Kids – ally-cat

Freaky Friday

Today was Freaky Friday where I was the kid and Lucas & Arianna were my parents all day. So I let them make all the decisions while I whined about being hungry/thirsty/whatever. It is hard being a kid and having to wait on your parents to feed you since you can’t get stuff yourself. They were oddly eager to have to do the parental chores like dishes and laundry (novelty I suppose) but still decided around 7pm that they just wanted to be the kids again.

I’m really tired but I can’t go to bed because that is just giving in to the oppression (1:30am). Guess I’ll go start a new book. #GrownUpChoices

rileys purple cat

Blog, Crafts, Kids

Pinjects

We did a few crafts this rainy Saturday afternoon. I really love doing crafts with the kids…just usually they don’t listen and don’t wait and then get upset when their stuff is messed up. The kids were really well behaved today and I didn’t lose patience with them (barely at all). If crafts keep going this well, I might start doing them more often.

Project 1, painted circles:

And here are their versions:

Pinjects

Project 2, Father’s Day cards:

This was Lucas and Arianna’s idea. Arianna wanted to paint handprints, Lucas suggested making cards for Daddy, and then I found the saying on Pinterest. Lucas got out the cardstock (I folded) and then he and Arianna painted each other’s hands and made the cards. It was almost an entirely self-done project. Big kids rock!

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Project 3, Rainbow Slime:

This stuff was awesome. Easy to make and so squishy. I had the supplies on hand from back whenever I first pinned these projects.

Blog, Crafts, Kids

Pinductivity

I’ve been on a productivity kick this week. Cleaning (and keeping clean), organizing, and following through on Pinterest pins.

I made a This Week folder and moved ten pins that I wanted to accomplish this week.

I tried making a magnet holder for my fridge using some magnets I had in my craft supplies and a drawer organizer I bought for .50 at the dollar store. The magnets weren’t strong enough to hold it (is there a way to measure a magnet’s strength?) so that was a bust.

I organized 2.5 drawers from the scrapbook room that were full of old cards (ok so really I should throw them away but I’m not there yet) and misc stuff. I made folder pockets and sorted them by year. I also got binders and sorted through all the kids’ papers I’ve kept to make binder scrapbooks.
Memory Binders

On a shopping trip to Target I impulse purchased two Frozen tote bags from the $1 spot. I have zero need for these tote bags as I already have tons, but they were Frozen and Only $1. So I had an idea to turn them into storage tote bins instead. I cut a cardboard sheet from a shipping box to fit into the bottom. Then I cut little strips and stapled them to the top rim to hold the, open. I might come up with a better solution than the staples for long-term, (I have some cute brads perhaps) but the staples worked for a quick and easy.

Did you know you are supposed to wash your washing machine? Never occurred to me until I came across a How To pin on Pinterest. Our machine is around 30 years old and probably was never washed in all that time. It had nasty soap scum gunked up everywhere, but it was one of those things you don’t really notice or think about. I was really impressed with how much nicer it looked and how easy it was to scrub off the gunk with a toothbrush once I’d gotten the hot bleach soaking.
How to Clean the Washing Machine

Crafts, Kids

Crafty Kids

OMG Lucas is SO AWESOMELY ADORABLE.

So I started working on a Pinterest project to make pencil boxes. Lucas wanted to make a project of his own. He got paper and told me he was making the design for his project. Then he showed me a rectangle on the piece of paper and asked for a box that size.

Then he asked me for a glue stick to glue the bottom together, but I one upped him by using hot glue to hold it together. Then he wanted to cover the box in paper (kinda like what I was planning to do…cover my boxes with scrapbook paper), but he wanted white paper so he could “draw my favorite things on the box.”

2014-10-19 box making (3)

We worked together taping white paper around the snack box and he even said “sorry for taking your time from your project to help me with my project.” I told him I didn’t mind because that was what mommies do. He then asked me about my favorite things and also drew a picture of our family.

2014-10-19 box making (1)

Then when he was done he surprised me by saying he made the box for all our DVDs that are all over our mantle to clean them up and be organized. I was thrilled because not only did he make something for me, he did it pretty much entirely on his own, his own ideas on how to do it, and even had a purpose in mind for it that legit helped me organize something.

2014-10-19 box making (11)

Arianna of course wanted in on the action as well. Here is the box she decorated.

2014-10-19 box making (10)

Kids

I wanna wee-wee

Ari: I wanna wee-wee

Me: What?

Ari: wheeee, wheeeeee

Blog, Crafts, Kids

My First Tie Dye

I know, I’m 33 and I actually have never tie dyed. It’s like one of those super common kid activities that I somehow never got to do. Not that I really cared.

So at school they are doing color days and each week the whole school wears a certain color. This was fine the first week when we did red, blue, green. But this second week we have days for pink and purple. Unsurprisingly, Lucas (and Landon) do not own anything pink or purple. At first I was going to check the consignment sales for cheap pink and purple shirts. But then I had the idea to make a tie dyed pink and purple shirt and he could wear it for both days.

I saw some cool examples that included a lot of black, which helps make having a pink and purple shirt look more boyish, and today we made some shirts.

The first one Lucas made was a black to purple to pink ombre. This isn’t really tie dye, just dying. You lay the shirt flat and brush the colors downward. I’m pretty pleased with the result, especially with it being my first go. Only issue was that when it was hung upright, the purple started bleeding down into the pink, so the pink section ended up being pretty small. I should have left it flat. Pink day isn’t until Friday, so after he wears it doe purple Monday, I’ll dump some more pink dye at the bottom to try to brighten the pink section. After I let it set for about 6 hours, I noticed that the colors bled out more for a nice smooth, even look – you can’t see the brush strokes anymore. The black bled to a greenish color, so now it is black-green-purple-pink. After i washed and dried it, I noticed a lot of color leached from this one. I think this is a combination of the smoother fabric of this shirt as well as that the colors were watercolored on rather than soaked in the dye.

The second one was done in like two minutes time because a storm was quickly approaching and I was just trying to get it done. It involved rolling the shirt top to bottom around a tube, scrunching it inward a little, and then dousing it with dye in different sections. I kept this one in a ziploc bag, and a few drops of purple got elsewhere on the shirt, but it came out okay for the most part. It seems the coarser cotton fabric of this one held the dye better than the soft blend of the first shirt. Just wish I’d had more time with this one.

All in all I’m pleased with my first attempt. When I have more time I’d like to actually try to make designs instead of just three solid sections of color.

Blog, Kids

Meal Planning Pt 1 – Lunch Boxes

Another new organizational, Mom thing I’m getting into – meal planning! Instead of just ordering pizza when I get hungry, I’m going to start actually planning out my meals for the month, have the ingredients on hand, etc. The more I research this (Pinterest, A.K.A The SAHM Manual) I realize how involved this can really be. So to start it off, I’m planning Lucas’s lunches for the week.

I prefer to pack his lunch than have him buy. Mostly because it is $10/week for school lunch (although I haven’t done the math to see how much my at home lunches cost, the general idea is that it is usually cheaper to make than to buy – that is for advanced meal planners and I’m a beginner). I also like that I can see what he eats for lunch because I can check the food containers.

I started off pretty much alternating peanut butter sandwiches with spinach salad, but I know that will get old fast. So I spent hours browsing lunch ideas on Pinterest (this one was a big help 40 Weeks of Nut-Free Lunches), made a long ass list of ideas to draw from, and created a .pdf page to laminate for my Home Planner to plan out the week’s meals.

Here is the printable I made. I kept the design simple because once you write in all the food items, you don’t want there to be too much to look at on the page. Lunchbox Planner

And here is my first lunch for Monday morning:

apple, baby carrots w/ light ranch, rice cakes (not pictured), hard boiled eggs* on fresh baby spinach, string cheese, and a good2grow with Spiderman top.

*the eggs…”how to boil an egg”…yes, I had to Google that tonight, because I didn’t know how to make them. Squeee, I totally got it right. They weren’t neon yellow like they appear in this picture. I also learned how to easily remove the shell with a spoon.

Update:

Per Lauren’s request, week 1 of planned lunches:
Mon- see first post
Tues- awesome ham rollups, carrots & ranch (that he didn’t eat the prev day), pineapple, cheese stick, water bottle
Weds- school lunch
Thurs- loaded grilled cheese sandwich (grilled cheese with ham, spinach, and avocado), lima beans- very well cooked 😉 , strawberries and blueberries, water bottle
Fri- fried chicken salad in a pita pocket (fried chicken nuggets leftover from CFA, baby spinach, diced cucumbers, diced tomatoes, HM dressing), apple, cucumber slices, fruit cup (from CFA), good2grow, school ice cream day

Kids

Pretend Play

When we were little and Stephanie and I played pretend, I always made her pretend to be a character/part that she didn’t want to be, but I made her anyhow because I was older.

Today, Lucas was forcing Arianna to pretend she was going to school. He was making her put on a backpack and say bye and go to school. Then he made her lie down and take a nap at school. She was really annoyed and wouldn’t cooperate, and he was yelling at her the whole time. “Baby, put your backpack on. Come on baby, you’re going to school.” Then he whapped her with the backpack when she wouldn’t put it on.

Reminded me of when we were kids and played school and I’d be the teacher and she’d be the student. I’d give her assignments… and actually expected her to do them.

Lucas made her take a nap” at school”. She is tucked in (the Target bag is her pretend blanket) with her duckie and the lion is tucked in as well.

Kids

“I want to be a meteorologist “

“I want to be a meteorologist when I grow up so I can predict the weather.”

This is what Lucas told me last night, so even though I had given up trying to do the at-home preschool activities, I (stupidly…I really don’t have the patience for this stuff) spent the day digging up weather activities for us to do today to learn about the weather. I found some great stuff online (after several hours of pouring over online sites while Lucas asked over and over if I was ready).

Today we kicked off the unit by having him tell me what he already knew about weather (this isn’t the first time we’ve discussed it).

It’s sunny because the sun is bright.
It’s not sunny when it’s [the clouds] blocking the sun from being bright, bright, bright. A cloud is made of rain.
The leaves go swoosh when it’s really windy.
A meteorologist predicts the weather.

Then I asked what he wanted to learn about the weather and he said “I wish I knew about tornadoes. I wish I knew how to tell a tornado was coming so I could tell everyone to be safe.”

We watched a meteorologist report online, read Eric Carle’s Little Cloud book, observed and recorded today’s weather, and started learning a little about clouds.

Blog, Diary, Kids

25 Days of Christmas; Days 1 & 2

I’m attempting to do something Christmas-y every day until Christmas. It is harder than I thought it would be, especially since I’ve been sick the past few days. Honestly, I also think this wasn’t the best plan simply because it can put a little extra pressure on me to come up with something every day. But then, I come up with so much Christmas stuff to do anyhow I do it to myself and poorly prioritize.

Day 1 – Canes and Cocoa

Cherokee Parks does an event called Canes and Cocoa where the kids come and have an Easter egg-type candy grab. This is the second year we’ve done it, along with the Boltons. Bags filled, we then all had hot chocolate and cookies, plus a chat with Santa.

Day 2 – Botanical Gardens Lights

I so love Christmas lights and the Botanical Gardens has the best I’ve ever seen! Also our second year doing this, but I had the time to see and do more this year than last: the greenhouse that was like a fairy jungle (Lucas was kinda scared of this since it was so dark), the bridge walk through the trees (we were on the bridge over the road and i pointed Lucas back up behind us where you could see all the lights going up the hill and his comment?, “look at all the cars!”), and make s’mores. Of course Lucas was most interested in the trains and ran around all the different tracks with glee.

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Ari: I wanna wee-wee

Me: What?

Ari: wheeee, wheeeeee

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