Too Cute Not to Toot

Welcome back!

This first idea might be cheating but I like it so I'm going to share it.  It is actually from Not on the high street.com and is actually something that is for sale. It isn't very often that I see something and think "I can make that" but this is one I feel like I can.  It's just a canvas and wooden letters which is then painted.  I have a wall that is considered the only "hallway" in our house that is seriously lacking and I love the simplicity of this idea. 

 

The next idea  is a great gift idea from All Red Design and is a super cute idea.  As a former teacher, this would make a great teacher gift especially if you threw in a gift card for pizza or even to the real movies :-) 

We are waiting for snow around here - enough snow to build snowmen so when I saw this cute idea over at Sometimes Creative for a snowman kit.  I don't know if I will get this made this year but it is on my project list so I can get it made before next winter - a couple of sets would be good! 

When I saw this idea over at Little Green Fingers for a sunken trampoline, I had to share. I would love to put this in the yard but I think I need a bigger yard :-(  I would go out and jump on it if it was sunken in the ground!

One last idea, and yes it is another outdoor idea but this one, I WANT and I think I can do!  It comes from Better Homes and Garden and is an outdoor matchbox race track.  My kids love to take their cars outside in the summer (much to my husbands dismay!) so this would be perfect. 

Happy Crafty :-)
 

 

January Preschool

Our week was again, a little discombobulated due to having extra kids here but we still managed to get a few things done.

 We finished up learning about the Letter "A" by making our letter craft thanks to Totally Tots. 

Josh took a real interest in a computer game that I actually picked up over a year ago for him.  It's a Charlie Church Mouse (aka as Chuck-E-Cheese according to my kids).  Josh managed to figure out every single game and yes, he played for about 3-4 hours.  (don't judge).  I have installed the game on our old computer so he doesn't have to play on mine anymore and we have a timer set up - 20 minutes is what we are working on for now.  Enough time to play a few games but not enough to get brain fried!

 Window crayons made a reappearance at our house this week.  Any window that the boys could reach were covered .. as was their hair, clothes, hands (their fingernails - nasty!).  THEN they had fun cleaning the big slider - for real. 

Some of our lessons this week are what I would call "real life" lessons.  On Tuesday, the boys got to help Papa fix some lights in our house.  On Thursday, the boys got to help Darryl fix the Dishwasher.  They are such good helpers.  They also went to get haircuts - we taught them that it is important to look good for the ladies.  HA.

On Friday, we did not have extra kids so we actually did a full lesson and started Letter "B".  At the end of our lesson, they got to open a box that Nana had sent them in the mail.  It was cute because I showed them the box and told them that Papa and Nana sent it . . Nate said, "But where is Papa, why is he hiding?"   Isn't that cute? I explained that they mailed it because they missed them.  They enjoyed their treats :-)

I had hoped to get through a little more than I did this week but that is one of the joys of homeschooling - we are able to go with the flow!  Next week we are planning to get through the entire lesson on Letter B and do some fun winter related things as well since winter is actually here! 

Weekly Menu

We had another great week of eating.  We did have pizza (take out) on Monday night because the chicken did not thaw out.  I tend to forget that meat from the deep freezer takes a lot longer to thaw and need to take it out a day earlier (speaking of which I need to take meat out of the freezer for a meal!!!)

Here's the plan for this next week

Tuesday -  I've been invited to a planning session with our photographer (and several of her friends) which includes a fabulous dinner so I'm leaving pizza for the boys to cook!

Wednesday  - Million Dollar Spaghetti and bread (this is a new recipe but I've heard it is fabulous!!

Thursday - Ham and Cheese Quiche, Potatoes and Fruit Salad (This is the one carry over from last week. )

Friday - We are going to order in!!!  Darryl has the weekend off. I'm hoping to watch a movie with my husband too (War Horse) . .. so we can eat dinner and watch the movie!!

Saturday - Heading to the in-laws for Christmas dinner.  Yes, you read that right. There wasn't a date in December that worked so we pushed it to Saturday.  Added to that, we did not make it to the family Christmas gathering at the nursing home (where grandma lives) due to being so extremely ill so we are doing our gift exchange with the family that day.  I do have to take a side dish and some snacks but I'm really not sure, as I'm typing this, what I'm taking yet.

Sunday - Beef Tips and Noodles after church. Then I want to try out a Taco Soup recipe for dinner that night since it can just cook in the crock pot - no work for me!!

Monday - Chicken Parm, with Spaghetti Noodles, bread and green beans.

Food Friday - Broccoli Soup

I am linking up today over at Kellys Korner  for "Show us your Life Friday" 

Broccoli Soup
adapted from Comfy in the Kitchen

Don't you love my new dishes?  They are so awesome!  Anyway, this was one of two soups I made for New Year's Eve and it was fabulous even though I did not follow directions ;-)  One of the great things were the noodles that you add to it - it really add some "stick to your gut" fullness to this soup. So, what did I do wrong?  I didn't cook the broccoli first - had I done that, I could have then cut the broccoli into small pieces like you were supposed to - it's kind of hard to cut frozen broccoli pieces! I also had probably twice as many noodles as it called for as well.  I ate this for lunch throughout the following week and it only got better as it was re-heated! 


3/4 c. chopped onion
3 T butter
3 c. chicken stock
4 oz. very thin noodles
1/2 t. salt
1-10 oz. pkg frozen, chopped broccoli, cooked according to directions & finely chopped
1/2 t. garlic powder
3 c. milk
1/2 lb. velveeta
pepper to taste

saute onions in butter until tender. add chicken stock & heat to boiling. add noodles & salt & cook for approx. 3 minutes. stir in broccoli & garlic powder & cook 4 more min. reduce heat & add milk & cheese, stirring constantly until cheese is melted. season w/ salt and pepper to taste.
 

Book Study - 21 Ways to Connect with your Kids

Not long ago, I posted my Topical Study for the year and it has to do with raising good kids.  (That is easier to spell then conscientious . . ).  The funny thing is I also made this lengthy list of books I wanted to read on this topic but I missed one book that was really my #1 choice to read and that is a book title 21 Ways to Connect with Your Kids.  I came across it last fall on a blog I follow but have not had a chance to start reading it until this month.

The author, Kathi Lipp, is so honest and that makes me want to keep reading. One of the first truths that I came across was this simple statement:
"Your kids need you to invest in them when they are young so that when they are older, they don't ever have to question your love for them." 
Isn't that a great thought?  Even when your kids struggle and go through valleys when they are teenagers (or even young adults) they won't doubt your love - you have already invested in them and they know that you love them.   Kathi also offered a couple of simple reminders - 1) God gave the right parent to the right kid and 2) God gave the right kid to the right parent. Wow.  God doesn't make a mistake, does He?  How often, though, do we run to friends, books, family and others with questions on our kids - instead we need to be on our knees in prayer begging God to guide us to raise our children in the right way.  Talk about convicting.  Yes, I was convicted that I need to pray for my boys more; really I need to pray without ceasing for those two special kids.

Next up is I'm going to work with my husband and we are going to do a little "personality" test provided in the book for each of the boys.  I want both my husband and I to complete it alone and then compare so we can see if we view our kids the same way ;-)  That info then will help us be able to be more intentional with each of the kids.

The final step in this book is completely 21 different items with your kids.  I look forward to reading through those ideas and sharing what we do with each of you! 

Nate's Birthday Weekend Getaway

You may recall that Nate's birthday was on December 22nd and shared all about his birthday activities HERE. This year, both of the boys chose going to a Hotel (with a pool, of course) as their big birthday item instead of having a big family party.  Instead of trying to fit this getaway into a very busy month of December, we decided to push it into January and this past weekend was the first weekend that was open since my husband worked the previous two weekends.  To say my kids were excited about this is an understatment - Josh had been counting "sleeps" since the Sunday prior to us going and every morning he would get up and say, "Nate, just 4 more sleeps until we do your birthday hotel". 

The kids were up early on Saturday morning (like 6:30 AM early .. not when I wanted to get up,that's for sure). We had to convince them that they could only take two special friends (i.e. stuffed animals) and Nate tried to convince us that he had to take 3 HA  We finally convinced them both that their other friends would keep the animals company at home ;-)  We had a late breakfast of Holiday French Toast, Sausage and Bacon before loading up and heading out.  Amazingly, the weather was like springtime so no coats were needed to start our trip.  As we got closer to our first destination, we caught the sounds of pre-puke. Yep, car sickness has reared its ugly head again but at least we managed to give Nate a bucket (we've learned!) and yes, we were extremely excited when he actually used it!!!  ;-)  (Not happy he puked but at least he used the bucket, right?)  Poor little guy :-(  Once he emptied the contents of his stomach, though, we were good to go the rest of the day.

Our first stop was the Grand Rapids Children's Museum.  We haven't been to the museum in 2 years and the boys had a blast.  To make it better, we picked up a pass from our local library which made the museum FREE!!!  (There is a reason we haven't gone in two years . . .it's a little pricey!).  The boys played for over 3 hours; and by boys I mean Darryl too!!  Here are a few of my favorite photos from the fun museum adventure!

After leaving the museum, we headed to dinner (early dinner . .. ) at the Beltline Bar - our favorite Mexican Restureant and, by "our" I mean all of our favorite - even the boys.  The boys can down chips and salsa like nobody's business!!  We ran a few errands after dinner - a stop a Kohl's for a frame to replace one that broke and a new pillow for Josh.  His main pillow had to be thrown away after a puking episode when we were all sick.  He was so proud of his new pillow and carried it through the store and out to the truck :-)  We also stopped at Hobby Lobby because Josh wanted now stickers for his airplane he got for Christmas.  (he think you should take stickers off of it and put new ones on all of the time . .. ).

FINALLY, we got to our hotel.  Can I tell you that Priceline is my best friend?  We picked up a room at one of the nicest hotels in Grand Rapids for $40.00.  The hotel was fabulous and the pool was picture perfect.  The boys had so much fun swimming before we headed back to the room for snacks, chocolate milk and bedtime :-)  Yes, the boys were asleep in about 2 minutes - we wore them out!!

We started Sunday morning with a fun breakfast.  This hotel does not have free breakfast (it's too upscale HA) but there was a Tim Horton's across the street so Darryl drove over and picked us up Coffee, breakfast sandwiches and donuts.  We hung out at the hotel until almost noon before heading to Chuck E Cheese.  The boys have been asking to go there for awhile so we figured this was the perfect time.  We used a coupon to get a good deal on Pizza and tokens :-)  I didn't take my camera in with me so I could just play but we did get these photos ;-)

  What a fun weekend! And, thanks to priceline, I think this is something we can budget for every few months - it is so much fun to get away from home and just hang out together as a family !

Too Cute Not Too Toot

Ok,so this first idea isn't really "cute" but it sure looks good.  It comes from Mommy I'm Hungry and makes me want to eat Tacos right now!

I would love to have one (or two or three) of these little bird houses hanging in our windows so we could see if any birds would nest.  How cool would that be?  Check out the idea from Repeat Crafter me.

Random Thoughts of a Super Mom shares another great idea  for displaying kids art work.  I love the saying on the wall and think this would look great on my fridge (since that is where we hang artwork in this house!)

Ok, when I saw this idea, well, I knew I had to share it. Chicken soup is just one of those things that shows love, right? Well, why not have it REALLY show it with some heart . .. carrots.  Check out this idea from sophisti mom.

Finally, check out this idea from Slow Robot- just what every boys needs!

Happy Crafting!