The Sisters

I had a wonderful long weekend with my sisters! They came to visit Friday (one bil and my dh). We played cards, dice (Farkel) and had so much sillyness, sharing, laughter and food. Too tired to write much. Need to re-coop.

What is this? Reuse, recycle AND get organized!


What a simple idea! Store your unused extension, tv, computer, any cords for that matter.
Simply insert in an empty toilet paper tube (we ALL have those) and label the length…toss in your storage container, drawer, closet, etc and voila!

Off to do some more housecleaning and organizing!

Have a great day!

Snowman Day!

It’s a cold overcast day in Kansas. We had a few snow spits, but blink and you missed it!

We had little ones today and did another story-time activity.
Today we did a Snowman theme. I read 2 books to the kids, “Spring Snowman” by Jill Barnes and “Sadie and the Snowman” by Allen Morgan. Then we made these cute snowmen. Well to be honest, we had went to the library to get some books and their story-time had just ended. The sweet librarian gave us the supplies to make the snowmen (because that was their theme today) and she found us the snowman books! The kids loved it! They are sleeping now and I just finished cleaning up after them.

Grandmas says.....

Another thing my grandma used to say was..."I'm hungry to hear your voice." This showed how much the power of sound was, it could fill up her heart.

A friend shared this wise saying of her grandmothers, "Even a bad example is a good example of what/who not to do/be."

Have a great day!

The Rainbow Fish

Today, I went back to visit the girls and daddy. They were having a pajama day today, something they just love to do on weekends with dad. Yesterday, I told Hannah the story of the Rainbow Fish (about sharing) so today I read them the book “The Rainbow Fish” by Marcus Pfister. Then we made our own coffee filter rainbow fish. Once again, they had a blast making their fish. I think they made lots of things in day care and since they haven’t been there this week (they were blessed with Impetigo) I think they really enjoyed these activities. The coffee filters were colored with the washable markers, any way whatsoever, then lightly sprayed with water, so the colors ran and blended to soften them. After daddy and I used hair-dryers to dry them (just takes a couple minutes) I gave Hannah a glue stick and had her glue it to a half sheet of construction paper. Using a fish template, she drew around it and then I cut out her fish...she was very impressed with this. Next, I cut up little pieces of aluminum foil (shiny fish scales) and let her glue them to the fish. Then she gave the fish an eye, nose and mouth...voila! Lillian had similar fun gluing on her shiny fish scales.

Creepy Crazy Caterpillars!!!

Friday I baby-sat with my grand-daughters, Hannah and Lillian. We had lots of fun and did various things, one of which was to read the book, “The Caterpillow Fight” by Sam Bratney. Then we did the traditional egg carton caterpillars. The girls, ages 4 and 3, LOVED doing this. They used colored (washable!) markers and then I gave them some foamy stickers that they used too. Next, we inserted pipe cleaners for the antennae. I used hot glue to adhere the google eyes (I chose to use this since I felt the eyes would stay better, but be sure to keep it away from the little ones) and then they added a mouth! Voila! Then they had loads of fun playing with them.

Penguin Day!

Today hubby and I baby-sit for 2 of our little grand-kiddos. It was Penguin Day. Well, that was the theme for storys and activities today.

I read 2 books, "And Tango makes Three" by Justin Richardson and "Playful Little Penguins" by Tony Mitton. Then I had the kids dress in feet, tummys, beaks and hat that had them looking like little penguins themselves. They frolicked around and had fun laughing at each other. I recited a penguin poem and they acted it out. They colored penguin pages and did dot to dot and mazes.

Next I laid out some laminated penguins that had numbers on their tummys. The kids were given goldfish crackers and instructed to "feed" the penguins the number of fish written on the tummys. The kiddos ate lots of goldfish too! I found some penguin videos on You Tube and we had fun dancing with the "Happy Feet" penguins.

After lunch and rest time, we made Penguin Cookys.

1 chocolate sandwich cookie and 1 chocolate kiss They twisted the top off of their cookie and carefully break it in half. Then place the two pieces on top of the bottom half with the icing side up and spread a little out for wings. Then they placed the chocolate kiss at the top for the penguins head.

Make these..very easy to make AND easy to eat!

Saturday

I finally finished the novel I was reading! I started it last year! Well, I guess that wasn't THAT long ago!

Tomorrow is hubbys birthday, so I baked him a pineapple upside down cake.

AND I worked on Penguin feet...this will be for the next story-time day. Surprise! The theme will be Penguins!

Snow!

Ok...I'll admit. I love snow! Especially from inside where it's warm! We aren't getting any outside this year, so I'm doing my best to bring it inside.

In the past year, I have made lots of wooden picture plaques with the help of dear hubby and so we joined together to make a nice snowman plaque for our kitchen. He uses old wood (think recycle) and routes the edges, paints the board and then I do the rest. Printing a pic I have found on the web, matting it and glueing it on. After it's dry, I apply some modge podge and this time I sprinkled on some glitter, since it won't be hanging over any food prep area. I have a small "snowscape" now.

I love it!

Crafting with the Grandkiddos

I have been busy creating storytime books and crafts for pre-schoolers...my very own special little grandkiddos. I have taken them to the library for storytime and they love it, so I figured I could create my own to do on baby-sitting days.

Tuesday, we did a snowflake theme. We read 3 books from the library, "It's Snowing!" by Oliver Dunrea,"First Snow" by Emily Arnold McCully, and "Snip, Snip...Snow" by Nancy Poydar and then we got busy. Landon enjoyed listening to the books, but then he went in other directions.

I found a web-site at http://snowflake.bhg.com/ and had Mattie got to work creating snowflakes on-line. She loved this and it also helped her work on her computer skills, click and drag, keyboarding, etc.

Next, we did old fashioned snowflakes, cut from circles, folded in half, then thirds, then in half again. I had to do the actually cutting but she loved unfolding the creations to see what they looked like. We taped them in the windows and on the front door. It really looked like it was snowing outside. Landon loved helping tape them to the windows and the cat, Sadie Belle, loved trying to tear them down as quickly as we put them up. We decided NOT to put them on the lower windows.

We used some of our scraps and created a mosaic snowman on a piece of pink (that's what she wanted to use) construction paper. It was a fun afternoon.

Wednesday, hubby picked Mattie up from pre-school and brought her to our house for a little bit and to play with her cousins, Hannah and Lillian when their daddy picked them up after work. While we were waiting for their arrival, we made more snowflakes! Now my windows were the recipients of the beautiful creations. I also used my scrapbooking scissors and paper punches to give them yet another look. When it was dark outside they really looked beautiful.

Happy New Year