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.

Lenten Family Ritual

Kids love rituals and traditions.  I do too...in theory.  In actuality, I'm consistent at very few things in life (have you noticed I blog in spurts?), so having to remember a ritual and find the time to fit it in rarely happens. 

In the Christian church, the 40 days leading up to Easter (not including Sundays) are considered the season of Lent.  A lot of Christians use this time to either give something up as a sacrifice (like not eating chocolate) or to engage in a new spiritual discipline (like reading the Bible daily).  While I may not be consistent year round, I can manage to do something for 40 days.  Thus our Lenten Family Ritual...

1.  We light a candle.  (Candles make everything special, right?  We've actually started lighting two candles so we don't have to deal with tantrums over who gets to blow it out.)

2.  We cuddle on the couch, read a story from the Spark Bible and talk about it.  (We like this one because it has pictures, easy text, and covers a lot of ground.)

3.  We gather around our prayer cross (butcher paper) and share our prayers.  (We use 3 types of prayers:  Please God..., Thank you God..., and I'm sorry God...)  After they say a prayer we all say "Amen" and then write it on the cross in a simple form.  (They like to chose the spot where we write it.)

4.  We sit in a circle, hold hands, and say the Lord's Prayer.  (Liliana didn't know it when we started, but she's caught on!  We end it by shouting "And the whole Johnson family says AMEN!!!!" and throw our hands up in the air.)

5.  We blow out the candle.

Simple, requires no prep, takes about 15 minutes of our night and the kids LOVE it!  And I love that we're spending intentional, quality family time together and creating lasting memories, while helping our children grow in faith.

You can still do family rituals without it having to be a Christian thing too...just adapt.  For instance, you could light a candle, read a storybook together, and share your best and worst parts of your day.  Consistent, quality family time is the goal!

Micah's Lego Star Wars Party

Micah's birthday is in August, and since we move every July, he never knows anyone to invite to a "friends" party.  This year, we decided to let him have a half birthday party instead!  I made the invites on the computer and had them printed as 5x7 photos.  They turned out great!

Thank goodness for Pinterest!  I don't know how moms planned parties before it! 

The guests got Jedi robes when they arrived, but most of the kids didn't want to wear them, which surprised me.  My two were all over dressing up...which only makes sense since Mom and Dad were dressed up too!

Yay for old choir robes!

The first game we played was "Jedi Training" (aka- Obstacle Course). 

Micah dashes for the rings, determined to be the fastest Jedi!

Then they had to find the Princess Leia that was trapped in a balloon and rescue her.  It didn't take them long to find her, but man did they have a hard time popping that balloon!

They each got a lightsaber and practiced battling asteroids (keeping balloons in the air with them).

Once that asteroid was taking care of, they went on an asteroid hunt (searching for hidden Hershey's kisses).

Jedi Master Jeremy explains the directions.

Freeing Han Solo from the frozen carbonate (in this case, ice) was next.  I gave the kids a variety of tools to use and a big hint that there was a sink in the next room.  Micah was the only one who got the hint though and while the other kids hammered away at the ice with a potato masher and poured a bunch of salt on top, he ran it under hot water and got done the fastest.

After that came everyone's favorite party game- pinata time!  They got to destroy the death star that Micah and I paper mached.

Finally, they played a few filler games while I quick helped get food set out.  They shot a Darth Vader cutout with nerf guns, played Padawan, Padawan, Jedi (Duck, Duck, Goose) and worked on their precision skills by dropping the kisses from earlier into a bucket.

Yes, that's a flashlight taped to his nerf gun.  So he can shoot in the dark!  His idea.

The menu consisted of:

• Palpatine Pizza
• Han Burgers
• Endor Trail Mix
• Wookie Cookies
• Lightsabers
• Bantha Milk
• Yoda Soda

 

Lightsabers = Pretzel rods dipped in candy melts with tinfoil wrapped around the bottom.

And lastly, cake and presents!

The girls will be so disappointed, he got all the candles out.  ;-)

Red frosting...whose idea was that?!?!

What a great day!  We will definitely be sticking with the half birthday party thing.  It was a fun way to brighten up wintertime, and Micah felt so very special to be able to celebrate with his friends!

Labels, Seashells and Science Time!

We eat a LOT of grapefruit in our house.  I mention this because the Del Monte containers of grapefruit work great for storing craft supplies.  I recently organized all of our "special" craft supplies and made some cute labels to go on them!  (Our everyday craft supplies are stored downstairs by the kid table, so they have access to them all the time.)

Liliana was helping me label the containers and came across some seashells.  A LOT of seashells!  Which she promptly poured everywhere.

This led to some science time and one of my new favorite photos of Liliana.  <3 it!

She has big eyes to begin with but her using that magnifying glass was adorable!

All on her own, she decided to find matches and put them in the mini muffin tin.

Labels, seashells and science time!  What a randomly thrown together post...which is very suiting with what our life has been like lately.  ;-)

Liliana's Travel Agency

Yesterday, Liliana and I had an awful day.  We were both moody, neither of us wanted to compromise, and we spent most of the day angry with each other.  I was determined that today would be better.  So last night, I set out new markers and paper upstairs at the table and at the table downstairs I set out this, an invitation to play Travel Agency.

She was stoked!  She sat right down and started asking us where we wanted to go.

Apparently she specializes in "pink vacations."  She'd say, "Do you want to go to Minnesota?  How about pink Minnesota?  Would you like to stay in a pink hotel?  It has pink beds and a pink pool.  You can take a pink car to get there."  My kind of a trip!

She played nicely all morning!  If you haven't had a conversation with her lately...you should.  She's hilarious!  She makes all of these facial expressions when she's talking.  These photos were all taken right in a row while she was telling me about my vacation options:

She's so expressive!  Must get it from Jeremy.  ;-) 

If you have an old keyboard, phone, cash register, and notepad/pen, you've got the basics for a TON of different dramatic play opportunities. 

• Post Office- Add a mailbox, envelopes and stickers.
• Shoe store- Add shoes/shoe boxes.
• Toy store- Add toys and a shopping cart.
• Book store or library- Add books and fake credit cards for library cards.
• Grocery store- Add either empty or full food containers, grocery bags, a shopping cart or basket, and old coupons.
• Construction company- Add blocks.
• Restaurant- Add plastic food, table cloth, drawn menus, maybe a tray to carry food, etc.

You get the idea!  Grocery store was one of our favorite daycare games to play.  It's amazing how they pick up on the little details of social interactions that they can then repeat through dramatic play.  For instance, saying "Have a nice day." when you hand the bag of food to the customer.  That's nothing I've ever taught my kids, but they picked it up from observing.  Such sponges!!!

And in the meantime, if you're interested in taking a pink vacation, call Liliana!  Operators are standing by.