Painted Bread Flowers

 Happy Monday friends!  Hope you all had a lovely weekend :)  We are kicking off our Spring and Plant Week today, and we are excited!  I didn't actually have anything planned for today, but when the kids started whining about being bored I threw this together.  They loved it, and I actually had a lot of fun too ;)

Painted Bread Flowers!

I had pinned this awesome idea forever ago from Share and Remember, and have been waiting for the perfect day to use it...today was that day!

All you need to make your own Painted Bread Flowers are slices of bread, milk, food coloring and a flower cookie cutter.

I used the Neon Food Coloring and just did 2-3 drops in each cup of milk and had the kids stir them up.

Once you have your "paint" ready to go, hand your kids a paintbrush and let them paint away.  We only eat wheat bread so that was what we used, but the colors would be even brighter if you had white bread on hand!

The kids thought it was SO silly that we were painting bread...with MILK!  They loved seeing the different colors show up on the bread and see what designs they could make.

And this little one?  I just gave her a cup of water to paint her bread and she was none the wiser ;)

I even got in on the fun too ;)

Britton was especially proud of his creation. 

After they were all done painting we just toasted the slices for a few minutes to make one side crisp enough to use a cookie cutter on.

 Not only was this a fun activity, but the kids loved eating their Painted Bread Flowers too!

This is a GREAT last minute activity, especially because you usually have all this stuff on hand!

Thanks so much for coming by today, we'll see you tomorrow with a new FHE and lots more plant and flower fun this week :)

"April Showers" Educational Spray Bottle Activity

Today I wanted to share with a super fun and simple activity I did with my kids today tying in Spring Weather and also letter recognition and math!  They had a blast, and we even learned and reviewed some things too ;)

I got this AWESOME idea from my sister-in-law Crista.  She throws some amazing birthday parties, and at her last one she did a similar activity.  As soon as I saw how much fun the kids were having there I knew it was something I wanted to do with my kiddos at home...with an educational spin!

This is our April Showers Educational Spray Bottle Activity!!

All you need to do this at your house is a cheap plastic shower curtain liner, some washable markers and spray bottles filled with water.  I used duct tape to stick the shower liner up over the tub so the water could run down without making a mess.  Of course, if it nice weather where you are at, this would be really fun to do outside too!

 

Then I took the washable markers and wrote different things on the liner.  For my kindergartener I wrote different numbers.  Then I would call out a math problem and she would squirt the answer with the water bottle until it washed away.  It was such a fun way to test her on basic math skills while having fun too!

For my little pre-schooler I wrote different letters he has been learning and when I called out a letter he would shoot away!  They loved watching the letters disappear, and what kid doesn't love to spray a spray bottle?!

And this is where I found Avrie while we were having fun...playing in the shower with marker all over her face :)  NEVER a dull moment with that one ;)

Try out this quick and fun activity with your kids, they will love you for it! ;)  Have a wonderful, springy day everyone!!

Mingle With Us Blog Hop!!

It's Time to Mingle!  

Hosted by Blue Skies Ahead,  Happy Go Lucky, I Heart Crafty Things, and Keeping Up With Kristi.

  This week's guest host is Katrina from Our Daisy Patch

  We also have a fabulous giveaway for you this week!

Katrina is giving away $45 in Lilla Rose Hair Accessories.   Have you heard of Lilla Rose?   They have some great accessories so I know you all are going to love this giveaway.   Use Rafflecopter to enter:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

There are no rules to this blog hop.  Just link up your blog's main page.  Then have fun reading new blogs and making new blog friends.  We would love for you to follow the hostesses in the first four spots and our guest host in the fifth spot.   

We are always looking for co-hosts to join the party each week and post the party on their blog.    Sign up HERE if you are interested in Co-Hosting!   Grab our button and help us promote our blog hop by sharing it on your blogs, facebook, and twitter.     There will be a new list every Thursday, so be sure to come back every week.

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We hope you have fun and thanks for joining us!  We are so excited to find new blogs, share great ideas, and inspire each other!  

Cupcake Liner Umbrella Craft...and Healthy "Mud Dip" Snack!

Today we did a fun craft and had a yummy snack that were all about our crazy Spring Weather!!  Of course, living in Utah, that could have included SNOW...but I decided to stick with rain in hopes the snow is gone for the year ;)

I was inspired by Rachel over at I Heart Crafty Things to do this craft, she has done a bunch of adorable crafts with cupcake liners lately that made me decide I HAD to figure out something to do with all the ones I had on hand.

What you need for this quick and easy craft are some cupcake liners, pipe cleaners, glue sticks and cotton balls...easy-peasy!!

 

First up I put out all our different cupcake liners out and let the kids pick out their "umbrella tops".  Then they chose what handles they wanted from the pipe cleaners sent to me by my favorite CraftProjectIdeas...LOVE the bright colors!!

Once we picked out all our supplies the kids got to work.  First we cut a pipe cleaner in half and and folded the bottom up to make the umbrella handle.  Then we glued that on to our paper.  Then you simply fold a cupcake liner in half and glue it on top of the handle.

Then you'll want to glue the halves of the liner together to finish off your umbrella top!

After your umbrellas are all done you can add a few cotton ball clouds and then watch it rain!! 

And by rain I mean spraying the picture with blue water ;)

Here are the finished products...I love seeing my kids pride in their creations!

While I was whipping up our yummy treat, my kids made their own "umbrellas" :)

We talked about how one of the things that happens when it rains, especially at our house, is we get LOTS of mud!  Then I told they kids they got to eat some yummy Mud Dip for a snack...they were not super excited :)  Until I told them what was in it ;) 

For our Mud Dip I just stirred together a few spoonfuls of all-natural peanut butter, 1 TBSP of cocoa powder, a few sprinkles of crushed pecans, and some sprinkles of wheat germ for good measure.  Then I sliced up apples and celery and let the kids go to town! 

 The nuts and cocoa powder gave it the awesome color and texture of real mud, but the peanut butter made it a YUMMY mid-morning snack!

And this is what I got to see after leaving the room for 5 minutes to switch over a load of laundry :)

Yep, we had an early bath time today! :)

Thanks so much for checking out Blue Skies Ahead today!  If you like what you see, follow us on Facebook and don't miss any of the fun crafts, snacks and activities coming up!!

Spiritual Crocodiles Family Home Evening {Jacob and Sherem}

 Man its been a LONG time since I posted a Family Home Evening!!  It feels so good to be back on schedule, and last night we returned to our study of the Book of Mormon by learning all about Jacob and Sherem.  

While I was looking for inspiration on ways to teach this lesson to my kids I found the idea on Sugardoodle to incorporate President Packer's talk on Spiritual Crocodiles.  I loved the idea of comparing Sherem and his ability to turn people away from the gospel to Spiritual Crocodiles.

First up, we read from The Book of Mormon Stories Chapter 10, Jacob and Sherem.  We talked alot about the different ways Sherem got the people to stop believing in Christ.  He was flattering, nice, and very smart!  We talked about how people got close to him, and in turn ended up losing their testimony of the Savior and becoming very wicked.  

Then I introduced the kids to this YouTube video HERE.  Just a note...there is some graphic animal violence you may or may not want your little ones watching.  I felt it was okay for my family, but you know your kids so I would suggest watching it before you show your family :)

After we watched the video we talked about Spiritual Crocodiles.  How just like the animals couldn't always see the real crocodiles, we have to be cautious of spiritual crocodiles that will hurt not only our bodies but our souls as well.

I made up this printable to hang up in the house for the week to remind us:

Then we went on a "Crocodile Hunt" to find some specific Spiritual Crocodiles that may be trying to take bites out of OUR testimonies!  I hid these crocodiles all around the house and the kids got their binoculars and were on the search!  Remind your kids...even though some of these crocodiles look cute and happy...just like Sherem they can be damaging to our testimonies and to our souls!

I included a blank crocodile so you could write your own things specific to the needs of your family as well :) 

After we had found all our crocodiles we talked about how each of these things can hurt us and how important obedience is.  I think the message hit home...when my little almost-4-year-old said family prayer last night he closed by asking Heavenly Father to make sure we don't get eaten by crocodiles :)  Haha!  Sometimes thats the best we can hope for, right?! ;)

Thanks so much for stopping by today!  I have a lot of fun things planned for this week with my kids learning all about Spring Weather so make sure you come back and visit again!

Smiling this Sunday!

 Hello my friends!  How are you this beautiful Sunday morning?!

If you are new to Blue Skies Ahead, every Sunday I try and pick a few moments that made me smile this past week.  I truly believe there is SO much good in our lives...if we can remember to look for it :)  This is my attempt at finding the good in my life!

The first thing making me smile this week is my 2 boys.  Britton is almost 4 and Cohen is a whopping 2 weeks :)  I love to see them together and the love Britton already has for his little brother.  Last week I was out with my oldest daughter on a date when Paul sent me this picture of the two asleep next to each other.  Made my heart melt just a little bit :)

On Friday night me and the hubs went out on a wonderful date night with our bro and sister-in-law.  We wanted to thank them for helping us SO much while I was on bedrest and taking such great care of our kids.  It was wonderful to take a little break and enjoy some adult conversation and yummy food! 

Not a big surprise this guy is on the list for what is making me smile today ;)  He really is the most precious little baby.  And I do mean little...he weighs just over 6 lbs and the only chub on him is in those cute little cheeks :)  He pretty much sleeps all the time and the kids are dying for the days when he starts to open his eyes a little bit more.  I am just trying to treasure every moment...knowing he is probably my last makes every little thing that much more tender to me.

This little girl is making me smile this week too!  Its so weird, she has always been the "baby" in the family.  Even though she is the second oldest she always has acted younger than her years.  In the last few months she has really grown up and is becoming such a beautiful young girl!  She is doing great at school and I have loved seeing her read books to her little sister and help out more around the house.  She has a VERY sassy personality, and we sometimes butt heads, but that little smile can melt my heart faster than just about anything else!

This week has been very interesting.  We are right back into normal life.  I remember with my first two babies, life pretty much stopped for 6 months until I felt normal again.  HA!  Not so with the 5th!  This week is was back to carpool, grocery shopping, dance classes, doctors appts and everything else!  There were wonderful moments of PURE content, as I would look around at my 5 kids and KNOW my whole family was finally here together.  There were also moments of PURE insanity :)  Avrie running wild at the drs office, Avrie undoing the deadbolt and running outside every second she got...hmmm, I'm seeing a trend here ;)  Honestly, there were a few "Why in the world did I think I could handle 5 kids?!" moments this week!  

BUT...they were totally outnumbered by the smiles, laughter and joy we have had being all together.  That is why I have to constantly remind myself to look for all this good...even amidst the chaos, it is always there!

Hope you are having lots of wonderful things in your life to smile about too!!