September Easter Bunny

The date is September 21st. It is a Sunday, and all 4 of my boys are napping. I couldn't nap. Ben & I made a hard decision last night. I won't disclose what is is right now, but I will soon. It is the best decision for our family, it is the best decision for me & yet I am sad. So, what is a girl to do? I am drowning my sorrows with the one and only...CHOCOLATE!

Not just any chocolate, the final of my boys Easter Bunnies!

Yep, I'm that mom! The day after Easter they handed over their Easter Baskets. I left about 10 small chocolate eggs and a handful of jelly beans. The rest, we got rid of. It was a little tough, because I know our family loves my children and I know they are allowed a bit of chocolate here and there, but my kids and sugar create a wildness I don't know how to handle. So, I put away some chocolate eggs, some small bags of M&Ms and the three chocolate bunnies in my "secret stash."  My boys did not have a single bite, and they never once thought about them.

Today, the Easter Bunnies are gone. Just in time for the Halloween candy to fill the "secret stash" again!

Memorization with a Silly Cube!

How do you get your little ones to memorize their Bible verses? Repeat, repeat, repeat. But, unless you put a little fun into that repeating, you are going to get some cranky kids. I ran across a brilliant idea while I was teaching this month.

A Silly Cube!

4 and 5 year olds memorizing Bible Verses with the Silly Cube!

What is a silly cube you ask? It is a dice with silly motions on each side. This little idea took me about 5 minutes to create. I simply found a sturdy square box in my gift wrapping closet, some plain red wrapping paper and a permanent marker. My box was about 5"x5"x5" I wrapped the empty box. I used packing tape, so hopefully our cube will last for a couple of months. I teach 4 and 5 year olds, so I don't expect it to last a long time, but it will be fun to change up the silly motions in a couple months anyway. After it was wrapped, I just added the silly motions on each side. We used 1.Hands on head, 2.Jumping, 3.Whisper voice, 4.Touching toes, 5.Standing on one leg and 6.Standing still. It would be fun to have a little drawing so the kids knew what motion to do as soon as it landed, but I have a hard time drawing a stick figure, so I just had to read it for them.

As usual with little kids, don't over think it. They won't care, and you will only upset yourself. My cube was not completely square, and it wanted to land on one side a lot. Of course the side it liked was jumping, and the kids did not mind. We had 6 kids plus me, and we did 3 rounds before they got bored of the cube. So, all-in-all, we repeated our Bible Verse 21 times! You guessed it, all 6 had it memorized by the time we were done. We'll see if it sticks until next week.

What do you do to help your little ones memorize?

God's Creation Bingo game for kids

My mom and I have been teaching the 4 and 5 year olds at our church this month. She had the first 2 weeks, and I had the last 2 weeks. Our little kids have been on a different curriculum than the rest of the classes, and it recently ended. The church is waiting to reorder so we can all be on the same schedule again. What that means is we have to find some miscellaneous lessons until the new curriculum arrives. Mom chose a 4 week course on creation from an old lesson book. The kids learned what God created each day, and although some supplies were still around, some have been lost over the years, causing us to fly by the seat of our pants!

Week 4 of this particular lesson was review. I thought it would be fun to go on a scavenger hunt, but the weather did not agree. So, on Saturday afternoon I sat down and made us some "Creation Bingo" cards. The kids loved it. I would call a picture, and they would shout BINGO if they had it. I don't think we ever got the directions right. I would remind them that God made whatever was on the picture, and then we would try to decide which day of creation that particular item was made. So, they were definitely getting reinforcement of the previous lessons. I forgot to get a photo since we were having so much fun. I do however have a PDF of the cards and master pictures I made. Please feel free to use to teach your little ones.

All of the cards have exactly the same pictures. Because these were 4 and 5 year olds, I didn't want anyone getting upset if they didn't have a dog, or a banana when I called it. The last two pages of the printout are the master pictures. I printed these out, cut them, and put them in a paper bag to pull out one at a time.

Enjoy!

Lunch box Jokes - A full year printable!

I hate when I do this to myself. I start a little something for my boys, not thinking about what it might turn into. I made an A-Z Babybook for my first son. It was of the first year, and it was finished by his 18th month. My second son received his on his 4th birthday & my last son....he turns 5 in December & I finally got the pictures printed this month!

Well, I did it again! I totally blame this one on my addiction to Pinterest. A printable with kids jokes to add to their lunchbox. I thought this would be fun for our first week back. My second grader asks every morning if I put a joke in his bag, and we are well into our second week of school. Unfortunately, there were only 6 jokes on the Pinterest find. Oops! In the interest of sanity later this year, I am creating all of my joke papers now, printing them, cutting them & putting them in a secret place in the kitchen so they are ready to go! I didn't count, and with the new laws in Ohio, I am not sure how many days my guys will be in school, but I went with 180 just to be safe!

I want to share them with you. You can thank me later that you didn't have to wade through the bad, bad, bad jokes to find these only slightly bad ones! Go Bless your children with the gift of laughter!

CREDITS:
The Pinterest post: www.thetaylor-house.com/back-school-lunch-box-jokes/
Free frames from: the3amteacher.blogspot.com
And... jokes from: www.ahajokes.com and: www.prongo.com/jokes/index.asp

Sometimes I get teary-eyed!

Do your children ever make you cry? I don't mean that in a bad way, I mean do they ever make you so overwhelmed that tears just fill your eyes & leak out?

I had that happen on the drive to school this morning. We have a Dodge Durango, so all 3 boys are on a bench seat together. We have a 6 disk changer CD player with slots 3,4,5 and 6 filled with permanent selections. There are 3 CDs of silly kids songs I got as a shower gift 6 years ago and the Classic Grease Soundtrack. We don't listen to the CDs all that often, maybe only once a week or so. I tend to keep the radio on KLOVE and we do a lot of talking and word games. Most mornings I like the boys to take in the beauty of nature and chit chat with me.

But, my boys LOVE some of the songs from Grease. Let's be real, doesn't everyone love the songs from Grease. (Just a heads up, there are a lot of songs that are inappropriate for children on the Grease Soundtrack, so be careful.) Our favorite is "The Hound Dog," followed by "The Hand Jive" and lastly "The Silly Song" aka "We go together". So, we crank these up. Sometimes full blast! Our drive is mostly country roads, so we are pretty well alone for most of the drive. I do turn the music down to a descent level as we enter town! ;)

This morning was one of those mornings. Everyone was buckled in and we were on our way out of town when Carson asked for The Hound Dog. So I found the song and turned it up. I get a little silly when we turn the music up, and true to my nature, I started some serious hand movements. I often wonder what the car behind me is thinking, but I really don't care. It helps the boys get silly and when I glanced in the review mirror, what I saw took my breath away and made my eyes tear up. All 3 boys with serious smiles were jammin' away! Singing to each another & laughing with each other!

Don't get me wrong, I don't care if they love the movie Grease when they are grown and I don't care if they still love the soundtrack. I love that they will remember when we drove to school in those early years that their mom would turn the music on full blast, clap, sing and act silly with them. I remember my dad doing the same thing with us when we were little. I wonder if we ever took his breath away. My theory is a fun memory stacked on a fun memory will create a happy, fun-filled life! Just what I have and what I want for my boys!

So, what do you do to create those fun memories?

The ABCs of Year 1 ~ Baby book #2

"You have craft ADD!" 

This was a comment from my husband several weeks ago. I really couldn't take offense to it, as it's true. :) You know what else, I don't care! I have stacks of half finished crafts all over the place but, honestly, what serious crafter doesn't? I finish things now and then, but not on a real regular basis.

So, I wanted to brag about the fact that I have finished the middle's baby book. I gave it to him back in October. It was on his 4th birthday, so really, I am only about 3 years late. (I finally added the last photo when I printed out our Christmas cards, because somehow I missed getting 1 printed in October). But you know the saying "Better late than never". I figure when he is 10 or 20 or even 30 showing his own little ones, he won't remember that it took me so long. He loves it already, and already the little guy is wondering when his is going to be done - I have until December before he turns 4, but I make no promises!

Anyhow, without further ado... The ABC's of Year 1

 

(& yes, I realize it has been since last October since I posted in my blog....)

Charlie Banana One Size Pocket Cloth Diaper Overview

Charlie Banana One Size Pocket Cloth Diaper Overview Video

• Only available in snap closure
• Features a crossover snap for a snug fit on babies as small as 7 pounds
• Pocket opening is in the front
• Liner is 100% Polyester Fleece
• Comes with 2 microfiber inserts
• Adjusted by "bra-style" brackets and elastic in leg openings
• Wide elastic in back waist area
• Hybrid - Allows for disposable insert by Charlie Banana
• Many colors and prints to choose from
• Made by Winc, Inc. in China - donates 1% of all sales to Operation Smile

& now for the video...