Easter Fun!

If a picture is worth 1000 words, then this is my most verbose post yet.  :-)

And that was our Easter...how was yours???

Riding in Cars with Kids

 The kiddos and I headed back to see our family for Easter.  Daddy got left behind because, apparently when you're an (almost) pastor that means you work on Easter.  Who knew?!?!  ;-)

I was terrified about making the 14 hour roundtrip with the kids and no husband to help.  Two background things to know about me:

•  I grew up in a town of 400 people.  We're talking gravel roads and no traffic lights.
•  Jeremy and I have been together since before I could drive, so he's always driven us everywhere.

You can see then why a major trip on "big roads" by myself would feel daunting.

So I did what anyone does when they have a problem (or a random thought or just a really great lunch)...posted about it on facebook.  Turns out my friends are kind of geniuses...another who knew?!!?  :-P  Just kidding.  I knew.  That's why I asked them.

My friend Jealaine had an awesome idea of spreading out the car activities based on time or distance, so the kids don't do everything right away and then get bored.  Genius!  I made a map for the kids of our route, since they always like to follow along anyways.  Then I color coded towns along the way that were about an hour apart.  (I made myself a cheat sheet too so I could give them estimates if they asked how much longer until the green town).

I put together ziploc bags with different car-friendly activities in them and put color coded labels that corresponded with the map on each bag. So when we got an hour into our trip, they received the orange bags, which had alphabet match-up puzzles for Liliana and time match-up puzzles for Micah.  Make sense?

My mom had purchased these trays for the kids awhile back and they are AWESOME for long car trips.  Because we had the trays, we were able to do some things with smaller pieces.  Here's what I came up with for car activities (with many of these ideas coming from my awesome friends!)

• Simple match-up puzzles 
• Lacing cards
• Small figures (My Little Ponies for Nah-na and firemen figures for Micah)
• Finger Puppets
• Rush Hour Jr. 
• These picture Car Bingo sheets on clipboards
• Jumbo beads for stringing
• Pipecleaners
• Magnet activity sets
• Matchbox cars
• Coloring books and new boxes of crayons (Is there anything in the world better than a fresh box of crayons???)
• Dry erase boards/markers
• Look and Find books
• Homemade Wikki Stix

We also have a portable DVD player and I got some books on CD from the library (Magic Treehouse- <3 them!)  And any qualms I have about junk food go right out the window on car rides.  Somehow those little packages of Chips Ahoy go a lot farther for bribery than baggies of carrot sticks.  :-P

It went great!!!  The idea of spacing out the activities seriously helped!  And they loved having their own maps.  Zero whining.  Zero fits.  From the kids or from me...impressive, huh?  :-)

Ignore the mounds of stuff in the car.  We travel prepared!  :-P

So next time you're traveling with kids, give it a try! 

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.  ;-)