Mother's Day Card Idea

Today I made a cute little 3D card for the kiddos to make for Mother's Day. We used cardstock, construction paper, tissue paper, and glue.

I remember making many projects in elementary school out of this scrunched up tissue paper process. I always thought it looked so cool.

The process is simple. You take little scraps of tissue paper (about 1 inch size) and crumple them into little tiny balls. Then you glue. That's it.

I started by making the line down with glue for the stem of the flower. Then I covered that with the little green tissue balls. Next, I added the green construction paper leaves left over from our last project. I outlined the leaves in glue and added the tissue paper here. Then I drew the flower center and then the petals one by one.

This makes a sweet flower for the front of the card to give to mom or grandma on Mother's Day. It would also be cute to do different designs such as a butterfly, heart, or the letters M-O-M.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Even though we didn't end April with showers, it was a cloudy day. We had plenty of rain last weekend however. I can't believe that tomorrow is already May Day.

Today we used watercolor paints on paper plates for our umbrella shapes. I cut out somewhat of a flower shape out of several colors of tissue paper. The kids selected 3 colors to layer to make a flower. They each made 5 flowers for their umbrella. They glued a yellow construction paper circle in the center of each flower. We tucked green construction paper leaves under some of the flowers as well.

Letter of the Week Series- G

Grapes were the thing for Letter G. Sandy had this idea for us over on her blog. I love several of her ideas she has for their alphabet book.

We used purple paint and the kids used their finger prints to make the grapes. I drew the vines on for them after they were dry. To help the ones who were younger, I drew dots on the paper and they put their purple finger prints on top of the dots (or somewhere in that range!)

Hip Hip Hooray for Natalie Jane!

Natalie Jane is the extra special winner of my first ever givaway! In celebration of my 200th post I am giving away a $25 gift certificate to the Elemental Baby shop.

She had this to say in her entry:

"I have a baby boy due in about a month and I LOVE the Blue Birth Canvas! Perfect!"


This personalized handpainted birth canvas will be a treasured heirloom for your little one. The canvas records name, date, weight, and length.

Thanks to Cris from Elemental Baby for such a fun shop! Don't forget, she is offering readers of Everything Except The Grill 10% off your order - just use code: GRILL10

New Twist on an old Fave

About a week ago I saw a recipie for a grilled cheese sandwich made in a waffle iron. I thought this would be so cute and fun to make for the kids so we tried it out yesterday. I, for the life of me, can not remember where I saw this idea. I have searched through my blogs I read, through my Kraft food magazines, and even google and can't come up with anything. So sorry, I can't give credit where credit is due!

*This happens to be my son's lunch plate. It is such an argument to get him to eat his veggies. We compromise with him eating 4 at each meal.

The recipie stated that you can use whole wheat bread and probably sneak it past the kids since they will be grilled. You also don't need to use any butter on the bread which is another health bonus.

I also made this once for the fam a few days earlier before making it for the daycare. When I made this for our dinner, we threw in some ham and had hot ham and cheese done this way.

Delish and Oh So Easy!

Super Blog Award

Thanks a bunch to Sandy at Just for Fun for awarding me the Super Blogger award. Sandy also happens to be the Featured Blogger on The Secret is in the Sauce. You must hop on over and congragulate her! I currently have 83 subscriptions in my google reader and I would need a super power to narrow it down to 5 who I want to nominate! Check out my blogroll on the side for some of my favorites that I like to read! I will say that Sandy's blog is one of the best though- she has so many great ideas!

Spring Tree

This little lady standing is holding a sign that says "Love the Garden"

Final Days to enter the GIVEAWAY!

Have you put your name in the hat for the ELEMENTAL BABY gift certificate I am giving away? I will be picking a winner on Wednesday so you still have a couple days to enter. EB offers some of the cutest little hats you ever did see for babies, fabulous custom baby books, adorable tooth fairy boxes, super sweet blankets, and much much more for your little ones.

Leave a comment on this post to enter.

Blog readers can receive a 10 % discount to the EB shop with the code "Grill10"

Letter of the Week Series- F

We took last week off to do some Easter activities. This week we talked about letter F. We did a do -a- dot fish and Feathers on a letter F for our alphabet books.

Spring Reading Thing 2009- Update

A while back I signed on with the Spring Reading Thing 2009 at Callapidder Days. If you are interested in seeing what I put on my list, you can click here.

I have finished up two books so far. One was on my list and one wasn't. The first one was:

The Yada Yada Prayer Group- Gets Real (#3 in series) by Neta Jackson.
This one was on my list. I continue to enjoy this series. I am ready for number four in the series, but will probably wait a bit before checking it out at the library and try to focus on what I put on my list first.

Last night I finished The Duggars: 20 and Counting! by Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar. This book was not on my list by I did see it on several other lists from other participants in the SRT2009. My friend Ashley had just mentioned how she enjoyed it and so I thought I would give it a whirl.

Talk about a busy and organized family. But, as I was thinking about it, you would have to be organized to function in that family. I didn't really know much about them and I don't watch their show on tv. As I was reading though, I did vaguely remember watching one episode once. There was also a recent announcement this week on the Today show- they are expecting again, only this time it is their first grandchild.

I need to go to the library tomorrow and get another book on my SRT list. We are reading The Friday Night Knitting Club by Kate Jacobs for my book club that meets in May but I know a friend already has the library copy checked out. I don't know what I will decide on tomorrow.

Another book that was not on my list, but I had seen on several other lists on the SRT2009 was The Shack by William P. Young. I had also heard about this book from a few friends. On Easter I saw it at my aunt and uncle's house and borrowed it. I think I will add this in to my list as well.

Awards Night!

I wanted to thank Meg at My Edition of Gab for thinking I deserved this award:

Unfortunately, her blog just went private so you can't stop by to check her out. She has a fun blog with lots of funny stories to read. Her and I are going to get together some day and drink a glass of wine or two. (who am I kidding, I drink it by the bottle, not glass!)

I was also awarded the "I Love Your Blog" award from the Mini Cuties blog. How fun! I was exctied to find this new blog with several fun ideas to do with little ones!

Thanks ladies for sharing the love with me!

Easter Fun

On Saturday we attended the Silver City Egg Hunt. My mom lives in Silver City and they have such a fun small town Easter party for the kids.

Everyone meets at the tiny library and then follows the Easter Bunny in a short walking parade to the park for the egg hunt. B is walking with one of his friends and knew several other children there this year.

Running for eggs in his age group.

The only thing was, the snakes were ALL over the park! We have never seen any the other years but this time there were 6! 4 of them were coming out of this tree! How gross, I absolutely hate snakes.

We headed to Hubby's mom's house for some egg hunting with B's cousins later in the day. The weather was just beautiful all day!

Finding eggs that the Easter Bunny hid this morning.

Easter hat, card, and cakes

The egg hunt we go to has a Easter hat contest, so we decorated this simple paper plate hat. Instructions can be found here.

While making the hat we also made a few quick cards for our grandmas and some friends. They had a sponge painted bunny and dot marker grass on the outside. Inside it said "Some Bunny Loves You!" and B wrote his name in them.

Would you like a piece of carrot cake after dinner?

White cake cupcakes for the kiddos. These were made really fast and I didn't put any base frosting on them.

Happy Easter!

Today we met some friends at the Tractor Supply store. They had an article in the paper a few weeks ago that they would be having chicks in store. They had tiny little chicks and baby ducks. The kids loved being able to hold them and spend some time with them. It was lots of fun for all of us.

Happy Birthday

Who doesn't love birthdays? I do so very much. I am a self proclaimed birthday princess but today is not my birthday.... it is Nikki 's from WhiMSy Love. Hop on over to her blog and give her some birthday lovin'.

I made some cupcakes for us since I know how much she loves 'em. And I also got a nice card out for her. How sweet am I?

Happy Birthday Nikki!

I also made a cake for a baby shower tomorrow and 30 cupcakes.

Final Shot of the Day

The day 5 Shot of the Day for "something old" goes to ....Kristie at Kristie's Notes.

Thanks again to everyone who participated in one day or all 5- it was lots of fun getting to know you a little better by seeing

YOUR LIFE. IN PICTURES.

I do hope you will join us again in June!

My Life. In Pictures.-- Day 5

Day 4 was another great day of photos for us to look at. Once again I had a difficult time selecting the Shot of the Day.

Some made me laugh, some were cute, some beautiful, some made me thirsty, and one brought me to tears. But, Sally at My Three Sons gets the honor of the Shot of the Day. I love the action shot of the coffee pouring into the mug.

Day 5. Our final day. Sniff, sniff... excuse me while I grab a tissue. I didn't think I would get all sentimental here, but I am out of my Lexapro. I had a great time with all of you. Each one of you had great pictures and I am so happy to have had the chance to get a glimpse of Your Life. In Pictures.


My photo choice for "something old" is a picture we have downstairs. The photo on the right is "old". It is my father-in-law holding my husband when he was a baby. I love this photo because my husband got his own photo in hospital scrubs with our little boy. We keep them side by side and I can't wait to give them both to our son when he gets older.

Now, since this is our last day for the My Life. In Pictures. Photo Challenge, I hope I can get everything right on one post.

I need to:
* post it at the right time and day
*have a Mr. Linky that works
*remember to post Mr. Linky on the post
...is this it? Geeze, why did I have so many problems each day?

I would like to do this again sometime. I am thinking June? Give us a few months off and then we can meet up again to see some more great photos and hear some good stories. In the meantime, I wish you all well and look forward to getting to know you better.

If you have any suggestions for future days of My Life. In Pictures. - email them to me at Amberloo22 @ aol . com

** Remember to check out my giveaway for my 200th post! Enter to win a $25 gift certificate to Elemental Baby!

Letter of the Week Series- E

This week we were working on Letter E. We recently purchased a set of long-awaited do-a-dot markers and used them for one of our E projects. I have wanted these for quite a while now and was so excited to finally get them. I had as much fun with them as B did.

We used them to dot over the letter E that I made in black crayon for the kids. The were able to choose what colors they wanted, but of course my son loves BLUE!

We also made a Big E little e hunting game. I also added in the letters A, B, C, and D that we have worked on the past few weeks. I let the kids make up their own control group colors. B selected blue and red as you can see. This idea was from an example of work they have on the shelves in his Montessori classroom.

For our alphabet books this week, I traced 4 egg shapes onto white card stock. Each child used watercolor paints to decorate the eggs.

I just some grass out of green construction paper and they folded the pieces down to make it pop out and look "fringe-y"

We glued our Easter Eggs under the grass so it looked like they were hiding.

My Life. In Pictures.-- Day 4

I am having so much fun with this week's photo challenge. It really is so exciting to see each one of your blogs every day and see what you selected for your post. I hope you are enjoying it as much as I am.

Wednesday's SHOT OF THE DAY...goes to Just Playing Pretend. She has a beautiful snowy shot of the view from her front door and I just love it. Like her, I am so sick of the snow but this picture was great. I love the buildings and street too. Now the shot she posted from the view in the back...wowza! Stinkin' beautiful!


Today's challenge is to show something you do every day. I was struggling to find an idea for what I wanted to do. I shower, I brush my teeth, but what else do I do EVERY day? I usually read my book in bed, but I usually take a few days off between books. I don't clean every day (I should), I don't exercise every day (I should), I don't drive to the same place every day either.

The idea came to me that I (my husband and I both) read to our son each night. This is a ritual we have done for such a long time. We all get into his bed and read a few books that he selects and then finsih with a children's Bible story (we are on our fourth Bible for little ones... any recommendations on others?) and his prayers.

Tomorrow is our final day of this challenge. The subject is: Something old.

Everyone has done so well, maybe we should do this again sometime!

200 and counting + A giveaway! Yippiee!

200 is finally here!

200 Pieces of wagon wheel pasta

200 Coins all in rows

200 Legos in a bowl

And the sweetest little chubby baby boy you ever did see at almost 200 Days old. (Yes, I really did take a picture of him each week for his first YEAR)

Thats right, Folks... we are talking about two hundred around here today. This is what my 200th post looks like!

This calls for a cel-a-bration, and I have got one for you. This is my first give-away and I am excited to introduce to you Elemental Baby. Elemental Baby specializes in "memorable products for memorable kids".

Elemental Baby is a mom owned and operated biz, so give her all that mommy-business lovin' I know you've got!

Elemental Baby offers one-of-a-kind, personalized baby books. They really are so much more than a baby book however. They are custom built to suit your family perfectly.

In addition to fabulous baby books, Elemental Baby offers, growth charts, tooth fairy boxes, the most stinkin' adorable knit caps for babies, hip bibs and paci clips, and the softest, snuggly blankets for your babies- AND MUCH MUCH MORE!

I am offering a $25 gift certificate to the Elemental Baby store. The contest will end on April 22nd. If you can't wait until the 22nd to see if you win, blog readers are able to recieve a 10% discount on your order. Use Grill10 when you order.

Here are a few notes for a recent visit with the owner of Elemental Baby, Cris. She is the mom to 2 beautiful children!

Tell us a little about your shop... How did you come up with the idea for Elemental Baby?

" I couldn't find any baby books I liked for either of our kids and each time had to settle for something that wasn't quite us. Some books were too cutesy, some were too formal. I knew there had to be a way to create a custom book option so that every parent could have a book that "fit" them and their family. I did a bunch of research, created some test books (my poor family!) and was on my way. Interestingly, the store name was harder to come up with than the books. I went through quite a few names - some were taken, some didn't portray the vision of the store, and some were downright stupid! "

What inspired you to get started with an online store?

"Online shopping reaches a lot of potential buyers. And....let's face it -- web real estate is a lot cheaper than brick and mortar real estate. "

What advice do you have for a new Mom-preneur ?

"Don't get frustrated. It's a lot of work, and takes a lot of time, especially if you are doing everything online. If you have a great idea, get it out there...and my store is always looking for new and fun children's items!"

What is your favorite product in your store?

"Of course the baby books! Although I do have to say, I love the pewter tooth fairy boxes as well.What has been the best thing about having your own shop? I really love making each and every book. It's another way to connect with people. It's so fun to see what family and friends send in to put in the books. You really get a sense for who they are as a family. And it's interesting that each custom book I've done thus far has had contributions from great-grandparents. Imagine being able to read a letter or poem from your great-grandparent that was created especially for you. I love being a part of something so amazing."

What makes your family special?

"Wow - that's a great question. I think that should be the blog challenge question for next week!
Dave and I were a little 'older' when we had our kids. I think because of our age we had a very clear vision for what we wanted our family to be: honest; hardworking; high expectations yet easy going; love of nature; love and respect for each other; appreciate what God has given us. We work hard to live up to that vision and sometimes we are successful, and other times we fail miserably. When we fail, we learn the lesson and move on!"

Where else do you like to shop for Children's products?

"I'm a self-proclaimed Targetoholic. I love Target. I can always find something to buy at Target."

Want to know how you can win? Sure you do!

1. Leave a comment on what your favorite Elemental Baby product is. Tell me who you would use it for.

2. Become a follower. I have just added the follower section to my blog due to some requests, so lets get it going. Leave me a comment that you are now a follower.

3. Blog about this give-away on your blog and get 5 extra entries! Leave me a link to your post on a comment.

Be sure to check out the Elementally Speaking blog as well!