Archive | Kiddos RSS feed for this section

Summer Reading Challenge: Completed!

17 Aug

She did it!

2 months. 100 books.

Here they are in no particular order:

  1. The Adventures of Daniel Boom And Loud Boy – Mac Attack
  2. Captain Underpants and the Revolting Revenge of the Radioactive Robo-Boxers
  3. Bad Kitty Gets A Bath
  4. Stink and the Incredible Super Galactic Jawbreaker
  5. Stink – Solar System Super Hero
  6. Eency Weensey Spider
  7. World’s Weirdest Dinosaurs
  8. Dora – It’s Sharing Day
  9. Skippyjon Jones Cirque de Ole
  10. Captian Flynn and the Pirate Dinosaurs
  11. Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road
  12. Push Button
  13. Tiny Titans
  14. Ricky Ricotta’s Mighty Robot vs. Voodoo Vultures From Venus
  15. Ice Cream Bear
  16. Wet Dog
  17. Storm Song
  18. Sock Monkey Rides Again
  19. Z Goes Home
  20. Black and White
  21. ABC Kids
  22. Secret of the Ninja
  23. George Brown Class Clown – Help! I’m Stuck in a Giant Nostril
  24. George Brown Class Clown – Hey! Who Stole the Toilet
  25. Pilot and Huxley – The First Adventure
  26. Pilot and Huxley – The Next Adventure
  27. Pokemon – Sapphire and Ruby Versions
  28. Pokemon – Leaf Green and Fire Red Versions
  29. The Adventures of Daniel Boom and Loud Boy
  30. The Adventures of Daniel Boom and Loud Boy – Grow Up
  31. The Big Fat Cow That Goes Kapow
  32. Bean Dog and Nugget
  33. Vordak the Incomprehensible – Double Trouble
  34. The Strange Case of Origami Yoda
  35. George Brown Class Clown – World’s Worst Wedgie
  36. Ricky Ricotta – Uranium Unicorns From Uranus
  37. School! Adventures at the Harvey N. Trouble Elementary School
  38. Journey Under the Sea
  39. George Clown Class Clown – Dance Your Pants Off
  40. George Brown Class CLown – Trouble Magnet
  41. Darth Paper Strikes Back
  42. Space and Beyond
  43. Bink and Gollie – Best Friends Forever
  44. First Graders From Mars – The Problem with Pellie
  45. First Graders From Mars – Horus’ Horrible Day
  46. Itsy Mitsy Runs Away
  47. First Grade Here I Come
  48. Hans and Matilda
  49. Mars Needs Moms
  50. Chloe
  51. Toys in Space
  52. Hamster and Cheese
  53. The Horned Toad Prince
  54. Cowlick
  55. Carumba
  56. The Cloud Spinner
  57. A Giant Crush
  58. Bake Sale
  59. But Excuse Me, That is My Book
  60. The Astonishing Secret of Awesome Man
  61. Ricky Ricotta – Mecha Monkeys From Mars
  62. Diary of a Killer Cat
  63. Sadie and Ratz
  64. Bad Kitty For President
  65. Bad Kitty vs. Uncle Murray
  66. Chowder
  67. Pokemon – Team Rocket Truce
  68. Pokemon – Celebi Rescue
  69. Pokemon – Charizard Go
  70. Skippyjon Jones and the Big Bones
  71. The Trail of Lost Time
  72. Ugly Animals
  73. 10 Things You Should Know About Dinosaurs
  74. Stuck
  75. The Stinky Cheese Man
  76. We Are Extremely Very Good Recyclers
  77. There’s a Nightmare in my Closet
  78. Windblown
  79. The Three Little Aliens and the Big Bad Robot
  80. Memoirs of a Goldfish
  81. Night of the Veggie Monster
  82. Nino Wrestles the World
  83. How to be a Cat
  84. There’s a Dragon Downstairs
  85. Vordak – Rule the School
  86. Amelia Rules
  87. The Adventures of Daniel Boom and Loud Boy – Game On
  88. The Dot
  89. George Brown Class Clown – Super Burp
  90. Pokemon – Grovyle Trouble
  91. Pokemon – The Power of Three
  92. How Martha Saved Her Parents From Green Beans
  93. If You Give A Cat A Cupcake
  94. Flora and the Flamingo
  95. Raymond Saves the Day
  96. The Very Hungry Caterpillar
  97. Alpha Oops – The Day Z Went First
  98. Kids’ Science Questions About People
  99. Pokemon – I Choose You
  100. Last but not least: The comic book that came with her new shoes

We’re so proud of our girl. This was no easy feat! Most of the books listed above are chapter books.

We told her that she could pick a prize if she read all 100 books before the first day of school. She finished up her last book tonight. School starts Monday. She rocked that challenge with a day to spare.

She chose playtime at the park and maybe a little candy so we’ll be celebrating her triumph at the park tomorrow.

Maybe with a little candy. 😉

 

Summer Reading Challenge: Week 8

16 Aug

I’m a few days late getting this post up.

Camryn only has 2 days left to reach her goal – yikes!

She did a lot of reading over the last week though:

 

 

Also read but not pictured:

The Trail of Lost Time by R.A. Montgomery

Ugly Animals by Gilda & Melvin Berger

10 Things You Should Know About Dinosaurs by Steve Parker

That’s a total of 21 books. 7 more to go!

Because I can’t leave anything alone…

16 Aug

Camryn had a very short school supply list this year.

I was shocked.

Included in that list was a 1/2 inch binder.

So off to Target I went in search of a cute new binder but was soon sorely disappointed to find only four in the whole store, and they were all white.

Boring.

They had so many cute 1 inch binders that I was tempted to grab instead but I didn’t want my kid to be singled out for having the wrong sized binder.

Nobody needs that drama.

But nobody should have to live with a plain old boring white binder either. Not when they have a Mom with a huge stack of scrapbook paper at home and a free afternoon.

Back at home, I let her pick two sheets of scrapbook paper that she liked and cut each page to fit inside the plastic cover for her. Then we each chose a page to decorate.

She used two .99 sticker sheets to decorate her page because she has not yet learned moderation.

For my page, I just cut a purple piece of scrapbook paper into the shape of a heart and then stuck her initials on top (just to eliminate any possible confusion as to whose binder it was).

Once we were both done, we just slid our newly decorated scrapbook paper inside of the plastic covers.

Voila!

 

 

Can you tell which side each of us did?

She loves her spiffy new notebook now and we both enjoyed having craft time together.

Also, her school’s mascot is an owl so I’m pretty sure that we couldn’t have decorated it more perfectly.

So if you want to spruce up a plain old boring notebook, just slap some scrapbook paper on it.

If you just happen to have some stickers lying around, add those too!

It’s cheap, easy, and it makes a big difference.

Freebie: First Day of School Printable

10 Aug

Click here to print.

Free Back to School Printables!

9 Aug

Back to school time is upon us and we all know what that means.

Kids will need backpacks, lunch boxes, shoes, clothes, probably a new jacket or raincoat, and let’s not forget about the super specific classroom supply list we’ll all be getting from their teachers soon.

My son has seven teachers so I get seven lists. For one kid. Seven!

Those of you with kids in middle school and high school totally get me right now.

Those of you with littles still in elementary school will find out soon enough.

Back to school time can be expensive so I’ve rounded up some fun printable freebies for you to add some cuteness to your kids’ lunches, books, and first day photos.

Just click on the pictures to go straight to the source for downloading and printing instructions as well as some great ideas for how to use them.

Get yourself some laminating paper from the dollar store and laminate these so you can use them over and over again.

Prepare yourselves. The cuteness is pretty overwhelming.

First off, how adorable is this set of handy-dandy printables from Jill Dubien of meetthedubiens.com? Seriously, if you aren’t already a regular visitor to her blog, you should be! Her blog is one of my favorites.

Some lunch box love from Kristi of ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com A lady who blogs to avoid housework? I wouldn’t know anything about that. 😉

Boy-themed joke cards from designbydani.com

More boy and girl-themed lunchbox notes from princessandthepeas.com

From frugalcouponliving.com:

Oh how I love Martha.

Robot notes from tangarangblog.com

How sweet are these book labels from welovetoillustrate.com?

I’m dying over that fox!

Book tags & lunchbox notes from Nina Seven:

Not so scary monsters designed by Jennifer A. Bell of jenniferabell.com:

For the first day of school picture:

Preschool through high school photo cards by Wanessa of WCC Designs:

Back to school photo card printables designed by Heather from Chickabug. To get these printables, you’ll need to sign up for an email list here. After you sign up, you will receive an email with a link to download this page.

* All printables are for personal use only.

8 Aug

 

Dear super creative and majorly talented moms of Pinterest,

Thanks for sharing your awesomeness with the rest of us.

I’ll bet your kids had an amazing summer.

From the looks of things in your perfectly lit photographs, you made tons of awesome crafts, ate lots of healthy yet delicious recipes, and participated in loads of fun activities.

I’ll bet there were no kids whining at your house about how bored they were over the last three months or refusing to get out of their pajamas.

Nope, those kids were at my house.

Let me paint you a picture of what a typical day looks like at my house during the summer…

Kids complain of boredom and/or hunger. I suggest an activity and/or food idea to eliminate their boredom and/or hunger. Kids refuse any and all suggestions and take off on a new tangent about how we never go anywhere and how they don’t get enough milkshakes.

There can never be enough milkshakes!

We are counting the days with glee until school starts.

Occasionally, when my kids aren’t being extra picante, I’ll make them a little treat.

About three years ago when cupcakes were all the rage (do people even say “all the rage” anymore?) my kids were really into them so I made cupcakes all the time.

I even had a cupcake business based out of my home for a while but quickly realized that the best way to suck all of the joy out of something you love is to start charging people money for it.

I used to love when people would contact me for an estimate on something crazy like ninety cupcakes with ninety precisely detailed fondant parrots perched on top and then have the nerve to ask me “It’s just flour and eggs, why does it cost so much?”

Really? Like, are you for real?

Also the idea of strangers coming to my house for pick-ups or me going to theirs for drop-offs always seemed a bit too murdery to me, so my cupcake business was short-lived.

What I’m sharing with you today is one of the cupcakes that I made way back in August of 2010, before I started my business and before Pinterest squashed all my dreams of ever having an original idea again. Ever.

To make it really easy on yourself use store-bought cake mix and frosting.

Sure, you could make cupcakes and frosting from scratch but I’m showing you the easy way today.

Make these for your kiddos and their friends or make them for yourself to eat for breakfast after the kids shove off to school.

I think the fact that there are eggs in the cupcakes and eggs on top more than justifies them as breakfast food.

 

Ingredients

cupcakes (cooled) – from a mix or homemade

white frosting – store-bought or homemade

vanilla Tootsie Rolls *

light pink, dark pink, and orange Starburst candies *

blue food coloring – enough drops to turn the frosting sky blue

rolling pin, sauce jar, wine bottle – whatever you’ve got that will flatten the candy

 

For the cupcakes:

Add 4-5 drops of blue food coloring to the frosting and stir. Add more if needed until the frosting is sky blue.

Frost the cupcakes and set aside.

For a smooth frosted top like the cupcake in the picture, just heat up your store-bought frosting in the microwave for 8-10 seconds, stir, then spoon on top.

 

For the eggs:

Roll out a vanilla Tootsie Roll until flattened. Cut a small circle using a cookie cutter, shot glass, or freehand with a knife. Tap the sides gently with your finger tip to get a smooth edge. Then use the back of a butter knife to push in on the sides a bit to create an egg-white like shape. You can also keep it round if you like.

Roll out an orange Starburst and cut into a smaller circle. Tap sides down with your finger tip to smooth the edges.

Place the orange circle on top of the white circle.

Ta da! You’ve made a candy egg!

Now let’s make candy bacon!!

 

For the bacon:

Roll out a piece of dark pink Starburst until it’s fairly flat. Don’t go too far though because you’ll be rolling it out again soon.

Pinch off a piece of the light pink Starburst and roll it into a log or snake shape with your hands, like you used to do with play-doh when you were little.

Repeat this process with various sizes of the light pink candy and then lay them on top of the dark pink candy going in various directions. This is your bacon fat.

At this point you should have a flattened piece of dark pink candy with smaller strips of light pink on top. Make sense? I sure hope so.

Now flatten everything out with your rolling pin and it should all fuse into one even mass.

Use a knife or a pizza cutter to cut out strips.

Crimp the candy and gently press in the sides until it resembles bacon.

Place your adorable and delicious bacon and eggs on your cupcakes and enjoy!

*Use any candy/color combo you like. As long as it’s pliable, it will work.

Summer Reading Challenge: Week 7

5 Aug

10 books read last week. She’s got 28 more to go to reach her goal of 100 books read this summer!

How are your kids doing with their summer reading?

Summer Reading Challenge: Week 6

30 Jul

Someone sure stepped up her game last week!

Camryn read a total of 26 books!

We may reach our goal of 100 books read this summer after all.

Here are the books she enjoyed reading last week:

 

 

The total of books read currently is 62. Just 38 more books to go!

 

*Not pictured is a book that came with a pair of shoes that we bought her for school. It contained three comics. It’s a book so I counted it.

Summer Reading Challenge: Week 5

25 Jul

Camryn read a total of 8 books during week 5 of our little challenge.

Which brings our number of total books read to 36.

Yikes.

We only have a little over 3 weeks to go until school starts and she still has to read 64 more books if she’s going to make her goal.

How are your kids doing with their summer reading?

 

Here are the books that Cam enjoyed reading last week:

 

Summer Reading Challenge – Weeks 3 & 4

16 Jul

I had to combine the last two weeks’ reading tally because Cam only read six books.

Six books total in two weeks.

That’s not so good.

Not when she was reading 2-3 books every afternoon.

I blame Pokemon.

Remember Pokemon… From the 90’s?

Well it’s back and it feels like I’ve time traveled back to a decade that I had no interest in revisiting.

My son was obsessed with Pokemon when he was my daughter’s age and now, against my better judgement, my daughter has become just as smitten.

My son conveniently saved all of his Pokemon cards and other paraphernalia so the two of them sit on the living room floor and battle or duel or whatever they call it in the afternoons when it’s too hot to go outside.

She spent a few afternoons last week reading the “Official Game Guide” and the “Official Strategy Guide”.

I wish I were kidding.

What’s even more ridiculous is that she remembered every detail of what she read. Have you ever flipped through one of those?

How is this game geared towards children?

There are stats to remember, attack points, damage points, types, evolution, and let’s not forget about their eleventy thousand different crazy names.

If I need more than five things from the store, I’d better have them written on a list or one of them isn’t coming home.

How are these kids remembering all of this information?!

The beauty of this situation, as much as it pains me to say that Pokemon has come back into our lives, is that it’s something my kids will actually play together.

Being ten years apart, there aren’t a lot of things that interest them both, aside from cartoons and driving me slowly insane.

So I thought about it and decided that if Pokemon can get them to get along for half an hour or so I guess I can’t be too upset about it and I made my peace with it.

My kids are happy, they’re interacting, they’re entertaining themselves, how can I be anything but happy about that?

Then my son came to me and said he wanted to teach my daughter how to play Yugioh.

yay.

Here are the six books Camryn read over the last two weeks:

 

Total books read: 28. 72 more to go!

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →