Fall book list

Election Party Planned

                                                 Duck For President Election Party!!

So, far this week I have an Election Party planned based on the book Duck For President by Doreen Cronin. It is such a cute book about the election process for younger kids. I was getting so bummed, because all the election activities on Pinterest or on the web are for older kids and not for two year olds.

 

So, once I read this book to Logan , among others about the election, this was my favorite and I knew I wanted to make a themed party about this book!

We have invited 6 other friends over for some fun! Of course we are going to read this book then have different stations for hands on learning. Everyone was asked to dress in red, white and blue and bring a snack to share! I will post pictures after the party!

The first station would be to cast their VOTE on their favorite candy! I plan on making a ballot box and then having two pieces of candy that once they vote for their favorite then they can eat it!

The second station is to paint with rubber ducks. I saw this on Pinterest  and loved the idea.  I went to Walmart and bought three rubber ducks in the $1 bins. I plan on using red, white and blue  washable paint and just having the kids stamp those colors using the ducks on paper. This blogger mom did the same idea with another book and I really think it will work with this book.

The third station is to try and bounce pin pong balls in different buckets. I might try and get some more rubber ducks to throw just to add something different! This blogger mom had this idea and more fun ideas for other parties! I thought this would play into the fine motor skills for this age!! I am excited to see how this turns out!

One part in the book that cracked me up ( since we are huge coffee drinkers) was that the duck hated grinding the coffe beans each morning for the farmer. I plan on making a station where they will feel inside a container that is wrapped and feel coffee beans and another one with coffee beans that are ground up. They will be asked to smell it and then guess what is inside also.

This leads me to the fifth station being the decorating star sugar cookies! Then finishing the party with Duck Duck Goose!

So, I hope this encourages other moms of 2 year olds to take party and have some fun with the election coming up! Hope this gives you some good ideas.

The other book we check out from the library and loved was...

The President and Mom's Apple Pie  by Micheal Garland

This book was super cute and you could totally go with the Flag and Apple theme for a party! I loved the history factor to this book! This is a for sure book to check out if you have not read it!

Kate's Kitchen ....

I love to cook!I also love to save money. These recipes are of items I buy at the store, so I am excited to see if this saves money and if my family will eat them. I am weird about what Logan is allowed to eat so this will be great since I know what is in these three recipes.  I have attached all the links to these recipes so you can see step by step pictures . These are not my recipes just so you know. I do get so inspired by blogs like these.

My recipe goal this week include...

Cresent Rolls

Make-Ahead Butterhorns

(makes 32 rolls)

• 2 Tablespoons dry yeast, heaping
• 1/3 cup warm water (110-115 degrees)
• 9 cups flour, divided (you can use any mixture of white or whole-wheat flour you’d like)
• 2 cups warm milk (110-115 degrees)
• 1 cup butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar (we substituted sucanat)
• 6 eggs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3-4 Tablespoons butter, melted

In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Add 4 cups flour, milk, butter, sugar, eggs and salt. Beat 2 minutes or until smooth.

Add enough remaining flour to form a soft dough. Turn onto floured board and knead lightly. (Or, knead in mixer until sides of bowl are clean, then knead two more minutes.)

Place in a greased bowl, turning dough once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled (1-3 hours).

Punch dough down and divide into four equal parts. Roll each part into a 12-inch circle and brush with melted butter.

Cut each circle into 8 pie-shaped wedges.

Roll up each wedge for wide edge to tip of dough and pinch to seal. Place rolls, top down, on baking sheets and freeze. When frozen, place in freezer bags and keep frozen until needed.

To bake: Take out as many frozen rolls as you’ll need and place them on a greased baking sheet. Thaw for five hours or until doubled in size. Bake at 375 degrees until lightly browned (about 8-10 minutes). Brush with melted butter as soon as they come out of the oven. Remove and serve immediately or cool on wire racks.

Homemade Goldfish Crackers

Yield: About 100 1 1/4 inch goldfish

6 ounces (1 1/2 cups coarsely grated) sharp cheddar, orange if you can find one you like
4 tablespoons (2 ounces or 57 grams) butter
1/2 cup (2 1/2 ounces or 62 grams) whole wheat flour
1/4 cup (1 1/8 ounces or 31 grams) all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon onion powder
1/8 to 1/4 teaspoon table salt

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine all ingredients in a food processor, running the machine until the dough forms a ball, about two minutes.

If the dough feels warm or worrisome-ly soft, wrap it in waxed paper or plastic wrap and chill it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes. This also makes it easier to transfer shapes once they are rolled out.

On a lightly floured surface, using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll the dough out 1/8-inch thick. Form shapes with a cookie cutter, dipping it in flour from time to time to ensure a clean cut. Gently transfer crackers to an ungreased (though mine were parchment-lined, because they are in despicable shape) cookie sheet with a 1/2 inch between them. Bake the crackers on the middle rack for 12 to 15 minutes, or until they are barely browned at the edges. Remove from the oven and set the cookie sheet on a rack to cool.

Homemade Pop Tarts

Homemade Pop Tarts
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Pastry
2 cups (8 1/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks or 8 ounces) unsalted butter, cut into pats
1 large egg
2 tablespoons (1 ounce) milk

1 additional large egg (to brush on pastry)

Cinnamon Filling (enough for 9 tarts)
1/2 cup (3 3/4 ounces) brown sugar
1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon, to taste
4 teaspoons all-purpose flour
1 large egg, to brush on pastry before filling

Jam Filling
3/4 cup (8 ounces) jam
1 tablespoon cornstarch mixed with 1 tablespoon cold water

A room fit for a boy...

 For a couple months now I have wanted to change Logan's room to a toddler room but I just did not want to invest a lot of money in it since I know in a couple years he might want a themed room. Researching some cute rooms online I fell in love with Pottery Barn. I loved the plaids and the rich colors and the simple themes through out the room. My goal these last couple months was to redo logans nursery and make him a room that I loved.


I was never a fan of Logan's nursery, but here is the room before the change.

My sweet mother in law did help me and make a curtain,bed skirt and bed spread that I love and will use for next baby. However, I could not find a picture. You get the idea. The room is small.

After Logan turned one I started redoing his room. Looking through Pottery Barn's website I loved the idea of trees on the wall. I went to this link for the tree idea.

Here is the tree...

The other idea I got from Pottery Barn was to use bold colors in the furniture. We are using my baby dresser in Logan's room and I took a risk but painted it red. The same red left over from one wall in our master bed room.

I spray painted the handles a color that we have used on a couple mirrors in our house.

The next couple pictures are the finished room with the price break down. I was trilled that we spent very little for a very similar look that would have cost a lot more.

Lamp: Found at Goodwill for $3

Blue container: Free from Target with coupon

Dresser: My old dresser that we painted from paint we had

Teal Lantern: Free from Pier One with coupon

Silver Lantern: Found at Lowes on clearance for $1.20

Black Latern: Found at Hobby Lobby and was $6.00 ( I bought it for outside first then put it in here)

 Wood Curtain Rod: Free from Freecycle.org that a lady passed down to me which we painted with  paint we had

Curtain: From Marshalls for $6

Train/car rug- Was Nathan's growing up

Train hanging on dresser- Dollar Tree painted grey from paint we had  $1

"L" and dots were from his nursery already

TOTAL: $17.20

Used the laterns to store items that I really do not want Logan just to have out. The silver one has crayons in it. The black one has markers and the teal one has colored pencils. I have had all these stored else where and got them after school started a couple years ago. Pottery Barn used laterns for toys and marbles which was really cute!!!

                             Bunk Bed: $160 from a place going out of business near our house!

                                     

                             Nautica bed spread: Bed Bath and Beyond and was $70 with 30% off

                                             * I did look at Home Goods, TJ Max and Marshalls and they have items like this for a lot less. I really wanted certain colors,so I did spend a little bit more on this than I wanted. However, it is a great brand and will last!

                                        Star Light: IKEA for $4.99 

                                        Tree paint was old from our hall bathroom.

                                        Blue bed spread: Had this from a couple years ago

                                              * Wanting to get another Nautica one for top but the solid color will work. We are trading my parents for smaller top matress. We had both matresses from before ( trundle bed).

                                                       TOTAL: $234

 I love how organized every room Pottery Barn showcases. I know kids do not really live in those rooms but I wanted something like that.

                         Book shelf: walmart for $12.98

                              * Was going to price match with target ad for $13.00 , but did not have to.

                        Colored bins- Dollar tree for $1 each.  $5 total

                         Blue tub basket- Was a gift from my baby shower

                          Train on wall-  Found at Dollar Tree for $1 and was used for his first bday

                                                         TOTAL: $19.98

                           

Grand Total : $271. 18

Pottery barn has great sales when you have lots of time to redo a room. Here is there sale website: Sale

Some other websites that I was watching was here and here.

Some tips:

Make sure you sign up for each stores email to get coupon codes or maybe even free shipping on your first order.

If you order online check at this website for coupon codes for maybe a discount or free shipping.

Hope this inspires you to be creative and be patient for deals to come.

Saving money on a bday....

*

Man we have been "bizzy" as you can tell,since I have not posted for a while. I wanted to post some tips that I learned from having Logan's first birthday. I can not believe he is ONE! The year has been wonderful and am enjoying seeing the little boy my baby has turned into.

I learned a lot this bday and figured I did not spend, but $40 on all the decoration/favors for Logan's bday. The biggest tip I have is to shop sales. I went to Party city right after graduation and shopped and shopped. I used a 15% coupon and ended up getting items for less than $1. The biggest steal was the "1" ballons for $0.50. They are the big ones that schools use for graduation. I went to the Dollar Tree for more ballons. Each kid went home with a train whistle which I bought on amazon.

Here are some pictures...

Logan and his cake

Here is Logan's cake and smash cake. I googled train cakes and got this idea. I really liked how it turned out. I think this saved about $30 since I made it myself.

Loved the buttercream icing from Wilton. Here is the link to that recipe.

The instructions for the train in fondant was found here.

This was lunch. I had a friend come and help and let me borrow some of her baskets to make it look nice.

More food to share..

 Here we are with our little boy. He loved the cake! He was not totally happy about icing in the eyes. We had such a fun time with him!

 

This was a game that I made from boxes that I had. I had bean bags for the kids to throw into each "car". The older kids had fun.

We had a great day overall.

Happy 1st Birthday Logan!

Out of the box...

What a cute picture to introduce another idea for hands on learning. I would love to claim this, but I can not take the credit.

I am finding at the 11 month old stage that my 'bizzybabybee' loves to take things out of a box or bucket and then put it back in. He will do this over and over again. I was reading in a magazine today of an idea that I want to try regarding this idea. You could do it many ways, but the idea was getting a shoe box with a lid and cutting a little hole in the top so the 'bizzybabybee' can put his/her hand through enough to feel,touch and pull objects that you place in the box out. Fill the box with items that you can talk about like shapes, fruit, kitchen spoons, socks,balls,small book,shoe, rocks and other items that would be fun to feel  and  pull out to see what it is. You could even do items that they could taste like a ripe piece of fruit or crackers.

Sounds fun to me!! I love 'out of the box' ideas that will get Logan's attention and fun for his momma.

Rolling into Tuesday...

Well, I am finally getting a second to write my idea for creative learning for Tuesday. It is 12:01 am on the dot and this starts my free time. Yes, I need sleep, but I am eager to get this blog started!


I am thinking of having a cute simple easy craft that will be fun for you to make to help teach your child something new and make it adaptable for all stages. I recently went to a couple yard sales this past weekend and came across some soft blocks or as I would call them 'dice.' I love anything that has bright colors and is cheap. These four blocks were four different colors and have pictures of things that I could easily sit down and talk with Logan about on a 10 month old level. Plus to add to the great find they are Baby Einstein brand, so it was a must. Today, we rolled them around and talked about the colors and then tried to find other objects in the house that matched the color die that were we learning about.

Here is a fun easy pattern to make your own. If you are not a sewer then go ahead and follow the patterns and just use craft glue for your seams instead of stitching. It would work. Be creative and post the pictures or ideas of what you are going to make on your die. What are you going to teach your baby this week?

*****pattern for blocks  or use this one pattern #2

For older kids try this:

I have a game that I bought like this but you could make one in no time and it would be so easy!! Make the dice and use different colors. Then on colored paper (the same colors on your die) list, print or draw actions that your child can do. It can be anything from 'hug your mom', 'find a shoe', 'find something that starts with the letter A', or even as simple as 'jump.' I would make 5 action (or more) cards for each color. Then have your child roll the dice and whatever color is on top he/she would choose a card of that same color then do the action on it. It is a fun easy learning game to change the week up.

Post what your ideas to share with us! Ready...set....roll...