Daddy Gifts on a Budget

I would have just labeled this post Father's Day gifts, but my hubby has the unfortunate luck of having a birthday that falls right between our son's birthday and Father's Day, so I'm including the simple birthday gift idea.  It can still be used for Father's Day, too.  But I will start with the Father's Day gift we did for my hubby this year.  It's an adorable painted plaque with the kids' handprints.  The original idea came from here.  I loved the smaller squares and found some perfect ones at Michaels, but my kids' hands were just too big.  So I ended up going with the rectangular beveled plaques and a larger background plaque.  I also really loved the staining on the original, but I just didn't have time.  One thing about having a hubby who doesn't work outside the home is that he is always around somewhere :).  So I had less than an hour to throw this project together.  I'm happy with how it turned out for the time I had.  And I think he will really love this.

For the simple birthday gift, I made some fake movie tickets on the computer with a blank movie ticket template and a watermarked image from Iron Man 3.  I put them in a silver envelope and finished with a classy black ribbon.  A very simple idea, but it will lead to a much-needed date night!!  He was thrilled with this!

The last homemade gift idea we used was for the bird lover in our lives, my dad.  The kids picked out the birdhouse at Michaels and painted it...well, mostly Colton painted it.  But it turned out adorable.  And homemade gifts are always well received by those doting fathers and grandfathers, especially when you are on a budget.

Wishing all of you a Happy Father's Day this weekend!

Homeschooling Crafts: Weeks 6-7

It's been a while since I've posted homeschooling craft ideas.  Between the craziness at work and Colton's birthday, it's just been too hectic.  But we have been working on some fun themes.  Week six was all about giants - dinosaurs, whales, skyscrapers...everything huge!  The kids absolutely loved it.  We did dinosaur puzzle and read dinosaur books.  The Bible stories of the week were, of course, David and Goliath and Jonah and the Whale.  Both were big hits with the kiddos.

As for crafts, we did these fun foam bird mobiles.  It's just foam pieces cut into the shapes of the bird body and wings.  The wings are glued into a slit in the body and then held in by yarn threaded through hole punches - one in the center of the wings and one on either side of the slit.  The kids decorated them with foam stickers and markers, and then we glued on some fun feathers we picked up at Michaels.  This was definitely a fun hands-on craft for the kids, and one they are enjoying in their rooms.

 

Then we broke out the paint...always a treat for the kids!  I cut out butterflies on painting paper and had them paint one side using Qtips as brushes.  Then we folded them with the paint on the inside so the design would transfer symmetrically.  It worked out a little better with Kaitlyn's (bottom)...by the time we got Colton's folded, the paint had dried some.  But, like I said, anything with paint keeps them both happy :).

 

The other painting craft we did was supposed to be a starry night scene.  Part of this weeks lesson is about moon stages and nocturnal animals, so this fit right in.  Believe it or not, Kaitlyn's is the one that actually turned out really well.  I was pretty surprised since Colton is usually the neater little artist!

We also did a lesson on coins, so of course we had to do some coin rubbings.  The kids had some trouble keeping the coins still under the paper, so I made them an example sheet to learn the names, sizes, and values.  But they had a lot of fun with this one anyway!

And I"m going to end with a couple more flower pictures!  There is so much beauty in every season, but I absolutely love the flowers...God showing off :)!  Our day lilies came out like crazy this week, so I had to give them some picture love.  Kaitlyn was so amazed by their beauty!  Hope you're all having a blessed week!

Sewing Projects

A close family friend gave me a bunch of sewing kit projects a while back to make sundresses for Kaitlyn and a Veggie Tales growth chart.  So I took part of the afternoon and dedicated it to sewing.  Here are the results:

   

I'm not a huge fan of sewing kits...mostly because I don't tend to like the fabric they use.  But they are nice and easy.  Bonus that this one was free and my friend had already cut out the pieces.  So I just had to sew it together...nice!  It'll be a great spring and summer church and play dress for Kaitlyn!

This dress was my first time using a button closure.  I can't say it's something I enjoyed, but at least it's working.

My second project was the Veggie Tales growth chart.  This one was super simple and literally took about 15 minutes to cut out, pin and sew.  This will be great for tracking the kids' height!

Welcome Spring!

Today officially ushers in spring!  I've heard it may snow a little bit tomorrow, but I haven't brought myself to look at the weather.  This first day of spring has been gorgeous!  We started planting our garden today...we're a bit behind, I know.

Here's the first picture of this year's garden.  They don't look like much now, but I love when the first little sprouts break through the soil!  I tried to find some flowers to photograph in honor of spring, but the only live flowers I could find were so tiny I needed the Super Macro.  Then I just supplemented with a shot of the fake flowers on my door wreath :).

         

The craft for today was making little pom pom caterpillars.  The idea came from a craft in the Oriental Trading catalog.  Normally, I am more than happy to support that company by ordering their products, but Kaitlyn really wanted to do this craft today.  So I improvised with things we had on hand. And once they were made, we of course had to take them outside....

 

I also started my determined quest to replace my Scholastic book club addiction with regular trips to the library.  So Kaitlyn and I went to the one right down the street today.  She got to play in the activity center and with the educational computer games, so she had a blast.  I was also thrilled to find that they carry a ton of Thomas the Train and Veggie Tales videos!  Why didn't I use the library before, I wonder.  Happy Spring!

Easter Crafts

Our computer is finally back up and running!  I'm going to share a few Easter crafts I've done with the kids over the past week and a half.  It's funny because you can never really tell which crafts will be a hit with the kids and which won't.  I thought the chicks in an egg craft would be one that the kids would love, but that was actually the least favorite of the below crafts.  Every kid has a different craft personality, but I think it's good to try a wide variety, even if some are a flop with the kiddos :).

 

Here's the chick in an egg craft.  I thought it was adorable.  And don't get me wrong, the kids thought these were cute...they just weren't as into them as they have been into other crafts.  These are made from foam sheets, with foam flower stickers.  We used glue sticks to attach everything and a small brad to make the hinge.

 

I'm a sucker for anything that includes the kids' hand or footprints, so I fell in love with this Angel craft idea the moment I saw it. We just used cardstock, stickers, glue sticks and markers to make these.  The body is their footprint and the wings are their handprints.  Both kids really enjoyed having their feet and hands traced, and they really liked the final product.  Kaitlyn was much more into the decorating than Colton though.  As you can see, she even decorated herself!

 



And then there's my favorite craft of the week!  These little styrofoam bunnies are sooooo cute!  The kids had a great time making these.  They got to participate in every step of the craft, so that kept them happy and involved.  They cut the pipe cleaners (with a little bit of help) and stuck them into the styrofoam eggs.  Then they placed the eyes and used a glue stick to add little cottonball bunny feet.  These are still getting a lot of play time!

Fun Kids Craft Ideas

I want to share some really fun craft ideas along with a shout out to the Nick Jr. fan club web site.  I found this web site a while back when Kaitlyn started getting into Bubble Guppies.  They have a ton of printables.  I've found that the coloring pages aren't really worth it for us because you can get whole coloring and activity books at craft stores and dollar stores for under $1.  But the craft ideas are awesome!  We've done a few recently that I will share.  But this web site has everything from holiday cards and mobiles to board games and 3D projects, all with templates that you can print right from your computer.

 

For Kaitlyn, we did a Bubble Guppies hanging name sign and an Umizoomi Castle.  The hanging sign originally called for it to say "FALL," but I printed extra templates and modified it a bit to spell out her name.  This is just paper printouts glued onto foam sheets with foam letters on top.  The castle is just printed out templates wrapped around a shoe box and some toilet paper rolls.  It's great for teaching numbers, and there are plenty of other character templates to keep this fresh.  Kaitlyn has the Umizoomi characters and the Dora characters sharing a castle at present :)!



This is one of the fun board games they have.  If you have access to a laminator, this would be very durable.  Right now, ours is just paper on poster board for some stability.  But the kids have fun playing.  This one is a number game that involves number recognition and counting (forward and backward!), so it's a good learning tool.



This one I saved for last because, while it was obviously inspired by the Bubble Guppies hanging sign, there was no template for it.  Colton tends to be one of those kids who likes things that either don't have much out there as far as fun ideas (i.e. the Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Puppy) or cost money for pretty much everything beyond coloring pages (i.e. Thomas the Train).  He loved Kaitlyn's hanging sign so much because he is really into letters and spelling his own name, but the Bubble Guppies aren't really characters he gets excited about.  So it took some improvisation and Google searching, but I came up with Thomas and Percy pictures that were similar enough to make a cute template, put some white foam clouds on them, and added his name.  He was thrilled!!  If you have a Thomas the Train lover, this would be a really fun project.  They get to use glue sticks and spell their name...what could be better!  But even if your kids are not into the characters on the Nick Jr. web site, you can still find fun ideas to modify.  It's free to join.  Happy crafting!!

Fun Projects

Brandon went up to Pennsylvania to help a friend out today, so I had the whole day to do some fun stuff I've been wanting to get around to.  Kaitlyn and I went to JoAnn Fabrics earlier this week armed with fun coupons, and she picked out fabric for a cute jumper.  So I took the morning and sewed it together.  Granted I was too lazy to use a pattern and it was my first time putting a zipper in an outfit, but I was pretty happy with the results.  Kaitlyn loves it, so that's what really matters!



This is the fabric cut out.  I just traced a pattern off of one of Kaitlyn's other jumpers and cut up an old ivory tablecloth for the lining.

 

Here's the final product and Kaitlyn wearing the dress over her pajamas!



Then I moved on to adding a satin border around some fleece I got a while back to make a blanket for Colton.  Kaitlyn has a Minnie Mouse one that I have to get around to edging, too...not today though...there's only so much time you can spend sewing in one day :)!

So those were the fun projects for today.  I also want to share some pictures of the construction project Brandon and Colton did for Colton's school and the greatest idea I've seen in a while...



Here's Colton working on his gum drop and toothpicks construction.



And the project so far...  Brandon really wants this to span a huge part of the dining room table, but he just hasn't had the time to work on it that much.  We have to send the picture in for Colton's show and tell next week, so we'll see if it gets any bigger or not.  I think it's pretty fun as is, though.



And here's the greatest idea I've seen in a while!  A blog called Steadfast Life recently showcased this idea for using a hanging shoe organizer to house winter gear like hats, gloves, and scarves.  We are constantly searching for the second glove in a pair, so I thought this idea was genius.  I ordered this $10 organizer, it came Thursday, and voila!  It's making me very happy right now!!  I hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Catching Up

For anyone who has gotten the flu this year, you know it's a bad one.  It knocked us out for a week, and we're just now getting back to normal.  Between that and work being extremely busy, I just haven't had much of a chance to keep up with the blog.  So this is going to be one big post of updates.  I also am going to switch to a weekly devotional, which I'm hoping to catch up with tomorrow.  I am finally up to Revelation in my Bible in a "year" readings!  So I'm really excited about that.

It's weird because I have been praying over this past year that God would let me know when the time is right to leave my current job, and I always had this feeling that I needed to read through the whole Bible first.  Well, now that I am about to finish reading through the Bible, my job is on the chopping block with sequestration.  Maybe God is giving me that nudge...  But please be in prayer for everyone who is facing furloughs, lay-offs, etc.  This is going to impact so many families.  I know that people like to villainize federal employees, but the truth is, most of us are just like everybody else, working hard just to put food on the table.

But all that aside, here are all of the updates....

Art Projects

Kaitlyn and I often go to Michaels Arts and Crafts store on days when I'm home.  It's Kaitlyn's favorite store!  When we turn into the shopping center, she always says, "Here we come Michaels!"  So this past week, we landed some awesome bargains.  Little wood picture frames with tiny markers that the kids could decorate with for a dollar each.  Colton colored his doghouse, and we added a cute picture of Barstow as a baby.  Then we found two packs of cute little animals and cars with a brush and set of paints.  Those may have cost more than a dollar, but less than two!  The kids had a blast painting, of course.  Kaitlyn really concentrated on getting the nooks and crannies of the cat.

My Spoils



Rarely do I splurge on myself, but I have been eying the Ashland collection at Michaels for a while now and it finally went 40% off!  I could have bought the whole collection if it weren't for the money issue and the fact that I just don't have room for it all.  But I did get a mosaic "Hope" stand, a vase, and some fake flowers.  It's brought a smile to my face this past week :)!

Potty Progress



Well, my attempt to bribe the kids by promising them that if they were potty trained by the time we reached the end of the current box of diapers they could pick something out at Toys 'R Us has officially failed.  We were off to a good start, but interest in the whole project languished mid-week.  The potty sticker chart is filling up nicely, though!  They haven't stuck to their own sides of the chart, but Colton is getting some stickers on there.  Yay for progress!!

Fun Time

     

Kaitlyn built the great wall of blocks in our living room last night...it was adorable!  Colton counted the blocks up to 20!  And then there's Kaitlyn reading a 3D Monsters Inc. book with her dada...love those moments!

Colton's 100th Day of School



So Colton's class celebrated the 100th day of school, and for a home project, each kid had to collect 100 of something.  For Colton's project, he put 100 puppy Valentine stickers on a piece of construction paper, writing a number by each one with hand over hand help.  It was a long process, but he enjoyed the numbers and the stickers...so well worth it!

Scholastic Book Club

   

I have become a Scholastic Book Club addict.  Every month, Colton's teacher sends home those little brochures of amazingly inexpensive books, and I just have to order some.  Colton brought this month's order home from school today!  I think I may actually get even more excited than the kids.  Fifteen books and a bear adding game for less than $30...you have to admit that's an awesome deal!  I'm loving the bears...the kids are already showing an interest in adding because of them.

So that's it for now.  Colton and Brandon are supposed to do a gum drops and toothpicks construction project after dinner, so that should be some fun pictures.  Guess I should get to starting dinner now :).