Preschool Beading Activity

I put this activity together for Kaden the other day. I have been wanting to do some tray work with him and my trays arrived from Oriental Trading the other day. I love them and we will use them for so much!

I thought Kaden would enjoy doing this bead pattern activity. He loved it. My only problem is that I need to make it more challenging for him. He was able to figure out the pattern on the first try! I made a couple more last night varying the pattern. We'll see how it goes today.

What to do with leftover frosting?

I had some left over frosting from Kaden's birthday cake. Usually I will throw it in the freezer and hopefully remember it is there. I really don't bake too many cakes other than birthday's. So I don't use frosting that often. I came across a great idea, use the leftover frosting to make sandwich cookies! Just grab yourself some graham crackers and spread the frosting on one side. Top with a second graham cracker and you have yourself a yummy cookie! Why have I never thought of this?

Yummmmm!

I Won!

A few weeks ago, I entered a contest over at Sisterly Savings and I won! Sisterly Savings has a ton of great money saving posts and ideas.

Below is what I won. A banana and fruit holder, I have been wanting a banana holder forever two bowls, a loaf pan and a coupon for a free box of banana Cheerios! I can't wait to try these!

yeah I know there is a snowman night light in the background. He stays up year round because he is a very bright light and gives enough light for Larry when he gets up at 4:45 each day.

Kaden's Birthday Party

Sunday we had Kaden's birthday party! He chose dinosaurs as his theme this year. We had a dinosaur dig, dinosaur coloring, dinosaur bean bag toss and lots of fun! All of his cousin's were able to attend and they had a blast!

The Cake. Kaden helped with the decorations!



close up of our excavated dinosaur skeleton

Waiting to blow out the candles. He seems deep in thought!

The dinosaur dig. I buried 48 dinosaurs and a lot of fossils.

They had a blast digging in the sand!

The biggest hit of the day? The balloons! They played and played with these all afternoon.


Kaden and his cousins!

Make a funny face!

Menu Plan Monday

Well last week's menu plan (that I never posted) flew out the window! We had way too many meals out, which as you know is a budget buster! I think we are back on track for this week. The only meal out we are planning is today's lunch. I always take lunch to my grandma's when we visit. Having a busy weekend, I have nothing prepared ahead so we'll pick up sandwiches.

Here is my plan for the week.

Breakfasts: toast with jelly or PB, eggs~boiled, scrambled or fried, oatmeal, cold cereal, english muffins, waffles, fresh fruit, smoothies.

Lunches: PB&J, tuna salad, egg salad, quesadillas, boiled eggs, grilled cheese, fresh fruit and veggies

Monday~rotisserie chicken with perogies and a veggie

Tuesday~ spaghetti and meatballs, salad and homemade bread

Wednesday~cheeseburgers and home fries

Thursday~fish tacos, rice and a veggie

Friday~homemade pizza

Saturday~Bulgogi and rice

Sunday~oven bbqed chicken

visit I am an Organizing Junkie to see more great menus!

Happy 4th Birthday Sweet Boy!

Today is Kaden's fourth birthday! We've had a happy day! This morning when he woke up I told him Happy Birthday, today you're four! He said, TODAY? I said yes today! We played and this afternoon we went shopping for his party on Sunday. Kaden only asked for two gifts, bendaroos (wikki sticks) and a big boy bike! He got his wish! He also got to go and eat at his favorite Chinese buffet. He had his favorites, noodles (lo mein) broccoli and carrots, wanton soup, rice both white and fried. Then we came home and had ice cream cake!

Yay!!!! Wikki sticks!!!

Letting big brother help!

Can you see Kaden's name? (are you all tired of seeing my dirty cabinets? It is not dirt the paint is coming off. I am hoping to sand and paint them this summer).

My new big boy bike!

Happy Birthday! Ooooh I love cake!

Time to blow out the candles!

Some where in Korea today is Kaden's birth family. I am so thankful they chose life for Kaden. Some where in Korea his birth mother is thinking of the baby that was born four years ago today. I pray for her that she has peace in her heart and somehow knows that Kaden is a wonderful, happy little boy who is loved by so many!

Happy Birthday sweet Kaden, my smart, funny, happy boy! The boy who always has a dirty face, the boy who makes me laugh! The boy who is so very independent and wants to do everything himself! The boy who loves to cook and bake! We love you so much!

The Frog

The boys found a frog. It was down in the water shut off outside of our house. Why they decided to look in there is beyond me....oh that's right they are boys. Boys do things like that. They came running in hollering that they needed flashlights, quickly! They came back saying they needed a yard stick, NOW! The frog needed to be rescued. It could not get out. Dad helped with the rescue. The rescue was successful. It is a frog and not a toad. It was brought safely into the house in a container. Larry said he didn't think it would live long since it wasn't moving. Well it was chilly outside, you probably wouldn't move much either if were were stuck down in a hole and suddenly had bright lights and a yard stick poking at you either. The frog warmed up. He jumped out of his container. Did I mention the container was not that tall? We lost the frog. We looked for over an hour. We moved the furniture. I found a lot of dust, but no frog. I found a lot of toys under the sofa but no frog. I gave a warning. Someone better find the frog or NO ONE was sleeping tonight. The frog eluded us. For awhile. I found him, calmly sitting in the hall staring at the wall. Probably trying to figure out where he was. The frog is still safely in the house, in a cage with a lid. I will be putting something heavy on top of the lid....just in case.
I love boys! Justin has gone from wanting to feed it to wanting to dissect it. There will be no dissecting. Mr. Frog is safe, unless he decides to try another escape plan then all bets are off! Did I mention I love boys!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The boys will be waking up to some St. Patrick's Day fun! The Leprechaun visited last night and left them a wee pot o' gold under the rainbow and a few other small surprises! I'll be posting about our day this evening!

The Simple Woman's Day Book March 16th

Outside my window... it is cloudy, chilly and damp

I am thinking...a new week a new start

I am thankful for...the sickness has finally left us all!

From the learning rooms...finishing up our penguin unit and some completely new school plans in the coming days

From the kitchen...baking with Kaden I think some chocolate chip cookies

I am wearing...jeans a t-shirt and my comfy slippers

I am creating...a new dish cloth in green and chocolate brown

I am going...to the library and possibly the thrift store

I am reading...the Queen's Fool

I am hoping...to accomplish a lot this week

I am hearing...Justin watching Dora and Kaden playing with his leapster

Around the house...laundry needs to be done, dishing done and school started

One of my favorite things...a nice clutter free kitchen table

A few plans for the rest of the week: errands to run, possibly a church dinner to attend, visit with great grandma, baking day, a very special birthday celebration later this week, St. Patty's day fun!

Here is picture thought I am sharing...

The Simple Woman's Day Book

Preschool Ideas

I have preschooler. He is very busy! He is a challenge to keep up with! He figures things out too quickly! It has been a challenge coming up with things for him to do independently especially during school time. He loves to do school but like most almost 4 year olds he has a short attention span and is on to the next thing, sometimes telling me he is bored. This happens a lot when I am in the middle of something with Justin. We get interrupted, loose our momentum and everyone is unhappy.

I have been looking for some new ideas to keep him busy and having fun while he is learning something. He always wants to learn and do school. Both of my boys are this way! I thought I'd start a little series here on some ideas I have come up with and gleaned from other mom's of preschoolers.

The other day I came up with this idea. We have letter tiles and Kaden loves to play with them but gets bored after a couple of minutes. He loves letters. So I decided to make some word cards that he could match the letter tiles to. He is always asking me to spell things. This is so simple to do.

You only need two items. Letter tiles and some writing strips and a sharpie marker (ok so you need three items!) The letter tiles came from Walmart, I picked them up a while back and the writing strips came from Dollar Tree.

I cut the writing strips down to fit a three letter word. Then I printed a bunch of these, I just came up with a bunch of random words.

I also did one four letter word.

Kaden was very excited since he is always asking me how to spell his name.

There you have it a simple, inexpensive preschool activity! I may laminate them so they hold up a little better.

Getting reaquainted with Crocheting

I used to crochet. I haven't for many years now. My grandma taught me when I was a late teen. I treasure the things she has taught me. Not long ago someone was giving away a set of crocheted dish cloths on their blog. I can't remember where or whose blog! I thought they were so pretty. I tried to win them. I had thoughts of buying a set if I didn't win them. I did not win. I really don't need to spend a lot of extra money right now. But I love handmade. Then the light bulb went off. Michele you do know how to crochet. How's that for a big smack in the forehead!

I took myself off to Walmart and bought some cotton. They had pretty slim pickin's as far as colors go. No worries I have since been to AC Moore I seriously need to stay out of that store! and found some very pretty and hip colors. I'm pretty rusty after not crocheting for so long. I had to brush up on some of my stitches.

Here is the end result. While it is not perfect, I think it came out pretty well. Do not ask me what that brown speck on the lower left side is! Justin and Kaden were fascinated with the crochet hook. I based my pattern loosely on this one at house+made. I am feeling a few Christmas gifts coming on. What do you think? Is this something you would enjoy/use?

Menu Plan Monday

Well another Monday has rolled around. I tell you planning out my menu's has been a time saver as well as a money saver. The other night I really wanted to go out for Chinese, but instead I came home looked at our menu and made dinner. I had been out all day and was so tempted to just go out to eat. It is so much easier, right? I was proud of myself for staying home though and we saved about $40 by not going to the Chinese buffet! Yes it costs the four of us about $40 to eat there. We love it, but we'll save it for another time.

I think one thing that will help me stick to our menu better is doing some of the prep work ahead of time. Last week I bought chicken leg quarters. There were four in a package for $1.45! I bought three packages. I always repackage my meats after shopping. I packaged one up plain and I decided to throw a marinade in the other two. One I marinated in honey bbq sauce and the other I marinated in honey mustard bbq sauce. Then I just put them in the freezer. When I am ready to use them, I simply take them out the night before, defrost in the refrigerator, throw into a baking dish. I can add a veggie and salad and we have a quick dinner for very little cost.

In the coming weeks I am going to do a little cooking ahead and freezing and some meal prep ahead of time. I think this will really give me the motivation I need to prepare dinner at home everyday.

Here is my menu plan for this week. I've added in our breakfast and lunch choices for the week as well.

Breakfast choices: toast, waffles, english muffins, cold cereal, eggs (I usually make eggs once or twice a week. Justin love eggs and would eat them daily if I let him.), oatmeal, juice and/or milk

Lunch choices: peanut butter and jelly, cold chicken sandwiches, baloney and cheese, quesadillas

Dinner:

Monday~tacos and quesadillas and veggie

Tuesday~General Tao's chicken~found a recipe I want to try! Rice and a veggie

Wednesday~Baked Ziti and salad

Thursday~Korean Bulgogi and rice and a veggie

Friday~Homemade pizza

Saturday~Leftovers~dh works this day and is not home for dinner

Sunday~Baked bbq chicken, fresh bread and a veggie.

To see more great menus and get some fresh ideas for your own menus visit I'm an Organized Junkie!

NASA Launch Tonight!

I thought I'd post this in case there any of my readers are solar system enthusiasts like my son Justin is! Tonight at 10:49 pm, EST NASA will launch The Kepler spacecraft and it's Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Florida. You can follow the mission here.

From the NASA website:

The Kepler spacecraft will watch a patch of space for 3.5 years or more for signs of Earth-sized planets moving around stars similar to the sun. The patch that Kepler will watch contains about 100,000 stars like the sun. Using special detectors similar to those used in digital cameras, Kepler will look for slight dimming in the stars as planets pass between the star and Kepler. The Kepler's place in space will allow it to watch the same stars constantly throughout its mission, something observatories like Hubble cannot do.

Overheard.......

Justin: What flavor of cake are you having for your birthday?

(Kaden's birthday is coming up this month and we have been discussing what theme he wants)

Kaden: Dinosaur!

(of course Kaden thought Justin was asking what type of cake he wanted)

Justin: You're having a dinosaur flavored cake?

Kaden: Yes!!!

Justin: I mean what kind of cake are you having?

Kaden: Oh, blueberry!

Justin: There is no such thing as blueberry flavored cake! You'd better stick with dinosaur flavored, but it will be really crunchy with all those bones. Maybe go with T-Rex flavor!

Kaden: What's a T-Rex?

(oh I was falling over laughing listening to their conversation, it was so funny!)

Homeschool Freebie of the Day~Free Homesschool Planner (today only)

Do you know about Homeschool Freebie of the Day? Each day there is a new freebie! I have gotten some pretty great freebies. Today's freebie is a homeschool planner. It looks pretty neat!

You can sign up for a weekly email that will list the upcoming freebies for that week. You can also subscribe in a reader. I have it in my google reader so I never forget to check the current day's freebie!

Snow Day and Snowflakes!

As many of you know the north east got a snow storm yesterday. We were so excited! This is the most snow we have had here in NJ for over two years! The boys were so happy! So we took a snow day! I did sneak in some school.....

we did some math using our rulers to measure the snow accumulation!

It's unanimous we got 7 inches.

we learned that snow is very heavy!

we went on a search for frozen water!



Justin attempted to do his part to control global warming.....

he covered his earth ball with snow! (this was actually all his idea)

we made sure to help out our feathered and furry friends by putting out some old peanuts and sunflower seeds.

But the most amazing thing we did was to take some pictures of some snow crystals (snowflakes). Since we studied snow last month we have been fascinated with snow crystals. I bought out a piece of black felt and we caught some snowflakes on it. This is the original picture. These snowflakes are smaller than my pinky finger nail. Even at this size you can see actual snow crystals!

Justin getting an up close look!

These are the same snow crystals as above, but I cropped them a little closer. Click on the picture to see them up close. Amazing!!!They are beautiful! I can imagine how Snowflake Bentley must have felt being able to photograph them for the first time! So cool! Each one unique. I was so amazed I got them to come out this good!

We finished our fun snow day by making snow cream! It was good but very, very sweet. I halved this recipe. Next time I would cut the sugar by half again....it was yummy though!

Snow Cream
1 gallon snow
1 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 cups milk
Mix together and enjoy.