Elsa for Halloween…A DIY Costume

*My daughter wore this costume for Halloween 2014 but I am just now getting around to sharing it now – complete blogger fail*

Like practically every other little girl in 2014, my 5 year old wanted to be Elsa for Halloween. I could have bought a costume but we kind of have a tradition that Mom makes your costume. As long as I can get away with it I’m going to stick to that plan.

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Since my sewing skills stink I knew making a dress from scratch wasn’t going to happen. I needed to find a dress that already fit Caroline and add to that. I found a completely white dress that had been given to us, discussed the design with Caroline, took a trip with her to the fabric store, and just jumped in to making it.

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Caroline picked out this blue sequined overlay (is that what this is called?) so I hand stitched it onto the white dress.

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At this point the dress was too short for Caroline so I needed to add some length with the blue satin (aka old bridesmaid standard fabric).  I have no idea why there is a seam in the middle of the dress.

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We made a cape which was made of the blue satin and then the blue sequin overlay sewed on top of that.

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Add a little face paint for Halloween and we have one happy camper princess.

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I also bought this accessories set on etsy for Caroline (I can’t find the store now). She wanted all the pieces and I thought why not. On the end of the gloves I added sequins to make them look even more “princessy.” This set blew the budget but I didn’t really care.

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Blonde Elsa braid with brunette hair = little girls dream

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What are your little ones going to be this year?

Moms…Just Exercise At Home

I was watching TV the other day when a segment came on about how moms could easily exercise at home. Now, before you get onto me about watching the segment, I was doing what most moms do, I was multi-tasking – watching the segment, folding laundry, and monitoring my youngest in the shower.

What the host said about exercising went something like this, “Moms, it’s so easy to exercise at home. You just have to make the time.”

Yep. I agree. You just have to make the time.

But the “it’s so easy part?” Nope.

Every single time I try and exercise at home while my kids are there something like this happens:

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Now a few things are happening in this picture:

1. I am being real with you and showing you that when I attempt to exercise at home I do it in my pajamas. I feel no shame.

2. Our play room is a mess.

3. Little people always seem to gather around once that rocking jazzercise type music comes on. I feel like the Pied Piper.

In this case, I was attempting to exercise with a you tube video on the computer.  Little person hears the drums and synthesizers and join me. The exercise I am supposed to be performing is to swing my leg back and forth then up and down. Therefore, my little partner is trying  the same thing but she sticks to mainly just kicking forward and laughing hysterically as she rams her foot into my rear end.

Moving on from that exercise we attempt to strengthen our backs by rolling over and laying down on our tummies. This naturally leads to the “Mommy is a horsey” exercise. It is neither productive nor comfortable for Mommy horse.

Trying to do crunches?

That of course leads to little one leaning on your legs trying to start the well known parent exercise of “flying airplane kid.”

So it is usually at this point that I just give up. It’s just not worth it TV ladies.

For now I will just stick to biking with my kids to school and my swim workouts which are away from home. I’ll still watch the TV exercise segments of course but I will probably just work on building those folding t-shirt muscles.

Mission Accomplished…Saving Money with a Chart

Look who accomplished her mission of saving for a stuffed animal!

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Last time we left off my six year old was busy working odd jobs like folding towels around the house in order to save enough money to purchase a Build-a-Bear stuffed animal. She was keeping track of her savings using the chart I made for her.

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Caroline had saved about $23.00 when I received an email from Build-a-Bear announcing a 40% off sale on the stuffed animals. This meant that the stuffed animal Caroline wanted that originally cost $28 would now be on sale for $16.80! This would be a big savings for her.

When we started this money saving process I told Caroline that if she bought the stuffed animal I would buy an outfit for the animal. Any other accessories she wanted to buy would be her responsibility. Once we knew about the sale I told Caroline to kick her saving into overdrive because we needed to get to the store in a few days in order to use the 40% coupon. The sale would give her an opportunity to buy the animal and an accessory.

The day of the big purchase came. Caroline laid out all of her money and counted it. We made piles 100 (when counting the coins we counted to 100 and she knew that meant she had one dollar).

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Just a quick note about how I taught my daughter to count nickels and dimes. We worked on knowing that 2 nickels has the same value of 1 dime. So when we lined up the coins we lined them up into ten cent amounts. Looking at the coins in vertical groups you see 10 cents, 10 cents, 10 cents, and 5 cents. By having her line up the 2 nickels on top of each other she knew they were the same value as the dime. Putting her fingers on these coins she would count: 10, 20, 30, 35.

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After all the money was counted, Caroline had saved $27.93. Not quite the $30 goal but I knew with only 1 day left in the 40% off sale we needed to go to the store now.

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Caroline walked right to the stuffed animal she wanted – Risa the Rock Star Rabbit. With each rock girl you  get to choose a star that goes inside of her. Caroline chose the word, “fearless.”

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I turned down every opportunity the Build-a-Bear workers tried to extort get more money from Caroline. Don’t you want a talking heart inside for $5? Don’t you want a bubblegum smelly in your animal for $4? No we don’t. It’s not in the budget.

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After getting her bear stuffed , choosing an outfit and pair of shoes for the newly named “Blueberry,” we made our way to the check out. Caroline gave the animal and pair of shoes to the clerk who totaled up everything. In what I can only call fate or a small miracle from the money gods the total came out to $27.93! The exact amount Caroline had.

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I had Caroline count out her money and give it to the clerk. Yes, I am that mom who will make everyone else behind me wait. It was a big moment for her and I wanted her to be able to see it through to the end. After all, since we had exchanged all of the 100’s into dollar bills at home she only had to count out $27 in bills and the 93 cents in coins.

Here’s the end result!

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Caroline really loves “Blueberry” and is proud of the fact that she worked hard to get her. I am sure she’s going to request another money saving chart at some point and that will be fine. What I am most excited about it when she gets to the money counting lesson at school and she kicks some serious coin counting butt.

Well, that and when she starts folding my towels again.

National Waffle Day…First Day of School

Today is National Waffle Day (August 24th) and the 1st day of school for us!

To celebrate both events we had waffles this morning.

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This year we have a kindergartner, a 4th grader, and an 8th grader!

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Pretty good start to the school year as we only had one kid who forgot their lunch…the 8th grader of course.

Can’t wait to ask them after school what they did all day and for them to respond with, “I don’t know. Nothing much.”

Ahhhhhhhh! Tell me something!

*By the way, tomorrow, August 25th, is National Banana Split Day!

The Night Before Kindergarten…

My little one is going to kindergarten and I couldn’t be more excited for her. She’s grown so much and come such a long way it’s time for her to go. But I will admit I will miss spending Fridays with her.  Whether we were sewing together, playing board games, reading books, or just hanging out at the mall she was always by my side.

I changed up “The Night Before Christmas” for all those mommas out there who are sending their little ones to kindergarten this year. Enjoy!

*And for the record, I don’t plan to get into golfing. It was late and that’s all that rhymed to me at the time 🙂

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Twas the night before kindergarten when all through the house

Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.

The backpacks were hung by the front door with care.

In hopes that the morning rush would not cause momma to swear.

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The children were nestled all snug in their beds,

While visions of crayons and markers danced in their heads.

And momma in her jammies and dad in his shorts,

Had just settled down to watch the TV report.

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When all of a sudden Momma shouted out so,

“She’s so little I just don’t think I can let her go!”

Dad tried to reassure Momma that little one would be fine,

He consoled her and reminded her that it was time.

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“She knows her letters, her sounds, her numbers, and more,

It’s time to let her move on and go through that school’s front door.

There will be PE, music, art, and recess too,

Think of the fun she’ll have with her playground crew.”

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Momma said, “I know that she’ll love school and her friends too,

It’s just that I’ll miss her and everything that we do.”

“Don’t worry,” said Daddy, “Little one is now big and ready to go,”

“And now you will have time to become a serious golf pro.”

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So with those words of encouragement in her heart,

Momma knew now she would not fall apart.

She gathered her covers, fluffed her pillow, and grabbed a good book,

Rolled over and read all about eagles, chip shots, and those awful duck hooks.*

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The next morning the whole family got up and had breakfast together,

Brushed their teeth and hair and looked up the weather.

Shoes were put on and backpacks grabbed from their hooks,

And off they all went, little one without a second look.

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She arrived at the school front door a little nervous and shy,

But daddy told momma, “Your eyes must stay dry.”

Down the hallway and into the classroom the family all went,

Dad taking photos to mark this momentous event.

IMG_0383So as the clock struck eight, it marked the time for parents to leave,

Momma kissed her little one good bye and just had to believe.

Little one gave a quick hug and right then Momma knew she’d be okay,

“I’ll see you at three big girl, I can’t wait to hear all about your wonderful first day.”

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“Happy Kindergarten to all, and to all a good-year!”

 

Love you sweet girl! I know you will have a wonderful kindergarten year!

 

*Duck Hook: A shot that flies sharply from right to left for right-handed players. It is usually hit unintentionally, since it is difficult to control.

She Works Hard for Her Money…Chart for Saving Money for Kids

I took my 6 year old to the mall the other day and she had a serious case of the “I wants.” After telling her for the millionth time, “Okay, let’s add that to your birthday list,” she said, “But I want it now.” Actually it was more like, “But I want it nooooooowwwwwwwwwww.”

It was like walking the mall with Veruca Salt.

Just the other day she was disheartened to learn that she is not technically six and a half yet. She was absolutely convinced that she was 6.5 and the fact that she is almost there did nothing to relieve her stress. She understands that her birthday is still far off so she wasn’t buying the whole, “put it on your birthday list,” routine I gave her.

When we walked into Build-A-Bear it’s as if the heavens opened up for her. She looked around and promptly decided that she just had to have Risa.

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And then she was going to buy Viv and Teegan, the other rocker girls. And then something from the LEGO store. And then…it went on and on.

I told her that she was welcome to save her money and spend it however she liked.

She went home and promptly counted out (with help) the $3.23 she had in her piggy bank.

Risa costs $30 so I told her she had to keep saving.

“So what can I do for money?”

I offered up unloading the dishwasher and folding the towels (bath towels, kitchen towels, washcloths). She quickly accepted and earned $1.00. I pay 50 cents a job.

She’s been working on this dream of hers for close to two weeks and she’s saved $14.73 – we run the dishwasher here a lot as well as go through tons of towels.

After 3 days of her asking me if she had saved enough yet I knew we needed a chart to help her track her savings.

This is what I came up with.

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And here is her chart which is posted on the side of our refrigerator:

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“I am working hard and saving my money for a bunny stuffed animal. It costs 30 dollars.”

Caroline keeps her money in a coin purse with a ziploc. Any change that doesn’t equal up to a 100 (a dollar) is kept in the ziploc until she can make a full dollar. Every time she counts up to 100 she gets to transfer that money to the change purse and mark off a dollar bill on her chart.

This has provided for lots of practice with coin names, counting by 10’s and 5’s, how many more until & how many already questions, and understanding equalities (2 nickels = 1 dime).

I’d say she is a good two weeks away from reaching her goal of $30. There are some days she is more motivated than others and that’s just fine with me…although I am enjoying not unloading the dishwasher quite a bit.

 

Easy Lazy Day Art Project for Kids & Adults

Here’s a fun art project I discovered when cruising around the web…Glue & Salt Painting!

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Here are the directions:

1. Make an interesting design with some glue on your paper – we went abstract but you could easily makes a butterfly, house, car, fish, etc.

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2) Generously pour salt over the glue.

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3. Shake off the excess salt carefully.

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4. Use watercolors to paint the salt. The more liquid the paint the better.

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5. The salt will just absorb the paint right up.

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6. Have fun!

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I even got in on the art action with my creation below.

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My younger two and I had a really nice time painting on a rainy day. We sat at the table for about an hour making several pieces a piece. We listened to Radio Disney while we painted and just talked about all sorts of topics.

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I could have used the time to clean the dishes or fold some laundry but I’m really glad I just sat and spent some time with my kids.

*Sidenote – this is art that will be thrown away after a day since the salt makes it virtually impossible to hang up*

July 4th Recap

Our family had a great 4th of July long weekend.

First item on our weekend was a splash and dash race for my 10 year old.

The race consisted of a 100m swim and a 1 K run – short but lots of fun to watch. Plus the weather was ideal with clouds and misty rain.

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Next up on July 4th morning was a 5K race for my 13 year old. Alex wanted to run the race for fun, partly to keep in shape for soccer and just because he likes to race. For fun, I sat on the side lines and cheered 🙂 I can’t believe he’s smiling at the end of this race considering the second half of the race was uphill.

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His cheering section – we tried probably 15 times to take a family picture but someone always had their eyes closed or was looking the other way.

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In the afternoon we headed to the pool for a few hours of pool time which was lots of fun.

At night, my husband took the boys to a soccer game where their team won and the night ended with fireworks. My six year old and I opted to stay home and watch a movie. After a long day she feel asleep at 8 o’clock and then I had the whole house to myself for 3 hours! I had big plans to get some things accomplished but I ended up sitting in bed watching tv and eating ice cream – it was wonderful.

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Hope you had a terrific 4th! (Or wonderful July 1st if you are Canadian).