Two-fer Tuesday-Two Great Sites

Two-fer Tuesdays is back!!!

Yay!!!

Okay let's jump right in. Today I thought it would be fun to share two great websites with you, these sites are super fun, and they will be a life saver to you this Summer!

The first site is one that I found to be a great tool to keep my kids sharp during the Summer months when they are off of school while also buying me a little time to get some work done.
TLS Books.com
This site is offers free printable worksheets for each subject and grade level from Preschool to Sixth Grade, and best of all they are FREE! (you may cheer now for free, b/c who doesn't cheer for free?)

My second Summer-saving site is perfect for when you want to switch gears and put on your crafting hat. I always like to incorporate a little craft time in with my kids...(I'm hoping to inspire the next generation of craft bloggers)
Education.com
This site offers a wide array of crafting ideas do keep those little hands busy this Summer. You can choose activities by subject, grade level, or theme, and you can stop holding your breath because these are also FREE!!

YAY! Too Much Fun!

If you haven't already (shame on you) you should rush over and find yourself some lovely activities to do with your own little monkey's this Summer!! You know, for when it's just too hot (not possible if you ask me) outside, or it's inside, calm down, mommy needs a minute time (we all have those moments...right?)

ANNOUNCEMENT: Hold on to your hats folks it's a doozy...

I will also be starting a new feature Crafty Kids Corner where once a week I will share activities and ideas for crafty fun with your little ones, so be looking out for that.

Family Home Evening-Reverence is Love

Reverence is Love

(It's True)

With our Summer Bucket List well under way, (no seriously we are knocking things off left and right...update on that coming soon!) this week we turned our F.H.E. attention back to the gospel.

As I have mentioned before, we often try and tailor our F.H.E. lessons toward principles we feel our kids, family or home are in need of, or could benefit from at this moment. It's sometimes apparent to us what that lesson might be and some times we have to ask for a little inspiration to guide us toward the right lesson.

This week was one that let's say manifested itself to me a few times over the last few weeks. It appears that our kids are in desperate need to be reminded of the basic principle of Reverence. They're still pretty young, (6,4,3 and 10 months), so we try to go over basic principles such as this every now and again to refresh their memories.

Of course for this lesson I went straight to my favorite F.H.E. site for a little guidance. Have I mentioned how much I adore A Year of F.H.E.? In case you missed it, I love love love this site! It has everything and anything you are looking for, it's easy to use and follow, and it's FREE! Who doesn't like Free?? If you check it out and love it as much as I do, please consider making a donation. (It not only let's them feel the love, but also helps to keep the site Free).

So I went to my trusty F.H.E. site and back in the lessons for 2010 I found exactly the lesson I was looking for. Check it out here. It came complete as all their lessons do, with the lesson, song choice, activities and printables. It is seriously a one stop shop there, so easy!

I printed up all my goodies, pulled out my laminator and we were set and ready to go for a fantastic F.H.E.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy, and the whole process from start to finish took me probably under half an hour! Can't beat that...I dare you to try!

Oh I almost forgot click here to see our Family Home Evening Treat, Vanilla Mousse Cheesecake
because you can't have F.H.E. without a treat! ( seriously you can't it's in the rules).

Family Home Evening-Summer Bucket List

Summer Bucket List

(Woot Woot)

Okay so it is officially Summer, (can I get a Woot Woot!?)and even though the boy doesn't get out of school until the 1st of July (that's year round school for ya...L.A.M.E.), we are starting our Summer Celebrations tomorrow!!!

And so the hubs and I decided that for our Family Home Evening this week we would kick off our Summer Fun by making a plan so that we could be the Clan with a Plan, (Dorky I know but admit that it made you chuckle a little...)

I saw this

amaze-balls Summer Fun chart here (F.Y.I. these girls are amazing!!) and long story short I had to have one of my very own...

With slight modifications of course.
(Vintage G... I like to get inspiration and then tweak ideas to make them a littler more my own.)

I HAD to have the journal to go along with it though...

it's just way to cute an idea!

Monday night for F.H.E. the kids, the hubs and I sat down and created our Summer Bucket List of 50 fun activities and adventures to embark on this Summer! The kids had a blast naming off every fun thing they could think of and every yummy treat from here to Texas!

Needless to say that our Summer Bucket List sure got me super excited to start checking off our Summer adventures, and you can only imagine how excited my little tykes are! They're pumped to say the least!!

Our plan is to come as close as we can to checking off each activity as we can...we're shooting for 100% but we'll have to see how things shake out. Our mission is to photo journal each activity we do and add it to our journal.

Every now and then I'll try and share our progress and a few of our pics just for kicks. I'm listing in the freebies our list of 50 Summer Adventures just in case you want some inspiration for your Summer or you want to join in on the fun.

Also if you click here you will actually be able to get the printables and instructions from The Crafting Chicks to make a Summer Fun chart of your very own!
(I'm hoping that that sentence was met with Oprah giveaway type acclaim...)

Here also is a link to our FHE Sweet Treat for the week: Creamy Lemon Squares they are mmm...mmm...good!



Remember: A silly family is a happy family!

Let's Get Homey-Birthday Countdown Blocks

Yay for Birthdays!!!

Birthdays are kind of a big deal around here, at least for me! I love birthdays...even my own (weird thought huh?)

I love making a big deal out of birthdays, especially when it comes to my kids or the hubs. I plan them for months in advance, thoughtfully consider each gift, and I'm pretty sure whether it's my birthday or not I'm the most excited person in the room!

While I love celebrating birthday's and going all out, I am a woman of reason with limits (Did you just hear someone laugh?). As a general rule, like most of you out there I'm sure, we try really hard not to spoil our kids. Don't misunderstand me we still gift, but they're smaller more meaningful gifts, and just 1 or 2. We leave the spoilin' to the grandparents...because who are we kidding really it's their right.

And since our kids are drowning in grandparents, the hubs and I decided last year that we would shift gears when it came to birthdays and focus more on making each birthday a memorable experience.

How you ask?
By jam packing each birthday with FUN of course!

So fast forward to the present...my little man is turning 6, and I'm of course super pumped to stuff this birthday with fun until it pukes (confetti is what I imagine a birthday would puke?) and this is what I created as our helpful family birthday visual aid (because there has to be a visual aid...no doy...yea that just happened)

Our Family Birthday Countdown Blocks!!!
Ta DA!
Are you loving it as much as me?

Here's how these bad boys work:
Okay so to truly make each birthday a CELEBRATION, we've got to really celebrate it. With the countdown blocks we are doing just that...celebrating for an entire week! Yea you read that right...I said a week of birthday...Genius Right?

So what I do is have the birthday boy/girl sit down and think up 8 fun things that they want to do to celebrate (within reason... I'm not flying anyone to Paris here just going mini golfing). This is key to ensuring a memorable birthday celebration! So the 8th event of course is the major event that they actually want to do on their birthday. For us this usually entails an entire day of "whatever you want." Your favorite breakfast, favorite lunch, favorite activity, and favorite dinner and dessert. (Get the drill?)

Each candle holds one event, the biggest candle in the middle holds the Birthday day celebration. A week before the birthday we fill out the candles, and each day the birthday boy/girl picks a candle from the countdown and we do whatever fun activity is listed on the back. Easy Peasy right?

I didn't do it for this birthday, but from now on out I'm thinking we should add a photo journal showcasing photos of each event- you know for memories. Who doesn't love memories?



So, Would you like to make your own Family Birthday Countdown Blocks?

First thing you want to do is to cut, sand, and paint your blocks. My blocks were 3 1/4x3 1/4x10", 3 1/4x3 1/4x7", and 3 1/4x3 1/4x4"
After sanding, paint them up whatever color floats your boat and let dry completely. (I spray painted mine for faster drying and because as we know I am impatient)


Next you'll want to get out your cutsie stock pile of scrapbook paper, find a few sheets you love and that match and cut some pieces to cover the front of your blocks. (I just traced the blocks to find the size and cut a little smaller to show edging)
Mod Podge those suckers on, use a credit card or scrapping tool and start from the middle and go out to the edges to help avoid bubbles. Let dry completely.

Once your blocks are dry, or slightly before if you can't wait like me, you'll want to take the top block and poke 8 holes randomly in the top of the block for the candles (be sure to center 1 hole). I did this with a nail, hammer and my brute strength (seriously do you keep hearing someone laughing?). You'll want to make sure your hole size coincides with the gauge of your wire. Also, poke your holes about 1/4-1/2 of an inch deep.

Take your wire, and wire cutters and cut yourself 7 pieces of about equal length and 1 slightly longer. You'll first have to eyeball how tall you want your candles to stick up, to decide how long to cut your pieces.
For mine, I wanted the candles in total to be about 5-5.5 inches tall. The candles themselves are about 4 inches with the middle candle slightly taller so I cut my wire 2 inches long and 1 about 2.5.
(you have to add a little for the 1/2 inch deepness of the hole and also for the curling of the wire).
Once you have your pieces cut, take your pliers or fingers and curl your wire into a spiral (I just curled twice).
Really just play around with it until you like the look. Keep the spiral fairly tight so that it can hold the candle.

On to the Candles...for this part we need the services of our handy dandy Silhouette Machine. So bust that bad boy out!

I first visited the Silhouette Store and found myself some lovely birthday candles, and for this particular project we used the print and cut feature. I colored in my candles to my liking,

INSERT PIC OF PRINT SCREEN OF CANDLES

printed and then cut out each candle and...
Voila!

At this point I had my little man fill out each candle with his chosen activities...

Here's the activities my little man choose:
1. Photo Shoot for 6 year pics (that one was mine)
2. Bouncy House
3. Day @ the Park
4. X-Box Kinect Day
5. Library
6. Wii Day
7. Bake Cookies
8. The big one: Chocolate Chip Muffins for Breakfast, Grilled Cheese for Lunch, Rumbi for Dinner (Hawaii Noodles as we call them around here), Fun Day @ the Family Fun Center (mini golf, bouncy house, bowling...), and Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake for Dessert.

Next, add each candle to the wire spirals and adorned them to the top of the cake.

For a final touch I cut out some vinyl lettering and there you have it.

All ready to make those birthday's something special to remember!

If you're lucky like me, all your hard work will pay off with your little one telling you as you tuck him in that final night "This was the best birthday EVER!"
(You better believe that brought on the waterworks!!)

Happy Crafting!

Silhouette Adventures-Soccer Mom

It's official! I am a SOCCER MOM!

With 3 of my 4 little monkeys playing soccer this Spring I am fully engulfed in the soccer mom way of life! I am pretty much living out of my car at this point (at least Tuesdays & Thursdays), and for the most part I'm LOVING it! If I could only find a way to equip my car with a fridge stocked with cherry cokes I'd be in heaven!!
I come from a soccer loving, soccer playing, soccer watching family, and I've been waiting for this day since my first baby was born!! There was a time growing up when I think almost all 5 of my siblings and I were playing soccer at the same time (give or take one or two)...my Momma was the ultimate Soccer Mom...she's forever my HERO! We LIVED at the soccer fields and I don't know how she did it with all the practices and games...I'm saying she's amazing!

I decided that since I'm full out embracing the "Soccer Mom" thing because who are we kidding it's AWESOME that it was time to properly outfit the minivan...aka the green monster as the true Soccer Mobile that it is!

So, naturally I busted out the Silhouette and my vinyl and got to work!

The Silhouette store being one of the awesomest places ever of course already had a soccer ball shape with the words Soccer Mom, which I slightly tweaked to fit my fancy and I ended up with this bad boy.
And because that wasn't enough to fit my crafty mood I went back to the Silhouette store and found myself some awesome stick people decals (which I've been coveting on other people's cars...too cute!) and check us out as a happy, soccer stick figure family!
Ha ha...LOVING IT!

So here's the Green Monster Before:
And here's the Soccer Mobile After:
An improvement I'd say!
Thoughts??
I got these bad boys on the van today just as we were heading out to soccer, so ya you better believe we got to the games in style!

We're Going Digital-Family Rules

Okay Folks WE ARE GOING DIGITAL...Finally!
Don't be alarmed....I just mean that this post is digitally related!

Check out my latest Digital Project!

Are all of you engulfed in the Digital Scrapbooking craze?

I have to admit that I'm a little bit of a latecomer to this phase...I'm a traditional scrapbooker at heart and I have to confess that I was intimidated by the digital aspect of it all.
I am not by any means a computer whiz and I also like to be able to touch and smell what I'm working on (is that weird? It's the smell part that was weird huh?) So "going digital" was a little hard for me to wrap my head around.
I did finally give in though when I came across some pretty cool projects that I wanted to make my own so I talked the hubby into buying me the software (I can be very persuasive and the hubby is a major pushover!)

It took a little getting used to and a few tutorials to figure out what I was doing, but I LOVE it! I haven't done any real major scrapbooking as of yet, but I've used my digi scrap software a ton to create many different projects around our house! It is fantastic!

My latest project the Family Rules is just one of those projects that can be found in our house.

It seemed to be the case as of late that the "rules" had been forgotten and chaos was ruling all!

The hubs and I finally had enough.

We often like to gear our Family Home Evenings at the beginning of the month toward a value or lesson we feel our home needs. Often those revolve around issues we feel the kids need to learn or be reminded of. In this case we decided to gear it toward Family which encompassed respect, the family unit and each members role to making a happy home...honoring their Mother and Father and all that good stuff.

As part of the lesson we went over Our Family Rules and what each one meant, as well as the consequences and rewards that went with them. To make it easy I made a Family Rules visual aid, had it printed and laminated and displayed where the kids can see it and I can remind them often what those rules and expectations are.
It's actually been quite helpful for me to point to the rules (which is conveniently located next to their behavior chart and timeout spot) and remind them of those rules when they get a little too mischievous.
They actually like to remind each other of those rules quite often. Usually one likes to remind the other as they are breaking a rule, and usually that reminding comes loud and when mommy is in earshot....(Kids will be kids I guess).

Any who, I like to share so I thought I would!
You should, if I haven't totally messed this up, (which would be surprising) be able to click on the Family Rules Picture, download, print and laminate your own copy!

These are Rules that pertained to our house, but yours may be different, so it may not work for your home (If I could I would customize each of you one of your very own...but that might be crazy). Number 5 is my favorite one (of course) and number 9 I wish didn't have to be a rule but seems to be an issue in our house sometimes (besides potty training issues, my boys seem to think that outside is nature's bathroom). But if it does work for you download away baby!!