hot don't let kids help with this part. if you don't have a mixer with kneading attachments knead by hand on wax paper or cool surface. Store in a air tight container. keeps for a long time.

Homemade games for kids

I love making fun stuff for cheap for kids to do. These are both games that can be played inside on a rainy day, outside enjoying some sun or for kids birthday parties. Plus you can have any age group play with the first one from toddlers to mommies and daddies. Anyway you look at it they are going to have a ton of fun. Me and a friend made these for our MOPS group for the MOPPETS program. If you don't know about MOPS it is a Christian based group for Mothers of Preschoolers. (really age 0-5) it is amazing. here is a link to the MOPS site so you can get more information on it.

I got buckets from the dollar store and H is trying to toss a bean bag in it. You can make this game a lot cheaper by using large aluminum coffee cans. and you don't have to use a bean bag you could use a ball, a pair of socks as your folding laundry, a small stuffed animal anything really. We have the buckets numbered so that way when she makes the bean bag in the bucket she can tell me the number she made it in to help with number recognition.
This is just a simple ring toss from paper plates and a wrapping paper roll left over from Christmas wrapping paper. just take the paper plates and cut the center out and paint them different colors for fun. Then stack a couple plates to make sturdy and glue together for base. take the wrapping paper tub and cut slots at bottom to flip out and glue down. and the game is ready to begin. This is a little challenging for the toddlers to get the motion of the frisbee but not impossible.

Muffin Tin Monday: Snow

We have been talking about winter and snow this week. So for Muffin Tin Monday I pulled out the snowflake muffin tin. Unforchantly, I was out of everything I wanted to use for today's lunch. So we just had kinda a plain lunch but just know I had a cute snow themed idea maybe I will use it next week. For lunch today we had yogurt covered raisins (snowballs), carrots, tomatoes, broccoli, apple slices and turkey and cheese on thin buns. I forgot to put the hot chocolate with marshmellow in picture (snowman soup)

Before lunch we had a snowball fight with cotton balls. H loved this we have been doing this all week and she keeps asking me to do it all day. lots of fun cheap entertainment.
Then we used some of the cotton balls to make a snowman and then glued some glitter to make snow.

December Activities

Here are some more things we did in December, that I never got around to posting.
We made our first gingerbread house. This was an experience! I did not expect it to be that challenging or messy did I mention sticky. LOL. it was really fun but I just want not prepared for the mess and I assumed it would just come out amazing. It was a lot of work. We really enjoyed making it and H did more licking her fingers than anything but all in all I think I found a new family tradition.

I am prepared for next year and am so excited to see the difference as the years go by and we learn more about this each year.
Christmas tree pancakes! This was a lot of fun, I made pancake batter and added green food coloring and peppermint extract and put it in a squeeze bottle I got at Walmart for 97cents by the kitchen gadgets. I learned how to do this here! This blog has some of the most amazing pancakes.


Then I used it to make an outline on the pan that was like a Christmas tree. Make sure you pan is on low heat or you will not see the green.
Then filled in the outline with the pancake mix.

Here is how it turned out. I added blackberries to make it look like ornaments on the tree.

Reindeer breakfast: This was made with two pancakes one smaller than the other, two chocolate chips, ham cut like antlers and a red candy for nose.

SNOWFLAKE ORNAMENTS
So this is one of the coolest projects I think I have ever done. I love it and it was so simple. All it is is Borax laundry soap found in the laundry detergent isle. Hot water and pipe cleaner. First you make a shape with pipe cleaners I made a snowflake. Then add a string to hold it and attach to a pencil to hang. Heat water to almost a boil mix in 1/3 cup of Borax and stir in a glass jar till mostly dissolved and hang ornament in water high enough to cover completely. (like this)

Then just wait we did it at night and then checked it in the morning. and this is how it turned out.
completely amazing!!

And we made a Christmas tree from a sugar ice cream cone, left over icing from cupcakes and left over candies from gingerbread house. H painted and decorated the ice cream cone all by herself. Again she did a lot of licking of her fingers lol.

Gingerbread man

OK this was my first experience with making gingerbread men or ginger snips in general. it didn't go so well lol. she did excellent helping mix pour and even roll out the dough. how ever when it came to cutting it out. she did the cookie cutters great and then I tried to move them to the pan then turned to a ginger bread blobs. lol I ended up cooking them most of the way in a big giant cookie and then cutting them out and finishing the cooking process. lol it worked. I have talked to several people and I have learned cut them out on parchment so all I have to do is move the parchment to the pan and not the dough. I love how we can learn from every experience and we can grown. I can see how moms of older kids seem to have it all together cause they have done it over and over again and learn something new each time. I think that is so important for all moms to understand and know. No one is perfect but we can all grow and learn.

Coffee filter snowflakes

SO this is a classic winter activity that I can remember doing as a kid. It is so simple you just take a round coffee filter and fold it in half then in half again and again. then you cut the sides not going all the way through the filter. when you open it looks like a snowflake. We made several and up them up on the siding glass door. She was not very enthusiastic at first then when she opened it and it looked like a snowflake she was so excited and couldn't wait to do more. I think this may be a new tradition.

Pin cushions

I don't know about you but every time I sew I am always hunting the pin cushion. I gets moved or hinds under the material. Well I got tired of it the other night when I was sewing and made this. I am not sure what I should call it or if it has been done before, but I was quit proud. I made a pin cushion that has ribbon attached to it and it can tie around sewing machine. it doesn't move and is really handy. Thought I would share.

Snowman pancakes

I love making special things for H. this morning she requested snowman pancakes. I thought I would share what we made. just made 3 small circles in the pan one on top of the other. then after cooking added M&M's so simple but so special for her this morning. I just love the little things.

Northpole breakfast from UP

Up (our Elf) made H a surprise breakfast special from the North pole. She had chocolate, powder sugar donuts decorated like a snowman with black gel icing and part a sour worm for the nose. She also had a note from Up saying that she had a special message from Santa. IF you have not see this site check it out it is awesome messages you customize from Santa. Here http://www.portablenorthpole.tv/home

Elf on the Shelf

We had an arrival from Santa in the mail about a week ago. He was sent to watch over H and report to Santa about her behavior. It is awesome!!!!! She is so good and her room is staying so clean. He hides in different places everyday after reporting to Santa that night. The package came in the mail in Santa wrapping paper with a note from Santa.

Taco Pizza

So my lovely husband was sent to the store for tortillas and came home with an 80 of corn tortillas! 80 what am I going to do with 80 tortillas so I starting getting creative. I took the idea of a pizza and a tostada and combined them. I grilled a tortilla in a skillet and once it was brown on one side I flip it and add a light layer of cheese let it melt and then add a mixture of beans, salsa, taco seasoning and sour cream that was warmed. and a small layer of cheese on top. Taco pizza.

Thanksgiving Muffin tin Monday

For MTM this week we did a Thanksgiving theme. We have string cheese, apples (she ate some of them before i could get a picture), bugles for cornucopia's, carrot sticks, celery sticks and turkey grill cheese made with fruit leather and sweet peppers. After lunch we made turkeys from play dough by adding feathers and googly eyes.

Baking soda and vinegar experiment

My husband showed H what happens when you mix baking soda and vinegar a while back and she was totally impressed. only problem she wanted him to do it again and again. So I came up with this solution. I poured some baking soda in a baking pan and I put water in one container with blue food coloring and vinegar in another with purple food coloring. I gave her an eye dropper and we experimented. We talked about what we thought would happen with them and then looked at the differences in the reaction of the water and baking soda vs the vinegar and baking soda. She loved it and was able to see it happen over and over. When she was tired of playing with it we did a grand finally and poured all the vinegar left over in the dish!

Pumpkin Investigation

My daughter loves Sid the Science Kid and how he always investigates thinks. So this year before we carved our little pumpkin we had a pumpkin investigation. I saw this idea someone I think pinterest and had to do it. I just hand made a investigation form, we looked at and wrote down information. I was a lot of fun and we learned a bunch about pumpkins and I loved this project till we got to our last question (How many seeds are in the pumpkin?) can I tell you I had no idea! I will let you see for yourself







434 seeds inside one tiny pumpkin!!!!!!!!!!!! we gathered them in groups of 10 then counted by tens. wow that was hard work