Spring Is For The Birds!

We did two crafts for Spring this year that the kids loved because they were for the birds! The kids and I absolutely love one of the trees in our backyard. It's a nice big shade tree right outside our kitchen and dining room windows. The birds and squirrels seem to love it too! There are always lots of critters hanging around it. We have a large birdfeeder hanging from the tree, but we thought it would be fun to add some other things that the birds might enjoy.

The first thing we did was paint small birdhouses to hang in the tree. I had been shopping at our local craft store the week before and found these neat little wooden birdhouses on sale for a dollar each. We had been given paint and brushes as a favor at one of the birthday parties we had attended recently so it was great being able to use them on the birdhouses! We only had one real incident when Jackson decided that it would be funny to paint Lana instead of his birdhouse, which of course made her cry because her new Dora shirt was now "dirty!!"

Our second project was to make bird seed ornaments. We did this a few days after we painted the birdhouses and it was a lot of fun. It took a little more skill to do this so Tate, Lana and Jackson mostly watched as Nathan and I did the majority of the work.

Here are the directions:

3/4 cup birdseed (we got the seed for small birds at wal-mart)

1/4 cup water
1 small envelope of knox gelatine
twine or string
cookie cutters, molds or mason jar lids
wax paper

*Mix together the envelope of gelatine with 1/4 cup of water and bring to a simmer while stirring. continue stirring until the gelatine is dissolved.

*Remove from heat and let cool for a minute.
*Stir in the 3/4 cup birdseed. Adding a little more if there is liquid still in the bottom of the pan.
*Lay your cookie cutters out on wax paper and fill half way with the birdseed mixture.
*Cut your twine, knot the end and push the knot down into your birdseed.
*Continue filling with birdseed, covering the end of your twine and knot.
*Push the birdseed evenly into the cookie cutter until it's full.
*Allow them to dry overnight, turning them over every now and then.
 *Remove from the cookie cutters and hang them in your trees.
 *Then wait by the window to watch for your first guest.

ROY G. BIV Spaghetti

To continue working on our colors we made rainbow spaghetti. It was so easy and the kids loved making their ROY G. BIV rainbows with it. Here are the directions:
Cooked Spaghetti, drained
Vegetable Oil
Food Coloring
*Cook spaghetti as directed. Drain.
*Toss in a small amount of vegetable oil.
*Divide into enough portions for the number of colors you want.
*Add food coloring to each portion.
*Toss.

I gave each of the kids a cookie sheet to make their rainbows on. The activity was a big hit and a great way to reinforce our colors!!

20 Questions with Nathan at 7

Nathan and his new Lego Heros at his 7th Birthday

1. What is your favorite color? Green
2. What is your favorite toy? Lego Heros
3. What is your favorite fruit? Apple
4. What is your favorite TV show? Spongebob Squarepants
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Pizza
6. What is your favoirte outfit? Cowboy shirt, Cowboy boots and Blue Jeans
7. What is your favorite game? Don't Spill The Beans
8. What is your favorite snack? Chips
9. What is your favorite animal? Deer
10. What is your favorite song? Theme to Spongebob
11. What is your favorite book? any of  my Tranformers books
12. Who is your best friend? Hannah, Tommy and Roman
13. What is your favorite cereal? Lucky Charms
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? Swing
15. What is your favorite drink? 7-Up
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? Kitty, Tom the Koosa & Cookie Monster
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? Strawberry PopTarts
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? Bacon and Eggs
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? Army Man


Roman, Tommy and Nathan

Nathan in his favorite outfit in 2010



Hannah and Nathan

Nathan's Dresser in his room showing off his favorite animal.

One Word Wednesday: CRASH!

More Color Lessons

We've really been working hard to learn our colors! We've done several fun activities lately that the kids really loved. I already shared our experience with Rainbow Rice, but we've also made a Color Wheel, Rainbow Spaghetti and play dough. The Color Wheel was so fun to make. I had an idea for a color sorting activity and thought this Tupperware container would be perfect for it! I love the fact that I can put little items in the small container in the middle and keep them safe with a lid. To add to the fun I have the kids look around the house for other items we can use to play our color game.

Cousins: Life's First Friends

Six Little Birds Sitting On A Fence

A couple of weeks ago we had the privelege of having our niece and nephew come for an afternoon visit. The big kids played for hours in the yard and they all got to take turns playing with Baby Brooke and giving her lots of hugs and kisses. We grilled out and just enjoyed the beautiful weather! It's always so much fun watching the kids play together.

Two Little Drummers

Playing Tag with Uncle Danny

Are these two related or what??? CHEESE!

Jackson thought Brooke needed some babies to play with!

Rainbow Rice

We have been working on learning our colors around here, so one of the first activities I tried from Pinterest was Rainbow Rice. I thought it would be a great way to help the kids learn their colors, but it would also help make our sensory bin of rice a little more interesting.

The activity is pretty easy. You will need: uncooked rice, rubbing alcohol and food coloring. Divide the uncooked rice into a seperate ziploc bag for each color you want to make. For every two cups of rice you will need to put 2 tablespoons of rubbing alcohol and approximately 1 tablespoon of food coloring in the ziploc bag. After you color the rice you will need to empty it onto a cookie sheet and let it dry until all of the rubbing alcohol was evaporated. It may need to be mixed occasionally as it dries. The kids loved this AND it was a great way to practice naming our colors.

Pumpkin Patch

Lana has been asking for a "kitty cat" for months. She wasn't that fond of our dog and she desperately wanted a cat to play with. Once the dog was gone we thought it would be a good idea to start looking for a cat for our family. After a couple of weeks we found just the right one at our local animal shelter.

His name was Pumpkin and Lana thought his full name should be Pumpkin Patch, after all she still asks to go to the Pumpkin Patch. He was a cute orange color, he was 7 months old and he came from a family with kids. When he tolerated all of the kids so well when we went to visit him we knew he would be a perfect fit for our family. Two days after visiting him he came home with us and he's definitely been a great addition to our family!

The kids were so excited but their excitement scared him to death! He hid under the couch for a very long time, finally coming out after the kids had gone to bed. It didn't take long for Nathan to make friends with him, but it took a lot longer for him to get used to the energy of our three youngest children. Every time the little kids saw him they would squeal with delight for "PUMPKIN" and run after him. It's been two months since we brought him home and he's finally to the point where he will roam the house when the kids are awake, even laying down on the floor in front of them and allowing them to pet him. He even allows Tate to pick him up and carry him around. He is definitely everything that we had hoped a for in a pet for our kids.

Pinterest Makes Me a Better Mom!

I love doing activities with the kids, but I can't always come up with new ideas or creative ideas that will keep their attention but after joining Pinterest I have been able to find a ton of ideas that the kids love!!! My plan is to share all of the fun with you!

I try to do as many fun and educational activities with the kids at home as I can. Lana and Jackson are 2 1/2 years old and very curious about their letters, numbers, colors and shapes. Lana is constantly asking for homework! Tate is 4 years old and has a hard time sitting still so traditional worksheets and workbooks aren't a good fit with him. He also doesn't like to recite his numbers or letters so we have to trick him into participating by making activities silly.

One of the very first activities I tried was a sensory bin full of uncooked rice. I hid our alphabet magnets in it and let the kids take turns finding the letters. As they found the letters we talked about each one and thought of words that started with them. They loved this little treasure hunt!

Our Budget Makeover: Dave Ramsey Style

At the start of 2012 I made a few New Years resolutions. One of them was to make our money work harder. We've always paid our bills on time and in full, but we were never really good at keeping track of our monthly expenses or saving for a rainy day.

I heard about Dave Ramsey's "Total Money Makeover" when our church did his "Financial Peace University" course. At the time TJ and I weren't able to participate in the study because we weren't attending Sunday School after the twins were born. TJ on the other hand had been already been listening to his radio program and really liked his approach to money. It only took me a couple of days to read his book "Total Money Makeover" and I was ready to start! It took us a few weeks to get our budget worked out, but it has really been helpful for keeping us on track.

I loved his concept of budgeting every dollar. We now have a budget category for everything and have an emergency fund all of those expenses that don't occur monthly. I track where our money is going daily. For the first time in years we've managed to SAVE money!!! We also have not used a credit card since January 1st, 2012. Almost FIVE MONTHS credit card free!!! We have also been able to make progress on paying down our debt!!! It is amazing how fast it goes down if you are not adding to it! In addition to our credit cards we still have car loans, a home improvement loan and my student loans but they are gradually going down as we continue to make our monthly payments on them. It will take us a couple of years to pay off all of the debt we accrued, but we are well on our way to being DEBT FREE! It feels so good knowing that we have our money under control. We have so much going on, it's nice to know that we don't have to worry about this.

If you need a budget makover I highly recommend Dave Ramsey.

I love this slogan from WWII and I try to repeat it to myself everytime I'm about to spend money! It really does help you think twice about the money you're about to spend.

St. Patrick's Day 2012

St. Patrick's Day is so fun in our house. We love to wear green and have your traditional corned beef and cabbage for dinner. This year St. Patrick's Day fell on a Saturday and we were just so busy that we had to postpone our celebration until later in the following week. Unfortunately TJ was traveling for work that week so he wasn't able to celebrate with us.

We had fun St. Patrick's Day decorations, the kids all wore their green shirts and I made lots of yummy food for dinner! We enjoyed corned beef and cabbage, Irish soda bread and green cupcakes with green icing!! None of the kids really liked the corned beef and cabbage, but they all loved the Irish soda bread and the cupcakes!!

We had such a mild winter and the weather that day was gorgeous so I decided to take the kids outside for some pictures on the front porch. I love this one of Lana trying to kiss Jackson and his reaction to it! The picture of Nathan in front of our blue front door really brings out the blue of his eyes!! Tate asked me to take his picture on the stepping stones. So many fun memories!