Delightful December day 5! Wordy Ornaments

Another day in December is here and we are having so much fun exploring our craftiness together as a family. As many of you all know, I love to make even the smallest of activities a lesson in learning! There are so many ways to have fun and still educate yourself all at the same time! This small ornamental project was going to be a lesson in spelling! I wrote lists of Christmas Words on index cards and gave 1 to each child. They also had bowls of Scrabble Tiles on their tray.

The idea was to spell out each word on your index card and place them on your tray in any order you would like, so long as it still spelled the word properly. This part seemed the most fun to them as they explored their letter bowls, matched up tiles and then went on to spell words that were not on their cards.

They then searched my charm collection to match up charms for their ornaments and we glued away happily! We listened to Christmas Music and talked all about what the CHRISTmas Season means to us and how excited we are for our Lord's birth! We made many ornaments that can double as gift tags and even some that will be given to teachers and coaches!

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.

It's Over....

Yesterday after school, I picked up the kids and we headed to the Children's Museum in town. As they played in their uniforms, I realized how Summer is really over! They are completing their first week of school already and having so much fun. With the heat still blazing in the Midwest, it's hard to believe that school is here.

Our long bike rides must now wait until the weekends and only if there is nothing else planned with school sports and the like...

Our lazy mornings spent miniature golfing are now on hold until Saturdays and only if daddy has not been called into work, because it's so much more fun if we're all together!

Now we have to go to the zoo during the weekend when it will be crowded and visited by all the other people with children in school.

As the Winter nears, our walks will be darker, since they have to take place after school and after homework is done....I certainly will miss Summer.

A Call to Chicago Area Mommy (and Daddy) Bloggers!

Hello everyone! A quick shout out to area bloggers! As many of you know from my posts, we are members at every major museum in Chicago and Rockford, Brookfield Zoo and are also about to become Milwaukee Zoo members. We are passionate about learning and hands-on environments, memberships help out these amazing places and also give us the opportunity to explore these places at our leisure, since we know we can always go back.

With many of our memberships we are given many guest passes that we don't always get a chance to use. I am throwing this offer out there as a PAY IT FORWARD to 1 Chicago Area blogger. I love giving people an opportunity to explore new places and this is your chance! I have 2 adult guest passes and 2 Child passes to the Brookfield Zoo to share with you! Please keep reading for rules and restrictions!

1. I want someone with over 100 blog followers.

2. It will have to happen during the week (my weekends are insane and over booked as is! haha) and parking is not included (9.00).

3. Our schedules will have to line up as I have to be present to get you in.

4. I will want 1 photo op of our group, but after that you are free to explore on your own.

5. Your Blog must be active with at least 3 posts a week.

6. You MUST blog about this event within 1 week of visiting the Zoo.

7. I can only give 2 adult and 2 child passes, if you have more people than that admission is up to you.

The idea behind this, is for 2 people to give their perspectives of the Zoo and to pay forward what we have been blessed with!

Food can be pricey, we tend to bring snacks and then eat our meal there, but they allow picnic lunches and coolers and such if you want to bring your own!

Here is our last view of the Zoo!

If you are interested, please leave a comment here or just email me! My contact information is at the top right corner of this blog!!

Have You Added Me Yet?

Twitter: @MichellesCharmW

Facebook: MichellesCharmWorld

Right Now........

Right Now I Am...

• Exhausted from playing and planting on our first nice day this week!
• In love with blog hopping! (Share your blog link in the comments!)
• Sitting in a cozy corner of my living room as my kids watch a movie.
• Watching Bedtime Stories, but my kids call it Raining Gumballs!
• Thinking of all the fun we are going to have on Spring Break!
• Painting my toenails, gotta look pretty fora Easter!
• Wishing the my husband could be here with us!
• Sipping green tea.
• Feeling my laptop getting hot! (Have to get my lap table!)
• Planning our schedule for this upcoming Summer.
• Smiling, as I watch my 3 kids laying side by side on the living room floor.
• Happy with what I have been Blessed with!

What are you RIGHT NOW????

~Michelle!~

Love to Spell!

As my kids grow, I notice how much they love to learn new things! Sometimes doing everything the same way gets a little old and boring. I try very hard to keep the writing manipulatives fresh and fun. We often times make them, so that the kids get even more of a letter work out! Every now and then I will introduce some here! Our latest ones are the ones shown above! I found coasters on clearance at Michaels for .50 and my brain got working right away! These are large letter tiles once I added on the vinyl letters (Leftover from Autumn's Science Fair project)! We sometimes string a rope in the living room and use large clothespins to hang them and spell out words or we just write out Spelling Words on the floor crossword style. Learning can be fun!!

I made a game up for Roman, my youngest (He is 3)! Together we stamped the letters of the alphabet on clothespins and I laid out the clips on the floor in groups of 5,6 or 7. I handed him a letter tile (made above) and told him to match the letter as he says it out loud. Once he matches it, he has to clip them together and make a pile of completed ones. He loved it and kept playing over and over again!!!

PLEASE LIKE!

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http://www.facebook.com/McRunner26

If he gets 40,000 fans, he will get 10,000.00 for Ronald McDonald's House Charities!

I Had the Time of My Life...

Cheezy, I know, but I truly had a fabulous weekend!! I know you all want tips on business running and promoting, but today I had to steal a day to write about the awesome weekend I had! I finally got a hair cut that I love, I mean LOVE. My father insisted on taking me to his stylist, since I have been known to fall into the mommy look with my hair pulled back and out of the way of tiny hands! I hesitated to go, since my last hair cut was a disaster and I paid waaay too much for it, then I paid even more to have it 'fixed' and I still hated it! This is the first time I have ever had a stylist tell me what I needed and guess what? I needed it! haha! I never know what works for me, what looks good and what doesn't. I NEED that persons opinion, this is their career, their job, their life! They know what they are talking about. She topped it off with a headband by PinkPewter and it was glorious and perfect!

I walked into the hosue to see my husband and he smiled, he told me he loved my hair and it's his top style yet! Believe me in 10 years of being together, this is a huge compliment! I change my hair all the time!

Next was dinner at the Signature Room on the 95th of the Hancock Center in Chicago. It was absolutely fabulous if not magical! We had been there several times before kids, but somehow, now that we have kids, it seemed so much more elgant, fancy, dreamlike! It's great seeing a menu without chicken fingers on it! After a before dinner drink at the bar, we were seated along side a window the view was amazing. We had another drink while overlooking the menu and finally my husband decided on Lamb and I had the Filet. We ordered new drinks with dinner and it was decadent. Everything seemed to matieralize out of nowhere. Service was superb! Dessert followed and then it was time to keel over after settling the bill! Down we went in a super fast elevator and as if by magic a cab was down there ready to escort us to the Cadillac Palace, we were off to see Dirty Dancing! OMG! It was closing night and it was crowded! We were easily the most overdressed in the theatre, my husband in a suit and I was in an evening gown. (Remember, first big night out in 4 years, we wanted it to be perfect!) But it was still awesome! I bout too much merchandise, but I had to! It is my all time favorite movie!! Everything was SPECTACULAR, but I swear I fell in love with Tony Vincent. Was he in the lead as Johnny Castle? Nope, he was a singer and played Johnnys cousin, you know, the guy that takes baby to see the staff only quarters? WOW, he has a voice that makes women swoon! We had a truly fabulous weekend! I could go on, but I think I have said enough! haha!

When Life Gets In the Way...

Mantle Clock Necklace by MichellesCharmWorld 13.00

Where did the weekend go? It's what time already? What DAY is it? Do you find yourself asking these questions often? Sometimes I just want to run and scream and jump out the nearest window. (Hmm..seeing as how i'm on the 1st floor, nothing much will happen, but I would be very cold!) With 3 kids, sometimes life just gets in the way of your good intentions. These past 2 weeks have been crazy, I have not been able to keep up with MichellesCharmWorld like I should be and my new line for my Lollishops store is painfully lacking. We've spent the last 2 weekends in Downtown Chicago for entire days and while fun, I constantly had this nagging sensation that I had to get back to work. It's my busiest time with custom orders, wholesale orders and non-internet orders and yet there I am playing with boats in the water at the Childrens Museum and wondering just how the heart works at the Museum of Science and Industry. I don't feel guilty, since my children and family always come first, but I do feel a bit lost. I schedule my day as it is during the week and even stick to my 3 unhealthy hours of sleep a night, so work as much as I can when the house is silent. The only thing I can do is throw myself head first into mondays! For today, the dishes will wait and the errands will be run by my husband. This morning I will move a small table of work into the playroom and while the kids watch a movie I can get some work done. Not a great solution for every day, but it helps with mondays. Hopefully I will get some new supplies in today and that can help get my creative juices flowing right where they should be! I better run now, i've been invited to a dance party in the next room!

Boombox Adjustable Ring by MichellesCHarmWorld 8.00