Monday, April 30, 2012

how to ruin dinner- method #19


You're going to need an assistant for this one.  Here's how to ruin dinner Method #19.  Like the other methods, this is not an exact recipe, just a method.  (see method:  36  17  42   29  88  81)


Here we go.  I'm ruining chicken and chicken stock today.  Slow cook your ingredients for at least several hours.  You really want to be invested here.  Then, set the finished items on the counter (in my case, the chicken and stock).  Here's where an assistant is needed.  You must be in the other room while dinner cools so you can work with it.  your assistant must come up with an errand for you to run.  Gather the kids, scoot everyone to the potty, gather jackets and shoes and head out the door.  This will work best if you ask your assistant to go back to the kitchen to check that the stove is off.  See, you've already forgotten that the meat is sitting out. 

Now, go have some fun.  Run 17 errands.  Return home right at dinner time, all the while, feeling good that dinner is already mostly made... except wait... what did you do with dinner when you finished it.... wait, surely it's not still sitting out.  Surely when you sent your assistant into the kitchen, they took care of it.  No?  Wait, meat sat on the counter all afternoon!  congratulations, you have ruined dinner.  

Order Pizza.  I don't know about you, but I'm racking up those Papa John customer points this year!

Sunday, April 29, 2012

one of those parents


We're at the ball-field all the time now.  

 
I even volunteered in the concession stand.  I researched how to keep baseball pants white.


I'm one of the those parents now.  Next will be a minivan. 

Saturday, April 28, 2012

garage sales

I will admit to the kids bringing home some junk this week, but it's all part of the fun for them. Plus, they spend very little money at the sales.  I just have to go through their rooms at a later date and 'clean things out for them.'  There was a huge neighborhood sale on Friday and we didn't have school Friday, so we felt like we were early birds all day!


Bee did get this nice vet set that she has been keeping her eye on at the store.  She got it for $2.  When we got home, so discovered there were 2 of every item.  (I got talking with the family and the little girl -now in 6th grade- went to the preschool where I teach.  She was even in my same room. )


Here are Bee's other purchases.  The aloe plant was $1 and everything else was a quarter combined  (cough, cough, junk).  I have had to take away the perfume as I think I am allergic to it.  It's Clinique Happy- and it makes me sneeze.


I bought this lego set for Lou, but when we got it home we discovered it isn't Lego brand and doesn't even fit quiet right with his Legos.  It will probably go in our sale this summer. For $1, I was too excited to examine it closely.  My bad.


Here are Lou's purchases (cough, cough, junk) which he paid a quarter for combined!  The little plastic trophy has been the favorite.


It's hard to buy adult sized pants at a sale, but these 'dressy shorts' happened to be from my favorite store- the one that's a little too expensive for me to shop -except under the best clearance sales, so I knew the size and knew if would fit me.  The shirts are from the same store.  The shoes matched perfectly and are from the same store too.  For $5 total, I was pretty much happy about this find.  


I also found my normal pile of books.  Most turned out to be AR, which always makes me happy.  They were 25 cents each from several different stops. 

This coming weekend, a few churches on the main road in our area are all having sales.  We never find kids things at those, but I always find books and craft supplies.   Also-  hubby has been pretty insistent that I organize the basement room where I store my preschool things (he has a work bench in the back of the room that he can not get to easily right now) and now I have some extra spots on my shelves- more room for more collections!

Thursday, April 26, 2012

the bubble


This idea is from Play At Home Mom. It's two plastic drop cloths duck taped together. 



There's a hole for a fan and a hole to get in and out.



We attracted the neighborhood kids. 




Another day, we taped it up a little better and filled it with water.


It leaked a bunch but Lou had fun for awhile.  That's all we could ask for.


Wednesday, April 25, 2012

daddy dates


Today (or yesterday, or last week, depending on when you read this) was Daddy's birthday at our house.   I had taken some of my Mama Bee shop money and was ready to get him a bigger treat, but a few days prior to his birthday, he declared that he did not in fact want the item I had planned on getting him.

Crap.

Then all I could think of were little things that he might want.  I had a little money to play with (so that was nice!) so I decided to get all the little things!  You could go totally free or pretty cheap on this, or put a little money in it (literally). 


The kids and I put together a bunch of envelopes with special things we like to do with Daddy.  We called it "Daddy Dates."  We added free things like:  Go on a picnic,  have the neighbors over for a cook out, kids up up sticks in the yard, movie night at the house, etc.

Bee added one that she could make a delicious breakfast.  She does make some mean scrambled eggs.


Then we got to add some of Daddy's favorites:  Pick out a book at the bookstore.  We added gift card or cash where needed.  Bee and Lou wrote and decorated everything.



Get a babysitter!  Obviously this is for a mommy daddy date.  The kids groaned when he read this one.  (Side note- I can't believe how much it cost to get a babysitter!  I'm happy to pay it to ensure quality childcare- but geesh!  We pay a babysitter more per hour than I make at my job!  Not that I am bragging that we pay sitters so much- we pay the going rate, I'm sure)


Shaved ice!  We have the best stand near us and it's only $1!  Love me some tigers blood shaved ice!  (I think it's strawberry and peach?)  Watch, they'll change the price this year.


I took at bunch of pictures, but they were all pretty much the same.  Some others were:   Treats at the ballpark,  Ice-skating, Go to the movies,  Putt putt golf, go out to breakfast,  pick out a new CD, coffee at your favorite little shop, etc. 

He loved his gift.  I think we'll all have fun going on our daddy dates.  Except when we have to pick up sticks.  You know I'll be the one doing it.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Mrs. McNosh- preschool


I've been wanting to use Mrs. McNosh Hangs Up Her Wash all year, and finally fit it in on 'rhyming fun' day.  There is so much you could do with this popular book, but our days are a little shorter since we've been practicing for graduation each morning.  I kept it simple.


I set up some laundry related things for the kids to play with during arrival time.  Notice the crazy Lou man rolling on the floor.  He stresses me out some days before school when I'm trying to get things ready for the morning.


The kids all enjoyed hanging up the doll clothes.  


 They did some ironing.  The mama's hung around the door for several minutes this morning watching their little ones do laundry.  They were super cute working with these things.


When I started the book, the first page shows her doing the wash with a wash board and tub.  I showed the kids my old washboard and old iron.  They thought it was great to pick up the old iron.  It's super heavy.  We talked about how much work laundry used to be. And I complain now!


Then, Mrs. McNosh hangs up her laundry on the line.  We talked about what a clothes line is and how it's used.  I showed some pictures and we talked about it a bit.  Living in the midwest, most of them were familiar with a clothesline. 


After reading the rest of the book (which they enjoyed and found rather funny), we made another class book .  The idea for this book came from Mrs. Bond's fantastic First Grade.


On each page, I added a photo of the friend and left a space for them to add a picture they drew.  I added an apple tree on my page.


I gave them a little piece of paper to draw the item they wanted and let them color and cut it out on their own.  Then, I glued them all in when we were busy dong something else.  They told me what the item was when they handed it to me and I wrote it and their name on the back so I could remember when I added it to the book a little later.


Not that I couldn't tell what they were.  I mean, clearly, this is Princess Ariel. 


Later, back in the classroom, I read the finished book and then we played a rhyming matching game. I hung one set of rhyming cards on the drying rack.  They took turns bringing a card I had passed out to them up the the rack and clipping it with the rhyming word.  These cards are free from Teachers Pay Teachers from Kristin Oldham.  You could play with them a number of ways.


At the very end of the day I read this other fun rhyming book, Miss Mary Mack  by Mary Ann Hoberman.  It's the rhyme we all knew as kids but with cute illustrations.  


We are starting to 'test' the kids now to prepare report cards.  I can't believe that the end of the year is here already.  When did that happen? 

My blog friend, Jess, has some other great laundry activities over at The Preschool Experiment.  

Saturday, April 21, 2012

May there always be sunshine

When I student taught, my supervising teacher told me that I needed to learn to beg, borrow, and steal.  So this idea comes from one of Lou's teachers and I stole it.  I think all the other girls have used it too.  It's well stolen now.  I'm just following some good advice.


It's based on Jim Gill's book and song, May There Always Be Sunshine.  After I read/sang the book, the kids sang/read it with me.  Then we talked about what they would like there to always be.  I wrote it down and sent them with their page to work around the room.  They spent several minutes working and then returned their page to me.  I just love how independent they are!

They came up with some good things! This was such a fun class book. 


I read/sang it to them and they joined me the second time.  


Throughout the day and rest of the week, they asked for us to all sing it again several more times.




Love this tiger!



It was a short day because we had a special group come in for a program.  I only needed a short circle time activity and a  game for later.  We played this "I Have, Who Had?" with capital letters.  It's from Teachers Pay Teachers, from Julia PowellIt took the kids a few minutes to catch on, but they did get it and we've played it again since. 



I had to white-out some of the curly-ness on some of the letters so that the letters were recognizable. 

Wednesday, April 18, 2012

facebook

If you just know me from here and we aren't facebook buddies, you may have missed these recent items. They made me laugh. 

April 17:  I think we've had a growth spurt. The buzz lightyear costume is officially too short.
(He looked like Elvis in tight white pleather pants though.)






April 9:  Lou singing in the shower.  Shhhh... don't tell him.    (It's Oh How I Love Jesus)

April 2:   I just found several of my good spoons in a zip lock in the bottom of Bee's backpack. When I asked her, she said, "I use those to dig at recess."  I had been wondering where my spoons were going.

March 17:
I woke to the smell of burning something. Lou and bee got up early and decided to make us breakfast in bed. Somehow they managed to burn pancakes in the microwave. Neither could remember how long they had set the microwave.