Rosie the Riveter Costume

Here's Secundus as Rosie the Riveter! We've been meaning to do this costume for years. When she was little, she was a natural model and was always posing sweetly when there was a camera around. But then she found out about Rosie and now constantly flashes me this pose!

You can get the image of Rosie's name tag to print from my Pinterest board.  I copied it to a word document, sized it just right, then printed and laminated it with packing tape before hot-gluing it to this too-large dress shirt.

She's just wearing black slack pants on the bottom.

 A very important element is Rosie's head scarf.  There's some instructions on how to tie it (super easy!) on my Pinterest board.  We were going to use a regular red bandana but then realized we had this scrap of red-and-white-polka dot fabric that's just perfect!

Up next: The Statue of Liberty!

Revolutionary War Drummer Boy Costume

For Halloween this year we're doing an American theme.  Take a look at Quartus' Drummer Boy costume!  We were going to borrow Grandpa's Civil War soldier hat, but after browsing inspiration pictures, Quartus insisted he would rather be a drummer boy from the American Revolutionary War (because of the tricorn hat and white shirt.)

Speaking of inspiration, I am NOT an expert on colonial dress.  But here's the link to the Pinterest board I made to help me.

He's wearing a white dress shirt that's a couple sizes too big because that gives him puffy sleeves.  The vest is a dark blue T-shirt.  I just cut the collar and sleeves off and then cut it up the front.

We already had a toy drum so I just had to add a strap made out of denim from old jeans.

 We had a felt pirate hat that's been squished at the bottom of a dress-up box for years.  I also think it might have originally been a bicorn hat.  I pinched and hotglued it to make it keep the tricorn shape that I wanted.

Do you see that glossy part on the front of the hat?  It had a skull-and-crossbones picture that I had to cover with black fabric paint.

The breeches are a pair of his brown church pants that I simply cut and hemmed below the knee.  I also added some elastic to the hem.  His brother's tall white socks completes the look!

Stay tuned for The Statue of Liberty, Uncle Sam, and Rosie the Riveter!

Fire Drills at Church

The fire alarm went off at church on Sunday and I am so proud of our Nursery!

Several months ago the fire alarm went off near the end of church and everyone was a bit baffled but safely got out. This was when I was still teaching the bigger kids. We had no plan in place so we just went out the nearest exit, but stayed on the grass right next to the building, and then parents quickly found us and started taking kids home. It was a little chaotic and very disorganized. Kids were running all over and it was hard to keep a good head count of who had been picked up already. Thankfully when the firemen came they confirmed that it was a false alarm!

After that incidence, it was very clear that as a ward we were in dire need of an evacuation plan and a fire drill! 

I was soon after put into Nursery. The following is the plan that I came up with. I gave a copy to the primary president, every Nursery family, and posted one on our door.

We eventually had a fire drill and it went well. Taking everyone across the parking lot to the big grassy field and covered pavilion was an obvious good idea that Bishop decided on.  

After our lesson and music time, we always take the kids over to this grass or to an empty portion of the cultural hall to run and play for a few minutes. So it wasn't hard for them to cooperate when the fire drill happened. But still, us leaders knew it was going to happen so it wasn't necessarily a perfect test of our abilities and our kiddos.

Well, we got a good test this time! Thankfully it was another false alarm, but we didn't know that! 

The alarm went off while we were playing in the cultural hall. The ladies that I have privilege of serving with were fantastic!  One immediately jumped up and ran back to our room to grab the rope we use to herd them across the parking lot. The other sister was a super star at getting the kids gathered up and holding onto the rope. This was no easy feat considering they were all spread out and in the middle of playing with strollers and tunnels. 

I'm also grateful for and impressed with the other adults who came to our aid! The Primary music leader and two dads were right there when we opened the door to begin our walk through the building. And we made it through the main doors of the church without any little ones being squished or stepped on.

I'm super proud of these kiddos, too! This was a major shift in our rigid schedule! We never go outside after first going to play in the "big room;" it's always either one or the other. Then of course one might expect some crying induced by the scary flashing lights and loud siren, not to mention the possible meltdowns when they're told without warning to drop their toys and go somewhere else! And almost all of them held onto the rope the whole time, as instructed.

In the end, we successfully got 12 children age 18 months to 3 years old across the parking lot and linked up with their parents without incident!

Hopefully we don't have any more false alarms and no real fires either! But if we do, I'm pretty confident we'll be able to handle it!

Grocery Store Lessons

Dear Raley's Grocery Stores,

I want to thank you so much for providing free fruit for kids near your check stand (and cookies in your bakery!) It's nice that when I have to take my 4 kids grocery shopping with me, they can get a treat. They love it! 

I love that I can use your generosity as a platform for life lessons for them: they practice polite words when they ask the bakery lady for cookies, they have to *earn* their treats by behaving correctly while we shop, I teach them about "taxes" when I require that they give me a little bite of what they got 😂, and we talk about healthy snack choices when they get their fruit. 

Also, I've taught them that the reason Raley's provides this service is because it's a successful marketing technique so they are learning about real-world business practices; case in point, we always stop at Raley's on the way home from grandma's house instead of the Walmart neighborhood market or Winco (I've also explained to them that this extra service is one reason that Raley's prices are generally higher. "No such thing as a free lunch" is an important concept for kids to learn!)

Unfortunately, apparently not all of your customers understand the point and value of your policy. Today as we were checking out, a cranky older woman accused me of teaching my children that it was ok to steal oranges without paying for them. I pointed to the sign and tried to explain it to her but she still rolled her eyes and shook her head at me. Oh well! There's another good lesson for my kids: you can't please everyone!

Sincerely, 
A Grateful Mom That Hopes That Grumpy Lady Doesn't Have Grandkids

ARP Bulletin Board

I've been facilitating the Spouse and Family Support Group (for those that have loved ones in addiction) for about 6 years. Our meeting (and the ARP general addiction meeting the next night)  has been in the same room of the same building for that whole time.

This room has two sides, each side having a chalkboard flanked by two skinny bulletin boards. One chalkboard is used by adult seminary each morning, while the board on our side isn't used by anyone. I finally decided to claim it for the Addiction Recovery Program.

I wanted to keep the project inexpensive and colorful. Thankfully I had colored cardstock, white butcher paper, and black construction paper on hand already. For the border I cut strips from a striped wrapping paper I owned. It's not very durable and a professional border paper would look better, but this works for now.

To the right of the chalkboard I've put each of the 12 Steps. The general addiction meeting has large posters with the steps on them that they hang up on their night, but I wanted a copy up for people to see all week and so we could reference them on our night. (The Family Support Group doesn't follow the 12 Steps, but the steps were so life changing for many in our group and they apply to all of life's difficulties so it's nice to have a reminder.)

On the left side I have 3 pictures of concepts that we often reference (Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, one of Christ reaching down to lift up a struggling child by Greg Olsen, and a new one that had an impact on me called The Hand of God.) I purchased 5x7 inch photos from Dessert Book to keep price down instead of getting larger versions.

This bulletin board also has the Serenity Prayer, a schedule of all the Addiction Recovery Meetings our Stake hosts, and an appropriate scripture (Ether 12:27.)

I'm really pleased with how it all came together. With this room being used by adult seminary every weekday morning, Priesthood classes on Sunday, and baptisms on many weekends, lots of people will see this display. My prayer is that those people who need support will be touched by what they see and be inspired to join us.

Jelly Belly Factory

This summer I was able to take the kids, plus a friend's kid, to the Jelly Belly Factory for a tour.  This is always a fun day trip.  The best part is that the tour is free.  The worst part is that the kids always want to wander around the gift shop.  Allowing that is just asking for money to be wasted and a kid to get kidnapped, especially since I was the only adult going this time.  So I came up with a genius plan, if I do say so myself

First I stockpiled a bunch of different Jelly Belly products.  Those small 1 oz packages are fun because they're available in different themes all year but they cost $1.25 at the factory gift shop.  At the grocery store they're only 99 cents.  If you get them on sale, they're only 79 cents.  I was even able to get some for only 50 cents after Easter! 

The night before our field trip, I labeled all the goodies with a price.  The little 1 oz packages were"$2" while the bigger 2.8 oz bags were "$5."

Then I printed up a list of rules so the kids knew how they could earn "money" to "buy" the Jelly Bellies from me.  We went over the rules before we got in the car, they were each given a copy of the list in the car so they could read it again, then we went over it once more before we got out of the car to walk into the factory.

Do you notice the last thing on the list?  "Bonus dollar just because I love you!  You can't lose this one!"  One of the kids had been having a hard time making right choices lately so I didn't want him to get discouraged.  I wanted the focus to be on positive reinforcement.  When we were first going over the list, he had a huge smile when I read the last item.

When we were done with the tour, we found a bench outside where we could go over the rules and see how much money each of them earned.  Following each rule earned them 1 fake dollar.  Four of the kids got the full $12, while one (not the one I thought would struggle) got $11.

Finally they made their purchases from me and then gorged themselves on candy on the drive home.  It was a success and I will definitely be employing it again in the future!

Melted Crayon Sun Catchers

The best craft projects are ones that I can throw together with little preparation and using supplies I already have on hand!  These melted crayon sun catchers fit the bill!  

First cut a rectangle of wax paper.  

Fold in half.

Sharpen old crayons (we got this cute crayon-shaped crayon sharpener at Walmart) and make a pile of small shavings inside your folded wax paper.

Next run an iron over the folded wax paper.  Use the lowest heat setting.  

Finally, we just used plain old masking tape to seal all around the edges before taping them to a sunny window.

They're very abstract and pretty.  If it were up to me, I would have used more crayon shavings and trimmed the final product smaller before taping the edges.  But the kids are pleased with their outcome, so that's all that matters.

New School "Toys" for the First Day of School

One fun thing we did on the first day of school this year is to go shopping at Lakeshore Learning.  Usually when we go shopping there we fill a cart and then the store holds onto our stuff until the school pays for it and my supervising teacher can go pick it up.  All I get to go home with is a receipt showing what I ordered.  It's so fun to shop with our school funds, but a bit of a let down when we have to wait a few weeks to actually receive our purchases.  

However this year, our charter school arranged some special shopping days.  They had school representatives there that could approve and pay for our selections on the spot so we could bring them home without any wait!  It's so great!  I love our charter school!  They're always improving and seeking ways to better serve us families. 

On the first day of school we took a field trip to Lakeshore and while I picked up a couple things that I needed, the kids were able to choose one fun item to buy with our school funds.  Then the afternoon was spent enjoying our choices.

Secundus chose this really cool fort building set.  Primus and her actually slept in this igloo that night (I don't understand how they can fit but they assure me it's comfortable enough.)

Tertius chose this Action Plates set.  The girls already had the Fashion Plates version.  He can build a super hero using the interchangeable body pieces and then put paper over it and do a crayon rubbing of his creation. We recently watched Avengers: Infinity War and so after he created all his super heros, he drew Infinity Gauntlets on their hands.

Primus chose this necklace making kit with alphabet beads.

Quartus chose magnetic fishing rods.  The kids had all had their eyes on this silly toy for a while.  It's one of those things that they have a lot of fun playing with when we visit the store, but I wasn't sure they would actually use it if we brought it home.  Plus, it doesn't have that much educational value for my big kids.  And for 30 bucks?  Pass!  But then on our special shopping day Quartus found 2 of the rods packaged without the fish for less than half the price.  I couldn't say "no."

I helped him cut out construction paper fish and put colored paper clips on their mouths.  Then Quartus and Tertius had a blast fishing together from a blue sheet "ocean."  They also had fun going all over the house to see what their fishing rods would stick to.  I forget how fascinating magnets are for kids!

I'll say it again, I love our charter school!  And I love that we have access to all these fun resources!

Our Version of Lapbooks and Literature Pockets

The concept of the "lapbook" seems to be quite popular among homeschoolers for literature, unit studies, geography, etc.  I loved the idea of having a fun, visual reminder of what was learned.  Erica over at Confessions of a Homeschooler has a great explanation about what lapbooks are and how to make them right here.

I also love using the Literature Pockets curriculum published by Evan Moor to study picture books with my kids when they're preschool through 2nd grade. They have 3 or so art projects for each story that help the child explore themes, characters, vocab, story sequencing, etc. Here you can see how they suggest to make the pockets to store the projects of each story.

These end up being very large (12X12)!  They don't fit nicely on a shelf or in a basket or storage box.  So I took the lapbook and literature pockets ideas and made up my own hybrid that has worked for us for about 6 years.  I don't have a great name for them; we just call them notebooks.

I only do this for our literature studies.  The kids love looking at their completed notebook at the end of the school year and remembering all the books they studied and the art projects they did for them.  

I just use regular 9X12 construction paper that I punch with 6 holes and bind with yarn.  See how loose the yarn is?  These are the new ones the kids are using this school year.  By the end of the year, they're so full of papers and projects that you need lots of space to expand!  The kids get to design their own cover for the front of their notebook.

The one below belongs to Quartus for this year.  See all the different colors of paper?  He's going to study 6 Folk Tales and so that means 6 different colored sections (plus a blue front cover and a beige back cover.)  The kids get to choose their own colors.  My littles only need 2 pages for each story.  

 The big kids (3rd grade and up) study 3 chapter books per year so their notebooks have only 3 sections, but they need several sheets of each color because they have a lot more things to include!  Vocab cards, art projects (or photos of 3D things that won't fit here), Venn diagrams, comprehension question answers, test/quizzes, etc.

Sometimes the kids will make something in the course of literature studies that they're super proud of and want to be displayed in the kitchen (I have a clothesline strung up on the wall where we can hang art.)  When we're done admiring it, it gets glued onto the correct page along with every other assignment.

Sometimes full page worksheets get glued in as is (see below), which works well because the construction paper (9X12) is larger than regular computer paper (8.5X11).  But often, in order to fit things better, papers get folded in half or smaller before being glued in (like the "Wisconsin" and "Similes/Metaphors" pages Secundus has on the page above.)  It's also kind of fun to unfold and expand things to read them when we're looking back at everything later.

Do you have a method that you love for displaying/storing completed literature activities?

Lego Organization

Hubby has always loved Legos, and still keeps his stash organized in our room.  So I knew it would be something we would get our kids into.  Legos are great in so many ways, however I refuse to step on stray pieces.  I also refuse to spend money (so much money!) on a toy with small pieces just to have half of them accidentally lost, vacuumed, and thrown away.

That's why we didn't encourage Lego play much until the kids were a little older and we could have a specific place for them to play with and store them.  A few years ago, we acquired this huge book case.  For a long time, the two sections pictured here (which now hold science kits, paint supplies, scripture stories, and history resources) were the designated Lego shelves.  It gave the kids plenty of room to build and display completed projects. 

 After a while it became clear that Primus didn't really care about Legos, and Secundus and Tertius were very territorial about the things that they built.  So each was assigned one section so they could keep their loose pieces and completed builds separate.

Soon though, Quartus grew up and started building.  Thankfully, we were given this cabinet (sideboard?) and it's awesome!

The top opens up to double the work space for the kids to play on!

These 2 small drawers hold all the loose pieces.  This is plenty of space for us because we hardly ever buy new Legos and the kids like to leave their projects intact until they need a piece (at which time they will finally break apart something old.)

The cabinet space below is a nice size to hold all the things they've made and aren't ready to destroy yet.

When we made the move to this cabinet, Secundus and Tertius were very upset that they would no longer have everything perpetually on display.  So we had to come up with a compromise.  This small book case is right next to the storage cabinet.  I've used masking tape to divide the top into 3 equal sections.  They're allowed to display their absolute favorite things that they are the most proud of right here. 

One final rule that we have that helps keep the Legos contained is that if any are dropped on the floor and found by me or Hubby, then those pieces become the permanent property of Hubby.  This has all worked really well for us! The kids get to have fun and be creative, and the mess is managed.

Finishing the 2017-18 School Year Strong...

...is not what we did.

I found this in draft form exactly as you see above, with nothing else.  I started working on this post before my nervous breakdown but clearly the pressure was building.   

I intended to sit down today and try to analyze how the end of last school year went and finish this post.  But being reminded of the trials and the guilt and stress that I was feeling would just make me cry.  So instead I'm going to leave it as is, because this way it just makes me laugh!

First Day of School 2018

Like every year, we did school cones.  I love that my kids love this tradition!  It really makes them look forward to school starting.  This year their cones contained Carnation Breakfast Essentials powder, mini muffins, fruit leather, apple sauce pouches, pudding cups, Kinder Joy eggs, Nutella with pretzel sticks, suckers, and new pencil sharpeners.

I like having the kids decorate the paper that I make the school cones out of.  I just use 12X18 white construction paper.  This year I put tempera paint in squirt bottles and let them experiment with that.  Tertius decided to just squirt out a big blob and then spread it around with his fingers.

Tertius 3rd Grade

Quartus Kindergarten(Darn January birthday! Officially he did TK last year so this year is Kinder. But realistically he did Kinder stuff last year and has all 1st grade curriculum this year. So I guess that means no pressure this year because it doesn't matter if he gets behind-or rather doesn't keep up with 1st grade stuff?)

Primus 7th Grade

Secundus 5th Grade

Traditional picture of bedhead, pajamas, and school cone mess on the first day of school!

Rangoli Sand Art

We learned about Diwali, and the beautiful rangoli that are made to celebrate it, in our history studies (Story of the World, volume 2, chapter 5).  Then we watched a bunch of videos of them being made.  The process and craftsmanship is amazing! (Just search "rangoli diwali" on Youtube.)

We happened to have a bunch of left-over colored sugar from a baking project, so I printed out some rangoli coloring pages (just google that phrase-there's a ton of pretty ones to choose from) and let the kids try it out.  

Unfortunately, this was the only picture I got.  The girls did a great job.  Since it's a delicate project that takes lots of focus, time, and fine motor skills, the boys gave up after just a few minutes. :)

(Edited to add: traditionally, rangoli are temporary designs. To stay true to that, we didn't put any glue on our papers. We made them, admired them, and then threw them away.)

Easy Waffle-Iron Pizza and Poptarts

I had started this blog post years ago and just discovered it.  I need to make these with the kids again!

Ok, so you need to buy the Pillsbury canned biscuits to make these.  It's important that you buy the "Flaky Layers" kind!

(I apologize for the lack of helpful pictures. I would have taken some if my waffle iron and kitchen didn't look gross. 😜)

Step 1
Rip each raw biscuit into 2 thin pieces (see why the "flaky layers" are important?)

Step 2
Gently stretch them a little so they're a little wider.  They'll rip easily so don't stretch too much!

Step 3
Place one half of the biscuit on your waffle iron.

Step 4
Add your filling.
If you want to make a "Pop Tart," then put a spoonful of jam in the middle (be sure you leave a good clean border or else when you close the iron, you'll have jam squeezing out all over!)
If you want Pizza, then put a few slices of pepperoni and some pieces of string cheese.

Step 5
Place the other half of the biscuit on top and close your waffle iron.  Don't lock it closed-it's going to be thicker than a normal waffle and you don't want to squish everything.  Just set the lid down on it gently.

Step 6
When it looks cooked and golden, pop those puppies off and enjoy!  Be sure to have pizza sauce ready to dip your pizza waffles in.

Another yummy thing to cook on the waffle iron is refrigerated canned cinnamon rolls!  They cook pretty fast and then they have those little square potholes which hold all the delicious icing!