Homemade Wikki Stix

Wikki Stix are strands of yarn covered in wax that can be formed into different shapes.  A lot of teachers and homeschooling moms use them to teach letter formation or just as another material to create with.  But....they can be expensive.  Amazon has them for $6.99 for 48 strands.  But I just made 200 strands for $2.49!

Here's how you do it!

You need yarn, a toilet bowl gasket (thus the $2.49) and an old candle.

Cut the yarn into your desired length.  Ours were about 8 inches.  Micah and Liliana did most of the cutting for me.

Melt the wax together using a double boiler system.  I used the entire gasket and about 1/2 c. of candle wax.  Do yourself a favor and use a coffee can instead of a pot or you'll be cleaning the wax out of your pot for a long time.

When melted, dip the strands of yarn in the wax.  Use a tweezers to fish them out.  Hold the strand over the pot until all the excess wax drips off.  (Don't skip that part.  I was in a hurry and just flopped them out straight onto parchment paper instead of letting it drip...later I had to sit there and pick wax off the strands which was a pain.)

Lay on wax paper or parchment paper to dry/cool.  It only takes a few seconds for them to harden up so they're playable.

Ta-dah!!!

Here's a few ideas of things you can do with the Wikki Stix!

Letter formation

This would be an army man going through a training course.  Micah has a one track mind.  If there aren't explosives involved, he's not interested.

Stick 'em to the window. 

Make jewelry.  Jeremy proposed!  I guess since he's recovering from surgery I can overlook the fact that he didn't get down on one knee.  ;-)

Make your guinea pig a harness and a bow.

And if you're a future PK, I guess you make Jesus on the cross out of Wikki Stix.  :-P  I can't believe he chose to make this.  He was really proud.  I guess we've been talking about Easter a lot.  Poor Jesus has a huge frowny face.  :-(  

A word of warning:  Just like commercial Wikki Stix...these can leave behind a residue.  If that happens, use a DRY paper towel to wipe it up.  At first I was really distraught about it not being completely mess-free and then I realized it's no harder to clean up than playdough or fingerpaint.  Sticking them on the windows kept Liliana entertained for 30 minutes and took me less than 2 minutes to clean up.

Letter Hop!

We've been working on teaching Liliana her letters.  So far, we've gone on an ABC Hunt, stamped letters, dug through rice to find them and went fishing for them.   She's been pointing out more and more letters to us every day, so something is connecting!  The gorgeous weather today brought out a new game:  Letter Hop!!!

I wrote down a few letters she knew and a few she didn't on our driveway with sidewalk chalk.  I say the letter, she finds it and hops on it. 

Perfect way for my active girl to learn!

After awhile, I had her announce the letter so she could practice saying their names.  It's one thing to recognize it when it's said, it's another to be able to say it yourself!

"Hmm....which one of these is B again?  I think you're going to have to show me Liliana!"

The letter hop was so much fun, it brought about the addition hop for Micah.  Wrote down numbers, gave him an addition problem, and he hopped on the answer. 

Liliana was determined to beat him to the answer, but she didn't have a clue where she was running!

He lost interest fairly quickly.  I think next time I'll have him shoot the answer with a water gun.  Boys rarely lose interest if there is shooting involved.  :-)

Spring Cleaning!

I LOVE Spring Cleaning!  I'm on a mission.  Everything in our house is either getting tossed, sold, or put in a labeled tub. 

This is my couponing stockpile closet.  (For those of you who don't know about couponing, check out Hip2Save or SwagGrabber).  When we first moved here, 8 months ago, everything in this closet was neatly sorted and lined up.  But then, somehow this happened.

Poor neglected closet.  But never fear, because now it looks like this!

And now for the dramatic side-by-side.

It makes my heart sing!  I have cleaned our local Wal-Mart out of the 96 cent shoebox tubs and have to drive to the next closest one to get more today.  Soon every one of our closets and cabinets shall be entirely sorted and labeled and my plot to organize the world will be set in motion!!!!  Mwah-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!  (Or at least I'll be able to grab some toothpaste without cringing at the disorderliness.)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

I've got a wee bit of Irish in me...it's where I get my red hair and my temper from.  ;-)  Which gives me permission to live it up at St. Patrick's Day, right?!?!

Some naughty little leprechauns visited our house while we were sleeping Friday night!  They left their green footprints all over!

Yeah...the date is wrong on our clock.  Whoops!

I had this great idea to make it look like they went potty...but someone must have gone potty in the middle of the night and flushed it before the kids could see it in the morning!

They even left marks on the children!

When Micah first woke up, he was watching TV in the dark and hadn't seen the footprints yet.  I asked him what was on his hand and he blew it off, saying "Probably marker."  Then when we turned the lights on and he made the connection, he was totally blown away that the leprechauns had climbed on him!

Of course, this means Mom gets to spend most of the day washing green paint off of everything (It was half dish soap/half washable paint, so it should be easy peasy).  Totally worth it to see their excitement!

Liliana went on and on about how they shouldn't have done that!!  It was pretty cute!  She'll be talking about this for months.

Micah had set some leprechaun traps out, and they climbed up it...but unfortunately they didn't get caught.

Typically, I serve green food all day for St. Patrick's Day, but I'm anti-food coloring right now.  So, we're having the traditional corned beef and cabbage with Irish soda bread instead!  And since there is no way the kids will eat that....a fresh fruit rainbow that they will gladly devour! 

AND Jeremy and I get to head out to an Irish pub for drinks and music tonight!  Can't imagine a better St. Patrick's Day!

Whether you're actually Irish or just an honorary Irishman/woman for the day...hope you and yours have a fantastic day celebrating and joining in the fun!!!

My First (and probably last) Bento

Bento is a Japanese way of arranging food in an artistic manner, sometimes incorporating popular characters.

Want to be amazed (and feel completely inadequate)?  Do a Google image search for bento.  It's ridiculous.

This was my first attempt at bento.  An "Angry Birds" meal for Micah (and one for Liliana so she wouldn't feel left out.)  It was inspired from the mama at Another Lunch (but hers is so way better!)

Pigs, birds, you get the idea.  I just realized looking at this pict. that one of the pigs lost an eyeball from the walk from the kitchen to the table.  How on earth are you supposed to send this to school?!?!

Micah knew I was working on a surprise in the kitchen and kept trying to peek in.  Here's his face when he finally got to see what it was.

He was pretty stoked!  Liliana liked hers as well!

They were supposed to be for lunch the following day, but the Nori that I used for all the details has a fishy aroma and I'm really sensitive to that...so I let the kids have them for bedtime snack instead.

It was a fun creative outlet for the evening, but I could not see myself going through all of that work every day for lunches.  Guess my kids will have to settle for sandwiches cut out with a cookie cutter.  ;-)

Crackers with my Cutie!

We've been in survival mode lately.  Jeremy has a hernia and is awaiting surgery, so all of the heavy lifting (both literally and figuratively) has fallen to me.  Not leaving me nearly as much time as I'd like to try new recipes or relax with a glass of wine and a stack of magazines.

Well, naptime today brought both!

I had intentions of enjoying the sunshine and chillaxing...and it lasted for about 20 minutes (a glorious, well deserved 20 minutes!)  Then it clouded over and Liliana decided there was no way she was laying down today.

So we made some whole wheat/oat crackers instead!

I love how she's been "posing" lately when you take out the camera!

I let Liliana do all of the measuring and stirring herself today.  She was delighted and squealed "I'M A COOKER!!!"  And of course it wouldn't be mother/daughter time if we didn't rock out to some Taylor Swift!  Liliana said "Mama!  Shake your hips like me!!!" and then wiggled her booty.  Priceless.

Here's the recipe we created:

• 3/4 c. whole wheat flour
• 2/3 c. wheat germ
• 1/2 c. rolled oats
• 3 T. milled flax
• 1/4 c. melted butter
• 1/2 c. water

Mix together the dry ingredients, then add the wet and form into a ball.  Roll out on a floured surface and cut into squares.  Place on a baking sheet and then mist with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt.

Bake for 9-11 minutes at 375 degrees.

We have been trying eat very few processed foods, but kids' snacks have been hard to switch over.  It's just so easy to pour some goldfish out of the box, but they're typically made with refined flour, not whole grain.  I feel great feeding these homemade crackers to my kiddos and they seem to enjoy them too!

My New Planner!!!

I am absolutely giddy about this!!!  SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Seriously.  Giddy.

So we had been using iCal to keep track of our schedule, but that was before our schedule got really insanely busy and it's just too hard for us to block out time for each individual family member's stuff digitally.  Time to go old school and buy a paper planner.

This should be exciting for me right??!!?  Shopping for a planner?  Shopping AND organizing at the SAME TIME!  Nope.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to find just the perfect planner?  I want one that goes from July 15-July 15 because that's when our year goes.  AND I want one that divides up morning/afternoon/evening into chunks because that's how we look at our days.  Plus...it has to be pretty!  I was getting so frustrated by the whole ordeal, when it occurred to me to just make my own dang planner. 

Ta-da!!!

Liliana calls it my "sparkle book."

Isn't it pretty?!?!  Pink and sparkly and check it out-

Customized just for the way I picture our days in my head!  First off, it's listed Monday through Sunday.  I group Saturday and Sunday together, so I hate when they're separated onto different pages. It's hard to see here but each day/column has rounded squares for morning/afternoon/evening and then underneath are squares for each of us family members and then ovals for meal planning.  So if Micah is supposed to wear the color red to school on Thursday, I can put it in his "M" square without it actually being on our daily schedule part.  Make sense?  No?  Does to me!  That's why I customized it!  ;-)

Plus, I added in pages for yearly calenders (2012-2014...because I like to plan ahead), the school calender for next year, important phone numbers, a blank schedule for Jeremy's classes so I can add that in when we get it, and a blank price book at the back so I can always be sure I'm getting the best deal on stuff!

Total cost- $4.37 for them to bind it at our local Staples, plus $2 for the glittery cardstock for the front and the cost of ink/paper for the pages.  Cheaper than buying a pre-made planner and it's just right for us!  This would be great for teachers too, to make custom lesson plan books!

Interested in making your own?  Check out these sites for templates.  Or shoot me an email and I can send you ours. 

DIY Planner-  All sorts of templates for tracking everything from Weight Watchers points to book reviews.

Organized Home- Once again, lots of templates from birthday calendars to cleaning checklists.  While there, browse around the whole site because everything is great!

Calendars Quick-  Weekly, monthly or yearly calendars.  Less of the random checklists, etc. and more of straight up planner pages in lots of different formats.

Or do what I did, and open up your word processing software and create your own, so you can have just what you desire.  Then you too can be saying SQUEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!

Fishing for the ABCs

Awhile back I picked up some bulletin board letters at a rummage sale.  We've used them for a TON of things (here's one)...but not bulletin boards.  :-)

Today, they became fish.  Got a magnet wand?  Tie it to a pole, add a paperclip to anything and you've got yourself a fishing game!

Liliana was so excited to climb up on the coffee table "boat" and get started.  The rule was that if she could name the letter, she got to keep the fish.  If not, the fish got tossed back into the pond.

This is what happens when you tell a 3 year old who skipped her nap that she needs to throw her fish back.

Yes.  I took a picture of her crying rather than immediately running to comfort her.  Best. Mom. Ever. 

Micah provided some good distraction by pretending to be a shark and got the game back on track.

And this photo has nothing to do with anything, other than my daughter being adorable!

I think she was asking us what letter it was but she couldn't stop laughing because Micah was shouting something about butts.

This game could be expanded by using numbers, colors, shapes, etc. for the fish.  For Micah, I was planning on saying a word and having him fish for the letter it started with, but they got distracted and moved on.  You could also have older kids fish for sight words or the answers to math problems.