Preschool Board

Lena is 3 which means 2 years until Kindergarten. I was hoping to do a co-op pre-preschool with some friends this year, but it didn't end up working out.  But when I was planning it I put together this preschool board using scrapbook paper, copy paper, and printed words.  Then I got it laminated so I can use wet-wash markers on it.  Hopefully it will still get some use, even if it is just for Lena.

Keep Calm Sign

This is a project I've been wanting to do for a while.  There are "Keep Calm..." signs all over the place, but when I saw a version with these words I really wanted one. The version I saw was with a silhouette of the Salt Lake temple but I wanted one with the Sacramento temple.  I sawed off a piece of wood from an old board we had laying around and sanded it a bit. Then I painted it dark red and painted the words and silhouette in tan.  To finish it I lightly sanded it to give it a worn look.  I am really happy with it and excited to put it up.  And as an added bonus, it didn't cost me a penny. :)

Candyland Birthday Party

 We threw a Candyland birthday party for our oldest son, Landon, who just turned 5 and our daughter, Lena who just turned 3.  We invited a few families that have kids they play with over on Saturday. 

We had a big sign on the garage welcoming everyone to Landon and Lena's Candyland.

 We used foam squares for the rainbow path throughout the party.  They started at the gingerbread tree. It is hard to see in the picture, but we hung cardstock gingerbread men from the tree. In the shade of the tree they decorated their goody bags with sticker gingerbread men and received a cookie.

 These were the cookies.

Then  they headed over to the peppermint forest.  We used crepe paper to make the tree trunk look like a candycane.  We hung red and white balls and candycanes from the tree.  I thought it was so cute. In the shade of the tree they used bakers twine (peppermint string) to create fruit loop necklaces (I was going to do candy necklaces but figured they were getting enough candy.)  And they received mini candycanes.

Then along the side of the house was gumdrop pass.  I colored a big picture of Jolly and put it on the fence and we hung some balloons over the sidewalk.  Through the pass we hid easter eggs with gumdrops (dots) and they got to collect 3 eggs as they went through the pass. 

Landon loved helping set up the party. Here he is helping hide the eggs.

 Then there was the licorice forest.  I cut pool noodles in half and twisted them around each other to make "licorice poles" that they could throw hula hoops around like a ring toss.  Then they got some licorice sticks.  I also had a large Lord Licorice drawing there.  

 Then in the backyard on the fence I drew Gramma Nut's house with chalk and the kids got to throw wet sponges (that looked like peanuts) at it.  And they got nutter butters.

 Then came lollipop woods.  I made lollipops out of ping pong balls that Landon and I colored and golf tees.  Then the kids got to shoot the water guns at the ping pong balls to make them fall off.  And they got lollipops.

I even thought shooting the ping pong ball lollipops was fun.

Then came snowflake lake.  We had a wading pool and some stacking toys that were supposed to be like ice cream scoops, but I'm not sure anyone really played with them because by the time they got that far they just wanted to play in the pools and sprinklers.  (It was 100 degrees, we all wanted to play in the water) But the prize for that was the ice cream cones.

And I forgot to take a picture of it so this is part of another picture, but we had a chocolate swamp game too.  There were candy kisses with pictures of fishes and pencil and string fishing poles with clothespins on the end and it was a fishing game. And they got a few candy kisses, but I'm not sure anyone really did that one either.  But they had a great time playing.

 The last stop along the rainbow path was the kandy castle with King Kandy on our back porch. We had lots of candy, cake, ice cream, etc.

 

 The kids had a blast playing and eating.  Overall, a success!

"Sushi"

My husband loves sushi.  However, it is about the last thing I would ever want to eat.  So for Father's Day my kids and I made him this dessert sushi. I found the idea on Pinterest, gotta love Pinterest!  It is made from rice krispy treats, swedish fish, and fruit by the foot.  Super easy, clever and yummy.

Young Women's Baby Blanket

The second counselor in our ward Young Women's Presidency is about to have a baby, so for an activity we all decorated squares for a baby blanket for her.  I prepared it and put it all together, but it has a little bit of love from all the Young Women.

Family Shirts

We are going on a family trip in the near future and on that trip we are going to an amusement park.  It should be a lot of fun.  But I'll tell you what's not fun, last time we went to an amusement park we lost one of our kids.  It was one of the absolutely most terrifying experiences of my life.  Luckily we found him and all was well in the end, but I would do just about anything to prevent that from happening again.  You can bet I will be keeping a close eye on my kids.  And to help with that I made us all matching shirts.  Each one is a different bright color all with matching family silhouettes on the back.  Bright color = easier to spot, same image = people know they belong to us.  I made the family silhouette here.  And for more about the method I used to paint the shirts see this post.

Graduation Cap Cupcakes

 Do you love my graduation cap cupcakes as much as I do?  I got to bring a dessert to my sons Preschool Graduation Party and this is what I came up with.

 Bake regular cupcakes and then cut off the tops.

 Flip them all over.

 You'll have a bunch of cupcake tops you can save for trifle later. :)

 Frost the side facing up.

 Place chocolate graham cracker squares on the frosting.

 Dab a dot of frosting on the center top of the graham crackers.

 Cut some small strings of pull apart licorice.

 Put M&Ms on the top of the dab of frosting and make a small line of frosting from the M&M to the side of the cracker.

 Put the licorice on the small line of frosting.

 Ta Da!

 Graduation hat cupcakes!