Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Building a birdhouse {Home Depot Kids Workshops}


In case you haven't noticed, I'm always on the look out for fun things to do on the weekends with the girls. Two weeks ago, I mentioned we went to a family festival at a local farmers market. Home Depot had a tent set up and they were building these cute birdhouses. Unfortunately, we arrived a little late and they were already packing up when we got there. Bummer. They were nice enough to give us a free birdhouse kit to make on our own.









Home Depot offers FREE hands-on workshops designed for children ages 5 - 12 the 1st Saturday of every month at all The Home Depot stores between 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.  So, if you are free this Saturday, head on over to your local Home Depot for a fun, free activity! 


**Important Note: This is not a sponsored post! I did not receive any compensation, just this free kit. Although, if someone from Home Depot is reading this, I really wouldn't mind ;) A gift card maybe?!? LOL

Sunday, August 28, 2011

My week in pictures {Phone Dump}


Ok, I am a day late in posting this but oh well....Its been a busy week with my oldest starting Kindergarten.

We went to a local festival at a farm, they had all kinds of cool stuff included this bungee thing my daughter wanted to do. She's my little dare devil.


Hay rides. Great except its really uncomfortable to sit on hay with shorts on. 


The ride took us back to the petting zoo area. 


Family Shot :)


Wouldn't be complete without some cotton candy. 

 

I bought this headboard off Craiglist. Turns out the lady lived a few houses down from me! It was a wood finish but we painted to match the room. Here is the primer, we finished painting and will put it up today (hopefully). 


Love end of season clearance at Target! $3.24 for this bathing suit. 


Ride on lawn mower, a must for our yard. Too bad we don't own one! Luckily we have a great friend who lets us borrow it. 


Kindergarten Orientation. Apparently we have hit the Kindergarten teacher jackpot. She had these cute cupcakes waiting for her new students. 


My little one making herself right at home. 


Officially a school ager! 


This is what happens when you mix side walk chalk and water, side walk paint! 


While hosing down the patio, I decided to spray the girls in their clothes. They loved it! Lots of cool points for that one :) 


My girls love making their own pizza...too bad the one on the left ate all her cheese instead of putting in ON the pizza. When she finished off the bowl of cheese, she then proceeded to take the cheese off the pizza!! 


Ice cream night. Magic Hard Shell, haven't had it in years but its sooo good!
 


How was your week?


Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Lunch Box Ideas


It has been so nice that for the past 5 years my kids have been in daycare and I have never had to worry about packing a lunch for them BUT on Thursday I start. I have been looking around the blogosphere for some ideas however all I've seen are these elaborate sandwiches cut into shapes that look more like art than food. I mean seriously, who has time for all that. 

Cute, but a little over the top. 

To keep it simple, I wrote down a list of foods my daughter likes to eat. I separated them into categories: Protein, Fruits, Veggies, Salty, Sweets, and Dips. This now gives me a visual of things I can add to her lunch box everyday. Pick one from each category (or most of them) and there you have an easy lunch planned! 

Here are some examples of food in each category: 

Protein - 
  • Turkey
  • Ham
  • Chicken Salad
  • Tuna salad
  • Cheese Sticks
  • Peanut Butter
  • Yogurt 

** These can be done as sandwiches. Also, you can vary these with different types of bread such as wraps or pitas, or even no bread at all! 

Fruits
  • Strawberries
  • Grapes
  • Mandarin Oranges
  • Raisins
  • Pineapple
  • Apples or Applesauce
  • Banana

Veggies
  • Carrot Sticks
  • Celery
  • Cucumber slices
  • Cherry tomatoes
Dips (for veggies)
  • Ranch
  • Hummus
  • Peanut Butter

Salty
  • Pretzels
  • Veggies Chips
  • Crackers - Goldfish, Ritz, etc..
  • Sun Chips
  • Mini Rice Cakes - various flavors

Sweets
  • Granola Bar
  • Cookies
  • Chocolate covered pretzels
  • Rice Krispy Treats
  • Pudding
  • Jello
  • Fruit Snacks

I thought it'd be a great idea to have some kind of chart with all this information, but alas someone had already thought of that! The one and only Martha Stuart has a printable weekly lunch chart, separated into categories similar to what I posted above. Print this off with magnetic paper,sheets and have your child help plan their weekly lunches.  You can download it here. 


If that is too much work, just make your own list and have it handy in the kitchen. Grab the list and take it to the grocery store with you too! Makes it super easy. 

You can also write the week's menu choices down with a white board or chalk board and keep in the kitchen like this found on Disney's Family Fun site. 


A few more ideas I have found that you may not have thought of (I didn't either!). 

Applewiches
Image via {A Few Shortcuts}

Meat & Cheese Skewers

Since I don't have any of my own lunch box photos (yet) check out this site for more lunch box ideas! 



Please feel free to share your ideas with me too! What other foods does your child like to eat? 





Saturday, August 20, 2011

My week in pictures {Phone Dump}


My daughter lost her first tooth! She was so happy! 


 My cheat day...Five Guys. Nuff said. 


 My girls. Its rare I catch them both looking and smiling at the same time. Also, love their matching pink & black polka dot outfits :) 



 My 6:30am wake up call. How can you not love that face! 


 Tea party with Barbies & Princesses 


Chalk Body Outline, always fun.


I get served cookies & tea while working. 


Playdate at the pool. These girls sat for a good 15 minutes sharing one yellow chalk crayon. Whatever works!


More pool fun.


Group shot. 


She loves to play games on the computer while mommy works on hers. 


Another mid-week playdate at Monkey Joes. 


Using up our free bowling coupons. 




Our last outdoor movie of the summer, Tangled. Brought some glow in the dark bracelets for the girls. So nice that they gave some to the kids around us. 


Breakfast picnic in the trunk of my car. It's Bo time! 



Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Back to School {Photo Ideas}


Ok...so the summer is coming to a screeching halt (thank goodness!). What??! Tell me you aren't a little exciting about this. We have had a fabulous summer with our bucket list and all, however I am ready for my oldest to start Kindergarten so I can finally get back on a better work schedule. With that being said, I as very excited about what I have been seeing around the web for back to school photos. You can count on the fact I will be taking a bunch of photos of my girl on her first day (which happens to be next Thursday). I wanted to share with you a few tips and fun ideas so you can get some great shots too! Here we go:

1. Add signage: 
Take a photo with a sign showing which grade they are entering. This will help when you get old & can't remember a thing! Here are a few cute ones, or you can make one yourself!


Download these free printable signs from Chickabug & HowDoesShe here



Download this free printable from iheartnaptime here.

2.  Document:
Document your child's favorite things like Rocket City Mom shows here. Don't have Photoshop for this one....no worries, you can use one of the free photo editing software programs to do this like Picnik



Another fun thing to so it take a photo of your child on the first day of school and last day of school in the same outfit. Add them side by side to see how much they have grown over the school year. 



3. Capture the details:
Get close up shots of those nice new shoes, the backpack, the clothes. It's all in the details!!


Also, don't forget to take photos of your child's classroom, their desk, the front of the school....all these things will help tell the story of your child's first day of school and make it memorable. 

Check back next week for MY daughter's back to school photos. If you have some back to school photos to share, please send me!! I'd love to check them out :) 

Monday, August 15, 2011

iheartfaces - EYES


It's been a while since I have entered a photo in the i heart faces challenge. I'm not sure why, between working full time,taking care of the kids, and starting my blog,I should have a lot of free time right?!? I do have the perfect models for this week's photo challenge though!




www.iheartfaces.com

Saturday, August 13, 2011

Eyes


I can get enough of these..


Baby Blues...Although you can' tell here, I just LOVE me some B&W's! :) 

**I did nothing to edit these eyes either! **

I'm entering this in The Paper Mama's Photo Challenge.
The week's challenge is EYES.

The Paper Mama