1st Annual Lady-Bug Launch

I was looking at my garden the other day and realized that my mint plant had aphids on it!  My husband and I immediately ran out to a garden store to pick up some Lady-Bugs.  I was so excited for this because I remember letting the Lady-Bugs go at a friends house when I was younger and I LOVED it!  Since my son is still too little to appreciate this (he turns one in a week!) we decided to invite all of our in-town nieces and nephews over to join in the fun.  

Apparently dusk is the best time to release Lady-Bugs as they don't like to fly as much at night, and so they will stay in your garden/yard to eat all your pests.  Unfortunately, this time of day made picture taking quite difficult!  

We decided to make a night out of it and started off crafting until everyone arrived, then we had dinner and finally it was time to Launch those Lady-Bugs!

The nieces and nephews had a great time.  It was fun letting the Lady-Bugs crawl up our arms but not any higher than that!  And surprisingly the girls were less afraid of these little critters than the boys were.  Who would have guessed?!

All in all, the Lady-Bug Launch was a success!  And we can't wait to do it again next year!

Oh, and YES, we are thankful to be living in AZ right now and to be experiencing spring, but for a good majority of everyone else, this would be perfect to do later on when Spring really gets underway!

Erika,
I am so glad you were able to find lady bugs.  My mint has bugs too (but they look different than aphids).  My mini roses have some aphids.  Alas my garden center does not have lady bugs yet.  I had to settle for spraying mine with water with a touch of dish soap mixed in.  Works great but not quite as fun as lady bugs.  It is also a very cool lesson for the kids.
Katrina

Rebecca here:  Erika, thanks for inviting us to do this, it was such a great idea and so much fun!  We loved the Ladybug Launch!  Yup, my girls aren't afraid because we do this every year in our garden (in fact they are begging me to buy the praying mantis eggs...but I just can't do it...that gives me the heebie jeebies!).  What a fun lesson to see hands on.  I can't wait to do this in our garden (thankfully we don't need the ladybugs yet).  An interesting tidbit is that the ladybugs will stay around as long as there are bugs for them to eat.  So if the ladybugs are gone, your "bad" bugs should be, too!  Yay green gardening!

Valentine’s Activities

I am so excited about these baskets.  They are filled with craft kits to do with my kids.  My kids and I craft pretty much every day, so I know these will be a big hit with my kids.  There are more than enough kits to keep us busy every day this month!    I am going to share with you a sampling of the kits that are in my baskets.
Most of the kits I put together, using things that I already have.  Here I separated out Perler Beads in Valentine’s colors.  I also included the star board and an example of how it can turn into a heart.
TIP:  I love those little containers.  I use them ALL the time.  I buy them from the party store, in their catering goods section.

Another of my kits is for making Valentine Cards for other people.  I cut out scalloped hearts of all sizes, in pink, red, and white.  I am so excited for them to use these doilies, too.  I also have beads and ribbons that they can use but there are too many to fit in the kits.  Those are readily accessible at all times.

Here is one craft my kids have already done.  These Valentines are out of those awesome foam hearts.  I love how sweet these are.  We are mailing these to all of my Children’s Great Grandmas!

Another craft that my kids have already done is this bottle cap craft.  On the backside these are pins or magnets.  I so love them.

I have pictures ready to be put in these cute heart frames.

Another route that I went with these kits is premade kits from Oriental Trading.  Sometimes you just cannot beat what Oriental Trading has to offer!
 
I am especially excited about these boxes because we will be making a lot of goodies and these boxes will be perfect to give them out in!
One last kit from my baskets.  I have a ton more kits that I made up (like I said, there are enough for the whole month!).  Some other kits are crochet hearts, sewing embroidered heart bean bags, tissue paper hearts, wax paper and crayon hearts, coloring pages, canvases to paint, bugs made out of hearts (caterpillars, bees, butterflies, etc), and more.
I am enjoying doing these things with my kids already.  One reason I am trying the basket full of kits version this year is that the kids can look through them and decide what they want to do each day.  Some days my kids are more in the mood to paint, then to sew.  So this will hopefully add to the fun factor. 

Rebecca

Heart Box Tutorial With A Secret Cheat

If you were with us last year, you know that I do a Valentine’s Day Countdown with my children. I have Valentine’s Surprises every day for my children, starting on February 1st. This year I am trying to have everything ready to go by the end of January (wish me luck on that one!). These Heart shaped boxes are just one of the surprises I have planned.
I tried a bunch of variations of 3D hearts, to use for decoration. When I figured these out, I realized they would also be great as a container for some of the treats that I have.

Ok so now you see the secret cheat that I used. Toilet Paper tubes! Some people are grossed out by this…I’m not. They are perfect for helping the paper to hold it’s heart shape and make the boxes more durable! I figured out the easiest way to turn that regular roll of toilet paper into a heart shape. I thought I was brilliant and told my Mom about it. She had that figured out before I told her. See, this is why we are the way we are (my Sisters and I). We get it from this brilliant woman!
So the easy way to transform your toilet paper roll is to take the regular roll (1) and flatten it (2). Make sure to crease the folds well. Then, take the top fold and bend it the opposite direction to make the crease in the top of your heart (3). That’s it! Easy peasy, right?!
Then, I played around with the scrapbook paper I wanted to cover the boxes with. I made myself this handy dandy template. I needed it to go around the heart, but already have creases in the paper, because the paper I used was pretty stiff and would not easily conform to the heart shaped toilet paper roll. Notice that one crease will fold in along with the crease of the heart, and the other fold will go out(meaning fold it the opposite direction from the first fold) to go around the bottom tip of your heart. The side flaps/notches are what will make the top and bottom of your heart and keep in your goodies! I found you needed a lot of notches because of the heart shape. This is what worked best for me.

I then painted a nice layer of modge podge onto the backside of my paper (but only the center section that will be glued directly to the toilet paper roll) and wrapped the paper around the heart shaped toilet paper. The paper will not stay put on its own and it is quite helpful to use those large clothespins, to hold everything in place while the modge podge is drying.
Seal up one side of your heart shaped box. Fill your container with goodies that you scored in the after-Christmas clearance sales! Oh yeah! These ended up costing me 10 cents each for the bags of red and silver foil covered chocolates. Yes, the outside packaging was Christmas, but the inside packaging was perfect for Valentine's candy. Then, seal your last side of your box. I tried using modge podge and then I tried double sided tape to seal the ends up. Both seemed to work well.

I can not wait to have these waiting for my children in their Valentine Mailbox! Though, this year I am changing the mailbox idea up a bit. You'll have to keep coming back to see how that will change. Do you see that awesome skull and heart paper? That will be put into use for my Son! He’s starting to think some things are a little too girly, so I hope this fits the bill for him!
These would also be great to make with your kids, for their friends for Valentine's Day. I think I will be making them with my kids! I could also see making them during other times of the year, maybe as party favors. Who wouldn't love a heart shaped box?
I can’t wait to show you more of my Valentine’s Countdown surprises, so keep checking back!
Rebecca


I linked up to Today's Creative Blog, and My Frugal Family, and DIY Day.

Happy New Year plus Goal Setting Templates!

Happy New Year to everyone! What a fun year this last year has been. Thank you for checking in throughout the year to see what we have been up to. I have thoroughly enjoyed getting to have a reason to chat more with my sisters, and this blog has been that reason. Yes, we talk everyday anyways, but the blog gave us specific things to gab about! ;)

I have a 3 ring binder that I have labeled my Year In Review, Milestones, and Who Am I Binder. I love this binder. It is a quick way to see what my family has done over the years. I thought it might be something that other people might also want to utilize. I just print these sheets out, punch holes in them, and slip them into my 3 ring binder. I suppose you could just slip the pages into page protectors in a 3 ring binder, as well.

Really for the Year In Review and the Goals it is the same basic template. It is one square for each month. Nothing long will fit in these small boxes. It is just to be summaries.

For the Year In Review I just write in what we did, or any milestones my children achieve, under the correct month. Some ideas would be family trip to California, baby’s first tooth, Riding a bike with no training wheels (which one of my kids just did, thank you to a new bike from Santa!), any parties we attended, etc. I also write in things like started soccer, took art lessons, etc. It is pretty cool to look back and see just what your year included, all in one glance!

I do actually print up 4 Year In Reviews for each year. This is for one for the entire family, and then one for each child. So I write down each child’s milestone on their own Year In Review page for the year. When you go to doctor’s appointments you can also fill in the child’s stats in that month.

For the Goals I write in things I want to try and do during that month with my children. This helps me to focus and prioritize my year. I always plug in family vacations, camping trips, and any themes we are focusing on for the month (service themes as well as character points that we are working on). On the back of this paper I also list goals that are not specific to one month. I have my kids help me with this for many reasons. One reason is that it is a fun thing to do as a family. Another reason is to help my kids feel included. The last reason is so that I can actually see the kinds of things that are important to them. I try really hard to listen to who my kids are and what they really want.

The color page at the top is just a fun one with neat fonts and in color. I prefer that one. The one just above here is just a plain template so that you can customize it to fit your needs, or just if you like a more sleek look.

These next few are just so that you have options of what you would like. You could print out the above and the template below and be ready for pondering these fun things tonight at your New Year’s Eve party! Even if you had not filled the 2009 one in along the way, it is probably still pretty easy to think back and be able to still fill this in. However, once you wait more than about a year, you will forget many neat details.

If you do go back and fill this out for the last year, it would probably be a fun thing to do tonight. I pull out my completed Year In Review and go over it with my kids, on New Year’s Eve. It is fun to think about what a fun, crazy, and busy life we had the last year. While we are at it we also usually go through our other year’s as well. Just because it is fun to reminisce.

This last one is my Who Am I chart. I actually try to fill this out a couple of times a year for each of my children. Some years I have done it around 4 times, other years I just do it once. I try to at least fill this out at New Years, and around their Birthday. It is easy for me to remember to do this during those times! I love looking back and seeing what cute sayings my children were saying, or the other fun details that you forget about!

I hope you all had a fantastic 2009, and I wish you all a very Happy New Year! Yay 2010!!

Rebecca

The Elves’ Snickerdoodles

My great friend Pam, of Gingerbread Snowflakes is having a virtual Cookie Exchange all month starting today!  This will be my first cookie that I am linking to her party!  My Mom and I will be baking some other fun cookies this weekend to add to the party!  I hope you will jump over to Gingerbread Snowflakes and join in on the fun!  If you are coming from her post, then "Hi, and welcome!"  This is actually a post from last year but I loved these cookies so much because of the fun name and great taste.  In fact I just made up a double batch yesterday to start off my holiday baking!!

Anjeanette had her annual Cookie Exchange over the weekend. Though, that’s hers to tell and not mine. ;) I can tell you about the cookies I brought. I wanted something new and as soon as I heard the name for these I knew they were the ones. “The Elves’ Snickerdoodles”. So cute, right?
Well, I felt the point of these cookies is to make them colorful…you know, something fun for the Elves! In the picture of my colorful sprinkles notice the red one (on the lower left) is chunkier. I crushed up red hots and added it to the red sugar sprinkles. The red cookies ended up being everyone’s favorites (especially mine…yum-o!). I even used some decorative shaped sprinkles (I have gingerbread, snowflake, and tree shaped sprinkles….I use them as often as I can!).

I’ll give you the recipe at the end of this post. With their name, how pretty they were, and some added bling for the presentation…I did not even care how they tasted.
But Oh My Gosh! They were delicious! I think it’s the lemon zest, sour cream, and red hots that make them fantastic!
The last couple of years my presentation for the cookies has kind of lacked. So, this year I had to make them cuter. I added the holly and mistletoe name tags to the top, some sparkly Christmas ribbon and “boxed” them up in champagne glasses. That way you could see the cookies pretty colors through the whole packaging.

Notice on the bottom of the glasses…I added shrinky dink wine charms that I had already made. Love these.
I found the recipe at the Family Fun website. This is from there:
Being one of Santa's elves requires a lot of qualities we admire: industriousness, cooperation, attention to detail, and perhaps most of all, a sense of humor. Says one elf we spoke to: "We work hard all year long. The hours are long, so morale is important. The baker elves (the ones assigned to kitchen duty) know that one sure way to keep their crew happy throughout the holiday season is by serving plenty of these sparkly sugar-topped Snickerdoodles. The name alone just gives us the giggles."

Ingredients

• 2-1/4 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
• 2 tablespoons soft butter

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup sour cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Colored sugar or edible glitter

Instructions

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg into a large mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, using an electric mixer, cream the shortening and butter. Gradually mix in the sugar. Beat in the egg until blended, then the sour cream, vanilla extract, and lemon zest.
2. With a wooden spoon, stir the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture half at a time, until evenly mixed. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it for 30 to 60 minutes.
3. Shortly before baking heat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease one or two large cookie sheets, or line them with parchment paper. Put the decorative sugar into small bowls.
4. With lightly floured hands, shape the dough into 1-1/2-inch-thick balls. Roll the balls in the colored sugar and place them on the prepared baking sheets spaced about 3 inches apart. Bake the cookies on the center oven rack for 15 to 18 minutes, until they're a light golden brown. Cool the cookies on the sheet for 2 to 3 minutes. Then use a spatula to transfer them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Makes about 24 cookies.

My addition to these would be to double the lemon zest (thank you Mother for the fresh lemons!). Also, add crushed red hots to your red sprinkles. So super Yummy!

Rebecca

Come join the fun over at: Remodelaholic, ByStpehanieLynn,

Fun Garlands For Your Christmas Tree

I grew up with a Christmas tree that had scandinavian decorations on it. Even if this wasn’t my heritage (which it is) I would still love these kinds of decorations because they were a part of my childhood. I remember cute straw ornaments with red accents. Even more than those, I remember garlands made out of Danish flags. They are called Flagranker. Oh, how I love those garlands. The other year Anjeanette and her family visited Solvang in California which is a cute Danish themed town. They bought those awesome Danish flag garlands for each of us! She bought them at Jule Haus. I put them on my Christmas tree and was oh so happy. Such a little thing, but I swear they put such a great smile on my face whenever I see them! Well, the other side of my kids heritage was not seen on the tree. As soon as this was brought to my attention I immediately whipped up a garland made out of Scottish flags. Makes me even happier. I do not know what it is about the Holidays, but it makes me think of my heritage. I love hearing stories of where my family came from (especially because my Dad is such a great story teller!). Having these decorations on my tree is a great conversation starter for my children. They always ask what things are and why we have them. So, it opens up a whole conversation about where all the different people in our family come from. I am so lucky to know of my family’s rich heritage. I love that my parents celebrated Holidays from other countries! It is also one way to prolong the celebrating (which is always a good thing, in my book….I believe you don’t just have a Birth-Day, but instead a Birth-Week….get where I’m going here?)!

Not all flags are as easy as Denmark’s and Scotland’s. However, I think you can still come up with ways to incorporate parts of your heritage into your celebrating or decorating.

Rebecca

Technorati Tags: Christmas,Garlands,Flags,Scotland,Denmark

Retro Mice Ornament

Yes, that is a walnut shell! I have always remembered these sweet ornaments that my Mom made with us kids. They hung on our tree for years. That crafting time with my Mother is what inspired my own Walnut Shell Mouse Christmas Ornaments!

When we made these with my Mother, we used a homemade clay recipe. I tried getting details about these from my Mom and Anjeanette, and this was what I came up with. We did not have Polymer Clay growing up, so I was quite excited to do this craft using Polymer Clay (not that I have an obsession with Polymer Clay…I swear I don’t have every shade imaginable…). With Polymer Clay you can add so much more detail and finishing touches.

If you look closely at these, I made them all with minor differences. My favorite is the one with the Santa hat! Some have paws holding onto the top of the blanket, others have pink or white centers in their ears, I added cute tails to some, and I changed up the colors for their bodies. Other differences are the size, whisker marks, shapes of ears and heads, and kinds of eyes. One even has feet, but what is the point of that because you will never see the feet (though I know they’re there, and that’s why I did it…it makes me smile).

I had to decide what kind of material to use for the blanket, and what/how to tie them to the tree. I have a nice collection of ribbon (again, not something I would be obsessed with, I’m just saying) and first wanted to go with a delicate ribbon that ties in a bow at the top. However, once I decided to go with felt for my blankets, I knew I wanted to do a simple loop with yarn, to carry the retro feel of these ornaments. Tonight my kids and I are carrying on the tradition of making these. I can’t wait!

A few tips for when you make these. When using yarn, I just hot glued the yarn on the side but I also made sure to coat the yarn end with the glue so the yarn didn’t come apart (but use it sparingly so that you don’t even see it). Also, hang the ornament on your finger to make sure that they are evenly balanced. I also hot glued these mice into their shells. I would hate for them to fall out and end up broken (or just missing…not that things would go missing in my house…especially tiny things…).

Rebecca

I love this month. I love being reminded to be grateful for what I have. Right now I am very thankful for all the wonderful teachers. I truly believe in the old saying of it taking a village to raise a child. I wholeheartedly believe that children will be more successful by being taught by many different people in their lives. I am so thankful to teachers that take a special interest in my children (this is professional teachers as well as my friends and family that my children also learn from). Erika will be teaching one of my daughters to cook/bake. My Father-In-Law did a wonderful series of once a week art lessons for my children. There are so many instances where my friends and family are helping to teach my children and shape them into who they are! I am so thankful for this. I have been so lucky that my children have gotten some phenomenal teachers at school as well. These teachers can make or break a child.

Thank you to all those who teach and inspire people! Your time and effort is invaluable!

Technorati Tags: christmas,ornaments,retro,mice,walnut,polymer clay

Rebecca,

These are adorable!

For our readers I have a tip for you on how to easily crack a walnut in half. First of all look at your walnuts. Some of them have a seam that basically cuts it in half. Some of them when you look at the smaller end look like they have a seam that splits them in thirds, you don't want to use these. Now that you have selected your walnuts with a nice seam. Get a hot pad to work on so your nut does not slip around. You will need something like a butter knife or flat chisel. Hold your walnut with the fat end up and insert the tip of your knife into the center of the seam (there is a bit of membrane there that is easy to push through). It may not look like it but your knife should slip in at this point with a little pressure. Push the knife in as far as it will go and then slide it down the seam (kind of like when cutting a melon in half). Some of your walnuts won't separate into two perfect halves but your will most likely get at least one good half out of just about all of them.

Katrina

We are adding to the Christmas fun by joining some link parties here and here.

Heartfelt Thanksgiving Letters

I love November! What a great reminder to be grateful for all we have in our lives. This bucket is filled with scrolls of cute autumn stationary that I printed up on my computer. I love quick, easy, but with meaning. This project is all of that.

I was raised with parents who instilled thankfulness in us children, by their examples. My parents really are super, wonderful, giving people who I am so very thankful for. I would not be able to enjoy my life if it were not for them teaching me to be happy in the here and now. I really do love my life, even with all the chaos and downtimes. I have a list that is too long to list, of the many things in my life that I am so very thankful for. I am blessed to have the best family. This starts with my children, my parents, siblings, grandparents, cousins, nieces, nephews, and goes on and on! I have wonderful best friends who truly are amazing people. All of these people inspire me to be a better person. They celebrate with me in the good times and support me in the bad. What more can I ask for then this? Thank you to all of you!

I am loving Anjeanette’s project of activities to do with my kids. What a great twist on the thanksgiving tradition of being thankful. I also love Katrina’s tree, and do something similar with my kids. I like her twist of the leaves falling off the tree instead of being added to the tree as I have done in the past.

This project is about sharing with others the reasons that we are thankful for them. I first filled out one of these for each of my children. I was very specific about all the things about them that make me thankful to have them in my life. My oldest’s independence is something I totally admire, the next is so laid back and easy to love, while my youngest has such a fantastic energetic imagination. These are just 3 of the specific things I listed for them. I’ve done this activity before with my children. We left the scrolls as place holders on the thanksgiving table that year. This year after we finish filling these out we will hand deliver them and then mail the rest to the out of town people in our lives that are special to us. I want my kids to think through not just who they are thankful for. But this will help them see why we love those people so much.

I wish everyone Happy Holidays and hope you are taking the time to see all that you have to be thankful for as well!

Rebecca

Technorati Tags: Thankful,notes,idea,thanksgiving,childrens project,lesson

Halloween Party

Welcome to our Halloween Party. First, set the tone by decorating your entrance. Can you tell that we enjoy Halloween? ;) Anjeanette has this banner and sign that she puts our for her entrances.

Next, decorate inside of your house. I love these dollar store buckets! Just nest a glass bowl inside the plastic bucket (as the dry ice will melt the plastic bucket). Add dry ice and water and you have the most fun decorations. Seriously, we can’t get enough dry ice throughout the house. For decorations don't forget to fill your crocheted pumpkins with candy corn! And if you made this table runner and banner, or this hand towel, make sure they are out!

These are crafts that the kids made, and the top bucket was one of the cute buckets that Anjeanette gave us when she “Boo’d” us. I just filled that bucket with treats for the kids to go home with (spider rings and other Halloween trinkets, you could also include pencil toppers).

A MUST have for us is the meal in the pumpkin! Oh it’s sooooo yummy. Not only do you cook the meal in the pumpkin, you then take chunks of the pumpkin with your serving. Delish! I think this is my favorite tradition of Halloween. Other Halloween foods are dry ice root beer, skeleton cookies, candy corn rice krispies, pumpkin cookies, white chocolate ghost suckers, apple pie spice drink, oreo cookie spiders, popcorn fingers, edible gross body parts, etc!

On to the games. This is my favorite. Dangling Donuts. Because who doesn’t need more food (especially highly sugared food) after our Halloween meal!?
All you do is get donuts (we get a variety). Tie a long piece of string onto each donut. Grab a dowel or long sturdy stick. Decide who is going to go against each other (don’t go against Anjeanette…she is the QUEEN of this game…that’s all I’m saying). Each person picks their own donut. Tie donuts on the dowel and go at it (without using your hands!). For our little kids we’ve let 3 go at a time, but otherwise we stick to 2 at a time. This is also best played outside as it leaves a mess below.

Another really fun game is this Pin The Hat On The Witch Game I made one year. I love variations of Pin The Tail On The Donkey. Don’t forget the other games like bobbing for apples (no pictures because I don’t want to show our kids)!

You could do this as place settings for the party (though this was what I had for my kids on the first day of October). I just printed out a pumpkin on orange paper and wrote out Happy Halloween _______ using my awesome Halloween fonts. That was for their placemat. Then they got Halloween cups to use all month, that were filled with Halloween pencils and toys. I also give them their Halloween shirt for the year, on the first day so that they can wear it the whole month long. These were shirts that I added beaded Halloween designs to.

The Gals here at Roots And Wings Co just love holidays and Halloween is right there at the top of the list. We have Halloween parties every year. We just had ours last weekend (thank you Anjeanette for hosting an awesome night). I am holding another one for the kids on Friday. So many things to do. I love doing the same things year after year, and I also love adding new things every year. Some things for the kiddos party will be tossing bean bags into my large cauldron and crafts. We always make Haunted Houses at this party (like gingerbread houses for Christmas except we use chocolate frosting to make it spookier, and you construct your house funny so it's a crooked haunted house). For crafts we will be making fingerprints in orange, green, and black. Then, we draw parts on them that turn them into witches, pumpkins, and monsters. I turn these into stickers and then the kids make Halloween cards for family using their fingerprint stickers.
Hope you enjoyed the party. For those of you that are still hosting a Halloween party this week (or for your fun Halloween night dinner) I hope this gives you some fun ideas to try.

Rebecca