Spring is in the Air

One of my very favorties, Red Tulips.

Ok, call me a liar, I know that it really seems to be more summer like right now than spring. After all it has been 90 degrees the last two days. But with a few nice rainshowers and this lovely weather my flowers are starting to bloom like crazy. (Even the ever popular "Dandy Flowers" as Kaleb calls them are in bloom, but we are keeping those picked because they are apparently mommy's favorites!)

Everyday we have something new blooming, I can't wait to get out to The Henrys' Plant Farm and get some of my empty flower pots filled. Be on the lookout for the in process and finished pictures of our lovely creations. By the way, if you live around here you should take the kids out to Henry's. They not only have beautiful flower gardens to walk through and beautiful flowers to buy, but they also have all kinds of farms animals for the kids to check out.

One of my MANY bouquets of "Dandy Flowers".

Tulips, Iris, Daffodils and Lilies

Blue and Purple Windflowers

Azalea bush full of blooms.

Here's wishing you a spring (or summer!) that is just as delightful to the soul as it is to the eyes.

Know It All

In my endless search for organization I came across the idea for a family binder that keeps all of our important information all together in one place. Unsure what to title my new creation, I came up with the "Know It All Binder".

The beauty of it is that it is super flexible with the information that you want to include, and you call continue to add to it as your family needs. Below are the sections that I created in mine to get started:

Family Medical Information, Important Phone Numbers, Important Dates, Work Schedule, Sports Shedules (room for each person have thier own pages), Planning (extras printed for future use), Christmas Card List, and Gift Purchase List. Most of these I printed from this website and I use PowerPoint to create the others.

I left plenty of room to be added to later and the front of the 3 ring binder holds short-term and upcoming school information. I am hoping that this helps us stay organized as the summer will be here soon keeping us busy!


Here's wishing you and your family a quick and easy way to get and stay organized before your spring and summer get to busy!

5 minutes

This weekend I was just looking for something quick that I could do for just a little "me" time. Thanks to the great ideas on pinterest (you can click on the link on the sidebar and follow my boards too!) I have been holding onto a couple of Kevin's t-shirts hoping to turn them into something useful so, I decided to try to make an infinity scarf out of them. I decided to use 3 different shirts and now I have an endless amount of ways to wear my new accessories (one color alone, 2 or 3 mixed together and as many or as few as I want). I am not kidding either when I say that this took me 5 minutes to make this, go ahead find one of your hubby's old shirts and try it out yourself.

Here are the shirts I chose, I used size XL and XXL. I will definitely be checking out the thrift store for some bright colors for the spring and summer.

Cut off the bottom hem, don't worry about how straight your cut is.

Cut the shirt again, from one underarm to the other.

Now cut your shirt into 1 1/2 to 2 inch strips, again don't worry about how neat your cutting is.

Hire a couple of strong guys (or girls) to stretch your strips as far as they can. I pay mine in M&M's, it seems to work out well for everyone.

Here is the finished product, ready to wear, no sewing required.

Here's wishing you 5 minutes of peace to find your inner creative side.

Cardsharks

In an effort to give the boys some games to play that #1: don't contain a million pieces, #2 they can play quietly together or on their own and #3 does not involve some type of electronics or game system, we have turned them into little cardsharks. I like to think that playing 21 (aka blackjack) is more of a fun math game as opposed to playing poker. They have also mastered go fish, old maid and solitare (Kaleb has also picked up on the fine art of cheating at solitare.) Below are the sharks in action:

Serious game of 21 in action

Helping Dad keep track of the aces in solitare

Kaleb finishing up his game of solitare

Just a couple of handsome guys!

Here's wishing you all a chance to unplug and enjoy a few simple games together as a family.

Happy Heart Day

We celebrated a pretty low key Valentine's Day. Julian started the day a little sad because school was cancelled so that meant no party. But once he knew the party was moved to the next day he was much better. The boys opened there Valentine bags in the morning and Kevin made us all a yummy dinner that night.

Polish Chicken, cream peas and carrots, scalloped potatoes and salad.

Below are a few pictures from Julian's school Valentine's Day Party:

Here's hoping that you got to spend some time with those most special to you!

Silly Hotdogs

For lack of a better name, we made "Silly Hotdogs" tonight for dinner. I found the idea on Pinterest (I know, imagine that! We have found many recipes and have tried a few already, watch for details on those to show up here later.) Below are the directions for "Silly Hotdogs":

Bring a pot of water to a boil. While that is getting started, slice up your desired amount of hotdogs, we prefer to use turkey dogs, and break a few pieces of whole wheat spaghetti in half.

Carefully push 3-4 pieces of spaghetti through each slice of hotdog.

Place all the hotdogs into the pot of boiling water and continue to boil and stir occasionally until spaghetti is tender. Drain and let cool for a couple minutes.

 Serve with your favorite sides and dipping sauce.

The boys enjoyed their silly dinner, and it will definitely be getting made again. Here's wishing your family a silly dinner too!

Shutter Displays

I love having a way to display the boys' artwork in their rooms and for a while we have been using a length of twine and clothes pins to hold the masterpieces. They were due for an upgrade and I was trying to find a way to add pops of color to their rooms to give them more personality. Thanks to Pinterest an idea was sparked to use old shutters as an organized display.

I found the shutters at the Habitiat for Humanity ReStore in the area for $3.25 each (Do a Google search to find one in your area, you can find some amazing items there, and help support a great cause.), we gave the boys free reign in the spray paint aisle at Home Depot to pick whatever color they wanted, and we used S hooks and small binder clips to hold the art.

Below is the work in progress and finshed products:

Shutters - Before getting sanded down

After a coat of paint - Kaleb opted for bright blue, Julian opted for bright yellow

No picture hangers? Just use the tabs off of soda cans!

"S" hook and binder clip 

Finished product before artwork is added.

Finished product with artwork.

 This was a very easy project to complete with the boys, and really was quite inexpensive. Here's to many more projects to brighten up our home and hopefully inspiration to tackle a project or two of your own.