Won't you be my Valentine?

CARS valentine's for our friends

Scooby-Doo!

Looking very stylish!

Decorating our photo frames and bags

Homemade mini pizzas! Thanks Jessica!

Too Cool...

Our friend invited us to her Valentine's Day party! We made special "I Love You to Pieces" photo frames, decorated bags for our Valentine cards, ate homemade mini pizzas and had a wonderful time!

Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's Day!

MadCounty Mama

A Handful of Thanks

It is always nice to send out Thank yous for gifts that you receive.  And this year I decided to make our own cards.  I happened to find this little project while surfing the net and knew that my kids would love all the messiness! It's a very original idea just recycle in a creative way.

Working hard to get messy!

Our masterpieces!

Budding Artist

I didn't get a picture of the card folded but on the front we wrote THANK YOU... and on the inside FOR THE CHRISTMAS GIFTS!
I also printed each child's name beside their hand.  These were fun to make and fun to give!

MadCounty Mama

Kids' Christmas Party

Our playgroup meets almost every Wednesday and while the kids make lots of noise; us moms get a chance to be "just girls" again!
So when Wylie asked if we were going to a Christmas party this year (we weren't), I seized the opportunity to plan a party for our friends. =)
Wylie helped plan our crafts, snacks and goodie bags. And best of all we got to make cookies.

Sugar Cookies-yum!

Lots of fun decorating

Making some houses for the younger kids

Busy Little Elves

Daddy was a great help!

Gingerbread Village

Decorating Ornaments

The Whole Crew

Stars & Snowflakes

In everything, Give Thanks

We've been busy at Donaldson Academy! =) We've been learning all about the Pilgrims and the history of Thanksgiving. Before our first child was born, PreacherMan and I were in Massachusetts for a family visit; we had the opportunity to go to the Plimouth Plantation.  It is a living history museum in Plymouth, MA.  It was such a fun and educational experience - we hope to take our whole family sometime. But in the mean time we did our hands-on learning at home with lots of crafts, a story about a Pilgrim boy and a "cooking" activity. 

First we talked about what we are thankful for:

Wylie's List:

* Meat

* My name, Wylie

* Wyatt

* Dad

* Mom

* Milk

* Evelyn

Wyatt's List:

*Motorcycles

*Mater

*Gram&Gramps

*The numbers 1,2,3,4

*My Bible Book

*My brother and sister

Then we put together a Cornucopia with stickers: 

A Thanksgiving themed cut 'n' paste pattern worksheet:

And then we made Pilgrim Hats!
Ingredients:
Fudge Stripe Cookies
White Frosting
Peanut Butter Cups
Something small and orange...We used the tips of Candy Corn!

 Unwrap peanut butter cups, then frost the wide end with frosting:

 Turn upside down and press onto 1 cookie:

Add a "buckle":

 And Viola! A Pilgrim Hat!

One of the helpers was much more interested in eating the supplies...

 Our special treats that we shared with our Bible study group.

 Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

MadCounty Mama

April Activities

We started our lesson with the story of Jesus traveling to Jerusalem, discussing how they traveled back then and the importance of riding a colt and how the people greeted Him.  Our craft was to color this donkey, cut it out and put it together.  I used brads on one so that he "walks" and just glued the other.

 

Memory Verse: "Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved." Acts 16:31

Then we took a piece of green construction paper, folded it hot dog style, and made 1/2" rectangle shaped cuts where the edges met. Unfold to reveal a palm branch!

For the week leading up to Resurrection Sunday we focused on the Bible stories leading up to that day and did some coloring sheets as well as a hand-print lamb craft.  On the back was to be the memory verse for that week, but it didn't quite make it.

 

Memory Verse: "This is how we know what love is, Jesus Christ laid down his life for us." 

1 John 3:16

This was just a sheet of black foam cut out in the shape of my hand. Then a piece of white cardstock cut out like a cloud, glued to black foam.  The boys glues cotton balls on for the wool, some googly eyes, more black foam for ears and some pink of a nose.


MadCounty Mama

Getting Organized

When PreacherMan asked me to label the kids toy boxes so he knew where everything went, my love for him grew ten fold! I love to organize and have everything in it's own place.  To me it simplifies life and makes it easier to keep the house clean. 
First we sorted all the toys and put them into categories; Cars, Animals, Balls, Kitchen, Puzzles etc.  I had some extra shoe-box-size clear plastic totes on hand and they worked as perfect containers for many of the toys.  I also used some collapsible cubes for the bigger toys. A tip for the thrifty: go through your household and look for boxes, crates, bags, and cans that can be used before heading to the store to buy expensive items.
The labels on the plastic totes were incredibly easy to make. I considered doing something on the computer but I wanted to include the boys and have fun while doing it.  We used our arts/craft time during the boys' lessons to create these labels.
List of supplies:
Colored pencils- these are the easiest to use with stencils. Make sure your tip is sharp.
Recipe Cards
Stencils
Packing Tape

Next I stenciled out the categories I needed and added some graphics.  By having a picture of what actually goes in the box, the boys are able to clean up and know where their toys go. 

To ensure the labels stay on the boxes and aren't ripped off, I took two pieces of packing tape slightly longer than my cards and taped the cards on the inside of the box.  Make sure all your edges are taped down and these will hold up well to little prying fingers!

The end product turned out great and was more fun to make than I'd imagined but maybe that's just my OCD getting it's fix. 

Homemade Pinata

Last year I decided to make a pinata for Sugar's 3rd birthday.  It seemed easy enough when I had done it in elementary, surely I could handle it as a mom of 2! Let's just say it was not as pretty as first imagined and a whole lot more involved than I remembered.  This year I was determined to make life simple and buy a pinata.  That is until my almost 4 year old asked if we could make a homemade pinata.  I just couldn't say no. =)

So with a bit more wisdom I began the project a a few days earlier than I had the year before.  Who knew you would need at least 3 days to let each paper mache layer dry? I did and I felt confident that this time around the process would go much smoother and quicker than before.
The paper mache part did go quickly and without event.

And then this brilliant mama decided to go all out with the decorations. (I'm starting to hate brilliant ideas!)

The party was Dinosaur Train theme so in a effort to make things "simple" I decided to make the pinata a dino egg.  After 7 1/2 hours of decorating I simple gave up with the tedious job off tiny pieces of tissue paper strategically placed and covered the rest of it in pink.  Pink makes me smile.

And so did watching my son happily beat on that dinosaur egg at his 4th birthday party.

And just for kicks...his train cake:

Homemade doesn't have a price, it's priceless!