Project Purple

So when I heard that we were participating in a service project called Project Purple...I had to sign up, even if I wasn't sure I could do it :)

Turned out to be a wonderful experience for me. The project was crocheting or knitting small purple hats that would be given to hospitals and then in turn given to new mothers as they were told about the period of time called purple crying that babies go through and reminded to never shake their babies.

I had crocheted long long ago and mostly forgotten how to do it. Thankfully the internet is full of helpful videos and patterns and my good friend Nanette showed me how to do it, hands on, when she came to visit :)

For a while, I was crocheting with all my spare time and loving it and I really got better at it too as time went on. I even made some hats for my kids and for me too. 

On Wednesday the 10th, it was time to go and turn our hats in. I was happy with what I was able to turn in. I ended up with 21 hats to turn in...I had 22, but the very first one I did was not very good at all, it ended up on the head of one of Anna's dolls :)

One of them Isaac helped to make on the loom.

I did a couple on the loom, but most of them I crocheted. 

Grace and Anna participated in our Humanitarian day too.

They were helping to create beaded lizard toys for children.

Here are most of the purple hats that were gathered,

I'm sure more were turned in after I turned in my little stack of hats.

School's Out!

We had a pretty good school year this year. 

Today was the last day!

(My kids thought it was pretty sweet to end school in May instead of June)

For the elementary kids, I made some cookies for their teachers to thank them.

One nice thing about moving to a new school is reusing ideas.

My cookie monster went over very well at the school in Maryland so I decided to use it again.

Grace with her teacher Mrs. Gagon

Isaac with Mrs. Corey

Anna and Mrs. Sperry

I Have a Serger!

I'm so excited!

My sister Marcy and both have the same sergers now and we attended a class to learn the basics and some fun stuff that we can do with them.

My first time using it, I was in love.

Here is my first practice piece....try to contain your excitement...seriously, it is pretty exciting to me, ha ha!

I know that come Halloween time this year,  it's going to make my life SO much easier, I can't wait!

Valentine's Day 2014

I saw this idea here and have wanted to try it for a couple of years, so this year I did!

True to form, I waited until the day before to make them, but what can I say...

I think they turned out super cute. My sister Marcy really liked them too and I told her they were pretty easy and offered to make some for my nephew Holden.

The Valentine's were a hit. Everyone seemed to like them. Marcy told me that Holden's teachers and peer tutors went crazy over them :)

Grace, Isaac and Anna each were supposed to make a box to collect their Valentines also.
Grace and Anna had fun decorating their boxes (it's a good thing I have a pretty good supply of shoe boxes)

I saw the idea for Isaac's box on my friend Frances's facebook page, she had made one for her daughter. Isaac loved the idea, so we did it. When I went in to his classroom later that day to help out, I found out that his teacher had made him turn his around because it kept freaking her out. She would look up at the kids and see Isaac's box staring at her, ha ha!

In the evening I went out to dinner at Tepanyaki with my parents, Greg and Blythe and Marcy and Norm. I was able to facetime Mike so we could have a Valentine's Day date :) Technology is pretty awesome!

I think my food was better than his though, he just had a protein shake since it was breakfast time for him.

I had delicious filet and scallops, yum!

The Solar System according to Grace

For a school project, Grace had to make a solar system.
It could be made out of any material.
She decided to make hers out of produce.

I know she had fun painting the different planets and labeling them.

The Sun is the bottom part of a butternut squash
Mercury is a grape
Venus and Earth are clementines
Mars is a red potato
Jupiter is a mango
Saturn is an apple with part of the butternut squash as it's rings
Uranus and Neptune are red potatoes
and Pluto is a grape

Project was turned in on the 24th of January

Super Saturday Crafts

Our Relief Society had a super saturday on November 9th.

I made a couple of crafts.

The ornament wreath didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped,

but I think maybe I'll try it again sometime.

I enjoyed making the nativities a lot. All the other ones I saw being made were just solid backgrounds,

but I wanted to try something different, so I played around with the backgrounds

and I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

The most amazing thing about these crafts though, is that they are actually finished!

I still have several super saturday crafts from years gone by

that are down in my crap craft room waiting to be completed.

Cub Scout Day Camp 2013 - Wild West Adventure

I got to go with Isaac

(and 9 other cub scouts)

to Cub Scout Day Camp again this year.

This year the theme was Wild West.

I made shirts for our boys again, I think they liked them :)

 Here are some pictures from our fun time.

Archery

Isaac was actually more excited than he looks when he hit the yellow area!

 BB-Shooting

Fun on the lake

 Craft time

 Fishing

Isaac caught a fish all by himself...with no bait

Some might say that, by the size of the fish,

he actually caught bait :)

He was excited though!

He loved riding the horses

He and I worked on a captain america logo in the leather working area

 Fun at the Pool

and slingshots

and throwing hatchets

More fun!

Silliness in the van on the way home...

We had a lot of fun with these boys!

Last day of school

I usually try to give a little thank you to the kids teachers at the end of the year, I really wanted to make sure I did it this year since we are

moving and the kids won't be at the same school. 

I found the idea from my friend here and then made a few changes.

Here's how they turned out.

On the inside was a baggie filled with Yummy Cereal Snack! 

It was inexpensive and a huge hit with all the teachers.

After school, for a last day of school treat, I took the kids to Dairy Queen :)

Teacher Appreciation

Last week was teacher appreciation week. On Friday Grace, Isaac and Anna wanted to take a treat/gift to their teachers.

I decided to make cookies for them because it's pretty inexpensive

and it's not something that will clutter up their desk either.

Here's what I came up with.

 They each got a chocolate chip cookie, a white chocolate macadamia nut cookie and a chocolate chip m&m cookie. 

Grace and Mrs. Barricklow

Grace and Mr. Amore (her math teacher)

Isaac and Mrs. Dutton

I couldn't get a picture of Isaac with Mrs. Dooley (his math teacher)

Anna and Mrs. McGuire

They all have really great teachers this year

and that is something that I am extremely thankful for!

There's something fishy about Valentine's Day

I was looking around for fun Valentine ideas

I found a lot of them!

The kids decided on the idea I saw here

I tried to print hers off and use it, but for some reason it didn't work right

...so I decided to create my own, based on her design,

which ended up being kind of fun :)

We had a good time making them and putting them together.
They signed the backs of the little fish bowls.

then we had to put the fish bowls and the fish in little treat bags

and put the twist ties on them

 the finished product

  I also came up with one that they could give to their teachers.

All that glitters...

...is on the inside!

Yay, less mess :)

I was looking at some of my friends' boards on Pinterest and I saw
some ornaments that I thought would be fun to make.
(I of course re-pinned it to my Christmas wall)
...if you don't have Pinterest but want to see the original
tutorial that I used you can click here.

Anyway, the girls and I set out to make them and had a good time...
and success too!

Here's what you need
Pledge floor cleaner with future shine
(I found it at Wal-Mart)
Glass ornaments
(got mine 50% off at Michaels!)
glitter of your choice
(purple is always a good choice)
a funnel
(or two)
helping hands :)
(kids can do this, it's super easy!)

start off by taking the tops of the ornaments

then pour some of the pledge in and swirl it around...gently,

you don't want bubbles

then drain out the excess liquid

(if you get some bubbles just get them with a q-tip)

use a funnel and put some glitter in the ornament

swirl the glitter around

 you can even put your thumb on top and shake it at the end
to make sure that glitter gets into the neck of the ornament
(and on your thumb)

gently dump out the excess glitter

 replace the top of the ornament and voila! 
now you have fantastic sparkly glittery ornaments
and the glitter won't come off on you or your floor :)
...you still have to clean up from the project,
but since you used a drop cloth
that is oh so easy!
(and now some of your grass in your back yard sparkles!)

finished product

pretty!