Summer Fun List

So I am going to TRY and start blogging again.

No promises but we will see how it goes.

There are so many things that have happened that I could tell you about, but for right now I'm just going to jump right in to what's happening right now.

The kids are on summer break.

And they are ready to run, and go crazy every second of the day.

So we sat down and came up with a list of things we really want to do this summer.

I'm sure we will add some and there will probably be some that don't get done, but it's nice to have a go to list.

• go fishing
• go swimming
• visit all of the parks in town except the one by the river with all the bugs (Braeden's request)
• go to the zoo
• visit the children's museum
• go to the beach
• fly kites
• pick berries
• picnik
• make a bird feeder
• stargazing
• go to a parade
• learn to swim
• play in a kickball game
• plant flowers
• visit a old friend
• catch fireflies
• learn about clouds
• eat lots of popsicles
• make homemade ice cream
• have a lemonade stand
• go to lots of garage sales
• try some new campfire food

So what will you be doing this summer?

 



The Month Of Love

So in honor of today being the first day of February (which happens to be the month of LOVE)
I've added some of my favorite love songs to the playlist.

And I also thought I would share my favorite poem.

Which just happens to be a melt your heart kind of poem.

i carry your heart with me(i carry it in

my heart)i am never without it(anywhere

i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done

by only me is your doing,my darling)

i fear

no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want

no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)

and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant

and whatever a sun will always sing is you

here is the deepest secret nobody knows

(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud

and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows

higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)

and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart

i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart)

E.E. Cummings

It just melts me.

 Happy February!

Homework Time!

Braeden likes to do his homework.

Sometimes he likes to do it before dinner

and sometimes he likes to do it after.

But on this rare occasion he decided to sing his homework.

It's kinda hard to hear him with Mason's crazy laughing

but I'm thinking we need to get him voice lessons.

Or maybe he should stick to sports.

Glue paint

Lately I've felt like Pinterest is holding me back.

I used to come up with creative things on my own but now I just go look at what I've got pinned.

I kinda wonder why should I try and come up with my own ideas because people seriously think of everything.

But I miss the satisfaction of knowing that my brain does work and I can do awesome things by myself.

So I'm trying to spend less time on there and use my mind some more and I'm proud to say this I came up with on my own.

I'm sure someone has already thought of it but I haven't seen it.

So today was rainy and kinda dreary.

On days like this my kids really like to paint

but we were out of paint and I wasn't going to the store.

One thing that I do have a lot of is glue.

When it's back to school time I have a little issue with buying a ridiculous amount of school supplies.

It comes in handy sometimes though.

So instead of painting with paint we used glue.

We poured the glue into cupcake liners.

I have some that are made out of aluminum foil so they are a little more sturdy but I was thinking the Styrofoam egg cartons would work really well for this.

Then you just add some food coloring to the glue and paint like normal.

We also tried making some flowers pieces of cardboard.

Take your nice little piece of cardboard and roll it up like this.

Put a rubber band around it to help hold it in place and then you can use it like a stamp.

And then you have a cute little flower.

I think this would probably work better with actual paint but the kids still thought it was super cool.

Braeden kept saying it makes a perfect flower every time!

You could try it with different thicknesses of cardboard for different looks too.

Painting with glue is pretty awesome.

Besides it saving my butt when I didn't have paint

it drys glossy which Ava thinks is amazing.

So it you're ever in a jam and have a lot of glue give it a try.

Hair Bow Holder

I'm really hoping that I can get through this post without falling asleep or my arms falling off.

I recently decided that I really need to get my butt back and shape and today was day one.

I forgot how good it feels to work up a good burn.

I didn't forget how horrible it feels when you can't more the next day or in my case an hour after your done!

I think we'll be doing Subway for dinner tonight.

Well if my arms will hold Mason long enough for me to order! Ha!

Any words of encouragement would be greatly appreciated.

Especially since day 2 is always the worst.

Anyway on to the real post.

I've been wanting to make Ava a hair bow holder for forever but what I really want to do requires taking on some things I've never done before.

So this weekend I finally broke down and made one that's a little more simple then what I want to do.

Maybe this summer I'll try the other one.

This is really simple and I'm sure you've seen them around but it really is perfect for all those cutie patootie hair bows.

First you need a picture frame.

Take out the glass and do whatever with it.

I really need to come up with something to do with all the glass from picture frames I don't use.

You can buy it the color you want or if you're using a old one break out the spray paint.

After you have it the color you want screw in some cup hooks along the bottom of the frame.

Sorry I didn't take pictures of this part.

Ava doesn't wear a lot of headbands because she's like me and can't keep them in so we only put 4 hooks along the bottom.

Just make sure you measure so they are the same distance apart.

After that's done this is what it should look like.

Now flip it over and decide how many strips of ribbon you want to do.

Measure it out and mark it.

Take a staple gun and staple down the ribbon.

Once you get them all stapled down on both sides you can be done.

Or you can add a little something.

Ava helped me decide what to decorate it with and this is what we came up with.

Just a little something.

You don't really need to do a lot because the hair bows do quite a bit of decorating.

So stinkin cute and super useful.

Now to find the rest of her bows...humm

Don't mind the crazy nakey that jumped in the picture.



I Don't Wanna Do My Chores!

There are a lot of things I don't know about kids.

Like why my almost 6 year old has random attitude problems.

Or why my 1 year old likes to destroy thing so much more than my other kids.

But there are some things I do know about kids.

I know that routine is crucial for my boys to function like little human beings.

Without it they turn into crazies.

But sometimes the kids get bored with the routine, especially when it comes to chores.

I hate fighting my kids to do their chores.

Like really really hate it.

So I'm always trying to look for really cool chore charts or different ideas to make it a little more exciting.

One time I made chore dice.

I put pictures of different chores like dusting or emptying the trash on each side.

Every day they got to roll the dice and see which chore they got to do.

They thought it was so much fun that they wanted to roll 500 times a day.

So I had to make a rule, if you roll it you have to do it.

It worked like magic for a few months but then they got bored.

So we made a chart and they got to put up stickers every day that they did their chores and at the end of the week they got a little treat if they had stickers for every day.

Once again good for awhile but then they lost interest.

It has taken me 5 years but I think I've finally figured out something brilliant.

My children get bored with chores!

I mean seriously who would have thought.

That doesn't mean that I stop making them work.

It just means that doing chores is part of our routine, how we decide what they do has to be mixed up a little.

Right now we are doing chore sticks.

I have a bunch of popsicle sticks that I've written different chores on and every day after school they get to pick a stick from the jar.

Today was day 2 and it went perfect.

They ran to me when I said it was time to pick a stick and went straight to work after I told them what it said.

No whining or crying or asking to do it later.

Now that's what a momma likes to hear.

So there are a lot of things that I still need to learn about

 kids but it does make me feel good to know that I am making progress and learning new things about my kids.

Is there anything that motivates your kids to do their chores?

Because I don't think you can ever have too many tips about this subject.

Cheese Toasty or Grilled Cheese

The debate over cheese toasty or grilled cheese is one that is going strong in our house.

Reed believes it should be called grilled cheese.

He is of course wrong but gained a few points by coming up with a awesome twist of the cheese toasty.

It doesn't have a name but it's super yummy.

So here's what you do.

Butter your bread like normal.

Then you use mozzarella for your cheese and while you're there why not throw on a few pepperoni.

Ahh I'm getting hungry just typing this.

Then of course you have to get it to the perfect toastiness.

I'm pretty picky about my toast but that's a whole other issue.

You really need to try this for lunch.

I have to say my hubby is amazing at coming up with super yummy food.

Or as my kids would say so nummy!

I know there are a lot of twists on the good ol' cheese toasty so what's your favorite?