Dr. Seuss Week - Read Across America

Well, this week has definitely been a bit different. Both boys are in school, so how can I help them celebrate Dr. Seuss Week? There is little time for fun and crafts at home. But I am going to squeeze in a few where I can. I have been including Dr Seuss stickers in lunchboxes this week that they need to find while eating. And we have pulled out a few things from past years. One is Garrett's t-shirt. I had coloring pictures from Green Eggs and Ham and a Seuss hat. Garrett colored both pictures for me and then I copied them onto iron on paper and ironed them onto the front and back of a plain t-shirt. Simple enough a custom made Dr. Seuss Shirt. And a lot of fun to make too.

And with the crazy schedules here, we will be having green eggs and ham for Saturday morning breakfast.

I had also found Dr. Seuss fleece a few years back and I made a cute Seuss fleece hat for Robert. Well, Garrett has taken it and now he is wearing it. There are lots of Dr. Seuss fabrics on the market now so have some fun with Seuss!

From Cub Scout to Boy Scout

Robert with his Arrow of Light

Robert receiving his new neckerchief as a Boy Scout

3 Generations of Scouting

This weekend, Robert reached a new level in Scouting. He earned his "Arrow of Light" Award. This is the highest award that a Cub Scout can earn and then he crossed over into Boy Scouts. Robert and his den have worked hard over the years to achieve this award.  This was special because both of Robert's grandfather's served as a scout leader and Gary was an Eagle scout. So scouting is a tradition in this family. Gary's Dad is still working with the Boy Scouts and it is neat to see 3 generations of Scouting. Congrats Robert!

Indoor Soccer Season

We are well on our way for the indoor socccer season. Both boys are playing this year and they are both having a good time. Here are just a few pics from the season so far...

Garrett as goalie

Robert turning the ball

Robert with the possible chance at a shot

Our President's Day activities

With having the boy's off school on Monday, I immediately thought of things to do that would keep us discussing our President's and what they did for our country. We were blessed to be able to spend a day in Washington, DC this summer and so I challenged the boys to remember what their favorite monument and then to build it from cardboard. We also had finger puppets of Washington and Lincoln and at supper they needed to raise the correct puppet for the answer to the trivia questions.But here are our monuments.

Valentine's Day Children's Sermon

It has been a while since I have written up my children's sermon, but it's not that I haven't been doing them, just ended up busy on Sunday afternoons and forget later in the week. But on to today's children's sermon: Signs of Love (before going to church this morning I packed my totebag with all sort of things that I've seen advertised for Valentine's Day - flowers (just a silk one), a box of chocolate, a fancy jewelry box, school valentine's, balloons, etc)

So kids what holiday is coming up this week? Valentine's Day! Yes you are right, so what is Valentine's Day all about? Love!?! Oh it's that all that mushy stuff? Well not always. So what are some signs of love that we especially see right now for Valentine's Day? Flowers - Yes and I pull out my silk flower.

What else? Chocolate - yes and I pull out my box of chocolates. Someone else offered teddy bears - yes but I didn't bring one of those. How about jewelry? Yes they responded and I pulled out a little velvet box. Anything with hearts - yes!!! Those are all things that we use to show love, but what about the wooden cross? Have you ever received a Valentine's with a wooden cross on it? - NO, but it shows God's Love! Excellent! What about this book (holding up the Bible) does this show love? Yes You are right, some people call this a book of love letters from God. And in the Bible in the book of John chapter 3 verse 16 we hear how much God loves us. (I asked the kids to recite this verse for me and they mumbled it - quickly) So here my children's moment changed directions a bit. And I asked if I gave you a giant Hershey's kiss would you be excited? Would you go tell your Mom or Dad "Hey I got a giant Hershey's kiss!" Well you need to say that verse with just as much excitement because "God loves YOU enough to send his ONLY son, his only child, so that we can live where? In heaven with him!(Was their reply)

Now Jesus showed us by dying on the cross how to show love - he served others during his time in ministry here on earth. Sometimes all these "signs of love" are just things, what really counts is how we serve others for Jesus. I want you to think of a way that you can serve or help someone this week as their Valentine!
With this we closed with prayer and they each received a small chocolate heart candy.

Cold Snowy weekend

This has proved to be an unusual weekend for this winter. We actually have snow, and cold temperatures, and freezing winds. So that leaves out sledding, snowman making or playing outside. On top of all of that I have my niece this weekend too while Robert is away. So what have we done for fun, well, we started with making a fort in the living room. I moved the Love seat and pulled out the sheets. Friday night, Garrett and Haylee had a blast just playing in the fort. This morning I happened to over hear, "It Story hour Haylee, come on" as Garrett was getting ready to read in the fort a story to Haylee.  This afternoon, as Haylee was napping the fort became a great place for an indoor picnic for Garret for lunch. And then this evening, it became the movie theater thanks to the portable DVD player! (Will add picture later)  All of that play with just 2 sheets and being willing to rearrange the furniture for the weekend!!!

Oh we also worked on writing our Valentine's while Haylee napped too. But the fort has been the big item for the weekend! Yeah!!! And oh so simple!

School Party treats

Our school has a "nutrition policy" that we can't send in any homemade treats and no treats with sugar in the first 3 ingredients. Well that really limits things for Halloween and Valentine's day and makes it that parents can get creative. 

One year Robert made "gum people" http://schickfunideas.blogspot.com/2011/02/roberts-school-valentines.html this was an idea from Family Fun Magazine

Another year we made Shrinky Dinks http://schickfunideas.blogspot.com/search?q=shrinky+dinks as zipper pulls or pins.

But a couple of other ideas for school acceptable treats

Juice pouches or boxes with it labeled as "You're squirting fun" 

At this point in the year the kids can us a sharpened pencil  - "You are a Sharp one" written on a paper heart with 2 little slits that the pencil can be poked through

Or a cute Valentine's eraser - take double sided tape and tape it to a heart cut out and then write - "There's no mistake Valentine"

These are just a few ideas that might make preparing for a school Valentine's Day party a bit easier!

Valentine's Day preparation

Garrett is in kindergarten and we received the list of students in his class to write Valentine's cards too. This is a great way to have him practice his writing. But when I asked what type of valentine's he wanted, he once again stumped me. John Deere or tractor valentine's! He is all excited about it and could I find red tractors for the girls and green ones for the boys? Now I was really stumped! Where would I even find tractor valentine's, let alone different colored tractors? Well I did go looking yesterday and didn't find anything close. So today I decided that maybe we could make our own with my Printshop on the computer and print them off, shouldn't be hard, but let's search the web first.  When I searched the web, I found this great site http://www.familyshoppingbag.com

 It has all sorts of party decorations, invitations, favor boxes, etc. that can all be printed off and used! And they had John Deere!!!! When I clicked on the John Deere, here are invitations, bookmarks, stickers, writing paper and well I was able to take the bookmarks and add some cute sayings and I currently have John Deere Valentine bookmarks for Garrett's kindergarten class. (upon his approval) But this site has Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Spiderman, and most importantly here JOHN DEERE!!!!
Garrett maybe hasn't stumped his mom after all!

Groundhog Day

Garrett had discussed Groundhog Day yesterday at school and they had made predictions. So this morning, when he got up he wanted to watch for the groundhog on TV. So breakfast was in the living room, no big deal. But after Phil had predicted 6 more weeks of winter. Garrett went running upstairs and came back with his groundhog puppet that we made a few years ago. I was surprised that he even knew where to look for the puppet, but he had the puppet and was checking for shadows all over the house. As he was looking for shadows I quickly pulled together a little groundhog day pin that he could wear to school. Just 2 small scrapes of 2 shades of brown felt. I cut 1 into a square and rounded the top corners so that it would look like the stump. Then I took the darker brown and cut a half oval about the size of my thumb. With a black marker, I added lines to make the stump look like a tree and then I hot glued the groundhog, peeking up from behind the stump. I added 2 googly eyes and a small pin back to the back. It's not a fine piece of art, but was great for a 5 year old who was excited about groundhog day.

 As soon as the glue dried we pinned it on and then out the door Garrett went for school this morning. Sometimes it helps to have a few supplies on hand.

Love Buds

With it being the beginning of the "Love Month," I decided that this year, I would try to remind my boys how much I love them and what about them I love. I had picked up a package of heart post0its a few weeks ago when I saw them on sale. (At the time I didn't know what I was going to do with them, but they were cute!) This came to me today as I was outside on a beautiful February day looking for the first signs of spring - yes I actually have snowdrops up and daffodils poking their heads through the ground.  I came in and found the construction paper and quickly cut out 2 trees, each out of just 1 piece of paper. Simple cut the main part of the trunk and then using the scrapes I cut and taped branches onto my trees. With a black marker, I added some quick lines to make it look like bark. Then upstairs to the bulletin board where we do fun things on. I put up some blue sky and then placed my 2 trees. In the next month they will start to have beautiful "love buds" of pink and white hearts with a little message for each of the boys.

Our "Love Bud" trees

It is so important to remind our kids that we do love them and that no matter what they do that may drive us completely crazy - there are a million things that we love about them and wouldn't trade for the world! Let's take this month to remind our kids how much we really do love them. Will you join me in expressing our love to our children? If so, please share your ideas for how you are going to share that love. Is it a note in their lunchboxes, a chocolate kiss on their pillows? But let's love up our kids!