bullseye treat bag!

You have to carry some sort of bag when you go trick or treating, right?! And what sort of cowgirl can you be if you don't have a horse?! Jessie needs Bullseye of course....so here is what I came up with...

I used a small reusable tote that Little Bit got from an event at Target a while back. Using an image of Bullseye as a guide, I drew a horse face on paper and then cut the pieces out of felt. I then hot glued them to the bag.

Here it is in action....last night at a local church's trunk or treat!

Yodel-ay-hee-hoo...

Happy Halloween from Jessie the Yodeling Cowgirl....oh wait, I mean Little Bit! Can you tell she is loving this costume {....or just loving to pose I don't really know!}. ;)

I started with a pair of jean capris that had a hole in the knee and decided I could make her a Jessie costume, but I didn't want to sew much.....SO I got out my handy glue gun. I bought the cow print fabric at JoAnns, measured the length I needed and hot glued away! The belt is just a brown piece of ribbon, looped through the belt loops and tied in the front.

Now for a shirt....I found it at Goodwill, added the yellow felt and red rope with a little hand stitching and...you guessed it more hot glue!

And of course, Jessie needs her red hat! Luckily we already had this in the dress up bin! {It came from the Dollar Tree a while back.} It was just plain so I used some white embroidery thread and stitched all around the edge and added white ribbon....to resemble the one Jessie wears.

I love how it turned out....but most of all I LOVE that Little Bit loves it!!!

2011 calendars...

Free 2011 calendars are starting to pop up, so keep your eyes peeled for ones you might want to request. Here are two I have gotten emailed about so far...

Oriental Trading...get your free 2011 calendar by simply filling out the required name and address information. You do have the option to uncheck the box about receiving promotional emails. Your calendar should arrive in 14-21 days! {I think this might be our new school calendar instead of printing one each month!}

Eat Better America...to thank you for your eatbetteramerica membership, we would like to send you a 2011 calendar as a special gift for being a subscriber. Get this FREE calendar filled with delicious recipes from eatbetteramerica.com. {If you aren't already signed up, you should be able to sign up and get the free calendar!}

Letter Hh

"H" topics...hats, hippos, horse, hearts

{Circle Time}

Calendar...Talk about the month and days of the week and put sticker on the day we are discussing.

Reading...days of the week book...The Week by Mary Lindeen

...theme books...My "h" Book by Jane Belk Moncure

Aunt Lucy Went to Buy a Hat by Alice Low

Twelve Hats for Lena by Karen Katz

George & Martha by James Marshall

One Hippo Hops by Jane Yolen

The Hiccuping Hippo by Keith Faulkner

Songs/Rhymes...The H says..., Humpty Dumpty

{Letter Craft}

H is for Hippo...{I came up with this one myself!}

{Activities}

Coloring...Letter Hh, Hippo coloring page

Letter Identification...used craft sticks to build the letter H

...find the letter worksheet

...do a dot letter printables

Spelling...We worked on spelling HAT this week. I wrote the word and drew a picture on our dry erase board. Each day I had Little Bit spell and sound out the word.

...tray with magnetic letters and cards with words {HAT, HEN, HID}. Little Bit placed the corresponding letters over the letters on the cards...while sounding out each letter.

Hats...I set out a basket of hats on the shelf and Little Bit had a blast trying them all on. She wanted me to take pics of her in all of them but here are just a few...

Hippo...We put together a hippo puppet, using a brown paper lunch sack and some printouts for the face and teeth.

Horse...H is for horse dot to dot. This was a great exercise for getting letters in the correct order and drawing lines! Little Bit loves dot to dots....so I keep incorporating them into our weekly plans!

...Horse rides, using her horse on a stick Little Bit would gallop around the house.

Hearts...A container of heart beads was on the shelf with some cord....and Little Bit used them to string necklaces.

Exercise...Hopping, hopscotch, hula hoop!

Computer time...Starfall {we worked in the ABC section with the letter H} and Fisher Price{they have some great learning games and online coloring pages}.

...Little Bit also loves to get in some computer time when we go the library. They have computers set up in the children's area with games, stories, etc. Her favorite one to do is Just Grandma & Me by Mercer Mayer. She puts on the headphones and watches/listens to the story!

{new} activity shelves...

We moved this baker's rack to the basement a while back when we got a hutch in the kitchen. It has been housing part of our M&M collection....until now! I decided to pair down the collection a bit and take over this unit for school stuff!

The bottom of the rack now holds our activity trays....

The 1st shelf has a tray with pumpkin erasers that are transfered to the pumpkin ice cube tray with chop sticks; a counting tray.

The 2nd shelf has a basket with pouches/containers to open and close; peg game {from Dollar Tree}; treasure box.

The 3rd shelf has basket w/bean bags; fall sensory box; 3 drawer unit {see what's inside below}; 5 little pumpkins tray{I drew faces on the pumpkins to coordinate with the ones from the story 5 Little Pumpkins. Little Bit puts them in the right order as I read the story}.

Inside the 3 drawer unit...1st drawer has pipe cleaners and beads; 2nd drawer is another sensory bin with rice, spiders, pumpkin containers and 2 spoons; 3rd drawer is stringing leaves onto a ribbon {saw the idea here}.

Here is a look at what's in our fall sensory bin...small basket, scoop, tongs, pine cones, silk leaves, mini pumpkins, colorful crystals.

Since the top 2 shelves are high, I decided to just decorate them to go along with whatever season/holiday we are celebrating. So for fall, I spelled out the word LEARN with scrabble letters and placed it on top of a few Dr. Seuss books. Next to that is a small orange colander filled with pine cones. The top shelf has 2 bird cages {from Michaels $1 bin} and some pumpkins.

{I'm linking up to Little Hands, Big Work's What's Out Wednesday.}

Creative Corner...Scrap Club

September usually means that school is back in session, so what better title for the month than LEARN. Little Bit and I started our school in August, so I used a few of those pics for this layout. Goes to show that just because it is labeled the "September kit" you can adapt it to what best suits you!

You can see what Jamie did with her layouts here.

Menu Plan Monday

Monday ~ scrambled eggs, biscuits & gravy, sausage

Tuesday ~ green pepper turkey chili, peanut butter sandwiches

Wednesday ~ honey teriyaki salmon, green beans, ramen noodles

Thursday ~ taquitos, rice, chips & salsa

Friday ~ crock pot chicken & dumplings, mashed potatoes, green beans

Visit Org Junkie for more recipes!

Ladies Tea...{grape salad recipe!}

This past weekend I went down to my mom's for a tea their ladies group was hosting at church. Each member decorated a round table to seat 6. They all turned out fabulous! My mom's table was done in a red, white & blue theme. Here we are posing by her table!

All the ladies used fun china, had great decor and fun little favors. My mom made red and blue crocheted washcloths for her table and gave them inside a clear star dish. We started off with cheese ball {I'll share that recipe soon!} and tea. Then came the lunch....hot chicken salad, grape salad and croissants. Then we finished off our meal with a cupcake! {Sorry for the blurry photo...my little pocket camera is on its last leg!}

Quilts were displayed all around the room. These are ones that my mom brought, made by my grandma.

Now for a recipe....

Grape Salad

photo by Domestic Goddess

Ingredients:

2 lbs seedless red grapes

2 lbs seedless green grapes

8 oz sour cream

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp vanilla

topping...

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup nuts {pecans or walnuts work great with this!}

Directions:

Mix last 4 ingredients together and pour over grapes. Stir until grapes are all well covered. Then sprinkle on topping.

Serves 25-30

Letter Gg

"G" topics...goat, gingerbread, goodnight

{Circle Time}

Calendar...Talk about the month and days of the week and put sticker on the day we are discussing.

Reading...days of the week book...Cookie's Week by Cindy Ward

...theme books...My "g" Book by Jane Belk Moncure

G is for Goat by Patricia Polacco

Fritz Danced the Fandango by Alicia Potter

Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Gingerbread Baby by Jan Brett

Piglet & Granny by Margaret Wild

Songs/Rhymes...The G says...

{Letter Craft}

G is for Goat...inspired by this blog

{Activities}

Coloring...Letter Gg, Goodnight Moon coloring page

Gingerbread...G is for gingerbread dot to dot. This was a great exercise for getting letters in the correct order and drawing lines! Little Bit loves dot to dots....so I keep incorporating them into our weekly plans!

...I printed off a blank outline of a gingerbread person and then drew some circles in different places for little bit to add embellishments. She used google eyes, pom poms and beads to turn the blank outline into a cute little gingerbread girl!

Letter Identification...

find the letter worksheet

...do a dot letter printables

Spelling...We worked on spelling GOAT this week. I wrote the word and drew a picture on our dry erase board. Each day I had Little Bit spell and sound out the word.

...tray with magnetic letters and cards with words {GOAT, GET, GO}. Little Bit placed the corresponding letters over the letters on the cards...while sounding out each letter.

Math...I found this Goodnight Moon counting sheet to try because Little Bit loves that book. She loved doing this worksheet. She would first identify the object and then count them. I would write the number on the line. Then she would identify the written number. She wanted to do this activity multiple times!

Computer time...Starfall {we worked in the ABC section with the letter G} and Fisher Price{they have some great learning games and online coloring pages}.

...Little Bit also loves to get in some computer time when we go the library {which we visit every week!} They have computers set up in the children's area with games, stories, etc. Her favorite one to do is Just Grandma & Me by Mercer Mayer. She puts on the headphones and watches/listens to the story!

{Snack Ideas}

graham crackers, granola bar, gorp{trail mix}

nutella smores!

Have I mentioned how much I love Nutella! It is a great little snack...love it with almonds, marshmallows, animal crackers, apples... I just recently tried a smore using it instead of a chocolate bar. I put a large marshmallow on one half of the graham cracker and heated in microwave for about 20 seconds. I spread Nutella on the other half of the cracker and then smooshed the 2 halves together! So yummy....you have to try it!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday ~ fried chicken, mashed potatoes, green beans, biscuits

Tuesday ~ almond coconut tilapia, green beans, carrots, garlic bread

Wednesday ~ pizza, salad

Thursday ~ grilled hamburgers/hot dogs, tater tots, pickles

Friday ~ creamy mushroom & chicken soup, bread

Visit Org Junkie for more recipes!

Letter Ff

"F" topics...fish, fox, flowers, fire, feelings

{Circle Time}

Calendar...Talk about the month and days of the week and put sticker on the day we are discussing.

Reading...days of the week book...Where Does Thursday Go? by Janeen Brian

...theme books...My "f" Book by Jane Belk Moncure

The Rainbow Fish by Marcus Pfister

Fish, Swish! Splash, Dash! by Suse MacDonald

The Little Red Fish by Taeeun Yoo

Hooray for Fish by Lucy Cousins

Happy, Sad, Silly, Mad: My World Makes Me Feel by John E. Mitchell

Songs/Rhymes...The F says...

{Letter Craft}

F is for Fox...inspired by this blog

{Activities}

Coloring...Letter Ff

Fish...F is for fish dot to dot. This was a great exercise for getting letters in the correct order and drawing lines! Little Bit loves dot to dots....so I keep incorporating them into our weekly plans!

...I saw an idea to make a fish out of a paper plate. So after reading The Rainbow Fish we decided to make our own rainbow fish! We took a white paper plate and cut a triangle out to make a mouth. Then Little Bit glued colorful paper squares all over {similar to the Elmer project we did last week}. We finished it off with a googly eye.

Letter Identification...used craft sticks to build the letter F

...find the letter worksheet

...do a dot letter printables

Spelling...We worked on spelling FOX this week. I wrote the word and drew a picture on our dry erase board. Each day I had Little Bit spell and sound out the word.

...tray with magnetic letters and cards with words {FOX, FUN, FIN}. Little Bit placed the corresponding letters over the letters on the cards...while sounding out each letter.

Library Time...The theme at Library storytime this week was fire safety! This worked perfectly into our school week. The librarian read No Dragons for Tea by Jean Pendziwol. One of the town Firefighters came in to talk to the kids about fire safety, showed how he gets dressed in full fire gear, and handed out some goodies to the kids.

Puzzle time...We talked some about feelings, read a book about them and then Little Bit did this puzzle. We talked about the different faces of the bears and how they were feeling.

Practical Living...Little Bit helped me fold laundry. She loves "folding" her shirts and matching up her socks!

...We have 2 shelves set up with activities that can be done in free time....after we have finished the days lessons. One item is flower arranging. I got a sugar shaker at the Dollar Tree and cut some floral stems for Little Bit to poke in the holes. She can make her own little arrangement...and this is great for hand-eye coordination!

Computer time...Starfall {we worked in the ABC section with the letter F} and Fisher Price{they have some great learning games and online coloring pages}.

...Little Bit also loves to get in some computer time when we go the library. They have computers set up in the children's area with games, stories, etc. Her favorite one to do is Just Grandma & Me by Mercer Mayer. She puts on the headphones and watches/listens to the story!

a pumpkin shirt {& outside decor}...

Little Bit was all for helping me set up the fall decorations in the front of the house. She kept saying..."Oh, you take my picture by this pumpkin. Oh, you take my picture by this...." I'm glad she likes to be involved in decorating with me and that she likes to ham it up for the camera!!!

I made her this pumpkin shirt to wear this fall. It has been so warm she needed something short sleeved {and can always wear a long sleeved under or a sweater over!} I freehanded the pumpkin shape and cut it out of the fabric. {I didn't have any orange on hand, so I picked up a fat quarter at Walmart for a buck.} I used some brown polka dot for the stem. {Wonder Under was used to adhere the pumpkin & stem.} I stitched on a little bow made with some green silk ribbon to get that leaf effect! After I had the pumpkin on the shirt I noticed a little flaw in the fabric. So I covered it up by adding a few orange button accents!

Here is glimpse of the front stoop. We have had the scarecrow for several years. I just took a large clay pot turned upside down and inserted the scarecrow rod into the hole in the pot to keep him standing!

The wreath on the door I made several years ago.

I really liked this look of the iron planter fill with fall goodness. So....instead of putting up the plant stand for the winter I decided to repurpose it to make my own version of fall goodness!

The green plant was still thriving from the summer...so I kept it out, added a small mum, pumpkin and mix of mini pumpkins. I took a small grapevine wreath, unwound it and used it like a nest for the mini pumpkins.

One last pic of Little Bit! She had to pose by this little pumpkin girl her great-grandpa made for her last year. It is set out in a little rock area by the stoop, with 2 large mums and a large pumpkin.

{flowery} skirt

Little Bit has been loving skirts this year. Plus she loves when I make her stuff....she says, "You made that FOR ME?!"....I'm like yep, I sure did. The she usually say, "OH BOY!" I love that she gets so excited.

So this skirt fits both her loves, it's a skirt, obviously, and I made it! Only 2nd one I have made {other one is here}. They are super easy to put together. I used this tutorial as a starting point but did adjust some based on Little Bit's size. I got the fabric at Joann's on clearance!

Luckily, she had a pink shirt that matched great. I just jazzed it up a bit with a fabric flower.

And of course I had to make one for her hair too!

Menu Plan Monday

I'm trying a new salmon recipe this week....will report on how it is!

Monday ~ pizza, salad

Tuesday ~ italian chicken & cheese, corn, mashed potatoes

Wednesday ~ ginger salmon, green beans, ramen noodles

Thursday ~ veggie noodle soup, toasted cheese

Friday ~ leftovers

Visit Org Junkie for more recipes!

cupcake toppers...

In order to dress up my homemade cupcakes for Little Bits party, she helped me make some cupcake toppers!

I found this Toy Story confetti at a local party store. It contained paper cutouts of several of the characters. We just taped the characters to the tops of toothpicks!

TADA....I love how these turned out! {I used some of the leftover confetti to embellish party invites!}

{Check out loads of great Disney crafts and ideas over @ Someday Crafts!}

pumpkin spice latte...

I have recently been searching for easy ways to make Starbucks like drinks at home. I ran across this blog where she made this pumpkin butter and then added that to her coffee and milk to make a pumpkin spice latte! Well of course I had to try it....and both were super easy to make and yummo to boot!

Here's how I made my latte...

Ingredients:

1 cup milk

2 heaping tsp instant coffee

1/2 cup water

1 big tbsp pumpkin butter

Directions:

Heat 1 cup milk in microwave for about 2 minutes. Stir in instant coffee granules. Heat 1/2 cup water for about 2 minutes and add that to coffee/milk mixture. Then stir in pumpkin butter until dissolved. Top with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon if you so desire....ENJOY!

Letter Ee

"E" topics...egg, elephant

{Circle Time}

Calendar...Talk about the month and days of the week and put sticker on the day we are discussing.

Reading...days of the week book...No Hugs Till Saturday by Julie Downing

...theme books...My "e" Book by Jane Belk Moncure

"Stand Back," Said the Elephant, "I'm Going to Sneeze!" by Patricia Thomas

Elephants on Board by Suse MacDonald

Hide and Seek Elmer and Elmer Takes Off by David McKee

Two Eggs, Please by Sarah Weeks

Minerva Louise and the Colorful Eggs by Janet Morgan Stoeke

Songs/Rhymes...The E says..., Do Your Ears Hang Low, Head & Shoulders{...eyes, ears...}

{Letter Craft}

E is for Elephant...inspired by this blog

{Activities}

Coloring...Letter Ee

Elephants...After reading the Elmer books we had an activity to go along with it. I printed an elephant that looked similar to Elmer and cut some squares out of several different colors of paper. Little Bit glued the squares all over the elephant to make her own colorful Elmer!

Letter Identification...used craft sticks to build the letter E

...find the letter worksheet

...upper/lower letter matching

Spelling...We worked on spelling EGG this week. I wrote the word and drew a picture on our dry erase board. Each day I had Little Bit spell and sound out the word.

...tray with magnetic letters and cards with words {EGG, ELF}. Little Bit placed the corresponding letters over the letters on the cards...while sounding out each letter.

Math...I made an egg matching game with numbers. I took some plastic easter eggs and with a black sharpie wrote the number on 1 end of the egg and made corresponding dots on the other end. Then I separate all the eggs and placed them in a basket. Little Bit had to find the ends that matched up by identifying the number and then counting the dots to match. She would place the matching halves together and place in a egg carton.

Dot to Dot...E is for elephant dot to dot. This was a great exercise for getting letters in the correct order and drawing lines! Little Bit loves dot to dots....so I keep incorporating them into our weekly plans!

Computer time...Starfall {we worked in the ABC section with the letter E} and Fisher Price{they have some great learning games and online coloring pages}.

...Little Bit also loves to get in some computer time when we go the library. They have computers set up in the children's area with games, stories, etc. Her favorite one to do is Just Grandma & Me by Mercer Mayer. She puts on the headphones and watches/listens to the story!

{Snack Ideas}

eggs, ear of corn, elephant ear, egg rolls

Freebies!

Just realized I haven't posted any freebies in a while, so I thought I'd share a few I have recently requested...

Get a free bottle of Advil 24-count tablets or 20-count liqui-gels via coupon by mail for the first 500,000 people who register.

Target is now offering samples!....get a free sample of Tide Original with Acti-Lift laundry detergent. Just click on the “Request Sample” button and a new window will pop-up for you to answer 3 quick survey questions, then you will be prompted to enter your mailing information.

Also from Target get a free sample of Glad OdorShield Trash Bags with Febreze Freshness.

Vocalpoint is offering a free box of Barilla Plus multigrain pasta with a coupon by mail in some areas. You must be a registered member of Vocalpoint to receive this sample.

If you find any great ones....I would love to hear about them!

toy story birthday!!!

Little Bit has been talking about having a Toy Story birthday party for several months! So I had to deliver, right?! ;) Our families live about 3 hours south of us....so we stopped there on our way to Disney and had Little Bit's family party with the grandparents.

It's not the easiest planning a birthday party when you have to travel but I was super pleased with the results...

I made the cupcakes beforehand and then iced them when we got to my mom's. It was my first time using a cake decorating tip to try and make the cupcakes look a little more fancy! I think they turned out great...{if i do say so myself}! I used star sprinkles from Michaels and some character picks to finish them off. The cupcakes were displayed on a tiered plate stand, with some of Little Bits miniature Toy Story characters added in for another special touch.

I also used other toys to decorate the table.....scrabble letters to spell HAPPY BDAY, barrel of monkeys hanging from the plate stand, and a birthday Mrs. Potato Head! {I found the Buzz Lightyear candle at Michaels, also used Toy Story cupcake liners found there too!}

Little Bit just loved the set up....here she is admiring the decor...anxious to gobble up one of those cupcakes!

Menu Plan Monday

Monday ~ turkey chili, peanut butter sandwiches

Tuesday ~ taquitos, rice, chips & salsa

Wednesday ~ bbq pork loin, corn, mashed potatoes

Thursday ~ tilapia sticks, green beans, mac & cheese

Friday ~ chicken patties, pasta, garlic bread

Visit Org Junkie for more recipes!

Creative Corner...banner card

Yesterday was World Card Making Day!!! So I thought I'd share a card in honor of it...

I just love banners these days...so I try to incorporate them into my projects when I can!!! I used the extras from the August scrap kit to make this card. Happy creating!