One week!

Allie sick today






Daddy Daughter dance last weekend


Ryan sick last week

Wow! Last weekend Allie & Jeff had their daddy daughter dance and Ryan and I stayed home because he was sick. Ryan and I were originally supposed to go on a mom and son date, but he had a sore throat and felt pretty yucky SO, this the picture above how he spent his weekend last week.

On Monday he felt MUCH better and was well enough to go to school, but developed a lovely rash on his hands. Tuesday afternoon his rash was darkening and so I took him to the doctor. He was diagnosed with strep throat and put on 14 days of Antibiotics.

Tuesday evening we celebrated my Birthday a day early with dinner out as family. Wednesday Ryan stayed home so we could watch his rash and let the antibiotics kick in for the required 24 hours before he went back to class.

Wednesday evening brought dance class, college basketball and a very late night out for all of us!

We finally survived the week and made it to Saturday (yesterday)! Thanks goodness. It seemed like a long week around here!

On Saturday Ryan tried out for a competative 6 and under baseball team in Owasso (about 70 miles from where we live). The team practices in Owasso and plays at Obrien parks in Tulsa (about an hour and 20 minute drive for us). Ryan made the team. We will now be balancing Ryan's spring soccer at CRC his competative baseball with the Owasso Rockets (practices a couple times a week and at least 2 games per week) and Allie's Dance practices one night a week.

Today Allie woke up sick for the first time. She has flu like symptoms and threw up for the first time ever! So it seems in one week I have come full circle and am once again nursing a sick kiddo with 7 up and jello as she lays on my couch.

As a side note, I had a relative recommend the book Benjamin's box to go along with my Ressurection eggs. I purchased the book on Amazon and the kids and I read it the other day. It is a wonderful book and I highly recommend it! Thanks Ms. C for the suggestion!

Resurrection eggs

I purchased a set of Resurrection eggs yesterday for our family to use during Lent. The kids really got into the advent wreath and reading the Bible passage and lighting the candles. They seem to be at that age where they find it interesting and are old enough to take it seriously and be respectful and listen when we read bible passages. We need to do this more often and I thought the resurrection eggs would be a great activity for us AND get us to do more bible study/reading with the kids. I only wish I had done some internet research prior to my purchase. If I had done my research I would have found the following great sites to guide me in making my own egg set! :( It seems pretty easy to make these. SO, if you decide to make your own here are a few different versions.

http://blog.wantingwhatyouhave.com/2009/03/make-your-own-resurrection-eggs.html

http://www.easyfunschool.com/article2110.html

http://www.rainbowcastle.org/resurrectioneggs.html

http://www.smithsroom.com/resurrection_eggs.htm

http://stretchmarkmama.blogspot.com/2009/03/make-your-own-set-of-resurrection-eggs.html

http://www.econobusters.com/?p=1044

Picture hanger, valentines display, memo holder craft idea

I came up with this idea for a memo/valentines/photo holder to to make in Ryan's Kindergarten class during their Valentines day party. I adhered and sanded the paper to the stick, glued on the clothes pin, drilled the holes and strung the wire on one side, punched and stamped the letters for each child then bagged and labeled the beads and letters for each student prior to going to the party. At the party the students used the glue dots to adhere their name then strung the beads and we attached the wire into the second hole in the stick. The craft took about 10 minutes for the kindergarten students to complete. The complete instructions for this are described below the blurry photos :)





To make the photo/memo holder you will need:
free paint stir sticks
some scrapbook paper,
paint sample cards,
staz on ink,
alphabet stampers or scrabble times ,
a martha stewart circle punch,
wire,
beads
small clothes pins,
Modge Podge
Clear Craft glue
Drill with small drill bit
Glue dots
sand paper or file


I started out by tracing around the paint stick onto scrapbook paper. Then I cut out the shape and modge podged it onto the stick. Once it was dry and stuck on the paint stick I used sand paper to rough up the edges and take off any excess paper. Then I used my ink pad to "ink" the edges and front to make it look distressed. Once that was done and dry I used scrabble tile letters to add a name to the paint stick. On the class project I didn't have enough tile letters to spell all the children's names, so I simply used my Martha Stewart circle punch to punch out paint chips. I then used my stayz on ink to stamp a letter onto each circle to spell a child's name. I found the stayz on permanent ink worked best and didn't smear once it was dry. It did, however take a few minutes to dry so I recommend leaving the circle flat for a little while after you stamp the letter. I used glue dots to let the children adhere their circles to spell their names. To make this little craft into a picture hanger (or valentines display hanger) I used clear craft glue to adhere a miniature clothes pin at one end of each stick. Using a VERY small drill bit I drilled a hole at each end of the stir stick and strung floral wire into it and wrapped it around. The students then strung beads on the floral wire before we wrapped the other end.

The students used their fine motor skills to string the The students used their fine motor skills to string the beads, adhere their name circles and use the clip, as well name recognition and spelling to place their names on the stick. Plus they finished with a really CUTE craft! The best part for me was that I had all the supplies on hand (except the paint stir sticks that I had to ask for)!