Hello, Is Anyone Out There?

Hello out there in this little corner of the web! I can't believe how long has gone since I was last here blogging about everything, I don't even know if I remember how to do this.

We are still happily home schooling and my oldest is a Sophomore!? Where does the time go, seriously! We are still using Seton as our curriculum but are now incredibly active in the 4-H, Volunteering in our community and seeing the world! Our next venture is to hit the road in our travel trailer and see the country from a different perspective, all while continuing to home school of course!

For the time being the trailer will only be for seasonal living 4-5 months out of the year. It will definitely be a new adventure, but the long term goal is of course to go full time at some point.

I am hoping to turn this in to a 4-H blog of some sort, showcasing our adventures as husband and wife volunteer leaders, what out children go through as members and as officers. It's a snippet of our life that is quite important to us, so I am thinking that is where this blog is headed. This blog has been through many lives as it has held and seen what has been important to me at different times in my life and even though each story should be a different blog, I like keeping it all in one place. I am still figuring it all out, so we will see if it will be a weekly blog, monthly or maybe later it can be a daily again! Let me get in to the groove of our school year starting this year and then we will see!

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Back in the Garden!

 We are back in the garden, this time the container garden! I found a fantastic deal on plants at Lowes while we were out and had to pick up some plants! There were not many left, but we made do! I found  tomato, basil, lavender, pepper and strawberry plants all for 1.50 each! Then as we were walking to the register, I found the flat of assorted flowers for 1.79, so I grabbed one of those too! The kids and I had a blast putting in the soil and then watering, they have become pros by now and barely needed my help at all!

My youngest had a blast scooping the dirt, he designated that 'his' job! The oldest liked watering the plants and my oldest boy, loved squeezing the plants out of the flats they came in! Everyone seems to have found their 'place' in the garden!

The other sweet treat we found was hummingbird nectar! We are so excited to make a hummingbird feeder this Summer! I love the hardware store, it's always a treasure box of items that BEG to be used in ways other than their intended purpose!!

What are you up to on this fine Saturday?

Right Now....Sugar Shock!

We are having a family movie night with a sweet dessert spread!

Fresh Squeezed Strawberry Lemonade

Raspberry Cookies & Chocolate Graham Crackers

Blueberries and Strawberries

Vanilla Yogurt Dip, Watermelon and Applesauce

Mini PB&J sandwiches and raisins

Apples, York Peppermint Patties and Grapes

Forks and Pink Straws!

What are you up to tonight???

Thrifty Thursday!

Time for my favorite post of the week! Thrifty Thursday is where I like to post my thrifty finds for the past week. now that the weather is warmer, I tend to find goodies at garage sales and thrift shoppes combined! The total spent last week was 3.10!

First up a vintage word game called JITTERS. This game is so fun, that my 6 year old has already asked to play it about 4 times! The best part? The letter dice are perfect for using in other things too!! You have a limited amount of time to make words in the shape shown on the card AND with the letters that are facing up when you tip the cup! The timer has attracted the boys and my older son loves to play so much too!!
I adapted this game to help my 3 year old play too, He doesn't use the timer and after he tips the cup, I write down the words that can be made on a piece of paper. THEN he finds the dice to create those words 1 at a time. It helps him learn new words AND identify letters too, the best part? He gets to play with the big kids too!

Alphabet Squiggle is a super fun game that all can play!! You roll your die (how fun and colorful it is!) and move your token that many paces until you land on a letter. When you arrive at that letter you can either write a word that starts with that letter OR draw a picture where that letter is visible in a word that begins with that letter!! My little guy only has to write the letter and say what letter it is to get the points! If you are able to do both you get 2 points! Learning has never been so fun!

There are 3 books that I got and they are spectacular! The vintage reader is my daughters favorite and she has already laid claim to it! The Thematic kindergarten Units book is my best buy at .25 and it's in MINT condition! The Geography book is fitting in spectacularly with our Around the World vacation we have coming up!!!

Please share your thrifty finds!!

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Mama Pea Pod

Craft in a Minute! Colored Sand

 We are on our way to the sane park after school today, but for my little guy he just can't wait to get out there! He was getting antsy and the water table and sandbox just weren't doing it for him! I figured we would stick with our Sand theme that we have going on after school, and came up with just the thing! Colored Sand! I went into my studio and came out with some empty plastic bottles I had and we got straight to work!

Materials Needed:
Cheese Grater (.10 at a tag sale)
Plastic Spoon
Container (Old hummus container)
Sidewalk Chalk
Sand (from our sand box!)

Just take the chalk and grate it into the sand that you have previously scooped and keep on mixing it up, so you can see how much you need to add! This took us barely any time to make up (I grated and he mixed!) and then before you knew it, he was having a blast mixing it all together! hahaha!!

5 a Day Book Project! Week 2

Last week we began our 5 a day book project and it has been an absolute blast! The kids end up loving the books and getting really into them! By the end of the week even the 3 year old was taking turns 'reading' some of them!! This week we picked 5 more together!

As I was heading out for my 2nd round of pick ups, my mail lady had some wonderfully glossy packages for me! I love when mail arrives! My new subscription to PARENTS magazine started coming!! I was leafing through it in the parking lot and this AWESOME article SHOUTED to me! It's about the BEST BOOKS YOU HAVE HAVER HEARD OF! This was PERFECT for this weeks 5 a day!

I changed around some afternoon plans and after I had everyone in the car, we headed STRAIGHT to the library! I was in luck as our library had 3 of the 4 books listed, but 1 was at another branch (due to arrive in 3 days) and the other was a no-go. That's alright though, 2 out of 4 made it onto this weeks list!

The first 2 books on my list are from the Magazine list! First up is The Snail and The Whale, this was AMAZING! The illustrations alone are phenomenal and the story is fun. This book is in our Amazon cart for sure!

Button Up is a collection of poetry about different items of clothing, as it is lengthy (but sooo cute), we are going to just do 1 poem each week, which is awesome because I just read another blog this morning that is doing the same thing!! I wish I could remember who it is, so if it's you PLEASE let me know in the comments and I will link you up!

Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late is an old fan favorite! We love this series of books from Mo Willems and the situations always have us laughing!

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! If we had one, we of course had to add another! haha! Once again this book is just charming!!

Finally, we have YES DAY! This book is truly a childs dream and in fact has inspired me to add 1 more thing to the very bottom of our 3 Kids 2 Parents 1 Awesome Summer, BUCKET LIST!  If you have not read this book yet, PLEASE check it out! It's so fun!

A great tip I can constantly share is to have your books out in the open so that the kids can browse through them throughout the day too!

Do you have a list to share? Please put it in the comments!!

CLICK HERE TO READ ABOUT 5 a DAY!

Rainy Days

Rainy Days have us inside coloring and creating! Puddle walk later as it warms up! What are you up to on Rainy Days?

Write Some More!

 We're bloggers and we love to write, right? I'm always jotting something down or doodling a quick sketch with an idea. I love the written word, to create it and to read it! It's a passion I guess. I'm lucky in the sense that I have kids that enjoy this too, they even have journals!. It could be that I have set an example and they just want to be like Mom, but it could also be that I like to make writing utensils easily accessible to little hands! I always dress up our writing center AND change it out often, so it looks fresh and fun! You will be amazed at what some new pencil toppers can do, they make kids want to use them right away. Try a new sharpener, even my 3 year old dashes right in to sharpen and then use his 'pointy pencil'. A colorful cup of erasers encourages creativity and 'gasp' even mistakes! Let them know it's okay, just erase and it's brand new again! Different types of paper make it possible for the kids to do all kinds of different things! Postcards, Mini pads, list pads with lines and check boxes, restaurant CHECK booklets, post its plain, post its lined etc. Crayons are there, so that the kids can illustrate what they write!! Try it and you will see them flock!

I always am sure to keep the reading and writing shelf accessible too! This has letters in all shapes and forms (Coasters, rocks, tiles, dice, foam, wood, cardstock etc.) and mini chalkboards too! I will go into more detail on this shelf in a future post!! How do you get your little ones to write more?

5 a Day Book Project! Week 1

Happy Day! I am finally taking a minute to sit down today and I am just smiling with how wonderful it all went! Every morning, I wake up before my husband and kids, to have that moment where everything is still and quiet and perfect. You know, when the air holds a small chill and the sun has yet to appear over the horizon. Everything seems so new and fresh and forgiving. This moment is all my own, I take a glass of orange juice (fresh squeezed the night before) and usually have a seat on the deck. The air just invigorates me and tells me that it's a new day. Next, I sit quietly and check e-mails and all other Social Media that I have going on. Finally, my favorite part of the morning is taking in some blogs. I usually check about 10, but if I have time, I can do as many as 20! This morning I came across The Imagination Tree's post about the 5 a day Book Project. This seemed absolutely spectacular and right up our alley! We are a huge reading family! I've mentioned it before that we love to do anything that has to do with books! To read more about the project, please click on the link and go to Imagination Tree's blog!

I knew straight away that in addition to reading Charlotte's Web (1 chapter every night) and whatever the kids brought to me, we would go a more structured route. I went straight to our handy book display and emptied it out (today was our day to replace the books anyway!) to get it ready for our 5 books.
I meant to do this earlier today, but it got busy with one thing after another! I finally now had some time to put some things together and here they are! As soon as the new books hit the display, little hands were grabbing and ready to turn the pages!

First up, is Goodnight Moon, an old favorite that has been retired from our shelves for too long. This was a large lap book that we recently found at a tag sale! The kids love the brightness of the photos and with the size of the book, there is no arguing that someones head is in the way!

Next up, is Chicka Chicka Boom Boom! Without a doubt, a hands down Pre-School favorite! This one always gets all the kids answering and reading along with me, I knew this would be perfect for this project, to start us off!

Purplicious is a new book that we have yet to delve into! We bought it over the weekend and have waited for just the right moment! Isn't this perfect?! We can't wait to see what happens here!!

Busy Boats is a book we picked up on a treasure hunt recently and we have yet to read, I figure it was perfect book to read, after our Sailing Adventures!

Finally, we have Let's Measure it. This book goes well with my little guy's daily lessons this week with measuring things. We are using household goodies to measure things, in addition to a measuring tape! 

We are starting our reading tonight! Hope they love it as much as I already do!!

This 5 a day project, has definitely made it onto our Summer Bucket List! 

Are you doing this? What are your 5 books for this week?

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Water Play!

 

 My daughter was working a car wash for her school and of course it gets all kids wanting to play in the water, rather than wash cars! I knew just the activity for them once we got home, off to the water table we went!  I filled some squeeze bottles with water (Hobby Lobby .71!) and put a couple drops of food coloring into each and it became a mixing station! Colors were made, soup was created and an all around good time was had! I was sure to put them in play clothes and as far as the water table we used, it was one that we picked up at a rummage sale for 2.00! So needless to say, it's the perfect base for getting creative and colorful!! It's amazing how an ordinary and fun water table becomes an absolute blast for more hours than before.

After packing up all the water toys last year, I knew that this year I wanted to go with something different and fun for the table. I decided to fill it with 'toys' that are ordinarily found in our rubbish bins or in the kitchen! I picked up measuring cups, eye droppers, measuring spoons, scoops and funnels, pitchers etc. all at tag sales and thrift shops! We bought a pack of sponges at the dollar store and cut 1 of them up into strips for them to use too! Jars and yogurt cups and soap bottles rounded it off and now they want to be out there non stop! The best part, is that it really encourages imaginative play with a little math snuck in! Today I heard:
Gabriel: Autumn, let's make some soup!
Autumn: YEAH! WE need 1 cup of soup
Gabriel: No 1/2 a cup, so we need to get rid of 1/2
Roman: I mix it mix it!
Autumn: Gabriel add 1 small spoonful of purple water (MOM! What is 1 small spoonful called)
Mom: 1 Teaspoon

And on and on it went! So much fun!

What do you do with your water table?

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mother's out there! I am very happy to say that I am the daughter to one super amazing woman. She doesn't get online much and I'm pretty positive she has never seen this blog, but I just want the world to know that she is a truly wonderful mother. Growing up we definitely butted heads...A LOT, but you know what? I'm appreciative of that. She was incredibly strict and it drove me wild, even thought my oldest is only 6, I find myself following that same path. I've grown up to be a confidant, strong and smart mother of 3 and I owe that all to her. We learn by what we see and I saw a mother that loved as much as she could, protected as long as she could and did anything and everything to make our dreams come true. I'm happy to say that I have traveled the world thanks to her, gone to a college out of state thanks to her confidence in me, went to private schools my entire life. I could truly write a blog about the woman that call my mother, but I don't know if she would like that! haha! She's a very private person and I admire her for that.

Why is it that on a blog to the World, I can write all this and let her know how proud I am of her, for putting her dreams aside to raise me and make me who I am today, but I could never tell her in person? Why is that here on this platform, I can say that I respect, admire and love my mommy for all she has done and continues to do and I could never utter these words? Why do I worry about making her proud still? Why is it that I have no problems spilling out my thoughts here, but I clam up when we sit on the couch at her house and watch a movie? Did you know that one of my biggest fears is one of us dying and her never knowing how much I truly love her and how much she impacts the way I raise my children. How much my husband does to impress her. Together we work with her in our heads, because she has had that much influence on our lives. Many that don't know her, may call her cold, but those of us that do? We know she has the biggest and warmest heart that beats with love.

All through high school, I remember thinking that if I ever had kids, I would never be as crazy as she is! Now? I pray to God that I turn into the exact mother that she was then and is now. I love you Mom and I'm so glad that God chose you as my mother. I'm literally tearing up as I type this, wondering if she will ever stumble across this? Wondering if I should just hit the print button and tuck it into her card. Mom, if you do see this, I love you more than you will ever know. So many people always say, you never know what you mother went through until you have kids and now I know. That's all I can do, because I have yet to invent a time machine to go back and change it all, the mouth of a teenager! Thank you for always believing in me and please know, that if God let me pick my mother, it would have and always will be you.

Love you Always!
~Michelle!~

Thank you readers, for joining me on this emotional roller coaster of a novella today! I will be back to my normal posting tomorrow! haha! For today, my Mom gets center stage! Oh and no, you can't have her!!
The first photo, shows the gifts that the kids and I made for her! Double sided photo blocks and the kids hands embroidered and placed in a frame.
The second photo is my mom and I at my 30th birthday dinner!