Word of the Year!

I cannot believe it is already time again to choose a word to focus on for the upcoming year! 2010 was a big year for our family, LOTS of twists and turns, amazing blessings and humbling trials. I think 2011 will have just as many changes as we will again be moving, welcoming a new baby to the family and who knows what else?!

As with the last two years I have done this, the word I have chosen came to me quickly and without a doubt! There are so many things I need to work on, but this one immediately struck me as what I want to focus on this year. My word of the year for 2011 is......

SERVICE!!

As I said 2011 was a very humbling year for us, and in the midst of it all our blessings and the service of others was what shone through. I am thrilled to take 2011 to focus on all the different ways I can serve in my life. First and foremost, serving my family. I am excited to serve my family, to help all of us become better and closer to our Savior. I am looking forward to serving in the Church, while we have been staying in Eagle Mountain we have not had the opportunity of serving in callings. I have been so surprised to find out how much I have missed it! I love the associations it brings, I love how much more I depend on the Lord to make up for what I lack. I am excited to serve in the Temple. I am excited to look past my little family and our needs and serve those in our community that have so little. On Christmas Eve this year we went to The Road Home shelter and donated a trunk full of toys and baby clothes. It was a life changing experience for me and hopefully my kids too. Often in our prayers now Skylar will ask Heavenly Father to bless the kids at the homeless shelter. We were so humbled and only wished we had done more. We have made a family commitment to do something each month (ie make blankets, put together hygeine kits etc) so by the time next Christmas Eve rolls around we will have a donation that really means something, that we have all worked for.

If you feel overwhelmed by New Year's Resolutions I encourage you to pick just one word, its a great way to feel your making a change without going overboard :) If you need some ideas, here are my words for the last two years!! Have a Happy New Year everyone!!

EMBRACE
BALANCE

Just in case there aren't enough days to celebrate...

we created a new one in our family this year! I was inspired by a dear friend of mine (I love you Steph!) that has made the first day of October a holiday for her little family. I thought it was such a sweet idea that I copied her and we decided to kick off our favorite month of the year by celebrating December 1st! I had alot of fun ideas of ways to make the day special and I think for the most part it was pretty successful and a great way to kick off our Christmas season.

You know I love a themed breakfast, so may I introduce you too........SANTA CLAUS!!!

As you can see, MOST of the kids really enjoyed this....Kendall being the exception. She was really wanting some cereal that morning. But hey, this is a reality at our house, so there you go! :)

As the day went on we did several activities like writing our letters to Santa and going to the Dollar store and picking out hot chocolate mugs for everyone. Then that evening as we sipped hot chocolate from our brand new mugs we read our new book, "Christopher Pop-in-kins". This is a darling book that is very similar to another book about a little elf that likes to sit on a shelf :) Its darling and comes with the cutest little elf that I have been hiding around the house every morning, making sure the kids are being good before he reports back to Santa :)

All in all, it was a really fun day and something I hope we will continue to do year after year. I am a sucker for traditions so every year it seems I try to add a few more, and only a few actually stick. It was a great way to kick off our month of celebrating, rejoicing, giving and more!

Tom the Turkey Family Home Evening

I had previously posted this FHE idea on my other blog, but we did it again tonight and it was a huge hit! I thought I would repost it here in hopes it can give some of you some fun thanksgiving themed ideas. This is a great lesson because there are so many fun things you can do with turkeys, but the content is the best part.

To prepare for this lesson I printed off the story, "The Turkey with the Terrible Temper", and printed off several turkeys. You need a brown, red, blue, green, purple and yellow turkey and then one white one that you can color brown with a feather in each of the above listed colors. As I read the stories to my children I show them the different colored turkeys to go along with the story. I can't remember where I initially found this story, so I typed it up here for you. I did make a few changes to the original, just a little different wording for my younger children.

The Turkey With the Terrible Temper

Once there was a little BROWN TURKEY who had a TERRIBLE TEMPER. He often flew into rages and ranted around until he was a nuisance in the farm yard. One day he lost his temper about some little thing and got so angry he flew into a rage and went RED as a beet. The other turkeys laughed at him and said: You're RED, RED RED as a BEET: RED from your head to the tip of your feet. Tom Turkey didn't like anyone or anything so he ran away and hid. He sat and sulked for a long time. When he calmed down and came out of his hiding place he was really RED all over. His head was RED and his neck was RED- he was RED from head to his feet.

He hurried to the edge of the farm to visit Dr. Owl how was wise and knew all the answers to everything. "You will have to learn to control that temper of yours!" hooted Dr. Owl. " If you don't remember in time you will end up being a very sorry turkey." The next morning Tom Turkey was brown again except that he had a red feather in his tail. He was very glad to be brown again, but he still thought it was everybody else's fault that he gotten so angry the day before. Tom's mother called him to help with the Monday wash.

But Tom got the BLUES as soon as he started working. He moaned and groaned until his mother said he was acting like a baby. You can guess what happened next- he lost his temper again. This time he went BLUE ALL OVER! As he was running away to hide all the other turkeys yelled: You're BLUE, BLUE from your head to your toe, BLUE all over wherever you go. This time Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed his mother for losing his temper.

By morning he was BROWN again but now he had a blue feather next to the red one in his tail. You can guess what happened the rest of the week. On Tuesday Tom didn't want to clean up the yard. He said he hated cleaning up with a PURPLE passion. Just as soon he had said he was in a rage he turned PURPLE all over. The Turkeys shouted: You're PURPLE, PURPLE, that's all we can see, you'd better go hide under your favorite tree. Of course Tom Turkey sat and sulked and blamed everything onto to everyone else. On Wednesday morning he was BROWN again but he had a PURPLE tail feather added to his the RED and BLUE one. He was beginning to feel ashamed that he couldn't control himself when he wanted to. He went out for a walk when he saw a big ear of corn that his turkey friend was eating. Tom was GREEN with envy.

He thought the farmer had no right to give someone else the cob of corn. And before he knew it he had turned GREEN all over, and was in another terrible temper tantrum. The turkeys all turned on him and yelled: You're GREEN, GREEN GREEN as the grass. Why don't you get wise and stop all the sass? And of course again, Tom Turkey went to his hiding place to sulk and feel sorry for himself. On Thursday morning he was BROWN again but now he had a GREEN feather amongst the other brightly colored tail feathers. But something was happening to Tom Turkey. He was really beginning to want to change. He wanted to keep his temper. He didn't feel like being ashamed of himself. He was determined to try hard and do just that. Of course all the turkeys liked to tease Tom and while they were playing a game of Gobble and Waddle someone called Tom a coward. Before Tom started to think he had flown into another tantrum.

This time his face turned YELLOW and his neck was YELLOW and the turkeys were saying he had a YELLOW streak down his back. They yelled: You're YELLOW, turkey. Just like we said, Why don't you go home and hide under the bed? Tom Turkey had turned YELLOW all over because he had forgotten to control his temper. But this time he sat under a tree and thought a long time about everything. He had only himself to blame for his mistakes. He was beginning to realize that he was the only one who could make things better. When he awoke in the morning he was brown again with a new yellow feather in his tail. He didn't say a word to anyone, he just went about his business and said to himself: " I can do it, if I try hard enough !" Mother Turkey asked Tom to keep an eye on the little turkeys when she went to the store on Friday. While she was gone all the baby turkeys ran through the house with muddy feet. When Tom saw what they had done, Tom almost lost his temper.

But this time he just held his breath as long as he could. He turned as pale as a ghost , but he didn't lose his temper. The turkeys yelled: You're WHITE, WHITE but your temper didn't show. Maybe you're changing, we really hope so. All Saturday and Sunday he kept calm and was tickled PINK to think he had gone two days without a terrible temper tantrum. He was still a little BROWN turkey, and a very happy one too. He reported back to Dr. Owl on Monday and Tom Turkey thanked him for his help. Dr. Owl told Tom he had earned the right to wear the brightly colored tail and that he should show it off proudly from now on. So when you go to the farm and see the turkey with his fan shaped tail all unfolded, remember this story about the turkey with the terrible temper.

I know, it seems a little long, but it held my 5 and 3 year old's attention....and thats saying something!! :) I just have to quickly say, I LOVE lessons and opportunities to teach our children that they have a CHOICE. They choose how they act, they choose to find happiness or not. I think it is very empowering for children, where they may often feel like they don't have many choices at all.

After our lesson we ended the night with our traditional turkey cupcakes. We make these every year for this fhe, and the kids always love it. All you need are:

Yellow cupcakes

Chocolate Frosting

100 calorie snack packs of Sandie's Shortbread Cookies

Candy Corns

Red and Black icing

And this is the finished product....(please ignore the dorky pic!)

There you have it!! I was inspired once again this Sunday to rededicate our family to having weekly Family Home Evenings. In our families and our homes is where some of the MOST important learning in this life will take place. The church has wonderful programs, but they are only meant to supplement that which is already being done in the home. I am excited for the challenge to teach my children the things my Heavenly Father would have them know, and create some wonderful memories in the process!!

So grateful....

I am so grateful today for so many things, I thought I would just list a few :) My friend that takes amazing pictures gave me the CD this weekend of the family pics she did for us a while back and I was so excited to see them. I love this family of mine, as crazy as we all are, as loud as we all are, I love them. I KNOW that the reasons my children were sent to me are two-fold: there are things as a mother they need from me, and their are probably more things that I need to learn from them. I love my husband. I love him so much more now than I did when I married him. We both have our flaws and our weaknesses, but we try hard to overcome them and we both just feel lucky to have each other. I feel a great responsibility to do these amazing people in my life justice, to be the mother and wife they deserve. At times it feels overwhelming, but I know I am not in it alone. I am surrounded by love and support, but mostly I am surrounded by a loving Father in Heaven that wants nothing more than the best for my family. By following the principles he has given me, through repentance, forgiveness and all the other help we humans need, his grace can make up what I am so deperately lacking. So today that is what I am grateful for. This precious family of mine, the motivation to do more and be better, and the love and mercy of our Heavenly Father.

Don't be a turkey....Give Thanks!!

That is the theme this month at our house as I try to instill in my children an "attitude of gratitude". Here is what we are doing...:)

I made turkey feathers for every week day of this month and on them wrote something we should be grateful for. Example: I am grateful for the food we have, I am grateful for my family, etc. Then on the back of the feather is a corresponding activity. Example: Go to the store and buy cans of food to donate to the food bank, look at all our photo albums and pictures and talk about memories of our family. Every day the kids will get to pick one feather and the we will do that activity that day.

I had to enlist my husbands help on this one...he is such a good sport! He drew up this cute turkey for me and now this hangs on our wall for the kids to see every day.

Here are all the activities I did, in case anyone wants to use the same idea:

I am grateful for good books. Go to the library and check out books about Thanksgiving

I am grateful for grandparents. Color pics and write letters to send to them.

I am grateful for good neighbors. Make and deliver treats.

I am grateful for this beautiful earth. Go for a walk.

I am grateful for my Daddy. Make turkey handprints for him.

I am grateful for the food we have. Go to the store and buy cans of food to donate to the food bank.

I am grateful for my family. Look at photo albums and pictures and talk about fun family memories.

I am grateful for the scriptures. Pick your favorite scripture story and read with mommy.

I am grateful for my body. Play ring around the rosy, tag, and the Hokey Pokey.

I am grateful for our new baby. Go to the store and pick out one new thing for baby.

I am grateful for Jesus. Draw pictures of all of the things he has taught us.

I am grateful for the Pilgrims. Learn about the Pilgrims and make a fun pilgrim treat.

There were so many more, we have been so blessed and I want to help my kids recognize that. I hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday season and I would love to know....how are you helping teach your kids about gratitude??

Just what I needed....

A vacation to Disney World that is!! :) I have to tell you, as I'm sure you can tell by my month-long absence...I have not been feeling like myself lately. I am attributing it to feeling yucky and having ZERO motivation to do much of anything, but I finally feel like I am back to normal! I think the thing that really helped me was getting away with my adorable little family and enjoying each other and the magic of Disney. Was it the perfect vacation? Nope, not even close!! We started the day of our departure with 3 of us having the stomach flu, Kendall and Britton throwing up every 20 minutes from 2-8 in the morning! Luckily the dr hooked us up and we were fine for the flight. The kids would get tired and grumpy, and because of some complications I had had with my pregnancy the week before I had to take it easy and ride a scooter everywhere. The flight home was straight out of my nightmares and made us vow to NEVER fly for at least 3 more years with our children :) HOWEVER....take one look at these pictures and you will see precious memories made, bonds forged even stronger and a family that is SO far from perfect, but that really loves each other!! :) Enjoy and stay tuned for LOTS more posts with fun activities for the kids, crafts and lots more!!

How THIS guy got us some free tickets for a Witchy Breakfast :)

A few week ago I noticed a contest Gardner Village was having on their Facebook page. First you must understand my obsession with Gardner Village....what can I say, I'm obsessed!! I love going there, and there is no time I love it more than at Halloween time. If you don't believe me see the posts here and here :)



This contest they were having was for 4 tickets to their annual Breakfast with a Witch! I have thought the last several years that this would be fun for our family, but I have never been able to part with $40 for a breakfast buffet :) However, all you had to do for this contest was to share your favorite Halloween memory for your chance to win. As everyone always says, I never win anything, but I thought I would give it a try. I have lots of good halloween memories, my mom was always great at making everything special and fun, but one always stuck out to me....



When we were younger we were poor....I mean, really poor. Like living in a garage, surviving on food stamps, single mom working and going to school full time POOR. The great thing was though, I never felt poor at the holidays. My mom would tirelessly work to make holidays special and memorable for us, without spending lots of money. One year she came up with the best costume idea I have seen yet....she had my little brother be the Little Ceasar's Pizza Guy!! I mean toga, grecian headpiece, and two pizzas on a stick and everything!! It was SO clever, and trust me we got lots of attention everywhere we went (which I loved, because it really translated into more candy ;)



As I told my mom about the contest she reminded me about little details I had forgotten, how she had used frozen pizzas during the day for the school parade. They got pretty soggy, so for trick-or-treating she tried cooking them instead...I am not sure that result was much better ;) But the best thing about this all is what a great reminder it was to me about the importance I feel in making things special for my kids. Even though at the time it feels like so much work, they really will remember all the love and energy that went into all the silly little things we do...even if it doesn't go the way we planned.



I love my mom and the example she has set for me in so many ways. As I sat with my daughters while we dined with the witches I was SO grateful for the loving way I was raised, that helped prepare me to create such special memories with these children of my own. And yes...now I am feeling a little bit of pressure to get more creative with the kids Halloween costumes! :)

Dinosaur Week

A week and half late on the Preschool Theme....NOT cool!! But here it is, better late than never, right? This is always one of my favorite weeks to do fun activities and teach the kids...what is more exciting than DINOSAURS?! We won't actually be doing this theme til next week at our house, so if you have any great ideas PLEASE leave them in a comment. I love to hear what others are doing with their little munchkins too :)

Tuesday

Color or the Week (brown)

Number of the Week (4)

Letter D Tracer page

Sound Bag

Read "Dizzy Dinosaur" book

Dino Bones hunt with capital and lowercase letters (cut out dino bones and hide them all around the house, then have child match corresponding upper and lowercase letters on the bones)

Dinosaur coloring page

Dinosaur feet craft (Kleenex boxes)

Dino hunt snack (gummy dinos in chocolate pudding)

Thursday

Color of the Week (brown)

Number of the Week (4)

Letter D Tracer page

Sound Bag

Read "Dizzy Dinosaur" book

Dinosaur puzzle (Trace a large dinosaur on posterboard, and then cut into puzzle pieces)

Dinosaur egg matching game (fill easter eggs with matches of little plastic dinosaurs)

Snack time

Have a great week everyone!!

What do socks, french toast, and joy all have in common?

They are all things that were in abundance at our home this conference weekend! :) I really love General Conference, I think it is a beautiful time to not only hear the words of our Prophet, President Thomas S. Monson, but to forge stronger family bonds and create lasting memories and traditions.

I am a big lover of traditional foods, you know, the foods you only have on special occasions a few times a year. Our absolute favorite family breakfast is Creme Brulee French Toast. My sister-in-law made this for me right after I had Britton, and it is now tradition for Sunday Conference and Christmas breakfast. Here is the recipe (warning: it is VERY rich and VERY high in calories!!:):

Creme Brulee French Toast

A new tradition we started this year was our "Conference Socks". I always print off the conference packets you find online and put them in a binder with markers, crayons, and a matching game of pictures of the apostles. I also have little buckets filled with treats, amazing what kids will sit through with some crayons and fruit snacks! :) But in all seriousness, I love these packets, they help familiarize my little ones with all the Apostles and the reasons we have conference. ANYWAY...back to the conference socks! :)

This morning sitting next to the treat buckets and binders were pairs of fuzzy Halloween socks for everyone in the family. Every morning when the kids wake up they talk about how cold their feet are on the tile. I thought this would be a fun way to illustrate a principle I want to instill in the children: Feeling and recognizing the Spirit! So to tie it all together here is the poem I came up with (take it easy on me, I wrote it at 7 this morning, not my best work ;)

Conference Socks

On cold fall mornings, it can get a little chilly,

Walking around on the cold tile, it just seems a little silly!

So here are some warm fuzzy socks, to put on your little feet,

But when you put these on, I want you to think of something even more sweet.

Today we listen to Conference and feel the Spirit of the Lord,

We listen to President Monson, he tells us of Heavenly Father's words.

Just like the socks make our feet feel warm, the Spirit can warm our hearts too,

And when you get that warm fuzzy feeling inside, you know what you hear is true!

So every time you put your socks on, I want you to remember what you feel,

President Monson is a prophet, and Heavenly Father and Jesus' love for us is real!

Cheesy....YES! Did the kids get a kick out of it....YES!!!

I am so grateful for General Conference. I have been praying for guidance lately, and the things I heard this weekend reminded me of the covenants I have made, the things that are truly important, and areas in my life I need to be more vigilant in following after my Savior. It was a wonderful weekend :)

If three is so good....

wouldn't 4 be even better?? 4 children that is!! We are expecting Johnson Baby #4 in May 2011 and could not be more excited!! The girls want a sister, Britton has no idea about what's about to hit him, Paul says its a boy, and I just want a healthy, chubby little baby in my arms :)

A fun educational game for at home or on the road

A few months ago we were planning a trip to California, and I was racking my brain trying to figure out how to keep my kids entertained. I was inspired by THIS post, and came up with this matching activity that my girls couldn't get enough of! The nice thing about this game is, you can change it up all the time, and since we have been home I have used it for tons of different things!

I think magnetic stuff is totally the way to go for car trips...then the kids arent dropping all the pieces everywhere and driving YOU crazy :) So I simply got a 24-ct mini muffing tin, sheets of magnets, scrapbook paper and stickers. You cut the magnets into squares to fit over the muffin tin and then cover the other side of the magnets with cute paper

This is what your finished product looks like. Now here is the great part: you can fill the tin with anything you want depending on the age and level of your children! For Skylar on this trip I made magnets of upper and lowercase letters and she had to find the matches.

(Sorry, not the best picture, but you get the idea!)

For Kendall I am using it this week as we are learning about the farm. One of our activities is to match baby animals to their mommy animals. I made magnets out of pics I printed online and we are going to do a matching game tomorrow. One other fun thing the kids LOVED in the car was I would put different colored Skittles in the tin, and they would have to try and find another one that had the same color...it was a hit! :)

And the winner is...

Thanks for being so patient with me, we ended up having a crazy weekend here :) But I did not forget about our amazing Jizdani Designer Bags giveaway! Thank you all so much for entering, and if you like what you saw check out http://www.jizdanidesignerbags.etsy.com/ for a lot more amazing designs. Without any further ado, the winner is....

JEWELED CHAVON!!!

Congratulations!! Please email me at designskyblue@gmail.com with your contact information and Iwill get it shipped out to you ASAP!!

And for anyone local here in Utah, Skyblue Designs and Jizdani Designer Bags are opening up a booth at the Quilted Bear in Prov0 October 1st! Make sure you stop by so you can see all our fun creations in person :)

Friend Week at our Preschool

This week is focused on learning all about friends! This was a difficult week to plan because lots of the activites actually include "friends" (duh!:) Since I only have Kendall in the preschool I had to tweak some things to make it work.

I am really looking forward to preschool this week....wanna know why? Because we didn't end up doing it last week! Life took over and got a little crazy, so we are back at it this week and I can't wait! Here are the fun things we have planned:

Tuesday:

Color of the Week (Pink)

Number of the Week (3)

Letter C Tracer Page

Sound Bag

Read "Rainbow Fish" Book

Friendship Boats: Have child sit on the floor with you. Face each other and touch your outstretched legs together. Finally lean forward and grab one anothers hands. Then lean one way then the other in a rowing fashion while you sing 'Row row row your boat'

Two by Two Movement Activities: Play roll or toss the ball, skip across the room together, hop together, run, march, etc

Coloring Page

Rainbow Fish Craft: goes along with the book we read

Snack time (If you can think of anything that goes along with this theme, please let me know!! I was drawing a huge blank!)

Thursday:

Color of the Week (Pink)

Number of the Week (3)

Letter C Tracer Page

Sound Bag

Read "Rainbow Fish"

Measure My Friend activity: Have you and your child take turns measuring each other with string. Lie down on the floor and let your child measure you with string and then cut it. After you can compare the strings!

Fingerprint Comparison: Show your child how your fingerprints are different by stamping them on white paper

My New Friend Worksheet: I am just going to let Kendall name everyone that is her friend and have her draw one persons picture on the worksheet.

Make Friendship Bracelets

Snack Time

A Dora Birthday Breakfast Adventure!!

This post is also a little late, but hey, you do the best you can :) Several weeks ago was my daughter Kendall's 3rd birthday, and I knew I was going to have to get a little creative to make it special. We are still staying with Paul's parents so I knew a big party was out of the question. I finally came up with something a little bit similar to our Princess Breakfast Birthday Bash we did a few months ago, and I am please to say this one was just as fun!!

If you have ever seen Dora, you know every time they go on an adventure they have to go to different places before they reach the end...I tried to use this theme for our breakfast :)

First up the kids had to make it through the Fields of Fruit! I just printed out pictures of Dora and all her friends and then cut them out and taped them all around the table.

Our next stop was the Juicy River!!

Then finally we made it to Cereal Mountain....but oh no!! Is that Swiper I see?? Swiper no swipee!! (That was my kids favorite part :)

After we finished our breakfast Kendall got her Dora paper doll book, and we all sang, "We did, we did it, we did it, YAY!" SO cheesy, I know. But the kids had a ball, and afterwards Kendall said, "Who did this for me mommy?" I said that I had, and she gave me a huge hug :) Thats about as affectionate as you are going to get for that sassy little one.

I hope this sparked some ideas of things you can do that don't break the bank to make your little ones bday a little bit special!

And don't forget about our giveaway going on HERE. You still have two more days to enter!!

Jizdani Designer Bags GIVEAWAY!!!

Ok guys, I am more than a little excited about this giveaway!! Seriously people, this giveaway is a $90 value!! Not only that, the creator of this little beauty is someone pretty special to me...my Mom :) She is ridiculously talented and finally has the time in her busy, busy life to share that talent with the world! She just opened up her new Etsy Shop, Jizdani Designer Bags, and to celebrate she is giving away this one-of-a-kind, custom, handmade bag!

Now just to be sure you understand how awesome this is, the ENTIRE thing is homemade! The bag, the straps, the beadwork, ALL done by Vicky! I absolutely love the black and pink color combo, and no one else will have anything like this. All of her purses are unique, and definite showstoppers :) Each purse is decorated with brooches, sequin flowers, and handmade flowers with beaded centers and buttons. This purse also includes hand embroidered leaves and a great black trim!

So lets get to the good stuff :) This Giveaway will run til Friday, September 17th at midnight. As always, there are a few good ways to get entries:

1- Leave a comment on the post

2- Become a follower of this blog and tell me so in a comment! If you already are one, just be sure to let me know :)

3- Finally, post about this giveaway on your blog or Facebook page!

I wish you all the best of luck, and trust me, you are very lucky if you win! I have had my own purse for 3 days and can't leave the house without getting stopped every 5 minutes and complimented on it! Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to check out Vicky's Etsy Shop, Jizdani Designer Bags for even more amazing custom work!

A little back to school fun!

I know I am ridiculously late on this, but some of these pics were too fun not to share! This was a big year for us, my oldest daughter starting Kindergarten! She was so ready and not the least bit scared. I wanted to make sure it was really memorable for her, and do something special so she would know how much I love her and look forward to the first day of school from here on out :)

I had heard of the book "The Kissing Hand" from several people and figured I had to include it in our back to school traditions. If you haven't read it, you should!! As I read it to Skylar while we ate our back to school breakfast I couldn't help but cry, it is such a sweet story with a wonderful message for any child that is nervous or scared about any kind of big change in their life. (The funny part was Skylar kept saying, "Why is he scared to go to school Mom? I can't wait for school!":)










As far as breakfast goes, Skylar loved it!! (Please tell me you can see that is supposed to be a big pencil...my husband couldn't figure out why I would make her a rocket for her first day of school!;) Its just sliced strawberries for the eraser, pancakes for most of the pencil, whipped cream and chocolate for the top! Quite delicious if I do say so myself :)









And here is the big Kindergartener herself! She is such a poser...cracks me up all the time! Kendall (and maybe me) cried when she left to go to school, it is a big change in our lives. Kendall has never taken a nap without Skylar in the room with her, and I miss our carefree, easygoing days. With that all said...school is the best thing for Skylar. She needs that social interaction and she LOVES to learn. It is an adjustment, but we are loving it.









And of course, you must have fun snacks when you get home from school! I made these for my Young Women last year when they went back to school and have been planning them for my own kids ever since. I got the idea from Family Fun, you simply make cupcakes, frost them, and then use chocolate covered graham crackers as the chalkboard. I used the white Good and Plenty's for the chalk, and just frosting for the apples (I KNEW I was forgetting the skittles at the store!!)



That night when Skylar went to bed she said "I wish EVERY day could be the first day of school!" Mission accomplished folks! There are so many hardships in life, sometimes I look at my kids and feel scared about all they are going to have to deal with. One thing I can do to counter those hardships is to make sure I don't let any of these fun FIRSTS pass us by without celebrating and finding joy in them!! Hope everyone had a great Back to School! ( And lets be totally honest...I am loving 3 hours of my day with one less munchkin to chase around!:)

Farm Week at our Preschool!

Hey everyone!! I have to tell you, the first week of preschool at our house was a HIT!! It was so great to spend some one on one time with my middle child...she so needs it :) We had a wonderful time together, and she learned some great stuff too. With that said, here are the activities and links to some things we are doing this week, learning all about the Farm!

Tuesday:

Color of the Week (Orange)

Number of the Week (2)

Letter B Tracer Page

Sound Bag-Fill up the bag with items that all start with the letter B

Read Touch and Feel Farm

Farm Sound Discrimination Game-Get 8 plastic eggs and fill them with 4 different sounding food products. Two with sugar, two with flour, two with rice, and two with beans. Then have child take turns picking an egg, shaking them, and then searching through the basket to find its "sound" mate :)

Coloring Page

Make pigs nose craft- Cut bottome of egg carton, paint pink, cut out nostrils and attach with string.

Have "pig slop" for snack- Mix yummy snacks together like pretzels, M&M's, etc!

Thursday:

Color of the Week (Orange)

Number of the Week (2)

Letter B Tracer Page

Sound Bag

Read Touch and Feel Farm Book

Moms and Babies farm animal matching game- print and laminate pictures of mom and baby animals, have kids play matching game.

Farm Animal Sort-Cut out pictures of lots of animals, some farm animals, some not. Then have them put the farm animals in a barn, and the others outside.

Wooly sheep craft- Trace your childs hand, then cover it with glue and let them attach cotton balls. The flip it upside down so the fingers are the 4 legs, and decorate the thumb to be the face.

Have pigs in a blanket for snack time.

If you are doing anything similar in your home, please tell me what you are doing!! I am always looking for new, fun ways to teach my kids!

One more thing, you are gonna wanna make sure you check back tomorrow.....for an AMAZING giveaway!! Someone very special to me has just started a fantastic business and is allowing me to giveaway one of her very own handmade creations. We are talking about a $90 value here folks!! So make sure to stop by tomorrow to enter, you are not gonna want to miss this!!

Back to school!!

Preschool, that is!!!

I was so sad when I realized because of where we live I would'nt be able to take Kendall to the preschool I had been planning on. Skylar attended A Childs Garden Preschool for two years and loved EVERY minute of it! I was so looking forward to Kendall having some of those same experiences but if the last few months have taught me nothing else, I have learned the need to be flexible, adjust, and make the best of a new situations.

So with all that said, my solution was to do my very own preschool with Kendall, one-on-one! I have had SO much fun putting it all together and I thought I would share it with you so if you want to do something similar it will be all right here in one little place. Most of these ideas came from these great preschool resources: Preschool Express, Preschool Education and Everything Preschool.

Now as usual, I must warn you, I am a huge dork! But if I am going to do something, I like to do it right :) So here is our agenda for our little preschool:

1:30- Welcome Song / Pledge of Allegiance

1:40- Singing Time / Nursery Rhymes

2:00- Learning Time / Letter, Number, Color of the week

2:30- Craft / Activity

2:50- Snack Time / Free Play

Every week we will have a theme that reinforces the letter, number and color for that week, and some fun crafts and projects that fit in there too :) I really want to foster a love of reading in my children, so every week we will also read a book that ties into our theme. Another fun idea I got from Skylar's kindergarten teacher is to have a Sound Bag. Whatever the letter is that week, the sound bag is full of items that start with that letter. That way we are really reinforcing the sounds that letter makes and making the child more aware. I also have a card holder up that holds the flashcards for the letter, color and number of the week, and we will go over those as we discuss those items for the week.

This weeks theme is apples and here is our curriculum for the week:

Tuesday: Color of the Week (RED)

Number of the Week (1)

Letter A Tracer page

Sound Bag

Read The Giving Tree

Sorting and counting activity with apples

Rock "apples" craft

Make apple and peanut butter sandwiches

Thursday: Color of the week (Red)

Number of the week (1)

Letter A Tracer page

Sound Bag

Read The Giving Tree

Apple rhymes activity

Apple stamp craft with Aa template

Homemade applesauce for snack time

If you are interested in the specifics of any of these activities please feel free to leave a comment, and I will email you back shortly! I am so excited to start this with Kendall, and will continue to post our weekly curriculum. Hope you all have a great day!!

Labor Day Sale at Sky Blue Designs!!

Hey everyone!! I know times are tough for a LOT of us, and to show you how much I appreciate you and your hard-earned dollars we are having a Labor Day sale at Sky Blue Designs!! For a limited time only, all headbands are buy one get one half off, and shipping is just $2 no matter how many headbands you buy! If you have any questions or want to make a purchase email me at designskyblue@gmail.com and I will make the appropriate princing changes. Thanks for stopping by and have a great holiday! :)

Better late than never!!

I am so sorry it has taken me so long to announce the winner of the second giveaway...yesterday was the first day of school and it completely took up our whole day!

And the winner is....

Marissa!!!

Congratulations, and I really hope you enjoy the headband :)

Once again, thank you so much to everyone that commented, became a follower or posted about my little giveaway on facebook! Your kind words meant so much to me and you can plan on lots more fun giveaways and specials from Sky Blue Designs!!

Ok, I couldn't resist just one more

Giveaway that is!! You were all so kind I wanted to give one to every single person that left a comment :) Since I can't quite do that, how about at least one more?

I can't seem to get enough of the orange and blue combo for this fall! This handmade headband has 3 fabric yo yo with button centers, perfect for a girl of any age. {And I might add, enjoy this model....she is much cuter!!}

So the rules are the same as yesterday, here are the ways to get entries:

1-Leave a comment on this post

2-In a seperate comment let me know if you are a new follower or if you already were one!

3-Post about this giveaway on Facebook or your blog and, once again, leave me a comment about it

This giveaway will go until midnight tonight, best of luck!!!