Mail is Fun!!!

Yay for a good mail day! A big thank you, to my friends that sent in these goodies to my house! I believe in Karma and appreciate all you do! Thank you! Have a wonderful weekend!

Organizing!

Today I have been feeling a bit exhausted from the whole back-to-school thing, that I wanted to get some work done, but wanted to take it easy! Since I'm making Meatloaf for dinner, I need to stay close to the kitchen and spend time with my kids too! I figured it was time to sort my big bin of charms. This is a nice way of getting everyone involved and getting stuff done! What do you like to accomplish, that still allows you time to hang out with your little ones?

5 a Day Book Project!

The Imagination Tree posted about a fantastic project that I knew we had to be part of straight away and this is how we embarked on the 5 a Day Book Project! Please Follow along with us AND share your lists too!!

 The idea is that you choose 5 titles from among your usual books (or from the library) and read them every single day for at least a week. They suggest choosing short picture books which feature strong rhythm and/ or repeated refrain so that the children can quickly memorise the words and join in with the story-telling. This empowers them to be able to "read" and re-tell stories from a young age, and also makes them very fluent in a range of text types and literature styles. 

WEEK 1

WEEK 2

WEEK 3

Please continue to follow our adventures!!

Have You Added Me Yet?

Twitter: @MichellesCharmW

Facebook: MichellesCharmWorld

Box Top Check In

So far so good! I will start posting this weekly, if I have a drastic change, like I did last week! Thank you so much to everyone that helped me out! Our family did our shopping last week by following the list of items with box tops on them! It was wonderful getting coupons from the site and spending the same if not less than we would have using our regular brands!

We had 20box tops alone on our own!

My parents got involved (anything to help out their grandkids!!) and had 15 for us ready to go when we stopped in and then I had 10 mailed to me by 2 different people! That's FANTASTIC! I truly appreciate all you do to help us out!

To show my appreciation, I have pledged to donate in cash to the school the same amount of box tops collected by the kind people of the blogosphere! With 45 collected in the past week, I rounded up and donated 5.00 to the school! Let's get rolling!! Remember, every little bit helps!

Lesson Learned

Back to school Haircuts are as common as School Supplies and New Shoes! With the Summer, we let it all grow out and wreak havoc on heads. Well this year, we decided to try someplace new, other than our regular Barber for the boys. We were drawn in by a new place with shiny new signs that boasted GRAND OPENING 5.00 Kids Cuts (Regular Price 13.95)! We pay around 15.00 per box to have their hair cut, and figured this was a great deal!

We should have known right?

Warning Signs to look for:

1. Anything that says GRAND OPENING (no clue as to how their past clientele was or any sign at all as to what people think)

2. An Empty waiting area with only 1 other name on the sign in sheet.

(A good place is always busy, no matter what time of day!)

3. Only 1 chair occupied by a stylist and the others are empty.

(Even on slow days, there should be someone else on hand should it get unusually busy)

4. When told what kind of hair cut to give, she asks if we really meant something else.

All these signs were against us, and yet we put the hair of our little guys at her mercy.....

She hacked away at the hair and it looked BEYOND awful. At first it was hard to tell, but when the hair dried (once we were gone of course) it was a DISASTER! There were some parts she hacked all the way to the scalp!

Many would be quick to say 'head back and make her fix it!!' Is this really the smart solution? She hacked it so bad, her only choice in her eyes would be to shave the head!! We headed back to our regular barber, who could only shake his head at us. Fixed and ready for school, we have certainly learned our lesson.

Did we save money? Nope, we overspent! 15.00 at our regular barber PLUS the 5.00 'special'.

What did I do? Took photos of the bad hair and contacted the Better Business Bureau. I contacted the Rockford Association of Businesses and really, truly hope that this was a one time mistake. At least they can check and see if she has her license up to date!

School Lunches

Does the thought of Hot lunch in a school cafeteria skeeve you out? Do you want your kids to have healthy fun, lunches but you just don't have the time to throw them together? I used to think the same thing, but last year I started getting on a fun food kick. I LOVE the idea of the Japanese Bento Lunch and how fun and creative it can be. Keep in mind it will take a few more minutes than your normal box lunch, but imagine the face your child will have when they open it! Cookie cutters and Cupcake picks can take you to a whole other level! Have fun with it! The kids at school always tell me that they wish they had Autumn's lunch and the teacher's have said that they crowd around to see what she will have each day! (YIKES! The pressure is on!).

It's not hard to get creative, but it can be hard to stick with it! Make it a routine (I do most of the work at night) and then it will just become habit! Shave 5 minutes off your morning shower, get up earlier, go to bed later, it can be done!

I will do a post on my supplies and keeping it all organized coming up soon!

A New Focus

Hi everyone! My little girl has started Kindergarten and is already in her 3rd week! She's having an absolute blast and we have fallen in love with this small school. This school is extremely tiny and we want to help as much as we can. I've taken to collecting box tops for her school. Did you know that each box top is worth .10? On the first day of school when I found out about this program, I went through my pantry and with no shopping, just what I had in the house I collected 13 box tops! Want to know what products carry these tops? CHECK IT OUT HERE!

If you have some of these laying around and are not donating them to a school, I would LOVE to take them off your hands! I will pay postage, all you have to do is message me at MichellesCharmWorld @ Gmail.com (no spaces). I have pledged to donate the EXACT same amount in cash as the box tops are worth to the school.

Just how small is this school? It is Kindergarten thru High School and there are 26 students. Yup, I typed that correctly. There are only 2 children in Kindergarten! (One of them is Autumn!)

If you can help, YAY! If not, just spread the word on how AWESOME this program is!

Thanks so much!!!!

~Michelle!~

Kids in the Kitchen!

Make Room for the Kids in your Kitchen!
I 100% believe in letting the kids have an active roll in the kitchen. It teaches them about food and they are more apt to eat anything they create.

I gave them an entire low cabinet for their cups, silverware and plates and bowls. This allows them to set the table and serve themselves snacks