Problem & Solution

My girls love to do puzzles. We have so many puzzles that come in those flimsy, cardboard boxes that aren't worth anything after a child gets a hold of them. And they take up a lot of space too. So, while at Target months ago, I decided to buy some pencil holder packets and then it hit me... they hold puzzle pieces perfectly. So, I bought a bunch of them and now they are where we store our puzzles.

Most of mine have a plastic window, so I cut out the picture from the box so they know what they are putting together and put it in the window. It really is a great solution to the puzzle problem. We have about 12 of them and so the best part is they store so easily and don't take up a lot of space.

If only..

I found this woman's blog and was giddy with excitement at all of her DIY projects she has done in her house. I love when people can look at something "ugly" and make it into something beautiful. I love this mudroom... she revamped the whole thing herself and it is adorable!!! I love how she used a coffee table (she cut in half) to create the benches... I mean seriously... that is so creative. Check her site out.... she has great ideas. Now if only I could do this with my mudroom!

Here is a direct link to all her makeover projects.

Photography Logo and Business Card

I was able to complete another logo for a fantastic photographer. Again, another great business name to work with. The photographer was such a pleasure to work with and made the project that much more fun. Check out her website!

Bowling Excursion

I don't know what it is about bowling, but it is always fun to do. It is hard to get a lane and has become very expensive, but still a fun family activity. So, about a month ago, we had a monday off and decided it was the perfect day to go bowling. The girls loved it and Hannah almost broke one hundred (with the help of bumpers of course). Ella had to do everything all on her own which meant carry her ball to the slide and then pick it up high enough to get it up on top. And Jake just tolerated it, but loved it when we would jump up and down with excitement. The next time your family has a day with nothing to do, go bowling!

Birthday Party Thank Yous

I promised I wouldn't have another post about our last birthday party, but I forgot to mention our Thank you cards. While I was at Blockbuster asking for posters, the nice manager wasn't able to give me a poster, but she did give me 25 of their cardboard place holder cards for the movie Monsters vs. Aliens. I wasn't sure what to do with them, but then my husband suggested using them as thank you cards.

Brilliant! So, that is what we did. We sent these out as thank you postcards. $.44 stamp and off they went. Easy, fun, perfect!

Activity Days - Modesty Lesson

This last week for activity days, we had a lesson on modesty. We discussed what 'Modesty" was and what clothes were modest and which ones aren't. We discussed why we have these guidelines for wearing modest clothes and how we could make immodest clothes more modest. We did "Head, Shoulder, Knees and Toes" and taught how it can help them remember to be modest. When you touch your head, does your shirt show your belly? Shoulders: are they covered? Knees: are your skirts or shorts touching your knees (or close to it) and Toes: when you bend over, does your shirt show your waist and are your pants showing your bum?

Then we had two pieces of cardstock (one for modest clothing and one for immodest clothing) and the girls made collages out of the different clothing they cut from magazines. It was a great lesson and much needed for the girls. Not that they are immodest, but they really got into the lesson and asked many, many questions about what was okay and not okay to wear. As they cut out clothing they asked all kinds of questions and how they relate to them and their wardrobes.

I handed out this quote for their binders and then I gave the girls pop rocks with this tag attached to it.

(The guitar image isn't my creation and now I can't find it on the web.) I feel bad not being able to give credit to how created it). If someone knows were it came from, let me know and I will add a link).

Need to go on a trip...

to New York City just to try one of these pretty little things. PopBar

Swim, Swim, Swim

My girls love to swim, although before we started taking swim lessons, none of them really knew how to swim. Hannah took lessons 2 years ago for our local swim school where the philosophy was dunk and learn. She did learn how to swim after her classes but it didn't stick. So, this year, I had to have my kids learn to swim, I couldn't go to the pool with 3 kids not able to fend for themselves.

Well, both Hannah and Ella love their swim classes. They have both graduated to the next level and Hannah finally knows how to swim. They love that they both have a "gold medal" and both got to ring the bell. Hannah has informed me many times that she likes this swim teacher way better than her last swim teacher. They love it so much that they play swim class when they take a bath. They will be in the bath for over an hour and Hannah teaches Ella different swimming tasks she learned that week.

It has been so good that we have decided to extend the lessons just a bit longer. When it makes everyone so happy, might as well keep it up! P.S. Ella's look isn't because she is scared, she was freezing. I made her stand out there while I tried to find my camera... mean mom :-)

Kitchen Gadget to Love!

I was at Sur La Table the other day and was at the checkout counter and saw this little guy. Our family goes through strawberries like they are popcorn, so needless to say I am hulling strawberries almost every other day. The guy that worked there told me this little gadget was great, so I said "sure let's get one".

And I am so glad I did. It works great and works better than a knife (once you get the hang of it). I am so glad I picked this gadget up. Happy Mother's Day to me!

image from sur la table

Activity Days - Mother's Day Bath Sundaes

I know this is being posted after Mother's Day, but i had to wait to post this idea, so that I wouldn't ruin the surprise for many of my activity day moms. But this is what my Activity Day girls did for mother's day this year. It is a cute little Ice cream sundae made out of bath salts and a loofa. Isn't that so cute!

We had to package the ice cream sundaes in these brown paper bags, so that the moms wouldn't see their present, since we made them 10 days before Mother's Day. But I think they turned out cute with the little ice cream tags.

Okay I have to be honest, I didn't come up with this all on my own. I think it originated from here.

We had a blast putting them together and the girls were super excited to give these little treats to their moms.

Teacher Appreciation Week (redo)

This gift was for the teacher's assistant along with the fish gift and some A&W rootbeer).


I used my circut to do the vinyl work on this glass container. It was my first time using vinyl and I loved how it turned out).



I used a picture of Hannah with her teacher from the first day of school. I thought that would be cute.

I used swedish fish as the treat inside the take-out box.



Our school district's teach appreciation week is this week. I know for many of you it was probably last week, so this post is a little too late. But maybe it will help for next year :-)

I was on top of this year (yeah me!) and put together a little something for Hannah's teacher for each day of the week. Here is a little preview of some of the gifts her teacher will be getting this week as a big thank you for all she does for my daughter.

The total cost of all these gifts was $25. Which is doable when you have only one teacher to give to. I realize if I had 3 teachers, I might not have done so much, but for one, it was fun.

The red paper clip picture holder I got at Target for $5.00.
The water bottle I got at Target for $5.00. I also attached two on-the-go Crystal Light drink mixes.
The A&W was $2.40 at the grocery store.
The class container was $5 at Target and the pencils were $1 a box (I got 4 boxes) and used the leftovers for the TA's gift.
The fish and takeout containers were approx. $4 (and I used the leftovers for the TA's gift).

I am also uploading the tags I made for the gifts if you want to use them. Just click on the image and then drag it to your computer and you can print them and enjoy!

Birthday Donuts

Last birthday post for Hannah. For class, we decided to make it easy so we brought donuts with sprinkles. How more festive does it get with sprinkles. And for good birthday measure, I added colorful flags with Hannah's name on them. Just wanted to share as a conclusion to her birthday festivities. (how do you spell the noise of someone wiping off sweat from their forehead? However you spell it, inject that word here :-)

Movie Night Birthday Party

Here are all the details to my daughter's 6th birthday party. We decided to do an outdoor movie night. The decorations and theme were based on popcorn and movies. Because it was mostly outdoors, I told her she could invite 20 kids (which I know is crazy, but when you have school, church and neighborhood kids, the number adds up).

The invitations (see here) included a movie ticket. They were told they had to bring the movie ticket with them to get into the party and mostly because there was going to be a raffle that night. Everyone brought there tickets!

The party goers arrived and went straight outdoors to set up their pillows and blankets for the movie. They all played on the jungle gym as the rest of the kids arrived. Then we had the kids eat dinner. I had hotdogs and chips, grapes and strawberries.

I bought these nice trays so that the kids could just grab and go and since they were all the same there were no decisions to be made. I also went to my local pizza place and bought $5 worth of cups with lids. I was going to buy these to be like a real movie theater, but I ran out of time to have them shipped.

Then we had the raffle. I choose four names to win the prizes. We had a gift card for 1) one movie rental at Blockbuster and popcorn. 2) a $5 DVD from Target and popcorn, 3) another $5 DVD from Target and popcorn and 4) a popcorn bucket full of movie concessions. The kids loved this! I also went to our local Blockbuster and tried to get a window poster as a prize. They throw away all their posters, so if you can time it right (before they throw them away), your can get posters from Blockbuster. I didn't time it right :-)

Then we opened presents and started the movie. We had to start it a bit early, so it was still a little light out, but not to worry within 7 mins it started to get dark. We watched Monsters vs. Aliens. We had 20 chairs set up and some blankets at the front, but the chairs weren't used by any of the kids (only adults). All the kids brought their pillows and blankets and only sat on the grass. I thought they would have used the chairs, but not at all. I was worried no one would watch the movie, but a lot of kids did and most of them took turns going back and forth between the movie and the jungle gym. They had free reign of the backyard and they took advantage of it and just played like crazy.

We had fun concession candy and an old fashioned popcorn machine. I bought candy from the dollar store (that looks like the boxes at the movie theater), but forgot to put them out for the kids Can you believe it, 20 boxes of candy and I forgot!

And the cake... okay, this was the thing I was most nervous about and the thing that turned out so great. I love how the cake turned out. I baked a normal 9X13 cake and frosted it and then used fruit by the foot for the red part of the cake and giant marshmallows for the popcorn. I sliced a marshmallow into thirds and placed them together like a flower and then cut another marshmallow in half and placed in on top using frosting to hold it together. Then sprayed them with water mixed with yellow food coloring (in a spray bottle) and waa-laa.... butter popcorn! I am not a cake maker or decorator (I do cupcakes), but this little "masterpiece" made me think twice about cakes. I loved how it turned out. (Can you tell I am proud of myself).

When it got dark, we passed out glow in the dark necklaces and bracelets and sang happy birthday to the birthday girl.

It really was a great birthday party and fun for everyone... Hannah, me and the kids.

Hannah's 6th Birthday Party

Hannah turns six years old today. I can't believe how fast she is growing up. We had her big Movie night birthday party this weekend and what a great party it was. I have to admit that I slightly coaxed her into this Movie Night theme party. She originally wanted a Cinderella party, but after discussing how it would be hard to invite boys and that a movie night party would be more fun, she decided to go along with mom (does that make me a bad mom?)

Well, after all is said and done, she too agrees it was the best party ever. The guest arrived and she was so excited for them to come. She opened the door every time the doorbell rang and told the guest what to do (where to put the presents, tickets, pillows, etc). Then the kids went straight for the outdoors. They set up their place on the blankets for the movie and then they all played on the jungle gym.

Then we had dinner and opened up presents. Hannah had to read every card out loud (because she loves learning to read). Then it was time for the movie to begin. She choose Monsters Vs. Aliens (weeks ago and would not budge), so that is what we watched and the kids loved it. Hannah sat and watched the movie the whole time, but most of the other kids were back and forth from the movie and jungle gym all night. And once, we passed out the glow in the dark necklaces it was pure chaos.

The party was a huge hit and it really was so much fun. The kids were so happy and sweet and Hannah was so happy to have all of them over to play with her and celebrate her birthday.

More details of the party to come soon.