quick boy gift

We got invited to a last minute birthday shin dig for a buddy of Lous. I knew we only had time for a gift if I made something.   Lou knew his friend liked he movie Cars so he picked out Cars fabric.  I used the Boy's drawstring backpack from Noodlehead to guide me though this one.  Oddly enough, I had cars fabric on hand as well as the blue and black we chose to go with it.   I even had a red zipper just the right size.

Lou thought the open zipper open looked like a mouth.

I made up a crayon roll, a little drawstring bag for  treasures and a little drawing book that I just sewed up the side.  We even had some Cars pencils on hand that I gotten on clearance.  We threw in some lifesavers since those are our friends favorite.  

Not pictured:  I printed off a bunch of pieces from the Cars Preschool Pack from 1+1+1=1.   I was literally cutting out all the laminated pieces in the car on our way to the party.   We also threw in a dry erase marker to use on the laminated pieces. 

 We had a fun time at out friend's house.  They had the cutest new puppy who we played with all afternoon.  He only aided in Bee's 'I want a puppy' kick.  Geesh. 

more bean canning and some chicken

This is old now. It's so last month. I've been trying out some different things with canning the beans and have now tried black, pinto, kidney as well great northern.  I also caned some chicken for the first time.  It wasn't any harder than anything else. I used it one some Mexican bean pizza one day when I had forgotten to thaw out shredded chicken.  It was really good.

So far we have been really happy with the texture and taste of the canned beans.  I'm all about this winter canning.  Here are the directions for the beans.  It's fun opening a can of beans and knowing that I made it for about a quarter. 

Batman

Do you spy him? 

He's Batman.

There's been a lot of Lou on here lately.  For awhile I felt like there was a lot here about Bee.  Now it's the other way.  She's around, she's been staying out of trouble and spends half the day at school.  Lou and I have some extra hang out time together right now.

Here's the funny story about the batman costume.  I was casually browsing ebay and stumbled on this batman costume.  I got it for the right price, so I went ahead and picked it up.   I thought I'd save it until his birthday in May. 

I stored it away in my truck which is right next to my bed.  When you opened the truck, it was right on top.  I was so worried that something was going to happen to me and some day my mom and sister would have to go through my things.  They would come to the trunk and as soon as it was opened, they would be surprised with a  black patent leather mask with eye holes and other parts of an outfit. Until it was further examined, it would look as though it was something of mine. Some type of black leather mask that I kept next to my bed. Anyway.   Apparently I think hubby would be too distraught to go through my things.

Perhaps it was that fear that made me present it as a valentines gift instead of saving it until May.  Either way, it's been a fun gift. For Lou.

He is batman, he plays with batman, it's all kinds of batman fun.  Tiring batman fun.

boots and others

I was happy to work with the fine folks at CSN the past few months.  In return, I got to try out a few of their products.  I chose these great garden gloves.  They got a thorough breaking in last weekend.  We had a huge half of a tree fall on the fence recently.  Hubby and I cut fire wood all day on Sunday.  I wore my gloves and they ended up being really nice.

They are called dirt diggers.  I think these are a size small and they fit my hands really well.  They are very grippy and kept the wetness from the branches off my hands.

I also chose these Bears paw boots.  I'm so late in the game on these boots, but they look great with my new skinny leg jeans, which I'm also very late in the game with. These are warm and comfy. I kind of feel like I'm stomping around with them, but I do enjoy them.  I've tried socks on and socks off but it feels weird to wear shoes with no socks.

Lastly, I chose a pair of canoe paddles.  I do not have a canoe, but I think I will soon. I can't test these out until then, but they seems like good paddles.  They seem bored and lonely and need to get in the water soon.  Hopefully the weather cooperates. 

I've been holding out

I've been holding out on a few healthy food choices.  I've been holding out on oatmeal.  Those little packets of instant oatmeal... It's so easy and fast and we all enjoy a good packet of strawberry and cream oatmeal. Then, I was reading on enviromom where she had made the change to homemade oatmeal and I figured it was worth a try.

I made up three bowls for the next day.  The kids were unknowingly my taste testers.   i made up a maple brown sugar for me (1/2 c instant oats, dash of salt, dash of cinnamon, spoon of brown sugar, handful of raisins, spoonful of maple syrup).

Bee got her favorite, strawberry (1/2 c oats, dash salt, dash cinnamon, handful of strawberries -frozen from last summer, spoon of raw sugar).  Lou got blueberry (same as strawberry, but with a handful of frozen blueberries).

I put lids on and stored them away in the fridge.  I wouldn't have had to put them in the fridge, but I didn't want the fruit to get funky and I think you need to refrigerate maple syrup.

Feeling pretty good, healthy breakfast is waiting for us in the morning.  Avoiding all this yuck.

The results:  Three quick and easy bowls of oatmeal.  I just added hot water and we were all set.  I like mine thinner and Bee likes hers thicker, so just add water to your taste.

But wait, I was the only one to eat my whole bowl.  I've eaten it several days since and think the maple brown sugar is the best. I'll keep trying with the kids.

I've also been holding out on cream of whatever soup. I found this recipe to make my own and it isn't doing it for us. I'll try it again but it just was just very different.

Can I have 5 minutes

Most school days I get up, work out and shower before anyone else in the house is evening thinking about morning time. Sometimes, I sleep in until 6:30 (the pre-kids me would never have imagined that I would have used "sleep in" and "6:30" in the same sentence!)  and then Lou is usually awake and wants to sit in the bathroom while I shower.   While it is nice to have someone hand me my towel, today I told him he needed to keep himself busy while I showered. 

This is how I left him.  Cuddling in bed with the cats.  Harmless.  Sweet.

This is what I found when I got out.  He had built a campfire out of blocks.

That's a real marshmallow on a real campfire roasting stick.

"Don't worry, it's not hot."  I asked him how many he ate and he held up all 10 fingers and said, "Three."  At that point I figured it was better that I didn't know.

Maybe sitting in the bathroom isn't that bad after all.

transportation day

I don't know why I can't seems to get all my preschool things photographed and written about.  I have some fun things from dinosaur week and jungle week.   I did get some pictures taken of this week though.  It was transportation theme.  It ended up being one of the better weeks so far.  The kids were really good and into our circle time, so that's what made the difference.  Sometimes I'm so excited about a week and then they are busy playing with each others shoelaces and hiding under the table (or licking the wall as I had at the beginning of the year) to participate.

This book is really cute.  It's called Alphabeep and my library had three copies, so it must be a popular one.  It's an ABC book and I pulled out of my bag the corresponding vehicle with each letter. Lou had most of them at home in his car collection.  A few we went without although if I had called around to the boys in class I probably could have collected them all.  My book had page S missing and I didn't realize it until late the night before I read it.  Oops.

The art project today was a fast one. The kids had cut out pieces to glue together to assemble the stop light.  If I had chosen the craft I think I would have had the kids paint with cars to make tracks.  Lou and I have been slowly sneaking new hot wheel cars into the big room at preschool and the boys love it. There is some coveting going on with the new cars though.

We talked about how most land vehicles have wheels and tested out some items to see what rolled.  We tested about a dozen items and sorted them.  We decided that round things rolled best.  If we had had more time, I would have done the same with what floats and what sinks.

Right after the story, we make a graph about how you might like to go home from school that day.  We have picture cards of the kids with velcro on the back.  They have been great for using to make graphs on our flannel board.  The most kids wanted to ride a train home.  There was lots of good questioning with the graph.  I know there were a lot of choices for them here, but there were so many fun ways to get home.

This is one of the activities we had out for their time after snack.  It is from prekinders.

Another after snack table activity.  This one is from 1+1+1=1 preschool packs.

We are really buckling down on working with Lou on his letters, so this one will get used a home this month.  Also from 1+1+1=1.

Another one that Lou will be working on at home this month too.  Same source as the last two.

This was fun.  It was the way I opened circle time. The felt scene is all sewn together and then the little boats, cars, trains, and planes were passed out to the kids.  They sorted them into land, sea or air.  Some kids were trying to be funny and put them in the wrong places, but for the sake of sorting, I asked everyone choose the right spots.  After snack, I let them be funny and put them wherever. 

The March box came out today.  I love this color themed box with eye spy cards.  The idea for a color themed box came from Counting Coconuts.

I wasn't sure how the kids would do with a grid game.  I made myself up the large one as an example.  I gave them each a blue sheet and then had them take it home to play there too.  I rolled the number cube and then we covered up that many boxes.  If nothing else this was an exercise in following directions and they got to hear good math words.  A few kids are pretty advanced with their math and were able to answer a lot of questions about how many all together, how many boxes were left, etc.  We used cheerios as little tires for covering the boxes.  At home, I used centimeter cubes. I wanted to use colored wheel pasta, but didn't come across that idea until too late.  These graphics are from prekinders.

I'm all for having to make things for preschool.  I get to use them at school, Lou uses them at home, Bee plays school with them and then they usually take a trip to the nature center for my early arrivals too.  They get a lot of use.

I'm linking up at some of these fine parties.

camera bag

I'm going to try to sew a camera bag.  It may or may not be a waste of time and resources.  I sort of have a plan.

I sort of have some supplies.  Can you believe I had everything I think I need on hand?

And now it's been sitting on my sewing table for the better part of one week.  Sort of.