Personalized IPad and a GIVEAWAY!!

     I love a little personalization!  So, I am super excited about how cute my IPad and IPad cover look with their new, super cute decals!!!

    Enter Kati, of Daisy Decals.  She and her Mom have a new Etsy shop that specializes in selling retro and vintage decals.  I fell in love with Daisy Decals when I found out they are a mother daughter duo (a stay at home mom & a struggling college student).  I have been both of these things and so I can completely relate!  Then, I actually got a peak at their designs and they are darling.  They sent me my favorite, which was the vintage camper.  And they sent me an extra one to boot, a cute retro flower decal they are still in the process of working with!

You must peruse their Etsy shop, as they have many other super cute decals for sale!

Check out this Retro typewriter, that I am in love with!

Or this View Master brings back so many memories for me!

So, Kati is going to give one of my readers a free decal of their own!  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post.  The giveaway will end on March 27.  I will randomly pick one winner on March 28!   You can get an extra entry by tweeting, and/or blogging about this giveaway (so really that is two extra entries you can get).  Just leave me another comment (or two) letting me know you did.

Make sure to check out Daisy Decals’ Etsy shop and give them some love!

Rebecca

Dr. Seuss

It’s Dr. Seuss’ Birthday today.  I hope everyone is having fun celebrating Reading Across America Week. 

Today I have many activities planned that we have done in the past like eating Swedish Red Fish as we read One Fish, Two Fish.

Or making our own Foot Books.

Or making “The Cat in the Hat” Hats.

We ALWAYS have green eggs and ham for dinner.  There are also so many activities to print (and I have printed many of them).

Here are some more ideas, by book, to do with your kids:

Green Eggs and Ham

Eat Green Eggs and Ham snacks or meals

Make a list of green foods

Make a list of words that rhyme with favorite foods (Sam-Ham)

Wear Green

Make Egg Carton Creatures

Printables from Early Moments

Egg Spinning activity (one hardboiled and one fresh)

Upper/Lower case egg matching Game by Making Learning Fun

Horton Hears A Who

Make Cotton Candy Snack

Cut out elephant ears and attach to headband to be elephants; now walk like an elephant.

Have a sound activity.  Listen to different sounds through earmuffs, earplugs, etc.

Try to make as much noise as you all can.  What works best, pots and pans, instruments, or our voices?

Talk to your children about the meaning of, “a person’s a person no matter how small.”

Talk to your children about how each of us can make a difference.

Printables from Early Moments

Watch the Movie

Hop on Pop

Jump on bubble wrap (get it? hop on pop! ha ha)

Jump on a trampoline (or bed if you have one you will allow this), or just jump in different ways (hop on one foot, hop over things, jump high, jump far, etc).

Play with bubbles (pop)

Say words and every time the kids come up with a rhyme they get to pop a balloon.

Read the page about Mr. Brown and Mr. Black, then eat brown and black snacks (pretzels half dipped in chocolate, wheat bread with blackberry jam, graham crackers and chocolate frosting).

Hide pictures of puppies around the house.  Give each child a cup and they are to find as many pups as they can and put them in their cup (references to pup in cup in this book).

Watch this video of the book from game equarium.

Yertle the Turtle

Wear Green

Wear backpacks while crawling a preset path.

Make turtles out of a bowl you paint green and green paper for head, arms, legs and tail.

Make turtles out of a smooth round rock.

Have turtle races:  Tie shoes together with laces as long as you can.  Then kids can only take small steps during race.

See how many cups your children can stack without them falling over (or blocks, or whatever).

The Cat in the Hat

Juggle with different items; balls, blocks, fruit, etc.

Printables from Early Moments

Printables from PBS kids

Watch the Movie

Watch The Cat in the Hat marathon on pbs

Make Hat snacks with 3 red gummy lifesavers and a ritz cracker

Have a hat that you put items that rhyme into (mat-cat, mouse-house…obviously these would be my children’s toys as no house would fit in a hat).

Thing 1 and Thing 2 Pencils have been on my list since I first saw them at Skip To My Lou!!

Kraft Jr has these amazing Seuss Puppets.  Super easy, too!

Bartholomew and the Oobleck

Make Oobleck (slime)

Experiment with the Oobleck

The point of this list is to see how easy it is to come up with activities to go along with which ever Dr. Seuss books that you have! 

Monday I had asked for links to what other people are doing.  Here they are:

Please feel free to keep adding to my Dr. Seuss linky to share what you have done/are doing for this fun week!

Rebecca

A Bushel of Apples to Play With

 
I loved my Mom’s crocheted apples so much that I had to make up some polymer clay ones!

These were so quick and easy to make.  Then, I let my kids play with them!

After I made my tiny apples, I made up this paper to use them with. 
I keep adding to my list of manipulatives for my children to play with.  There are so many ways for the kids to play with these.  They can sort them by color, do pattern work, use the above sheet and sort by numbers, etc.  I love this kind of stuff!
Rebecca

I'm joining the following fun parties; Its A Blog Party, Blue Cricket Design, Sew Much Ado, Just A Girl, ABC and 123,

Amazingly Fun School Lunch Idea

My children LOVE hard boiled eggs.  Can you believe that is what these are?!
Aren’t they the cutest!?

What Mom doesn’t need help making foods more enticing to her kids?
To make those eggs I bought the above molds.  Just google Bento Egg Molds and you can find many places to order them online, they are super cheap.  It’s still shocking to me that you can mold hard boiled eggs.  There were a few other shapes to choose from as well!
  The Fantastic Fish
The Brilliant Bear
The Creative Car

The Bouncing Bunny

The instructions come with the molds…but they are in another language! HA!
Here’s how I make them:
1. Hard boil eggs.  While they are boiling, keep the eggs moving.  This will help the yolk to end up centered.  If it cooks up to one side, this will not work.
2. Take an egg out of the pan and break the egg shell.  For best results roll the egg lightly on your counter to break up the shell.  How is it that no one told me this tip before?  I had to lose a few eggs before I figured it out on my own! ;(
3. Quickly (because they need to be as hot as you can handle) and carefully peel the shell off.
4. Put hard boiled egg into your mold and close the clasp. I put mine in sideways. It’s pretty obvious which direction to put your egg in as the shapes tend to have a bigger and smaller end.  However, I have seen other people say to have the fat end of the egg down into the bottom of the mold and then clasp the top of the mold down over the egg sitting up.  This doesn’t seem logical to me, though. 
5. Put mold into cold water.
6. Let the eggs cool completely in the molds, in the water (about 10 minutes).
7. Open molds to reveal your shaped eggs.
I first made these with regular eggs.  I found them too small so the tips of the shapes did not fill in.  Then I bought Extra Large eggs and they worked perfectly!  YAY!  A little of the egg white does squish out on 2 of them, but you can trim that off.
Other options:
If you had the heart or star shapes you could make the cutest deviled eggs!
You can also dye these shaped eggs fun colors.  I think it would be best to do this using natural dyes like beet juice.
Shaped rice balls would be so cute using these molds.  I’m going to try that out next week!
I have read online that you can also buy premade hard boiled eggs at the grocery store for this.  You just heat them up in a pan of water and then follow the rest of the directions starting at #2.  However, I have not tried this myself.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with my kids’ school lunches /bentos.   Is this something that interests people? I’d love to know what everyone thinks about this.  Do you have these molds?  How do you make your kids’ lunches more enticing?
Rebecca

I'm joining the following fun parties; Under The Table and Dreaming,

Preschool Play (or even older kids)-Foam Beads

 
What can you do with a pile of foam beads?  I think these are pretty self explanatory.  It’s another one of those things that is so quick and easy to make a whole lesson/activity with! 

I have cards that are 1-10.  Each kid first had to put their numbers in order.  Then, they put the appropriate number of beads underneath it.

Sort by colors.
 
Sort by size.

Sort by shape.

Match shapes, sizes, and colors.

Patterns are fun!  This one is a color pattern.

Next up is a size pattern.

Last is a pattern by shapes.

In the end let them bead up a pipe cleaner bracelet any way they want.  What a great motor control activity that is!

There are so many other things to do with these.  How about have them make specific stacks.  Or for older children have them add and subtract with them.  What about teaching basic multiplying by seeing the groups?  Use them as stamps in paint and make a pretty picture.  What would you do?

Rebecca

Accessories For Your Backpack

All of that boondoggle that we made this summer is now ending up on my kids’ backpacks!  I think we got pretty good at it this summer (notice the big rainbow block on the right?)!  I’m loving that my kids want to put them on their backpacks so they are now useful, too!

One of my daughters braided up these really long pieces using the plastic gimp from making boondoggles.  She wants to give some of them to her friends at school (you can bet these will be Christmas presents as well).
 
It is fun to let my kids add whatever they want to their backpacks. 
It makes it more personalized, and let’s be honest, what else are your kids going to do with all those key chains that they get!? 
My oldest made the leather Key Fob herself.  The Lego piece was from my Son’s birthday party.  One of the Lego girls was from Legoland and the other from my Nephew’s Lego birthday party. 
I think it’s is also a great way to remember the fun events that she made them at or got them from!
Rebecca

Back To School Accessories

I’ve had so much fun this summer coming up with accessories for my girls’ new school clothes. 
When we shopped for new school clothes I see that accessories are everywhere!  And they are expensive!  So, I sought out to get them plenty of accessories that looked just like the ones in the stores, but for next to nothing (the ones that I made were from supplies that I already had on hand).  I don’t want to have a heart attack when they break or get lost and since I spent next to nothing on these I wont care!
That is just a portion of what my girls have acquired this summer.  Some of the items I picked up RIDICULOUSLY cheap at street fairs. 
Some were given to me (the white bracelet in the middle was made by my little sister for me). 
The rest were made by me. 
I made a bunch of those cute flower clips.  These can be used as a barett or clipped onto a headband. 
I tried to use as many different materials as I could.  There is a green and white braided headband in the above picture.  It was made from nylon weaving loops!  I also used cording, leather, beads, ribbon, and embroidery thread.
Do you remember friendship bracelets?  My kids and I have been making them all summer.  Some of the bracelets are those that my kids have made.  They know about 4 different kinds of friendship bracelets now!
  I went through each outfit and made sure it had an accessory or two (or three) to go with it.  Their outfits are all ready to go, hanging in the closet like this.  The accessories are clipped onto the outfit that they go with.
I really had so much fun coming up with these accessories for my girls.  Next on our list are polymer clay jewelry!  Fun fun fun!
Rebecca

Backpack and lunch bag name tags

These backpack and lunch bag name tags are super cute and easy to make!

You can customize these for anything that your child is into this year!

These were made by Katrina last year, and again she has a whole tutorial on how to make them!

Backpack Makeover

This is a great way to get a more sturdy backpack, but still get the character your child wants!

Last year Katrina showed an amazing idea to makeover plain backpacks.  She has a complete tutorial on how to do this! 

When I Grow Up…

This is a fantastic tradition that was started by Anjeanette!  Seriously, you will all want to start doing this tradition THIS YEAR!  Anjeanette had a post about it last year. 

Get yourself a cute little chalkboard.  Every year on the first day of school have your children write what they want to be on it.  Also have them sign it.  Then, take a picture of them with it.

She wants to be a cat store owner, not the actual store.  But that is half the fun of these pictures.  You will cherish their handwriting, what they wanted to be each year, and even their spelling and phonics type of writing! 

For the youngest you can write it for them, but make sure to let them try their hand at their signature!  Even scribbles will bring a smile to your face years later! ;)

The signature will be fun to have documented each year as well.  In my family, most of my siblings stopped going by their nickname and started going by their full name (Rebecca instead of Becky).  You will be documenting that change as well!

And lets be honest, those hands and nails are amazingly adorable as well!  They, too, will change over the years!

Thanks, Anjeanette, for this wonderful idea.  I am so glad I am doing this with my kids now!
Rebecca

Individual Clipboards

I know you have seen these everywhere.  However, they are such a life saver for me.  I love these clipboards!  These really help me to keep the kids' paperwork accessible and organized. No more losing book orders, class information, class rules, or field trip forms!

I made one for each child.  They hold those papers that are going to linger for more than a day but you need to be able to have quick access to them.

I put not just their school stuff on them but also their information about their clubs and sports.  
I knew that my children and I would be taking these down to use them and so I also made coordinating tags to hold the place of each clipboard when it is in use, to help keep this system organized.

Rebecca

I’d love to hear how you keep organized for school or what things have been problems for you!

Homework Tote

Last year I showed you this homework tote that I made for my children.  We used it all year long and will be using it again this year!  It is such a great tool for getting homework done more efficiently! 


Take one of those drink holders like from Sonic or whatever drive through.  Other items to use for this would be cans, blank notebooks, and office supplies shown above.  I covered everything with pretty matching paper and embellished it a bit!  I was going with the thought that prettier supplies might make homework not so bad?

Here is a view of how it all came together!  Go here to get further instructions if you need it.  However, I think it’s a pretty easy idea to pull together and one that is so useful!

Rebecca

Homework Station

This year I am trying Oh-So-Hard to be better organized.  If you knew me at all, you would understand that this stuff does not come naturally for me.  However, with 3 kids now in school this is a necessity! 

School for my kids starts next Monday!  Crazy! 

One thing I knew I needed was a place for my kids to do their homework.  Last year I made a Homework Tote that worked well for my two older girls.  It had all the supplies that they would need while doing homework.  They would pull this out and bring it to the kitchen table to work on homework.  I found that whenever they had things going on (and really, when do they not) they were in my way while I was preparing dinner. 

Their Dad picked this small table up at a college thrift store.  It is really deep which I love!  I have this dark, corner (thus the dark and grainy photo) between two hallways that really was just a dumping ground.  It already houses an Ikea storage for all the outside accessories (coats, jackets, sports equipment) and musical instruments.  The corner had a little room left over and this table fits perfectly in there. 

I had to sit back and think through how this will work best.  Because it is deep the kids can dump their backpacks underneath it and push them back out of the way of their legs.  I’ve had backpacks on hooks before and the hooks usually break, so I love this idea.

I added a cute little shelf for their homework tote and a few more supplies.  I did not want a big shelf as this is to stay just for doing their homework (or crafting or writing letters or something of that sort). 

I wanted everything up off of the table so that they could all do homework at the same time.  My only exception was a very much needed lamp (because of this weird corner being so dark) and their pencil sharpener.  I got the lamp at walmart and love it.  It has slots for office supplies right in the base of it. 

I’ve already been putting reminders and things to memorize up on the walls right there and they are working like a charm! 

Rebecca

Back To School Week

Here at Roots And Wings Co we are going to have A Back To School Week.  Be sure to come back all week long for tips and tricks on having a great school year!

I’d love to hear everyone else’s traditions, tips, and tricks for Back To School!  You can leave these in the comments all week long and feel free to leave links to great back to school posts on your blog as well!

School for my kids starts next week!  I really love school and want to ensure to create a magical feeling about it for my children.  I have been in school mode getting all the supplies that they need (holey cow, has anyone else’s school supply lists been shockingly long this year?!  Ours were overwhelming!), making fun accessories to match their new outfits, organizing our house to run smoothly, and planning the back to school festivities.  Check back every day and I’ll share some of what I’m doing as well as some traditions and things that we have all done in previous years.

The above picture shows my first tip.  Actually it shows two.  Every year my children get to pick out a new backpack (their old ones barely make it to the end of the previous year).  My kids get so excited about this.  I enjoy seeing what they pick every year as they always fit that child’s personality to a T!  The above picture shows one daughter with a pink camo messenger bag.  She was going through a very tomboy phase, thus the camo, and wanted something different from the average backpack, thus the messenger style instead of a normal 2 arm strap backpack.  The other daughter adores cats, so this backpack was a no brainer!
The other tip I’m going to remind everyone about is picture taking on the first day (or some of us may do it the whole first week!).  I always take pictures of my kids with their new backpacks as well as taking pictures of them in their new clothes.  Here is a list of other great pictures to remember to take:
At home with a sign stating what year they are now in
Showing with their fingers what grade they are in (4-fourth)
With their Siblings
With their Best Friends
With their Teacher
With You!
In front of their school (get the school name in it too)
Going into the school
Outside their classroom (ours always have the whole class listed as well as the class number and teacher’s name)
In their new desk (usually has name strip and more)
In front of any great parts of their classroom (kindergarten rooms are the best!)
Getting onto or off the bus
Coming out of the school the first day

I actually feel pretty ready for school this year and hope it is a sign of things yet to come! ;) 
I hope this helps you to start thinking about school!  I think that most of you have a few more weeks than we do.  Good luck to everyone.  I really love how exciting a fresh new year is!  I am always so excited about all of the things my kids will learn, all of the new experiences they will have, and all the fun they will have with friends.  I hope to instill in them the same love and excitement for school that I have!

What was most important to you when you started back to school?  What traditions did you have growing up?  What do you do for your children?

Rebecca

Happy Dr. Seuss Day-Quick and Easy Ideas to Celebrate With!

This is what will greet my children first thing in the morning (I’m writing this on Monday, March 1st).  I know they will thoroughly enjoy their swedish “Red Fish”!  We read a Dr. Seuss book for bedtime the night before, and we will read one every night until we run out (about 2 weeks worth for us).  Today is not just about Dr. Seuss (though we celebrate it today because it is his Birthday) but is also a fun week to focus on reading!  My parents were pivotal in giving me my love of reading.  I am hoping to instill the same love of reading in my children.   Things like celebrating Dr. Seuss Day, and Reading Week, will go a long way in pushing this hope. 

During the day, after we read Dr. Seuss’ “The Foot Book”, we will each be making our own “Foot Book”.  I guess the secret is out….that tracing of a foot above, is mine.  Yup!  My second toe is longer than my first toe!  But if you look at statues of the Greek Gods and Goddesses, their second toe is also longer than their first!  So, we can see of what cloth I was made from! ;)
Back to our “Foot Book”.  We will trace the kid’s feet for the shape of it.  They will cut out all of their own feet.  Then, I’m going to let them decide what to fill their “Foot Book” in with.  Mine has the words Right and Left on the appropriate feet pages.  Then, I have some info about my feet (stuff like my longer toe info, some pages I colored my toe nails, when I got my first pedicure…which was just last year, how I am a foot-a-phobe…which means I do NOT like feet, etc).  For their books I’m going to suggest maybe words that rhyme with foot, feet, toe, shoe, sock, or brainstorming other words that have to do with their foot.

Next up will be making a hat like “The Cat In The Hat”.  I just took strips of white paper (1 inch tall) and stapled them together the size of my head.  Then for the front “hat” part I took the rest of the white paper and added red stripes to it that were 2 inches tall.  I rounded the top corners to look more like in the books.

I know that my kids will love making these after reading the books.

I have downloaded lots of other Dr. Seuss things like dot to dots, questionairres, matching games, word searches, coloring pages, fill in the blanks, and mazes that all coordinate with Dr. Seuss books.  We will be eating green scrambled eggs and ham.  Last year I made green jello eggs which are super fun too, especially if colored food is not your thing!
I hope these ideas give you some quick ideas that you can whip up yourself and celebrate Dr. Seuss Day.  Or you can use them this whole week for Reading Week, or at least focus on reading this week!

Rebecca

I am linking up to the following fun parties; A Soft Place To Land, The DIY Show Off, Lucky Star Lane, Sumo's Sweet Stuff, Keeping It Simple, The Girl Creative, Tip Junkie, Todays Creative Blog,

Thankful Candy Dish

I love candy dishes. I want to have Martha Stewart's expansive kitchen cabinets. Just to have enough space for candy dishes (oh, including cookie jars! sigh ). However, that is not my reality. So, I try to keep things simplified. I found this small dish and thought it would be perfect. My thought for it is to have it out on my counter for during November. I like as many things around, that remind us of gratitude, during the Thanksgiving Season! If you want to see how easy it is to etch, check out Erika's post on it from earlier this week. I knew this cute little dish was perfect for etching a fun thankful design onto. Instead of etching the design, however, I etched the negative. I used the word "thanks" in many different languages. I put them onto the cup, in what I think is kind of a "wordle" design.

When I pulled off the extra vinyl from around the cut out words, I just couldn't trash them (I have this problem often, like with empty drink holders, etc). So, I grabbed a clean glass jar (yes, this also points back to the before-mentioned problem of keeping things that I "might" be able to use in the future). I put these onto the jar and etched the words themselves onto this jar.

Back to my candy dish. Once all my vinyl words were put onto my dish, I actually contemplated leaving it that way. Since I was only using it as a candy dish, having vinyl on the dish would not have been a problem as I would just wipe out the inside of the jar (so I wouldn't have to worry about throwing it in the dishwasher and having the vinyl ruined). I just really liked how the vinyl looked on the dish (see the top photo for the example of this...I probably will do it this way in the future!). But I charged forward, as I already had a vision in my head that I wanted to finish out. To reverse etch this jar I had to put the etching cream all over the outside of the cup part (the area you see etched, just above). I'm glad that I went ahead with my plan and didn't keep the words as vinyl. Instead you can now see through where the vinyl letters had been and the rest of the dish is frosted. I love it.

Here you can kind of see how the jar turned out, using the vinyl from around my words. I only etched the words. After I decorate the lid, fill it, and tie a ribbon around this, I will be using it as a gift for my daughter's teacher.

This was an interesting project for me because I had it in my head for a bit. Once I started to work on it, my vinyl cutter and I got into a fight. When I say fight, I mean a full blown fight (I went through 2-3 feet of vinyl, a blade, and LOTS of my time). I prodded and coaxed her (or him...maybe that's why she's mad at me, because I don't even know if she's a she or a he...) for quite a while. I went through so many modifications and just couldn't get her working for me. But it's ok now. We got back on speaking terms in time for me to finish up this project! I don't know if she's kissing up to me to make up for her temper tantrum with me, but I swear the last 2 days she has cut better than ever! I finished at least 7 projects with her just today!

The best part of this? I didn't even keep my candy dish! I know, I know, after all that work (really the etching and all was easy, it was the all-out fight with my cutter that was tough). But it went to a super cause. Every year my sister's and I go to my Mom's church for a Service Auction. It is so much fun. Really, it's because of the auctioneer! She is one of my Mom's best friends and she is an absolute hoot! It makes for such an enjoyable night, with her at the podium and gavel in hand.

I have to give you a quick run-down on this event because it is always so much fun. People sign up to donate handmade items, food, or service. On the night of the auction you peruse the list of donations. Each person also fills out a questionnaire. It is a list of things that you get set amount of points for. A few questions are: "If you made your bed today. (10 points). If you are 18-25 (10 points)" There were 47 questions, and you are on the honor system. You tally up your points and that is how many points you have to bid with. Some of the items to bid on were crocheted baby items, cards, jewelry, homemade breads, a yoga session, babysitting, and even cleaning of your baseboards (it's supposed to be all homemade, but some "stretched" the truth on that one!)! I tell you, some people get so creative. There are secret items that you don't even know what it is, just who it's from. You can join your points with other people. I think one of the reasons that my Mom, My Sisters and I love this night so much is that we join our points together to make sure we get stuff. The bidding gets crazy (sometimes we bid against each other...just because it's fun). Although, it was not fun that Anjeanette bid against me for the salsa. I called it first! ;( Neither of us got it, so we'll be ok. ;)

Rebecca