Pre-K December

Thought I'd share some of my Pre-K's projects for December....

 We celebrated December 2nd the day we were all officially 5 with a cupcake party and sang ourselves Happy Birthday and made a traveling book about all the things we could do now that we were 5! 

 We made "Reindeer Sandwiches" with half a piece of bread, raisin eyes, maraschino cherry nose, and pretzel stick antlers

 Reindeer hands...bow for the girls 

 We cooked Gingerbread on the skillet with 2 tbl. gingerbread mix / 1 tbl. water and mixed with a popsicle stick...pre-labeled cups with names 

 Our gingerbread man escaped and left us clues...we made a "Wanted" sign for him 

 tear-art Xmas trees with tissue papers lights 

 book jackets made into a lovely banner 

 brown play-doh / beads and buttons and gingerbread man cookie cutters was a great center 

 What part of the gingerbread man did you eat first graphing

 scolding our gingerbread man not to run away again....like my $1 bin gingerbread man headband 

 I took pictures of the kids with a Santa hat and a poinsetta for their parent's Christmas card cover 

 How cute are these???? 

 Encouraged kids to bring in their Christmas cards to decorate our door 

 My gift to the kids: A "shower board" from Home Depot ($12) cut into 32 12"x12" square with a dry erase marker. If you're nice the people at HD will cut for you for free. Amazing cheap gift that lets kids practice printing / tic tac toe / drawing for years to come. I still use my set of 30 I made myself my first year of teaching 9 years ago. 

My pinterest inspired Christmas card holder made for a total of $5. Board cut and mini clothes pins glued on. I LOVED the display in my house and after Christmas I peeled off the contact strips I put it up with and put in storage. 

Go Green Thank You Cards

Thank you! I made thank you cards for Jackson's birthday in an hour last night. It was so easy and saved my hand from cramping and a stamp. Besides, no one saves thank you cards these days do they? A mommy friend asked how I did it so here's how.

1. Take a picture of your kiddo holding a sign. I had Jackson hold a white board from school but you could use a chalkboard or plain piece of paper.

2. Upload the picture to PicMonkey. Best free photo editing site since Picnic was taken down.

3. Add text to your white board. They have fun colors and crazy font. I even made a frame and tweaked the coloring/exposure a bit with their easy tools. So easy to use this site.

4. Save to your computer.

I posted the Thank You's directly to my friends' and families' wall in Facebook and I emailed the picture to my dad who doesn't have Facebook. I think this will be my go-to for Thank Yous. You could get very creative and it doesn't cost 45 cents or whatever huge stamp cost it is right now. Go green. :)

Oil and Water

Watching the "Water Fireworks" exlode 

Trying to keep Mr. Jackson busy again courtesy of this lady on Pinterest this time (http://www.playcreateexplore.com/2010/04/rainy-afternoon-activity-kitchen.html) so we did some science experimenting. 

Soooo easy...and so 10 minutes long. Ha!

We put room temperature water in a mason jar 3/4 of the way full.

Then we added about an inch of vegetable oil on top of the water. 

The the "water fireworks" happened. We added a few drops of food coloring starting with yellow-red-green-blue. The drops of food coloring hung in the oil for a little bit but then dropped and EXPLODED like a firework into the water. 

It was cool and Jackson has asked for the fireworks again on a few different occasions. 

 See the drops hanging in the vegetable oil...

 Tapping the side did not work to make to drops fall sooner....sorry dude

 One cheesy picture for mom of course...

 Adding the dark colors last was key to this experiment too

Oh...and on another note last weekend me, my sister Shelby, my mom Cheryl, my besties Dett and Ruppy all earned our medals for completing the Tinkerbelle 1/2 Marathon at Disneyland. We may not be the fastest but the sense of pride at the finish line is hard to beat. 

Maps...

Of course Pinterest inspired me to do some decorating. This project was super easy and cheap and I love the way it turned out...and I have leftover materials and already made my bestie maps of where she grew up, went to college, and where she lives now in L.A.

Steps:

1. Ordered the maps of where we got engaged in Ravello, Italy; where we got married in Ferndale/Bellingham, Washington; and where we live now in Huntington Beach, California. I bet you could print them from site online and they would turn out great too.

2. Ordered 5x7 pics of engagement, wedding, and a recent family pic from Snapfish.

3. Picked out a pretty piece of wood that cost $16 at Home Depot and went to their "Cutting Center" and had the nice man cut all my wood into 5x7 pieces. I picked small because of the size of the shelves I needed them for but I know that the big 12x12 would look awesome too. That and the gray spray paint I bought cost $23 dollars and I got ~16 pieces of wood in 5x7 cuts.

4. With my assistant Jackson we spray painted the 6 boards outside. Make sure to spray the sides too. We waited a day and then flipped and sprayed the other side. On my next batch for my bestie I only waited an hour and then painted the other side and it worked just perfect too.

5. I made a little template of a heart and centered the cities in the middle of the heart on the maps and cut them out.

5. When the boards were dry (enough) we started the fun part. We used Modge Podge (got it at Michaels or Jo Ann Fabrics) and a sponge brush to cover the pretty side of the wood (one side was kinda rough from the cuts). Make sure to brush from side to side so it looks pretty. Cover the back of the picture and map with modge podge too.

6. I laid the picture on the board and made sure (or tried to) the bubbles were out. Then I brushed a layer of modge podge over the top for a nice glossy finish.

7. Let them dry about an hour (don't touch the maps..I did and a little piece got stuck to my finger and came off) and display. So easy, fun, and personal.

*If I didn't explain the process very clear this site is where I found the idea and followed their steps: http://www.mommymodelsblog.com/?p=2051

New Year

With this New Year I resolve to spend more time enjoying the simple joys of life like watching the sunset with the ones I love most. My favorite nights have gone from going out to staying in. Hope this new year is filled with laughter and joy to all we love.

"Holmesmade" Holidays

I was feeling bad about abandoning my little blog, but it seems with all the holiday hustle that most of my blog buddies are neglecting theirs too. I wish I was doing so many exciting things lately that I haven't been able to sit down and reflect back on those times, but it's just the day to day stuff with the preppie-k kids during the day and Jackson at night / dinner / cleaning / unwinding and watching mindless TV over a glass of wine that has consumed my life for the past few months. I have a new found love: Pinterest. It has given my craftiness a whole new level to aspire to. Where do people get the time to make all this stuff, let alone blog and post about it. Geez. It did inspire my Christmas gifts for a few members though....

-We made homemade Play-Doh with Koolaid..smells so good and you COULD eat it if you were so inclined

-We painted with vanilla pudding and food coloring and Jackson for sure at that

-We painted clothespins for my dad's clothesline

-Made these cool shrinky dink ornaments with photos

-And the big whammy we made a 12 Months of Hand and Footprints for our Grandparents...made into a calendar on Snapfish by scanning in the pictures (so if any of you grandparents randomly check this blog you shouldn't read farther). I took Jackson into my classroom during the Thanksgiving break and for 2 days painted his hands and feet with many lego / dramatic play / white board breaks....

September

 November 

 March 

 May

 February 

 January 

 May

 October

 June

 August ... 3rd birthday

December 

July

Lobster...made an extra for August

The cover 

Happy having his foot painted 

Poser 

Pudding paint

mmmmm.....

Painting clothespins on a shower curtain inside

Thought painting meant painting his hands after our calendar experiment 

So we're been busy...but after yesterday...I have 18 days and no school so I know it will go by in a blink but I am THRILLED to have nothing on my to-do list but wrapping presents and enjoying getting reorganized and spending time at home and with family. Till my next blog...probably months later. Ha! 

 Mixing Kool Aid Play Doh

 Smells good enough to eat...dare you

 Buys me a good 10-15 minutes while I'm making dinner 

 My fav...made ornaments with Shrinky Dink ink jet film for photos I got on amazon---used gold wire and beads to make the loops 

My first attempts at homemade salsa...I give it a B. Not spicy enough for us here even with the roasted peppers and jalapenos.