Easter Paint Fun

I was looking for a fun "artsy" activity to do with my boys today and came across Marble Painting & Painting Easter Eggs with q-tips.  I had all the stuff on hand so I sat them down and let them paint.  Little did I know how much they would LOVE this activity.  They literally sat and painted for two hours solid.  Guess I should do art for school more often!

I love his face in this picture - lol!

He is making "Aslan" from Narnia :)

Wasn't as much cleanup as I thought it would be!  Don't let paint scare you off - it's a perfect rainy day activity!

Picture Tutorial on Installing a Grommet

I got a comment on my Wheels on the Bus page asking if I could give directions on installing a grommet.  Since I personally am a visual learner I thought I would put up a picture tutorial on how to install a grommet.

Hopefully this makes sense and is easy to follow!  I picked up this package of about 20 grommets and the top and bottom nail piece at my local Joann Fabric store for like three dollars.  Please let me know if you have any questions!

Organizing Lego Instructions

Legos are a big deal in my house.  A very big deal.  My boys may be below the recommended age for most Lego sets, but their enthusiasm rivals the most ardent collector's.
As such, we have already collected (thanks to gifts, Ebay, garage sales, friends, and their Dad's childhood) quite a few Lego sets.  I am still working on the best way to organize Legos and still have them available for easy play.  Right now we have a couple large plastic tubs - one for smaller pieces and one for bigger.  It works for now.
The instruction manuals are another matter though.  My boys like to follow the instructions and build and rebuild their sets in addition to free play.  However, the flimsy paper manuals, especially from the older sets have seen much better days :(
This is my solution.  I got a three ring binder and my trusty laminator (This is the one I have - it was twenty bucks at Costco).  I carefully took apart each one of their Lego manuals and laminated them, punched holes, and added them to the binder.  Now all their Lego instructions are in one place, lay flat, and won't get ruined.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

After our Lucky Dog Math Game the other day I printed the End of the Rainbow Game from Criss-Cross Applesauce.  Math with food just makes life more fun!

 I also made a fruit rainbow for our St. Patrick's Day dinner.  I used marshmallow clouds, strawberries, cantaloupe, mango, grapes, blackberries, and rolos.  It was a huge hit :)

Lucky Dog Math Game

I downloaded, printed, and laminated this fabulously fun math game from Criss Cross Applesauce.  It's FREE!  It's called Lucky Dog and it helps with number recognition up to twenty.  We finished the Saxon kindergarten math book on Monday so I figured we would play fun math games for the rest of the week as kind of a break before we start the Saxon first grade book.  ANY math that involves food is good according to my boys :)

Afterwards we painted rainbows for St. Patrick's Day which is why the watercolors are in the picture too :)

Our Baby Chicks!!!

This week I have been working on a new project with my family: setting up our brooder for baby chicks! We have decided that it would be a good experience for us to try and raise chickens for eggs. So, we did extensive research (mostly via Pinterest), put together a brooder, and purchased baby chicks yesterday from Southern States.

Aren't they just SO cute? I just love their little peeping noises! We got five Americana/Easter Egg breed and five Rhode Island Reds. They are nice and happy in their new home. My husband is going to build their chicken coop (which he designed, of course) in the next week or so & they will move into it in about six weeks.

Star Wars Zoo Quiet Book with Pattern & Instructions!

So I FINALLY finished my big project I have been working on.  This is the first quiet book that I have designed entirely on my own, so I'm pretty proud of it :)  My youngest just turned one, so he is a little young for it yet, but he still loves playing with it.  His two older brothers and daddy love it too!  Basically, everybody in my family loves it - you just can't go wrong with Star Wars.

The pattern is coming as soon as I can get it typed up and scanned and everything.  We are hosting a birthday party this weekend (Star Wars themed of course) so I hope to work on it this coming week.  For now, enjoy the photos and come back next week for the pattern!
Update - The pattern and instructions are FINALLY finished!  Took me a while to get it all typed up and then a while longer to figure out the whole scanning & putting together part of it.  But now, I offer to you completely FREE my first design: The Star Wars Zoo Quiet Book Pattern & Instructions.

Please let me know if you make this book!  I would LOVE to see pictures of someone else's interpretation of my idea!