Sunday Night

We really need to have company if I’m going to make all this food…

Something Helpful: Changing No-Reply Email Addresses in Blogger

I’ve been getting lots of comments & questions on my blog posts, which I love! Thank you!   I am glad to answer questions and would like to send a personal reply. 

I’m sure we’ve all left comments on a blog and wonder if the blogger will ever see it, reply to it and if so, how will you know?  I don’t have time to check back until a reply is posted on the original post. I’m sure you don’t either!

If you’d like to receive a reply from a blogger, or even get to know others better online, this is a great tutorial on Pleasant Home for changing your no-reply email setting on your profile.

So check your profile! Let others email you. It’s nice.

It’s simple really, and so helpful. {And no, I don’t get a bunch of spam, your address won’t be that visible.}

Fair Food, Anyone?

Our fair ends on Sunday & we have to pick up fair projects. There’s not much that’s really that's tempting to me, as far as food, but the cream puffs at the 4H tent were amazing!

Rhino in the house

Today we found a rhinoceros beetle on the front step. It’s huge!  At least it’s not as big as this one (on the right).  We have a little book about bugs and Brett has it memorized.

• They are some of the largest beetles in the world.
• Rhinoceros beetles are popular children’s pets in Asia.
• They are the strongest animals on Earth! They can lift up to 850 times their own weight. If a human had this strength, he could lift 60-65 tons – that’s 6-10 African elephants!

Now I feel itchy all over.

{16th} Anniversary Date Art

I’ve been wanting to make one of these & since it’s our anniversary today, I decided to get it done! I’m very pleased with it.

Damon’s birthday, mine, our anniversary date and Brett’s birthdate. The frame was $8 and I had the rest of the materials already: scrapbook paper for the background, black vinyl Silhouette-cut numbers and two rub-on decals with gems finished it off.
I feel like I should update our bedroom but I still like it overall. I’m not really a quilt person but I like this one and again, the carpet in this room {1995 Hunter Green} is dated, so it goes well with that. I do want to redo the lamps and would love new side tables so those are projects I’ll eventually do. In the meantime I'll look for inspiration because I don't know how I want to redecorate it. And I think I need to lower the picture.

{Tatertots and Jello}

 

Learning About Orbit {Space}

To learn about orbit, we made orbit toys with yellow craft sticks {sun} and a metal washer decorated with glitter, attached with fishing line. Then the washer can be spun around the stick causing the planet to orbit.
Tips:

• Notch the craft stick between a pair of scissor blades to tie the fishing line around.
• First spray the washers with spray adhesive or smear with glue and then glitter. We used blue and green for Earth.
• Washers can also be decorated in other ways, like with paint, or markers.

Facts for preschoolers:

• The Sun has a family, called the Solar System. The Solar System has planets, moons, comets, rock, dust and ice that all swirl around the Sun.
• The sun is a star.
• The sun has a grainy surface, like an orange peel.
• The sun is very hot! On a hot summer day, it might be 100 degrees. The sun’s temperature is 10,000 degrees!
• The sun is very important to us. We need the sun to for light and warmth.
• The Earth takes on year to orbit the sun. January, February, March…

This home runs on L♥VE

I found this great printable through Pinterest today:

Sweet Blessings
http://www.scribd.com/doc/59457357/This-Home-Starbucks
I had to print it. I knew I had the perfect frame for it too. It was on clearance at Michael’s and I picked it up a while back thinking I’d find something to do with it. I printed it on 4x6” photo paper and trimmed it down to fit in the frame. I love it!
I don’t drink a lot of coffee but if I drink it, it’s Starbucks {I make it at home & go there once or twice a week – usually once during the week & then once on the weekend} because that’s what I got used to in the beginning. So that’s what I still buy. Today I made it through my day – with kids here at 6:15 am until 5:15 pm – and got a lot done-  on caffeine!

Homemade Water Slide

I can’t believe I let them do this either! Sure was fun for the kids & for me to watch!

Handmade Accessories

For my niece’s 14th birthday, I made some accessories for her to wear in her hair or pin on a sweater or top.  {My mother-in-law made the 3rd one down on the left – that was time consuming!}

They were made with ribbon or tulle by cutting circles and flower shapes & burning the edges.  I can’t say which are my favorites, I like them all for different reasons. I do especially like simple blue barrette which is clipped on an elastic headband. I definitely want to make some more!

Other tutorials & patterns used:

Wish I had seen this one:

 

Fresh from MI

Blueberry pancakes, Blueberry muffins, Blueberry pie, handfuls of blueberries….send me your blueberry recipes! I’ll have to freeze some, there’s 10 lbs.

{Not Really} Wordless Wednesday

First 4-H Projects

Last night we took Brett’s projects to the fair. He is a first year Cloverbud so he could take 3 projects from three different categories.
He did an original drawing, something made out of recycled materials and a 4x6 photo album. He did all these projects, largely on his own.

The drawing is from art class. It’s more paper art I suppose. He wasn’t coming up with any ideas to draw on the spot for a fair project so we decided to use an art project. It’s 100% his work so I don’t think it matters. The recycled project is made with plastic beads from pop bottles that we have done before or this one. He made a new one for the fair. He needed some help rolling the plastic around the pliers as that's the tricky part.
For some reason he wasn’t cooperative on the photo album. I think it was after I told him about judging at the fair he freaked out and didn’t want to do his projects. I had to push him to take pictures. I think now that he knows the process he will be interested in doing his projects. The photos are all his & then I helped him decide which to order and uploaded them to be ordered. He put them in the album in the order he desired.

At the fair he presented his projects with no problems at all. He was very happy with everything!

We are insanely proud of him but not just because of this of course! We stayed at the fair for a few hours and we plan to go back Thurs night. Hope it doesn’t storm!

Ace Pet Vet Plus {Dramatic Play}

I was so highly inspired to set up a vet office dramatic play after seeing this post on ikatbag {originally spotted on Tip Junkie}.

Our vet office was named “ACE Pet Vet Plus” by Brett. The older set played vet for 2 hours while the younger ones napped.


ikatbag offers free printables that really got me going on this. Aren’t they adorable?



My niece arranged our office. Isn’t it great? Stormy even came in for a visit. Nothing like a real pet for dramatic play! He’s very cooperative, especially if treats are involved. No worries, he loves his pet carrier.



The forms on clipboards were highly used. The filing system, not so much until I showed them they could file the used sheets on the clipboard for the pet’s next visit.



One girl made the waiting room sign and taped up animal pictures on the wall. Lots of books to read while waiting!



The kids took turns being the vet, office worker and pet owner.


The x-rays were a major component of the pet vet. 



My highly talented niece was staying with us last week {how come there’s so few pictures of her while she was here??} and was so helpful in setting up the Pet Vet dramatic play and even played with the kids, giving them ideas on what to say & do.



She drew these AWESOME x-rays for us. She used chalk on black construction paper and then we laminated them. What I especially like is that they will hold up great and we can reuse them! I drew some too but hers are way better.


Scenes from ACE Pet Vet +: 


1.  Dr. Brett accessing Stormy’s health. 
2.  Sometimes the recommendation is bacon {to keep the pet in the office} 
3.  Nothing as funny as a baby gorilla in a stroller 
4. Exotic pets game through the Pet Vet including a dragon and a white tiger with a wide variety of problems.

I loved the tear open packets ikatbag showed on her post, but didn’t feel that would work for my group time wise. I could see them all being ripped open and then we’d have to start over so we used these little envelopes with the images printed on sticker paper for our vitamins and medicines.  Inside are colored pasta. We admittedly went overboard in making these but that was part of the fun! We didn’t need as many as we made.


Going to the vet is expensive!!


Playing vet was so much fun! It was just as much fun setting it up and coming up with ideas as actually playing.


More printable resources for veterinary play