Veteran's Day Fun

My Papaw served in World War II and instilled in me the importance of appreciating and supporting our veterans. I try to do something with my kids on each patriotic holiday to remind them how important veterans are to the freedom we have.

This year, we used this awesome printable pack from Money Saving Mom that had activities my kindergartener and three year old both enjoyed.

They also made cards for veterans we know...

And, my big kid was tasked with creating a Lego flag!

Thanks to all the veterans who have served our country! We are grateful for you.

He's Baaaaaack!

Dustin, well Snowflake- because he got renamed this year, has returned! Check out some of the fun things he's been up to.

 

Rockin' with his elf band...

 

 

Chillin' with some minions. (Idea borrowed from here.)

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Stuck in a jar... 

 

Ready for a light saber battle!

 

 

And with his toilet paper Snowman creation!

 

I'll update more as we go! :)

 

 

 

Gobble Gobble! Turkey crafts

I wanted a couple of easy turkey crafts to do with my boys this year. My three year old is really starting to understand holidays and my five year old is a baby craft machine, so I try to incorporate activities for them every chance I get. This is what I came up with for Thanksgiving 2015!

There are SO many things you can do with paint samples, but for today, they are turkey feathers! Yes, Walmart might hate me, but look at the turkey-crafty-cuteness. So worth it.

I found and printed the turkey template (you could also easily draw your own) and let them color it first. I cut the paint sample in half and they attached them with glue sticks.

 

They did this craft 98% by themselves, so I call that a success in itself.

There is a giant maple tree outside our pediatrician's office and my kiddos think it's amazing to jump and play and pick them up. So, fallen leaves provided a perfect opportunity for more turkey crafting!

My boys loved to color over the leaves and see what impressions they get.

After we made impressions, we transformed them into turkeys! The turkey's face pieces were just pieces cut from construction paper and we added googly eyes (one got lost before I got a picture).

 

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Halloween 2015

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays! I love the cool air and all the fun things to do with my boys.

 

We had lots of fun carving pumpkins!

 

My most favorite thing about pumpkin carving is the seeds! I coat them in oil and Lawry's seasoning salt and roast them at 300 degrees for around 45 minutes. So yummy and they make great counters for math too!

 

 

This guy loved bobbing for (or just taking a bite of each) apples!

 

This Halloween, my sweet husband found himself entered in a babywearing costume contest. I took a small boys' t-shirt and drew the dollar sign with a permanent marker. I found the play money at the dollar store and used hot glue to attach it at the top. The size small t-shirt fit the Tula perfectly and they became the cutest bank robbers I've ever seen.

Around the World in 11 Days: South Korea, Japan and China

Week two was South Korea. Kimchi and sweet potatoes are popular foods in South Korea so we substituted sauerkraut for kimchi and ate sweet potato tots. Our craft for this week was paper fans and my boys were most excited to learn that Avengers: Age of Ultron was partially filmed in this country. If you have a super hero fan like me, that's a fun fact to add!

For Japan, an amazing local restaurant donated fried rice, chicken, yaki and sweet carrots for them to try. We made this shape ninja craft modified to be on paper plates and Coke bottle cherry blossom trees. Some people got a little carried away with the paint. ;)

The week we learned about China, we were extra excited because a couple of the kids in our class were adopted from there. Their mommy came and showed us a Chinese bible, clothes, a lantern, a dragon puppet and lots more. This week, a local Chinese restaurant donated egg rolls and fortune cookies for them to try and we learned about Chinese New Year and made this quick Year of the Sheep craft.

 

 

Around the World in 11 Days: Australia and India

For our class about Australia, we ate cookies shaped like kangaroos, made a kangaroo planter and a beach in a bottle.

 

For the planter, I printed the pieces I found here and adapted it to just use paper they could color instead of the craft foam. I let them draw on the face and then we used hot glue to put all the pieces together.

 

 

For the beach in a bottle, I purchased the 8 oz bottles of water. They got to take one big drink and then we used sand colored aquarium rocks (I originally planned to use sand, but it's really expensive to find in the off season, so the rocks did the trick.). We used a funnel to pour them in and then added a couple glittery fish foam stickers (with the paper removed). Lastly, we used food coloring to turn the water blue.

I also got them these boomerangs to take home.

In India, we ate yummy naan bread and learned that they have Bengal tigers.

I painted their hands orange and let them do their print. They then glued on eyes and drew stripes with a permanent marker.

We talked about Diwali and made paper lanterns. I modified this pattern and let them decorate them with markers before stapling
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Lastly, we learned that there are 272 different species of snakes in India and made a quick paper chain snake.

 

Around the World in 11 Days: Passports and Belize

At our homeschool co-op this semester, I am teaching a class I called "Around the World in 11 Days." We have 11 weeks of co-op, so we explore a different country each week.

I made a passport for each child and they get to look at a fact sheet and color the flag of each country every week.

I also added some recipes for food we ate from some of the countries that I just printed from online cookbooks.

The first week we learned about Belize. An amazing missionary from our church came and shared pictures, money, crafts and more from the country. We ate banana muffins and banana jam and made a banana craft. I just printed a picture of a banana and let them glue on yellow tissue paper.

 

Around the World in 11 Days: Mexico and England

The week we did Mexico was really close to Halloween, so we tied in the Dia de Los Muertos Celebration. They got to break a piñata, make celebration masks and try chips and salsa!

 

 

 

 

 For England, we learned all about royalty!

 

 We had a tea party with fancy cakes and sweet tea. Our local Burger King donated crowns to make them queens and kings and they decorated them with stickers. 

 

 

 

We also made shape castles using two rectangles, one square and four triangles!

 

 

 

Arghhh. Talk Like a Pirate Day

September 19th is Talk like a Pirate Day! Every year, it is an amazing opportunity to fill your children with junk food for free. Yippee! Oh, and also an awesome homeschool opportunity to learn about pirates. ;)

We had a couple swords in the dress up box, so we used those. (Remember, Halloween clearance is an awesome time to stock up on pirate goods for next year.) I made hooks by cutting a hole in the bottom of a plastic cup and inserting a metal coat hanger. I then wrapped the cup in aluminum foil. The eye patches are just black construction paper with ribbon tied on.

This year, we took advantage of the free fish basket from Long John Silvers and the free dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme.

Learn more about the pirate insanity here: http://talklikeapirate.com/.

Squishy Baby Turned One! Dr. Seuss style!

Last semester our Co-Op used "Oh, the Places You'll Go" as the theme for Kindergarten graduation. I decided to save a little on decorations and use the same theme for my little man's first birthday! It turned into more of an all out Dr. Seuss experience.

 

I used Oreo cookies with lifesavers and crème savers stacked on top of each other with icing to make "Cat in the Hat" snacks.

 

Green Eggs & Ham!

I had two different kinds of green eggs. I just made deviled eggs for one and soaked the whites in water with green food coloring before I filled them with the yolks.

 

For the other "eggs," I took white Wilton melts and put them on top of pretzels. They melted in the oven at 300 degrees for about five minutes and then I stuck on a mint green M & M.

 

 

 

Jelly beans made great Truffula seeds and the ham to go with the green eggs was just ham sandwiches on Hawaiian rolls.

 

 

One Fish, Two Fish.... Red Fish, Blue Fish!

Goldfish with Swedish fish and gummy sharks.

 

 

 

 Truffla trees were made by wrapping cotton candy around dum dum suckers. The only problem I had with these was that the cotton candy started dissolving really quickly, so wait until the very last minute to make them!

 

 

My amazing friend, Stephanie, made glittery rainbow cake pops and a perfect smash cake to make the party extra Seuss-ical!

 

Tables were decorated with Dr. Seuss books and  sprinkled with puffy craft balls. I hang lanterns from the ceiling and used the truffala trees my awesome friend Emily made for  Kindergarten graduation. She used colorful snack cups and glued a piece of floral foam. She then made the top of the tree from tissue paper and attached it to a dowel rod. She stuck the rod in the floral foam and sprinkled paper craft grass on top.

 

 

 

This precious boy had an amazing day! And his mommy did too.