Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Project of the Week: Valentine's Day Box for School

There are so many things that you can do for a Valentine's Day Box. The challenge is to find something that your child loves, matches their personality and is easy enough for them to make at least 90% of it on their own! Grandpa papered up this box and sent it home with us and we had to figure out what Big Sis wanted to do to it! We scoured our house for stampers, glittery things, etc. But when we laid eyes on the bag of silk flowers that were used in our wedding 12 years ago, we knew that was the winner. I had toothpicks in the cupboard, green flower foam in the craft room and a glue gun that was just waiting to be used! One final touch had to be added and that was a band of pink duct tape! Yes, Big Sis is one of those kids that loves to make wallets, hair bows, and pen flowers out of duct tape.

So, naturally, Big Sis had to make sure that Duct tape was represented somewhere on her box!

Step 1: Find a box, cut a hole and paper it (or have Grandpa paper it!)

Step 2: Add Duct Tape

Step 3: Find Flower Foam and attach the flowers by toothpicks.

Step 4: Use the Hot Glue Gun to attach the foam to the box (Mommy did this part!)

Step 5: Make sure your hole is accessible for all of the cute Valentine's that will be put in this box!

Step 6: Add a heart that is glued to a skewer by the hole. Have your child write their name and an arrow to show the mailmen where to place the cards! All done!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Groundhogs Day Fun!

Here is a cute Groundhogs Day Treat!

I found this idea through Pinterest and was originally pinned

from the blog Kitchen Fun with my Three Sons.

All you need is pudding, Nilla wafers, edible eyes, chocolate chips and marshmallows!

The Groundhog shadow was spotted so that means 6 more weeks of winter. This week alone we had a few sunshiny days in the 50's and 60's, so if that is winter, I'll gladly take 6 more weeks!

Driveway Fun~Chalk Art!

What do you do on a 60 degree day in February? Well, here is what we did!

I hope you had a "SUNSHINY" day!

Recipe of the Week: Roasted Carrots

Roasted Carrots

Prep Time:: 10 min
Inactive Prep Time:: 10 min
Cook Time:: 20 min

Level:: Easy

Serves:: 6 servings

Ingredients

12 carrots
3 tablespoons good olive oil
1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons minced fresh dill or parsley

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

If the carrots are thick, cut them in half lengthwise; if not, leave whole. Slice the carrots diagonally in 1 1/2-inch-thick slices. (The carrots will shrink while cooking so make the slices big.) Toss them in a bowl with the olive oil, salt, and pepper. Transfer to a sheet pan in 1 layer and roast in the oven for 20 minutes, until browned and tender.

Toss the carrots with minced dill or parsley, season to taste, and serve.

Serves 6: Calories:110; Total Fat: 7 grams; Saturated Fat:1 gram; Protein: 1 gram; Total carbohydrates:12 grams; Sugar: 6 grams; Fiber: 3.5 grams; Cholesterol: 0 milligrams; Sodium: 484 milligrams

Glimpse Into Motherhood: December Fun

Hi All!

I know December is long gone but I was pretty sick and so were lots of other people in this house. We were on lock down for almost a month. We did manage to have a bit of fun though! Check us out with our Martha Washington wigs!

Here is Lil Bro on Christmas morning! He and Mommy were up before everyone else!

Here is Lil Sis. She kept asking Mommy to take her picture so she could see herself on the camera!

We love playing dress up! Here is Big Sis having some fun!

We did a fun project on the kitchen floor!

Big Sis is keeping our cousin company. We want our cousin to feel better fast!

We got to wrap presents!

Lil Sis liked doing it all by herself and you sure could tell that by all the tape she used!

Lil Bro kept busy. I think he is writing his own book!

Mommy reminisced back to her wedding day. The girls tried on a lot of special treasures. I am not sure why Mommy teared up. I did hear her tell Daddy that she didn't want us to grow up too fast!

Have a great day!

Love,

Middle Sis

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Revisiting Christmas!

Christmas is one of our favorite holidays. I would leave the tree up year round if I was aloud! We do projects, bake yummy things, sing Christmas songs November - January, read more Christmas stories than one can imagine, decorate and wrap. A few of our favorite Christmas to do's are spending time with family and celebrating the birth of our Savior! If you ask any of our children their favorite things they would say the same things. We love traditions and spending time as family but we know that God is the center of, not only Christmas but, our everyday existence. This year we were very disappointed to have to cancel Christmas with our families because of sickness but we quickly threw together a plan to still have a wonderful Christmas even though we were on lock down for close to a month! Here is a glimpse into our holiday!

Middle Sis came down with a fever of 103.5 which lasted through Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and her birthday. She enjoyed her "couch bed"! She was in full view of the Christmas tree!

One of my favorite traditions is new PJs on Christmas Eve. Our kids wear their PJs like no one I have ever seen! The nice thing is that we have only bought them Christmas Eve PJs because they have been given the rest of their PJs as gifts, hand-me-downs or great garage sale finds! When they open brand new PJs they get so excited. I hope this excitement lasts forever! Big Sis asked a few nights before Christmas Eve if we remembered the PJ tradition!

Since Middle Sis was sacked out on the couch and we couldn't go anywhere (plus we didn't have food because we were supposed to be traveling to see family), Daddy ran to the store and we threw together a festive few days in hope to take some little minds off of missing Great Grandparents, Grandparents and cousins.

Christmas Eve:

Christmas Morning:

We had my Sister's crew at our house and since 1/2 of everyone was sick our

kiddo's sacked out on the couches!

Guess who was up early...

Another tradition we do is Christmas Morning the kids wake up to find a bag of books on their beds. This year they included ABC photo albums (made through Snapfish) of each child to help with reading!

We love the Bible Story Arch Books!

Here is our breakfast Christmas morning. The Jerusalem Peace light is in the middle of the table. Our neighbor brought over a candle that was lit with a flame that was brought over from Jerusalem. There is a neat story to go with it and I thought how cool it would be to tie it in with nightly devotions. When our neighbor brought it over the kids were napping. 20 minutes later they woke up and I was telling them about this candle. Within seconds Lil Bro blew it out. It is a good thing I didn't hold the only Peace Light Flame. We went next door to relight it with the flame again! I figure that will put us out of the running to ever be in the same room as the Olympic Torch seeing that important flames are snuffed out within seconds by our family!

Everyone made fruit skewers. If you made it just right you could top it off with an apple slice to be a star!

Can't have Christmas without a birthday cake for Jesus! The cousins brought this home from the store. Funny thing is that the lady at the store misspelled Jesus and it said "Happy Birthday Jeses"!