Ninjago Tooth Fairy Pillow

Poor Monkey has been waiting for this for a while for this. I think he has lost at least 4 teeth and hasn't had a tooth fairy pillow. He has been asking for a Lego Ninjago one. So here he goes.

Kind of a sad one but I whipped it up in about 20 minutes. Lol.

Ninjago Costume

This year when the boys told me they wanted to be Lego Ninjago Ninjas I knew I was going to end up making them myself. Due to the fact that I didn't have alot of time and wanted going to spend alot of time and not wanting to spend a ton of money. The boys wanted to be Kai and Coal. Unfortunately Coal didn't work out when I tried dying his white karate gee black and it turned out purple. Oops. So next best thing was Jay.

These were so easy peasy to make and guess what? Total cost was $5. I already had the karate gee's and black material. All I needed was the gold martial, brown leather fabric and dye. So with sales and coupons all of it was under $5. 

I braided the leatherish fabric to make it look like rope and then hot glued to the gee's 

Wa-La! Introducing Kai & Jay. 

Lunch Bags

First day of school is quickly approaching and we have been taking car of all the odds and ends of school prep. This was the backpack that  Bear picked out this year. For the life of us we could not find a lunch bag to go with it. She wanted something that matched. After searching all over we still could not find one. So I decided to make one. 

It turned out so cute! And she loves it! 

Matches? Yep, I think so. Now we are good to go. 

Dr Suess Day

Anyone who's anybody has definitely heard of good ole Dr Seuss. The kids school always celebrates "Read Across America." The kids love it because it is an entire week of fun activities at school. On the last day the kids got to wear their pj's to school. I forgot to get a picture of them but it was really cute.

The night before I packed them a Dr Seuss lunch that I had seen online a few years ago but never ended up doing. This year I was determined to do it. I had to switch it up a little but it was pretty much the same idea.

This was the little note I made to put inside their lunches.

The lunch consisted of hard boiled eggs (dyed green), cubed ham, pink yogurt drink, blue jello, fish crackers and marshmallows. The kids all said they had so much fun with it.

Each class was to have a parent bring in cupcakes. I saw a similar idea on Pinterest and tried to make them with a little twist of my own.  

These things had some serious frosting on them.  

I had so much fun doing this for the kids. And to make it more special for me is that they LOVED me doing it for them :) 

Money Jars

 I know this looks like scrap wood and a jar but it does make something neat. My Love and I have been wanting the kids to have money jars for a while. A visual for them to understand money more. We want them to have a good concept of money. Why not start at a young age? I saw an idea online at "Bits of Everything" website and went with it. All I needed to do was make a crate for the jars.

 

 They each have 1 jar for GIVING. They put 10% of their money in this jar. We have explained to the kids that everything we have is because of God. He is the one who has blessed us with what we have and we should want to give back to him. They were all happy to do this. Our church is trying to raise money for the youth building right now so they love that they are able to contribute to that.

The second jar is their SAVINGS jar. They each decided if they wanted to put 40% or 50% in this jar. This jar is for obviously savings or if they ever want to save up for something. 

The remainder of their money went into the SPENDING jar. This is probably their favorite. jar.

I'm so glad this little system has been working and the kids are willing to do it. Its so nice that they are learning to make good choices regarding their money at such a young age.

Before and After

A while back I was driving home and saw a "FREE" sign on something on the sidewalk. I always get a little excited when I see signs that say "FREE." Usually its junk but this time it wasn't. At least it wasn't to me.

Actually there was 3 of them that were sitting out on the street. I'm thinking they were shelves but I didn't quite know. Anyway I told my Love about them and he went and picked them up for me.

I didn't end up using them right away for what I had planned (which I will get to) but I did make good use out of them while they were sitting in my garage. I used them for each of the kids birthday parties. First for Bear's 50's party. A record display and jukebox stand. 

For Big Guy's Lego Party they were made into giant Lego's.

And for Monkey's Monster party I used one of them for pin the eyeball on the monster.

So hey, I didn't get to my project right away but I did make good use out of them. Okay back to my great plan for these things.

I had mymy Love take off the random diagonal board on the back and nail a backing to them. He sanded them down for me and I primed and painted them. Pretty soon these..... 

Turned into these. Wa-La.....Lockers for the kids. Are you as excited as me? I have been wanting to have some sort of place for the kids to put all their backpacks and sweatshirts after school and knew these would be perfect. I love the way they turned out.

 Not sure what the fourth one will be for. Right now the kids say its daddy's locker.

The kids are lovin' them too. Everyday they come home to this sign that I made.

And within a few minutes I see this.

Goodbye to backpacks and sweatshirts on the floor! Hello to a very happy mommy.

Monster Pillow Pet

Monkey loves monsters. The nice ones, that is. Since he is really into Pillow Pets as well I wanted to make one for him for his birthday. I bought some fabric and made this little creepy guy. He loved it.

Bordem Chart

A week into summer when my son announced in these exact words,

I knew it was going to be a long summer. I didn't have the slightest idea of what I was going to do for them the all summer long. I didn't want them watching TV all day and you can only go to the park so many times. I wanted to make everyday a little fun.

The solution to my problem.....

COOL SUMMER FUN!

I made this little ice cream calender for them. I saw this idea somewhere online and loved it. In every cone pocket there is a little something special that we are doing on that day. Sometimes its simple. Sometimes its not so simple. It could be anything from a craft to a field trip to an experiment to cooking etc..... They get so excited everyday to see what we are doing. I love it.
Some of the fun so far has included making their own batch of Kool-aid playdough. We also have made Birdseed Cookies. The list really could go on and on. Lets hope this keeps them busy!

We have done so much. I love this thing. Its been funny how the kids don't let me forget about the our daily ice cream cone adventure.

"I'm officially bored"

Chore Chart

I have been wanting to get a Chore Chart for the kids for a while now. We have these Responsibility Charts that they have been doing for a while now but they are getting tired of putting their magnet ups all the time and usually don't end up doing it. I couldn't find anything that I liked so I decided to make one. Here it is. I took pictures of the chores because of the boys not being able to read yet. I am going to rotate the cards so that they don't have the same chores every week. The kids used it last night and the system seems to work. I hope they continue to like it.

Peach of the Week

This week was Bear's turn in her class to be "Peach of the Week." Everyone in the class gets a turn to be the "Special Person" that week. Its actually really cute. She was so excited.

The "Peach of the Week" get to bring in a collage of themselves, pictures, show-n-tell and a special book.

The "Peach of the Week" also gets to sit in the special "Peach" chair next to the teacher. It is just a simple white chair so I thought it would be a great idea to dress it up a little. I made this chair cover and gave it to her class. They all LOVED IT!! You cant tell from the pic but the class really like how I made the peach fuzzy and puffy.

Busy Bags

So we are leaving on vacation tomorrow. We are going to be in the car for about 7-8 hours. My kids are not the best travelers so besides movies and their own toys to play with I have a little surprise for them that I hope will also keep them busy for a little bit.

I made these totes. Busy Bags I hope. I went to the dollar store and filled them up with little surprises. Let's hope my idea works.