egg hunt fun...

Easter is right around the corner and egg hunts are already happening.  We had our Easter celebrations at preschool this week and having an egg hunt for the kids is one thing we include.  In order to make it more educational, we write the kids names on the eggs.  Then when hunting they have to collect only the eggs with their name on it.  

This is a great tool for helping with name and letter recognition.  Plus this is a good exercise for hand eye coordination.  Not only do they have to pick up the egg, look at it and determine if it says their name but then they have to place it into a plastic bag.

When the weather is nice we go out in the grass to hunt for our eggs.  But sometimes the weather doesn't cooperate, so we go in the gym.  It's not quite the same but the kids still enjoy finding their special eggs.

After they have collected their eggs, we tie up their plastic bags and put them in their backpacks.  They get to take home their eggs and discover what is inside with their family.

I don't know about you but when my daughter does an egg hunt she comes home with lots of eggs. So what do we do?  Have egg hunts over and over again at home!   You can do a variety of egg hunt games while sneaking in some learning as well!  

NAMES....As I mentioned earlier, write your children's name on some eggs and hide them around the room.  Have them hunt and try to find only the eggs with their name on it.  If you only have one child, like me, write names of family members, friends, or even pets on a few eggs.  

COLORS...Hide several different colors of eggs around the room.  Then give your child a specific color to find each round.  

SIZE...Eggs come in all shapes and sizes.  Why not try hiding different ones around the room and each time they hunt, instruct them to find a different type of egg....large, small, animal shaped, sparkly, etc.!  

EXERCISE...Another fun idea is to put little slips of paper in each egg with things for the kids to do.  Have them find one egg at a time and bring it back to you.  Then have them do whatever the slip inside says.  Some ideas are...touch your toes, run in place, crawl around the couch, jump as high as you can, balance on one foot, hop like a bunny, etc...

After your child has exhausted the egg hunts (or YOU are done hiding and rehiding them...lol!) check out Pinterest to discover some fun uses for those plastic eggs you now have an abundance of!

{happy} 2016

This last year just flew by and I have been slacking on my posts....sorry!  I'm hoping to get back into a blogging routine in 2016.  I was looking back at past posts and realized that next month I will have been blogging for 8 years!  Where has the time gone!?  Here is to a happy, healthy and more crafty year!  ;)

 {source}

Back to school shopping...

School supply deals started creeping up in the office stores a couple weeks ago.  Now you can find supplies everywhere.  I have been picking up a few things that Little Bit needs here and there when I see it on sale.  Here is what I picked up this week...

Office Depot

Ticonderoga pencils $1.00...These are the best and recommended on the school supply list.

Staples

Crayola colored pencils .97

cap erasers .25

pencil sharpeners .25

 

I also have my eyes out for things I can put in a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child.  This is a tradition that our family has had for many years now.  So this time of year I always pick up a few extra school supplies to put in our boxes we donate.  I also found a plain red t-shirt at Michael's craft store for $1.29!  

Here are some great options to be on the lookout for to include in boxes...small soccer ball w/pump, plain short sleeved shirts, small flashlight w/batteries, plate, bowl, cup, soap & covered dish, toothbrush & holder, bandaids, comb, hair elastics/headbands, socks, pencils, erasers, colored pencils, sharpener, index cards, pens for older kids, jump rope, marbles, harmonica, cars, truck, airplane, baby doll, hard candy.

Easter basket goodies...

Easter is this coming Sunday so I'm sure many of you are starting to put together baskets of goodies for your kiddos, grand-kids or other special little ones in your life.  I thought it would be fun to share what my basket for Little Bit consists of.  Plus share some of our old and new traditions!

One thing Little Bit looks forward to in her basket are a few candy treats.  This year she is in love with Twix eggs.  ;)  So I've included a couple of those, some Reese's eggs, gum & a Spongebob Pez (she LOVES Spongebob).  

She is also into surprise toys or blind bags at the moment.   These are items that come in a container or bag and you don't know exactly what you are going to get.  We have been Lalaloopsy fans for a few years now, so when I saw these blind bags at Meijer I picked up 2 for her basket.  Shopkins are another fun one she is excited to collect, so 2 of those made their way into her basket as well.

Little Bit still loves playing play-doh.  So I picked up a 4 pack.  I plan to hide a couple little dolls inside the play-doh, forming it into an egg shape.  This is another surprise item for her to enjoy!

A favorite tradition Little Bit loves is hunting for eggs around the house Easter morning.   Most of the eggs are empty or hard boiled but a few have a little surprise (money!)  

I also love to include practical things in her basket.  Her favorite color is blue at the moment, so when I saw this cute top at Meijer I knew she would love it!  Plus it has some bling on the pocket...win, win!  ;)  A toothbrush is another item I like to include.  I found this cute Hello Kitty one in the travel product section.  

Finally I love including a soft and cuddly stuffed animal in her basket.  She loves her "buddies"!  Isn't this bunny adorable?! 

 

Right now at Meijer you can snag one of these for FREE when you buy 3 cards from American Greetings.  They have grey and white bunnies available.  You could buy some cards for your child's teachers, grandkids, neighbors, neices or nephews or any other special person you have in mind!  They have a wide selection of cards to choose from.

So head to Meijer this week to pick up your 3 cards and get your free bunny!  While you're there check out all the wonderful goodies available to fill your ultimate Easter basket.

Thank you to Meijer for sponsoring this post.  All opinions are my own.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

What a wonderful time of year!   I just love Christmas, celebrating Jesus and retelling the story of his birth, singing hymns at church and Christmas songs on the radio!   I also love getting to see family and friends that we don't see very often. 

Even though the holiday itself is over in the blink of an eye,  I hope you are enjoying these days after to reflect on the past year and what lies ahead in 2015. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my family to yours!

{Frozen} Easter basket...

We are still loving Frozen at our house...singing, reading, watching and playing dolls!  Little Bit loves Elsa and when I saw these Anna and Elsa themed baskets that My Sister's Suitcase put together I knew what I was doing for Little Bit this year!  

If you still need some basket ideas these are super fun and easy to put together.  I decided to use most of the Elsa ideas with a few others added in.

It looks like I'm the queen....blue sequin crown is only $1 at Joann Fabrics!
Conceal don't feel...dress up gloves at Party City for about $3.  I really wanted white or light blue but this was the closest I could find.
Frozen fractals...rock candy, .99 from from Party City.
Some people are worth melting for...I put together a "melted Olaf"!  {3 white gum balls, pretzel sticks, chocolate chips and orange jelly bean nose.}
Carrots for Sven...bubbles shaped like carrots at the dollar store.
Big summer blowout...chocolate coins to "spend" at Oakens Trading Post!  Little Bit loves quoting the lines the shop owner says....it is too funny!

I also included a Frozen word search {Target dollar spot}, blue sparkle pen and notebook {Michaels} and six blue plastic eggs with little goodies inside.  

So once you decide what to put in your basket, just print out the labels from My Sister's Suitcase and attach them to your items.  I also made one tag of my own {big summer blowout}.  

Happy Easter!!! 

Happy New Year!

A new year started today!  I hope you enjoyed spending time with the ones you love! 

2014 here we come...

 

Merry Christmas!

...from our family to yours!

"For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace."  Isaiah 9:6

Yummy treats!

Well, we got snow today and are expected to get some more overnight & in the morning.  Sounds to me like a good time to do some holiday baking!  I have been pinning some recipes that look yummo and can't wait to try some of them out....

 

salted caramel pretzel bark

 

peppermint crunch popcorn

 

gooey red velvet cookies

 

easy christmas peppermint patties

Now to check the pantry for which ones of these I can make without trekking through the snow to the store!  

What fun things do you like to bake during the holidays?

happy mothers day!

I feel so blessed to be a mom to my wonderful Little Bit!  She always knows how to make me smile... and often laugh hysterically.  There are definitely trying times but I love every moment!  

I also am so lucky to have the best mom and mother-in-law!  So thankful for this weekend and the time we had together! 

Girls road trip!!!  My mom, 2 sisters, Little Bit and I drove to Paducah Saturday morning to visit with my grandma & grandpa.  We enjoyed a wonderful lunch at Olive Garden and a teensy bit of shopping before heading back home.  

 

Then I joined my mother-in-law and sis-in-law at the movies to see The Great Gatsby that just opened this weekend!   Here is my mil with her favorite character.  

 

Becca and I had to get our turn by the adorable Leonardo!   We had fun dissecting the movie as we enjoyed dinner at Panera!  Thanks to all my favorite ladies for a wonderful day!  

Wishing you all a happy day...enjoy every moment!  :D

{leftover} Easter candy?

Little Bit got to participate in several egg hunts this year so we had quite the haul of Easter candy.  One thing we came away with lots of were little foil wrapped chocolate eggs.  I was making a batch of pumpkin spice muffins last week and I usually add some chocolate chips.  BUT I didn't have any on hand, so I decided to chop up some of the chocolate eggs to use in their place.  It worked great! 

Here are a few other uses for Easter candy that look fun to try...

 

Peep smores | I have totally made these in the past and they are pretty yummo.  You don't want to overcook them though cause the sugary coating can get kind of tough.  

 

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup cookies |  I love these...especially the eggs at Easter time!  Don't know if I would have any leftover to make these cookies but they sure look good!

chocolate bunny dipped strawberries |  Melt those chocolate bunnies down and dip some strawberries in it for a yummy snack!  ;)  These would be great to make for a teacher appreciation gift or mother's day!!!

white chocolate M&M cookies |  I have some of these just sitting in the cabinet waiting to be eaten...might have to give these cookies a try! 

Do you still have Easter candy left?  If so, how do you use it up???

Easter {decor}!

After leaving my Valentines decor up for the whole month of February, I decided the first week of March it should come down!  Plus I was in the mood to decorate for Easter.  I had seen several neat ideas on Pinterest that I wanted to create for my own decor.   

First up was this peep bunny art that I had seen last year and thought would be so cute to make.  So I found a template for the bunnies here.  The three bunnies were just perfect for our family.  I just had to shrink one of the bunnies to make it smaller to represent Little Bit!  Then I cut them out, glued them on light green paper and added accessories! 

The hubs got a cute little yellow bow tie, Little Bit got a pink hair bow, and I got a blue necklace!   LOVE it!

Next up I created a chocolate paper bunny.  I had seen this painted bunny piece on Pinterest that inspired my idea.  I didn't want to paint, so I brought out the paper instead! 

First I went to my favorite place...google images...to search for an outline of a bunny.  I thought this one was perfect!  {Sorry I don't have a link, I can't remember where I found it!}  I printed it out, cut out the bunny and then traced onto brown paper.  

Once I cut out the brown bunny, I adhered it to a piece of yellow patterned paper and put in in a frame.

It has a home on our mantel with some cute yellow ceramic rainboots I found at Gordmans!

My last piece I'm showing is so simple to create.  I saw some jars on Pinterest where they put a chocolate bunny in with some edible grass and little candy eggs.  I thought they were SUPER CUTE but I wanted to make sure mine would last and not attract bugs or anything, cause I don't have lids for all my jars. ;)  So I went with some Easter grass from the Dollar Tree and some colored eggs {1 or 2 years old from Michaels I think}.

Have you been inspired to create any Easter decor this year?!

{strawberry} pancakes!

Can I just say YUMMO!  When I make pancakes I pretty much just do plain pancakes.  I have made the occasional blueberry but for the most part they are plain.  How boring, right?! 

Well Little Bit asked for strawberry pancakes a couple weeks ago and I was like where did that come from.  A show of course....the first episode she watched of Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood they made strawberry pancakes.

So I decided they would make a great Valentine's day meal and boy did they ever!  I started by washing and dicing up my strawberries. 

I then mixed up my pancake batter...

2 cups baking mix {I have been using Jiffy cause it is cheaper than Bisquick ;)}

1 1/4 cups milk

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

2 Tbsp sugar

Mix all these ingredients together and then fold in the strawberries {I think I used about 1 cup}.  

 

I think I used a 1/4 or 1/3 cup to scoop out the batter into the pan.  They cooked up just great!  We loved them so much I made them again last week! 

What are your favorite kind of pancakes to make?

{valentines} door

When it comes to my classroom door, I love having it decorated!  It is fun to change it out for the seasons and the kids love finding their names or picture.  I realized as I started taking the valentines decor down that I hadn't taken a picture of it yet!  So here it is, minus 2 hearts.  ;)

This one was pretty simple!  I have "Mrs. Maple's class" up on my door all the time, so I like to make my titles work around that.  I searched pinterest and didn't really find anything I loved.  I did see several with conversation hearts though so I decided to go with that.  My kiddos really are sweethearts, so this title was very fitting... "Sweethearts in Mrs. Maple's class".  I then created a heart template the size I wanted and cut enough for each person in the class using the fun conversation heart colors.  I wrote each child's name on a heart and randomly placed them on the door!

I just changed to hot air balloons....LOVE it!  Look for pics to come later!

Happy Valentines...

I had a valentines party today with one of my classes and have another one tomorrow.  Little Bit has her party tomorrow too.  So we have been busy making valentines and filling goodie bags!  

We found these heart mazes at Deals {a local dollar store} and there were just enough in the package for all the kids in her class...score!  Little Bit thought they were great so we went with it.  I instantly thought of the phrase {to an "a maze"ing friend}!  She wanted to draw a stem on them to make the heart into a flower.  I think they turned out pretty "amazing"!

Then I was looking around pinterest for a teacher gift idea and found one that had nail polish and a nail file.  I tweaked the phrase to include teacher and we got {to a "toe"tally awesome teacher}!  I let Little Bit pick out the file and color of polish.  We also included a caramel heart!  I sure would enjoy receiving this gift!  

Here is the valentine I made for my little kiddos!  I used an owl body template that I had from last valentines.  Then I used a heart punch to do the eyes and some glitter hearts upside down for the wings.  I cut the tip off some smaller glitter hearts for the beak.  Whoooo doesn't love a cute little owl?!  ;)

What kinds of valentines are you creating this year?

Linking up here...

Christmas {baking}...

Well, I don't know if you can really call it BAKING!...but you do use the oven for a few minutes!  ;)  I had been wanting to make some faux turtles with pretzles, rolos and pecans.  I really wasn't looking forward to unwrapping 40 rolos but I was going to.  Then I saw these Rolo minis at Target and thought, hmm...wonder if these would work.  They are already unwrapped and ready to go! 

You start out by lining a pan with parchment paper.  Lay out your mini twist pretzels and place a Rolo on top of each one.   Then place in a 350 degree oven for 3-5 minutes. 

Take them out of the oven and press a pecan half on top.  This will flatten out the Rolo onto the pretzel.  Let cool and store in an airtight container.  {Don't eat them all at once!  ;)}

Here are a few more of my favorite holiday treats that require very little {baking}...microwave peanut brittle, lazy man's toffee and cinnamon sugar pretzels.  Yummo!