End of the Year (sort of)

Okay, I jumped on the bandwagon!  Thanks Sarah!  These were fun to make.  I just may have to go back and recreate earlier years.  Due to our crazy year we have a little math left and some science and history so it is not quite the end of our year.  But never the less fun to make and so easy on PicMonkey.com. 

Making It Count: Week 7: ABC photo book

It's Making it Count Tuesday! Every week, Pam and Sarah are co-hosting the Making it Count Tuesday link-up. Start with any one of those fabulous ideas you have found online. Then, do it. Make it. Cook it. Create it. Take it from the screen, give it life and let it bless your world. When you're done, snap a photo, write about it and share it with us. Make your time online count.


This weekend we went to my parents' house to celebrate my grandfather's 80th birthday and I leave for a homeschool conference tonight.  So, with little time, I wasn't quite able to try something completely new.  But I was able to take advantage of the free photo book from shutterfly.com.  


My first three kids have an alphabet book that I made for them.  I worked hard to make sure I had multiple pictures of every letter.  My fourth was a little neglected.  But she loved Joe's I Spy book, so I decided to make the alphabet book through shutterfly.com.  They even had a template and I didn't need 3 pictures for each letter.  After a little bit of downloading and a little rearranging... ta da... the ABCs of Charlotte Rose!  She will love it and I don't quite feel like a failure because I didn't make her an ABC book.  In fact these shutterfly books are so easy (although the picture quality is just ok) that I am on the look out for more free book deals.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Create a gorgeous, high quality wedding photo album at Shutterfly.com.

Making It Count: Week 6: Crayon Holder

It's Making it Count Tuesday! Every week, Pam and Sarah are co-hosting the Making it Count Tuesday link-up. Start with any one of those fabulous ideas you have found online. Then, do it. Make it. Cook it. Create it. Take it from the screen, give it life and let it bless your world. When you're done, snap a photo, write about it and share it with us. Make your time online count.

I love crayons, especially new ones.  I stock up at the beginning of the school year.  I buy at least 30 packs or more at $0.25.  I would hate to run out and have to pay full price.  My kids love to color.  They went through a color pencil phase last year but now we are back to crayons.  So, when I saw this at Mom's Crafty Space, I had to make it.  I searched every grocery store for the 50 calorie fruit cups.  No luck!  So, I had to buy them from Amazon for $23.  Luckily I had gift cards from Swagbucks.com and my kids loved the fruit.  I was able to make three, one for me and two to share.  It was just as easy to make three as one.  Here are my directions and tips.

1. First, eat the fruit.  The kids enjoyed this part of the process.


2. In order to clean the glue off the cans, I used Goo Gone.  


3. Then, I wiped the cans in vinegar.  I didn't do this with the first color, but the orange rubbed off.  And I read that if you rub the cans with vinegar, it lightly etches the can enough to hold the paint.  In some spots I had to apply extra paint but overall this did the trick.


4. Next, I painted the cans.  I used acrylic because I had all the colors. Spray paint would work as well, I just didn't have all the colors on hand.  Some colors only took three coats but the light colors like yellow and orange took more, so many I lost count.


5. When the painting is done, spray the cans with an acrylic glossy clear coat.  I did this three times.


6.  For the base my husband gave me a white composite that he had at work.  I used a 2 ft. piece.


7. Then we pre-drilled two holes in the bottom of the cans.


8.  I evenly spaced them and we screwed them in.  My husband helped with the first one, but he was unavailable the next day, so I did it myself.


9. Lastly, fill with crayons.  I used roughly 5-24 packs, although it would fit more.  I might go buy a 264 pack for some variety.

  

 

LOOK AT ALL THE PRETTY COLORS!

 

  

 

 

Making It Count: Week 5: I Spy Book

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It's Making it Count Tuesday! Every week, Pam and Sarah are co-hosting the Making it Count Tuesday link-up. Start with any one of those fabulous ideas you have found online. Then, do it. Make it. Cook it. Create it. Take it from the screen, give it life and let it bless your world. When you're done, snap a photo, write about it and share it with us. Make your time online count.

My middle son just turned 5.  He loves "I Spy" books.  So, when I saw a groupon for a 8x8 book at Shutterfly, I knew I had to make one for his birthday. (Little did I know I could have saved $10, because they are offering the 8x8 free plus shipping ($8) here and here during May)  My plan was to use his favorite toys.  My inspiration came from Delia Creates and Obsessively Stitching.  After a week of endless photo shoots with toys, I am quite please with the results.  Check it out if you would like for yourself.

Click here to view this photo book larger

Photo Book Tip: Create an adventurous travel photo album at Shutterfly.com.

I hope the hard copy turns out as good or better than the digital.  

Making It Count: Week 4: Chore Chart

It's Making it Count Tuesday! Every week, Pam and Sarah are co-hosting the Making it Count Tuesday link-up. Start with any one of those fabulous ideas you have found online. Then, do it. Make it. Cook it. Create it. Take it from the screen, give it life and let it bless your world. When you're done, snap a photo, write about it and share it with us. Make your time online count.


CHORES!!  There are so many better things to be doing.  We are making a castle in the backyard out of boxes from the move.  I am working on an I Spy book for Joe and a really cool crayon holder.  There are new recipes to try and baseball practices.  And Tom and I just came up with a list of 52 project we need to do on the house.  But we can't ignore the housework.  This house is twice as big as our old one and the messes seem twice as big.  Dust appears the minute we sweep the floor.  With four toilets there is always one that needs to be cleaned.  And dirt dishes and laundry multiply like rabbits when I am not looking.  I need help.  Well, a professional housekeeper would be nice and is in the budget when we win the Lotto but until then I will have to turn to the underage minors living in this house (sidenote: if we win millions they still will be doing chores and they do chores now but this is a way to keep all of us accountable.)  We attempted a chore chart at the old house based on one from Confessions of a Homeschooler.  I didn't have the pocket chart so there were chore cards and tickets all over the house.  So, here is our simpler attempt inspired by the Bursett Family.

Each child will have a checklist of daily chores.  When they complete the chore, they can check it off.  At the end of the day, I will record their checks and keep a tally for the week.  From that tally they can "shop" for prizes.  I love this part of chores.  Our prizes are vouchers for activities: game night, date with mom or dad, painting nails with Mom, projects with Dad.  There are other treats like Wii (which never allow them to play alone), Nintendo DS or V-tech.  But they have to work hard to earn them.

I have another checklist for weekly chores.  I am still working on it for this house.  The kids are excited because it means more responsibility and more points for prizes.  I hope this makes the messes manageable so we can have more time for cardboard forts and other random things I find on the internet.  

Making It Count: Week 3: Art for My Wall

It's Making it Count Tuesday! Every week, Pam and Sarah are co-hosting the Making it Count Tuesday link-up. Start with any one of those fabulous ideas you have found online. Then, do it. Make it. Cook it. Create it. Take it from the screen, give it life and let it bless your world. When you're done, snap a photo, write about it and share it with us. Make your time online count.



Having a new house has allowed me to finally do some ideas I have seen on the internet.  I got the idea from Less-Than-Perfect Life of Bliss.  I didn't have a big empty wall but we had some space in the sun room.  The kids were very excited to have their art up on the wall in a frame.  It is not like I don't put their work on display but the frames made this extremely exciting.  I wish I was as lucky to find good frames for a cheap price like Less-Than-Perfect Life of Bliss did.  I found 16x20 frames at Walmart that were $4 with no glass or backing.

Angry Birds by Joe (age 5)
Medium: Cardstock and Markers

A Collage by Ben (age 8)
Medium used: his old magazines

Pink Numbers and Green Letters by Charlotte (age 2)
Medium used: Markers

Matryoshka Dolls by Mia (age 6)
Medium: Cardstock and Markers

Here they are up on the walls in the sun room!

Joe's 5th Birthday, Matey!

Forenote:  I am not a huge fan of pirates.  I don't like glorifying them due to their lack of morals.  And the fact that they are still active today gives me more pause.  But during our stay at the Camosy's we indulged in the Disney channel and Joe's favorite show was Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  And a five year old boy after 6 months of crazy transition deserves to go on a treasure hunt and find some booty.  You can click on any of the pictures to make them bigger. And if you click on the bigger picture it will proceed to the next one.

His first clue led him to the upstairs bathroom where he found Thomas trains.

His second clue led him to my sewing room/guest bedroom.  There he found Angry Birds shirts (one for him and one for Ben).

The third clue led to the laundry room where we just got this really neat coat cubby.  There he discovered a Super Mario puzzle.

The fourth present was hidden in the oven.  He got the Angry Birds pig.

The fifth present was hidden under his pillow.  It was an I Spy game and book.

The sixth clue led him to the school room.  He got an Angry Space Bird.

The seventh present was in the fireplace.  We used money from his AZ grandparents to buy him Sonic figures.

The eighth present was hidden in the toy closet in the basement.  He got an Imaginext Dragon Wagon.

His final clue led him to the dining room where his treasure chest cake was waiting for him.

All these presents were not from us.  My parents were visiting for his birthday and so we added them to our treasure hunt.  It really was a blast to follow him throughout the house looking for his presents.  The joys of being five!!  For breakfast he had french toast.  We were very happy that opening day for baseball was cancelled.  It was a high of 47 degrees and raining on and off with a wind chill.  There was even sleet/hail this morning.  For dinner we went to Panera at the request of the birthday boy.

Side note:  You can see my new couch in the pictures of Joe opening his presents.  We really like it.  He is also sitting in our new dining chairs in the dining room.

Making It Count: Week 2: Blow Painting

It's Making it Count Tuesday! Every week, Pam and Sarah are co-hosting the Making it Count Tuesday link-up. Start with any one of those fabulous ideas you have found online. Then, do it. Make it. Cook it. Create it. Take it from the screen, give it life and let it bless your world. When you're done, snap a photo, write about it and share it with us. Make your time online count.

I love art projects.  I have books and books about them.  I have pinned many pages of art project.  I have tons of art supplies on my shelves.  But I never find the time in the day to do them.  And so the paint goes unused and the paper gets dusty.  I also find that I am a control freak when it comes to the children doing art.  The words, "Here, let me show you how to do it" comes out of my mouth often instead letting my children explore because there must be a "correct" way to do the art.  I know that this is not what art is all about.  And so Making It Count Tuesday was a great way for my children to do art and a perfect way for me to practice letting go of control.

I got this idea from Raising Sparks.  I had the paint and the paper, I even had the eye droppers, straws and googly eyes.

Blowing took a lot more effort than my kids realized.  Standing on the chair gave them a little more control.  The eye dropper was a hit and a good way for me to let go of control.  They even got to pick the color of paper they wanted and choose where they wanted the paint. :)

Here are the finished projects.  Hooray for ART!

Little Sparks used this project to talk about germs.  I tried calling them germs but my children kept referring to them as monsters.  I did limit the number of googly eyes or my oldest son would have gone crazy.  Overall, it was a success and I might try another art project next week!