Give Thanks for Fall!

I can hardly believe that it is the Thanksgiving season and yet Christmas is hitting me everywhere I go! It is almost time for our friend CHARLIE the elf to come back! Barnes & Noble has this awesome set up of elves to adopt, pets to take home and clothing for your elves closet all set up in the kids area! Head on out if you need to pick up some elf goodies or one of you own. I will be documenting Charlie's antics for 2015 and hope to make it a live linky, so that everyone can link up their elf stories!

We are spending the winter in Mexico and I was finally able to pick up a travel journal for the kids, I wanted something that we could add and take out pages and had prompts and other things like that. This one from Michael's is perfect! I plan on adding in some pages of our own and customizing it as much as possible, but it's great that I don't have to do it all on my own.

Since we won't have our Autumn décor on us this year for Thanksgiving, I printed up a few of these sheets for the kids to decorate and we could hang up in our hotel room! Each kid is doing several of them and then after Thanksgiving, we will mail them to whoever they are thankful for! Get your own copy HERE!

Enjoy every minute my friends!

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Summer 2014 Bucket List!

June is here and it means so many things to us! Warmer weather, shorter school schedule, more time with friends, pools and waterparks but mainly it means:

Summer is here and so is our Bucket List!! We are so ready to get started that we almost could not narrow the list down to something manageable! You can get your own printable copy HERE! 

2014 Summer Bucket List

3 Kids, 2 Parents, 1 Awesome Summer (Again!)

• Drive-In Movie
• Make Crayon Candles in the Sun
• Make Garden Mint Iced Tea brewed in the Sun
• Visit New-To-Us-Park
• Take long bike ride
• Picnic in the Park
• Go to community Movie in the Park
• Have a mud and water outdoor party
• Bike Wash
• Lemonade Stand
• Neighborhood watergun fight
• Volunteer for a charity in need as a family
• Kids plan and make 1 week of dinners
• Go to a concert in the park
• Zoo trip with friends
• Camping
• Amusement park with friends
• Build a large fort to play games in
• Rainy Day Movie Day!
• Attempt to fry an egg outdoors
• Make a smore in the sun
• Race homemade boats
• Backyard Scavenger Hunt
• Visit 1 new park
• Splashpark Play
• Waterpark Day
• Tie-dye t-shirts
• Make glow-in-the-dark garden rocks
• Make finger puppets
• Ice Cube Treasure
• Painting with Plants
• Hole Punching Leaves to make Summer Garland
• Beach Day!
• Sand Play!
• Neighborhood Smore’s Party!
• Turn Slide into waterslide and fall in a pool of water!
• Keep a summer journal
• Road Trip!
• Wear costumes in public!
• Do School Outdoors!
• Practice 5 random acts of kindness in one day
• Visit 1 new park
• Make a fairy garden
• Build an outdoor car track
• Bike obstacle course
• Have a tea party
• Make a movie
• Make Ice-Cream in a bag
• Pool Play & Learn
• Firepit Party
• Create a special drink
• Outdoor Science Lab
• Chalk-Art an entire block
• Make a wishing tree in a park
• Set up our Park Play Kits in random parks
• Visit 1 new park
• Practice 5 Random Acts of Kindness
• Take a tour of some place new
• Visit a grandparent at work
• Buy dinner for someone in a restaurant
• Install and Fill our Free Little Library
• Have a neighborhood field day
• Make a salad from all garden veggies
• Farmers market visit and dinner from the buys
• Buy unusual fruits and veggies for a sampling day
• Have a giant sleepover
• Make cards and deliver to a local nursing home
• Have a table that the kids run at a garage sale
• waterpark fun #2
• splashpark fun #2
• Try 1 new restaurant
• Buy Ice cream for the person in line behind us at the sweet shoppe!
• Make a new friend
• Have a book swap
• Create a city-wide day of play in a local park
  Make it one to remember and don't forget to enjoy every minute!

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Summer 2013 Bucket List with Linky!

It's that time of the year, you know, when Summer is on the brain and the excitement of what is to come stays on your mind. Every year, we do a Bucket list of things that we hope to accomplish that Summer, and 2013 is no different. Well, it's actually a little different! We are planning on keeping school going year round but will loosen our schedule a bit. 

We will take 1 or 2 days off a week as part of our "Summer Break", which is why some of the tasks on our list are rather simple, they allow us to still check things off on our school days as well. All of these museums and Zoo trips and the like are where we are members at or have recipricol membership due to our purchased ones so in reality we are making it a low $$ Summer. Summer is about the memories, not about the money spent. It's about the feelings we have, not about the things we buy. I want us to continue to grow closer as a family and to make memories with my children. 

Memories will cost you next to nothing to create. Your children only want you and your time, they will be happy with a pot of water on the back porch if it means that you will sit there next to them pretending that it is a gourmet soup that needs flowers and twigs and dirt to make it perfect! They will create lasting memories, even if all you do is freeze ice cubes with food coloring and little toys of theirs in them and then pop them into a bowl and let them chip away at them with play hammers or see who can melt them the fastest...memories are what the past is made up of, make yours count!

Make your memories count!!!

Do you have your bucket list ready yet???  Grab the button to put in your post & Link up below!!

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Flashdance?!

I am an 80's girl at heart, I love the music, the clothes, the movies...EVERYTHING! So this is a quick project that anyone can put together in no time at all! Grab your button stash, old or new and join me. I have a HUGE collection of vintage buttons that I love to create with, so this is heaven for me to work with.

Now that the weather is getting cooler, it's time to bring up that Winter bin and toss the clothes that you have NO IDEA as to why you saved! BUT WAAAIIIIITTTT!!! Grab those sweaters and give them a NEW LIFE, we're making LEG WARMERS! Don't leave your little girls out either, this project is so easy that my 6 year old has joined me too. Take all the old sweaters that you have no use for and cut off the sleeves. You can hem up the cut edges, but I leave them raw, since I let the bottoms of my legwarmers graze the floor and they get torn up pretty easily.

Once you have those sleeves cut off, add decorative buttons at the top of the leg warmer. They look so cute, that my only problem is to decide which pair to wear tomorrow!! I love to also cut some shorter and tuck them into the tops of my boots so that just the decorative cuff hangs out to look like a super cute sock! I do this more with thicker long sleeve shirts that I am about to hand off!! Hope you love this! Have an excellent weekend my friends.

Wednesday Treasures...Recycled Fun

It's time for another episode of recycled treasures! We love to reuse items here in this house, as proof that it's possible to turn something into anything! we also love to do it, because it saves the earth just a little bit. Today, we are in the mood for a scavenger hunt and since it's cooled down a little bit, we are taking it outside! As we grabbed our outdoor field guides, magnifying glasses and specimen containers, an idea hit!

We needed something to hold all our goodies, so that we didn't have to keep digging them out of the backpack and I knew just the thing. A quick rummage in our recycling bin and I found this fantastic container, that housed kiwi's! I punched a hole on each side, added a pipe cleaner handle and then the kids taped some fun animal shapes on each side! We had all our goodies contained!

As the kids began their hunt and collection, they all began to wander in search of the next big thing! Their specimen jars were full in no time and we lounged around outdoors having lunch too. They were not ready to go in yet, so another idea was born!

I ran inside and printed out a fun scavenger hunt sheet, this was made up of items actually found in our neighborhood! This way, we would incorporate a walk into a nature hike and scavenger hunt all in one! I laminated it, punched a hole in it and added a book ring. Now it was ready for the kids to clip wherever they wanted to keep it handy! Add in a dry erase marker to the tool bin and we were set.  This was so that they could put the initial of the person who found that item on the photo, to keep track of who found what! Oh wait! We need more specimen containers!!

Another rummage through the bin and egg cartons were produced! I only needed 1 for this, but we made 3 just in case they wanted to use them in the back at a later time!  I added a pipe cleaner handle through each side and we had an open specimen container! This way, they could put a small sampling of each item in each of the smaller cups, for us to observe once we got back to home base! 

What have you recycled lately??

Share your recycled posts in the links below please!

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Circus Theme!

On my Facebook Page, I was recently asked to share some ideas about a Circus Theme! Please head on over and read the ideas I came up with and share some of your own! I love the internet community of creative forces, because we can always come together and make some pretty awesome things!!

Take Off Tuesday!

Sorry for the posting delay! We are off shopping at Ikea, in search of fun things to incorporate into our Summer fun! I will be back to regular posting when I get home tonight!! Have you ever been? If not, go to the site and find where the nearest on is to you and GO GO GO! Not only do I love shopping there, but so do the kids and Daddy too! If there is any place that Daddy loves to shop it, it's golden!

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Before I was Just a Mom....

I was listening to a song early in the morning (around 3am) and it really got me thinking. I'm sure many people that know me, don't truly 'know' me. Aside from my husband and parents, do people really understand that there is more to me than 'Just a Mom'? This song always bring tears to my eyes and always sets me thinking about my 'Moments'. The song is Moments by Emerson Drive. I have it on my playlist all the way down at the bottom of my blog there.

Moments by Emerson Drive

The song always puts me back in time remembering that I was not always who I am right now. I am not just the boring 'mom' when I get together with old friends. I sit and read on Facebook and Twitter and all those other types of sites about old friends I used to know and former roommates and the like and my life always seems to just be dull when I post my updates. I know they just gloss me over because there are no drunken tales to tell, no exciting vacations to locales unknown anymore! It's just Disney World, The Dells, Monuments and places the kids can learn from.

Artwork by my Daughter, Autumn, Age 8

 I know when I meet my husbands co workers, they just see right through me, since I am 'just a mom' with no career. When I meet new people, they see the lady with 3 kids and nothing else. I want them to see I truly love my life, that what is boring to them, is wonderful, warming, excellent and a dream to me. Not only that though, I want them to see that I too had my moments.

Did they know, that I have Traveled the World? Studied Abroad? Went to College? Did they know, that articles I wrote had been Published? My jewelry has been published in Magazines, Style Blogs and is sold in actual stores worldwide? Did they know that I speak 2 Languages fluently and can stumble through Japanese and French as well? Did they ever take the time to learn that the very minute I walked into a room at a party 9 years ago, I fell in love at First Sight, a feeling I had never felt before, to a man that has made me feel more whole than anything I had ever done before? Did they know, that the night I came home from meeting my husband for the very first time, my father met me at the door and I said to him: 'Today, I just met the guy I am going to marry?' Did they know, that I cam capable of carrying on a conversation on Politics, Religion, the Economy and anything else that they want to talk about. Before I even get the chance to begin speaking, they hear 3 kids and stay at home mom and their ears may as well have been turned off.

Didn't they know that just because I am choosing to raise my 3 kids at home and be there for them, that I can be smart too? That I can be someone too? That I am Someone? Yes, I've had my Moments, but you know what? These are my Days in The Sun. When my baby looks at me with his big brown eyes and says 'LOVE YOU'. When my oldest gets out of school and runs to me and gives me the biggest hug and says 'I missed you'. When my little boy wakes up every morning and comes right up to me and says 'Good Morning Mommy, I slept good.' When our family sits together at dinner every night and we say what we are thankful for and what made us happy that day. Those are boring and not-so-glossy to many, but to me? Those are my Moments. Those are my times to shine. When I see how well they are growing up, how happy and healthy they are, I know I'm doing something right. If they can't see, at least I know it...

MOMENTS

(Emerson Drive)

As a blogger I have worn many hats and this blog has evolved so much from that. It started as a promotional blog for my jewelry shop, gave way to a crafty blog and then made room for a parenting blog as all of my children were born and I was asked for advice. It slowly became a parent of school age blog and has now rested as a homeschooling blog. I hope to resurrect my jewelry shop soon enough and then that too will join a bit here. I'm exhausted listing it all but at the same time, I am thrilled living it!

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