Random Thoughts....

So very, very true...I have a Nook, bookshelves in EVERY room of my house that are FULL and yet I still left the library with 10 books today!

Psst...it's National Umbrella Day today!

Meeting Fun!

Whenever the kids hear that I have a meeting to go to, they get excited! They love hanging out with other children at the meetings while the parents chat & best of all they love getting stuff together to play with! I like to get creative with what we bring and make sure that whatever it is, it can be played with and enjoyed by multiple children without having to worry about it. 

Yesterday was just that day! We had gotten several large packages in and while the boxes made fun cars and boats for a bit of time, they were ready for a new life! We did not have much time until the meeting, so I couldn't make the road as we are used to (black tape & white crayon) and this cardboard was pretty warped. We decided to be quick about it and cut up everything in to strips and Roman did the dotted road lines. We made different shapes and parking lots and houses, garages and train track too. A little village formed and with the added felt water the town was ready to be played with and enjoyed!

7 days of Love...

I LOVE YOU is a phrase heard often in our house, we all say it to each other as much as possible. This is a house oozing with love, but sometimes I find myself taking a lot for granted. My husband works hard and long hours, it's easy to get annoyed or frustrated when I am overwhelmed with housework and homework and want to take it out on him, but I know that he is excellent at what he does and wants to take care of his family. (Private school tuition for 3 isn't cheap!) While my husband knows that I love him, I wanted to show it more in my actions & decided to do 7 Days of Love leading up to Valentine's Day. On these days I will do little things that may not seem like much, but actually do add. I'm hoping to turn it into a habit that will continue to go on long after these 7 days have passed. 

Day 1 was going to be a batch of fresh baked cookies, but I didn't have any flour on hand after a week of bread baking frenzy! I made up some chocolate colored strawberries instead and nestled one in a bed of fresh berries. A sweet treat for my sweetie when he got home at 2 this morning, I also added a love note to let him know exactly how much I love, admire and respect him.

What are you doing for your significant other?

Be Mine, Valentine!

Roman's class is exchanging Valentine's & I knew just the ones we would work on, when I came across these travel packs of crayons at Joann for .50 EACH! We cleared out 2 stores worth and set out to create the cutest Valentines on a budget!

He is all about rainbows right now, so we snagged a rainbow image & added some fun wording. I was going to print them out on sticker labels, to make it easy to peel & stick on the packages but Roman had other plans! He wanted to cut them out and use TAPE! Is tape as popular in your house as it is over here??

Last year the kids decorated cardboard bookmarks with glitter and paint to give out as Valentine's & we had plenty left over! We paired them with the box of crayons and added a yarn 'tassel'! PERFECT PAIRING! When Roman got home from school today, we started to work on his MAIL BOX. He was sure to save his cereal box and knew that he wanted to paint it.

We used paper bags to create a plain surface for his creativity and then he set to work with stickers and markers before hunger took him over! After a short break, he plans on painting and gluing and adding some glitter as well!

What are you up to today??

Menu Plan Monday!

Lunches are so Fun to Eat when you have a place for everything!

Happy Monday! It's time for another week to begin & we are ready for it! We have a full plan of fun foods brought to you by every member of our family. This week everyone chose their favorite meal & that person will assist in making dinner!

Tea Party & Go Fish for the afternoon!

Our Menu This Week & Who Suggested It!

Monday by Mom: Meatball Sandwiches & Garden Salad

Tuesday by Roman (age 4): Chicken & Pea Pods served over Steamed Rice

Wednesday by Autumn (age 7): Ravioli & Fresh Baked Bread with Minnestrone Soup

Thursday by Gabriel (age 6):  Beef Sandwiches & Green Beans 

Friday by Mom: Shrimp over Angel Hair Pasta tossed in Fresh Pesto

Saturday by Dad: Burgers, Egg Salad & Grilled Veggies

Sunday by the Family: Lasagna & Salad with fresh bread

We just went to see Big Miracle on Friday & the kids LOVED IT! I figured I would share my favorite movie tip with you! In order to avoid popcorn fighting in the theatre (and the RIDICULOUS prices), we buy 1 bag and bring ziploc bags! I give everyone their share when we sit down & then Daddy & I share the big bag! Enjoy!

Happy Sunday...

Happy Sunday friends! I am watching movies with my husband and enjoying some awesomely wonderful tea! We started out watching FIREPROOF and are now on to SOUL SURFER. No Super Bowl for us!

Did you know it is National Nutella Day today??

 We're celebrating tomorrow as we spent the entire day out and about!

Enjoy your week!

Make The Day!

A fun way to get your children learning about money is to MAKE THE DAY in change. We put the date card (Today is the 3rd) in one pocket on the chart & then have to make that day with the amount of money needed. The beginning of the month is easy enough for our youngest to do and as he watches the older kids for the other days, he is familiarizing himself with the money as well!

As the days get more difficult, each child gets a chance to make the date in their own row. The youngest even gets a turn and then we inform him on how much he put in to his pocket & what he would need to do to correct it. It's all about learning what the different coins equal! Try it with some index cards and real change!

DIY Pictionary!

Happy Groundhog Day! We came upon an AWESOME sale at TARGET yesterday and got Dry Erase Markers, Crayons and Boards for 2.50 on clearance! I bought 1 pack of markers and crayons, but lost out on the boards, when we went back today to another store to pick up an order I had placed they had more of everything! I quickly put 1 set of crayons, markers and 3 boards in the car for car trips! New car toys always bring excitement.

We paired the markers with some homemade flash cards (spelling words, easily drawn words and anything we could think of off the top of our heads) and our larger wipe board and we were ready to play! I pulled an hourglass from our misc. game piece box and we had ourselves a fun game to play! The kids LOVED it and we lasted almost 2 hours taking turns and not even keeping score!

After the family game was long over, the boys kept playing! Everyone seemed to be having so much fun with this concept that I was tempted to go back and buy out all the TARGETs in my area and save these to give as gifts!

Head on over to your TARGET for this STEAL!

In These Moments....

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Moments we treasure & always remember

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A relaxing Sunday with Daddy not working...

A Stolen Nap...

Search & Find Math and Dots!

Search & Find!

 I have a 20 sided die & then 1 that has the numbers 1-10 on it. My little guy rolls them both & then we add them up and mark off the answer with a DO-a-Dot marker!

My big kids play this game with multiple dies and they roll and add to get the answers!

Menu Plan Monday!

Serve it up colorful and with tongs & your kids will LOVE it!

Wow, we're headed up to the 50s in the Midwest in January?! What is happening? We've had to pretend it was Winter lately and you know what? I don't mind!! I truly hope that all of you readers had a fantastic weekend, mine couldn't have been better! We helped out at a school we love & then got to spend time with those people that we love on Sunday. Amazing! Share what you did this weekend!!

Fresh Fruit will be eaten rapidly, if it's cleaned and put in to small containers!

Our Menu is taking on an International Flair this week we've had the opportunity to hit up some ethnic grocers, which open us up to an entire world of spices, produce and the like. I'm excited to try new foods and the kids are excited to taste whatever concoction I can come up with!

Baking Bread is one way to keep the house smelling wonderfully!

Weekday Menu:

Monday: Steamed Bok Choy with Jumbo Shrimp & Fried Rice

Tuesday: Curry Chicken & Vegetables in a yogurt sauce

Wednesday: Vegetable Lasagna served with a side salad

Thursday: Steak Fajitas served with beans
Friday: Bratwurst with Potato Salad

Rainbow Pancakes will have your children talking all day about them!

Weekend Menu:

Saturday: Shrimp Dumplings & Egg Drop Soup

Sunday: Meat Loaf & Green Beans served with a side salad

Octopus Hot Dogs are a way to make your little ones smile! 

Do you plan your menu ahead of time, or do you just like to go with the flow as dinner time approaches? For us personally, I find that a menu works best, so that I have everything I need on hand, can prep things the night before and we are eating a good meal. Our schedule does not allow for much down time, so if I know what I am making and everything is chopped ahead of time and ready to go, I know that I won't have  to come up with something at the last minute or at a time when my brain is completely dead!

Add in fun shapes to a normal veggie platter & the kids will eat it all up!

What's on your menu?

Friday Fun Indoors

Happy FRIDAY!!! After this week, I was pretty sure that Friday would never come. We've spent a lot of time outdoors this Winter, but sometimes the indoors are just easier. Before I left to pick up the kids from school, I grabbed some felt squares from the art bin and set up a hopscotch game. This turned out to be the most fun of all. They took turns switching up the pattern of jumping, adding and removing squares and making up new games all together. This is something that they have all asked to do again after school today!

Did you know how fun and easy it is to make bangle bracelets from the tape roll ends? This is something my daughter loves to do the most and I think that's why she seems to go through tape so quickly! Hahaha

After I picked up these awesome cookie cutters in the TARGET dollar spot I was thrilled to introduce them into our play dough time! It went perfect with out SPARKLE DOUGH and with the added scent of essence of rose, this playtime not only looked cute, it smelled awesome!

We had so much fun building a marble run that was so tall, they needed stools to reach the tops. Designing & Creating seems to be the most fun, because they usually only dropped the marbles a few times each before it was time for tear down and rebuild!

What have you been up to???

Shaving Cream Fun!

As we were preparing for an afternoon of fun, I had a fun thought that Shaving Cream could be just the answer to an indoor fun and 'clean' activity!! I grabbed a deep red bin (TARGET DOLLAR SPOT) and filled it up! It smelled so nice and looked very inviting, Roman wanted to jump right in of course!

It became a portable birthday cake for everyone in the house as he went from person to person and sang!

A carwash for his many cars & once they were all 'clean', it became a giant snowstorm they drove through.

A sudsy bath for rubber ducky friends seemed to have been the best part of the playtime.

Which of course led to an idea to give himself a bath! In he went and the tray came too YAY IT FLOATS!

How was your day?