Our materials for this time around:
All the worksheets can be found on education.com and the idea sources on the Twinbop pinboard. Now to start on the Letter J.
Monday, January 30, 2012
[learn] jellyfish and jewels
We had lots of ideas for the Letter J. There are a lot of important people in our lives that name starts with J: Jack, JuJu and June to mention a few! But in the end, we went with something a little easier to craft around, jellyfish and jewels.
Our materials for this time around:
All the worksheets can be found on education.com and the idea sources on the Twinbop pinboard. Now to start on the Letter J.
Our materials for this time around:
All the worksheets can be found on education.com and the idea sources on the Twinbop pinboard. Now to start on the Letter J.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
[make] heart warming
Pinterest strikes again. So how cute are these hearts by Brett Bara from Design Sponge? So cute, I pinned my own pin.
The pattern is super simple and easy to use. I followed Brett's tutorial except for two tiny changes. I didn't do the stitching at the top of the pocket fold, just ironed - lazy wins again.
Since lazy had its say, let's let cheap, uh... thrifty come into play. My husband enlisted me for corn hole bags at Christmas and we just happen to have 46 pounds of the 50 pounds of deer corn left. Polyfil can get expensive, the corn was free.
The happy result is that you can heat these little babies up. Twenty seconds in the microwave and these sweet hearts become warm and perfect for putting in your pockets on a cold day. They fit right in the palm of your hand. Oh and I went kind of crazy making them, after all I had plenty of corn.
Packaged up two by two with a clever little saying and ready for warm Valentine treats. What's that saying about the mother of invention?
The pattern is super simple and easy to use. I followed Brett's tutorial except for two tiny changes. I didn't do the stitching at the top of the pocket fold, just ironed - lazy wins again.
Since lazy had its say, let's let cheap, uh... thrifty come into play. My husband enlisted me for corn hole bags at Christmas and we just happen to have 46 pounds of the 50 pounds of deer corn left. Polyfil can get expensive, the corn was free.
The happy result is that you can heat these little babies up. Twenty seconds in the microwave and these sweet hearts become warm and perfect for putting in your pockets on a cold day. They fit right in the palm of your hand. Oh and I went kind of crazy making them, after all I had plenty of corn.
Packaged up two by two with a clever little saying and ready for warm Valentine treats. What's that saying about the mother of invention?
Thursday, January 5, 2012
[live] mud corner
We live in a 1960's brick ranch with split floor plan which can be challenging. Imagine a long rectangle split down the middle, living spaces on one side of stairs leading down to an unfinished basement, bedrooms on the other. The entrance we use is our "side door" that leads directly into a narrow galley style kitchen from the carport. Naturally everything, purses, book bags, keys, coats, laptops, end up on the kitchen counter. We are constantly looking for keys, cell phones, homework assignments.
My previous solutions of hooks on the backs of doors, folders in cabinets, the idea of actually walking it into a bedroom, have been ignored by my family. My dreams of a mud room are just that, dreams. We just don't have the space.
Then I moved my husbands great grandmother's glass pie cabinet into the living room and presto, a corner. A mud corner.
Before, a corner of sorts between the bathroom and our bedroom on one end of the hallway. Now, a handy dandy area that we need to be a tad bit more organized.
I started with an Expedit Shelving Unit in black ($39.99). I love the cubbie style and that it's super sturdy. Then I added two Nasum Baskets ($14.99 each) for our "shoe boxes". I installed two hook racks ($1.99 each) that I picked up a few years back. Then for a little fun added a framed Malma Mirror ($2.99). All from Ikea for a grand total of $76.94 not including tax.
The kids have always kicked off their shoes as soon as they come in the door (if they don't do it in the car). Now they have shoe boxes. The twins have one and Jack has the other. This kids are GREAT at putting their shoes in there and now in the mornings, we know exactly where we can find their school shoes. I have a place to hang my purse, my keys and a shelf for my laptop and tote bag. Stephen uses his side for his brief case and laptop. Of course during Christmas, it got hijacked with poinsettias, pine cones, and soft fuzzy throws.
All in all, it is working perfectly and although I still dream of a mud room, a mud corner is a great start.
My previous solutions of hooks on the backs of doors, folders in cabinets, the idea of actually walking it into a bedroom, have been ignored by my family. My dreams of a mud room are just that, dreams. We just don't have the space.
Then I moved my husbands great grandmother's glass pie cabinet into the living room and presto, a corner. A mud corner.
Before, a corner of sorts between the bathroom and our bedroom on one end of the hallway. Now, a handy dandy area that we need to be a tad bit more organized.
I started with an Expedit Shelving Unit in black ($39.99). I love the cubbie style and that it's super sturdy. Then I added two Nasum Baskets ($14.99 each) for our "shoe boxes". I installed two hook racks ($1.99 each) that I picked up a few years back. Then for a little fun added a framed Malma Mirror ($2.99). All from Ikea for a grand total of $76.94 not including tax.
The kids have always kicked off their shoes as soon as they come in the door (if they don't do it in the car). Now they have shoe boxes. The twins have one and Jack has the other. This kids are GREAT at putting their shoes in there and now in the mornings, we know exactly where we can find their school shoes. I have a place to hang my purse, my keys and a shelf for my laptop and tote bag. Stephen uses his side for his brief case and laptop. Of course during Christmas, it got hijacked with poinsettias, pine cones, and soft fuzzy throws.
All in all, it is working perfectly and although I still dream of a mud room, a mud corner is a great start.
Monday, December 26, 2011
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
[celebrate] holiday house party
Our annual gingerbread-less house decorating party went great. The decorating is the fun part, so we skip the mixing, cutting, baking and trying to get large pieces of gingerbread not to crack and end in disaster. I use cardboard. But not just any cardboard mind you, pouch juice cardboard.
My Jack renamed Capri-Suns pouch juices. Our household goes through A LOT of pouch juice especially during the holidays when we are traveling a bunch. The boxes that hold all of this pouch juice just happens to be a perfect size for a little house.
1. First open up then end flaps and side flap and flatten out the box.
2. Using a case knife or craft knife cut the box in half so that you have two long rectangles. You will cut through the side flap. The end flaps that you generally open the box with will run along the top or bottom of your long rectangles.
3. Turn the rectangles inside out so that the printed part is on the inside and hot glue it at the long side flap that you opened up to get it flat in the first place.
4. I used a large brownie box opened up and cut on the folds to make my roof. You can use any cardboard of similar weight to your pouch juice box. I just measured the end flaps (now the top) of the pouch juice square, cut the brownie box to size on either side of a fold and presto, roof.
5. Now glue on the roof. The side flaps are super helpful when it comes to gluing the roof in place.
6. All that is left was to set the house on a square cake base and you are ready for graham crackers, short bread cookies and lots and lots of candy.
The pouch juice boxes were recycled along with my brownie box and the cardboard cake bases were 4 for $2.50 at Hobby Lobby. In years past I've used recycled cardboard for those too, but I love that they are nice a white. Once you get the cutting done, assembly is a snap with some hot glue. And you don't have to worry about these falling to pieces once the kids get to decorating.
2. Using a case knife or craft knife cut the box in half so that you have two long rectangles. You will cut through the side flap. The end flaps that you generally open the box with will run along the top or bottom of your long rectangles.
3. Turn the rectangles inside out so that the printed part is on the inside and hot glue it at the long side flap that you opened up to get it flat in the first place.
4. I used a large brownie box opened up and cut on the folds to make my roof. You can use any cardboard of similar weight to your pouch juice box. I just measured the end flaps (now the top) of the pouch juice square, cut the brownie box to size on either side of a fold and presto, roof.
5. Now glue on the roof. The side flaps are super helpful when it comes to gluing the roof in place.
6. All that is left was to set the house on a square cake base and you are ready for graham crackers, short bread cookies and lots and lots of candy.
The pouch juice boxes were recycled along with my brownie box and the cardboard cake bases were 4 for $2.50 at Hobby Lobby. In years past I've used recycled cardboard for those too, but I love that they are nice a white. Once you get the cutting done, assembly is a snap with some hot glue. And you don't have to worry about these falling to pieces once the kids get to decorating.
These were our finished products. We may not end up winning any contests but I don't think anyone had more fun decorating them than we did.
Caution: Huge amounts of candy make it extremely difficult to get a picture of children sitting still. Note Baby A is the only one remotely in focus thanks to the fact she is still only drinking milk.
[make] christmas treats
Before our Holiday House Party, the kids and I did a little "baking". I had found some nutter butter reindeer and little marshmallow north poles on pinterest. Here are our versions.
My little ones don't care for peppermint so we used red and white striped paper straws for our poles and dipped away. These little north poles are super easy and I was surprised at house quickly we turned them out. 90 seconds for the almond bark to melt in the microwave and not much more for the kids to dip them in the candy coating and roll them in white sprinkles.
As for the reindeer, Nutter Butters covered in chocolate with pretzel antlers and red candy noses. We used the icing eyes that I got from Bake It Pretty. How cute are these little things and my three kids did everything besides heating up the chocolate. The only problem we had were lots of noses went missing.
They were a huge hit at our Holiday House Party which is saying something considering all the candy competition.
My little ones don't care for peppermint so we used red and white striped paper straws for our poles and dipped away. These little north poles are super easy and I was surprised at house quickly we turned them out. 90 seconds for the almond bark to melt in the microwave and not much more for the kids to dip them in the candy coating and roll them in white sprinkles.
As for the reindeer, Nutter Butters covered in chocolate with pretzel antlers and red candy noses. We used the icing eyes that I got from Bake It Pretty. How cute are these little things and my three kids did everything besides heating up the chocolate. The only problem we had were lots of noses went missing.
They were a huge hit at our Holiday House Party which is saying something considering all the candy competition.
Monday, December 19, 2011
[live] holiday house
This is the holiday house, no party, post. A few of my decorations inspired by Pinterest and a woodland theme. Pine cone trees and tiny deer hiding in the moss:
A little fox:
And a woodland themed Christmas tree:
The little paper mouse is courtesy of my Jack, he knows how I like everything to match so he picked a brown mouse with red ears. I didn't get to so many of the projects I had on my list, but there is always next year (and maybe a few more days until Christmas)!
A little fox:
And a woodland themed Christmas tree:
The little paper mouse is courtesy of my Jack, he knows how I like everything to match so he picked a brown mouse with red ears. I didn't get to so many of the projects I had on my list, but there is always next year (and maybe a few more days until Christmas)!
[make] ornaments
I managed a few homemade ornaments this year. Simple but really pretty. The first is the simplest. Remember the sweater pumpkins? A tiny embroidery hoop plus some of the red sweater leftovers equals a super cute little Christmas "ball" perfect for my woodland tree.
A thrifted men's plaid shirt yields a different but equally cute version. I didn't even hot glue them or put a string on them. I just nestled them in the branches. Done.
The next was more involved but the concept just as simple.
Terrarium Ornaments:
1. Gather up moss, plants, sticks, rocks, you name it.
2. Get a clear glass (or plastic) ornament and remove the cap.
3. Start with soil, about two tablespoons will do it.
4. Put your plant(s) in. I used Creeping Jenny.
5. Then add about the same amount of mulch as soil.
6. Pack it all down with a cotton swap or chopstick.
7. Start adding your moss. You may need to add a little more mulch to even things out.
8. Now the fun part, add sticks, berries, stones, beads or even tiny little ornaments.
9. Add a little water to keep everything growing.
10. Use a cotton swab helps helps clean off the inside of the glass.
11. Use a little twine to tie them on the tree.
All finished!
The kids helped me gather the plants, moss and mulch from our yard and we had the clear glass ornaments left over from Christmas's past so our craft was FREE! We even packed a few up for teacher gifts with the caption "thanks for helping us grow". A brown kraft box with some paper shreds kept them safe and sound for transport.
Now to see if we can sneak in a few others before Santa comes!
A thrifted men's plaid shirt yields a different but equally cute version. I didn't even hot glue them or put a string on them. I just nestled them in the branches. Done.
The next was more involved but the concept just as simple.
Terrarium Ornaments:
1. Gather up moss, plants, sticks, rocks, you name it.
2. Get a clear glass (or plastic) ornament and remove the cap.
3. Start with soil, about two tablespoons will do it.
4. Put your plant(s) in. I used Creeping Jenny.
5. Then add about the same amount of mulch as soil.
6. Pack it all down with a cotton swap or chopstick.
7. Start adding your moss. You may need to add a little more mulch to even things out.
8. Now the fun part, add sticks, berries, stones, beads or even tiny little ornaments.
9. Add a little water to keep everything growing.
10. Use a cotton swab helps helps clean off the inside of the glass.
11. Use a little twine to tie them on the tree.
All finished!
The kids helped me gather the plants, moss and mulch from our yard and we had the clear glass ornaments left over from Christmas's past so our craft was FREE! We even packed a few up for teacher gifts with the caption "thanks for helping us grow". A brown kraft box with some paper shreds kept them safe and sound for transport.
Now to see if we can sneak in a few others before Santa comes!
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
[celebrate] holiday houses ...
It's time for our annual house party.
Now to pre-assemble houses and collect some candy! (Isn't the gnome so cute? Thanks for the idea Amy!)
Now to pre-assemble houses and collect some candy! (Isn't the gnome so cute? Thanks for the idea Amy!)
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
[learn] ice cream and igloos
We fit it in, almost two weeks late - but here is what we learned about the letter I, which actually ended up standing for icing more than I think anything else.
Since we've had a busy couple of weeks we stuck to crafts and snacks this time around. We started with an igloo. A very special igloo made of icing and tasty marshmallows.
Inspired by this igloo, we opted to start with a bowl covered with a simple icing made of some water and powdered sugar. Coat the bowl, put the bowl on a plate and start with your oreo 'door'.
Then came the marshmallows - easy peasy, stack them up (the ones you don't eat of course). For our bowl size and stacking, we used a bag and a half of the standard sized marshmallows so buy that extra bag just in case!
Then some polar bears to hang out at the igloo. I had pinned these little bears made of foam and sold at Platypus Crafts. The pattern seem simple enough although mine weren't quite as polished. I cut out heads (with pink marker ears), black noses, scarves and the front and back halves of the body. Then I long strip of paper to fold accordion style to attach the two body halves. After using a marker to make eyes and a little mouth, we got to gluing them together.
We did figure out one very important fact - if you want them to stand up, run your accordion folded paper sideways.
For our follow up snack - ice cream sandwiches rolled in sprinkles. Because why wouldn't you roll them in sprinkles?
Now for what else we learned besides the fact that ice cream and igloo start with the letter I? When you include a 6 year old boy, he will question why we are making polar bears which do not start with the letter I and those polar bears will not live in the igloo. They will be on top waiting for the Eskimos to come out of said igloo, also known as polar bear snacks.
And then this happened because again, why not?
Another successful and fun TwinBop, regardless of the fact that they are no longer weekly and we've gained a member and non-twin in the 6 year old. Now for the Letter J and hopefully sometime this month! Keep an eye on the TwinBop board for the upcoming ideas. Any suggestions or ideas for J? Leave me a comment!
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