that tree, the one I didn't cut down

When we moved into this house in December there was this sort of scraggly looking tree on the side of the house.  The only thing I could see growing was some kind of vine overtaking it.  I told hubby we should cut it down to make room for my apple tree.  I don't have an apple tree, but it I made room for it, maybe I'd have one.   Hubby want's to cut down three trees and I told him this one was first- right after the garden got tilled. 

Good thing we haven't gotten to it yet.  Look what it did last week. 

It's a dogwood.  Who knew? 

Its right out Bee's window and is really just beautiful!  I've cut little branches to put in jars and vases for all over the house.  Lesson learned:  I should be more patient before I go chopping down trees.

A friend built us a birdhouse and the dogwood seems to be a good spot for it.  It's sized for bluebirds, but they move in to their houses in February, so we missed them.  Finches may use it too.  If birds move in, we'll be able to have a good view from Bee's room. 

busy

yep, we've been busy.  Too busy to blog I guess. 

So, we're going to be jumping.  We'll see you tomorrow.

the coupon holder

My sister-in-law's sister-in-law (who blogs here) asked if I would be able to come up with a coupon holder for her.   It took me longer than I'd like to admit to get it done, but I think I made up something that will work. 

I'm not so much a coupon-er myself, but apparently she's got it down.   There were specific rerequirements for this holder and it did take me awhile to draw up a plan. 

It opens and closes like a little velcro clutch.  It needed to have some stiffness to it so I used stiff felt on the inside.  I tried to use snaps at first, but  they wouldn't go through the stiff felt.  We ended up with velcro for the closure.

It had to be expandable at the sides.  She requested 2 inches.  I'm not sure I'm at 2, but it's close. 

I know she'll need more than 4 cards, but I made a few dividers out of old file folders. 

It also needed to be able to fold over and attach to itself so it could hold onto a shopping cart handle. 

I tested it out on a real shopping cart, but here it is on our kids cart. 

I hope it's sturdy enough and balances well.  I didn't test it full of coupons.  I started getting nervous about the balancing immediately after getting it in the mail.  We'll see.

Easter Story

I've been too busy to get last week's preschool stuff up yet, but here it is.  Our theme was the Easter Story.  Some of our kids have never really heard the full Easter story. They are only 3 and 4.  I was a little nervous.  I wanted to do a good job, touch on all the right part, make it something they would remember but not get too gory. 

This book is really great.  I was not expecting too much from it since it was just a little one I ordered through Bee's scholastic book order, but it's really good.  It has all the right parts and a bit of back story.  It's thorough, but not too long.  It's The Miracle of Easter by Jean M. Malone and I see is available here for jut a few bucks.   I also see if you order through scholastic, it comes with Easter silly bands.  Good stuff.

I've been seeing these all over blogs right now.  For good reason.  They are awesome.  Resurrection Eggs are a fantastic to tell and retell the Easter story.  Each egg contains a piece to help you tell story of Eater. I got them at my church book store, but you can get them here or probably your local Christian bookstore.  After reading the above book, I retold the story with the kids help using the pieces.  After snack, I left these out and I could hear several kids telling the story to each other.  It was pretty much precious.  (I'll be using these to review at least one more day- and using the printable pages from 1+1+1=1 to go with them.)

I had the kids bring in signs of spring.  We spent a good amount of time talking about how the buds on the trees and the daffodils remind us that there is new life in the spring.  I also brought in a bulb and seeds and we talked about how they look yucky and dead, but in the spring, they grow and bloom and come to life.  We started to talk about eggs also being a symbol, but the kids had been sitting enough so we moved on.

Here's a fun little counting flower rhyme from The Mailbox Magazine.   I used my glove, but also sent the words and pictures home for my kiddos to sing at home.

[one] little flower(s) looking at the sun

soon bow their heads, one by one.

Then drip drip drop, the rain begins to fall

and [one] little flower(s) once again stand tall.

We also played this flower matching games.  Each fake flower of my beautiful flower arrangement has a tag with a colored shape.  Laying out were matching larger tags. The kids picked a flower, found the match and told us that color and shape it was.  The flowers were from the dollar store.

I found these little fuzzy chicks at a garage sale this past summer and have been saving them just for today.  We passed them out gently and talked about chicks a little.  I tired to bring up the egg thing again, but I feared for the chicks lives if we didn't move on.  We acted out this chick rhyme:

I'm a little chickie, ready to hatch (carefully hide the chick in a loosely folded hand)

pecking at my shell, scratch, scratch, scratch.

When I crack it open, out I'll jump

Fluff my feathers and cheap cheap cheap.

The kids worked on their mother's day gift so there was no Easter related craft today.  This week is jelly bean.  It's a pretty yummy day.

shadows

I'm participating again over at I Heart Faces Photo Challenge.  This week's challenge is shadows.  I wish this photo was more recent than it is. This was such a fun day.  We went to a fun kid's thing at the park and then decided to go to the beach for dinner.  That was back when we lived in FL.  We couldn't do that on a whim now in IN.  That's the trade we made to get to see snow. 

mouse treat

I wish I thought of this, but I didn't.  I got the idea from Family Fun.  It's what Lou decided to take to school for snack on his last leader day.  I might add that it doesn't so much work to make them ahead.  You know strawberries.  They are tricky little guys.  I made ours up at 8:00 and we ate at 10:00.  Everything was damp and couldn't have gone much longer without getting mushy. 

The tails were supposed to be licorice laces, bu I couldn't find them anywhere.  I rolled out colored tootsie rolls.

We took Lou's teachers some cinnamon swirl bread. 

Lou had a great day.  He loves school.  He loves being leader.  His favorite parts are always when the teachers say to sit, "criss cross Lou-sauce"  and when he gets to stand on the chair and hold the flag for the pledge.  

I made sure to double the bread recipe so we had some for breakfast too.  It was perfect with the new good batch of yogurt.

Lou was asking today about going to school in the summer.  I told him that we would do school at home over the summer like last year.  He said he thought maybe he'd rather go to school.

fail

I had a yogurt fail last week.  Our second batch turned out gross.  When I was supposed to be maintaining the 110 temperature, I left it and it got up past 190 degrees again.  Apparently doing so lets the curds separate and makes cottage cheese-ish mush.  I read online that I could strain out the liquid whey and be left with "yogurt cheese."   It was gross.  No one wanted it.   It could have been an episode on 'how to ruin dinner,' but it was too depressing to ruin something at 7 hours in.

Thankfully the next batch turned out great again.  This last batch made 11 servings.   Crisis averted, as we've all become rather fond of the homemade yogurt.

growing and a laugh

We've got things growing here and hoping for much much more!

That bulb we planted that we've been making observations of has really been going strong.  Until today.  I took it to school to reinforce my illustration about how spring flowers remind us of Jesus' resurrection. The bulb looks dead, but the plant that grows reminds us of new life.  The poor plant said "No way!" and all three tall leaves fell right in half.

The white sweet potatoes that Hubby's aunt gave us after Christmas dinner are sprouting.  They'll get planted in the garden soon.

This is a few weeks ago, but a sea of baby tomatoes live in my sewing room. 

Here's a surprise from the yard. Just one, all by her lonesome.

Lots of daffodils. 

They make the mailbox pretty.  In a few weeks though, it'll just be the same ol mailbox. 

Look at my funny Lou.  He grabbed up a flower and said, "Take my picture."

Then procedded to make my laugh as he posed.

This was all Mr. Ketchup face's idea.

 

He's such a silly boy. 

He's growing too.  He can stay small a little while longer though.  It would be OK with me.