Top Posts of 2011

My “Rainbow of Summer Fun” theme was a hit here with my kids & even more so online! Especially the rainbow rice & ice cube painting posts. It’s kind of crazy – over 66,000 page views on the rice post & over 25,000 on the ice cube painting. 

Both of these posts have been shared on some great sites including Babble, Money Saving Mom, Craft Gossip and Aimless Curator. Lots & lots of hits also come from Adventures in Homemaking. Also special thanks to Deborah at Teach Preschool for sharing my posts.

Top referring site by far is Pinterest.


Thanks to all my followers! Blogging is a fun hobby and even more so when others enjoy what I share.

1. Rainbow Rice



2. Ice Cube Painting




3. Rainbow Painted Toast



4.  Rainbow Waffles



5. Winter & Holiday Crafts
 

Organizing Day 1

I spent some time organizing today. Most of my areas are quite organized but need refreshing. There’s always room for change & improvement. I’ve had this tiered basket for several years that I’ve been wanting to use but it’s too tall, too large in general to use everywhere I’ve tried to put it. Finally I decided today to take it apart & use the baskets separately. Love it! They are not going back together since I had to break the metal dowel out of the bottom basket but that’s just fine. At least I can use it. Now I have a cute wire basket for fruit & one for my Kcups. Love them both!
I am *this close* to painting my china & dining set! It’s a huge project but I think I’m ready. So not a fan of orangey oak! Oak of any color…
Which led to taking a picture of this corner…

Dead space in this corner so I put these pretties here. (They've been here for a while, just took a picture today.) The domed plates were last year’s birthday present from my brother & sister in law. The bottle is a lemonade bottle that I couldn’t throw away…

Now this idea, found on Pinterest, is just genius! A CD container to hold ribbons spools. So smart!

Class Project: Dinosaur Book Report in a Box

This is Brett’s December book report project. He was to read a historical fiction book & he choose The Magic School Bus Dinosaur Detectives.

He included 5 artifacts:

1.  Skeletons – from the Target dollar section a few years back!

2. Footprints – made with Crayola air dry clay & making dinosaur prints. Then he painted them.

3.  Triassic Plants – drawings of plants included in the story

4.  Dinosaur Teeth – made with Crayola air dry clay

5. T Rex

volcanoes cut on the Silhouette

The written part:

• 5 “Thin” Questions
• 5 “Thick” Questions
• 5 Word Glossary
• Description of the 5 artifacts

60 pts/60! Fun project! For January’s book report he is to read a mystery & make a “wanted” poster. Sounds a lot easier than this one!

Candy Cane Holiday Party

We had a fun holiday party today. I tried to come up with candy cane themed ideas. Besides this there were balloons, music, cookies and stories.

“Candy cane” grape & marshmallow kabobs for a.m. snack.

Beading candy cane colored jingle bell necklaces.

Decorated candy trees – sugar cones covered with green frosting & decorated with sprinkles, candies and marshmallows.

Candy cane stamping

We finally tried foam sticker/plastic lid stamps!

Cotton ball candy canes – my kids just love using the glue bottles!

Candy cane pizzas for lunch

Putting together our new gingerbread man floor puzzle

Treats for the kids – Santa hats (Michael’s had child sized ones), little jars of peppermint glitter play dough, Cutie oranges, and candy canes.

My kids loved the little jar (from Dollar Tree) that I bought for dramatic play so I bought them each one & made play dough to put in it!

My Favorite Play Dough Recipe

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup salt
• 2 tablespoons cream of tartar
• 1 Tablespoon extract (optional)
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 cup water
• glitter (optional)
• food coloring (optional)

1. Mix flour, salt, & cream of tartar in a medium pot.

2. Add water, extract and oil.

3. Stir over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes stirring constantly.

4. When mixture forms a ball in pot, remove.

{blog prizes}

I was a lucky winner this week of this cute embroidered kitchen towel from from Knits, Reads & Reviews birthday giveaway & she included a knit dishcloth. Being they were made by two special friends, it was extra special to win. What a fun package to get in the mail. Thank you L!

Brr! It’s cold outside!

Beautiful!

Stormy thinks everything is for him.

3rd Grade Holiday Concert

It’s amazing it ends up sounding like anything with all the distraction, dancing around and fidgeting that goes on!

Wood Block Photo Ornaments {parent gifts #3}

This is our final parent gifts – wood block photo ornaments.

1. Each child chose their paint color {mixed with silver glitter paint} and painted their block.
2. Then I printed their photos, rounded the corners, {same as used for the framed portraits} and Modge Podge-d them on.
3. I cut/rounded coordinating scrapbook colors & Modge Podge-d them on the sides.
4. Using my Silhouette, I cut silver vinyl with each child’s initial and “2011” & applied them to the sides.
5. Screwed in a eye screw to the top.
6. Decorated them with fun yarn & ribbon.

Love these!

Our other gifts for parents this year:

Handprint Calendars

Framed Holiday Portraits