First Day of Kindergarten

It's official. I am the mother of a kindergartner. It was a great day for my little guy. He has a fantastic teacher, he knew 6 kids in his class, and he got to do all sorts of fun things that only kindergartners get to do. He was all smiles when I picked him up today, and that made my heart swell because just a few hours prior, I was doing my best to hold it together. Where has the time gone? Wasn't it just yesterday that I was holding a little lump in my arms...and now look at him..all grown up, at least according to him:o)

 We had a little fun yesterday taking some back to school photos. Usually it's a nightmare trying to take shots of the kids. They are always little pills when it comes time to take pictures. You'd never guess it by looking at these shots...

 Mini marshmallows will work wonders on 4 and 5 year olds:o)

They behaved wonderfully when I started popping them in their mouths. 

After we got some serious shots, we started goofing off....love this shot..this book came from the hub's grandfather's farm. I thought it was perfect for this type of photo shoot:o)

 Oh yes, he's really in his element now...Oh, how I love this stinker:o)

I'm so proud of this kid, and I pray every chance I think to, that he will be a strong leader and Christian example to all of those around him.

I am so thankful that the Lord blessed me with this child.

Chore Charts

Usually on Friday's you can expect to hear about the previous evening's family night. Well, every once in a while, we have what is referred to as a "family date night." That usually includes dinner and a movie...last night was just dinner at Red Robin. We had a delicious but very expensive dinner, and then the hubs picked up some ice cream. We also got to go on an evening bike ride, or as S.R. likes to call it, a "bike walk."

So instead of giving you ideas about how you can spend time together as a family today, I wanted to share with you our latest endeavor...chores:o)

The kids are very good at helping out around the house, and we thought now would be a good time to introduce an allowance.

So, me being me, I needed to make something cute and crafty to help them keep up with all of the chores that need to be completed through out the day. 

I looked online for various ideas of chore charts, and decided to make my own. 

This one is E.'s

 And this one is S.R.'s

 I found the backgrounds at a neat blog named Sprik Space. I downloaded them and used publisher to add the grid and the fonts. 

Super easy:o) 

I also used my favorite self laminating sheets made by Scotch, to make them re-usable.

I found clipboards at Walmart, and used Command wall hooks to attach them to their bedroom doors.

They are at the right level for the kids to mark off their list. 

They think that they are so big, and they are really going to think they are big once they start getting paid.

I have been working on money holders for them, and I will share them on Monday. I like how they are turning out, and I can't wait for you all to see them.

Have a great weekend! We'll be soaking in every minute, since school starts back for us on Monday.

Gearing Up for Back to School

We are getting ready for school around here. The kids are super pumped, and so are we since both of them got the teachers we wanted them to:o) I have been labeling the day away. We meet E's teacher this afternoon and drop his school supplies off. Just a few more days of last minute play dates and odds and ends that need to be done before they go back and leave me all alone:o)

I am also working on some chore charts and hope to share those with you guys here in the next day or two. Have a great rest of the day!

Family Night-The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's

Friday means it's time to share our family night theme again. 

We watched the Wonderful Wizard of Ha's this week. It was a mix between the Prodigal son parable from the Bible and the Wizard of Oz...it was so cute, and the kids loved it.

For my weekly email to the hubs, he received the menu below. I found the picture from Christians Best, and used Picmonkey to add the menu.

  If you think you might want to re-use this picture, feel free to copy and paste...or go to the link above, and create your own.

Here is our delightful spread for the evening. 

 We had homemade strawberry lemonade in mason jars, and since we were watching Veggie Tales, I decided to add in a few veggies:o)

 We were supposed to have mini hamburgers for dinner, but I forgot to thaw the hamburger meat...we made a quick trip to visit grandparents on Wednesday, so I didn't fix the Ham and Cheese Sliders that evening. They were a quick and delicious fix! The hubs loved them!

For dessert, we had Bob the Tomato cookies. I used store bought cookies and cookie icing. They were fairly easy to make, and you can kind of tell who they are supposed to be;o) We also had a slew of unhealthy candy....we had veggies, so that counteracts all the sugar, right?;o)

 Here is a closer view of the Bob's.

 I also found these cute coloring pages from the same website from above. The kids loved this part as well, especially S.R.

Since the movie was short, we put in the real Wizard of Oz to finish the night off. 

Another great family night!!!

Loft Makeover

I am finally getting around to posting the pictures of the loft we made over. This loft was given to us by some very dear friends. It was given to them, but they couldn't use it b/c the ceilings in their basement were too low. So they graciously offered it to us, and we gladly accepted:o) When we first received it, the loft was around 4 feet longer..which was way too big...so the hubs took some length off and it now sits at 4 feet wide and 6 feet long. I think it's about 4 feet off of the ground.

It fits perfectly in the corner of our bonus room. We had talked about dividing up the room, and having one half be the kids play area and the other half be more of a t.v./theater type area...so this is step one...well actually we skipped right to step two because we should have painted the walls first:o) 

We have had this loft for a couple of months now, but the kids weren't really all that interested in it because there wasn't anything drawing them to it. A friend of mine told me about this little kitchen set her daughter was selling, and that was enough to get me inspired to make this loft more of a little house for creative play.

 This little table set was given to S.R. for her 3rd birthday and it has gotten a lot of use...it was a great asset to this area. The high chair was a thrift store purchase. It has been in the attic for almost a year now, and I finally got around to recovering it. $2 well spent:o)

For the top of the loft, I made cushions and pillows for a seating area where the kids could either read or pretend that it was an upstairs bedroom..E is just short enough that he can lay flat on his back across the two cushions. All of the fabric came from my craft closet. 

 The cushions needed a little something extra, so I appliqued these cute elephants on them. I googled elephant silhouette and came across this little guy. I felt that the elephant was fairly gender neutral, and it fits since this is a BAMA household;o)

 Here are two little rascals sneaking into the photos:o)

 And we have a diva pose...;o)

The rugs were a Target purchase. The loft required 2, and I just used a staple gun to hold them in place. Before, the floor of the loft was just bare wood, and really uncomfortable to crawl across. Now that the rugs are there, it makes crawling so much better...especially for big people when they have to get up there to re-adjust a pillow for pictures;o)

 Here S.R. is hard at work making dinner for everyone:o) She has been "preparing meals" everyday since we got this little kitchen set...I LOVE it:o)

 Remember at the beginning of the post I said we were going to divide the room up? Well this is the other side of the room. Scary, right? The hubs took apart the entertainment center, and it's going to be brought downstairs later today so we can paint it(white). Then there will be re-wiring, and then we will begin the task of building built-ins between the two windows. The entertainment center will be the starting point and then we'll just build off of it. Who knows how many weekends we will have in front of us, but in the end, I know it will totally rock because I have a very talented husband!! 

On the Menu for the Week...

Thank goodness for Pinterest sometimes:o) I was in desperate need for some dinner ideas for this week, so I turned to the trusty old internet phee-nom:o)

I am really excited about these meals because they are super simple to make, and I am sure they will be a hit for the rest of my family:o) Plus, there will be minimal clean-up which is a HUGE bonus;o)

Here's what's cookin'...

Monday Night-Crockpot Chicken Tacos

Recipe from Chocolate Therapy 

Tuesday Night-Homemade Honey Baked Ham

Recipe from Frugal Upstate 

Wednesday Night-Ham and Cheese Sliders

Recipe from The Girl Who Ate Everything 

Thursday Night(family night)-Mini Hamburgers

Recipe from Mommy Hates Cooking

Friday Night-Crockpot Orange Chicken

Recipe from The Pursuit of Happiness

We were busy all weekend working on the bonus room. I am working on the finishing touches for the kids play area. They LOVE it, and I can't wait to share pictures with you all. I hope that you are having a great start to week, and I'll see you back here in a day or two with the Kid's Play Space reveal!!

Family Night-Shark Tale

It's Friday again, so I am sharing our Family Night theme with you all. Last night we watched Shark Tale.

I had originally intended for us to watch Big Miracle, (hence the whale themed family night)but apparently, there is a ton of language in it, so that was definitely a no-go....and it's rated PG...I don't get it:o/ Anyway, I had to find another movie to replace it, so we went with Shark Tale. I could still stick with my "fishy" theme:o)

For those of you who don't know what Shark Tale is or need a reminder, here is the trailer.

Every week I make a little sign for what we'll be having for dinner that night, and I try to make it match the theme. Last week I didn't get around to it, but this week I was on the ball:o)

I sent it in an email to the hubs so that he would know what to expect:o)

The food was pretty simple. It took a little more than 20 minutes to put everything together.

We had "fish & chips" which were Gortons Tilapia fish sticks & crinkle cut fries. I am not a fish fan, but since tilapia is such a mild fish, I was able to drown it in tartar sauce and it wasn't that bad:o)

I served the popcorn in these cute little cones. I found the idea HERE. I just googled whale art, and found this little cute guy. I used publisher and put the whale in the upper right hand corner of the page, tilted him a bit, printed, and rolled the paper into a cone shape. Easy Peasy:o)

For dessert, I purchased blue jello cups. You can find these in the refrigerated section in your grocery store. I used a little bit of whipped cream for the "foamy wave effect" and added a little red gummy fish in each bowl. It can't get any easier than that folks;o)

For the drinks, I bought blue kool-aid, and filled up these little clear plastic cups. We called this our "ocean water."

We had such a fun evening last night, and the movie was cute...there were definitely some laugh out loud moments:o)

I want to encourage you all to start taking time out every week to spend with your families. This took less time and preparation than most meals, and it's definitely more memorable.

For this free printable for your own family night, just click on the link below the picture.

HERE

Next week's theme will be:

The Wonderful Wizard of Ha's

Sharing this fun night at:
Design Dazzle