Daniel Tiger Birthday Party

We had a blast with the Daniel Tiger Birthday Party this year for Levi.  He loves DT and so do a lot of his friends.

Thankful Tree Bulletin Board

Now that my oldest is in Kindergarten we took the idea of the Thankful Tree and turned it into a bulletin board for her school.  I have been out of schools for 5 years now and sadly it took quite a while to figure out how to use the die cut machine again.  Thorough planning also would have helped since I realized her school had no dark brown paper after I had cut out all of the leaves (including the light brown).  Oh well.  It looked cute when we finished and didn't take too long.  We are still waiting on a few teachers to add some more leaves to give it a full look but I think it looks cute for now.

Hope if you are looking for a Fall bulletin board idea you will give this one a try.

4th of July Bicycle Parade

Gearing up for the Fourth of July bicycle parade in our neighborhood.  Found some red, white, and blue tulle to wrap the bike frame.  I just wrapped it around in opposite directions and then tied a knot. The rest of the gear I found at the dollar tree- leis, ribbon garland, signs, bows.  With a few zip ties we are set to go.  Cheap and easy and the kiddos love it

The strider bike

DIY- Essential Oil Laundry Soap- Natural

After I started using Thieves cleaner to replace my 409, windex, and bathroom cleaner I knew I wanted to use oils in other areas too.  I decided to make my own, natural laundry soap.  My little one has sensitive skin and I know all the chemicals in my laundry soap aren't good for him and buying the more natural types are just too expensive for us.  


To make your own soap you need five things and here is the recipe:

1 cup borax
1 cup washing soda
1 cup baking soda
1 bar of natural soap
11 drops of essential oils.

You need to grate the soap, and then toss it in a food processor so it is really fine.  Then add the other ingredients.  Obviously you can make a bigger batch, but keep the same ratio of ingredients.  I chose citrus fresh for my scent because it reminds me of spring.  Next time I might try peppermint or stress-away though.  Use 1/8 cup for each load of laundry.  For HE use 1 to 2 tablespoons.  Store in an airtight container.  

If you are looking to purchase essential oils, I suggest that you try citrus fresh for your laundry detergent

Order a 5ml bottle of Citrus Fresh-- use member code 3615289 to order

What other scents have you tried for your laundry detergent?

Making Ten- Math Game for Kindergarteners

I always read about how pushed little kids are- Kindergartners are doing things that first and second graders used to do.  Kids are expected to have skills before they even enter Kinder to keep up with their classmates.  The pressure is on parents even at the very beginning of education.  While I absolutely detest the idea of homework in Kindergarten I do believe that young children are sponges and love to learn so why not teach them skills.... in a fun way.  I was reading about math games geared towards older kids and decided to modify them to fit my 5 year old Pre-K daughter.  After a few rounds she loved it.

Supplies needed:

2 decks of cards with the face cards removed.  Keep the aces.  (I used some random decks we had around the house, it ended up being 63 cards)

How to play:

Deal four cards to each person.  Then place four cards in the middle as a community pile.  On your turn, you get to use as many cards as needed to make ten.  You can use 1 card, 2 cards, 3 cards, etc.  You get to make as many tens as your can using all 8 cards.  Place each ten in a pile to count up later.

  

Here is my hand.  These are the ten piles that I made.

I used all of my cards and there were 2 left in the community pile.  The next person gets 2 additional cards to make 4 and the 4 in their hand to make as many tens as they can.  Continue play until there are no cards left- give each person cards before the community pile.  My last turn I had 2 cards in the community pile and 3 in my hand.  Once no one could make ten again the game was over.  Then count up your tens and see who wins.  

Please don't let your 5 year old win to make them feel better about themselves.  They are at the age where they start to play games with their friends and they aren't always going to win.  It is time to teach them how to be good sports- a good winner and a good loser.

You can also make the game more interesting for an older child by allowing them to add and subtract cards to get ten.  Heck, if they are even older, let them add in multiplication and division.

You may also like these Games to learn Sight Words for your Kindergartners 

DIY Envelope Liners for Christmas Cards from Scrap Wrap

When I was making my Christmas cards this year, Shutterfly had beautiful colorful envelopes to choose from and liners.  Before I knew if I had picked gold envelopes with a beautiful print liner.  I failed to see the part that the envelopes were 24 cents extra a piece and the liners were another 69 cents each!  ouch  Since I get 50 cards thats an extra $46.60 just for something that is immediately going to be thrown away..... I know that all people truly cherish the cards themselves.... or so I tell myself that, but the envelope..... well now we are stretching it.  I splurged and got the envelopes and skipped the liners.  By the time my cards came in the mail I had already been happily wrapping presents and had that strip of extra paper along the top.  That go me thinking.  I measured a bit against my envelope, trimmed a little, added some school glue and voila!  Finally a chance to use that extra wrapping paper that is only really good for gift cards. 

To make these just cut your wrapping paper a little shorter than your envelope.  As long as you can cover the top of the fold (under where you lick) to whatever you can see you are good.  I trimmed mine down diagonally a bit but I don't think you need too.  Some are longer into the envelope, but who cares.  I added a little glue to the top part so they don't fall out.  I did this while watching reruns of the Tudors.  Mindless work and at least I am using my scraps.  

If you have a paper shredded you can also shred the scraps and use them in gift bags instead of tissue paper.

DIY- Giant Christmas Star

My lovely neighbor started decorating her yard this past weekend and seeing her finished product made me think that I needed to up my game.  After looking at pinterest and Lowes, I didn't really find anything I liked.  My husband said he could make me a big star out of PVC pipes and asked if I could dress it up for the second story.  He originally wanted to mount it on the roof, but that didn't look as cool as just hanging it.  Using the pipes we had, we made the first star and I decorated it and I LOVE it!

Mr. Adorable with the Christmas Star

Each pole on this star was about 4 feet long.  I used two and a half packages of tinsel and 400 white on white lights.  

Supplies from Lowes

While I was at Lowes, I picked up a few more 10 foot lengths of PVC pipes and noticed that they had red tinsel and lights.  Since we do our house with white lights and red trim, I thought some red stars to line the flower beds would look nice. We cut the PVC in thirds, so 3 feet 4 inches.  You need 2 pieces to make one star and you will have one leftover.  My husband duct taped the ends and then centered the star and duct taped the middle.  I plan to make five more stars in white and red for my flower beds.  

to make, just wrap tinsel around, then wrap lights around

finished red star 

I'll post another picture when we officially light up next weekend, but this is how the silver one looks on my house.  I love the sparkle and it looks lovely during the day.  I think this would look great over a fireplace mantle too