Mama needs a margarita!;)

Ever have one of those days that everything your precious 3 year old says sounds like the most annoying thing, even though she's just being her normal self?! We'll that's the type of day I had. Isabella has really ramped up the curiosity lately. Some days I just don't have the patience and energy to answer the same question 4 times in a row ( or make up an answer because I really don't know why the sky is blue or why it is raining today!) When I tell my husband, he just says "don't squash her curious mind." or "questions are good." Well, let me tell you questions are NOT good when you are trying to grocery shop! Today my head was spinning trying to juggle my e-mealz grocery list, our extra item grocery list, coupons and extra Meijer online promotions sheet and trying to figure out if 1) we really need it 2) if it's the best price 3) how many meals I can use it in, as well as tending to Olivia who kept dropping her snack cup or drink cup ( and spilling cheerios everywhere- sorry Mr. janitor!) Isabella asking/ talking about everything in sight, trying to answer nicely but by the 4th time you are ready to scream! And let me tell you, it doesn't look so good for me to yell at her in the middle of the store. Then she is crying making more of a scene and I am just trying to get out of there asap! Whew! Exhausted just from reliving this afternoon nightmare! Thankfully once we got home, the girls went right down for a few hours nap and I could try to regroup my thoughts. I am working on these cute shirts for the girls for Valentine's day

(and yes Jacob- it is a holiday!;) I saw this cute saying - Owl always love you! Last night, I made a new sign for Bella's room as well as pulled out my Christmas present- Silhouette heat transfer kit to make some personalized shirts for the girls. On the directions it says to hold the iron on firmly for 45-60 seconds. Well seriously about 30 minutes!! later (and some help from my loving husband) we finally got it!! Cute, right? So then today at nap time I tried to work on Livi's. It took forever to get the transfer paper off. I felt like I was doing surgery! I even had this little hook tool to help pick the little letters out. After doing all that, I relized it didn't even cut out an "L"! So I had to make a poor little one.
 
Well again after 30 minutes all I could get was the owl to stay on. I have some paint I think I"ll make a pattern from the freezer paper on the Silhouette and get it on that way. It's goin' on one way or another! I rearranged Bella's room this afternoon too. So all in all I had a pretty accomplished day, but my attitude really stunk today!:( Moms with young ones, how do you keep from snapping?! It's something I know I really need to work on, and pray about as well! I feel bad now that she is tucked into bed. Thankfully when she wakes up, she will not remember my hurtful snaps at her, she will just remember that I love her to the moon and back. Well, I have some Bible study questions that are hanging over my head to finish by tomorrow morning. So catch ya on the flip side;)

Thrifty finds!

 Today I went over to my sister's house-  well, went to the thrift stores near my sister's house! I am so excited!  I found some wood chairs that I have been looking for a while. My mom and I toyed with the idea of getting some new ones for my birthday but the cheapest ones we found were $50-70 a chair. That's too much for me! $5, that's about right! That's how much these were. Nothing fancy or totally my style if I could pick out any chair in the world. But they will match much better with the great big table my parents graciously gave us. Then I went to Wal-mart and found some cushions for $5 too. I'm going to try and clean them up a little tomorrow. Possibly stain them a little darker of a wood color this summer- but first I have to learn how to do that!
 


I also got this great big box of tiles for $2! (and the laundry basket too)  So now if you look at my Pinterest page you can tell what's up my sleeve now. Trying to think up lots of cute uses for them. I will probably make some to sell with my other crafts. I found some cute tutorials that show you how to put a picture on them as well as mod podging scrapbook paper on them for coasters. I was thinking of maybe making some to look like scrabble letter tiles. I'm brainstorming a little valentine craft for extended family too- something to do with the girls' hand or fingerprints- you can't go wrong with giving grandparents anything with little hands on it! I get such a high off finding great deals like this. Much more fun than paying full price for sure! I'm probably the only girl who specifically tells her husband to please don't buy flowers or jewelry! ( I don't think he minds this too much!) I like practical things much more:)

Some things we like to use at our "preschool"

Here's a couple more things that we have been working on in school. These are some great things you can try with your 3-5 year old. I try to do some of these types of activities every week or two. It's hard to think of math activities that actually "go with" the letter of the week themes we are working on. We are working on T this week. Here she is working on patterns with this great little linking shapes I found at a garage sale and used in my previous Kindergarten classroom. I have also used colored little blocks to teach patterns.  She understands the concepts of a pattern within the last couple weeks now.  I tried it a few months ago and she did NOT get it! But that is the great thing about teaching a new concept one on one. You just say "Ok, we'll try that another day! and move on." Even though I am telling you that- I still have to remember that for myself! I have to check myself sometimes when I am "encouraging" ie yelling at Bella, "You know how to do it!!" It's a fine line between encouraging her to not give up and creating a fearful child of failing in front of you.

 

I also thought up this "game." I typed up her sight words that she knows currently in 72 sized font. She used the LeapFrog Fridge Phonics set she got for her birthday to make the words. A couple of the words have a double letter, so I would recommend having another set of magnetic letters you can find at the dollar store or something. I had these home made letters I used in my old classroom. To make these I bought a magnetic strip and can either write with a permanent marker or put letter stickers on. Then just cut out and can use on a fridge or cookie sheets are great too for individual words or if you have 2 or 3 kids working on different spelling or reading words. Another thing I will have Isabella make is a little book or we will just write the letter and she will color in items that we can think of that start with the particular letter we're working on. Hope these things can help you with your little one at home. I'll try to keep thinking up new ideas and pass them along. 

Case of the No's: No Sew Tu-Tu and No mess painting

I was in a crafty mood yesterday. I have had these ideas in my head ( and on my Pinterest boards) so I wanted to try them out. First up the No Sew Tu-Tu- turned out very cute and was so easy to do. I found the directions at Jo-Ann's on one of those little free sheets you sometimes see hanging up. Anyways, I got 2 yds each of pink and white tulle. It was on sale at Hobby Lobby when I went to browse around. I love that store! It's so nice to hear Christian songs or hymns as the in store "radio" and such pretty scripture signs, along with my obsession of Paris/French inspired decor. So I got that and then out of the corner of my eye I saw some cute girly fabric with the Eiffel Tower on it. Bella is starting to really like it too because of her favorite movie- Madeline. So I bought that too and made it into a pillow.

For the tu-tu, I tied a piece of elastic together after measuring it around my daughter's waist ( a little bigger if you're going to tie it) Then lay out the tulle together. You can do 1 yd of 4 colors or 2 yds of 2 colors- then lay it flat on top of each other and cut 4-6'' strips. After all the tulle is cut in long strips, you cut them in half. Loop it around the elastic and knot it. It probably took about a half hour if that to do the whole project. It is a nice very full and twirly skirt my little princess-ballerina loves.:)

I couldn't help  it and had to try it on Livi this morning too:)

Today while doing learning time, Isabella wanted to paint. This is another thing I have seen and been wanting to try out. So here it is- No mess painting ( in a bag). Again, very easy ( you should know by know that's how all my crafts are!) Squirt some finger paint in a zip bag, squeeze out the air, zip and tape with packing tape on the end for extra support. You can put it on the table or tape it on the window. I'm sure Miss Olivia will like to try this too when she gets up from her nap.

Wanted to wear it at learning time today:)

Simply squirt finger paint in the bag

Can "paint" on the window or the table

Our Monday

Here's some activities that we are working on with our new letter this week- Tt! 

We usually start the week of a new letter with upper and lower case letter finds. I made this as a word document. Very easy- just randomly hit every key a couple of times! Then I figured out that if you just go in order of the keyboard you can assure that you are getting them all in and not in alphabetical order! I laminated it, so we can use it for every letter now. Just uses dry erase markers:)

found a trace-able alphabet (upper and lower is on the back!) 

 

I laminated that too!

Practice tracing lines to the right and to the left...

We played the "number hop" I put the paper number 1-10 on the floor and call out numbers, she is to hop to the correct one. It gets some energy out and helps recognize numbers in print. Perfect "game" if you ask me!:) It was kind of a shorter learning time this morning. I really had higher hopes for getting more in, but the mornings are just plain packed! Since she is only 3, I feel like as long as we get it in 2-3 times a week, we're still doing ok. It's important to see friends, go to Bible study and get groceries! So that's actually what we had to do ( get groceries) on this particular Monday.

Not the greatest picture- but just had to document this rare occurrence:)

 The girls did great at the store. When the girls were just a little younger, I would dread going to the store. I would have toys and treats in my purse ready for anything that came my way. We would still end up with a melt down from one or the other. Now I can happily go with usually not too many troubles. Thank you, Jesus! So since it was unseasonably warm, so I made the impromtu decision to go on a picnic and play at the park when we got back! The girls loved it. That has never happened to me in all my days of living in PA/ NY/ OH! What a great winter we are having! Then it got to windy and the raindrops started coming- just in time for nap time. It is so fun to see Olivia's personality starting to come out more and more everyday. She is really understanding what's going on now. She is the smiley-est baby I've ever seen. But not this time- she wanted to stay and swing! Poor thing, she screamed all the way home....

Hair Clip Organizer (how to)

So as usual I was cruisin' around Pinterest, and I saw this cute hair clip board.

theparopost.com

I thought I could do that! So I went to the basement to dig around and see what I could find- no frames!:( But then I thought of the bulletin board that I covered with fabric a while ago in my daughter's room, just sitting there with no purpose- until now! It was so easy and looks so cute and functional! I had already had it covered- to do that you measure fabric about 2-3'' past what the size of the board is, then pull tight around the edges and staple around the whole board on the back. The corners can be a little tricky, kinda fold it in a triangle and staple.

See? Definitely NOT perfect!

 The actual hair clip board part is pretty self explanatory- but if you didn't guess, I"ll spell it out for you- decide how many and what colors you what of ribbon, cut ( long if you want to dangle) and I have these cute colored flat push pins, so I just put them on the top, middle and bottom. I looped bottom of the strings because I decided to put headbands on it. Just pin them the same. Then put your little clipies in- and you are one organized and fashionable mama ( or daughter!)