A little bit of this and that

     I have been MIA for quite sometime.   Mainly I have struggled with what I want to put on my blog.  To be honest, a lot of people say to focus on one thing but I have several things I am interested in.  This blog I feel is for me to record and share what I am interested in, which is a lot of things.

  When I first started this blog I had a daycare.  Now that I don't and my daughter goes to preschool, I do a lot less learning activities than I used to.  At least until my 9 month old becomes interested in activities.  Because of that,  I have more time to focus on my home and cooking.

For the future, I plan to include menus, craft projects, organization progress, and much more!  I am looking forward to putting what I want on my blog.  I hope you join me!

I'm Back!!

Okay so I know I have been gone for a long time but I am back!

 A LOT has happened in the past year. 

     I got pregnant last July, was miserably sick the entire pregnancy, had a baby at end of March, moved half way across the country in March, quit my daycare in March, husband started a new job in March, moved into temporary apartment living in March for three months,  bought and moved into a new house in June, and unpacked it by myself with a 3 year old and newborn while husband was working long hours. 

    While I have missed blogging and creating, I have had so much going on in the last year.  Now I am a SAHM and am ready to start a new adventure. 


     For those of you who stayed, thanks for staying with me.  I am looking forward to creating new things on a tight budget.

    I have picked up a new hobby....crocheting.  And while I have not created any things of my own patterns yet I have made tons of hats using other people's patterns and look forward to creating my own projects soon.  I will be sharing some of those creations soon!

Crayon Hearts

   Are your kids starting to get bored and restless with the end of summer?  I have the perfect activity for your kids today that kids of all ages will love.  I was cleaning out our crayon container and noticed several broken and small pieces of crayons. With new crayons being super cheap this time of year with all the back to school specials, I thought it would be fun to make heart crayons.  I found this heart tray at the Goodwill several years ago and finally put it to use.



Here's how we did it:

1. Decide on the container you are going to use.


2.  Peel the crayons (or if your lucky like me most of them were already peeled), break them into small pieces, and place them in the tray.  (Ignore C's crazy hair...she was refusing to let me touch it that day!)



3.  Lay them outside to melt.

30 minutes later

                                                         

After 1 hour and 30 minutes outside

 2 and a half  hours in all and their finished!  Take inside the house and let cool off and they will harden on their own.    Then remove from tray and enjoy!

Peel the hearts out of the trays and enjoy!

5.  Now it is really HOT right now where I live so it  took 2 and a half hours for the crayons to melt.  I noticed the lighter colors took longer to melt, but I ended up taking my tray in with 1 not completely melted heart.  (This would be a great science experiment  to do with your older kids or even preschool kids.  You could have them observe the light colors versus the darker colors and discuss why certain colors melt quicker than others.)
 
    We had a blast making our own crayons.  I hope you try it with your kids soon.  They will love it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Shawna

I'm linking to: Tatertots and Jello

Our newest crop

I am so excited about this

    I love home grown vegetables!  This was all picked last night!  It seems like everyday we pick more and more vegetables from our garden.  I cannot wait to make salsa and spaghetti sauce with our tomatoes.  Yum!  I bought canning supplies the other day.  I have NEVER canned in my life!  So any tips would be great.  We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for stopping by!

Shawna

Fun with vinegar and baking soda

As a child one of my favorite things to do was build a volcano in the sandbox and have it erupt.  (Thanks to baking soda and vinegar).  A few weeks ago I saw an idea and decided to try it.


 
 Preparation of this activity is easy!  It is also the perfect activity for a 2 year old and a 10 year old ...not to mention a 28 year old.  There are few activities that entertain all ages.  This is one of them!

All you need is a pan, medicine dropper, bowl, vinegar, food coloring, and baking soda.

Pour baking soda in a pan

Then pour a couple Tablespoons of vinegar and a drop of food coloring in a dish.

Take the medicine dropper and fill it with vinegar and drop it onto the baking soda.

Your children will be amazed.

C and K were amazed and did this for an hour!

We had so much fun!  I hope you try this with your children.  They will love it!

Thanks for stopping by!
Shawna

Building block towers- One-to-One Correspondance

Today I have a simple, fun counting activity to share with you.   All you need is a pen or pencil, scrap paper, and blocks.

Write a number on a piece of paper and have your child build a tower using that number of blocks.  For example I wrote 3 and the girls picked 3 blocks and built a tower using those 3 blocks.  Now I didn't have a rule that it had to be stacking on top of each other (that would be another challenge).  The girls had a blast.

Let the children explore for a couple of minutes with the blocks before you start the activity. 

 I tore pieces of paper and wrote a number.  Then  C and A were to build a tower using that number of blocks.

She was so proud of her tower using 11 blocks.  (You can't see them all in this pic).

For A, she built a tower with 2 blocks on her own.  

This was such a simple and cheap activity. I spent no time on preparation and the girls had a blast building the towers.

Thanks for stopping by!

Shawna

Successful Herb Garden

    My husband and I decided to grow our first garden this year and it amazes me how much it has grown!!  These are pictures from our first herb harvest!  These pictures are from about a month ago.  Since then, I pick a bowl of herbs about every 3-4 days.

 Greek basil

Sweet Basil

Cilantro

    I have pesto and basil to last us until next spring already!!  And we are starting to have tomatoes that are ready to pick this weekend.  I cannot wait!   Did you plant a garden this year?  How is your garden doing?

Thanks for stopping by!
Shawna